There's something rotten in Rio  and the smell is coming from the huge stacks of rubbish pried up on sidewalks all over the city. Rio's street sweepers chose the carnival holiday to demand better salaries. Their wages start at roughly $400 a month.
    There could hardly be a better time for them to prove their importance. The streets were left a mess after hundreds of carnival parades and now, rubbish pries up in both poor and uptown neighbourhoods  and in tourist areas like Ipanema or Copacabana beach.                                                                                                                                          
    The president of Rio's rubbish collecting company has even appealed to the population to store rubbish at home whenever possible. He says 30% of the city's sweepers have gone on strike. Some of those who have been working have been threatened by the strike movement so now the police has been deployed alongside rubbish collectors to keep them sage as they go about their business.
    The strike has divided opinions in Rio. On social media, many support the sweepers' demands for better salaries. Others say they are opportunists and the situation is a big embarrassment to the city.
    But Brazil's culture of littering the streets doesn't help. A video that went viral online shows that even authorities have a problem with that. Rio's mayor, Eduardo Paes, is seen throwing what seemed to be the rest of an apple on the sidewalk--and now promised to impose himself a fine for his wrongdoing. His government recently created a programme to keep Rio's residents from littering the streets.
44. Rio's street cleaners go on strike to
   A. prove their importance                         B. threaten the government
   C. ask for higher salaries                           D. appeal to the public not to litter
45. The reason why the police are involved is that __
   A. the police are called out to put down the riot       B. the police are required to protect some cleaners
   C. the police are to collect rubbish for the time being  D. the police are sent to arrest people who litter around
46. The author's attitude to Brazil's culture of littering is __
    A. hopeless               B. approving              C. critical                D. optimistic
47. The purpose of writing the passage is to __
    A. criticize, street sweepers of Rio for misusing their rights
    B. call attention to the embarrassing situation of Rio
    C. describe the effect or the strike on people
    D. inform people of the present situation of Rio
                                                                      D
     Fortunately, I've been able to avoid the traffic jam brought by presidential visits because ! don't have to commute anywhere. Barack Obama visited Los Angeles recently which paralyzed large sections of a city and you could almost hear the collective pain of unhappy commuters.
     I am among the l0 percent of people in the US that regularly work from home. You could include Obama among them, although I suspect his working area in the White House is better-equipped than my small space on to the back of the garage. He also probably doesn't have a problem with three little kids interrupting his phone calls or bursting into his office at inappropriate moments.
     Every day there they are, knocking on my window and peering inside, as if looking at an animal in a zoo. Once, a telephone interview I was doing with the former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was interrupted by my older son, then three years old, and completely naked "Ahaaar!" he shouted to my face. "What was that?" said Schwarzenegger. I stammered(結(jié)巴地說(shuō)出) something about the joys of children and silently managed to shoo the boy out of the room without putting down the phone.
     I shouldn't complain. I no longer have to stand having someone's armpit(腋窩) being pressed into my face on a crowded train and home status means ! should be a more productive worker although working from home could also lead to "avoiding duties from home". I would argue that a bigger problem is going nuts: Staring at the same walls every day and not going anywhere can do strange things to a person.
     I realized I had to get out of the house at least once a day to avoid turning into an unshaven and unshowered
recluse(隱士) who was still in his pyjamas at dinner time. I would work for an hour or so in a local coffee shop but, like most routine, this became boring because I would constantly see the same faces: Screenwriters poring over screenplays, elderly women heading to the yoga studio next door and hordes of overweight middle-aged male cycling by.
     And yet here I am several years later, still working from home consciously and, I'm happy to report, not sitting at my desk in my pyjamas. Not since last Tuesday, anyway.
48. The author may agree that __
    A. it's a bad decision to workfromhome                

    B. presidential visits bring inconvenience to the locals
    C. if a person wants to be more productive, he must work from home
    D. the former California governor was angry at the interruption during the interview
49. The incident of three-year-old son is described to prove that___
    A. working from home has some drawbacks
    B. working from home is a pleasant experience
    C. Barack Obama has better working conditions than the author
    D. it's unfortunate for the author to have a naughty boy
50. The reason why the author goes to the coffee shop is that __
    A. he wants to get familiar with the people around     B. he doesn't like working in his pyjamas at home
    C. he becomes bored with being a commuter            D. he needs some changes to get relaxation
51. The whole passage suggests that __
      A. the author has to work from home                    B. any routine definitely means boredom
      C. the author is a humorous person                      D. working from home contributes to avoiding duties
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