BEIJING, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's economic planning agency Thursday announced a rise in minimum rice purchase prices this year to encourage farmers to grow more grain.
A statement on the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) website said the government would continue the policy of minimum purchase prices in major rice-growing regions in 2011. The rises in the minimum rice purchase price had been approved by the State Council, China's Cabinet, said the statement.
The purchase prices for japonica rice will rise 21.9 percent to 128 yuan (19.4 U.S. dollars) per 50 kilograms, while prices for early and middle-late rice will increase 9.7 percent and 10.3 percent to 102 yuan and 107 yuan per 50 kg respectively.
Rice and wheat are two major grain crops in China.
The State Council pledged Wednesday to step up efforts to boost grain production as drought continues to wreak havoc in north China's wheat growing regions.
China's main wheat-growing regions, including Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Anhui, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and Jiangsu provinces, have been plagued by drought since October last year.
Drought has affected about 7.73 million hectares, or 42.4 percent, of the total winter wheat crop area in the country's eight key producing provinces, the Ministry of Agriculture said Wednesday.
China's grain output rose 2.9 percent last year to 546.41 million tons, marking the seventh consecutive year of growth.When was this news probably written?
A.In 2011 | B.In 2010 |
C.In February, 2011 | D.On Wednesday, 2011 |
What is the purchase price for japonica rice before it wise according to the passage?
A.105 yuan per 50 kilograms |
B.128 yuan per 50 kilograms |
C.102 yuan per 50 kilograms |
D.107 yuan per 50 kilograms |
What is the meaning of the underlined word in the fourth paragraph?
A.completely | B.Honorably |
C.separately | D.exactly |
Which of the following sentences is true according to the passage.
A.A raised purchase price will encourage farmers to grow more rice. |
B.The plan hasn’t been approved by the State Council, China's Cabinet. |
C.Drought continues to hit the wheat growing regions in the north of China. |
D.There are 8 grain producing provinces affected by the drought. |
Which may be the headline of this news?
A.China’s minimum rice purchase prices raised to boost production |
B.A Steady rice purchase prices to ensure rice production |
C.The Chinese government pays more attention on rice production |
D.China’s grain output steadily increases |
Every day we are adding more and more vacation ideas, destinations, tours, and articles. As you explore our website,you will find there is an ever-growing collection of things that will help make your vacation easier and more affordable.
We change our featured destinations very frequently so be sure to keep coming back to see what new ideas we have for your family vacation.We feature a different state,park, and city destination on the front page of the website.These change frequently, so be sure to sign up for our newsletter so you can be sure to keep up with all the new information.
Another great feature we are offering is Guest Articles.These may come from a travel professional,author, parent or child about their travel ideas or offers.These informative articles are great to read and are perfect for discovering valuable tips and tricks for the travel less stressful.Plus,in many articles you will discover some hidden gems(珍品)that you probably miss if you did not know about them.
One of the best things about our website is our ability to get you discounted Tours and Attraction Passes to the places you want to go most.This is a fantastic way to plan ahead and have your tours and passes paid for and pick them up before you leave your home.Now that is a helpful way to go.These programs can save you over 50%of what you could expect to pay when you arrive.And,we are adding new tours and programs every week.Be sure to check it out.
You can be sure we are working hard for you so that you can relax on your vacation. Let us do all the leg work for you so you can simply enjoy your family vacation!Which of the following shows the organization of the text?(P=Paragraph)
What does the writer want to do by writing this text?
A.To give people tips on family vacations. |
B.To offer travelers featured destinations. |
C.To attract readers to surf a tourist website. |
D.To introduce hidden gems for traveling. |
What can we learn from Guest Articles?
A.steps to sign up for the family vacation website. |
B.Tips on keeping up with new travel information. |
C.Tips and tricks for a comfortable trip. |
D.Tricks for enjoying a free family vacation. |
Which isn’t the benefit that the website brings to us?
A.We can get discounted Tours and Attraction Passes |
B.We can get some information of new tours and programs |
C.We can have our Passes in hand when starting off. |
D.We can enjoy a family vacation with leg work. |
Read a lot, I mean a lot! You have to increase your ability for reading. Many students are in the habit of reading only when their exams are approaching while some others read only what they are taught or things that must be read because it is in their curriculum. But listen to me now, I am telling you from my own experience that it is a very bad habit and it is not enough to improve your intelligence.
You have to learn and get ready to become versatile in your reading. The fact that you are studying medicine in school does not mean that you should not know one or two things on politics.
Many people have complained to me that they find it hard to read stuffs like novels but I just shake my head in pity for them because it is obvious they have failed to realize the truth in that wise saying by Margaret Fuller that “today a READER, tomorrow a LEADER!”
When you read, you get to “see” so many places and it will be as if you have visited those places in real life. This is because reading will improve your imagination and creativity and understanding. You also get experience from learning about how people dealt with their various problems thereby saving you from going through the pains and difficulties they must have gone through!
Reading will also help you in improving your vocabulary because you will certainly start coming across so many new words which you will try as much as possible to get accustomed to with the help of the dictionary! The good thing about increasing your vocabulary is that it will also improve your thinking ability. After all, we think in words and the more words you know, the easier it will become for you to express yourself or your thoughts.
And when you read, make sure you read so wide because the more you read, the more you know and the more you know the more intelligent you can become.According to the author, what should students do in terms of reading?
A.They needn’t read unless the exams come. |
B.They should read books about intelligence. |
C.They must read about politics when their major is medicine. |
D.They should read as wide as possible. |
The underlined word “versatile” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to _____.
A.interested | B.many-sided | C.content | D.confident |
What is the best title for the passage?
A.Increase your ability for reading |
B.Read wide and improve your vocabulary |
C.Reading improves your intelligence |
D.Reading makes you a leader tomorrow |
What is the benefit of knowing more words?
A.You will get used to referring to the dictionary when meeting with new words. |
B.You will have less difficulty expressing your opinions. |
C.Vocabulary will improve your creativity. |
D.You can pass your exams with ease. |
They were going to Fort Lauderdale — three boys and three girls — and when they boarded the bus, they were carrying sandwiches and wine in paper bags, dreaming of golden beaches and sea tides as the gray, cold spring of New York went behind them.
As the bus passed through New Jersey, they began to notice Vingo. He sat in front of them, completely in silence.
Deep into the night, outside Washington, the bus pulled into Howard Johnson’s, and everybody got off except Vingo. The young people began to wonder about him. When they went back to the bus, one of the girls sat beside him and introduced herself.
“Want some wine?” she said. He smiled and took a swig from the bottle. He thanked her and became silent again. After a while, she went back to the others, and Vingo nodded in sleep.
In the morning, they awoke outside another Howard Johnson’s, and this time Vingo went in. The girl insisted that he join them. He ordered black coffee and some cookies as the young people talked about sleeping on beaches. When they returned to the bus, the girl sat with Vingo again, and after a while, slowly and painfully, he began to tell his story. He had been in prison in New York for the past four years, and now he was going home.
“Are you married?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” she said.
“Well, when I was in prison I wrote to my wife,” he said, “I told her that I was going to be away for a long time, and that if she couldn’t stand it, if the kids kept asking questions, and if it hurt her too much, well, she could just forget me. I’d understand. Get a new man, I said — she’s a wonderful woman. I told her she didn’t have to write me. And she didn’t. Not for three and a half years.”
“And you’re going home now, not knowing?”
“Yeah. Well, last week, when I was sure the parole (假释) was coming through, I wrote her again. We used to live in Brunswick, just before Jacksonville, and there’s a big oak (橡树) just as you come into town. I told her that if she didn’t have a new man and if she’d take me back, she should put a yellow handkerchief on the tree, and I’d get off and come home. If she didn’t want me, forget it — no handkerchief and I’d go on through.”
“Wow,” the girl exclaimed, “Wow.”
She told the others, and soon all of them were in it, looking at the pictures Vingo showed them of his wife and three children.
Now they were 20 miles from Brunswick, and the young people took over window seats on the right side, waiting for the approach of the great oak. Vingo stopped looking, tightening his face, as if protecting himself against still another disappointment.
Then Brunswick was ten miles, and then five. Then, suddenly, all of the young people were up out of their seats, shouting and crying.
Vingo sat there astonished, looking at the oak. It was covered with yellow handkerchiefs — 20 of them, 30 of them, maybe hundreds, flying in the wind. As the young people shouted, Vingo slowly rose from his seat and made his way to the front of the bus to go home.At the beginning of the story, the young boys and girls ______.
A.showed a great interest in Vingo | B.didn’t notice Vingo at all |
C.wanted to offer help to Vingo | D.didn’t like Vingo at all |
The underlined part “Howard Johnson’s” is most probably a(n) ______.
A.bus station | B.apartment | C.hospital | D.restaurant |
How did Vingo feel on the way home?
A.Ashamed. | B.Relaxed. | C.Nervous. | D.Disappointed. |
The paragraphs following this passage would most probably talk about ______.
A.Vingo’s experience in prison |
B.the young people’s travel to Fort Lauderdale |
C.Vingo’s three lovely children |
D.the dialogue between Vingo and his family |
Twenty-first century humanity has mapped oceans and mountains, visited the moon, and surveyed the planets. But for all the progress, people still don’t know one another very well.
That brings about Theodore Zeldin’s “feast of conversation”-events where individuals pair with persons they don’t know for three hours of guided talk designed to forget the past “Where are you from?”
Mr. Zeldin, an Oxford University professor, heads Oxford Muse, a 10-year-old foundation based on the idea that what people need is not more information, but more inspiration and encouragement.
The “feast” in London looks not at politics or events, but at how people have felt about work, relations among the sexes, hopes and fears, enemies and authority, the shape of their lives. The “menu of conversation” includes topics like “How have your priorities changed over the years?” Or, “What have you rebelled against the past?”
As participants gathered, Zeldin opened with a speech: that despite instant communications in a globalized age, issues of human heart remain. Many people are lonely, or in routines that discourage knowing the depth of one another. “We are trapped in shallow conversations and the whole point now is to think, which is sometimes painful,” he says. “But thinking interaction is what separates us from other species, except maybe dogs…who do have generations of human interactions.”
The main rules of the “feast”: Don’t pair with someone you know or ask questions you would not answer. The only awkward moment came when the multi-racial crowd of young adults to seniors, in sun hats, ties and dresses, looked to see whom with for hours. But 15 minutes later, everyone was seated and talking, continuing full force until organizers interrupted them 180 minutes later.
“It’s encouraging to see the world is not just a place of oppression and distance from each other,” Zeldin summed up. “What we did is not ordinary, but it can’t be madder than the world already is.”
Some said they felt “liberated” to talk on sensitive topics. Thirty-something Peter, from East London, said that “it might take weeks or months to get to the level of interaction we suddenly opened up.”What can the “conversations” be best described as?
A.Deep and one-on-one. | B.Sensitive and mad. |
C.Instant and inspiring. | D.Ordinary and encouraging. |
In a “feast of conversations”, participants ______.
A.pair freely with anyone they like |
B.have a guided talk for a set of period of time |
C.ask questions they themselves would not answer |
D.wear clothes reflecting multi-racial features. |
From the passage, we can conclude that what Zeldin does is ______.
A.an attempt to promote thinking interaction |
B.one of the maddest activities ever conducted |
C.a try to liberate people from old-fashioned ideas |
D.an effort to give people a chance of talking freely |
They like using the Internet. They have lots of pocket money to spend. And they spend a higher proportion of it online than the rest of us. Teenagers are just the sort of people an online seller is interested in, and the things they want to buy-games, CDs and clothing-are easily sold on the Web.
But paying online is a troublesome business for consumers who are too young to own credit cards. Most have to use a parent’s card. They want a facility that allows them to spend money.
That may come sooner than they think: new ways to take pocket money into cyber (网络的) space are coming out rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic. If successful, these products can stimulate online sales.
In general, teenagers spend huge amounts: $153bn (billion) in the US last year and £20bn annually in the UK. Most teenagers have access to the Internet at home or at school-88 percent in the US, 69 percent in the UK. According to the Jupiter Research, one in eight of those with Internet access has bought something online-mainly CDs and books.
In most cases, parents pay for these purchases with credit cards, an arrangement that is often unsatisfactory for them and their children. Pressing parents to spend online is less productive than pressing them to spend on the high street. They are more likely to ask “Why?” if you ask to spend some money online.
One way to help teenagers change notes and coins into cybercash is through prepaid cards such as InternetCash in the US and Smart cards in the UK. Similar to those for pay-as-you-go mobile telephones, they are sold in amounts such as£20 or $50 with a concealed 14-digit number that can be used to load the cash into an online account.What does the word “They” in paragraph 1 refer to?
A.Sellers. | B.Buyers. | C.Teenagers. | D.Parents. |
According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
A.More than half of the teenagers in the US and the UK have Internet access. |
B.Teenagers pay for goods online with their own credit cards. |
C.Most teenagers in the US and the UK have bought something online. |
D.Teenagers found it easier to persuade parents to buy online than in a shop. |
New way to help teenagers shop online is to use ______.
A.a new machine | B.special coins and notes |
C.prepaid cards | D.pay-as-you-go mobile phones |
What is the passage mainly about?
A.Online shopping traps. |
B.Internet users in the US and the UK. |
C.New credit cards for parents. |
D.The arrival of cyber pocket money. |