(Question)
For years, children in the industrial areas of Europe and America seldom left their smoky cities to see the beauties of the countryside. This was not because the woods and fields were always far away, but because they were too far from the city to permit people to make a day trip between morning and nightfall.          In 1907, a young German schoolmaster had an idea which changed this state of affairs. He decided to turn his little schoolhouse into a dormitory for the summer holidays. Anyone who brought his sleeping bag and cooking equipment along could stay there for a very small quantity of money. The idea was a success. A few years later, the schoolhouse was much too small to hold the many young people who wanted to stay there. As a result, a dormitory was set up in an old castle nearby. This was the first Youth Hostel.          Today, young students and workers of every country can meet in the hostels and get to know each other. When young people arrive at a hostel, they have only to show their card of membership in a hostel organization in their own country. This card will permit them to use the facilities of hotels all over the world for a very low price.          Often, at the evening meal, a group of boys and girls from various parts of the country or the world will happen to meet at the same hostel. They may put their food together and prepare a dinner with many kinds of dishes. Sometimes a program will be organized after the meal, with dances, songs, or short talks followed by a question period. One can learn a lot of things about other places, just by meeting people who come from those places. For this reason, a few weeks spent "hosteling" can be just as useful a part of one's education as classes in school. The first youth hostel was opened in   _  . A) America B) Australia C) Europe D) Asia
(Answer)
C


(Question)
Great Wall Xmas BBQ Beijing Hikers are organizing a three-hour hike on a rarely visited part of the Great Wall and will celebrate Christmas afterwards with a Christmas barbecue dinner in a small hotel at the foot of the Great Wall . Meet at 8:30 am. Dec. 25 in front of Starbucks at Lido Holiday Inn , Jiangtai Lu. Please write to info@beijinghikers.com or 139-100-25516. Pingyao tour High Club will guide a weekend trip to Pingyao , an ancient walled town near Taiyuan , capital city of Shanxi Province . The town is one of the best-preserved  featuring courtyard buildings of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) . Among them is the Qiao family courtyard house, the shooting location of Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern (<<>> ). Leave on Friday (December 23) night by train and back to Beijing on Sunday morning . For sign-up and more information , contact Lucy at lucy@highclub.cn or 8580-5080,130-11171326. New Year Harbin trip The Chinese Culture Club is running a new year trip to Harbin , to catch a fresh view of its yearly ice and snow lantern festival . As the temperature is expected to fall between minus 20 to 30degC, visitors are warned to prepare well with jackets , masks , fur gloves and boots. The trip sets out by train at night on December 31 and gets back on the morning January 2. The cost is 2,300 yuan (US$ 284) . Reservation  is required at 8457-2772. The last advertisement of New Year Harbin trip offers NO information about    _   . A) what to take there B) what to buy there C) when to leave and return D) how much to pay
(Answer)
B


(Question)
Sub-Saharan Africa has the world's highest hunger rate. But according to a new report, African farmers also have ideas that could help the world fight hunger and poverty. Danielle Nierenberg from the Worldwatch Institute in Washington spent a year visiting twenty-five countries south of the Sahara. In Nairobi, Kenya, for example, Ms Nierenberg found women farmers growing vegetables just outside their doorsteps in the Kibera settlement. She says they are finding ways to make their lives better. The women feed their families and sell their _ They use the money to send their children to school. Last year, about 925,000,000 people worldwide did not get enough to eat. Half of all people in the world now live in and around cities. Researchers like Ms Nierenberg are looking increasingly at creative ideas to feed those who don't have enough good food to eat. She says there are a lot of lessons that people in the Western world can learn from Africa. And what they are doing can certainly be done in other developing countries. Farmers in the developing world lose between twenty and forty percent of their harvest before it ever reaches market. There are many reasons why food gets wasted. Farmers are without electricity and cold storage. They lack good seeds and fertilizer. They lack good roads. Conditions like these keep small farmers in poverty. Ms Nierenberg says more attention needs to be paid to protecting harvests. She says, "Given all that we invest in producing food in the first place, we need to devote the same amount of attention to making sure that it is not wasted." In Nigeria, village processing centers are helping farmers reduce their losses and earn more money. They centers process cassava, a root vegetable, into basic food products. In Uganda, the Worldwatch report says some schools are teaching children how to grow local kinds of crops. And in South Africa and Kenya the report praises the breeding  of local kinds of livestock. These animals may produce less milk or meat than other breeds, but they can... We could learn from the new report in Para.1 that  _  . A) sub-Saharan Africa has the world's highest hunger rate B) African farmers have ideas to help fighting hunger and poverty C) women farmers grow vegetables in the Kibera settlement D) women farmers grow vegetables to send their children to school.
(Answer)

B