Ques:China is a country on the move--especially around its Lunar New Year holiday. This year, the holiday crush  promises to be even heavier than before. Government officials estimate that Chinese people will take to the air, roads and railways 3.62 billion times over a 40-day period around the nation's most important holiday this year as people push their way home for family gatherings or to satisfy their new-found passion for travel. Getting tickets to all those would-be travelers is a _ challenge that annually tries patience. And it is the railway system that routinely is most unable to cope. Railways are the transport of choice for low-cost long-distance travel, and that's where the ticketing system routinely falls down. Much of the criticism has, focused on the railway's online purchasing system, which has been unable to keep pace with the huge demand and also failed to stop scalpers  from ending up with many of the hard-to-find tickets. While insisting that online sales were the fairest way to get tickets for travelers, railway officials told reporters that the public need to be patient. Efforts were being made to provide online identity checks that would reduce the ticket scalping problems. While officials had little good news for rail passengers, they did manage to bring a few smiles to those traveling by car as the country's extremely expensive highway tolls   will be free of charge for the period of the official holiday. We can learn from the text that   _   around the New Year holiday. A) there will be 3. 62 billion people going home B) the railway system will be facing more stress C) people's complaint .focus on the failure of online purchase D) not railways but cars are the best choices for traveling

Ans:B
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Ques:When you see homework covering the kitchen table and toys are piling up around the sofa, you probably wish there was a bit more space. You are not alone. Nearly a third of parents say they feel squeezed into their homes but cannot afford to move to a bigger property, a report reveals today. Twenty-nine perc ent say "their property is too small to fit the size of their family--rising to 40 percent for those 34 and under". One in four children is 'forced to share' a bedroom, according to the Finda-Property. Com website. Property analyst Samantha Baden said: "Afford-ability remains a key issue for families, with the average cost of a three-bedroom home around PS193,000."Very few can afford to buy or to rent a property of the size they want and in the area they desire to live in, according to Miss Baden. A recent report, from investment firm LV, also found that many 'space-starved parents'are pushed into a two-bedroom home which was perfect when they were a young couple, but has no space for three or so children. Grown-up children who cannot afford to leave homo are also adding to the problem facing families in Britain's 'big squeeze'. For a home to be the correct size, which means it is not overcrowded, parents must have their own bedroom. Children under ten can share, as well as same-sex children between ten and 20.Anyone over 21 also needs their own room. What Miss Baden said in Paragraph 2 means_. A) most families don't have enough money yet B) no family could afford a three - bedroom home C) it is common to live in a three - bedroom home D) the price of a bigger property is still acceptable

Ans:A
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Ques:Researchers at Sweden's KTH Royal Institute of Technology say they have found further proof that the wolf ancestors of today's dogs can be from southern East Asia -- findings that are contrary to theories placing the birth place in the Middle East. Dr Peter Savolainen, KTH researcher in evolutionary genetics, says a new study released Nov. 23 confirms that an Asian region south of the Yangtze River was the principal and probably the only region where wolves were domesticated by humans. Research data show clearly that dogs are descended from wolves, but there's never been scientific agreement on where in the world the domestication process began. "Our analysis of Y-chromosomal DNA now confirms that wolves were first domesticated in Asia south of Yangtze River -- we call it the ASY region -- in southern China or Southeast Asia," Savolainen says. The Y data supports previous evidence from mitochondrial DNA. "Taken together, the two studies provide very strong evidence that dogs appeared first in the ASY region," Savolainen says. Archaeological data and a genetic study recently published in Nature suggest that dogs originate from the Middle East. But Savolainen rejects that view. "Because none of these studies included samples from the ASY region, evidence from ASY has been overlooked," he says. Peter Savolainen and PhD student Mattias Oskarsson worked with Chinese colleagues to analyse DNA from male dogs around the world. Their study was published in the scientific journal Heredity. Approximately half of the gene pool was universally shared everywhere in the world, while only the ASY region had the entire range of genetic diversity. "This shows that gene pools in all other regions of the world most probably originate from the ASY region," Savolainen says. "Our results confirm that Asia south of the Yangtze River was the most important -- and probably the only -- region for wolf domestication, and that a large number of wolves were domesticated," says Savolainen. In separate research published recently in Ecology... What is special about mitochondrial DNA? A) It is only used in studying evolutionary relationships. B) It alone can provide hard evidence for Savolainen's research. C) It is the most useful in finding out the birth place of dogs. D) It comes from the mother of most animals and plants.

Ans:D
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Ques:Tigers are among the most admired and most feared animals in the world . When we think of a tiger, we think of danger. We think of the big teeth and large feet of it. We also think of beauty. The tiger is a hunter that hunts alone. In fact , tigers are probably better than any other land mammal  at catching large animals without help. Even so, the life of this big-game hunter isn't easy. Finding food can be difficult, especially for a tiger that is old or weak. Most of the animals it tries to attack get away. A tiger sometimes goes weeks without eating. When that happens, it may hunt animals that can be dangerous even for a tiger. When they are in a bad situation, some tigers may even attack humans. But in fact, tigers kill very few people each year. Most tigers run away when they see people. What tigers have done to people can't compare to what people have done to tigers. Over the last 200 years, we have almost killed tigers in the wild . Today, the tiger is one of the most endangered animals on Earth. A tiger may live 20 years or more, if it is not disturbed by humans. Female  tigers usually live longer than male tigers, because the males live more dangerously. It isn't easy for people to tell a male from a female unless the female happens to be with her babies.Only females take care of the young. The big difference between males and females is size. Male tigers are much bigger. Tigers are big eaters. In a single year, one tiger must eat about 70 deer or other large animals. That is one reason why tigers hunt alone. If they lived in big groups, they could never find enough animals to feed them all. According to the passage, why do tigers hunt alone? A) They can run faster hunting alone. B) They can't get along well with other tigers. C) They can hide themselves easily in this way. D) They can't find enough animals to share with other tigers.

Ans:
D
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