questions list | article stringlengths 9 6.44k | id stringlengths 9 14 |
|---|---|---|
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "regretful"
},
"options": [
"happy",
"regretful",
"1ucky",
"satisfied"
],
"question": "When Charlie heard that he would be given the house he must have felt _",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
... | Charlie,a master carpenter ,was very well respected in his community.Everyone knew that if they wanted the best,they would call on him.Of course that meant that Charlie would never be rich.His fellow carpenters always told him that if you used inferior materials and cheap labor then you could make a lot of money.Charlie would not hear of it.
One day,John,the richest man in town came to Charlie.He said that he had just bought the best piece of land in town. It overlooked the entire city.He was going to Europe for 4 months and wanted Charlie to build him the best house in town." _ ."
Charlie thought about this and decided finally he would make some money.He did not get his usual great carpenters and fine materials from his normal suppliers.He built the house and covered up the flaws .After 4 months he had spent about 50%of what he usually spends on a house.
John came back from Europe and immediately called Charlie and asked him to meet him at the house.When they met,John asked him if he had used the finest materials and spared no expense.Charlie said ly.John said that he was glad.He paid Charlie,then told him that he knew he was not rich and had always struggled.So he wanted to reward Charlie for all of his years of service to the community by giving Charlie this house.
There are many times in our lives where we let down a little bit. When you do,you never know what is going to happen. | high23216.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "They know it by experimenting on rats."
},
"options": [
"Some researchers have told them.",
"Many women say so.",
"They know it by experimenting on rats.",
"They know it through their own experience."
],
"questi... | Motherhood may make women smarter and may help prevent dementia in old age by bathing the brain in protective hormones , U.S.researchers reported on Thursday.
Tests on rats show that those who raise two or more litters of pups do considerably better in tests of memory and skills than rats who have no babies, and their brains show changes that suggest they may be protected against diseases such as Alzheimer's .University of Richmond psychology professor Craig Kinsley believes his findings will translate into humans."Our research shows that the hormones of pregnancy are protecting the brain, including estrogen , which we know has many neuroprotective effects," Kinsley said.
"It's rat data but humans are mammals just like these animals are mammals," he added in a telephone interview."They go through pregnancy and hormonal changes." Kinsley said he hoped public health officials and researchers will look to see if having had children protects a woman from Alzheimer's and other forms of age-related brain decline.
"When people think about pregnancy, they think about what happens to babies and the mother from the neck down," said Kinsley, who presented his findings to the annual meeting of the Society of Neuroscience in Orlando, Florida.
"They do not realize that hormones are washing on the brain.If you look at female animals that have never gone through pregnancy, they act differently toward young.But if she goes through pregnancy, she will sacrifice her life for her infant--that is a great change in her behavior that showed in genetic alterations to the brain." | high1692.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "How to teach a child about money management."
},
"options": [
"How to develop a child's initiative.",
"How to work up an amount of pocket money.",
"How to teach a child to make money.",
"How to teach a child about money... | An allowance is an important tool for teaching kids how to budget,save and make their own decisions.Children remember and learn from mistakes when their own dollars are lost or spent foolishly.
How large an allowance is suitable? Experts say there is not right amount.Actual amounts differ from place to place,and from family to family.
To set an appropriate allowance for your child,work up a weekly budget .Allow for entertainment costs such as movies and snacks.Next,include everyday expenses such as lunch money,bus fare,school supplies."If you make the child responsible for these'ills',"says Josephine Swanson,a consumer specialist,"he or she will learn to budget for necessary expenditures."
Finally,add some extra money to make saving possible.If you can,keep your child's allowance in line with that of his friends.A child whose purchasing power falls away below _ can feel left out.
It can be hard,but avoid excusing your children when they make a mistake with their allowance.When Brooke Stephens was ten and growing up in Jacksonville,her mother gave her $ 5 a week,$1.75 of which was for bus fare and lunch."If you lose your money,"Brooke's mother told her,"you walk home."
One week the girl spent all her allowance in a candy store,then she called home for a ride."Mom made me walk home,"recalls Stephens,now a financial planner in Brooklyn."At first I was angry.But I finally realized that she was trying to teach me an important lesson."
Experts advise that an allowance should not be tied directly to a child's daily chores.Kids should help around the house not because they get paid for it but because they share responsibilities as members of a family.You might,however,pay a child for doing extra jobs at home,which can develop his or her initiative . | high22108.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Opportunities for street children"
},
"options": [
"Lovemore's life",
"The programs of the PCC",
"The situation of street children",
"Opportunities for street children"
],
"question": "What would be the best tit... | At the Presbyterian Church in downtown Harare, Zimbabwe, 15-year-old Lovemore and other children crowd around tables in a small room, answering questions in their workbooks. Their uniforms are clean and worn with pride, and in many ways it would be difficult to distinguish this classroom from any other.
These children, like Lovemore, live at the Mbare bus station, a crowded, dirty and dangerous place for anyone, especially at night. Lovemore said that he started to face problems once his mother died and his father stopped paying school fees. When Lovemore's father remarried, Lovemore was forced onto the street, no longer welcome at home.
After meeting a worker from the Presbyterian Children's Club (PCC), Lovemore felt encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to get an education. Since joining the program, he is always at the top of his class. He spends his mornings at the PCC, where he receives his only meals for the day. At night, he sleeps on the ground at the bus station. The few clothes he owns are hidden in secret places around town so that no one will steal them.
At the end of each day, Lovemore and his classmates take their books with them to study at night in the market square. "We read by the street lights, but sometimes the guards drive us away."
Each year, the top three students are given a chance to go to formal school. Those who successfully complete their grade-seven exams will be given a PCC scholarship to attend a boarding school , proving there is hope for forgotten children like Lovemore.
Started in 1996, the program provides free education, basic meals, health care and clothing to more than 70 children. "There are people who care here, and other kids like me," Lovemore said. "It feels like this is my family." | high23202.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "everything can reflect in it"
},
"options": [
"everything can reflect in it",
"it's large with plenty of space",
"there is a large mirror wall in it",
"it has limited effect on local wildlife"
],
"question": "Ac... | BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhuanet)--- A new hotel concept has been realized in a village in Northern Sweden, which aims to make the simple treehouse become a world-class destination for travellers. The Treehotel, located in a place called Harads, will consist of four rooms when it opens on July 17th: the Cabin, the Blue Cone, the Nest, and the Mirrorcube.
Two additional rooms are scheduled to open in October. The long term vision is even more _ . "Our goal in five years is to have 24 rooms from 24 different architects," says Treehotel co-founder Kent Lindvall.
The first six rooms were designed by five different architects. The Mirrorcube which stands four meters high and four meters wide, and the walls of which are made with a mirrored glass, has drawn widespread attention as it will be attached to a single tree. "It's an interesting building. You can't find anything else like this in the world today. It's unique ," says Lindvall. "Everything will reflect in it---the trees, the birds, the clouds and the sun in the forest. So it could hardly be seen in the forest. This is untouched forest and we want to keep it the same way."
Lindvall says the Treehotel's vision proves a powerful draw, with enquiries coming in from far and wide. "I think what's exciting here is that we're just 60 km below the Arctic Circle. It means there's a good possibility to have the northern lights in the winter and of course to have the midnight sun in the summer."
The motto of the Treehotel is "Feel Free in a Tree" and expense will cost up to about $555.50 for two guests in the Cube, which is designed to hold up to four guests. | high1686.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "She is very active in her high school."
},
"options": [
"She is applying for a master's degree.",
"She is very active in her high school.",
"Her disability prevents her studying well.",
"She has difficulty overcoming he... | Q My daughter is a junior in high school and has been on an individualized education program since fourth grade. She plans to go to college and intends to finish with a master's degree. Her performance is fairly good, but test scores are very low. She has held many leadership and volunteer positions. We have been advised to have her write an essay about how her learning disability is a barrier that she has overcome. Will that help or hurt her chances for admission?
--Deborah
AFirst let me answer the question on low standardized test scores (ACT/ SAT). There are hundreds of colleges that are "test optional" which means students can choose not to release their test scores in the application process. Admission decisions at these colleges for students who do not submit their test scores are made based on other factors. A list of test optional colleges can be found atfairtest.org. It is important, however, to make sure that the college is the right fit academically regardless of the test optional policy.
You also asked if your daughter should write about her disability and if this would hurt her chances of being admitted. Please know that colleges do not deny admission based on disability. "Disclosing" a learning disability in a personal statement within the college application can certainly help. By writing a personal statement, students can potentially demonstrate, for example, their understanding of the challenge they face. They might also demonstrate an improved grade trend in that subject area, and show interest in more complex courses in spite of this disability. More importantly, a student disclosure can show self-confidence, motivation and an understanding of the disability.
--Ms. Kravis | high312.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "brought them great trouble"
},
"options": [
"brought them great trouble",
"gained their mother's praise",
"made their father very angry",
"failed to meet their mother's demands"
],
"question": "The children's dr... | In our home it was natural to fear our father . Even our mother was afraid of him. As children, my sister and I thought every family was like that. Every family had an unpredictable dad who was impossible to please and a praying mom who was there to protect the children.
We were good children. Mom was always telling us we were, even if Daddy couldn't see it . part of this was because we didn't dare to do anything.
Then came the day we found something new and fun to do. We worked at drawing with chalk on our wooden front door and making lots of pretty pictures all over it. We had a great time. We thought Mom would love it and praise us.
The praise we expected did not come. Instead, Mom was mad. We did not understand why, but we knew we were in big trouble!
Off we ran to find a place to hid. In our wooded yard it was not hard for two small children to find safety. Together, we hid behind a tree and did not move. Soon we heard the frightened voices of Mom and our neighbors calling out to us.
The sun set and it began to get dark. Those around us became more anxious, and we became more frightened. However, we still didn't move.
As we clung together in the dark, we became aware of yet another voice, one we recognized with great fear: our daddy. But there was something strangely different about it. In it we heard something we had never heard before: fear, agony and despair. Then came his prayers in tearful voice. Our daddy was promising God that he would give his life to him if he would safely return his girls.
Nothing in our lives had prepared us for this kind of shock. Neither of us remembers making a decision to come out. We were drawn to him like a magnet , our fears disappearing into the forest. We didn't know yet if we actually took steps or if God somehow moved us out and into Daddy's arms. What we do remember were those strong, loving arms holding us and crying, hugging us like we were precious.
Things were different after that. _ . Our whole family was changed by a piece of chalk. | high21415.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "He missed the trip at the beginning of school."
},
"options": [
"He was late for school.",
"He missed the trip at the beginning of school.",
"He didn't know anyone.",
"American students looked down upon him."
],
... | What are American high schools like? Well, I'm happy to tell you what I know.
When I started school here, it had already been a week since the school opened. At this school, freshmen usually go on a trip for about three days at the beginning of school. Unfortunately I missed that wonderful trip, which would have been the best time to get to know my classmates. I was really sad. I wished I'd known about it earlier.
Despite the disappointment, however, I gradually adapted to my new life and school.
There is a space in the basement of the teaching building where students chat and meet each other. As we do not always have the same classrooms and classmates, the school wants us to get to know each other there. Students usually come to school early, sit in that space and have fun. Around the space, there are many lockers for students to leave their books in, so that students do not have to carry a heavy schoolbag everywhere.
It really surprises me that we have almost no textbooks. We only have textbooks for World History and Algebra 2 and they are big and heavy, like bricks. For other classes, we only need binders with paper in them. Without textbooks, students learn things freely and actively. For example, my humanities teacher just teaches us what is in her mind at the time. We never know what we will learn.
Another difference between American schools and Chinese schools is that American schools care about students' morality more than their academic studies. For example, if you do not finish your homework, you will just be asked to do it later, but if you cheat or lie, you will get a warning or even be kicked out.
I think that most students here are good at schoolwork as well, but compared to Chinese students, they can make learning a more joyful experience. I think we should take the good points from our two different kinds of education to perfect our approach to studying. | high10810.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Some information was overlooked."
},
"options": [
"Some information was overlooked.",
"Some information needed to be united.",
"Some had grammatical mistakes.",
"Industry terminology didn't meet the standard."
],
... | When you're an employee of a company, no matter the size, it's common to see co-workers promoted, or transferred to a different department. But there is another way to move around--by creating a new position for yourself. I did this several years ago, though I wasn't actively looking for a different job.
In 2007, I was hired at the Transamerica Life Insurance Company, as a customer service representative in the distributions services department. I processed requests for distributions from our annuity policy holders around the country. Someone might have forgotten to sign a form, for example, or might have omitted security information. To solve the problem, I'd mail the person a letter.
The company had been through several combinations, so in our department alone we had a collection of about 140 templates for letters related to distributions. The longer I worked with the letters, the more I saw how they could be improved. Some had overlapping information and could be combined. Some had incorrect grammar or needed updating. I also noticed that industry terminology wasn't standard across all the versions.
When I told my department supervisor about this in 2008, she agreed that the letters needed _ . She said I should stop what I'd been doing and start the new work. In a relatively short time, I was able to make numerous improvements and reduce the number of letters to 70. It was an informal job change until a managers' meeting several months later.
At that meeting, a vice president who was unaware of my new work mentioned that the division's entire stock of 1,700 letters should be reviewed. My manager told her that she knew the perfect person for the job--me. The position was still considered temporary when I took on the extra tasks, but I was able to show that the work had value, and I was officially promoted and given a raise in November 2009. | high3091.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The Roman Empire intruded into Britannia Island over 2,100 years ago."
},
"options": [
"London lies in the southeast plain of England.",
"The British first lived in London thousands of years ago.",
"People can enjoy a walk al... | London is the capital of Britain. It is located in the southeast plain of England. The Thames River goes through this city.
The British have lived there for about 3,000 years. The Roman Empire intruded into Britannia Island in 54 BC. The Romans built the first wooden bridge over the Thames River.
London is a world-famous cultural city. There are many famous cultural sites. It is one of the world's great tourist destinations. About eight million people visit London every year.
The largest museum is the British Museum, which was built in the 18th century. There are many ancient cultural relics of Britain and of other countries in the museum. The London Tower stands on the southeast of Tower Mountain. It was once a palace, and it is now an exhibition center. Westminster Hall is located on the west bank of the Thames River and was built in 750 AD. It is the largest Gothic building of the world and was a palace in the past, too.
The Clock Tower, which is about 97 meters high, is located northeast of the parliament. The famous "Big Ben" weighs about 21 tons and its big pendulum is about 305 kilograms. Hyde Park is one of the great parks in the world and it is in the west district of London. There is a free forum there and some people give speeches there every week. They can say almost anything, but they can't attack the Queen or support violent revolution. | high4926.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "how to have a smooth journey abroad"
},
"options": [
"what to take with you while travelling",
"the importance of learning about foreign culture",
"what to do in an emergency",
"how to have a smooth journey abroad"
... | Tips for planning a trip abroad
You may be going on a well deserved vacation with your family or planning a honeymoon trip to a foreign country. While discovering a new destination may seem exciting, keep in a mind a little bit of preparation can make your getaway all the more special.
Here are some travel tips that can minimize any unpleasant circumstances that may arise when you are not familiar with the country you are travelling to.
Be familiar with the culture and traditions of your destination.
East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet. Rudyard Kipling's views may not seem entirely true with the world becoming a global village. There are, however, still differences that must be taken into consideration.
It is better to be acquainted with the culture and traditions of the country you are visiting. For example, you may be travelling the Bali, a country equally well-known for its beautiful landscapes and temples as it is for its warm people. However, keep in mind that you must be suitably dressed to enter a temple. If you go wearing shorts, you may not be allowed to enter. Keeping into consideration facts such as this can make all the difference to your visit.
General information about your destination
Weather: This will help you decide what you have to pack for the journey and stay.
Currency: No travel trip is complete without shopping and bringing back souvenirs. So it is important to be familiar with the currency, notes and coins and their denominations.
Cost of local items: This will help you plan your budget and also give you a rough idea of the costs so that you are not taken for a ride when you go for your shopping expedition.
Booking accommodation: Book your accommodation well in advance. This is especially important if you are travelling during the high season and you may find it difficult to get a hotel or guesthouse within your budget.
Dealing with language problems: Be familiar with common words and phrases to make going around easier. Then again, when commuting from one place to another, do write down the destination and your hotel address in the local language, otherwise the taxi drivers may not understand where you want to go.
Practical necessities
Paperwork and documents: Know all the documents that are required for travelling to a particular country and ensure all your paperwork is complete so that you don't face hassles once you reach the place.
Make two copies of your passport. Keep them in separate places, for example, you can leave one copy in your room and keep another with your friend. Should your passport be lost or stolen, you can use the copy to exit the country or use it to facilitate the replacement process.
Email yourself all the important information such as credit card numbers, passport numbers, your driving license details etc. and anything else that could be of importance if an emergency arises.
Finally, run a final checklist before starting your journey. You should have the following: passport, tickets, car rental and hotel reservation receipts/agreements, credit cards, medications or prescriptions, if required, addresses, password and any other important information that you may need. If everything is in order, you are all set for a smooth journey abroad. | high18294.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "decreased their value of protection"
},
"options": [
"were polluted by micro-organisms.",
"were resistant to high temperature.",
"decreased their value of protection",
"were still effective"
],
"question": "Acco... | Hundreds of Chinese officials are to be sacked or demoted for their part in a vaccine scandal that has added to discontent at poor oversight of food and drug safety, especially relating to children.
Xinhua, the state news agency, said late on Wednesday that 357 officials are to face punishment, with 192 criminal cases already filed and 202 people detained after improperly stored or transported vaccines were sent to 59 health institutions.
This is the latest in a string of food and drug safety scandals in a country where parents often import products for infants and babies from overseas to ensure quality. Many remember with fear the 2008 milk powder scandal, in which infant formula laced with melamine caused at least six deaths and 300,000 children to fall ill.
Beijing last month made public an illegal operation in eastern Shandong province in which a hospital pharmacist and her daughter traded $88m in vaccines that may have been compromised because they were expired or improperly stored or transported.
The China Food and Drug Administration said, however, that the vaccines posed no greater than the normal risk to patients. "We don't see that the vaccines' effectiveness has been reduced," added the health watchdog in a report.
Nonetheless, health officials fear a backlash against Chinese-manufactured vaccines, which already have a reputation for being more dangerous than those made overseas.
Wang Yuedan, deputy director of Peking University's immunology department, said the key to evaluating risks is to check whether package seals are broken or for pollution with micro-organisms. "The vaccines in the Shandong case don't have those problems," he said.
Those vaccines had been subject to higher than normal temperatures that could have lowered their effectiveness and reduced their protective value. But the official investigation showed the vaccines "are still effective", he said.
Beijing, which publicized the affair almost a year after it was exposed, and several years after it started, appeared eager to show commitment to crack down on abuses by announcing the action, political analysts said.
The CFDA said a system was being set up to track vaccines from production to use.
The World Health Organization warned the scandal could endanger China's public health gains if parents become distrustful of vaccines. It also expressed confidence in Chinese vaccines, saying public immunization campaigns had erased polio and sharply reduced cases of hepatitis B and measles. | high19834.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "She had donated blood the night before."
},
"options": [
"She had run a long way.",
"She felt hot in the subway.",
"She had done a lot of work.",
"She had donated blood the night before."
],
"question": "What wa... | Lisa was running late. Lisa, 25, had a lot to do at work,plus visitors on the way: her parents were coming in for Thanksgiving from her hometown. But as she hurried down the subway stairs, she started to feel uncomfortably warm. By the time she got to the platform, Lisa felt weak and tired-maybe it hadn't been a good idea to give blood the night before, she thought. She rested herself against a post close to the tracks.
Several yards away, Frank, 43, and his girlfriend, Jennifer, found a spot close to where the front of the train would stop. They were deep in discussion about a house they were thinking of buying.
But when he heard the scream, followed by someone yelling, "Oh, my God, she fell in!" Frank didn't hesitate. He jumped down to the tracks and ran some 40 feet toward the body lying on the rails. "No! Not you! " his girlfriend screamed after him.
She was right to be alarmed. By the time Frank reached Lisa, he could feel the tracks shaking and see the light coming. The train was about 20 seconds from the station.
It was hard to lift her. She was just out. But he managed to raise her the four feet to the platform so that bystanders could hold her by the arms and drag her away from the edge. That was where Lisa briefly regained consciousness, felt herself being pulled along the ground, and saw someone else holding her purse.
Lisa thought she'd been robbed. A woman held her hand and a man gave his shirt to help stop the blood pouring from her head. And she tried to talk but she couldn't, and that was when she realized how much pain she was in.
Police and fire officials soon arrived, and Frank told the story to an officer. Jennifer said her boyfriend was calm on their 40-minute train ride downtown-just as he had been seconds after the rescue, which made her think about her reaction at the time. "I saw the train coming and I was thinking he was going to die." she explained. | high17819.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "he didn't want to lose face before his wife"
},
"options": [
"his wife didn't hate his breaking wind",
"it was difficult to find good ones",
"his wife asked him to",
"he didn't want to lose face before his wife"
],
... | One day, a man who liked baked beans very much met a girl and fell in love with her. In order to avoid breaking wind in front of his newly-married wife, he gave up baked beans. They were married shortly thereafter.
Months later, he smelled baked beans in a cafe on his way home. They were the best beans he had ever smelled! He could not resist and had three large orders of baked beans. All the way home he had gas.
His wife seemed excited and a bit mysterious to see him. She _ him and led him to his chair at the dinning room table. Just as she was about to remove the blindfold, the telephone rang. Seizing the chance of her absence, he shifting his weight to one leg and let the gas go. He took the napkin from his lap and fanned the air about him. When he felt another wind coming on, he shifted his weight to the other leg and let it go again. Then he made a third fart. Yet somehow his wife didn't hear him.
While keeping his ear on the phone conversation in the hall, he again fanned with force until he heard his wife saying goodbye on the phone, meaning the end of his freedom.
Apologizing for taking so long a time, she asked if he had peeked . He assured her that he had not.
At this point, she removed the blindfold and there was his surprise---- Twelve dinner guests seated around the table for his surprise birthday party! | high21373.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "he was fully occupied with observing nature"
},
"options": [
"he didn't live very long with them",
"the family was extremely large",
"he was too young when he lived with them",
"he was fully occupied with observing natu... | Looking back on my childhood,I am convinced that naturalists are born and not made.Although we were all brought up in the same way,my brothers and sisters soon abandoned their pressed flowers and insects.Unlike them,I had no ear for music and languages.I was not an early reader and I could not do mental arithmetic.
Before World War I we spent our summer holidays in Hungary.I have only the dim memory of the house we lived in,of my room and my toys.Nor do I recall clearly the large family of grandparents,aunts,uncles and cousins who gathered next door.But I do have a clear memory of the dogs,the farm animals,the local birds,and above all,the insects.
I am a naturalist,not a scientist.I have a strong love of the natural world and my enthusiasm led me into varied investigations.I love discussing my favorite topics and enjoy burning the midnight oil while reading about other people's observations and discoveries.Then something happens that brings these observations together in my conscious mind.
Suddenly you fancy you see the answer to the riddle,because it all seems to fit together.This has resulted in my publishing 300 papers and books,which some might honor with the title of scientific research.
But curiosity,a keen eye,a good memory and enjoyment of the animal and plant world do not make a scientist:one of the outstanding and essential qualities required is self-discipline,a quality I lack.A scientist requires not only self-discipline,but hard training,determination and a goal.A scientist,up to a certain point,can be made.A naturalist is born.If you can combine the two,you get the best of both worlds. | high7591.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "you are unfamiliar with your destination"
},
"options": [
"you are busy in the morning",
"you have to take your breakfast",
"you have lots of things to do",
"you are unfamiliar with your destination"
],
"questio... | To be punctual is important for us because people rather expect us to be on time for appointments. But it seems not easy to be on time every time. Here are some useful methods to help you be punctual.
Plan your route. If your destination is unfamiliar, go online the night before to map out your route and see how long it's going to take. Then you will know when you have to leave the house.
Do as much as possible the night before. Make your mornings less stressful by doing what you can the night before to make your time enough. Get your clothes ready. Set the breakfast table. Make your lunch if you need to take it.
Make a time table. You need to make a time table if you have lots of things to do in a day. For example, the time you get up, the time you leave the house, and the time you wait for the bus. You also need to estimate how long it takes.
Give yourself a gift of being early. If you plan to get to your destination 15 minutes early, you'll probably never be late again. Being early seems a waste of time. But you can do something you love. Read the newspaper, read your favorite blogs and even call a friend. It really can be a gift. | high6857.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "What to wear is not a matter of personal choice for companies."
},
"options": [
"Candidates have to wear what companies prefer for an interview.",
"What to wear is not a matter of personal choice for companies.",
"Companies s... | Spring is coming, and it is time for those about to graduate to look for jobs. Competition is tough, so job seekers must carefully consider their personal choices. Whatever we are wearing,our family and friends may accept us, but the workplace may not.
A high school newspaper editor said it is unfair for companies to discourage visible tattoos nose rings, or certain dress styles. It is true you can't judge a book by its cover, yet people do "cover" themselves in order to convey certain messages. What we wear, including tattoos and nose rings, is an expression of who we are. Just as people convey messages about themselves with their appearances, so do companies. Dress standards exist in the business world for a number of reasons, but the main concern is often about what customers accept.
Others may say how to dress is a matter of personal freedom, but for businesses it is more about whether to make or lose money. Most employers do care about the personal appearances of their employees ,because those people represent the companies to their customers.
As a hiring manager I am paid to choose the people who would make the best impression on our customers. There are plenty of well-qualified candidates, so it is not wrong to reject someone who might disappoint my customers. Even though I am open-minded, I can't expect all our customers are.
There is nobody to blame but yourself if your set of choices does not match that of your preferred employer. No company should have to change to satisfy a candidate simply because he or she is unwilling to respect its standards, as long as its standards are legal. | high474.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Snacking between the meals."
},
"options": [
"Having a big meal with family and friends.",
"Drinking a lot.",
"Having fattening takeaways",
"Snacking between the meals."
],
"question": "Which kind of weekend die... | For many workers trying to lose weight, the weekend is a chance to do some exercise and eat something healthier than a supermarket sandwich at their desk. But some slimmers take a slightly different approach -- consuming more than half their weekly calorie intake from Friday night to Sunday.
Away from the daily routine at work that helps them keep control of what they eat, they are snacking and drinking their way to a shocking 10,000 calories, a survey has found. Almost three-quarters of people trying to lose weight admit to over-eating at the weekend. A meal with friends or family, complete with alcohol, as well as a late-night snack before bed, can lead to adults consuming up to 3,500 calories in one day, a survey found. Men typically need 2,500 calories a day and women 2,000 calories. Consuming this amount would see men and women get through half their weekly calorie intake over the course of a 'bad' weekend.
Women were found to eat less on a Sunday because of guilt over their consumption over the previous two days. Men had fewer doubts about a third day of excess.
The biggest weekend diet danger comes from snacking between meals, the survey found. Some say they will often spend Saturday night in front of the TV with their families -- combining watching their favorite shows with crisps and biscuits. And seven in ten people admitted to having fattening takeaways at weekends, with pizza the most popular. Alcohol is another big factor in weekend bingeing.Around 70 percent still like to have a roast on a Sunday or a big meal with family or friends and a third of those will have second helpings.
A spokesman from Forza Supplements, the diet company that conducted the survey, said, "We all have bad weekends where we have a lot of fun, but dieting goes out of the window."
The 5:2 diet is becoming increasingly popular -- where we limit our calories for five days and allow ourselves a few treats on the other two days.
"For many people, the two days off are Saturday and Sunday but they go way too far" | high12961.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "teenagers"
},
"options": [
"parents",
"teenagers",
"winners",
"adults"
],
"question": "The Winners Club is a bank account intended for _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | Winners Club
You choose to be a winner!
The Winners Club is a bank account specially designed for teenagers.It has been made to help you better manage your money. The Winners Club is a transaction account where you receive a key-card so you can get to your money 24/7--that' s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
It' s a club with impressive features for teenagers:
* No account keeping fees!
You' re no millionaire so we don' t expect you to pay large fees. In fact, there are no account keeping or transaction fees!
* Excellent interest rates!
You want your money to grow. The Winners Club has a good rate of interest which gets even better if you make at least two deposits without taking them out in a month.
* Convenient
Teenagers are busy--we get that. You may never need to come to a bank at all. With the Winners Club you can choose to use handy tellers and to bank from home using the phone and the Internet...You can have money directly deposited into your Winners Club account. This could be your pocket money or your pay from your part-time job!
* Mega magazine included
Along with your regular report, you will receive a FREE magazine full of good ideas to make even more of your money. There are also fantastic offers and competitions only for Winners Club members.
The Winners Club is a great choice for teenagers. And it is so easy to join. Simply fill in an application form. You will have to get permission from your parent or guardian(so we can organize that cool key-card)but it is easy. We can' t wait to hear from you. It' s the best way to choose to be a winner! | high20045.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "often perform seemingly dangerous actions"
},
"options": [
"Often dress up as actors",
"prefer to lead dangerous lives",
"often perform seemingly dangerous actions",
"often fight each other for their lives"
],
"... | You are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists .But soon they begin hitting one another over the heads with chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes through a window and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead!
Of course he isn't really dead. With any luck he isn't even hurt. Why ? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains, who crash cars of even catching fire, are professionals .They do this for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks .
There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on to empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress . Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar!
But although their work depend on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman's success depends on careful timing .For example, when he is "blown up" in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion just at the right moment.
Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff a thousand feet high. His parachute failed to open, and he was killed.
In spite of all the risks, this is no longer a profession for men only. Men no longer dress up as women when actresses have to perform some dangerous action. For nowadays there are stuntgirls too! | high3907.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Citizens shared them."
},
"options": [
"Citizens shared them.",
"Tod Bol donated them.",
"US government provided them.",
"The communities bought them."
],
"question": "How do Little Free Libraries get their book... | The sharing economy has grown in recent years to include everything from apartment' sharing to car sharing to community tool sharing. Since 2009, a new form of sharing economy has been emerging in neighborhoods throughout the US and around the world-Little Free Library. The libraries are boxes placed in neighborhoods from which residents can withdraw and deposit books. Little Free Libraries come in all shapes and sizes. Some libraries also have themes, focusing on books for children, adults, or tour guides.
In 2009. Tod Bol built the first Little Free Library as a gift to his mother, who was a devoted reader. When he saw the people of his community gathering around it, exchanging conversation as well as books, he knew he wanted to take his simple idea further. "I think Little Free Libraries open the door to conversations we want to have with each other," Bol said. .
Since then, his idea has become a movement, spreading from state to state and country to country. According to Little FreeLibrary.org, there are now 18,000 0f the little structures around the world, located in each of the 50 US states and 70 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia.
The Internet has helped to spread Little Free Libraries. But an Atlantic article says the little, structures serve as a cure for a world of e-reader downloads . The little wooden boxes are refreshingly physical and human. For many people, the sense of discovery is Little Free Libraries' main appeal. "A girl walking home from school might pick up a graphic novel that gets her excited about reading; a man on his way to the bus stop might find a volume of poetry that changes his outlook on life," says the Atlantic article. "Every book is a potential source of inspiration " | high10186.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "offer some suggestions on how to spend the time after retirement"
},
"options": [
"offer some suggestions on how to spend the time after retirement",
"advise couples to develop their separate hobbies",
"warn couples not to be... | Some couples spend every waking minute together. Others fill their hours with personal hobbies,outside interests and even part-time jobs, just to keep their distance from each other! "There should be private time and couple time," suggests Dr. Stephen Treat at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia."You don't want your latter years to turn into a process where two people unite as one. If you hold too tightly to your partner, it's going to cause resentment and anger. If you're completely separate, you'll both be lonely and disconnected. You need balance. So you have to talk about how you'll achieve that."
The right balance? It's different for every couple. "Having a conversation about time can be difficult,but it's important for both partners to process those feelings out loud," Dr. Treat says. "You should not be accusing and act as a judge--ask the difficult questions, but do it in a loving way. You could say something like, 'How are we going to be as individuals and how are we going to be as a couple?' "
Barbara and Chris Christensen have achieved the balance that works for them. In addition to daily routines that keep them close--including about 10 minutes for a daily check-in and about a half hour of relaxation time--they each maintain separate interests and friendships.
"We have found that we need time apart," Barbara says. "I have a group of women friends that I have known for the last 30 years. We have dinner out once a month. We women also have parties and weekend or weeklong vacations as a group at a beach or somewhere. Chris, a former fighter pilot, has many aviation-oriented groups and friends and also a poker-playing group of our friends. I may be with him during the poker night, but I don't play, and the wives usually watch a chick flick' DVD or something while the poker group has an evening of fun. We have found it important to have separate time as well as together time." | high11298.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Freedom."
},
"options": [
"Money.",
"Freedom.",
"Love.",
"Clothes."
],
"question": "What would children like to get from their parents according to the passage?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer":... | Each of us would like to be trusted by parents, because we all want to get freedom. Parents are more likely to give us our freedom if they trust us. If you want your parents to trust you more, you have to show them through your actions.
Let your parents know what's going on at school and with your friends. If you truly can be trusted, then you have nothing to hide, right? Keep your bedroom door open when you are back. Do not be crazy when they see what you are looking at on the Internet. Invite your friends to your house to meet your parents.
When you do something wrong, it can break trust. Broken trust takes a long time to rebuild.
It's not easy dealing with your parents when you've broken their trust. But, it can be done. It's not talking about groveling and sweet-talking them into trust. I'm talking about getting them to respect you again.
I find it easy to make the mistake of no telling my parents things I've done wrong, hoping they won't find out. There are lots of reasons:
I don't want to get into trouble;
I don't want them to be disappointed or get mad at me;
I don't want to lose their trust;
I don't think they will ever find out.
And the list goes on and on. But they find out somehow, and then you're in hot water. Of course, even if Mom and Dad never find out, you still know about.
Most parents will respect you more for coming to them and telling them yourself. Doing so shows honesty, responsibility and maturity . If you can't tell them face to face, you can try writing a note.
Trust can't be built in a day or even a week, but you can gradually do things to help your parents build trust in you. | high22652.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "can strengthen the relationship between illustrators and publishers"
},
"options": [
"will last five days in all",
"is intended to pick out works for story-books",
"can strengthen the relationship between illustrators and pub... | The aims of the Illustrators Exhibition, staged as part of the Bologna Children's Book Fair, organized by BolognaFiere and held from 23 to 26 December, are to bring illustrators and publishers together and to promote illustrators and their works among publishers.
QUALIFICATIONS
*Individual illustrators or groups of illustrators of any nationality, if they were born before 31st December 1996, whose artwork is intended for use in children's books, are qualified to enter the Exhibition, either directly or through publishing houses or schools.
*Please state in the application form whether you are entering work for the Fiction or Non Category. Illustrators may only enter one category.
`*Artwork previously presented to the Exhibition may not be re-entered.
*The confirmationform must be filled in and a photograph attached, then presented together with illustrations no later than15 October.
SHIPMENT
Entries may be delivered by post, express delivery service or by hand. From abroad, please use the following forms:Form "A" for registered mail or post by air;Form "B" if using an international forwarding agent or airline. To avoid delays, material should not be sent by normal post. Material should be sent "carriage paid", including any customs and delivery costs.
BolognaFiere may not be held responsible for the non-arrival or late arrival of artwork.
All published works must be accompanied by a declaration bearing the ISBN number, publisher's name and address.
REQUIREMENTS
The illustrations (i.e. the size of the sheet)must not exceed the following dimensions:
Fiction: 32*42cm (or 42*32cm) Non-fiction: 50*70cm (70*50cm)
Illustrations in larger formats will not be considered, nor will they be returned by BolognalFiere.
The illustrations must be on paper or flexible board, maximum thickness 2mm. | high12791.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "brighten strangers' day with kind words"
},
"options": [
"share her sad feelings with strangers",
"tell strangers how outstanding she was",
"express her wish to have a bright day",
"brighten strangers' day with kind wor... | When 24-year-old Hannah Brencher moved to New York after college, she was hit by depression and loneliness. One day she felt so lonely that she wanted to reach out to someone. So she put pen to paper and started writing letters--letters to complete strangers.
But these weren't sad letters about how she was feeling. They were happy letters, all about the other person, not her. She would write messages for people to have a "bright day" and tell strangers how outstanding they were, even if they thought no one else had noticed. Brencher began dropping the notes all over New York, in cafes, in library books, in parks and on the subway. It made her feel better, knowing that she might be making somebody's day through just a few short, sweet words. It gave her something to focus on. And so, the website The World Needs More Love Letters was born.
The World Needs More Love Letters is all about writing letters--not emails, but proper, handwritten letters. Not traditional love letters, written to a real beloved, but surprise letters for strangers. They don't necessarily say "I love you", but they are full of kindness--telling people they are remarkable and special and all-around amazing.
Brencher's initiative has now exploded. She has personally written hundreds of letters. Last year, she did a TED talk, in which she talks about a woman whose husband, a soldier, comes back home from Afghanistan and they struggle to reconnect: "So she leaves love letters all over the house as a way to say: 'Come back to me. Find me when you can.'" And then comes another story of a man threatening to kill himself on his Facebook page, only to now be in the land of the living, with many love letters under his pillow.
The World Needs More Love Letters Project works on the idea that _ ". It's about sharing positive energy, restoring confidence and happiness. There are now more than 10,000 people from all over the world joining in to write letters to the lonely and depressed, to basically tell them that everything will be okay. | high8852.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "introduce a modern way to follow the bees to readers"
},
"options": [
"call on people to protect the bees for the environment",
"explain why the bees fly far away in search of flowers",
"introduce a modern way to follow the b... | Tiny transmitters fixed on the backs of the blue-green bees have allowed scientists to follow the insects as they fly for miles in search of rare flowers.
Working in Panama, scientists caught 17 bees of the common species and fixed a 300 milligram radio light onto the back of each. The signals they sent out were used to follow their movements in and around the forest where they lived.
Professor Martin, from Princeton University, US, and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany, said, "By following the radio signals, we discovered that male bees spent most of their time in small centre areas, but could take off and visit areas farther away. One male even crossed over the shipping lanes in the Panama Canal, flying at least 5km, and returned a few days later."
Researchers have struggled to follow the movements of bees before, following bees marked with paint or using radar which doesn't work well in forests.
"Carrying the transmitter could reduce the distance that the bees travel, but even if the flight distances we record are the shortest distances that these bees can fly, they are impressive, long-distance movements," said Dr. Roland Kays, from New York State Museum, a co-author of the research published today in the on-line journal. "This result helps to explain how these bees' pollination can be so rare." Pollination by bees and other insects is the key to the diversity and continued growth of flowers and trees in some forests.
The new study is the first to use radio transmitters to follow bees in a forest. Similar research may now be carried in temperate forests, where bees also play a vital role. | high9594.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "They used it for work and daily life."
},
"options": [
"The man's job was bike racing.",
"It was their only possession.",
"It was a nice Kona 18 speed.",
"They used it for work and daily life."
],
"question": "W... | It was a winter morning, just a couple of weeks before Christmas 2005.While most people were warming up their cars, Trevor, my husband, had to get up early to ride his bike four kilometers away from home to work.On arrival, he parked his bike outside the back door as he usually does.After putting in 10 hours of labor, he returned to find his bike gone.
The bike, a black Kona 18 speed, was our only transport.Trevor used it to get to work, putting in 60-hour weeks to support his young family.And the bike was also used to get groceries , saving us from having to walk long distances from where we live.
I was so sad that someone would steal our bike that I wrote to the newspaper and told them our story.Shortly after that, several people in our area offered to help.One wonderful stranger even bought a bike, then called my husband to pick it up.Once again my husband had a way to get to and from his job.It really is an honor that a complete stranger would go out of their way for someone they have never met before.
People say that a smile can be passed from one person to another, but acts of kindness from strangers are even more so.This experience has had a spreading effect in our lives because it strengthened our faith in humanity as a whole.And it has influenced us to be more mindful of ways we, too, can share with others.No matter how big or how small, an act of kindness shows that someone cares.And the results can be everlasting. | high12949.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel"
},
"options": [
"Stick Dog",
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel",
"Ivy and Bean Make the Rules",
"White Fun Flying"
],
"question": "There are interesting drawings in ... | Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third WheelBy Jeff Kinney
A dance at Greg Heffley's middle school is going to be held, but he can't find someone to go with him. Finally he finds a girl from his class to go with him. That is when The Third Wheel story begins.
The Third Wheel is full of jokes and interesting drawings.
Ivy and Bean Make the RulesBy Annie Barrows
Bean's older sister Jessie goes to a summer camp called Girl Power 4-Ever, but Bean can't join her because she is too young. So Bean and her best friend, Ivy, decide to create their own camp. At Camp Flaming Arrow, Ivy and Bean come up with all the activities and, of course, they make the rules. Their happiness and kindness will make you want to keep reading.
Stick DogBy Tom Watson
Stick Dog is a dog that lives in an empty pipe. He has four dog friends named Poo-Poo, Stripes, Karen and Mutt. When Stick Dog smells some delicious hamburgers, he and his friends decide to steal the food from a human family that is having a picnic in Picas-so Park. Along the way, they face a lot of funny challenges.
White Fur FlyingBy Patricia Maclachlan
Zoo and Alice's mother might just have the coolest job ever. She rescues Great Pyrenees dogs! But dogs aren't the only things that need to be saved. The family's new neighbour, Philfip, doesn't speak, and no one knows why.
White Fur Flying is all about understanding that love can come from both inside and outside. Although it is a little sad, the book is good to read. Kids who love animals and a good story will really like it, too. | high14486.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "decline his request and motivate him"
},
"options": [
"show his concern for him",
"recommend him to save money",
"decline his request and motivate him",
"introduce him a new job"
],
"question": "Abraham Lincoln ... | Dec. 24, 1848
Dear Johnston,
Your request for eighty dollars, I do not think it best to satisfy now. At the various times when I have helped you a little, you have said to me, "We can get along very well again," but in a very short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now this can only happen by some fault in your behavior. What that fault is, I think I know. You are not lazy, and still you are an idler . I doubt whether since I saw you, you have done a good whole day's work, in any other day. You do not very much dislike to work, and still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it.
This habit of uselessly wasting time is the whole difficulty; it is vastly important to you, and still more so to your children, that you should break this habit. It is more important to them, because they have longer to live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it, easier than they can get out after they are in.
You are now in need of some ready money; and what I suggest is, that you shall go to work hard, for somebody who will give you money for it.
Let father and your boys take charge of your things at home-prepare for a crop, and make the crop, and you go to work for the best money wages, or to pay back any debt you owe. And to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now promise you that for every dollar you will, between this and the first of May, get for your own labor, I will then give you one other dollar. By this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me you will get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for your work.
Now if you will do this, you will soon be out of debt, and what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again. But if I should now clear you out, next year you will be just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost give your place in Heaven for $ 70 or $80. Then you value your place in Heaven cheaply, for I am sure you can with the offer I make you get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months' work. You say if I furnish you the money you will deed me the land, and if you don't pay the money back, you will deliver possession-Nonsense! If you can't now live with the land, how will you then live without it? You have always been kind to me, and I do not now mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow my advice, you will find it worth more than eight time eighty dollars to you.
Affectionately
Your brother
A. Lincoln | high15940.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "70"
},
"options": [
"35",
"45",
"50",
"70"
],
"question": "In 1950, the average life span was _",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "t... | How old is "old"? The answer has changed over the years. Two hundred years ago,you were old at 35.At the beginning of the 20 th century,the average life span was 45. In 1950,70-year-olds were really old.Today,a healthy 70-year-old is still thought young.
So,how old is old? The answer is one you've heard many times,from all kinds of people."You are as old(or young)as you feel."Your age simply tells you how many years you have lived.Your body tells you how well you've lived.
"Nobody grows old by living a number of years." wrote a writer."People grow old when they don't have their ideas."
People shouldn't have the wrong ideas about _ Sometimes,older minds can be as bright as young minds.Alice Brophy once said,"It makes me unhappy when people say,'You look young for your age. ' What does that mean?You know you can die old at 30 and live young at 80. " | high1876.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "To put one's whole life on a schedule ."
},
"options": [
"To make an income from selling clocks.",
"To put one's whole life on a schedule .",
"To behave according to the rules of books.",
"To work very quickly in order... | Tom Hanks ranks as one of Hollywood's most popular actors. Moviegoers eagerly anticipate in the opening of his new pictures. If you're a Hank fan, you don't have to wait much longer. Hank's newest film, Cast Away, opens this winter.
Tom Hanks plays Chunk Noland, a FedEx executive who lives by the clock. He carefully plans every minute of both his professional and personal time. But on his way home for the holidays, the small plane he's in crashes in the Pacific Ocean. Only Noland survives. He ends up alone on a tropical island and begins a battle for survival. In the process, his view of success and life itself change dramatically .
This role may be the most physically-challenging of Hank's career. The actor lost 53 pounds for the part. Director Robert Zemeckis shot the first section of the film with Hanks weighing more than 225 pounds. The filming took a break for a year while Hanks lost weight. To take off the pounds, Hanks ate little and exercised a lot.
The movie may surprise some of Hank's fans. It's not an upbeat comedy like Sleepless in Seattle or You're Got Mail. In fact, Hanks spends a large part of the movie not speaking. After all, who is there to talk to when you're alone on an island? | high22134.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "all of the above"
},
"options": [
"there is no air, no water, no life, no scenery",
"the sun and stars shine in the sky",
"temperature breaks rock away",
"all of the above"
],
"question": "The moon is an unfrien... | Science has told us too much about the moon that it is fairly easy to imagine what it would be like to get there. It is certainly not a friendly place. Since there is no air or water, there can be no life of any kind. There is not much variety of scenery either. For mile after mile there are only flat plains of dust with mountains around them. Above, the sun and stars shine in the black sky. If you step out of the mountain shadow, it means moving from the severe cold into intense heat. These extreme temperatures
break rocks away from the surface of the mountains. The moon is also a very silent world, for sound waves can only travel through air. But beyond the broken horizon, you see a friendly sight. Our earth is shining more brightly than the stars. From this distance, it looks like an immense blue, green and brown ball. | high15798.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Humorous."
},
"options": [
"Polite.",
"Foolish.",
"Humorous.",
"Serious."
],
"question": "Which word best describes the language style of the passage?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
"... | A bargain is something offered at a low and advantageous price. A more recent definition is: a bargain is a dirty trick to force money out of the pockets of silly and innocent people.
The cost of producing a new - for example - toothpaste would make 80p the proper price for it, so we will market it at PS1.20. It is not a bad toothpaste, and as people like to try new things it will sell well to start with; but the attraction of _ soon fades, so sales will fall. When that happens we will reduce the price to PS1.15. And we will turn it into a bargain by printing 5p OFF all over it.
Sometimes it is not 5p OFF but 1p OFF. What breathtaking rudeness to advertise 1p OFF your soap or washing powder or whatever! Even the poorest old-age pensioner ought to regard this as an insult , but he doesn't. A bargain must not be missed. People say one has to have washing powder (or whatever) and one might as well buy it a penny cheaper.
The real danger starts when unnecessary things become 'bargains'. Many people just cannot resist bargains. Provided they think they are getting a bargain they will buy clothes they will never wear or furniture they have no space for. Once I heard of a man who bought an electric saw as a bargain and cut off two of his fingers the next day. But he had no regrets: the saw had been truly cheap.
Quite a few people actually believe that they make money on such bargains. A lady once told me: "I've had a lucky day today. I bought a dress for PS120, reduced from PS400; and I bought a beautiful Persian carpet for PS600, reduced from PS900." It will never occur to her that she has actually wasted PS720. She feels as though she had made PS580. She also feels, I am sure, that if she had more time for shopping, she could make a living out of it.
Some people buy in large quantities because it is cheaper. Once a couple bought enough sugar for their lifetime and the lifetime of their children and grandchildren. They thought it a bargain not to be missed. When the sugar arrived they didn't know where to store it - until they realized that their toilet was a very spacious one. So that was where they piled up their sugar. Not only did their guests feel rather strange whenever they were offered sugar to put into their coffee, but the toilet became extremely sticky.
To offer bargains is a commercial trick to make the poor poorer. When greedy fools fall for this trick, it serves them right. | high10838.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "many different meanings"
},
"options": [
"only one meaning",
"no meanings",
"many different meanings",
"the same meaning"
],
"question": "We know that the word \"cool\" has had _",
"question_type": "cloze... | "Cool" is a word with many meanings. Its old meaning is used to expressa temperature that is a little bit cold.As the world has changed, the word has had many different meanings. "Cool" can be used to express feelings of interest in almost anything. When you see a famous car in the street, maybe you will say, "It's cool." You may think, "He's so cool," when you see your favorite footballer. We all maximize the meaning of "cool". You can use it instead of many words such as "new" or "surprising". Here's an interesting story we can use to show the way the word is used.A teacher asked her students to write about the waterfall they had visited.On one student's paper was just the one sentence, "It's so cool. " Maybe he thought it was the best way to show what he saw and felt. But the story also shows a scarcity of words. Without "cool", some people have no words to show the same meaning. So it is quite important to keep some credibility . Can you think of many other words that make your life as colorful as the word "cool"? I can. And I think they are also very cool . | high16285.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "find the position of people alive who are trapped in buildings"
},
"options": [
"take the place of man's rescue jobs",
"find the position of people alive who are trapped in buildings",
"serve as food for people alive who are ... | Everybody hates rats. But in the earthquake capitals of the world - Japan, Los Angeles, Turkey - rats will soon be man's new best friends.
What happens after an earthquake? We send in rescue dogs. Why? Because they can smell people. Dogs save lives. They help rescuers to find living people. But dogs are big and they can't get into small spaces. So now a new research project is using a smaller animal to save lives: the rat.
How does it work? First, the rat is trained to smell people. When this happens, the rat's brain gives a signal .This is sent to a small radio on its back, and then the rescuers follow the radio signals. When rat's brain activity jumps, the rescuers know that someone is alive. The rat has smelled that person.
Although there are already robots which can do this job, rats are better. Christian Linster at Cornell University, New York, says, "Robots' noses don't work well when there are other smells around. Rats are good at that. " Rats can also see in the dark. They are cheaper and quicker to train than dogs, and unlike robots, they don't need electricity!
The "rat project" is not finished, but Julie Ryan of International Rescue Corps in Scotland says, "It would be fantastic. A rat could get into spaces we couldn't get to, and a rat would get out if it wasn't safe." Perhaps for the first time in history, people will be happy to see a rat in a building(but only after an earthquake, of course.) | high20737.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The bridegroom's parents were not that joyful."
},
"options": [
"The bride's mother shared their joy.",
"The bride's father felt uncomfortable about the wedding.",
"The bridegroom's parents were not that joyful.",
"The ... | The wedding took place in a Birmingham hotel. The bride and her father arrived in a new black American sport car. Her father looked nervous and uncomfortable in front of the cameras. The bride wore a silk wedding dress. She smiled nervously at the waiting photographers and went to a room on the first floor where she met her future husband for the very first time.
Carla Germaine and Greg Cordell were the winners of a radio station's competition. The aim of the competition was to find two strangers prepared to marry without having met each other. Miss Germaine, 23, is a model. Mr. Cordell, 27, is a TV salesman. They were among the two hundred people who entered a special "experiment" organized by BMRB radio in Birmingham, England, Greg, and Carla were among eight finalists who were interviewed live on a radio. They took a lie detector test and the station also spoke to their friends and family about their personalities. The competition judges include an astrologer who declared that they were suited.
The couple celebrated their wedding with a wedding breakfast and a party for 100 guests in the evening, but not everyone shared their joy. Miss Germaine's mother looked anxious throughout the wedding and Mr. Cordell's parents are reported to be less than delighted.
Organizations, including the marriage guidance Service Relate, have criticized the marriage. As one person put it, "We have enough problems getting young people to take marriage seriously without this. Marriage should always be about love."
The couple are now on a Caribbean honeymoon followed by journalists. Their other prizes include a year's free use of a wonderful apartment in the center of Birmingham, and a car. But will it last? | high14492.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "They have no interest in anything"
},
"options": [
"They have to continue to stay at office after work",
"They feel more and more difficult to think up a good idea",
"They have no interest in anything",
"They have littl... | According to a report by the China News Weekly,
They pursue many of their activities in the office building, eating, doing exercise, resting, playing games or even dating.
In large cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing, where economy is developing at a fast speed, office workers face an increasing work pressure day by day and many of them have begun to make office their home.
As the young generation in society, most of them are aged between 25 and 45. In the eyes of outsiders, they enjoy a comfortable life: they lead the fashion trend in the city and earn a high salary; they enjoy a flexible working schedule and a very good working environment; having a good education background, they don't have to worry that one day they will lose their jobs.
However, only the white collars themselves know what others see as a good life is in fact a boring life. They often work extra hours, suffer from loss of creative ability and have little time to make friends. When they go off from work late at night, somethimes they might think of asking for a leave the next day and having a holiday somewhere. However, when a new day begins, they find everything back to normal and themselves pushed by new tasks.
In fact, even if they don't work extra hours in the office, they have no place to go. Many of the young people are fresh from college, or have come to work in large cities from their hometowns. As newcomers, they haven't established a social network. They have few friends to go dating. Meanwhile, many of them face a great pressure for earning money to buy a house or a car. If they cannot afford to buy these, they still have to work to pay for high apartment rents and communication fares. | high15954.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "track and field"
},
"options": [
"basketball",
"football",
"track and field",
"tennis"
],
"question": "Liu Xiang is famous as a _ player.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | Great young stars make Chinese people proud, like Yao Ming in the NBA, and Liu Xiang in track and field . Now maybe we can add one more name: Ding Junhui.
The teenage player has become China's hero at snooker .
Two days after his 18th birthday, Ding reached the top of the 2005 World Snooker China Open on Sunday. He's the second youngest ever to win a world ranking title !
In the final, Ding beat the world champion 9:5. He came from far behind to win.
"I didn't feel nervous because I just looked at it as a practice match," said Ding. "I was able to learn from the other players."
Ding doesn't talk much. Besides snooker, he hasn't many outside interests. He says he doesn't want anyone to beat him at snooker.
He has been in Britain since he was 16. He can play with the world's best players there. He practices many hours a day.
"Every game is so different for me. I have to think a lot before I win. That's why I enjoy snooker so much," he said. | high22120.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "she could have the money of her own"
},
"options": [
"she liked to go there",
"she wanted to buy nice clothes",
"she could have the money of her own",
"she wanted to buy some eggs"
],
"question": "Molly was happ... | Molly was a peasant girl. Her parents did not have much money and Molly did not have many nice clothes.
One day Molly's father said to her, "Molly, take this pot of milk to market and sell it. You may keep the money."
Molly was very happy. She put the pot of milk on her head and started her journey to market. While she was walking alone she began to think. "I will get quite a lot of money for this milk," she thought. "What will I do with the money? I will buy a lot of eggs. I will take the eggs home with me. One of our hens will sit on them. Then there will be lots of little chickens. I will not sell the chickens. They will grow into hens. Then there will be more eggs. And these eggs will give me still more chickens. Soon I will have hundreds of hens. Then I will sell them all. They will bring me a lot of money. I will be rich. I will buy lots of new clothes. I will always wear nice clothes. Then a rich man will marry me. We will have a beautiful house, a big car and nice children..."
Molly was very happy. She jumped into the air. The pot of milk fell from her head onto the road. And that was the end of all her dreams.
In English there is a proverb. It says: Do not count your chickens before they are hatched . | high1862.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "She wanted to find a clear aim for her higher education."
},
"options": [
"She wanted to make enough money for her higher education.",
"She wanted to change her personality before going to university.",
"She wanted to get som... | I could fill a book with embarrassing situations I've been in over the years. These moments used to haunt me and my face would turn as red as a big tomato.
It wasn't until I was in my late teens, working at a hotel that things changed for me. I took a year off in between high school and university, because like many people my age I had ly no idea what I wanted to do, and I didn't want to waste $ 5,000 on a university tuition .
I tried to keep silent at my new job, avoiding the other employees. All of them didn't care about me except for one girl. She kept at me, telling me stories of her weekend and how she loved snowboarding, something I was interested in as well. She was the type of warm personality where people were immediately drawn to her, and soon enough I found myself looking forward to our coffee breaks and snowboarding after work. The more I hung out with her, the more I realized that this girl, who seemed to have it all together, was in fact just like me, except for one major difference. She laughed at herself.
One night after work we were snowboarding and she fell down carelessly resulting in a mouth full of snow. Instead of getting embarrassed she jumped right up laughing loudly at how ridiculous she must have looked. As time went on, her warm personality began to wear off on me and soon enough I had a mini-breakthrough. I'm not saying that I no longer find myself in embarrassing situations; I've just learned how to handle them differently. Just a few months ago I walked out of a bathroom unaware of the fact that my skirt was tucked in my underwear. But instead of rushing back to the bathroom I calmly pulled it out and continued on my way shaking my head and smiling. | high22646.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Pose."
},
"options": [
"Closet.",
"Pose.",
"Stylitics.",
"Walk in My Closet."
],
"question": "Which of the following is designed for people who often hesitate when buying clothes?",
"question_type": null
}... | Below are the best four applications(,app) to help you organize your closet--and trust us, there really is something for everyone.
Closet
If you're looking to create your own digital closet, then this app is for you. Closet helps you categorize your outfits and keeps you uptodate on what you've already worn.
PROS : Very simple and userfriendly. Great for helping you look at your own closet without feeling overwhelmed.
CONS : No social interactions.
Pose
The app makes things insanely easy for the indecisive shopper. So if you're debating whether or not to buy something, you can get a second opinion. The app also gathers photos of items that you wish to buy and items you already own, so they are all in one spot.
PROS: When you sign up, you fill out a short survey that helps identify your personal style and subsequently finds people with similar taste that you can follow for inspiration.
CONS: The phone application is more visually appealing than the actual website.
Stylitics
It allows you to categorize your clothes by color, brand, pattern and more. And if you're wondering whether you have already worn an outfit, simply check your style calendar.
PROS: The app comes with a "Today in Fashion History" tip so you can brush up on your style knowledge.
CONS: You can't view your style profile using the app yet unless you log on to the site.
Walk in My Closet
If you're browsing the Internet, looking for something to buy, you can instantly add the item to your virtual closet so that your wish list items are all in one place. Besides sharing your closet with other users, you can also sell items you no longer want.
PROS: The "Moodboard" is a great way to gather inspiring looks that you like from other users and fashion experts.
CONS: The luggage feature, which allows you to prepare outfits for an upcoming trip, is only available on the site; it would be useful if it were on the app. | high12785.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "To improve children's reading."
},
"options": [
"To improve children's reading.",
"To support John Hersey.",
"To develop educational system.",
"To make readers laugh."
],
"question": "What is Dr. Seuss's purpose... | The Cat in the Hat takes place on a cold, wet day with two kids awaiting their mother's return. Instead of their mother, a strange cat enters the house. He begins balancing a fish bowl on the tip of his umbrella while balancing himself on a beach ball! The two kids and their pet fish worry and worry. But readers around the world laughed and laughed over the Cat and the Hat.
Theodore Seuss Geisel, known to fans as Dr. Seuss, wrote the book. It was first published in 1957. Geisel liked to have fun and make people laugh, but he had a serious reason for writing the book. In 1954, a Life magazine article argued that kids couldn't read because the books used to teach them how to read were too boring. John Hersey, the Pulitzer-prize winning author of the article, suggested Geisel write a story that "first graders wouldn't be able to put down".
To write the book, Geisel had to have a good knowledge of a beginning reader's word list. Geisel says that he came up with the title by looking for the first two words on the list that rhymed . And so The Cat in the Hat was born! But it wasn't an easy book to write. It took Geisel one and a half years to complete.
To celebrate The Cat in the Hat's birthday, Random House, the book's publisher, created Project 236. The number 236 represents the number of words Geisel used to write the book. As a part of Project 236, there will be a nationwide read-aloud of The Cat in the Hat at 2:36 on March 2, Dr. Seuss's birthday. | high8846.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "do not really help civilization forward"
},
"options": [
"only appear glorious in history books",
"are greater than any other people",
"are not as great as described in history books",
"do not really help civilization f... | Many of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in history books are great conquerors and generals and soldiers, whereas the people who really helped civilization forward are often never mentioned at all.
We do not know who first set a broken leg, or launched a seaworthy boat, or calculated the length of the year; but we know all about the killers and destroyers. People think a great deal of them, so much so that on all the highest pillars in the great cities of the world you will find the figure of a conqueror or a general or a soldier. And I think most people believe that the greatest countries are those that have beaten in battle the greatest number of other countries and ruled over them as conquerors.
It is just possible they are, but they are not the most civilized. Animals fight; so do savages; hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which an animal or a savage is good, but it is not to be civilized. Even being good at getting other people to fight for you and telling them how to do it most efficiently--this, after all, is what conquerors and generals have done--is not being civilized. People fight to settle quarrels. Fighting means killing, and civilized people ought to be able to find some way of setting their disputes other than by seeing which side can kill off the greater number of the other side, and then saying that that side which has killed most has won. And not only has it won, but because it has won, it had been in the right. For that is what going to war means; it means saying that might is right. | high448.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "he was old and weak"
},
"options": [
"his son and daughter-in-law didn't like him",
"there wasn't enough food for him",
"life was hard for the poor family",
"he was old and weak"
],
"question": "Eating was diffi... | An old man lived with his family. The family would eat together nightly at the dinner table. But the elderly grandfather's shaky hands and failing sight made eating rather difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon, dropping to the floor. When he grasped his glass of milk, it often spilled clumsily at the tablecloth.
With this happening almost every night, the son and daughter-in-law became annoyed with the mess.
"We must do something about grandfather," said the son.
"I've had enough of his milk spilling, noisy eating and food on the floor," the daughter-in-law agreed.
So the couple set a small table at the corner.
There, grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed their dinner at the dinner table. Since grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in wooden bowls. Sometimes when the family looked in grandfather's direction, he had tears in his eyes as he ate alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp warnings when he dropped a fork or spilled food. The four-year-old watched it all in silence.
One evening, before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood pieces on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, "What are you making?" Just as sweetly, the boy replied, "Oh, I'm making a little bowl for you and mama to eat your food from when I grow up." The four-year-old smiled and went back to work.
These words so struck the parents that they were speechless. Then tears streamed down their cheeks. Though no words were spoken, both knew what must be done. | high24237.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "regretful"
},
"options": [
"disappointed",
"satisfied",
"regretful",
"relieved"
],
"question": "Not having built anything together with his first son, the author felt _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questio... | While growing up in Jersey in the 1960s, I always seemed to be building things. One summer I build a model car with my father. It was a simple affair, and as a capable 12-year-old, I could have easily done it alone. But my father spent the time together with me, and before I knew it, we were both out in the garage, working away.
I wish I had thought about this when I was raising my first son. We never built anything together. Oh, we had a lot of fun, for sure. But we never undertook a common work of our hands.
A few years ago, when Anton, my second son, asked if we could build a treehouse in the big silver maple behind our house, his suggestion immediately reminded me of the memory. Yes, I thought. Of course. My second chance. And so, one day while Anton was in school and I had some free time, I bought some wood. But one thing led to another and we got only as far as the ladder and a simple platform. His vision for the treehouse was not fulfilled that summer, and the three following summers saw me involved with other things. In the middle of our quiet supper last night, I looked at Anton, a high school student now and asked, "Anton, are you still interested in finishing the treehouse?" "Sure, Dad," he said, and within that "sure" was contained, perhaps, his own self-awareness of a childhood to which he was still attached.
We continued where we had left off. I was surprised at how good a worker Anton had become. Where four years ago all he could really do with confidence was hammer nails, now he was measuring and cutting. In one moment that took my breath away, he attempted to center a support beam while looking to me for direction. "Is it centered, Dad?" I waved him a little to the right. Then a little more. Then I said. "Perfect."
And it was perfect. As was this second chance, I finally realized that my father hadn't had to help me build that model car in 1966. He wanted to. And that made all the difference. | high9580.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "turn to others"
},
"options": [
"turn to others",
"work even harder",
"feel more frustrated",
"learn from upper-class people"
],
"question": "According to the passage, when lower-class people meet problems, they... | That Upper class people generally have more educational opportunities, greater financial security, and better jobs than people from lower social classes, but that doesn't mean they're more skilled at everything. A new study finds, surprisingly, that lower class people are better at reading the emotions of others.
The researchers were inspired by observing that, for lower class people, success depends more on how much they can rely on other individuals. For example, if you can't afford to buy support services, you have to rely on your neighbors or relatives to watch the kids while you're busy.
One experiment researched on volunteers who worked at a university: some had graduated from college and others had not. Researchers used the educational level as an indicator for social classes. The volunteers did a test of emotion perception , in which they were instructed to look at pictures of faces and indicate which emotions each face was displaying. People with more education performed worse on the task than people with less education.
In another study, university students who were of higher social status had a more difficult time accurately reading the emotions of a stranger.
These results suggest that people of upper-class status aren't very good at recognizing the emotions other people are feeling. This is because they remember their upper status and they think they can solve their problems without relying on others.
In the third experiment, people were made to feel that they were at a lower social class than they actually were, and they got better at reading emotions.
"The differences between upper-class people and lower-class people are not something ingrained ," Kraus says. "It's the cultural environment leading to them." This work helps show that the traditional image of the classes is wrong. "It's not true that a lower-class person, no matter what kind of person, is going to be less intelligent than an upper-class person. It's all about the social environment the person lives in, and the specific challenges the person faces. If you can change the environment even temporarily, social class differences in lots of behaviors can be removed." | high3913.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "The Cambridge Film Festival."
},
"options": [
"The Cambridge Film Festival.",
"Meetings with filmmakers.",
"The preview screening.",
"Monthly premieres."
],
"question": "Which of the following is the most famous... | Student Membership-----Cambridge Arts Cinema
Cambridge Arts Cinema is one of the art houses in Britain and home of the internationally celebrated Cambridge Film Festival. Since 1947 generations of students have discovered the wealth of world cinema. Now you too can make most of it and save money.
At the Arts you can...
* choose from up to 40 films a month
* see up to 8 premieres each month
* catch screenings when you like--we open early and close late
* increase your knowledge of film with our special events--each year we run seasons on various types of films and directors
* meet the filmmakers
What _ you _ get _ as _ a _ member:
* invitation to a preview screening
* PS1 off the standard prices(PS4.50/PS3.50)for any screening including special events
* your own copy of each cinema programme mailed free of charge
* a card with your own membership number
* 50% off membership to the Cambridge Darkroom Gallery
So what are you waiting for?Just fill in the form and return it either in person or by post to:
Box Office
Cambridge Arts Cinema
8 Market Passage
Cambridge CN2 3PF
It costs PS15 to join and your card can be used from 1st October 2011 to 30th June 2012.
Cinema Information:01223 572929 (24hr)
Box Office:01223 50444448. | high20051.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "have high blood pressure"
},
"options": [
"need to go on a diet",
"have high blood pressure",
"prefer food free of salt",
"show interest in tasty food"
],
"question": "The electric fork may benefit people who .... | Do you know electricity can change the way we taste food?Proving this fact is a revolutionary electric fork designed by Japanese researchers that can make any dish taste salty.
According to Hiromi Nakamura,a Post Doc Research Fellow at Tokyo's Meiji University,the technology can be very useful for people on special diets.Patients with high blood pressure,for instance,can easily go on a low-salt diet and still enjoy delicious food.And with the fork,there's ly no risk of over-salting their food.Luckily,the voltage is so small that there is no risk of electrocution either.
The idea of adding electricity to food was first exposed as an experiment at the Computer
Human Interaction Conference in Austin,Texas,in 2012.Nakamura and her team connected a wire to a 9-volt battery and passed it through a straw placed in a cup of sweet lemonade.Volunteers reported that the charged lemonade tasted'blander',because the electricity created the taste of salt.
Nakamura has improved the technology to be able to transfer an electric charge to food through forks and chopsticks."The metallic part of the fork is one electrode ,and the handle is the other,"Nakamura explained."When you take a piece of food with the fork and put it in your mouth,you connect the circuit.When you remove the fork from your mouth,you disconnect the circuit.So it actually works as a switch."
Simon Klose,host of food program Munchies,who recently visited Nakamura to try out the
fork himself,called this form of'food hacking'one of the greatest eating experiences he'd ever had.
"When I first heard of electric food,it sounded scary,"he said.He later continued to use a charged fork to eat pieces of fried chicken,and found that the saltiness considerably increased as the electricity was connected.
Nakamura has been eating'electric'food for the past three to four years in an attempt to
understand it better."For me,'food hacking'is about strengthening or weakening real food,"she said."It may seem like we're cooking but we're actually working on the human senses." | high19808.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Tim's father was curious to know about the author"
},
"options": [
"the author had never met her parents-in-law before dinning together",
"Tim and the author took the bus to get to the restaurant",
"Tim's father was curious t... | I was 18 when Tim and I began to date. Shy and quiet, I'd met his parents once before but hadn't ventured to say more than " Hello". This particular evening, however, we were taking them out to dinner for their anniversary and I wanted to make a good impression.
Tim and his parents arrived and I was out the door in a flash. My good impression began with " punctual". I sat in the backseat beside Tim nervously watching his father's eyes glance into the rearview mirror to examine me.
Tim and his parents had already decided on their favorite Mexican restaurant and that was fine with me; the dim lighting would hide the rising flush of my cheeks, and if anyone noticed, I could blame it on the peppers. With proper table manners I managed to survive halfway through dinner without making any unforgivable mistakes. However, in the midst of conversation I reached for my iced tea, raised the glass to my lips and very quickly discovered I had picked up the wrong glass.
I quickly lowered the glass and set it back but it was too late; I had burnt my eyebrows, the hair in my nose, and curl over my forehead! I looked up slowly, praying no one had seen me, but all eyes at the table had seen and each face stared at me in shocked silence. Excusing myself, I ran to the restroom.
I would have hidden there forever but I'd barely gotten in the door when Tim's mother arrived. " Ah, honey," she said, holding out her arms to me. " Everything will be just fine."
Tim and I eventually married. We had a small ceremony and a family reception afterwards held at the very restaurant where this incident occurred. This time, however, I didn't drink any candles... only a Margarita ; they were served in different glasses. | high10192.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "fruits"
},
"options": [
"fruits",
"juice",
"calories",
"minerals"
],
"question": "According to the passage, you'd better have _ to help prevent heart disease.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
... | Fruit or juice, which is nutritionally superior? This is almost the same as the age-old question: The chicken or the egg, which came first?
Usually, juicers remove the juice and some pulp from fruits and/or vegetables.It takes a lot of fruit to make a container of juice.We do get all of the vitamins, minerals, beneficial plant chemicals and carbohydrates in juice out of a whole fruit.But we do not get much of the fiber, the part that aids our digestive process, fills us up, and may help protect us against heart diseases and certain cancers.
However, you may be surprised to discover that some juices actually contain more necessary nutrients .For example, apples are not a good source of vitamin C, but many types of apple juice are fortified with vitamin C.
Juice has more calories than fresh fruit due to added sugar and less fiber.If calories are your primary concern, choose fresh fruit over juice and drink water if you are thirsty.We do not feel as filled up from juice because it does not contain any fiber.For many people, drinking a caloric beverage , such as juice, is not as satisfying as eating the same amount of calories in food.For those of us who need to increase caloric intake (such as athletes, children, or teens) juice is a GREAT choice.
Kids love the taste of pure fruit juice, and parents love it because it is a healthy source of nutrients.But avoid junk fruit beverages which are mistaken for juice blends that contain various fruits like grape, apple and pear.These juices do not have the natural levels of vital nutrients that 100 percent pure juices like orange juice provide. | high17825.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Call your teacher or your classmate to find out what assignments were given."
},
"options": [
"Give an excuse for missing the assignments.",
"Tell the teacher you can't come to school or do the assignments.",
"Ask your teache... | There is no excuse for not doing yourassignments . If you can't come to school, you should call your teacher or your classmate and ask about homework. It is yourresponsibility to find out what homework you have missed. It is not the teacher's job to remind you of the missed assignments.
You must not be absent on a test day. If you are seriously ill, call and let the teacher know you will not be there for the test. If your teacher allows amake-up test ,you should take the test within one or two days after you return to class. Serious illness is the only reason for missing a test.
Be on time! It is impolite to be late. Also, it bothers other students. If you must come in late, be sure to do it quietly. Have your books and papers out of your bag before you come into the room. Then go to your seat and sit down quietly. In the USA, it is not necessary to knock before you enter the classroom. Most teachers will give you a low grade if you are often late.
In America, you should call your teacher by his or her last name instead of " teacher". Also you should use Mr, Miss, Ms or Mrs before the last name ( such as Mrs Smith or Mr Jones). This is polite. The teacher will tell you the title that he or she likes. It is impolite in the USA to eat, drink or chew gum during class. Don't do these until the break. Also, removing your shoes in the classroom is not polite. | high11267.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "missed Father though he had passed away"
},
"options": [
"knew her last day was coming on Aug.30",
"kept everything of her father's home",
"missed Father though he had passed away",
"remained a daily presence in his lif... | After my dad died on Aug.30, 2001, my mother made sure we marked each anniversary. At first, my brothers and sister and I would travel hours to get home, but eventually we got to the point where just one or two of us would make it back to go to Mass with her and spend the day together.
The great love of her life, the man who broke up with her right before her college graduation, only to return two years later claiming he'd traveled the world and hadn't found anyone to compare with her, remained a daily presence in her life. She spoke about him so often and kept his memory so alive that people were sometimes surprised to learn that he was gone. She took over the garden where he'd planted and made it her own.
When the 10th anniversary of his death approached, my mom began talking about it and planning for it weeks in advance. The date on her kitchen calendar was circled and marked R.I.P. (Rest in Peace). Of course she wanted all of us there and settled the dates for our coming back.
On Monday -- the day before the anniversary -- she went to morning Mass and walked downtown for lunch with friends, and later told my sister on the phone that she felt Dad still so close that as she was walking back home, she heard someone yell and thought, "Oh, there's Dick."
That evening she went out to water flowers, just as my father, 10 years before, had gone out to the garden to pick vegetables before he died. A neighbor heard the tin watering can strike the ground as she fell and hit her head. My mother died within hours, on Aug.30, 2011, the 10thanniversary. She needed to mark that anniversary,
and my dad had waited long enough. | high16508.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "$140,458"
},
"options": [
"$222,458",
"$218,458",
"$140,458",
"$82,000"
],
"question": "According to the passage the cost of raising a child to the age of 21 ten years ago was _ .",
"question_type": "cloz... | The cost of raising a child has hit an all-time high, according to a new report, putting pressure on families already dealing with cuts to child benefit.
Figures from the insurance company LV's annual Cost of a Child Report show that the cost of bringing a child up to the age of 21 has reached $222, 458 -- more than $4,000 higher than last year and up$82,000 on ten years ago. The company estimates that this is set to reach $350,000 by 2023 if costs continue to increase at the same rate.
The report will be a further blow for hard-working families as cash-strapped parents continue to struggle with rising household bills, wage freezes and cuts to child benefit. The right to receive the payments, worth $20.30 a week for the first child and $13.40 further children, was removed earlier this month from households with one earner on a salary of more than $60,000 and reduced for families where one member is paid more than $50,000.
The research published today shows costs have risen in all areas over the last decade, except for clothing, with education seeing the biggest increase. As a result, more than three-quarters of parents have been forced to make ends meet. According to LV, more than four in ten are reining in spending on luxuries such as holidays, a third are also cutting back how much they spend on essentials such as food.
Education remains the biggest expense for parents. The cost of education, including uniforms, after school clubs and university costs, has shot up from $32,593 to $72,832 per child in the last ten years.
Childcare costs have also rocketed, up from $39,613 in 2003 to $63,738 today. | high17616.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The writer preferred a peaceful trip circumstance."
},
"options": [
"The stranger was lost in thoughts.",
"The writer preferred a peaceful trip circumstance.",
"The stranger seemed a bit abnormal that day.",
"The writer... | My day started just like all the other days for the past 15 years where I get up, make some coffee, shower, get dressed and leave for the train station at exactly 7:35 A.M. to arrive at work by 8:30. While on the train I would always choose a seat away from the crowd so I can read the newspaper in peace and quiet. At work I am always being flooded with questions from coworkers, suppliers, telephone and then those dread meetings, so the last thing I need is some stranger to sit beside me and make small talk.
I don't know why but for some reason when I got on the train today it was unusually full, something I don't recall ever happening in the past. With hesitation I sat down in the only seat available beside a middle-aged man that had his head down and seemed to be lost in his thoughts. I was glad that he didn't notice when I sat next to him as he just continued to look down towards the floor.
Shortly after the train left for my 30-minute ride downtown I found myself wondering what this man was thinking about. What could be so important that he didn't even see me sit next to him? I tried to forget about it and started to read my paper. However, for some strange reason this "inner voice" kept urging me to talk to this man. I tried to ignore the "voice" as there was no way I was starting a conversation with a complete stranger. www.ks5u.com
As you probably guessed I eventually broke down and came up with an excuse to ask him a question. When he raised his head and turned his eyes towards me I could see that he must have been really upset as he had red eyes and still had some tears rolling down the side of his face despite his weak attempt to wipe them away. I can't describe the sadness I felt seeing someone in so much pain.
We talked for about 20 minutes and in the end he seemed to be doing better. As we were leaving the train he thanked me again and again for being an angel by taking the time to talk. I never did find out what was making his heart so heavy with pain but was glad I listened to the "voice" that day.
Several weeks had passed when I noticed an envelope on my desk after returning from lunch. It was not addressed to anyone and only had the word "Angel" written on it. My receptionist attached a note saying a gentleman dropped it off saying he did not know my name but had described me well enough that the receptionist knew it was for me.
When I read the note inside the envelope I was so filled with emotions that I couldn't contain myself. It was a letter from the man I met on the train thanking me again for talking to him and saving his life that day. Apparently he had some very hurtful personal problems that were so challenging that he was planning to take his life that day. In his letter he went on to explain that he was a religious person and in desperation screamed out to God that if God really cared about him he would send someone to prevent him from taking his life. In his eyes I was that someone, that Angel sent by God.
Not being a religious person myself I don't know what that "voice" was that made me take a chance and talk to a stranger but I do know that it made a difference in someone's life that day. So the next time you feel desired for no apparent reason to talk to a friend, , neighbor or even a complete stranger please remember my story, you just may make a difference in someone's life when you listen to your inner voice. | high18525.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Can connect heart to heart"
},
"options": [
"can make children calm down",
"Can connect heart to heart",
"Is difficult for pre-school students",
"Is a good means to find a job"
],
"question": "The author thinks ... | As a music teacher for twenty-seven years, I have always known that music touches the soul. It can break through all kinds of barriers to reach students in a very special way. It can be the means for each child to find their light.
A few years ago, I was blessed with the opportunity to teach pre-school students one afternoon a week. One of my most memorable students was Vanessa. She was five years old, had difficulty walking, and could not speak. We mostly sat on the floor for our music lessons and Vanessa liked to sit on my lap. One of her favorite songs was John the Rabbit. It was a call and response song where I sang the call and the students clapped two times while singing the repeating phrase, "Oh, yes!" Vanessa liked to put her hands together with mine and clap with me. We performed that song during every class, Vanessa and I clapping together. She never said or sang a word.
One day late in the school year, when the song was finished, Vanessa turned around, looked me in the eye, clapped her tiny hands two times and said the words "Oh, yes!" I opened my mouth and could not speak. Through music, we had made a connection.
Several years later, I came across Vanessa on the street in town. I stopped my car and waved to say hello. She waved back with a big smile on her face and then clapped her hands two times, mimicking the song we had performed in our music class. This precious little girl, through her connection with music, left an impression on me that will last forever.
Every child has the ability to learn and grow. It is up to us educators to discover the way to reach each and every one of our students. We all must find each child's light. | high1137.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "it makes use of the Internet"
},
"options": [
"it is produced only by and for students",
"it makes use of the Internet",
"it can be used in any field",
"it calls for a little technology knowledge"
],
"question":... | Podcasting is like radio broadcasting, except that it uses the Internet. Anyone with a computer and a microphone can record a show about any subject. Anyone with a computer and an MP3 player can download the podcasts and listen.
Podcasting does require some technical knowledge, but not very much.
Many education-related podcasts are aimed at college students. But a growing number is created for, and by, students in middle school and high school.
At mountain View Alternative High School in prefix = st1 /Centreville,Virginia, the students have spent several weeks preparing for their project. They have written their stories. And they have recorded music and other sound to use in their podcasts. Next, they bring together the different elements on a computer.
Their teachers help by offering comments and suggestions. The students have made decisions about how to present their information. They have decided how it will be read, and how other sound will be used.
Some students decide to read their story themselves. Others choose to create a different effect by having someone else read parts of _ .
Through voices, music and sound effects, the students are able to create something deeply personal.
With podcasting, students are using their skills in writing, reading and public speaking. At the same time, they are learning several new skills. They learn to work with the computer programs that are used for podcasting. They also gain experience in communications, broadcasting and problem-solving.
Podcasts are being used in English classes and social studies, as well as foreign language classes. Being able to listen to recordings of their own voices helps students to hear mistakes.
There are tens of thousands of podcasts on the Internet. They can be found on almost any subject, from current events of financial planning and poetry. People are now recording their thoughts on just about everything. | high22875.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "tell readers about blogs"
},
"options": [
"introduce an Internet computer Web site called \"blog\"",
"introduce a short way of saying Web log",
"tell readers about blogs",
"tell readers how to write blogs"
],
"q... | A "blogger" is a person who writes on an Internet computer Web site called a "blog". The word "blog" is a short way of saying Web log, or personal Web site. Anyone can start a blog, and they can write about anything they like.
There are millions of blogs on the Internet today. They provide news, information and ideas in many people who read them. They contain links to other Web sites. And they provide a place for people to write about their ideas and react to the ideas of others.
A research company called Perscus has studied more than 300 Web logs. It says that blogs are most popular with teenage girls. They use them to let their friends know what is happening in their lives. The study also says that more than 100,000 bloggers stopped taking part in the activity after a year.
However, some people develop serious blogs to present political and other ideas. For example, the Republican and Democratic parties in the southern state of Kentucky recently started their own blogs. And American companies are beginning to use blogs to advertise their products.
At the same time, some long-standing blogs have ended last week, blogging leader Dave Winer closed his free blog service weblogs. com. He says the site became too costly to continue. He started the blog four years ago. And thousands of people had written on it. They are now upset because they did not know that the site was closing.
One blog that is still going strong is called Rebecca's Pocket. Rebecca Blood created the Website in 1999. She wrote about the history of blogs on the site. That article led to a book called "The Weblog Handbook". It has been translated into four languages so far.
Ms. Blood says Rebecca's Pocket gets about 30,000 visitors a month. She writes about anything and everything--politics, culture and movies. She recently provided medical advice. And she wrote about how to prevent people from stealing money from on-line bank accounts. | high6658.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "how brilliant the physician's skill is"
},
"options": [
"how weak the bodies of her family",
"how hard it is to be a doctor",
"how brilliant the physician's skill is",
"how easy it is to deal with such problems"
],
... | Connecting with Patients
Dr. Paris often treats several generations of a family over many years. "He's seen us through two births, one operation, multiple earaches, a broken wrist and a recovery from a serious traffic crash," says Jill Farrow, a 43-year-old lawyer whose first visit to Dr. Paris was as a teenager. During the birth of her younger son, Farrow began bleeding badly. Dr. Paris managed to solve the problem in a delicate procedure. "Twenty years ago, she probably would have died," he says. Today, when he performs school sports physical examinations for the Farrow boys, 10 and 11, he is always reminded that lives are changed forever by doctors just doing their jobs.
To be a mix of country doc and somewhat adventurer, the 55-year-old family physician moved to Hailey after completing his residency . He hoped to practice medicine there and ski at nearby Sun Valley. Unfortunately, the only job opening was for an emergency-room doctor in Missoula, Montana, 300 miles away. Dr. Paris took it. "I'd ski all day and then drive all night to be in Missoula for a 48-hour shift," he recalls. "I'm lucky to be alive." Knowing he couldn't keep up with his eight-hour commute , he began taking flying lessons.
In 1981, Dr. Paris joined a small medical practice in Hailey, a former mining town with a population at the time of 2,109. As Hailey grew in the shadow of Sun Valley's booming popularity, Dr. Paris's own practice expanded to seven physicians, including his wife, Kathryn Woods, who is also a family doctor. They met in 1986 at a certification exam in Denver when, in a room full of men in stodgy suits, Woods arrived wearing a Lycra biking outfit and carrying the front wheel of her bicycle (which she couldn't lock up outside). Dr. Paris asked her out on the spot. In 1989, they married. | high7546.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Internet May Cause Depression"
},
"options": [
"Internet May Cause Depression",
"The Danger of Internet",
"Communication with Others by Internet",
"Puzzled by the Results"
],
"question": "The best title of the p... | Internet use appears to cause a drop in psychological health, according to a research at Carnegie Mellon University.
Even people who spent just a few hours a week on the Internet experienced more depression and loneliness than those who used Internet less frequently, the two-year study showed. And it wasn't that people who were already feeling bad spent more time on the Internet, but that using the Net actually appeared to cause the bad feeling.
Researchers are puzzled by the results, which were completely the opposite to their experiences. They expected that the Net would prove socially healthier than television, since the Net allows users to choose the information and to communicate with others.
The fact that Internet use reduces time available for family and friends may explain the drop-in well-being, researchers supposed. Faceless, bodiless "virtual" communication may be less psychologically satisfying than actual conversation, and the relationships formed through it may be shallower. Another possibility is that knowing the wider world via the Net makes users less satisfied with their lives.
"But it's important to remember this is not about the technology; it's about how it is used," says psychologist Christine Riley of Intel, one of the study founders. "It really points to the need for considering social factors in terms of how you design applications and services for technology." | high15001.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Blue Monday."
},
"options": [
"A Happy Monday.",
"Blue Monday.",
"New Year's Resolutions.",
"A Sad Christmas."
],
"question": "What's the best title of the passage?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answ... | Psychologists in Britain have said that the last full week of January is the most depressing time of year, and labelled next Monday 'Blue Monday'. Blue is a slang way of saying unhappy.
Mondays are generally seen as the worst day of the week because people feel grumpy and tired at having to go back to work after a weekend with a different sleep pattern.
There are various reasons why more people feel depressed at this time of year. Many people have unpaid credit card bills for the Christmas presents they bought, and pay day is often not until the end of the month.
As the party season is over, people feel stressed because they have to go back to real life - work and commuting; and they may be unhappy with their body image after bingeing on booze, chocolates, and other food at Christmas-time.
People may have already failed in their New Year's resolutions, such as giving up smoking. The bad weather in January can also contribute to people feeling fed up.
Some companies are taking this quite seriously and offering counselling for any staff who are feeling depressed. They hope that helping people as soon as there are signs of depression will avoid absenteeism . Evidence shows that unreasonable managers who contribute to their staff feeling fed up at this time can expect an uncooperative workforce.
However, it's not all bad! Many people feel optimistic at this time, that things can only get better. Psychologists offer suggestions of how to combat feeling blue. These include spending 15 minutes doing a 'gratitude exercise' thinking about and writing down what you are grateful for, such as health, family, friends and so on.
Taking up a new hobby, doing some exercise, going to bed earlier, eating a healthy breakfast, and listening to some uplifting music, are all recommended as ways to feel more cheerful.
To avoid feeling blue next January, experts say that the best thing to do is to plan better next December. Spend less on presents, eat and drink less over the festive period, and make more realistic New Year's resolutions. | high8675.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "launched joyful varieties of ice cream"
},
"options": [
"launched joyful varieties of ice cream",
"purchased much more than ice cream",
"combined many stores into a company",
"advertised their varieties of ice cream"
... | For many people, the name Baskin-Robbins is connected to sweet memories of eating ice cream. Irvine Robbins, who helped create this famous company, died in May at the age of ninety. His career of making fun and exciting ice cream flavors changed the way Americans enjoy this food.
Irvine Robbins opened his first ice cream store in 1945 in California. At the time, there were no stores that sold only ice cream. His sister's husband, Burton Baskin, also opened his own ice cream stores.
In 1948 they combined their six stores into one business. Baskin and Robbins realized that they were too busy to operate each store well. So, they decided to sell part of each operation to the manager of that store. This permitted the company to grow quickly.
By 1953, they renamed their company Baskin-Robbins. They advertised that they sold 31 kinds of ice cream to show the many choices buyers had. There was one flavor for every day of the month.
Robbins and Baskin sold "Lunar Cheesecake " the day after astronauts landed on the moon in 1969. Other flavors included "ChaChaCha", for cherry chocolate chip, and Robbins' personal favorite "Jamoca Almond Fudge". They said, "We sell fun, not just ice cream."
By 1967, there were 500 Baskin-Robbins stores in the United States. The business partners sold their company that year. Today, there are more than 5,800 Baskin-Robbins stores around the world. | high6880.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "95 to 99 years old."
},
"options": [
"82 to 87 years old.",
"93 to 97 years old.",
"95 to 99 years old.",
"106 to 110 years old."
],
"question": "Which is possibly the age category of the masters swimming compet... | Nearing the age of 101 has not slowed down one Japanese woman.In fact,in the swimming pool--she is only getting faster.
Recently,a 100-year-old Japanese woman became the world's first _ to complete a 1,500-meter freestyle swimming competition in a 25-meter poo1.
Her name is Mieko Nagaoka.Ms.Nagaoka set a world record for her age group at a recent Japan Masters Swimming Association event in the western city of Matsuyama.She swam the race in 1hour,15 minutes and 54 seconds.
By comparison,the overall female world record holder completed the same distance in just under 15 and a half minutes.But that swimmer,Katie Ledecky,is only 17 years old.And Ms.Nagao.ka was not competing against her.In fact,Ms.Nagaoka was the only competitor in the 100-104 year old category.Her race was not a race of speed but of endurance,or not giving up.
Breaking swimming records is nothing new to Ms.Nagaoka.So far she has broken 25 records.But she began competing when she was much younger--at 88.
Ms.Nagaoka sufferred a knee injury in her 80s,so she began swimming to help her body recover.Since her first international swimming competition,she hasn't looked back,except maybe to see if her competition is catching up.
In 2002.at a masters swim meet in New Zealand,Ms.Nagaoka took the bronze medal in the 50-meter backstroke.In 2004,she won three silver medals at an Italian swim meet.
Masters swimming is a special class of competitive swimming to promote health and friendship among participants.Swimmers compete within age groups of five years.
Japan has a large number of people who live beyond 100 years old.Until she passed away this month,the oldest person in the world was also from Japan.Misao Okawa was born in 1 898.She said her secrets for longevity,or long life,were good genes,regular sleep,sushi and exercise. | high12008.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "group buying is becoming popular in China"
},
"options": [
"China is the first country to start group buying",
"the price of group buying depends on the market",
"you can`t get the best you need through group buying",
"... | Modeled after US hot website.com, group buying websites are now popular in China. These websites use the power of group buying to get competitive discounts for a daily deal on some best stuff to do, see, eat and buy in the cities across China. Discounts are available within just one click. Zhao lei, a software engineer in Beijing, loves the one-hour lunch break at noon,as it is the best time for him to check "today`s special" at his favorite group buying websites . Sometimes he searches for great deals at directory sites devoted to the new shopping space. Zhao spends around 800 yuan($117.65) on group buying every month, mostly to buy food coupons for eating at some nice restaurants and occasionally to find something fun to do. " I love group buying. In addition to the competitive discounts it offers, it helps me get something fun, exciting and new, and such surprises give me a reason to try something new," he said. When he finds a really good bargain, he will send the link to friends or colleagues through MSN,QQ, or e-mail, or share the information at some social networking websites. In doing so, he often gets a certain cut off the price. At some sites, buyers are invited to leave notes about what they want to buy and the website will consider it if similar applications reach a certain number. That is how Zuo got her digital camera after waiting for two months. "It is cool. I want to buy a new digitgal camera for my trip to Switzerland this winter, but I never expected such cheap prices!" Zuo said. | high7220.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the same language has connected the two nations"
},
"options": [
"British English is better than American English",
"American English is better than British English",
"the same language has divided the two nations",
"th... | When the seventeenth-century settlers brought the English language to America, they immediately and necessarily began to adapt it to their new environment. These changes were clear early and criticized by some people on both sides of the Atlantic. However, after the Revolution, Americans began to be proud of their own form of English. Noah Webster was the major early supporter of American meanings and spellings over British ones and published the earliest American dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language. During the years since Webster, language differences have continued to develop, proving the truth of George Bernard Shaw's often-repeated words that the two nations are divided by a common language.
Like the American language, the earliest American literature copied English models. However, after the Revolution and the War of 1812, writers began to create a clear American literature. However, in 1820, Sydney Smith asked the famous question "Who reads an American book?"
Answering to this and similar taunts with creative anger, American writers soon produced works that plenty of British people read. Works by Washing-ton Irving, Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain had been _ greatly in Britain by the end of the nineteenth century.
Even as American writers got respect in Britain, British writers continued to have great influence in America. Charles Dickens went to America twice, in 1842 and 1867-68. Other major British writers who traveled and lived in the United States include D.H. Lawrence and Aldous Huxley. British best works continue to be widely read. The works of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen became popular films.
At the turn of the twenty-first century, many books and writers continue to cross the Atlantic in both directions -- made possible by the proud heritage of the shared language. | high8113.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "was kind but didn't understand the writer"
},
"options": [
"was kind but didn't understand the writer",
"told the writer where to take a train",
"knew what the writer really meant",
"was cold-hearted and didn't help the... | I was in a strange city I didn't know at all, and what's more, I could not speak a word of the language. On my second day I got on the first bus that passed, rode on it for several stops, then got off and walked on. The first two hours passed pleasantly enough, then I decided to turn back to my hotel for lunch. After walking about for some time, I decided I had better ask the way. The trouble was that the only word I knew of the language was the name of the street in which I lived, and even that I pronounced badly. I stopped to ask a newspaper-seller. He handed me a paper. I shook my head and repeated the name of the street and he put the paper into my hands. I had to give him some money and went on my way. The next person I asked was a policeman. He listened to me carefully, nodded and gently took me by the arm. There was a strange look in his eyes as he pointed left and right and left again. I nodded politely and began walking in the direction he pointed.About an hour passed and I noticed that the houses were getting fewer and fewer and green fields were appearing on either side of me. I had come all the way into the countryside. The only thing left for me to do was find the nearest railway station. | high1889.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "to visit the cemetery and memorize the dead"
},
"options": [
"to visit the cemetery and memorize the dead",
"for families to get together in the cemetery",
"to give gifts to family members",
"for daughters and sons to m... | I was 20 years old when my mother passed away. It was the first real blow that life had dealt me, and I thought I would never recover. Then, by the time the following spring came, the pain was almost bearable and again I could find pleasure in the miraculous reward of nature.
At first, I went to the cemetery with trepidation. But then, amazingly, by tending her grave and decorating it with flowers, I was ridding myself of the painful memories.
The years passed. I moved from Kaposvar, Hungary, the town where I had been born and had spent my youth. So did my siblings. We only came together on feast days, especially on All Souls' Day in the cemetery.
Father lived with me for many years, to a ripe old age. Now that he, too, rests beneath the white marble stone, I go even more eagerly to the cemetery. While I tend my parents' grave site, again I am with them in thought.
One day I noticed a modest grave site behind my parents' plot. It lay among the magnificent granite and marble markers of the other graves, its very simplicity _ . Ivy had covered the site and its only decoration was a simple wooden cross on which was written in copper letters a name, and that she lived 22 years. Whenever I went by, the plot and its surroundings looked cared for and neat, and each time I felt curious about this mysterious woman who had lived all of 22 years.
Once I saw an elderly man leaving from there. I concluded that perhaps he had come to visit his wife. In 1996 I was preparing for All Souls' Day in the cemetery when again I caught sight of him, tending the grave. Tall, somewhat bent, he was well passed middle age. We nodded to each other and continued our work. Occasionally I stole a glance at my neighbor. When I noticed that he hadn't got the tools for a proper cleanup, I offered him mine, which he gratefully accepted. After this, it seemed only natural to engage him in conversation. I asked him whose grave it was. This was his answer:
"My mother's. She died young, in 1912 when I was only a year-and-a half old. I really never knew her. I made her that cross and the copper letters."
Then he went on:"No one comes to visit this grave but me because I was her only child. She died of pneumonia. My father remarried and my stepmother only cared for her own children. So then I always came here to my mother, whether in sadness or in joy. Later, life took me far afield, but I never forgot this grave. For me it was the same as the family home is for others. I always came home here."
"With the years passing, it is getting more difficult for me to come, but as long as my legs will carry me, at least twice a year I visit my mother. I'm in my 80s. so who knows how long I can still make it."
In stunned silence I listened. Tears clouded my eyes as I realized that I had never seen such boundless love. How much easier is my lot, I thought, for at any moment I can reach into my storehouse of memories and draw out the joyful or sad vignettes that bind me to my parents with a thousand threads. What memories might this kindly old gentleman harbor? Perhaps a face from an ancient faded photograph of his mother.
What a great attachment throughout his long life must have led him back again and again to the resting place of that young woman whose motherly love he could never truly savor , only forever feels its enormous lack.
We said good-bye. I was deeply moved because I knew that I had been given a great gift. I had been allowed a glimpse of the royal and long-lasting affection that bound a simple and noble-hearted man to his mother. I decided I would tend the grave together with that of my parents, where, finally, the aged child will have met his youthful mother. | high14479.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "the power of computers is growing at a frightening rate"
},
"options": [
"computers can completely replace humans in everything",
"humans are of no practical economic values to the society",
"the power of computers is growing... | The defeat of Lee Sedol, the world's strongest Go player, by a Google artificial intelligence (AI) program, looks like another milestone towards a world where computers can do almost anything a human can. It is not. There are uncountable things that only a human can do, and that no computer seems close to. The problem is that the purely human things are not economically useful to anyone. The things that computers can be taught to do are by contrast economically fantastic. But even the most powerful programs are not human, just as a shovel . They have no feelings. What they have is power, but this power is growing at a rate that should frighten us all.
It might be less frightening if computers were truly intelligent, but even the most powerful networks are less human than monstrous Martians . Their power will be used to make money for the firms that finance their development, and then for others quick and clever enough to take advantage of the new world. It is far more likely that they will increase inequality and still further remove the middle classes as we move towards an hourglass society in which everyone is either very rich or very poor and likely indebted.
One of the ill effects of the spread of more intelligent computer networks is, at the same time, the spread of what might be called artificial stupidity. If AI is employed largely to replace unskilled labour, it is most productive when labour is kept unskilled or redefined that way. So much of the work in service industries is now simplified until it might be automated . And robots will never need pensions. AI is slowly reducing skilled work, like some forms of medical diagnosis , at the same time, as older doctors complain that the traditional human skills of diagnosis are falling out of medical training. The belief that everything worthwhile can be measured and then managed is far more damaging to humanity than the threat of artificial intelligence on its own.
But no victory in complicated Go games can bring us closer to truly human-like computers. | high13316.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "inform him of the payment for his surgery"
},
"options": [
"playing a joke on him for medical treatment",
"inform him of the payment for his surgery",
"clear up the wrong information in his medical record",
"correct the... | In March 2004, Joe Ryan got a collection notice from a billing agency for Littleton Adventist Hospital near prefix = st1 /Denver,Colorado. The hospital wanted payment for surgery totaling $41,188. Ryan had never set foot in that hospital. Obviously there was some mistake. "I thought it was a joke," says Ryan.
But when he called the billing agency, nobody laughed. Someone named Joe Ryan, using Ryan's Social Security number, had indeed been admitted for surgery. He figured clearing this up would take just a few phone calls.
Two years later, Ryan continues to suffer from the damage to his credit rating and still doesn't know if his medical record has been cleared of wrong information.
Joe Ryan was the victim of a little-known but frightening type of consumer fraud that is on the rise: medical identity theft, which involves using your name to get drugs, expensive medical treatment and even cheating insurance payments.
As Ryan discovered, money isn't the half of it. When someone steals your name to receive health care, his medical history becomes part of your record -- and setting the record straight can be extremely difficult. That's because, in part, the information is distributed among dozens of caregivers, from doctors to medicine stores to insurance companies and labs.
"I wanted to help straighten this out," says Ryan, "so I went to the hospital, and they had a three-inch-thick record for me, but they wouldn't let me see it. I showed them my ID, and they said that's not Joe Ryan's signature. Well, of course not! They had this other guy's signature."
Ryan had fallen into a victim's Catch-22: If your record doesn't appear to be yours, you may not have the right to see it, much less change it.
Ryan's next step was a visit to the Police Department. But the cops concluded there was not much they could do; local law enforcement has little experience with medical ID theft, and cases can end up being considered a civil matter. | high17170.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Because the girl didn't care much for the doll."
},
"options": [
"Because the gift was given by her parents.",
"Because the girl didn't care much for the doll.",
"Because her parents would give the doll a name.",
"Becau... | When I was seven, my parents gave me a doll, a doll's house and a book. The Arabian Nights, came wrapped in red paper. I was just ready to read when my mother walked into my room.
"Isn't your doll just beautiful?" my mother asked. I looked at the doll, with fair hair in a pink dress----I'll have to call her "she" because I never gave her a name. I folded my lips and raised my eyebrows, not really knowing how to let my mother down easily.
"This doll is different." My mother explained, trying to talk me into playing with it.
Thinking the doll needed love, I hugged her tightly for a long time. Useless, I said to myself. Finally, I decided to play with the doll's house. But since rearranging the tiny furniture seemed to be the only active possible, I lost interest. I caught sight again of the third of my gifts The Arabian Nights, and I began to read it. From that moment, the book was my constant companion.
Every day I climbed our garden tree, nestled among its branches, I read the stories in The Arabian Nights to my heart's content. My mother became concerned as she noticed I wasn't playing with either the doll or the little house. She insisted that I take the doll up the tree with me.
Trying to read on a branch 15 feet off the ground while holding on to the silly doll was not easy. After nearly falling off twice, I tied one end of a long vine around the doll's neck and the opposite one around the branch, letting the doll hang in mid air while I read. I always looked out for my mother, though. I sensed that my playing with the doll was of great importance to her. So every time I heard her coming, I lifted the doll up and hugged her. The smile in my mother's eyes told me my plan worked.
The inevitable happened one afternoon. Totally absorbed in the reading, I didn't hear my mother calling me. When I looked down, I saw my mother staring at the hanging doll. Fearing the worst of scolding, I climbed down in a flash, reaching the ground just as my mother was untying the doll. To my surprise, she didn't scold. She kept on staring at the doll.
The next day, my father came home early and suggested he and I play with the doll's house. Soon I was bored, but my father seemed to be having so much fun, I didn't have the heart to tell him. Quietly I slipped out, picking up my book on my way to the yard. So absorbed was he in arranging and rearranging the tiny furniture that he didn't notice my quick exit.
Almost 20 years passed before I found out why the hanging-doll incident had been so significant for my parents. By then I was a parent myself. After recalling the incident, my mother said all those years she had been afraid whether I would turn out to be a most loving and understanding mother to my son.
My mother often thanks God aloud for making me a good parent, pointing out that with education I might have been a rich dentist instead of a poor poet. I look back on that same childhood incident, recalling my third gift, the book in red-paper, and I take advantage of the experiences that have made me who and what I am. Sometimes I pause to wonder at life's wonderful ironies . | high5437.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "has rapidly developed"
},
"options": [
"has rapidly developed",
"is held every other year",
"was organized by Lori Bryne",
"has been in existence for 24 years"
],
"question": "According to the text, the Camp Inv... | The Camp Invention Program will be held through July at the Hillcrest Intermediate School, North Huntingdon. It exposes children to science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) through hands-on activities.
The Camp Invention Program, created by Invent Now Kids, was founded in 1990. Now it has grown to include almost l,500 sites across the U. S., with thousands of children attending the program each year.
"Our main purpose is to help children develop a greater interest in the fields of STEM," said Lori Bryne, the Senior Regional Program Manager. Children in the camp will be given the opportunity to explore the unknown and put ideas into practice.
The program will challenge children to real world situations that will help them build a team spirit and life skills.
The program will include five modules this year.
One module will feature "Problem Solving on Planet ZAK". It will challenge children by creating a world of science fiction. Imitating a "crash" onto a planet, children will be asked to figure out ways to stay safe, find food and to "rebuild" their spacecraft, using a variety of common objects.
Another module will be "Saving Sludge City" which will have children find ways to create a cleaner and eco-friendly city.
"Imagination Point: Ride Physics" asks children to work as interns in the world's newest and largest theme park called "Imagination Point". Children will learn the basic principles of motion through hands-on activities related directly to rides.
Another feature of the camp will be the "I Can Invent" which will focus on the real world of inventions by having children explore the process of invention.
The final module will be "Global Games" which will introduce games ranging from those played in ancient times to the present day to children.
"We want to encourage children to go into the fields of STEM," Bryne said. "This program is a fun way to do that." | high18243.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Dr Seuss -- a famous writer of children's books."
},
"options": [
"Some of Dr Seuss' books for children.",
"What are Dr Seuss's books mainly about?",
"Dr Seuss -- a famous writer of children's books.",
"Why are Dr Seuss... | Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1904. He was famous because of the books he wrote for children. They combine funny words, pictures, and social opinions.
Dr Seuss wrote his first book for children in 1937. It is called And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. A number of publishers refused to publish it. They said it was too different. A friend finally published it. Soon other successful books followed. Over the years, he wrote more than forty children's books. They were fun to read. Yet his books sometimes dealt with serious subjects.
By the middle 1940s, Dr Seuss had become one of the best-loved and most successful writers of children's books. He liked helping children. In 1954, Life magazine published a report about school children who could not read. The report said that many children's books weren't interesting. Dr Seuss decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read.
In 1957, Dr Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat. He used less than 225 words to write the book. This was about the number of words a six-year-old should be able to read.
The story is about a cat who tries to entertain two children on a rainy day while their mother is away from home. The cat is not like normal cats. It talks. The book was an immediate success. It was an interesting story and was easy to read. Children loved it. Their parents loved it, too. Today many adults say it is still one of the stories they like best. | high4729.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "her gift for wax modeling"
},
"options": [
"Curtius' recommendation",
"her gift for wax modeling",
"her mother's help",
"her friendship with the king's sister"
],
"question": "Marie got a job at that court of Lo... | The story of Madame Tussaud is as fascinating as that of the exhibition itself. From a housekeeper's daughter to a successful business woman, her life has all the marks of a Hollywood blockbuster.
Madam Tussaud was born in 1761 and named Marie Grosholtz. Her father was killed in battle only two months before Mane's birth. For the first five years of her life, Marie lived in Berne with her mother, who worked as housekeeper for Dr Philippe Curtius. A doctor, with a talent for wax modeling, Curtius became her teacher.
It was Curtius who opened the original wax exhibition in Paris in 1770 and introduced Marie to some famous people. At only 17, she modeled the famous writer Francois Voltaire, followed by a portrait of American statesman Benjamin Franklin when he was in Paris as US ambassador. Both figures are still on display at Madame Tussaud's, London today.
Her work at Curtius successful wax exhibition led to an invitation to the court of Louis XVI and his queen. For nine years she lived at the palace of Versailles guiding the artistic education of the king's sister. Meanwhile the French Revolution was about to erupt. Aware of the political nrest,Philippe Curtius called Marie back to Paris. Marie7 s connection with the royal family made her guilty. Both she and her mother were arrested. After she was set free, Marie was forced to make death masks (a death mask is a model of a dead person's face, made by coving their face with a soft substance and letting it become hard) of executed nobles. Many were former friends at court, including her former employers, the king and queen.
By 1800 Marie was married with two young children and a poor business inherited from Curtius. Madame Tussaud made the decision to take her exhibition on tour. In 1802, she left France. For the next 33 years, Madame Tussaud traveled the British Isles, exhibiting her growing collection of portraits. In those pre-television days, this was the only way most people had direct contact with the famous people of the time. The exhibition became permanently based in London in 1835, moving to its present site in Marylebone Road in 1884. Her last work, a remarkable self - portrait that is still on show, was completed only eight years before her death aged 89. | high11501.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "running has more advantages than disadvantages for you."
},
"options": [
"running is good for your health as well as your mind.",
"you should buy running shoes in an expensive store.",
"running has more advantages than disadv... | While there has been public debate about whether running is good for your health for a long time, experts agree that running has more benefits than the costs. Some people are concerned that the pressure on your knees and ankles can be _ . While this can be true, there are many things that you can do to reduce your risk of injury.
You should always go to a doctor for advice before you begin any type of exercise program. Then, a good pair of running shoes can be helpful as your feet hit the ground. They will help protect your ankles by providing stability to your feet. So it is good idea to visit a specialty running shoe store. The staff there can suggest shoes which are ideal for your running style.
In order to learn the proper form, you may get some advice from a friend who has been running for some time, or even join a running club. They can provide good tips as well as some support and encouragement for you.
Lastly, it is important to start out slowly. When it comes to getting in shape and losing weight , short bursts of speed followed by periods of slower movement would be proper. Aim for around 30 minutes of exercise a few days a week. As you get better, you can increase your speed. Always allow your body to rest in between heavy exercise as your muscles need time to bring energy back.
Follow these instructions and your running experience will be a great one! | high5423.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "pretty"
},
"options": [
"white stars.",
"always white.",
"of similar shapes",
"pretty"
],
"question": "Snowflakes are _ according to the writer.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer"... | Snowflakes seem like white stars falling from the sky. But they don't always look white. Sometimes they appear to have other color1s. Some are red, yellow, or black. There have been snowflakes of almost every shape. Think how it would seem to have these coming all around you. Wouldn't they look pretty?
Black snow came down in France one year. Another year gray snow fell in Japan. It was found that such snow was mixed with ashes. This made it seem dark. Red snow has come down in other countries. When this happened, it was mixed with red dust. That is why it looked different. Most snow looks like white, but it is really the color1 of ice. It is ice that comes from snow clouds. Each snowflake begins with a small drop of water. More water forms around this drop. The way the water freeze gives the snowflake its shape.
No two snowflakes are of ever just the same size or shape. All start out flat and have six sides. Some snowflakes are broken when they hit the ground, others melt as they fall. When the air is cold and dry, the falling snowflakes are small and hard. If the air is wet and warm, the snowflakes are big and soft.
Would you be surprised to see snowflakes as big as your head falling from the sky? It happened once in our country. It could occur again. | high19149.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "some chicken and grains."
},
"options": [
"Tools, a bone pin, a bow and a cushion stone",
"A copper knife and two gold earrings.",
"Two pots, arrows and materials to make arrows.",
"some chicken and grains."
],
... | A grave of a man dating back to around 2300 BC was found by archaeologists in England On May 3, 2002. Buried with him were the tools of a hunter or warrior. There was a bone pin that may have been from a piece of clothing such as a leather coat. He carried a copper knife on his breast. The most amazing find was two gold earrings. That would have made him a man of distinction. Only a few centimeters from his head were two pots made of clay, tools and materials to make arrows, a bow and a dozen arrows for hunting and a second, smaller copper knife. Next to them lay a cushion stone, upon which the man could work metal.
His grave is the richest of any found from that period, because this man was buried with two gold earrings which are the oldest gold ever found in Britain (dated to 2470 BC). Besides, he was buried three miles from Stonehenge. Archaeologists tend to believe he was a member of a powerful class who might have organized the construction of Stonehenge.
Stonehenge was begun around 3000 BC. In about 2300 BC the huge stone circles were built. The biggest stone weighed approximately 20 tons. But the smaller blue stones, still weighing 4 tons on average, came from west Wales. It is not yet known how these were conveyed over a distance of 380 km. It is also a mystery how early man was able to construct Stonehenge without the use of modern construction machines and lorries.
He is an example of people who brought culture and new techniques from the European mainland to Britain. In terms of technical development people were going from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age and then to the Iron Age. | high3052.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "A demanding mother"
},
"options": [
"an assistant professor",
"an easy-going woman",
"A cruel teacher",
"A demanding mother"
],
"question": "We can learn that Amy Chua is _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_que... | A new book written by a Chinese American on her super-strict parenting - "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" has raised fierce debates in the US.
Amy Chua is a Yale Law School professor and the mother of two teenage girls. She is the daughter of Chinese immigrants. In the Chinese culture, the tighter represents strength and power. In her book, Ms. Chua writes about how she demanded excellence from her daughters. Chua writes that her daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to go on a date, be in a school play, watch TV or play computer games. They couldn't choose their own after-class activities or get any grade less than an A. They had to play piano or violin - and no other musical instruments.
She writes that if a Chinese child gets a B - which she says "would never happen" - there would be "a screaming, hair-tearing explosion." She describes making her 7-year-old daughter play a piano piece perfectly - yelling and not letting her leave the bench even to use the bathroom - until it was.
Many people have criticized Amy Chua. Some say her parenting methods were abusive. She even admits that her husband, who is not Chinese, objected to her parenting style. But she says that was the way her parents raised her and her three sisters.
Stacy Debroff, who has written four books on parenting, says Amy Chua's parenting style is not limited to Chinese families. She says it represents a traditional way of parenting among immigrants seeking a better future for their children. But she also sees a risk. When children have no time to be social or to follow their own interests, they might not develop other skills that they need to succeed in life. Stacy Debroff advises parents not to just repeat the way they were raised.
Alison Lo, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Washington's Bothell campus, said. "I don't think Amy is advocating a best practice of parenting style, or that success and achievements are critical yardsticks of a good life. But I can imagine how strong her daughters' college applications are going to be. For many parents whose dreams are seeing their kids graduating from a competitive university, Amy is sharing with the readers that it is achievable by persistent, dedicated parental guidance," Lo said. "In that sense, a young adult's giftedness can be born, or made." | high20910.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "attitudes towards life"
},
"options": [
"body size",
"different beauty standards",
"culture difference",
"attitudes towards life"
],
"question": "The passage tries to stress the importance of _ .",
"quest... | For many years, I was convinced that my suffering was due to my size. I believed that when the weight disappeared, it would take old wounds, hurts and rejections with it.
Many weight-conscious people also mistakenly believe that changing our bodies will fix _ . Perhaps our mistake is believing that being thin equals being loved, being special, and being cherished. We fantasize about what it will be like when we reach the long-awaited goal .We work very hard to realize this dream. Then, at last, we find ourselves there.
But we often gain back what we have lost. Even so, we continue to believe that next time it will be different. Next time, we will keep it off. Next time, being thin will finally fulfill its promise of everlasting happiness, self-worth, and, of course, love.
It took me a long time to realize that there was something more for me to learn about beauty. Beauty standards vary with culture. In Samoa a woman is not considered attractive unless she weighs more than 200 pounds. More importantly, if it's happiness that we want, why not put our energy there rather than on the size of our body? Why not look inside? Many of us strive hard to change our body, but in vain. We have to find a way to live comfortably inside our body and make friends with and cherish ourselves. When we change our attitudes towards ourselves, the whole world changes. | high7234.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "$800-million"
},
"options": [
"$800-million",
"$97-million",
"$117-million",
"$40-billion."
],
"question": "If quick action is not taken to stop the spread of Ebola, the economic losses could reach about _ by ... | The World Bank is warning that the West Africa Ebola outbreak could seriously harm the economies of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone unless action is taken quickly. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim spoke to reporters recently to discuss the effects of the Ebola spread.
"Our findings show that if the virus continues to spread, the economic cost to these countries could grow eight times by 2015. This would be a big _ to their already weak economies," said Kim.
Mr. Kim says, "saving lives and preventing new spread" is most important. The bank has given $117-million for an "immediate help." The World Bank President says the SARS outbreak between 2002 and 2004 showed how a disease could damage economies. 800 people died from SARS and the economic losses were up to $40-billion.
Mr. Kim says SARS and the H1N1 outbreak of 2009 taught that fear and avoidance resulted in about 90-percent of the economic losses. That means the disease is causing two levels of economic damage.
"There are two kinds of contagion . One is connected with the virus itself and the second is connected with the spread of fear about the virus," said Kim.
The World Bank thinks the losses to the economies of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea will be big .Mr. Kim says losses could be about $97-million at the moment.
Mr. Kim says fast action is necessary. He says getting the disease under control is still far away. That is because there are not enough health care workers in the affected areas. The World Bank President says the most important measure is to act quickly in order to limit economic losses. | high8107.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "thank the conductor for his good service"
},
"options": [
"make a demand for more buses",
"thank the conductor for his good service",
"criticize the conductor for his rude behavior",
"invite a newspaper reporter to writ... | A young woman carrying a three-year-old child got on a bus. The conductor hurried to give her a warm welcome and then kindly asked the other passengers to make more room for the woman and her child. On seeing this, people began to talk. "You know this conductor used to be very rude. Now suddenly he has changed his bad behavior , "said a middle-aged man.
"Yes, he should be praised and we must write a letter to the company," said a second passenger. "That's right," another lady said, "I wish a newspaper reporter were here so that more people could learn from this conductor. "
Just then a gentleman who looked like a teacher turned to the conductor and said , "Excuse me, but can I know your name, please? Your excellent service must be praised..."
Before he could open his mouth, the three-year-old child sitting on the young woman's lap interrupted, "I know his name. I call
Dad." | high15773.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "It was worth $120."
},
"options": [
"It was worth $120.",
"Allen bought it for him.",
"It was very fashionable.",
"He didn't like it actually."
],
"question": "What do we know about the author's bike?",
"que... | When I was ten my dad helped me buy my first ten-speed bicycle from Allen. I put up $60 of my grass cutting and snow shoveling money and my dad put up the other half I would pay him back over the next six months. Although it was not in the latest style, it was my ticket to the adult world.
I spent that summer and autumn riding happily. My sister Liz, a prisoner of her five-speed bicycle, never had a chance to keep up. Just before the Christmas deadline to pay my dad back, we were hit with several snowstorms. This allowed me to shovel enough driveways to pay off my debt. I was now officially a bike owner; it was a feeling unlike any other.
On that Christmas morning, my dad gave me a used portable record player. I was excited. However, my joy was short-lived after my dad called my sister to the kitchen. "We have one more gift for you." he said as he opened the door that led to the garage. There, on the steps, stood a new ten-speed bicycle.
"It's not fair," I complained. "I worked so hard for my bike and it's not even new. Then Liz gets a new bike. She didn't have to do anything for it. " My dad smiled. "She didn't have to do anything for it because it' s not really for her," he said. What did that mean? I didn't want her bike.
By spring Liz and I were riding all over town together now that she could keep up. As we grew, Liz and I became true friends.
Still I wasn't smart enough to figure out what my dad meant until years later. That new bike was not a gift for Liz -- it was a gift for me. He'd given me the gift of my sister's company, the ability to stay together rather than drift apart in the face of my ability to travel. He gave me my best friend. | high9219.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "he didn't appreciate things around him"
},
"options": [
"the sky wasn't always beautiful",
"he had wasted his life for many years",
"he didn't know what he really wanted",
"he didn't appreciate things around him"
],... | I arrived home late one night last week. I spent a moment looking up into the night sky. The stars above shone brightly. The sky looked really beautiful.
I started to think about other things as I stared at the night sky. It hit me clearly that these beautiful stars were always there but I had spent very little time in the past really appreciating them. It also reminded me that we often think we deserve many things around us, being too caught up in our own little world. It is a world filled with busy work and the demands placed on us from what we have allowed to take up our time.
Recently, I was asked to repair a house for a family member. When I arrived, it seemed like any other day when I spent my time doing something I knew how to do. But there was something else that came to mind as I started to work with my son-in-law. I considered it a good opportunity. The opportunity was more than just spending time repairing a house. It was an opportunity to further a bond between two people who are related by marriage but are unrelated through few experiences. It was an opportunity to build a stronger bond, a bond that can only happen when two people are exposed to each other's skills and faults. It was also an opportunity to share my knowledge and experience with another who wanted to learn.
There are many chances to see beyond what is viewed as normal, but we must be able to actually open our eyes and heart to these events and appreciate them. To be in tune with what is around you, you must use the attitude of a child who screams with joy the first time they see a rainbow, hear the pretty song of a bird, or enjoy the beauty of Christmas decorations. | high13302.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Because they don't know their learning type."
},
"options": [
"Because they find the subject too difficult.",
"Because they have lost interest in the subject.",
"Because their teacher is not good enough.",
"Because they... | With the new school year quickly coming near (or perhaps, for your early-starters, already under way), it's time to get ready for a successful term . And while you may be cleaning your wardrobe , it's equally important to freshen up your study skills, too.
Have you ever noticed that your study habits are different from those of your friends? Or how you seem to learn faster in certain classes? Some people are quick to blame the teacher or subject for their difficulties, but that isn't always the cause . One thing that many people seem to ignore is their learning type.
Now, you may be wondering what a learning type is and how to find yours. There are three different learning types: Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic. You can be a _ of learning types, but most people have one main type.
1. Visual learners learn best by seeing. If you seem to easily get information from pictures, graphs, and videos, you are likely a visual learner.
2. Auditory learners learn best by hearing. If you seem to remember things by hearing them, whether listening to a lecture or repeating information out loud, then you are likely an auditory learner.
3. Kinesthetic learners learn best by doing. If you seem to learn best by working with your hands or testing out what you are shown, you are likely a kinesthetic learner.
So now that you know your personal learning style, the trick is to find out how to use your new-found knowledge to help you in your classes. | high1645.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "It helps improve the state of mind."
},
"options": [
"It serves as a suitable gift.",
"It works as an effective medicine.",
"It helps improve the state of mind.",
"It strengthens business relations."
],
"questio... | Given that many people's moods are regulated by the chemical action of chocolate, it was probably only a matter of time before somebody made the chocolate shop similar to a drugstore of Chinese medicine.Looking like a setting from the film Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Singapore's Chocolate Research Facility (CRF) has over 100 varieties of chocolates.Its founder is Chris Lee who grew up at his parents' corner store with one hand almost always in the jar of sweets.
If the CRF seems to be a smart idea, that's because Lee is not merely a seasoned salesperson but also head of a marketing department that has business relations with big names such as Levi's and Sony.That idea surely results in the imagination at work when it comes to making different flavored chocolates.
The CRF's produce is "green", made within the country and divided into 10 lines, with the Alcohol Series being the most popular.The Exotic Series--with Sichuan pepper, red bean , cheese and other flavors--also does well and is fun to taste.And for _ , who think that they have a better knowledge of chocolate than others, the Connoisseur Series uses cocoa beans from Togo, Cuba, Venezuela, and Ghana, among others. | high13464.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "5."
},
"options": [
"3.",
"4.",
"5.",
"6."
],
"question": "How many Canadian cities are in the top 20?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_t... | OTTAWA -- Canada's western city of Calgary is the world's best city when it comes to healthy living, local press reported Monday.
According to an international survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, a London-based consulting firm, Calgary was put at the top of a list of 144 cities. It scored 121 points, just above Honolulu's score of 120. Helsinki(,) and Ottawa followed at 119.5 and 118.5 respectively.
Three other Canadian cities came in the top 20. Montreal and Vancouver tied for ninth and Toronto came in at 18th.
The scores are based on air pollution levels, availability and quality of hospitals and medical supplies, as well as the efficiency of waste removal and sewage systems.
In America, the lowest scoring city was Atlanta, which was ranked 76th. Athens was the lowest scoring city in Western Europe, ranking 120th because of its air pollution. London was ranked 59th. | high1123.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "dealt with more easily for some people"
},
"options": [
"dealt with more easily for some people",
"reduced by learning the language alone",
"avoided by knowing adjustment stages",
"got rid of by learning just the custom... | Most people who move to a foreign country or culture may go through some form of culture shock,and its degree is determined by the differences between cultures,the anxiety to adapt to a new culture and the familiarity with a new culture,etc.If you go,for example,to a culture that is far different from your own,you're likely to experience culture shock more sharply than those who move to a new culture knowing the language and the custom of it.
It is important to understand and learn how to deal with culture shock if you are to adapt successfully to your new home's cultures.There are four general stages of cultural adjustment,and being aware of them helps you understand that culture shock won't last long.It's just a process you are going through rather than a constant situation.
The first stage is usually referred to as "the honeymoon stage".Upon arriving in a new environment,you'll be interested in the new culture.Everything will seem thrilling and everyone will seem friendly and helpful.During this stage you are merely taking in these impressions passively.
But it isn't long before the honeymoon stage gives way to the second stage--"the withdrawal stage".The excitement you felt before is gone and problems arise.The language is hard to learn,people are unusual and unpredictable,friends,are hard to make,and simple things like shopping and going to the bank are challenges.It is at this stage that you are likely to feel anxious and homesick,and you will probably find yourself complaining about the new culture or country.This is the stage called "culture shock".
At some point,if you can manage it well,you'll begin the transition into the next stage,"the recovery stage",in which you'll feel more confident functioning in the new culture.Customs and traditions are clearer and easier to understand.At this stage,you'll deal with new challenges with humor rather than anxiety. | high7552.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Systems Administrator for Newport Museum"
},
"options": [
"Computer Systems Manager for Corporation of America",
"Systems Support Specialist for World Destiny",
"Systems Administrator for Newport Museum",
"MicroComputer... | Dear Mr. Smith,
I am seeking an opportunity to work with World Destiny as a Computer Systems Manager. My professional experience and my awareness of your high reputation and great achievements have led me to want to work for World Destiny.
Since 1998 I have focused on computer-system design and training. As Systems Administrator for Newport Museum for the past two years, I have directed accounting, capital campaign and publication production. We designed the system from scratch, developing all applications, policies, procedures, and training programs. I was well prepared for such a challenge by my previous positions as a Systems Support Specialist and MicroComputer Assistant for the Imperial Corporation of America.
Over the years, I have worked with Novell, using programs including dBase, Wordstar and Microsoft Word. This familiarity with a variety of hardware and software has helped me to get up to speed on nearly any computer with a minimum training period.
Additional experience in other fields also adds my value to World Destiny. As a Market Research Coordinator for Cushman & Wakefield of California, I not only researched and maintained a comprehensive database of Silicon Valley, but also produced statistical and written reports that support Cushman & Wakefield's reputation. Previously, I organized companywide annual sales meetings for Qualogy, Inc.
Mr. Smith, while this experience more than qualifies me to join any number of successful companies, it is my personal goals that lead to my interest in being part of the World Destiny team. I believe my computer, promotional, and organizational skills, fueled by my beliefs, make World Destiny and me right for each other. Can we arrange an interview at your earliest convenience? I will call within the next week to arrange a meeting.
Sincerely, Beth Henning | high15015.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "older parents tend to devote more love and patience to their children."
},
"options": [
"older parents are usually more experienced in bringing up their children.",
"older parents can better balance their resources against children... | Psychiatrists who work with older parents say that maturity can be an advantage in child raising--older parents are more thoughtful, use less physical discipline and spend more time with their children. But raising kids takes money and energy. Many older parents find themselves balancing their limited financial resources, decreasing energy and failing health against the growing demands of an active child. Dying and leaving young children is probably the older parents' biggest, and often unspoken fear. "Having late-life children often means parents, particularly fathers, end up retiring much later. For many, retirement becomes an unobtainable dream." says Brandy Gabrielle, an economics professor.
Henry Metcalf, a 54-year-old journalist, knows it takes money to raise kids. But he's also worried that his energy will give out first. Sure, he can still ride bikes with his athletic fifth grader, but he's learned that young at heart doesn't mean young. Lately he's been taking afternoon naps to keep up his energy. "My body is aging," says Metcalf. "You can't get away from that."
Often, older parents hear the ticking of another kind of biological clock. Therapists who work with middle-aged and older parents say fears about aging are nothing to laugh at. "They worry they'll be mistaken for grandparents, or that they'll need help getting up out of those little chairs in nursery school," says Joann Gals, a New York psychologist. But at the core of those little fears there is often a much bigger one: "that they won't be alive long enough to support and protect their children," she says.
Many late-life parents, though, say their children came at just the right time. After marrying late and undergoing years of pregnancy treatment, Marilyn Nolen and her husband, Randy, had twins. "We both wanted children," says Marilyn, who was 55 when she gave birth. The twins have given the couple what they desired for years -- a sense of family. Kids of older dads are often smarter, happier and more sociable because their fathers are more involved in their lives. "The dads are older, more mature," says Dr. Silber, "and more ready to focus on parenting." | high6894.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "They dislike openly expressing feelings or opinions."
},
"options": [
"They don't think it is polite behavior.",
"They have sales every January.",
"They can always get a better price somewhere else.",
"They dislike open... | In the UK, we like a good bargain. People flock to the sales in January, when stores slash their prices to get rid of all their winter stock. But surprisingly, the British hate _ In markets you might see the odd British person battling with a stall owner to bring down the price of a pair of trousers or some furniture. Generally, though, people from the UK are too reserved to haggle. If we think the price of something we want is too high, we'll simply move on and try somewhere else.
The act of bargaining with someone is very theatrical, in my opinion. It's a test to see who can stand their ground for the longest. But it is not in British people's nature to "perform" in public, especially around strangers.
However, in the US, people are generally more willing to haggle. And if you wander into a market, you're likely to hear a number of phrases that Americans reserve for such occasions.
First, " _ " is commonly said by the customer to indicate they think the stall holder is working very hard, probably a little too hard, to get the price he wants.
Or you might hear the buyer telling a stall holder that "the kid's gotta have braces", which means they don't have enough spare money lying around to afford the price being offered.
If the customer is really shocked at the price suggested by the seller, they also might say "you're killing me" to indicate that they think the price is far too high.
In Britain, it's difficult to imagine anyone saying anything along these lines. If I were forced to bargain, I'd probably say, very simply: "I'm going to make you an offer." If that offer were refused, I think I'd just walk away. | high3734.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "It should be very dry."
},
"options": [
"It should be very dry.",
"The stronger, the better.",
"The smaller the granules are, the better.",
"It should be of a certain brand."
],
"question": "Which is the right w... | A car that runs on coffee is unveiled(shown to the public for the first time)today but at between 25 and 50 times the cost of running a car on petrol, the invention won't please any motor industry accountants.
Nicknamed the Car-puccino, it has been created using a 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco bought for PS400 and it was chosen because it looked like the time-traveling DeLorean in the movieBack To The Future.The car will be driven the 210 miles between Manchester and London powered only by roasted coffee granules .It has been built by a team from the BBC1 science programme Bang Goes The Theory and will go on display at the Big Bang science fair in Manchester to show how fuels other than traditional petrol can power vehicles.
The team calculates the Car-puccino will do three miles per kilo of ground coffee -- about 56 cups of espressos per mile.The journey will use about 70 kilos of ground coffee which, at supermarket prices of between PS13 and PS26 a kilo depending on brand and quality, will cost between PS910 and PS1,820, or between 25 and 50 times the PS36 cost of petrol for the journey.In total, the trip will cost 11,760 espressos, and the team will have to take 'coffee breaks' roughly every 30 to 45 miles to pour in more granules.They will also have to stop about every 60 miles to clean out the 'coffee filters' to rid them of the soot and tar which is also generated by the process.So despite a top speed of 60mph, the many stops mean the going will be slow, with the journey taking around ten hours.
Sadly, the inventors will still have to pay duty on their coffee fuel---even though tax collectors at Her Majesty's Revenue and Custom haven't yet worked out how much.
Nick Watson, producer of Bang Goes The Theory, said, "Coffee, like wood or coal, has some carbon content so you can use it as a fuel.The coffee needs to be very dry and in granules to allow the air to move through the pile of coffee as it burns.The brand doesn't matter." He said the same technology could be used to power a car on other unusual fuels, such as woodchips or nut shells, construction or agricultural waste. | high11273.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Americans"
},
"options": [
"Japanese",
"Americans",
"our classmates",
"French people"
],
"question": "It is the best way to practice your spoken English with _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
... | Students often want to practice their English outside class. One of the best ways to practice your English is to speak to a foreigner. You may ask, "Is it okay to try to talk to foreigners I see in the street?"
The answer is yes and no, but probably no! If you see a foreigner who looks lost, it is polite to ask him, "May I help you?" But, otherwise, you should probably let them get on with their business. Situations, however, do exist where it is quite all right to talk to foreigners. If a foreigner enters your school, classroom, office, shop or restaurant, for instance, feel free to ask him (for example):
-- What is your name?
-- Where do you come from?
-- What do you think of Beijing?
-- How long will you stay in Beijing?
There are also situations where it's okay to talk to foreigners in public places. If you see a foreigner alone in a restaurant, bar or coffee shop, it may be appropriate to ask him or her:
-- Is this seat free?
-- Do you mind if I talk to you in English?
You can probably help them if they are new in China and if they are alone, you may be able to make them feel more welcome.
After a few such questions, you should know whether this person wants to talk to you or not. If they ask you similar questions, or if they give long, informative answers, you're in luck. If not, then give them their privacy. Talking to strangers is fun if you choose the right time and place. | high17602.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Shanghai"
},
"options": [
"Beijing",
"Korea",
"Shanghai",
"HongKong"
],
"question": "The audience in_can watch the performance given by Leon Lai from tomorrow to September.",
"question_type": "cloze_question... | South Korean films
Beijing audience can view five South Korean films,all with Chinese subtitles ,until April 19 at the Tuixin Cinema on Being National Library grounds.
Location:Tuixin Cinema,Being National Library,39 Baishiqiao Road,Haidian Distict.
Telephone:86415566
"The King and the Clown" April 15: 9:00,13:00,15:30,19:30
"My Wife is Gangster" April 16: 9:00,13:30,18:15
"Marrying the Mafia" April 18: 9:00,13:30,18:15
"Another Public Enemy" April 18: 9:00,13:30,15:30,18:15
"Sex is Zero" April 19: 9:00,13:30,15:30,17:30 19:30
prefix = st1 /Leon's show
Hong Kong pop star--Leon Lai will give a personal performance at 7:30 pm from tomorrow through to September 21 at Shanghai Gymnasium.
Tickets:60,90,120,180 yuan,available at 66 Jiangning Road.
Address:Shanghai Gymnasium,1111 Caoxi Road N.
Tel:29189188,29171145,49384952,29197113Russian concert
The Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra will put on some excellent Russian choral works at 7:15 pm on September 26 and 27 at the Shanghai Concert Hall. They will sing Russian folk songs and a Mass under a Russian conductor who is very famous and has given a successful choral concert in Beijing.
Tickets:6,8,10,12 yuan,available at the hall's ticket office.
Address:523 Yan'an Road M. Shanghai
Tel:32275694Korean songs
The Song and Dance Troupe of the RepublicofKoreawill give a Song and Dance show at 7:30 pm tonight at the Shanghai Center Theatre.
Tickets:10,20,30 yuan,available at the theatre's ticket office
Address:1376 Nanjing Road W. Shanghai
Tel:29798663 | high18531.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "To rid public of fears and worries about the safety of GM foods."
},
"options": [
"To show evidence that GM products are dangerous.",
"To support that the first China Golden Rice Tasting is safe.",
"To rid public of fears and... | Public caught up in argument over safety of genetically modified or simply GM products, report Zhang Lei and Zhong Nan in Beijing.
More than 300 people gathered to enjoy a bowl of porridge made from genetically modified food on Saturday, an attempt to quell public fears about the safety of the product.
The first China Golden Rice Tasting Event was held at Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, Hubei province, sparking another round in the nationwide debate about the safety of GM crops, often called "Frankenfood" by opponents.
Similar events have been held in more than 28 cities since May, the university said.
Both the pro and anti camps have posted conflicting comments on the Internet, with each providing evidence to back up their beliefs, but the exchanges are becoming increasingly bitter.
Jiang Tao, a senior engineer at the Center for Agricultural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who is in favor of GM foods, was annoyed about what he called "amateurs" spreading rumors.
"Just look at the people who are opposed to GM foods; can you find anyone from a related field in the scientific community?" he asked. Jiang also accused the anti-GM lobby of repeatedly using outdated or inaccurate data to support an "incorrect" stance.
Chen Yunfa, an independent researcher into the Yangtze River Delta economy, recently wrote a commentary on the Internet news portal Eastday in which he criticized the actions of the 61 scientists, saying they had gone "beyond their proper duty". He suggested that large multinational corporations might be behind the letter and similar incidents, prompted by a desire to freeze China's patent hybrid rice technology out of the market.
To support his contentions, Chen said that GM rice, first produced by scientists in the US, still hasn't gained official approval from the US government. However, the US authorities have actually granted licenses to six varieties of GM rice. The commercial planting of two varieties - anti-herbicide (BAR) transgenic rice LL RICE 06 and LL RICE 62 - produced by the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis, was approved in 1999 and a license for cultivation for edible use was granted in 2000.
The public outcry for GM labeling and boycotting has hindered the advancement of the technology. Concern about GM foods has been fueled by studies like the one published by French professor Gilles-Eric Seralini in September 2012. Seralini claimed that his research involving rats proved that the GM corn fed to them caused tumor growth. Furthermore, there is growing concern that the pesticides used on GMOs are contributing to the decline of the world's honey bee population, leading to honey bee deaths by infecting the brains of the insects with toxins. Therefore, some experts recommend the labeling of non-GM foods so that consumers can make that decision without a regulatory burden being placed on GMOs.
However, we should be cautious about anything that may risk humans' life. Only time will tell. | high5345.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "The positive relationship between music and efficiency."
},
"options": [
"The positive relationship between music and efficiency.",
"The speed and accuracy of problem-solving tasks.",
"The comparison of different kinds of mus... | Whether it is Mozart or Miley,your choice of music could determine whether you will perform well al your work.
A new study suggests that listening to music in the office improves the speed and accuracy of tasks such as data entry,proof reading and problem solving.
In an office-based experiment,88 pet cent of participants were found to produce their most accurate work when listening to music.
The study also found that 81 per cent completed their fastest work when music was played.
And it matters what type of music you listen to.For instance,if you're doing your tax returns,then classical music is the most effective as it improves maths skills.
Listening to Jessie J or Justin Bieber could also improve your speed,with 58 per cent of participants completing data entry tasks faster while listening to pop songs.
During proof-reading,dance music,such as David Guetta,had the biggest positive impact with participants increasing their speed by 20 per cent compared to tests undertaken with no music at a11.
Dance music also had a positive effect on spell-checking with a 75 per cent pass rate compared to 68 percent when no music was played al a11.
The research,undertaken by Brighton-based Mindlab International,suggests that silent offices may be the least productive.
"The music experiment showed that when listening to music,nine out of 10 people performed better,"said Dr.David Lewis.Chairman of Mindlab International.
"Proper music enables people to quickly process and keep information,regulate their behaviors,make good choices,solve problems,plan and adjust to changing mental demands,"a senior investigator of Mindlab International explains.
"While many schools are cutting music programs and spending more and more time on test preparation,our findings suggest that musical training may actually help to set up children for a better academic future."added D r.David Lewis. | high8891.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "be careful about making decisions"
},
"options": [
"care about people around them",
"do something for the prisoners",
"be careful about making decisions",
"improve awareness of personal safety"
],
"question": "P... | A program in the United States invites young people to visit a prison. The goal is to teach them to avoid bad choices and bad influences that could put them behind bars for life.
Students can take a tour of the prison, in school groups or by themselves.At the end, the young people sit down for a discussion with some of the _ . The program is called Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy, or PATT. It takes place at the Maryland Correctional Institution-HagerstoWn, a medium-security prison for men. Sal Mauriello, a case specialist, said,"We have a group of eleven _ who are in the PATT program. They tell the youth what they went through as a child, what their crimes consist of. They try to teach them about peer pressure . They try to teach them about bad choices." The Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy program also includes an essay-writing contest, and most teens who visit come to understand what even one bad decision can mean.
Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy began in 1988. It is one of Maryland's oldest programs to keep young people from a life of crime. But there are also others. Prison spokesman Mark Vernarelli said, "We found that girls really need special sit-down sessions sometimes more than boys do, so we have a program for girls only. we also have a program that travels across the state,which talks about the dangers of gang affiliation ."
The prisoners in the PATT program also gain from the program. It offers them a chance to help repay society for their crimes, and keep others from following in their footsteps. | high22849.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "keep nodding like a woodpecker"
},
"options": [
"keep one's eyes open all the time",
"move head back and forth",
"raise one's head in upright position",
"keep nodding like a woodpecker"
],
"question": "After a b... | If you are a sleep deprived teacher, you may not be aware of the term woodpeckering , but you've probably done it. It happens the day following a bad night's sleep. You're sitting in a long meeting and you can barely keep your eyes open, so you support your head up with your hand. Next thing you know, you are moving your sleeping head back to its upright position. Do this a few times and you are woodpeckering.
I thought I knew sleep deprivation when I did my medical internship in hospital. That year I frequently went 36 hours with no sleep. When I finished my stay in neurology , I welcomed the promise of full nights of sleep ever after. It went pretty well for the next 10 years until I became a school teacher and experienced a whole new level of sleep deprivation.
Teachers' working hours go far beyond the 8 am to 5 pm schedule of kids in school. There are hours spent at staff meetings, correcting homework, preparing for the next day- and then there is the worrying. What I did in a hospital emergency room required no more intensive mental energy than what is need to keep 30 kids attentive enough to learn what I was teacher.
Good teachers are like magicians keeping a dozen balls in the air to come at right time, with alarm set for 6 am to finish grading papers, memories of the day that's gone- including the students who didn't understand something, forgot their lunch or were embarrassed by wrong answers. All these will become sleep-resistant barriers. And also with some financial stress, you'll have a cycle of insomnia with unwelcome consequences.
With inadequate sleep comes irritability , forgetfulness, lower tolerance of even minor annoyances, and less efficient organization and planning. These are the very mental useless that teachers need to meet the challenges of the next day. In wanting to do a better job the next day, the brain keeps bringing up the worries that deny the rest it needs. | high9557.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "He pushed Miss Havisham in the wheel chair."
},
"options": [
"He placed the garden chair on the broad landing.",
"He walked with Estella's hand upon his shoulder.",
"He learned knowledge from Miss Havisham.",
"He pushed... | On the broad landing between Miss Havisham's own room and that other room in which the long table was laid out, I saw a garden chair -- a light chair on wheels that you pushed from behind. It had been placed there since my last visit, and that same day I pushed Miss Havisham in this chair (when she was tired of walking with her hand upon my shoulder) round her own room, and across the landing and round the other room, which, from that day on, became my regular job.
As we began to be more used to one another, Miss Havisham talked more to me, and asked me such questions as what had I learnt and what was I going to be? I told her I was going to be apprenticed to Joe, my sister's husband; then I explained my knowing nothing and wanting to know everything, in the hope that she might offer some help. But, she did not; on the contrary, she seemed to prefer my being ignorant. Neither did she ever give me any money - or anything but my daily dinner - nor even mentioned that I should be paid for my services.
Estella was always about, and always let me in and out, but never told me I might kiss her again. Sometimes, she would coldly tolerate me; sometimes, she would be seemingly kind to me; sometimes, she would be quite familiar with me; sometimes, she would tell me energetically that she hated me. Miss Havisham would often ask me in a whisper, or when we were alone, "Does she grow prettier and prettier, Pip?" And when I said yes, Miss Havisham would seem to enjoy it greedily. Also, when we played at cards Miss Havisham would look on Estella's moods, whatever they were. And sometimes, when her moods were so many and so contradictory of one another that I was puzzled what to say or do, Miss Havisham would hold her tightly with great fondness, saying something quietly in her ear that sounded like "Break their hearts my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy!" | high14323.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "predict the applications of RFID technology"
},
"options": [
"warn people of the possible risks in adopting RFID technology",
"explain the benefits brought about by RFID technology",
"convince people of the uses of RFID techn... | Imagine you're at a party full of strangers. You're nervous. Who are these people? How do you start a conversation? Fortunately, you've got a thing that sends out energy at tiny chips in everyone's name tag . The chips send back name, job, hobbies, and the time available for meeting-whatever. Making new friends becomes simple.
This hasn't quite happened in real life. But the world is already experiencing a revolution using RFID technology.
An RFID tag with a tiny chip can be fixed in a product, under your pet's skin, even under your own skin. Passive RFID tags have no energy source-batteries because they do not need it. The energy comes from the reader, a scanning device ,that sends out energy (for example, radio waves)that starts up the tag immediately.
Such a tag carries information specific to that object, and the data can be updated. Already, RFID technology is used for recognizing each car or truck on the road and it might appear in your passport. Doctors can put a tiny chip under the skin that will help locate and obtain a patient's medical records. At a nightclub in Paris or in New York the same chip gets you into the VIP (very important person) section and pays for the bill with the wave of an arm.
Take a step back: 10 or 12 years ago, you would have heard about the coming age of computing. One example always seemed to surface: Your refrigerator would know when you needed to buy more milk. The concept was that computer chips could be put everywhere and send information in a smart network that would make ordinary life simpler.
RFID tags are a small part of this phenomenon. "The world is going to be a loosely coupled set of individual small devices, connected wirelessly," predicts Dr.J.Reich. Human right supporters are nervous about the possibilities of such technology. It goes too far tracking school kids through RFID tags, they say. We imagine a world in which a beer company could find out not only when you bought a beer but also when you drank it. And how many beers accompanied by how many biscuits.
When Marconi invented radio, he thought it would be used for ship-to-shore communication. Not for pop music. Who knows how RFID and related technologies will be used in the future. Here's a wild guess: Not for buying milk. | high8649.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Some drivers weren't patient when she backed out."
},
"options": [
"The writer's car prevented her from driving out.",
"There were too many cars parked on her way.",
"Other drivers wouldn' t let her car back out.",
"Som... | Recently we've had a popular department store open in our area. It's been the talk of the town for months. On about the third day of the grand opening, I thought I'd stop by to check it out. I noticed right away that the parking area was very busy.
As I was about to exit my car, a lady was about to enter her car to leave. She was parked on the opposite side of me and there was a four way stop behind our parking areas. As the lady tried to back out to leave, some of the shoppers were extremely rude to her. They shouted and beeped their horns at the lady and she had a look of terror on her face. She looked at me and threw up both of her hands as if she didn't know what to do.
I gestured for the lady to put her window down and I told her that she was doing just fine. She smiled and seemed to relax. I then became her rear view mirror as it was hard for her to see behind her while backing out of the parking space. As I watched for safety, she was able to back out enough to drive forward.
At this point, she was smiling broadly!She thanked me many times. I felt that many of the other drivers weren't sympathetic enough toward. I was happy to help that lady. Besides that, who knows, we may have avoided a potential accident with this simple act of patience and kindness. | high22691.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "The bid's result of the Canal will be announced soon"
},
"options": [
"The bid's result of the Canal will be announced soon",
"the Canal is the UNESCO's newest world heritage site",
"the Canal is to connect Tongzhou with Zhej... | When it comes to cultural heritage protection, the Grand Canal of China is probably the world's greatest project of its kind. The big inland waterway system in the north-eastern and central eastern plains passes through eight of the country's present-day provinces.
The Canal runs from Beijing in the north to Zhejiang Province in the south. Constructed in sections from the 5th century BC onwards, it was designed as a means of communication in the 7th century AD. The Canal is the world's greatest civil engineering project before the Industrial Revolution.
The Grand Canal reached a peak in the 13th century, providing an inland navigation network consisting of more than 2,000 kilometers of artificial waterways, linking five of the most important river basins in China, including the Yellow River and the Yangtze. It entered a bid as a UNESCO cultural heritage site in 2008.
The Grand Canal cultural square is located in Beijing's Tongzhou district. Ever since the Yuan dynasty 800 years ago, the Tongzhou section of the Grand Canal has been the life blood of Beijing. Grain and building materials were all transported to meet the endless demands of the big cities. Even today, the Grand Canal plays a major role in the lives of its citizens.
"I grew up near the Grand Canal. In the past the waterway was a lot narrower, but now it's nice and wide and bridges are built over it. I think if the bid for world heritage status succeeds, it will greatly make Tongzhou more famous in the world, especially with Tongzhou aiming to be a sub-center of the capital Beijing," a citizen said.
The result of the bid is set to be released next week, and no doubt it will certainly make it into the history books if the Canal is listed as a world heritage site. | high12752.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Its name may come from its appearance."
},
"options": [
"It doesn't provide food for visitors.",
"Visitors can take their pets to it.",
"Its name may come from its appearance.",
"Visitors can't make phone calls there."
... | It's always good to experience something new in life. Traveling gives plenty of such opportunities and when you choose a hotel to stay in next time, here, on this website, is a list of 4 most weird hotels in the world.
Dog Bark Park Inn
If you keep a dog and love animals, then you will definitely become a fan of this hotel. The shape of the hotel reminds you of a dog. Here visitors will find a microwave oven to prepare a simple meal, games, puzzles and books to entertain themselves, an air conditioner and of course a bath. There is no TV set or a phone though.
Das Park Hotel
You will love the place because it is perfectly adjusted to basic human needs. However, there is one disadvantage to all these. The matter is that bathroom facilities are not included in the price. Each room here is quite small, but has a bed, electricity and air conditioning.
CasAnus
Read the name of the hotel attentively and you will easily guess what place exactly you are going to spend your vacation in! The hotel is situated in Kemzeke, Belgium and was designed by Joep van Lieshout. Do not say no to this hotel since it is quite comfortable and nice inside.
Hobbit Motel
Deep inside we stay kids forever. This is what the creators of the Hobbit Motel kept in mind when they were creating this motel. The Hobbit Motel is located in Woodlyn Park, New Zealand. You will recognize the inn by its blocks it is made of and the green roof covered with a thick layer of grass. | high19607.txt |
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