Section C: In this section, you will hear five short news items.

After each item, which will be read only once, there will be a twenty-second pause.

During the pause, read the question and the four choices marked A, B, C and D, and decide which is the best answer.

Then mark the corresponding letter on the answer sheet with a single line through the centre.

In conjunction with World Snow Day on Jan 18, 15 ski resorts across China — from northwest Xinjiang to northeast Heilongjiang and to the southeast coastal provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang — will host Children's Skiing Day for kids and their families to enjoy time on the slopes.

Chinese organisers hope the event will help popularize snow sports in China and crank up support for Beijing's bid for 2022 Winter Olympics.

Scottish writer All Smith's inventive How to Be Both, which is divided into two parts, each starting with a different character, was named the winner in the novel category on Monday for Britain's 2014 Costa Book Awards.

The Costa Book Awards is the only major British book prize that is open solely to authors resident in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Smith's novel will contend with four other books for the main Costa Book of the Year award, to be announced on Jan. 27.

China and Ecuador reached agreement on a visa exemption, as the energy-reliant Latin American country, facing a deep plunge in the price of oil, works to attract Chinese tourists and investors.