10 During the early years of this century, wheat was seen as the very lifeblood of Western Canada. When the crops were good, the economy on city streets watched the yields and the price of wheat with almost as much felling as if they were growers. The marketing of wheat became an increasingly favorite topic of conversation.
War set the stage for the most dramatic events in marketing the western crop. For years, farmers mistrusted speculative grain selling as carried on through the Winnipeg Grain Exchange. Wheat prices were generally low in the autumn, but farmers could not wait for markets to improve. It had happened too often that they sold their wheat soon after harvest when farm debts were coming due, only to see prices rising and speculators getting rich. On various occasions, producer groups asked for farmer controls, but governments had no wish to become involved, at least not until wartime wheat prices threatened to run wild.
Anxious to check inflation and rising living costs, the federal government appointed a board of grain supervisors to handle deliveries from the crops of 1917 and 1918. Grain Exchange trading was suspended, and farmers sold at prices fixed by the board. To handle the crop of 1919, the government appointed the first Canadian Wheat Board, with full authority to buy, sell and set prices.
What is the main purpose of the passage?
A To explain how wheat is marketed today
B To justify suspension of trading on the Grain Exchange.
C To describe the origins of the Canadian Wheat Board.
D To argue for further reforms on the Canadian Wheat Board
11. April 27 is Take Our Daughters to Work Day in Britain. Started at first in the United States and brought to Britain in 1994, Take Our Daughter to Work Day has become a special day for girls between 11 and 15. On that day thousands of girls take a day off school and go together with one of their parents to their work places. The purpose of this day is to broaden girls’ horizons(视野) and raise their self-confidence.
For many years people have thought that boy can do better than girls in society. But actually, “Girls can be whatever they want to be just like boys, whether it is a pilot , a nurse or a chief executive (主管),” says the chairman of the Our Sons and Daughters Charitable Trust, an organization which supported the activity of the Day. “Now the girls have a close look at what their parents are doing and this may help them to be more self-confident when they are faced with a choice of work.”
Schools and many companied support the activity, too. Palmers Green High School for girls, in north London, has made the day a necessary of careers education.
Zarina Bart,15, from Palmers Green, went with her mother Gwen to her lawyer’s office on this year’s Take Our Daughters to Work Day. “I learned how to fill in a legal aid form and I read details of a case. Then I went to see the actual trail,” she said.
Zarina found it interesting to see her mother at work. “It’s really strange seeing Mum at work-running around, getting serious and telling people what to do.” She has always liked this idea of going into law and thinks it likely that she will follow in her mother’s footsteps. Having a chance to see how her mother works has given hr more self-confidence.
Experts believe that girls with higher self-confidence aim higher and are more likely to be successful in life. Parents have more important effect on the confidence of teenage girls. If parents believe in their daughter and show examples both at work as well as at home for them, this will give a lot of help to girls. Take Our Daughters to Work Day is surely a step in the right direction.
The writer’s purpose in writing this text is to _________
A introduce to us a special day for girls
B broaden girls’ view and raise their confidence
C show us that girls can do as well as boys
D tell how the special day for girls came into being
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