[简答题]In Britain it is common to be invited to someone’s home rather than to a restaurant. If you are invited to a restaurant, it is because your host is very busy, can’t cook very well, or wants to give you the enjoyment of some special type of food, or perhaps, has often invited you home and now wants to give you a special treat.

Britain’s undeclared general election campaign has already seen the politicians trading numbers as boxers trade punches. There is nothing new in such statistical slanging matches(相互谩骂)What is new is an underestimation of worry about what has been happening to official statistics under the Labour government.
One of the most important figures for Gordon Brown when presenting his pre-election budget on March 16th was the current-budget balance. This is the gap between current revenues and current spending. It matters to the chancellor of the exchequer(财政部长) because he is committed to meeting his own "golden rule" of borrowing only to invest, so he has to ensure that the current budget is in balance or surplus over the economic cycle.
Mr. Brown told MPs that he would meet the golden rule for the current cycle with ￡ 6 billion ($11.4 billion) to spare—a respectable-sounding margin, though much less than in the past. However, the margin would have
A. the British politicians are often compared to boxers by the people
B. it is a common practice that the government plays with figures
C. people often overestimate the credibility of official statistics
D. the Labor government usually underestimate its official figures

Passage Two
Britain’s government raises millions of pounds each year from the National Lottery (抽奖) and some of this money is used as an additional allowance for the arts. But this money can only be spent on "capital projects", and not on an institution’s day-to-day expenses.
Lottery money has been made available for many exciting new building projects to improve theatres, galleries and museums. But the project which has received the most publicity is the ￡ 78 million renewal on the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden. The House is the home of Britain’s greatest opera company, as well as the Royal Ballet(芭蕾舞团). It’s also considered to be the best arts institutions -- tickets to the opera can cost up to 200 -- and not everyone is happy that so much lottery money is being used for the benefit of a rich minority.
But since builders moved into the Royal Opera House last July, that controversy has
A. The gallery.
B. The museum.
C. The Royal Opera House.
D. The park.

Britain’s emissions of greenhouse gases, blamed by many scientists for contributing to global warming, have fallen by 14 percent since 1990, according to the latest government report.
British lakes and rivers are also on the road to recovery from acid rain poisoning, following successful curbs to air pollution from cars and heavy industry.
The report by the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) attributed the drop in greenhouse gas emissions to several factors including: the introduction of catalytic converters on cars, a move toward low sulphur and lead-free petrol and a switch to gas from coal and oil in power generation.
Environment Minister Michael Meacher said the downward trend was welcome, but warned of complacency.
"Even though these figures are encouraging, we must not be complacent. There are still significant problems where we need to do more, for example, to further reduce greenhouse gases and harmful pollutants (污染
A. reducing emissions of greenhouse gases
B. recovering lakes and rivers from pollution
C. preventing acid rain from falling
D. curbing air pollution from cars and heavy industry