单项选择题

Directions: In this section you will hear two mini-talks. At the end of each talk, there will be some questions. Both the talks and the questions will be read to you only once. After each question, there will be a pause. During the pause, you must choose the best answer from the four choices given by marking the corresponding letter with a single bar across the square brackets on your Machine-scoring Answer Sheet.
In this passage the word "empire" means______.

A. several countries that have one ruler
B. islands that belong to a certain country
C. a small country, which is ruled by a big one
D. a place where the king and queen live