Visitors to Britain may find the best place to _ local culture is in a traditional pub. But these friendly pubs can be dangerous places of potential gaffes  for the newcomers. A team of researchers have discovered some of the unknown customs of British pubs-starting with the difficulty of getting a drink. Most pubs have no waiters-you have to go to the bar to buy drinks. A group of Italian youths were waiting 45 minutes before they realized they would have to fetch their own. This may sound inconvenient, but there is a hidden purpose. Pub culture is designed to promote sociability in a society known for its reserve. Standing at the bar for service allows you to chat with others waiting to be served. The bar counter is possibly the only site in the British Isles in which friendly conversation with strangers is considered entirely suitable and really quite normal behavior. "If you haven't been to a pub, you haven't been to Britain." This tip can be found in a booklet, Passport to the Pub: The Tourists' Guide to Pub Etiquette, a customers' rule of conduct for those wanting to sample "a central part of British life and culture". The trouble is that if you do not follow the local rules, the experience may fall flat. For example, if you are in a big group, it is best if only one or two people go to buy the drinks. Nothing annoys the regular customers and bar staff more than a group of strangers blocking all access to the bar while they chat and hesitate about what to order. The culture of pub in Britain is developed to  _  . A) encourage more people to consume drinks B) encourage people to communicate with each other C) form its own character of culture D) attract more tourists to the pubs
B


Hollywood is on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Worried about an industry wide writers' strike, struck by a series of theater-chain bankruptcies , burdened with unreasonable corporate profit, requirements and seemingly incapable of producing consistently creative movies, the American film industry is in a period of soul-searching. There's little doubt it will survive this crisis. But most insiders agree there is disease at both ends of the business--where film are produced, and where they're shown---that may take years to overcome. While annual box-office income increases for nine straight years, largely due to increased ticket prices, the number of actual tickets sold declined for the second year in a row. The construction boom has added nearly 10,000 theaters(more than 200,000 more seats) in the last five years. But due to a static audience base, eight major chains have gone into bankruptcy and several others are in terrible financial situations. In fact, insiders say, Hollywood is now in a business it does not want to be in. "There's a general problem in that the companies that have the most consistent output of material are least interested in what they're making," says former 20thCentury Fox CEO, Bill. And, Bill adds, "We're in a period where movies are getting bigger and more costly and less interesting and fulfilling to an audience." Today the studios are under the stress to increase profit margins  for their corporate parents, and profit margins are hard to control in a business whose products are seen as impulse buys . Other business can increase profits by cutting costs--buying cheaper material, or making the candy bar smaller. Not Hollywood. "What we're cutting is risk," says the head of one major studio, who asked not to be named, "And risk is what great film has always demanded." While the studios are avoiding risky concepts, their competitors in the home entertainment business have been expanding the boundaries of the imagination. It was this pressure---in electronic games, the Internet,... What do we know about the profit of the film industry? A) It's not easy to control the profit B) The studios can shorten the material C) Cutting the cost can increase the profit D) The studios can buy cheap material to increase profits
A


Q: The new two-child policy is making job hunting more difficult for women when about 40 percent of them said they were asked whether they planned to have a second child during job interviews, according to a report in Chongqing. China dropped its decades-long one-child policy in October and allowed each family to have two children. The country now has about 270 million married women of childbearing age. This change has put millions of career women in a dilemma between family and career. Employers also face big challenges as more female workers will have two childbearing leaves, seven to eight months altogether. A human resources website www.job.cq.qq.com conducted a survey among 500 employers and 5,000 job seekers about how the two-child policy affects the job market. Though two thirds of employers said the policy would make no difference to their recruitment , the survey showed that more than 70 percent of job seekers believe that bearing a second child will make women less popular in the job market. Forty percent of employers said they will give priority to married women with two children, according to the survey. Lin Xia, 29, quit her job after giving birth to her first child. She is now preparing to return to work. After several inquiries at a job fair, she found that the employers are concerned about future birth plans. "I thought it would be easier to find a job after giving birth," she was quoted as saying by the website. "I had to answer whether I will have a second child before I could get a chance for a job interview." Liang Siqi, 23, a college graduate, said although employers did not ask her the child question yet, she will not plan to have two children. "It (having two children) will definitely affect my career and personal life, so I will have only one," she said. Zhou Jiansong, who is in charge of human resources at a large private high-tech group in Chongqing, said the company will discuss birth issues with interviewees in order to make a better work plans. "We fully respect a women's right to... In the opinion of Zhou Jiansong, what will employers probably do when interviewing women interviewees? A) They will pay no attention to women's right to have a child or two. B) They will let women interviewees make a future plan. C) They may hope to know more about women interviewees' childbearing plan. D) They may expect more labor debate cases about interviewees' second-child plan.
A: C


A close friend of mine lives with six hundred wild animals on the Greek Island of Kyklos.Ever since he left school (where I first knew him),he has travelled all over the world collecting animals for his very own zoo.He hoped to collect at least two examples of every sort of animal on his island before the Great Flood. But the flood that my friend was afraid of was a flood not of water, but of people. I expect you have heard of my friend: he writes books about his travels,and about the wild and wonderful animals that he collects. The money from the books helps to pay for all the food that these animals eat. My friend told me that when he was out looking for water last week,(there is not enough water on the island,though there is plenty all round it,)he found oil.He needs money for his travels,and for his zoo,and a little oil would  buy enough water for a lifetime;but he knows that if he tells anybody else about it,it will be the end of his zoo, and his life's work. So,if I know my friend,he will not tell anybody (but you and me)about what he found--because oil and water do not mix. My friend lives  _  . A) on an island in the middle of great flood B) at the school that we used to go to on Kyklos C) on a Greek island with six hundred animals D) all over the world;he is always travelling

C