A、23. B、72. C、104. D、150. C

Managua, Nicaragua
    An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 shook the northwestern coast of Nicaragua late Thursday night not far from the Honduran border. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake’ s epicenter was 16 miles northeast of Chinandega, Nicaragua. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The USGS said it had a depth of roughly 6 miles. The quake was felt strongly in Nicaragua’s capital, Managua.
    The Reuters news service reports it was also felt strongly as far away as Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.  The newspaper La Prensa reported that the walls of a church had collapsed in Chinandega, the city closest to the epicenter. The USGS initially reported that the shake had a magnitude of 6. 4 but later downgraded it to a 6. 1.
Istanbul, Turkey
    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned the European Union that if it continues threatening his country he will open the border gates and allow hundreds of thousands of migrants to flood into EU countries.
    Erdogan, in a speech Friday, reacted furiously to a non-binding resolution approved the previous day by the European Parliament demanding that the bloc freeze membership negotiations with Turkey over the government’s heavy-handed crackdown following a failed coup in July.
    "We are the ones who feed 3-3.5 million refugees in this country. You have betrayed your promises, "Erdogan told the EU." If you go any further those border gates will be opened." The EU struck a deal earlier this year to return migrants to Turkey in return for a package including aid for the refugees and accelerated membership talks.
Lucknow, India
    Fourteen coaches of a passenger train rolled off the track early Sunday, killing 104 people and injuring roughly 150—72 of them were in serious condition, officials said. The Indore-Patna Express derailed just after 03:00 local time near the city of Kanpur.
    Rescuers are still trying to reach the injured and recover the dead from the twisted carriages. The cause of the crash near the village of Pukhrayan in northern India is not yet known. However, the Times of India? quoted sources as saying a fracture in the track could have been to blame.
    Train accidents are common in India, with most accidents occurring due to human error or aging equipment. Trains are the popular mode of transport for millions of Indians and around 23 million passengers use India’s vast railway network every day.
Oakland, United States
    The American Trucking Association says a shortage of qualified applicants with a commercial driver’s license has more than doubled since 2011. Its latest annual report says the nation was short roughly 48,000 drivers last year, with projections of a higher shortage in years to come. The shortfall has become more apparent as the economy picks up, said Barry Skolnick, Waste Management’s area vice president for Northern California and Nevada. "If commercial construction picks up, we need to hire more drivers," he said.
    A new partnership between the Waste Management and unions gives young adults—often high school dropouts from low-income communities—a chance to become teamster drivers after two years of training. Even apprentices work full time collecting organics from commercial businesses in Oakland. Truck driver apprentices earn $20 an hour, and after two years they are eligible for union jobs earning $70,000 annually while working toward a pension.
London, United Kingdom
    Train fares in Britain will go up by an average of 2.3% from 2nd January, the rail industry has announced. The increase covers both regulated fares, which includes season tickets, and unregulated fares, such as off-peak leisure tickets.
    The rise in regulated fares had already been capped at July’s Retail Prices Index inflation rate of 1.9%. Unregulated fares face no cap. Some unregulated fares are likely to rise by considerably more than 2.3%. That far outstrips the inflation rate, which is currently running at 0.9%, as measured by the? Consumer Prices Index.
    The pace of fare increases has slowed a little in recent years, but it follows a decade’s worth of steeper rises which began in 2004.
    It’s all because successive governments have changed the way they split the bill for running the service, so that passengers pay more and other taxpayers pay less. About 70% of the total network cost is met from ticket sales now. It used to be about 50%.

Question No. 6  What happened late Thursday night, according to the U.S. Geological Survey?
Question No. 7  How does Turkish President react to the resolution approved by the European Parliament?
Question No. 8  How many people were killed in Sunday’s train crash in northern India?
Question No. 9  Which of the following is TRUE about the shortage of qualified commercial drivers in America?
Question No. 10  As measured by the Consumer Prices Index, what is the current inflation rate in Britain?