Ques: Divorce is bad for environment  US researchers raised a new theory on Monday: divorce is bad for the environment.  The global trend toward higher divorce rates has created more households with fewet People,scientists at Michigan State University reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  More households means more houses,fuel and water are Heeded for them,the researchers wrote."Globally,the number of households is increasing much faster than the number of people,"said co-author "Jack" Liu in a telephone interview. "Even in regions with declining population, we see _ increase in the number of households. Divorce is the main reason for reducing the number of people in a household," he said.  The average divorced person's household is about 40 to 50 percent smaller than the average married person's household, Liu said. But whether there are three or six people in a house ,the amount of fuel needed to heat them is about the same.  In the prefix = st1 /United States, divorced households used 73 billion kilowatt--hours of electricity and 2.850 trillion litres of water in 2005 that could have been saved if households had stayed the same size as when they were married.  I the United Statesand 11 other countries between 1998 and 2002, if divorced households had combined to have the same average household size as married households, there could have been 7.4 million fewer households.  The number of divorced households in those countries ranged from 40,000 in Costa Ricato almost 16 million in theUnited Statesaround 2000. The number of rooms per person in divorced households was 33 percent to 95 percent greater than in married households.  "If you really want to get divorced, maybe you can remarry with somebody else, or live together with somebody else you like", Liu said. In Americawhen the number of households is_, the number of people in a house is     . A) increasing, decreasing B) decreasing, increasing C) increasing, increasing D) decreasing, decreasing
Ans: A

Ques: Volunteering abroad is great. Not only do you travel to an exotic country, you also meet like-minded people, and at the end of it all you have something to put on your CV to impress employers with. But did you ever stop to think about how great it is for the people on the receiving end? In this context, Daniela Papi has a point---foreigners rushing heroically to volunteer in a country they've never heard of are unlikely to make a difference. But turning volunteering camps into classrooms, as Papi seems to advocate in her article, risks throwing the baby out with the bath water by putting people off of volunteering. Rather, learning should be a natural part of the experience, and the key to creating such an environment is positioning everyone as equals. In order for _ to happen, volunteers need competent leaders who create an environment of equality: When, a few years ago, I joined a group of international volunteers to help a small farming community in the Swiss Alps, we were all quite ignorant about the local conditions. But thanks to our group leader, it was both a helpful project for the locals and a fun and eye-opening experience for us.Before we had even traveled (at our own expense) to the mountaintop village, our group leader had spent time with the villagers preparing the project to make sure it would be of benefit to them. She arranged for us to help in different areas, ensuring that we always worked alongside locals rather than for them. It was never "us" and "them", but always "we", like a big family. As a result, conversation flowed and we learned a great deal just by casually talking to the locals as we worked.At the end, we left with a deep appreciation for the labor of love that goes into producing the food we eat every dayan appreciation we could treasure ourselves and share with our peers. Volunteering isn't about saving someone's life, or even about changing it. It's about touching a different world and reminding ourselves that there is much, much more to life than the daily routines we take... From the author's viewpoint, what should international volunteers avoid? A) Placing themselves above the locals. B) Taking food for granted. C) Disrespecting others' labor. D) Being proud of volunteering.
Ans: A

Ques: Parents are creating an "I want it now" generation by satisfying children's every demand at Christmas, say experts. Youngsters in Britain are becoming increasingly selfish, claim the education analysts. Behavioral consultant Chris Calland said: "Parents want to make Christmas into magical fairytale for their kids. "There's nothing wrong with that. The problem arises when it means always giving into all our children's demands--- even if they are beyond our price range or not age-appropriate." Ms Calland, who runs "Santa Says No" style sessions with colleague Nicky Hutchinson, added: "Many of us go into so much debt providing the gifts our children want that we spend the rest of the year paying off the bills. But so often the gifts we've carefully wrapped, once opened, are just pushed away because the very thing our little boy or girl was once so desperate for, they have now lost interest in." Ms Calland and Ms Hutchinson have drawn up a list of guidelines to help parents manage their offspring's  Christmas lists this year. They say that adults can actually improve their relationships with their children by resisting "pester  power". Ms Calland said: "All too often we say yes because we want an easier life when the fact is that we're only building up problems for the future. We are helping create a generation of youngsters who are blind to the needs of others and the necessity of hard work. "Children learn fast--- if we sometimes change our mind, they quickly realize it might be worth lying on the floor and screaming for it. Make sure you and your partner are working together on this. Be consistent. And try not to get caught up in competition with other families or friends. What is probably the aim of "Santa Says No" style sessions? A) To advise on how to wrap gifts properly. B) To keep children's interest in the gifts. C) To tell parents how to say no to children's demands. D) To advise parents on what gifts to buy for children.
Ans: