questions list | article stringlengths 9 6.44k | id stringlengths 9 14 |
|---|---|---|
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "It was very conservative and uninteresting."
},
"options": [
"It was very conservative and uninteresting.",
"It was influenced by French cooking.",
"It was very unhealthy.",
"It was plentiful"
],
"question": "Wh... | In today's prefix = st1 /Ireland, it seems hard to imagine the grim days of the 19thcentury when so many of the population starved, or that, in those days, many poor people had no clue how to prepare any food other than boil a potato. Nowadays, it is quite possible to eat both well and heartily all over the island.
Tourism has made a _ difference to the standards of cooking inIreland. Until recently there was hardly any tradition of eating out in many districts, except perhaps on very few occasions at a local hotel. Patterns of diet were old-styled, based firmly on 'meat and two vegetables' (somewhat overcooked), potatoes (of course) and large quantities of dairy produce. Now things are very different. Tourist demands for predictable, inexpensive fast-food are met, as everywhere, with hamburgers and pizzas - a better bet being fish and chips. But more sophisticated tastes have introduced wholefoods and vegetarian restaurants (almost unheard of before), and a vast number of new restaurants, often French in style, have opened in the main tourist centres. Food 'events' such as Kinsale's Gourmet festival or Galway's Oyster Festival attract large numbers of visitors and reflect the new interest in food.
Whatever Irish cooking lacks in finesse , it nearly always makes up for in plenty, and ingredients are of a high quality. Home-grown produce includes rich dairy foods, beef, lamb and pork, and a great variety of seafood. One of its great specialities is soda bread. It is made with buttermilk and is served fresh and warm with every meal. Recently there has been a return to simple Irish foods such as stews and potato dishes.
One of the best-value meals in Irelandis breakfast. A 'traditional Irish breakfast' is a plateful of bacon and eggs with soda and potato breads. Accommodation rates are nearly always quoted with a full breakfast included, so you might as well eat enough to keep you going all day and get your money's worth! | high19997.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "is more of an Earth's cousin than an Earth's twin"
},
"options": [
"is more of an Earth's cousin than an Earth's twin",
"has a lot in common with Earth, including their parent stars",
"is a lot bigger than Earth",
"is s... | A newly discovered planet looks just right for life as we know it, according to an international group of astronomers. Orbiting a star about 500 light-years away, the planet called Kepler-186f is about the same size as Earth. It orbits its star at the right distance for liquid water on the surface. That is a necessary condition for life as we know it.
But it is not exactly like Earth, NASA planetary scientist Elisa Quintana said. "It's more of an Earth's cousin. It's not an Earth's twin. It shares the same characteristics as Earth, but their parent stars are very different," said Quintana.
Kepler-186f orbits a star that is smaller and cooler than our sun. But, writing in the journal Science, the astronomers say the planet appears to be a closer than most of the hundreds of others discovered so far. Some are massive gas-covered giants with thick, crushing atmospheres. Others orbit too close to their stars and are too hot for life.
Two planets discovered last year are in the right orbit and might be good candidates for life, Quintana says, but they are a bit bigger than Earth. "For the first time, we can actually say we now have a planet that is both Earth-sized and orbits in its star's habitable zone," she said.
It may be the first time, but it probably is not the last, says Massachusetts Institute of Technology astrophysicist Sara Seager. "We've been waiting decades to understand how common habitable planets might be, and it's looking like they're really common. And this gives us excitement and motivation to take the next step," said Seager.
The next step would be to look for signs of life in the atmospheres of these distant worlds. That would take a more sophisticated (;) space telescope. But budget cuts threaten that mission, says University of California at Los Angeles astrophysicist Ben Zuckerman. "In principle, we could do this in the next few decades. But in practice, because there's no money, it's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen in my lifetime, for example."
Leaving earthbound concerns behind, NASA's Elisa Quintana believes that when the next-generation space telescope is launched, it will find that we are not alone in the universe. | high18451.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "change her life by marrying rich"
},
"options": [
"master the skills of writing",
"marry the one she loved",
"change her life by marrying rich",
"obey her parents"
],
"question": "In the 19th century, a poor gir... | There are some topics that readers never grow bored with, and the search for a suitable partner is one of them. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, first published in 1813, tells the story of five young women, all of whom are looking for a husband. In order to fully understand the novel, the readers must know that at the time when Jane Austen was writing, if a family was not rich, the daughters needed to marry well in order to live a comfortable, independent life. That is the reason why Mrs Bennet, the mother of the five girls, is so eager to have her daughters married.
The heroine of the story is Elizabeth Bennet, and as in all good romantic novels, she and Darcy, the man she finally marries, remain separate until the very end of the story. The wealthy Darcy is a proud, unsociable man, and when Elizabeth hears that he has insulted both her and her family, she dislikes him very much. Poor Darcy then falls head over heels in love with Elizabeth, and has to work terribly hard to persuade her to change her mind about him. He succeeds of course, and they live happily ever after.
Set at the turn of the 19th century, the novel is still attractive to modern readers. It has become one of the most popular novels and receives great attention from literary scholars .Modern interest in the book has resulted in a number of dramas and a lot of novels and stories modeling after Austen's memorable characters or themes. To date, the book has sold some 20 million copies worldwide.
Jane Austen is rightly famous for her style. Her sentences have a wonderful rhythm , and she makes such clever, true comments about people. It is not surprising that Pride and Prejudice has lasted. | high5225.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "they weren't using seat belts"
},
"options": [
"they weren't using seat belts",
"they were too careful when they walked on the road",
"they were not old enough to sit in the car",
"they wore seat belts"
],
"ques... | Everyone gets sick of hearing. "Put on your seat belt!"But it's good advice. People who wear seat belts are 45 percent less likely to be killed while riding in the front seat of a car.
The US government wants more seat belt laws. It says children aged 4 to 15 are often killed in car accidents. In 2005, there were 1,627 children aged 4 to 15 killed in car accidents. More than 1,000 of those children were not wearing seat belts. If they had been wearing seat belts, 500 of those children could be alive today.
These children are too old to be in car seats, but they often sit in the back seat. Seat belt laws in many states, including Wisconsin, only require people in the front seat to wear seat belts. Children who aren't wearing seat belts can be thrown from the car. The risk of dying in an accident is three times greater if the person is thrown from the car.
New laws could require children aged 4 to 8 to be in booster seats in the car. Booster seats help seat belts fit children properly. Right now, only 5 percent of children aged 4 to 8 are seated in booster seats.
While parents have the choice of whether wearing seat belts or not, children are too young to make that choice. Even if you decide not to wear a seat belt, make sure you children are in seat belts and car seats. It's the law and it will save their lives. | high3654.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "He was to meet his girlfriend."
},
"options": [
"He had to pick up some groceries.",
"He had to go back to school soon.",
"He was delayed by an elderly lady.",
"He was to meet his girlfriend."
],
"question": "Wh... | I was in a rush as always, but this time it was for an important date I just couldn't be late for! I found myself at a checkout counter behind an elderly woman seemingly in no hurry as she paid for her groceries. A PhD student with not a lot of money, I had hurried into the store to pick up some flowers. I was in a huge rush, thinking of my upcoming evening. I did not want to be late for this date.
We were in Boston, a place not always known for small conversation between strangers. The woman stopped unloading her basket and looked up at me. She smiled. It was a nice smile -warm and reassuring -and I returned _ by smiling back.
"Must be a special lady, whoever it is that will be getting those beautiful flowers," she said.
"Yes, she's special," I said, and then to my embarrassment, the words kept coming out.
"It's only our second date, but somehow I am just having the feeling she's 'the one'." Jokingly, I added, "The only problem is that I can't figure out why she'd want to date a guy like me."
"Well, I think she's very lucky to have a boyfriend who brings her such lovely flowers and who is obviously in love with her," the woman said." "My husband used to bring me flowers every week -even when times were tough and we didn't have much money. Those were incredible days; he was very romantic and - of course - I miss him since he's passed away."
I paid for my flowers as she was gathering up her groceries. There was no doubt in my mind as I walked up to her. I touched her on the shoulder and said, "You were right, you know. These flowers are indeed for a very special lady." I handed her the flowers and thanked her for such a nice conversation.
It took her a moment to realize that I was giving her the flowers I had just purchased. "You have a wonderful evening," I said. I left her with a big smile and my heart warmed as I saw her smelling the beautiful flowers.
I remember being slightly late for my date that night and telling my girlfriend the above story. A couple of years later, when I finally worked up the courage to ask her to marry me, she told me that this story had helped to seal it for her -that was the night that I won her heart. | high8701.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "31"
},
"options": [
"14",
"26",
"31",
"50"
],
"question": "How old was Doris Lessing when she published her first novel?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": ... | In Stockholm, the Swedish Academy has chosen the British author Doris Lessing for the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The selection of Doris Lessing for a Nobel was popular among the hundreds of journalists gathered for the announcement in Stockholm.
Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy Horace Engdahl said with skepticism, fire and visionary power Lessing has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny.
Doris Lessing was born in 1919 in Persia - modern-day Iran - to British parents, moving as a child with her family to southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where she stayed in school only to the age of 14.
A year after moving to London, she published her first novel in 1950.The Grass is Singingexamines unbridgeable racial conflict in colonial Africa through the eyes of a white farmer's wife and her black servant.
A member of the British Communist Party during the 1950s and a campaigner against nuclear arms and South African apartheid, Lessing was for years banned from that country and from Rhodesia.
Her literary breakthrough came in 1962 with publication ofThe Golden Notebook, seen by many, though not necessarily Lessing, as a pioneering work of modern feminism. A disjointed study of the mind of the main character, Anna Wulf, the novel explores her thoughts about Africa, politics and communism, relationships with men and sex, and Jungian analysis and dream interpretation.
Lessing's themes shifted to psychology in her works from the 1960s, and by the 1970s she was fascinated with the Islamic mystic tradition of Sufism. Her turn toward science fiction withthe Canopusseries in the early 1980s was not warmly received by traditionalist critics, but she has continued to win new readers and numerous literary awards, including the David Cohen British Literary Prize and the Companion of Honour from the Royal Society of Literature, both in 2001.
Following the announcement, the Horace Engdahl told VOA why he was personally so pleased with Lessing's selection.
"She is one of the truly great writers - of novels, short stories, fiction and non-fiction," Engdahl said. "She is one of the few writers who have had the courage to uphold the principle of equality between the male and female experience, and she has given the impulse to numbers of other women writers. And she is really the mother of a _ that is one of the most important in our contemporary literature."
At 87, Doris lessing is the oldest Nobel Literature laureate since the first prizes were awarded in 1901. Each Nobel Prize is this year accompanied by a check for approximately $1.4 million. | high15175.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "learn our own history"
},
"options": [
"write our own stories",
"learn our own history",
"understand the importance of history",
"have a proper attitude towards history"
],
"question": "The passage mainly encour... | Understanding one's own history is important for young people's learning and development. Students are often asked to write a story about their own family's history or about a special person in their family. But too rarely do students focus on the history of their own community or their own people, in a way that helps them to understand why they find themselves in a particular situation.
When people understand their own history, they are able to _ the influence of the social structures that sometimes limit the possibilities in their lives. Taking this approach opens the door for young people to be managers of their own learning and development as they understand why they find themselves where they are. ,
Many people I have been talking to about this issue agree that not only schools but also public bodies and families have failed to educate young people about their own history. And I know from my own experience how difficult it was for my father to talk about his family's experience in 1944.This may be a reflection of the sadness that people feel about that history and not wanting to make it a burden on their young people. But in today's situation, those I spoke with now clearly see that as a mistake.
If our society is ever to find a way to properly deal with the influence of our own history, including what has happened to our Native American, African-American and Latino friends, our schools must step up to help young people understand their own stories. Families and related social bodies must do the same. | high13504.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "A Modern Tale of Two Cities"
},
"options": [
"Londoners and Parisians",
"A Modern Tale of Two Cities",
"The Similarity of Two Cities",
"Fancy London and FashionableParis"
],
"question": "The best title for this ... | LONDON--A morning's train ride away, across the Channel, English kids talk about Liverpool's soccer team in aprefix = st1 /Parispub.
Some Parisians have even started to go to work in London.
In the 19thcentury, Charles Dickens compared the two great rival cities, London and Paris, in "A Tale of Two Cities." These days, it might be A Tale of One City.
Parisians are these days likely to smile in sympathy at a visitor's broken French and respond in polite English.
As jobs grew lack at home over recent years, perhaps 250,000 Frenchmen moved across the Channel. With an undersea tunnel, they could travel between cities in three hours. The European Union freed them from immigration and customs.
Paris, rich in beauty, is more attractive. But Londonfeels more full of life, and more fun until the pubs shut down.
"For me, the difference is that Londonis real, alive," said Trevor Wheeler, a banker.
Chantal Jaouen, a professional designer, agrees. "I am French, but I'll stay in London," she said.
There is, of course, the other view. Julie Lenoux is a student who moved to Londontwo years ago. "I think people laugh more inParis," she said.
In fact, London and Paris, with their obvious new similarities, are beyond the cold descriptions. As the European Union gradually loosened controls, Londoners _ intoParisto shop, eat and buy property.
"Both cities have changed beyond recognition." Said Larry Collins, a writer and sometimes a Londoner.
Like most people who know both well, he finds the two now fit together comfortably.
"I first fell in love with Parisin the 1950s, and it is still a wonderful place," Collins said.
"But if I had to choose, it would be London. Things are so much more ordered, and life is better."
But certainly not cheaper.
In fancy parts of London, rents can be twice those on Avenue Foch in Paris.
Deciding between London and Parisrequires a lifestyle choice.
Like Daphne Benoit, a French journalism student with perfect English, many young people are happy to be close enough so they don't have to choose.
"I love Paris, my little neighborhood, the way I can walk around a centre, but life is so structured," she said. "InLondon, you can be who you want. No one cares." | high22901.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "direct contact with a variety of plants has decreased"
},
"options": [
"people no longer value plants as a useful resource",
"direct contact with a variety of plants has decreased",
"botany is not recognized as a special bran... | Botany , the study of plants, occupies a particular position in the history of human knowledge.For many thousands of years it was the one field of awareness about which humans had anything more than the vaguest ) of insights.It is impossible to know today just what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can observe of pre-industrial societies that still exist, a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient.This is logical.Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things even for other plants.They have always been enormously important to the welfare of people not only for food but also for clothing, tools, medicines, shelter, and a great many other purposes.Tribes living today in the jungle of the Amazon recognize hundreds of plants and know many properties of each.To them, botany has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of "knowledge" at all.
Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become, the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct our knowledge grows.Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose or an apple.When nor Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer fields the next season--the first, great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken.Grains were discovered and from them flowed the wonder of agriculture: cultivated crops.From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild, and the accumulated knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience with plants in the wild would begin to fade away. | high1725.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "The origin and popularity of the TV firelog."
},
"options": [
"The origin and popularity of the TV firelog.",
"Famous holiday traditions.",
"What makes the TV firelog so popular.",
"The TV firelog today."
],
"qu... | There are many traditions around the holidays. "Holiday traditions" are things that people do every year during a holiday such as Christmas or Thanksgiving. At Christmas, for example, many people put up a Christmas tree or Christmas lights. These are Christmas traditions that have been going on for many years. But there is a "new" Christmas tradition that has become very popular: _ , a TV channel that shows nothing but a large log fire, blazing in a fireplace.
People put it on their TV and it makes them feel like they are watching and listening to a crackling fire. It makes them feel calm and comfortable. The origin dates back to 1986 in Canada. At that time, not very many people knew about it or watched the channel. Today, more than three million people watch the firelog channel during the winter holiday season. That year, the firelog channel was created to give the workers in the company that is now called Shaw Cable, a break at Christmas. By running the firelog during the holidays, everyone could go home for a few days and enjoy a bit of time off.
At that time, it was only broadcast to people in Edmonton but today it reaches people across Canada and beyond. This year, the Shaw firelog was updated. It is pretty high tech. Although it's still really just a fire log that has been filmed, it has its own Twitter account (@ShawFireLog), its own Facebook page and it even has a computer App so you can see the burning log on a smartphone or a tablet. The Shaw firelog will burn until Jan. 5 on Shaw Cable, channel 222. | high9379.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "She didn't like waking up her baby."
},
"options": [
"He did not like shopping with a child in hand.",
"She didn't like waking up her baby.",
"Stephen was big enough to take care of his sister.",
"It was icy cold outsid... | "Keep an eye on Esther. I'll be back in a second," Joy Warren said to her three-year-old son Stephen, who was sitting in the back of the Buick. She didn't like leaving the children alone in the car, but the baby was sleeping soundly. And it would only be a moment.
She had hardly walked 40 yards when she saw the car moving. It headed straight towards the river. Unable to swim, Joy shouted, "My babies are in that car!"
Daniel Whitehead, a 17-year-old student, was walking by the river when the Buick crashed into the water just yards ahead .Without thinking, Daniel jumped in. Though a competitive swimmer, he was shocked by the icy chill.
Two minutes earlier, Skip Womack had pulled to a halt as the Buick ran in front of him. Now seeing it hit the water and hearing Joy's cries, Skip got out of his truck and jumped into the water. He had only one thought: If I don't get them out, they'll drown.
Daniel reached the car and grabbed a door handle. But the water was only four inches beneath the window, and the door wouldn't open. With one powerful punch, Daniel and Skip broke a window. Daniel reached inside and lifted Stephen out. He placed him on his back and set out for shore. At the same time, Skip squeezed himself through the window .He managed to free Esther from beneath her seat belt. After he got out of the car with the baby, he held her over the water and swam toward the shore. All this took place just seconds before the Buick disappeared beneath the water.
Later, driving home, Skip thought of his wife and children--how close he'd come to leaving them behind. He thought of the miracle he'd lived through, and how two children were still alive because he and Daniel happened to be in the right place at the right time. | high7354.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Do you have relatives living abroad?"
},
"options": [
"Does your life have a purpose or meaning?",
"Do you have relatives living abroad?",
"Are you satisfied with your everyday life?",
"Is religion involved in your dail... | While residents of wealthy nations tend to have greater life satisfaction, new research shows that those living in poorer nations report having greater meaning in life.
These findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological science, suggest that meaning in life may be higher in poorer nations as a result of greater religiosity . As countries become richer, religion becomes less central to people's lives and they lose a sense of meaning in life.
"Thus far, the wealth of nations has been almost always associated with longevity, health, happiness or life satisfaction," explains psychological scientist Shigehiro Oishi of the University of Virginia. "Given that meaning in life is an important aspect of overall well-being, we wanted to look more carefully at differential patterns, correlates , and predictors for meaning in life."
Oishi and colleague Ed Diener of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign investigated life satisfaction, meaning, and well-being by examining data from the 2007 Gallup World Poll, a large-scale survey of over 140,000 participants from 132 countries. In addition to answering a basic life satisfaction question, participants were asked: "Do you feel your life has an important purpose or meaning?" and "Is religion an important part of your daily life?"
The data revealed some unexpected trends:
"Among Americans, those who are high in life satisfaction are also high in meaning in life," says Oishi. "But when we looked at the societal level of analysis, we found a completely different pattern of the association between meaning in life and life satisfaction."
When looking across many countries, Oishi and Diener found that people in wealthier nations were more educated, had fewer children, and expressed more individualistic attitudes compared to those in poorer countries - all factors that were associated with higher life satisfaction but a significantly lower sense of meaning in life."
The data suggest that religiosity may play an important role: Residents of wealthier nations, where religiosity is lower, reported less meaning in life and had higher suicide rates than poorer countries.
According to the researchers, religion may provide meaning to life to the extent that it helps people to overcome personal difficulty and cope with the struggles of working to survive in poor economic conditions:
"Religion gives a system that connects daily experiences with the coherent whole and a general structure to one's life ... and plays a critical role in constructing meaning out of extreme hardship," the researchers write.
Oishi and Diener hope to reproduce these findings using more comprehensive measures of meaning and religiosity, and are interested in following countries over time to track whether economic prosperity gives rise to less religiosity and less meaning in life. | high8067.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "His mother gave him some money when he bought the first bike."
},
"options": [
"His mother gave him some money when he bought the first bike.",
"The first bike was a gift from his mother.",
"He bought the first bike for racin... | My bike was a three-speed English "racer", purchased during my second year in college in November 1964 for $44. Most of the money was earned by myself in my spare time, but I had to get my mother to help me out a little. At that time, bikes were rare on a college campus. My reason for getting a bicycle was a little strange. A friend of mine convinced me to take a summer job selling door-to-door and suggested that I should use a bicycle to travel between houses. The job didn't work out, but
was in my brain.
That fall, I borrowed another student's bike and rode 45 miles on the first day, but his bike soon had a flat which he didn't like fixing. So I had to buy one. I immediately started using mine almost every day. Before getting the bike, I sometimes walked 28 miles to my parents' house. Now the bike gave me a quicker method, but my first trip took four hours due to strong headwinds that had me fight for every foot. Once I made a trip of 100 miles in one day. I decided to use the bike to go camping in the Smokies. During the trip, I recognized the need for handlebars and more gears, so I bought a ten-speed after just one year though I loved this bike.
The first bike "hung around" for a couple of years, and then I gave it to my sister's kids who let it become part of their lives. | high15613.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Anxiety and Tests"
},
"options": [
"Tests at college",
"Anxiety and Tests",
"How to Get Rid of Anxiety",
"Counseling Courses Help Students"
],
"question": "The title of the passage should be _",
"question_t... | Ann Whimey, a sophomore at Colorado State University, first had a problem taking tests when she began college. "I was always well prepared for my tests. Sometimes I studied for weeks before a test. Yet I would go to take the test, only to find I could not answer the questions correctly. I would blank out because of nervousness and fear. I couldn't think of the answer."
The young student was experiencing something called test anxiety. Because a student worries and is uneasy about a test, his or her mind does not work as well as it usually does. The student cannot write or think clearly because of the great nervousness. though poor scores are often a result of poor study habits, sometimes test anxiety causes low scores. Recently, test anxiety has been recognized as a real problem, not just an excuse or a false explanation of lazy students.
Special university counseling courses try to help students. In these courses, counselors try to help students by teaching them how to manage test anxiety. At some universities, students take tests to measure their anxiety. If the test shows their anxiety is high, the students can take courses to help them deal with their nervousness. These courses teach students how to relax their bodies. By controlling their nervousness, they can let their minds work at ease, learn information, then come out without difficulty in a test.
An expert at the University of California explains, "With almost all students, relaxation is felt after taking our program. Most of them have better control during their test. Almost all have some improvements. For some, the improvement is very great. | high3132.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "whether TV is a good or bad influence on young people in the modern world"
},
"options": [
"that TV is a central part of many people's lives",
"that Murray would like to see changes to television habits",
"whether TV is a goo... | Television is a central part of many people's lives. There are very few places in the world where one cannot find a television set. Some sporting events, such as the Olympic Games or the football World Cup, can attract audiences of many millions. But is television a good or bad influence on young people in the modern world?
Thomas Murray, president of the British Parents Against Television Society, believes that it has not improved young people's lives. "Television damages family life," he argues. "At mealtime, families no longer talk to each other. In the evenings, youngsters do not spend good quality time with family members. Instead, they watch television." Murray says that this lack of communication leads to social problems.
Murray also believes that the content of television programmes provides young people with poor role models. "There is so much violence on TV--guns, kung fu fighting, and so on. Young people think that all problems should be solved by aggression."
It is not just young people's mental health that worries Murray. "Teenagers don't get enough exercise because they spend so many hours watching television. They also develop back problems from sitting down for so long, and _ from the effort of watching."
Murray would like to see changes to television habits. "Programmes should be educational. Their contents should be nonviolent and healthy. There should be no programmes after ten o'clock in the evening. Parents should teach their children to enjoy their spare time by playing sports or games. And certainly, the television should be switched off during mealtime.
Susan Taylor is a television producer. She believes that television is a good influence on young people. "Television brings the outside world to youngsters. It even brought us pictures from the moon! And look what happens after the Olympic Games or the World Cup matches have been shown on TV. People start to take more exercise. Also, there are a lot of programmes about healthy eating and keeping fit."
However, Taylor agrees with Murray's point of view concerning parents. "Of course parents have a role to play in educating their kids. They should turn the TV off during mealtime and they should talk with their children as often as possible." | high20870.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "explain his or her purpose in writing the book"
},
"options": [
"teach women to repair their sewing machines.",
"explain his or her purpose in writing the book",
"introduce the reasons for doing one's own sewing",
"tell... | As we all know sewing-machine repair is one of the fastest growing businesses in the world today. Newspapers, women's magazines, high schools and colleges are all encouraging millions of American women to do their own sewing, not only to make their own shirts and sweaters, but also to make nice clothes for their husbands, sons, or boyfriends. The lattes figures show that over 89 million American women, because of the high costs of ready-to-wear clothing are now making almost all of their families' clothes. Most of these women get great satisfaction from making the family clothes on their own sewing machines. So it is natural that the demand for excellent service of sewing machines is growing.
Think of it! 89 million or more sewing machines, not including another 10 million sewing machines in schools of all kinds, need service at least once a year, and quite possibly four or more times each year. I know some women who return their sewing machines to repairmen time after time to get them fixed properly. I've seen sewing machines come out of repair shops in worse condition than they were when they went in.
So I've decided to write an introduction book to sewing-machine repair and teach people how to repair their own sewing machines at home. It's not that difficult. In the book, I will teach you everything you need to know about how to repair your sewing machine. | high11475.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "robots can't tell us all we want to know"
},
"options": [
"robots could not send back pictures",
"robots can't tell us all we want to know",
"robots are controlled by us humans",
"robots are no longer of any use to us"
... | Over the next 20 years, we are going to send more and better robots to Mars. Those robots will send back better pictures, maps, samples, and weather reports. There is a limit to what robots can tell us, though, so eventually we will have to send people to study the planet.
Before people can visit Mars, we need to invent a spaceship that can take us there. Mars is very far away. Depending on where Mars and Earth are in their orbits around the sun, it could take between six months to a year to get there.
The moon is much closer, and we were there, 25 years ago. Over the next 10 years, we are going to work on building a new spacecraft that can go to the moon. Using this craft, we will practice the skills we need to go to Mars.
Once we return to the moon, we are going to build a station so that people can live and work on the moon for months at a time. This is important so that we have a place to start from when we want to visit Mars, but it is also important because it gives us practice with living away from Earth.
By the time you are old enough to be an astronaut, we will have people spending months on the moon. By the time you are old enough to be a commander of a space mission, we will be taking trips to Mars. By the time your kids are old enough to be astronauts, we may have people living on Mars. Wouldn't it be cool to get a postcard from someone who was building a house on Mars? Wouldn't it be cooler if it was you who sent the postcard? | high19029.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "they were preparing for a dinner"
},
"options": [
"they were chatting",
"they were having a party",
"they were preparing for a dinner",
"they were watching a fire"
],
"question": "The servants were up very late ... | Pepys and his wife had asked some friends to dinner on Sunday, September 2nd, 1666. The servants were up very late on the Saturday evening, getting everything ready for the next day, and while they were busy they saw the glow of a fire start in the sky. By 3 o'clock on the Sunday morning, the glow had become so bright that one of the servants, Jane, woke her master to see it. Pepys went to the window to watch it. It seemed fairly far away, so after a time he went back to bed. When he got up in the morning, it looked as though the fire was dying down, though he could still see some flames. So he set to work to tidy his room and put his things back where he wanted them after the servants had cleaned everything.
While he was doing this, Jane came in to say that she had heard that the fire was a bad one: three hundred houses had been burned down in the night and the fire was still burning. Pepys went out to see for himself. He went to the Tower of London and climbed up on a high part of the building so that he could see what was happening. From there, Pepys could see that it was, indeed, a bad fire and that even the houses on London Bridge were burning. Someone told him that the fire had started in a baker's house in Pudding Lane, and then the flames had quickly spread to the other houses in the narrow lane. So began the Great Fire of London, a fire that lasted nearly five days, damaged most of the old city and ended, so it is said, at Pie Corner. | high17004.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "carrying snow from elsewhere"
},
"options": [
"carrying snow from elsewhere",
"getting residents to sell tickets",
"putting on advertisements on the Internet",
"building many clubs"
],
"question": "Seattle prepa... | Seattle, Washington ,is nicknamed "Rain city", but it's snow that is making it famous. On January 12,2013, Seattle residents set the Guinness World Record for the biggest snowball fight More than5,800 people showed up to throw snowballs at one another at the Seattle Centre.
It didn't snow in Seattle on that day, but there was snow in a small comer of the city-enough to make a lot of kids' dreams come true. Trucks carried 34 loads of snow from Snoqualmie Pass, an hour away in Washington's Cascade mountain range to the Seattle Center It took 162,000 pounds of the white stuff to build the winter wonderland.
The goal! To break the Guinness World Record for the biggest snowball fight The event was also a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Clubs. Seattle businessman Neil Bergquist took three months to organize the playful battle. He wanted to raise money for kids by remembering what it was like to feel like a kid'
Although Seattle residents aren't used to snow, they succeeded in getting enough people to come out and play About 6,000 tickets were sold online. Participants were given bar-coded wristbands when they arrived The wristbands were scanned as participants entered and left the location, so Guinness counted the number at all times. There were 130 judges for the official minute-and-a-half snowball fight Anyone not throwing snowball wasn't counted in the total
To raise money for the Clubs, companies paid for space to build snow fonts ( ). A Guinness official confirmed the count of 5,834 people. Seattle beat the previous world record of about 5,400 at a 2010 snowball fight in South Korea
"We had much fun set a Guinness record, raised some money for kids, and everyone had a chance to act like a 'kid for a day," said Bergquist | high18337.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "expensive petrol"
},
"options": [
"traffic jams",
"harder tests",
"expensive petrol",
"worst economy"
],
"question": "In recent years cars are used less than before mainly because of _ .",
"question_type"... | There is no question that fewer teenagers are on the roads in the US.
In 1978, 50% of 16-year-olds had got their first driving licence. In 2008, according to the US Transportation Department, it was just 30%. The number of those aged 19 and under with driving licences has also been _ since 1978, when 11, 989, 000 had licence. In 2010, it was 9, 932, 441, or 4.1% of American drivers.
In the UK, 683, 273 teenagers have driving licences- just 1.85% of total licence holders, according to Department of Transport figures from September 2010.
But the decline in the US may have more to do with tougher tests and the introduction of the new rule in many states, which force drivers aged under 16 to be with licensed drivers of 21 years and older when driving.
In recent years, the annual number of journeys being made by American drivers of all ages has declined clearly for the first time ever. Car use began falling in 2007, when average petrol prices almost doubled to $4.12 a gallon, and the economy became worse.
But there are signs that it is getting back to normal and American remains a country on wheels. It has a higher number of cars per head of population than any other country in the world.
"Cars will always be a popular means of transportation in America. You have to take into consideration some places don't have access to public transportation. Cars are the only way some people can get around," says Kristin Nevels. This makes driving necessary in some rural states, where about twice as many teenagers are on the road than in big cities. | high5543.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "parents who drive their children to school"
},
"options": [
"teachers whose students have asked their parents to drive them to school",
"children who have asked their parents to drive them to school",
"parents who drive their... | Don't drive your kids to school. Let them ride a bike to school.
In England 8.3 million children travel to school every day. It is reported that only a small number of pupils cycle to school (under 2%), although one in three children would actually like to.
Experts say that to stay healthy, children need at least one hour of moderate exercise every day. But only six out of ten boys and four out of ten girls get that. One of the reasons is that parents have developed a habit of driving their children to school when they could just walk or ride a bike to school.
Teachers often say that children who walk or ride a bike to school are more ready to listen to their classes, ask and answer questions in class than those driven by car, and the school journey is a good chance for children to learn about road safety and other life skills. Also, for many children, riding a bike is more fun than going to school by car.
Most parents know the benefits . Then what's stopping them from letting their kids ride a bike? Safety is the number one worry for them. But actually riding a bike is not as dangerous as parents think it is.
When you decide to buy a bike, you should be aware that a bike that is too big or too small is dangerous. Don't try to get a bike that your child will "grow into". Get the right size in good working order. Generally, 20-inch wheels are on bikes for 5-8 year olds; 24-inch wheels are for 9-11 year olds; 26-inch wheels are suitable for those over 11, and some older children should even take bikes with 28-inch wheels, but the main thing is that the bike fits your child. | high4885.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "We do not think silence to be beneficial"
},
"options": [
"We are used to quietness",
"We have to put up with noise",
"We do not think silence to be beneficial",
"We do not believe lasting peace to be available"
],
... | George Prochnik would like the world _ . He makes his case in a new book. Listening for meaning in a World of Noise. Here he explain himself (using his voice);
"We've become so accustomed to noise, there's almost a deep prejudice against the idea that silence might be beneficial, if you tell someone to be quiet ,you sound like an old man. But it's never been important to find continuing quiet. Silence focuses us, improves our health, and is a key to lasting peace and satisfaction."
"We need to excite people about the sounds you start to hear, if you merely quiet things down a little. During a Japanese tea ceremony ,the smallest sounds become a kind of art the spoons making a light ringing sound on a bowl, the edges of a kimono brushing against the floor.
"Deaf people are very attentive in almost every aspect of life. If two deaf people are walking together, using sign language, they constantly watch out for each other and protect each other by paying steady attention to the other. They are connected yet also fully aware of their surroundings. Even deaf teenagers! We in the hearing world can learn from them. If we remove the powerful blasts of noise .we become aware of an extraordinarily rich world around us---of little soft sounds and the sound of footsteps, of bind songs and ice cracking . It's astonishing how beautiful things sound when you can really listen.." | high20864.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Dr. Vincent was caring and kind"
},
"options": [
"Dr. Vincent was handsome",
"Dr. Vincent was caring and kind",
"Dr. Vincent carried out the operation.",
"Dr. Vincent offered the money the operation needed."
],
... | I had been to several doctors as a child, but I have a special place in my heart for Dr. Vincent. He was a Pediatric Cardiologist at UCLA back in 1971 who saved my life. I was eight years old at the time with a severe heart problem and I needed heart surgery. My Mom did not have the money, and without the surgery there was a real good chance I would not live to be thirteen years old. After contacting several organizations Dr. Vincent was able to get financial help for me through United Way, a Crippled Children's Organization.
Dr. Vincent was a handsome man; he was also very gentle and caring. I remember being in the hospital for an Angiogram test, and during the procedure I was crying terribly, so the medical staff called in Dr. Vincent to calm me down, and he was able to comfort me when no one else could. Then the time came for me to have heart surgery; there was a fifty- percent chance that I would not make it through the surgery because it was experimental. At the time I was only the second or third person to have this procedure done. I was absolutely terrified, and again Dr. Vincent reassured me he would see to it that everything would be all right.
I had a lot of confidence and trust in Dr. Vincent; He came to see me after the surgery, which was extremely painful but very successful, and brought me a stuffed animal. I was so surprised to get this gift from Dr. Vincent; I gave him a hug. I guess Dr. Vincent must have known I was feeling very lonely and scared. You see, I had no family or friends visit me while I was in the hospital except for my Mom, and I am not sure why. I do know one thing; I had a wonderful doctor who took the time to help a scared little girl who felt all alone.
This was twenty eight years ago, so wherever you are Dr. Vincent, I want to thank you for not only saving my life, but you helped me live a normal productive life, and for showing me that you truly cared, for that I will be eternally grateful to you. | high11461.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "American Watersports"
},
"options": [
"Jet Ski Tours of Miami",
"Coconut's Watersports",
"15\nthStreet Boat Company",
"American Watersports"
],
"question": "You should especially protect yourself from sun burnt ... | American Watersports Tuesday-Saturday
Located on the beach of the Sea Gardens Beach Resort, there are fun things to rent for the whole family. They offer rentals for kayaks, jet skis, and even parasail! Enjoy the water up-close or from a bird's eye view! No matter what activity you're enjoying, be sure to protect yourself and your family from the sun's powerful rays and apply plenty of sun block!
15thStreet Boat Company Monday-Saturday
15thStreet Boat Company offers rental boats of all kinds. They're sure to have what you are looking for, whether it's a small boat for a quick and simple outing or an extravagant boat with comfortable seats with a stereo and high tech navigation. You can rent a boat for half a day or a couple of days, or even weeks at a time. If you want it, they've got it. It's fun for everyone!
Coconut's Watersports 9am-5pm Monday through Sunday
Coconut's Watersports is open 7 days a week for your convenience and offers tons of water fun for the whole family. Jet Ski activities last 30 minutes or 1 hour and can make stops along the way. You must be at least 14 years of age to ride alone and can be as young as 3 to ride along with an adult. Everybody is required to wear a life jacket and a license is required to operate the Jet Ski. Bathing suits and shorts are recommended.
Jet Ski Tours of Miami Thursday-Sunday 10am-7pm
Jet Ski Tours of Miami includes onsite parking, indoor restrooms, lockers, and life jackets for participants. You may choose a one or two tour and each Jet Ski can hold up to 3 people. You must be at least 18 years old in order to ride. As long as you are accompanied by an adult, there is no age limitation for any passenger. There is a restaurant nearby to eat at. The tour visits 6 different islands and passes by Bayside and Hard Rock. You may even catch a glimpse of dolphins or a manatee resting in these fabulous Florida waters. | high4649.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "found it no use crying over the wrong past."
},
"options": [
"returned from a long journey and regretted what he had done.",
"was ignored by his parents when he was only a child.",
"didn't enter the deep, dark cave when he wa... | It was New Year's Night. An aged man was standing at a window. He raised his sad eyes towards the deep blue sky, where the stars were floating like white lilies on the surface of a clear calm lake.
He had already passed sixty and brought from his journey nothing but errors and regrets. Now his health was poor, his mind empty, his heart sorrowful .
The days of his youth appeared like dreams before him, and he remembered the serious moment when his father placed him at the entrance of the two roads --- one leading to a peaceful, sunny place, covered with flowers, fruits and filled with soft, sweet songs; the other leading to a deep, dark cave, which was endless, where poison flowed instead of water and devils and poisonous snakes hissed and crawled.
He saw the lights flowing away in the darkness. These were the days of his wasted life; he saw a star fall down from the sky and disappeared, and this was the symbol of himself. His regret like a sharp arrow struck deeply into his heart. Then he remembered his friends in his childhood. But they had made their way to success and were now honored and happy on this night.www.ks5u.com
The clock in the high church tower struck and the sound made him remember his parents' early love for him. They had taught him and prayed to God for his good. But he chose the wrong way. With shame and sorrow he dared no longer look towards that heaven where his father lived. His darkened eyes were full of tears, and with a hopeless effort, he burst out a cry: "Come back, my early days! Come back!"
His youth did return, for all this was only a dream which he had on New Year's Night. He was still young though his faults were real; he had not yet entered the deep, dark cave, and he was still free to walk on the road which leads to the peaceful and sunny land.
Those who still wander on the entrance of life, hesitating to choose the bright road, remember that when years are passed and your feet stumble on the dark mountains, you will cry bitterly, but in vain : "Oh youth, return! Oh give me back my early days!" | high17010.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "earth"
},
"options": [
"metal",
"plastic",
"wood",
"earth"
],
"question": "It is possible that ceramics are materials of _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_in... | Pottery is the name given to all kinds of useful or artistic objects made from clay. Pottery can be plates or water pots or baskets. Pottery can be large or small, fancy or plain. Pottery is part of the large family of ceramics .Ceramics are synthetic materials. For example, bricks and tiles are both ceramics.
How is pottery made? First, a potter takes some clay. Clay is a soft, red material from the earth. It looks a little like red dirt, but it's very different. Clay is thick and rich. Wet clay can be worked into any shape. When the clay dries, it will keep that shape. The potters takes some clay and pushes and squeezes it until it is soft and smooth. After that, the clay can be shaped into anything. There are several ways to shape clay. Sometimes potters use their hands. Sometimes they use a special wheel. They place the clay in the center of a round, flat wheel. The wheel moves very fast, and the potter shapes the clay.
After the potter has shaped the clay, it can be decorated . Potters use glaze, which is a kind of paint, to decorate their work. Some glazes are very simple. Other glazes have beautiful colors and designs. The glaze is not just beautiful. It is also useful. The glaze makes the pottery smooth and waterproof. Potters also make some decorative lines and designs on the surface. After it is decorated, the clay must be baked, or fired, in a special oven.
Baking the clay at very high temperature makes it hard and strong. Firing also makes the glaze stick to the pottery. When the firing is over, the potter carefully removes the pottery from the oven and lets it cool slowly. If it cools too quickly, it could crack and break.
Since pottery is waterproof, it is very popular for dishes. You can find examples of pottery in almost any home. But pottery can also be found in museums. Some pieces of pottery are valuable and beautiful pieces of art. | high5557.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "it is necessary for kids to eat different foods for all nutrients"
},
"options": [
"it is necessary for kids to eat different foods for all nutrients",
"it is necessary for one to exercise if he needs more vitamins",
"is it u... | Vitamins are stored in foods we eat. The kids are udner great need of vitamins for growth. As they use their energy in playing, they need lots of vitamins.
Children usually choose certain foods above the others and often do not eat those with important nutrients . Sothough the food they are eating is nutritious, it may not always provide all the nutrients the child needs.
One nutrient can not balance the shortage of another. Foods like grains, vegetables, fruits and meats should be eaten daily, because different foods in the child's diet can balance against taking too much or too little of any nutrient.
Kids grow slower in their childhood than when they were babies or when they develop into adults. Energy output is high, with hard paly perids that include plenty of running, jumping, and testing of new physical skills. So they need a lot of vitamins.
Here are some important vitamins and their functions
Vitamin D in milk helps your bones.
Vitamin A in carrots helps you see at night.
Vitamin C in oranges helps your body heal if you get a cut.
B vitamins in leafy vegetables helps your body make protein .
The children, who are suffering from a sickness called cystic fibrosis, lose vitamin A, D and E. These are main body-building vitamins. Therefore, vitamin supplements may be necessary. Blood tests will telll you whether a child needs vitamin supplements.
If babies over nine months of age are receiving whole cow's milk, they'll need a daily vitamin C supplement till their diet provide enough vitamin C.
Vitamin D is added to all milks so babies drinking them need no extra vitamin D.
Children are greatly in need of vitamin C. If you are 18 years of age or younger, you should get 115 millgrams of vitamin C per day. Those over 19 should get 120 milligrams per day. | high18323.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Siberia, an interesting and beautiful place."
},
"options": [
"Siberia, an interesting and beautiful place.",
"The climate in Siberia.",
"The four seasons in Siberia.",
"Collecting mushrooms in Siberia."
],
"que... | Siberia is a huge territory in Russia. It is more than half of Russia and is 4,000 miles wide. Most of this area is a forest with animals and birds. In autumn, the forests in Siberia are full of mushrooms and berries . Many people like picking mushrooms, but that is not as simple as you might think. Old people who live in the villages know places where you can pick lots of mushrooms. Some mushrooms grow in colonies. If you find one, you only need to look around because nearby you'll find more of them.
However, when picking mushrooms, it is important not to choose the wrong kind. You have to be careful because some mushrooms are poisonous even though they look good. The smell can help you choose them, because good mushrooms smell very good.
Siberian people are very friendly and hospitable. If someone invites you home for dinner, you'll soon be full. You should try everything the host is having.
The climate there depends on the territory. Some places have very comfortable climates with hot summers and cold winters. In my opinion, the best season is spring, when nature wakes up after a long winter. It is the time for blossoms and love. Birds come back from other warm countries. Trees become dressed in green. The sun becomes warm and the days are longer. The mood is wonderful and people smile a lot. It is an amazing time.
In winter, you have opportunity for sports. The most popular sport in winter in Russia is cross-country skiing. During weekends, many people go into the country and ski. Noses freeze and cheeks hurt, but people continue to enjoy these times. | high2238.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Marc's disagreement with his parents about their move"
},
"options": [
"Marc and Rachel's different attitudes",
"a quarrel between Tommy Lyons and Marc",
"Marc's disagreement with his parents about their move",
"Mr. And... | One evening after dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Tisich called a family meeting. "We've had to make a difficult decision," Mr. Tisich announced. "You see, your mother has been offered a post as co-director of a television station in Chicago. Unfortunately, the station is not here. After thinking long and hard about it, we've concluded that the right decision is to move to Chicago." Marc looked shocked, while his sister Rachel breathlessly started asking when they'd be moving. "It's surprising, but exciting!" she said. Marc simply said, "We can't go--I can't leave all my friends. I'd rather stay here and live with Tommy Lyons!"
The Tisichs hoped that by the time they moved in August, Marc would grow more used to the idea of leaving. However, he showed no signs of accepting the news, refusing to pack his belongings. When the morning of the move arrived, Marc was nowhere to be found. His parents called Tommy Lyon's house, but Mrs. Lyons said she hadn't seen Marc. Mrs. Tisich became increasingly concerned, while her husband felt angry with their son for behaving so irresponsibly.
What they didn't know was that Marc had started walking over to Tommy's house, with a faint idea of hiding in Lyons's attic for a few days. But something happened on the way as Marc walked past all the familiar landscape of the neighborhood: the fence that he and his mother painted, the tree that he and his sister used to climb, the park where he and his father often took evening walks together. How much would these mean without his family, who make them special in the first place? Marc didn't take the time to answer that question but instead hurried back to his house, wondering if there were any moving cartons the right size to hold his record collection. | high4891.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "encourages children together with their parents to solve math story problems"
},
"options": [
"requires parents and children to answer reading comprehension questions",
"assesses children's math achievement and parents' nervousness... | Adding math talk to story time at home is a winning factor for children's math achievement, according to a new research from the University of Chicago. The study from psychologists Sian Beilock and Susan Levine shows a marked increase in math achievement among children whose families used Bedtime Math, an iPad app that delivers engaging math story problems for parents and children to solve together.
Even children who used the app with their parents as little as once a week saw gains in math achievement by the end of the school year. The app's effect was especially strong for children whose parents tend to be anxious or uncomfortable with math.
Previous research from this group has demonstrated the importance of adults' attitudes about math for children's math success. For example, a recent study found that math-anxious parents who help their children with math homework actually weaken their children's math achievement.
The new findings demonstrate that structured, positive interactions around math at home can cut the link between parents' uneasiness about math and children's low math achievement.
"Many Americans experience high levels of anxiety when they have to solve a math problem, with a majority of adults feeling at least some worries about math," said Beilock, professor in Psychology and author of Choke, a book about stress and performance. "These math-anxious parents are probably less likely to talk about math at home, which affects how competent their children are in math. Bedtime Math encourages a dialogue between parents and kids about math, and offers a way to engage in high-quality math interactions in a low-effort, high-impact way."
Study participants included 587 first-grade students and their parents. Families were given an iPad installed with a version of the Bedtime Math app, with which parents and their children read stories and answer questions involving math, including topics like counting, shapes and problem-solving. A control group received a reading app that had similar stories without the math content and questions related to reading comprehension instead. Children's math achievement was assessed at the beginning and end of the school year. Parents completed a questionnaire about their nervousness with math.
The more times parents and children in the math group used the app, the higher children's achievement on a math assessment at the end of the school year. Indeed, children who frequently used the math app with their parents outperformed similar students in the reading group by almost three months in math achievement at year's end. | high13276.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Motherhood was not recognized and respected as a job by society."
},
"options": [
"The recorder was impatient and rude.",
"The woman felt ashamed to admit what her job was.",
"The author was upset about the situation that mot... | A woman named Emily renewing her driver's license at the County Clerk's office was asked to state her occupation. She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself.
"What I mean is," explained the recorder, "do you have a job, or are you just a ..."
"Of course I have a job," said Emily. "I'm a mother."
"We don't list 'mother' as an occupation... 'housewife' covers it," said the recorder.
One day I found myself in the same situation. The clerk was obviously a career woman, confident and possessed of a high sounding title. "What is your occupation?" she asked.
The words simply popped out. "I'm a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations."
The clerk paused, ballpoint pen frozen in midair.
I repeated the title slowly, then I stared with wonder as my statement was written in bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.
"Might I ask," said the clerk with new interest, "Just what you do in this field?"
Coolly, without any trace of panic in my voice, I heard myself reply, "I have a continuing program of research (what mother doesn't), in the lab and in the field (normally I would have said indoors and out). Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities (any mother care to disagree?), and I often work 14 hours a day (24 is more like it). But the job is more challenging than most careers and rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money."
There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk's voice as she completed the form, stood up, and showed me out.
As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up by my glamorous new career, I was greeted by my lab assistants---ages 13, 7, and 3.
Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model (a 6 month old baby), in the child-development program, testing out a new vocal pattern.
I felt proud! I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable to mankind than "just another mother."
Motherhood...What a glorious career! Especially when there's a title on the door. | high1731.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "plays"
},
"options": [
"novels",
"poetry",
"plays",
"cookbooks"
],
"question": "According to the passage, Aphra Behn was famous for _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | British Women Writers in different periods of time
The English Renaissance
The English Renaissance began in the later part of the fifteenth century and lasted until the 1660s. Among the most famous women writers of this period is Aphra Behn, who is seen as the first professional woman writer in English. She wrote a number of plays that dealt with topics such as racism and slavery. A good example isOroonokopublished in 1688. Aphra Behn's works include also the playsThe Amourous Prince,The Town Fop, The Dutch Loverand her only tragedy,Abdelazer.
The neoclassical period
Among the well-known women in Bristish literature during the neoclassical period, from 1660 to the end of the eighteenth century, is Anne Finch. She wrote poetry and tried to express all that she saw and experienced. Two other women are recognized for their contribution to neoclassical British literature: Mary Astell and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Mary Astell was a philosopher and a feminist writer. She is best known now for her theories on the education of women.
The Romantic period
Jane Austen is one of the most famous women writers that worked during the Romantic period (1798-1832). Her works include several novels, most of which focus on marriage as a way for young women to secure social standing and economic security. Her most famous novels arePride and Prejudice,Sense and SensibilityandEmma. Another famous woman writer from the English Romanticism is Mary Shelley. She is the author ofFrankenstein,History of Six Weeks TourandThe Last Man.
The Victorian period
The Victorian period, between the 1830s and 1900, was the time when the Bronte sisters, George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell lived and wrote. Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte and Anne Bronte produced many British literary classics. Charlotte's novels includeJane Eyre,Shirley,Villette and The Professor. Mary Anne Evans adopted the male pen name George as she wanted to set herself apart from the feminine genre of cookbooks and domestic moral tales. Her most famous novel isThe Mill on the Flosspublished in 1860. | high14519.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "How well China is prepared for another likely outbreak of SARS"
},
"options": [
"Zhong Nanshan, a well-known anti-SARS scientist",
"What happened during the first outbreak of SARS",
"How well China is prepared for another lik... | BEIJING, Oct. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- A recent sudden temperature drop in most areas of China has set off fears of a possible return of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the country has mobilized to prepare for another outbreak.
North China's Tianjin Port resumed a temperature reporting system on Sunday. Any passengers through the port with a temperature above 38 degrees Celsius would be provided medical observation and reported to relevant authorities.
Zhong Nanshan, a well-known anti-SARS scientist during the last outbreak, said it was unlikely the SARS virus would die out naturally and it would definitely come back, but predicted no widespread epidemic outbreak and the epidemic would not cause serious damage again.
Caught unprepared this spring, Chinese authorities have learned to act quickly before the epidemic can take a hold.
Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi Thursday urged strictly implementing the daily SARS epidemic reporting system and warned that people delaying reporting or hiding the true situation would be severely punished.
In Beijing, the disease control center in Dongcheng District has recovered a 24 hour schedule for possible epidemic breakout. Every afternoon before 3:00 o'clock, the center receives SARS reports from every hospital in the district and then reports to the Beijing municipal disease control center and health bureau.
In Beijing Xiehe Hospital, plans are ready for fever patients to receive treatment in a special section. Doctors in that ward, wearing protective clothing, will observe patients for any possible respiratory diseases. Patients with high fever and symptoms of respiratory diseases are required to be observed for one or two weeks.
North China's Shanxi Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the two other hardest-hit areas in the last SARS crisis, have both set up an emergency response mechanism and mobilized all concerned departments. The system has also been set up in rural Inner Mongolia.
People are urged to pick up again the healthy habits they formed during the last SARS outbreak. Zhong Nanshan said the most important way to prevent SARS was to play more sports and maintain good ventilation. Spitting in public and eating wild animals were very dangerous, said Zhong. | high7340.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "brought supplies to the ISS"
},
"options": [
"carried researches to space",
"assembled the Robonaut 2 at the ISS",
"brought supplies to the ISS",
"went on a spacewalk"
],
"question": "As part of the final missio... | The space shuttle Discovery has had a long and busy career. For 27 years, it has worked for NASA, carrying astronauts to space and back on 39 missions. On March 9, 2011, after returning from its final voyage, the world's most traveled spaceship was retired.
A crowd of shuttle workers, reporters and schoolchildren waited to greet Discovery at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Three minutes before noon, they watched as the shuttle appeared in the sky and made one last touchdown. "For the final time: wheels stop," Discovery's commander Steven Lindsey said when the shuttle rolled to a stop.
Discovery's final trip was to the International Space Station (ISS), a giant space lab in the sky. Discovery's crew took care of the last U.S. construction project at ISS. They delivered 10 tons of supplies for the ISS. The six-person crew also dropped off an unusual companion for ISS's researchers: a human-like robot named Robonaut 2. Astronauts will assemble R2 at the ISS over several months.
Now, NASA is
its shuttle programme. NASA is to begin work on new spaceships that can travel longer distances. Discovery's retirement is the first of three. Endeavor, another shuttle, is scheduled to make its final voyage soon. And Atlantis's last trip is planned for the end of June.
Museums across the country have requested the retired shuttles. The Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, in Washington, D.C., was the lucky recipient of Discovery. The museum's collection contains hundreds of NASA artifacts.
Where will the other shuttles go? You'll have to wait to find out. NASA will announce its decision on April 12, the 30
anniversary of the first space shuttle launching. Stay tuned! | high15607.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Benazir Bhutto was killed because she collected information for American government ."
},
"options": [
"Benazir Bhutto was murdered because she was working for Bin Laden .",
"Benazir Bhutto has been dead for a week since her murder... | After killing Osama Bin Laden and dropping his body into the ocean to avoid causing more hatred fro, the Muslims , the American government recently released a video of Osama Bin Laden living in his safe house watching TV , which has been viewed millions of times . The following are comments made by viewers .
A. Yeah , Osama got what he deserved , Iraq got what they deserved , and Afghanistan got what they deserved . Saddam got what he deserved , Hitler got what he deserved . The list goes on & on .
B. I hate saying this but is believe America deserved 9/11 ... They have screwed up so many governments ....
C. I'm American and I and my brother suspected the whole story about dropping him into the ocean . We feel if they really killed him they would keep his body for proof .
D. All you Islamic haters are ignorant fools . The terrorists don't have anything to do with the religion . They say they are part of the Islamic Religion but they are not . Nuking ( kill somebody with nuclear bombs ) Pakistan will do nothing by the way .
E. Please give me the 2 minutes of my life back that I watched your pointless and fake video .
F. Man ? Why is this video fake ? Rather than shouting about how it's obviously not Osama , why not provide the arguments for it instead of coming off as if you simply want to deny it for the sake of denial .
G. What a load of nonsense , an _ to any intelligent person , Bin Laden dead for ages ... watch Benazir Bhutto say so on YouTube a week before she herself was murdered . The Muslims murdered her for being an American spy !
H. I honestly don't know what to believe , but ... why did the terrorists confirm his death if it didn't happen . | high12168.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "his father is a rich farmer"
},
"options": [
"he wants to be a lawyer",
"his father is a rich farmer",
"he's smart and strong",
"he keeps his wallet well"
],
"question": "Robert can study in the university becau... | Robert was born in a small town in England. His father has a farm and can supply him enough money to finish university where he's studying law. The young man studies hard and hopes to be a famous lawyer.
Last Monday their term was over. Robert said to his father on the telephone that he was going to travel in a small country during his summer holiday. His father agreed to his plan and posted some money to him. So he started four days ago. Their plane landed at the only airport of the country safely. He took a taxi and got to a hotel in the centre of the capital. He felt hungry and tired. So he had a dinner and then a good sleep. This morning he was all right and was going to visit some places of interest. He met an English visitor while he was having breakfast and the man told him to be careful of thieves.
Robert thanked the man and left. But he thought he was smart and strong and he decided to have a try. He brought out a piece of paper and wrote on it, "A pig has stolen my wallet !"Then he put the note into his empty wallet. After that he put the wallet into a pocket and set off. He did all carefully and hoped to find out who would steal it.
"Everything went well, "Robert thought to himself after he had returned to the hotel. He brought out his wallet and put his money into it again. He had a look at the note. To his surprise, it was rewritten. It said, "Your uncle has touched your wallet!" | high7426.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "A carriage."
},
"options": [
"A carriage.",
"A bicycle.",
"A canal bus.",
"A water taxi."
],
"question": "What means of transport is not available to visitors in Amsterdam?",
"question_type": "factiod_questi... | Have you ever been to the beautiful country of Holland and its capital Amsterdam? Anyone who has traveled to Amsterdam would probably agree on one thing: Amsterdam's story is a tale of two cities -- one during the day and a completely different one at night.
During the day, the largest city in the Netherlands sits quietly on the Amstel River.You can rent a bicycle, visit the Van Gogh or Anne Frank museum, or take a water taxi.But when the sun goes down, the partying begins.In the big clubs and in coffee shops, tourists gather to hang out, talk politics and smoke.
Several areas of the city clearly show the two worlds that rule Amsterdam.And they're all within a short cab ride of each other.For example, Dam Square attracts daytime sightseers to its festivals, open markets, concerts and other events.Several beautiful and very popular hotels can be found there.And there's the Royal Palace and the Magna Plaza shopping mall.
But at night party-seekers come to the square.Hip hop or funk music is heard there..So if you come, be ready to dance.The clubs don't shut down until 4 am.
And while you're there, check out the various inexpensive ways to tour the city.Don't worry about getting lost.Although Dutch is the official language, most people in Amsterdam speak English and are happy to help you with directions.And you'll notice that half the people in the streets are on bicycles they rent.
Amsterdam also has a well-planned canal system.For about 10 dollars, you can use the canal bus or a water taxi to cruise the "Venice of the North".
The city has a historic past.One impressive place to visit is the Anne Frank House on Nine Streets.It was there that the young Jewish girl wrote her famous diary during World War II.Visitors can view Anne's original diary and climb behind the bookcase to the room where she and her family hid from the Nazis for two years. | high15161.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "By examining global airline travel patterns"
},
"options": [
"By doing experiments",
"By examining global airline travel patterns",
"By setting up a model",
"By collecting the data of the cases"
],
"question": "... | Controlling the Ebola virus outbreak at the source in West Africa is the most effective way to decrease international risk of transmission, according to a research paper.
If the epidemic persists and grows, it's likely there will be more cases of the deadly virus exported to other countries, including Canada, via air travel, said Dr. Kamran Khan, a physician and researcher at St. Michael's Hospital.
Dr. Khan, who examines global airline travel patterns to predict the spread of diseases, said that every month, three Ebola-infected travellers are likely to leave West Africa, which is experiencing a widespread outbreak of the virus -- and this number would only increase as the epidemic grows.
Dr. Khan and his co-authors said it is essential that other countries, their public health agencies and hospitals should be prepared. The risk of international spread would be further _ if this epidemic were to take hold in other countries, especially those with weak public health systems.
"The international community must be mindful and be ready to support the early detection and control of cases." Dr. Khan said.
Dr. Khan noted that of the almost 500,000 travellers who flew on commercial flights out of Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone in 2013, more than half were headed to destinations in five countries: Ghana (17.5 per cent, Senegal (14.4 per cent), the United Kingdom (8.7 per cent, France (7.1 per cent) and Gambia (6.8 per cent). More than 60 per cent of travellers from those countries in 2014 are expected to have final destinations in low- or lower-middle income countries.
"Given that these countries have limited medical and public health resources, they may have difficulty quickly identifying and effectively responding to imported Ebola cases", said Dr Khan. | high8715.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the two experiments are about memory transplants"
},
"options": [
"the two experiments are about memory transplants",
"the scientists exchanged the dolphin's and the bear's brains",
"there is no possibility of changing the hu... | Research on the human brain has been attracting the attention of more and more scientists in recent years. One of the latest research topics is how to change the human brain or combine the computer and the human brain, i.e., to transplant a chip into human brain. This innovation may make everyone's dream come true. If we compare a human brain to a hard disc, what the scientists do is to enlarge the capacity of the hard disc. There are some difficulties in such transplant experiments, but scientists never give up.
Experiments were started on animals. In 1996, a transplant experiment performed at the Defense and Military Physiology Research Institute in the U.S. turned a bear into a dolphin.
The dolphin was named Ted, and the bear was named Tallin. Using the most advanced technology, deep and detailed studies were made of the swimming action memory area in Ted's brain by the scientists. They got a lot of useful information. The information was saved into a button-sized chip, which was then transplanted into the action memory area in Tallin's brain. The information saved on the chip was released by means of electric power.
Recently, another memory transplant was performed at the Motor Nerve Research Institute of the University of California. The transplant was performed from a dog named "Genius" to a dog named "Idiot". "Genius" could understand and follow up to 100 gestures and orders made by its master. It was a real genius. "Idiot" was the younger brother of "Genius". It had no contact with people at all since its birth. It became an animal with nothing in its brain, without any memory.
_ When the two dogs woke up, "Idiot" had all the abilities "Genius" possessed. It could follow every gesture and order given by its master. But "Genius" gave no response to its master, and in fact did not recognize him at all. | high13510.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "When they were passing through an exit."
},
"options": [
"Before they arrived at a bridge.",
"When they were passing through an exit.",
"When the young man stopped them for help.",
"After they came back to the right roa... | Last Friday my brother and I were driving home together after doing some shopping and gave our attention to an interesting conversation. Because of this distraction my brother took a wrong turn.
Unfortunately, the wrong turn took us towards a bridge and we had no way to turn back. Unwillingly, my brother paid the bridge fee and drove on. He was clearly frustrated by the mistake and the needless waste of $4.
We eventually reached an exit and, as we took it, my brother noticed a young fellow pulled over to the side of the road. He came out of his car and tried to phone someone. I was busy trying to figure out which way we would go next but my brother pulled over and asked the guy if he needed any help. And he did. He had a flat tire and needed a tool to get it off.
My brother gave him a wrench, and then began to help him change the flat. The young man said that this had been a bad week for him: earlier he had gotten into a minor car accident, and now this flat on his way home from work. But he called us "a breath of fresh air" and kept thanking us because he really would have been stuck if we hadn't come along.
After we finished the job he thanked us again and pulled out $20 from his pocket and tried to give it to us. "No," I said. "We were never supposed to even get on that bridge,we took a wrong turn. But now we know why we did. It was to help you. Thank you for turning our mistake into an opportunity to serve."
What I loved most was that my brother was able to see a chance to help. His reaction in the situation is a lesson for everyone and we felt so good the rest of the day. | high1057.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "discuss how to give a good definition to the word \"heart\""
},
"options": [
"correct others' inexact explanations of the word \"heart\"",
"tell readers a series of humorous stories",
"discuss how to give a good definition to... | What does the word "heart" mean? Strictly speaking, a heart is an organ of the physical body which pumps blood into the organism . The term "heart", however, extends to more than the physical body.
When lovers separate, one will often claim to have a broken heart, yet remain living. A sad gent or lady will often grasp the area between the ribs at the center of the chest, and moan in sorrow over the lost lover. Physical or not, the heart in _ is also something that pumps life into the emotional body.
"Don't lose heart," says a friend to another who has been discouraged by one of life's many trials. Now how can anyone lose a heart? I ask. Easily, by getting discouraged. Again, the heart becomes a symbol of pumping life into a system but not a physical one.
When one gets to the heart of the matter, she gets to its center - which gives its meaning. When people beg, "Have a heart," they are asking you to be kind - hearted - to recognize the soul in another. Having a heart - to - heart talk means sharing something from the center of our being with someone else. Speaking from the heart always impliescommunicating from what is real andessentialin our lives.
Perhaps the most common definition of the word "heart", therefore, should recognize that "heart" is something essential to every human being, whether it is physical or not. | high22915.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "They must be humorous."
},
"options": [
"They must be charming.",
"Their observation must be keen.",
"They must be humorous.",
"They must be good at thinking."
],
"question": "Which of the following cannot concl... | Three blondes were being trained to become detectives by a policeman. To test their skills in recognizing a suspect , the policeman showed the first blonde a picture for five seconds and then asked how she could recognize him. She thought it easy, for the suspect had only one eye. The policeman felt disappointed at this funny answer. He showed the second lady the picture for five seconds and asked her how she would recognize him. The second blonde giggled, flipped her hair, and said, "Ha! It's easy to find the one-eared person!" Her answer also made the policeman angry. Turning to the third lady, he asked, "This is your suspect, and how would you recognize him?" He added quickly, "Think hard before giving a stupid answer." The third blonde looked at the picture carefully for a moment and said, "HMMMM ... the suspect is wearing contact lenses ." The policeman was surprised and speechless, because he really didn't know himself if the suspect wore contacts or not. "Well, that is a good answer. Wait here for a few minutes while I check his file." He left the room and went to his office, checked the suspect's file in his computer and returned with a beaming smile. "Wow! I can't believe it ... it's TRUE! The suspect does in fact wear contact lenses. Good work! How were you able to make such a wise observation?" "That's easy," the blonde replied, "he can't wear glasses because he only has one eye and one ear!" | high19983.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "faced the threat of wild animals"
},
"options": [
"knew Alaska well before they set off",
"were poor before they went to Alaska",
"faced the threat of wild animals",
"got along well with each other"
],
"question... | "Gold Rush Alaska" has given America gold fever. A lot of young men put everything at risk to find gold in Alaska. They face problems with their machines and the Alaska wild animals. They're just ordinary people out trying to realize a dream.
Todd Dorsey is one of them. He spent $100,000 on it and prepared for a year before going to Alaska. He brought his family and friends to help him out. He must get them mining and a place to stay. He also had to keep their spirits up and kept everyone working as a team. They had to run off bears sometimes from their camp.
They had to face the fact that their lead mechanic's health was not good. They called him Harness, and he was on medication that was hard for him to take, because out in Alaska it was not easy to get to the hospital and so he didn't enjoy good health. He was the only one who could keep things running the way they were supposed to. There was one guy that didn't seem to get along with anyone. But didn't there always have to be someone that didn't get along and messed things up?
They got excited when they found a few small pieces of gold, but they needed a lot more to cover the cost of mining every day. It cost Todd $1,000 a day to run everything they needed to mine. They had to make money before the Alaska summer came to an end or they would go broke . | high10019.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "a well-received American football game"
},
"options": [
"a well-received American football game",
"an expensive American sport",
"an impressive TV performance",
"a most-watched TV series"
],
"question": "Accordi... | On "Super Bowl Sunday", millions of Americans are glued to their TVs. They are eating pizza, chicken wings and chips and cheering every move. They're watching the Super Bowl.
Why are Americans so crazy about American football? Well, it is more exciting than other sports. One team can lose possession of the ball in a minute, which may allow their opponents to make a touchdown . Then that team may win the game unexpectedly.
The Super Bowl also entertains its audience with a great halftime show. The football field is turned into a stage. Then an impressive performance of dancing and singing with special effects occurs.
Since the Super Bowl is the most-watched TV program in America, commercial airtime is also very expensive. Big money is also spent on commercials. They draw the viewers' attention and advertise their image or products during the commercial break.
After football season, the "March Madness" begins. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) competitions begin with 68 men's college basketball teams. They play until the field is reduced to the "Final Four". The winning team becomes the national champion. The NBA (National Basketball Association) All-Star game is also held in February. The best players from all the teams play in this game.
Baseball is no doubt American's national sport. From grandpas to young kids, whole families go to ball games together. They wear their favorite team's caps or even carry their mascot . Our family went to watch Wang Chien-Ming play in D.C. once. We ate hot dogs, waved flags and sang during the 7th inning stretch.
If you are not a sports fan yet, come and pick a sport or a team. Go to a ball game with your family, and cheer your team on. Sports are definitely a part of American culture one should not miss. | high17776.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Possible Spread of SARS in the USA"
},
"options": [
"A Worldwide Warning",
"Suspected SARS Cases",
"What Is SARS",
"Possible Spread of SARS in the USA"
],
"question": "The best title for this text is _ .",
... | April 11, 2003 12:44 a. m. PST, Associated Press
The respiratory virus known as SARS has appeared to spread in the United States only to family members of health workers with close contact to a sick person.
On Thursday, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there might be a case of severe acute respiratory syndrome spreading through the workplace.
Dr. Julie Gerberding said a suspected SARS virus patient who became ill after traveling to Asia might have infected a co-worker in Florida, which made her "very worried".
So far, a dozen people--nine family members and three health workers--were infected after coming into close contact with the person with SARS. The rest of the 166 suspected American cases have something to do with people who were infected while traveling in Asia.
In the Gainesville, Fla. area, a 47-year-old woman was believed to have been infected at work by a 60-year-old woman who was the nation's first suspected SARS case, said Tom Belcuore, director of the Alachua County health department.
Since the World Health Organization announced a worldwide warning last month about SARS, the United States has started infection control in hospitals and among families of suspected cases.
Florida officials said a school in Okaloosa County went through a cleaning after a 6-year-old boy suspected of having SARS appeared at school with slight symptoms. "Health officials are watching the boys' contacts at school to make sure no one else is infected," said Rob Hayes, health department spokesman, "The boy may have been infected from a family member," Hayes said, "We immediately became aware of it and had the child sent home. He's staying at home with his family until 10 days after symptoms disappear."
The researchers guessed that the virus might have come from animals. However, the scientists have not ruled out the possibility that some other microbe might also help make SARS more serious or easier to catch. | high5231.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "You can do dictation exercises online."
},
"options": [
"You can do dictation exercises online.",
"You mustn't make mistakes in the forums.",
"You should show your real life words on blogs.",
"Your friends should show y... | Do you dream of changing the world with your words? Or maybe you just want to be able to express your thoughts and ideas more clearly. Anyway, it's more important for us to write correctly and properly. Then how to improve your English writing skills? www.ks5u.com
Get the most out of your dictionary by understanding how to use it correctly. You can use a good English dictionary to find words, for meaning, for pronunciation, to check your spelling and to understand explanations. If you are using a computer, use an English spell checker (but don't rely on it).
Copy short passages of English text from newspapers, magazines or books.
Try dictation exercises. You can do this online or get friends to read out text for you to write. Then check your writing-pay more attention to spelling.
There are many forums on the Internet. Find one about your interests or hobbies. Observe the niceties of forum use, and make an apology if you think you have made any mistakes. Be careful about using abbreviations when writing on forums. They are fun and quick but can also make you pick some bad habits.
Use a blog to create a diary about your life. Write it in English and if you have a thick skin, ask for feedback . Remember blogs are not private, so do not write anything there that you do not want the whole world to read. I advise http://www.blogger.com, which is free and very easy to use.
Check what you've written. Even better, get someone else to read what you've written ahead of time.
Try to find pen friends who are native English speakers. Write to them, use a messenger service like MSN, Yahoo, Google or find a chat-room. If you can't get in touch with native speakers then contact other learners. | high18445.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "is fairly small"
},
"options": [
"is cheap",
"has cheap furniture",
"has a simple design",
"is fairly small"
],
"question": "By saying \"It's not much\" (line 1, para. 1), the author means that Chan's flat _ ... | It's not much, but it's home. Francis Chan, an engineer, lives in Hampstead, north London, in a flat that's just 4ft wide by 21ft long. He loves it.
Tiny though it is, it has got all the comforts. Peter Baynes, Chan's architect ,has achieved a clever piece of design, according to architectural experts.
The Chan mini-house was built on what was once a path down the side of a big Victarian house. Not an inch of space is wasted.
When you step in through the front door, you're standing in the shower, on Britain' s only self-cleansing doormat . A door opens on to an equally tiny toilet with washbasin. Two steps further in comes the kitchen, complete with full-sized cooker and fridge, and washer/ drier. A worktop folds down from the wall.
Another step and you're into the dining/ office area. Four people can sit here for dinner, says Chan as he sets the table-top into place. He even has a fold-down drawing-board for when he's working at home. The bed is hidden under a cover board right at the back. "I don't even have to make the bed," Chan says." I just put the cover down. "
Chan's business suits hang neatly on the wall over the bed. Daylight comes in through the skylight. The house feels like a very small boat and Chan admits he toyed with the idea of naming it the "boat-house".
"It cost around PS4,700 to build last year. Now it's been valued at PS30,000. It proves that good design doesn't need to cost more. It just needs a lot of care." says Chan. | high16468.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the Greeks"
},
"options": [
"the Greeks",
"the Romans",
"the Americans",
"the Europeans"
],
"question": "A water system for baths was built by _ over 3,000 years ago.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"... | As is known to us all, baths and bathing have long been considered of medical importance to man. In Greece there are the ruins of a water system for baths built over 3,000 years ago. The Romans had warm public baths. In some baths, as many 3,000 persons could bathe at the same time.
Treating disease by taking bathing has been popular for centuries. Modern medical bathing first became popular in Europe and by the late 1700's has also become popular in the United States.
For many years frequent bathing was believed to be bad for one's health. Ordinary bathing just to keep clean was avoided, and _ was often used to cover up body smells!
By the 1700's doctors began to say that soap and water were good for health. They believed that it was good for people to be clean. Slowly, people began to bathe more frequently. During the Victorian Age of the late 19th century, taking a bath on Saturday night became common.
In the United States ordinary bathing was slow to become popular. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, many Americans were known as "The Great Unwashed!" In one American city, for example, a person was only allowed to take a bathe every thirty days! That was a law!
Frequency of bathing today is partly a matter of habit. People know that bathing for cleanliness is important to health, Doctors know that dirty bodies increase the chance of diseases. As a result, in the United States, people generally bathe often. Some people bath once a day at least. They consider a daily bath essential (="necessary)" to good health. | high3640.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "hardly using your brain"
},
"options": [
"getting too old",
"hardly using your brain",
"working too hard",
"using your brain too much"
],
"question": "According to the text, you lose your memory by _ .",
... | Man still has a lot to learn about the most powerful and complex part of his body -- the brain.
It may be surprising to learn that it isn't age that makes you lose your memory. The reason could be that you have a "lazy" memory, not an old one. Like your body your memory improves with exercise. Once given plenty of exercise, the brain keeps its power. Before discussing how to improve the memory, let's look at how the brain works. There are two sides to the brain, the left and the right. The right side deals with the senses (what we see, hear, feel and smell). It's the creative and imaginative side. The left side is concerned with logic. It analyzes information and puts it in order.
Some recent research suggests that we remember everything that happens to us. The problem most of us has is recalling events. Most forgetting takes place immediately after learning. An hour after learning something new, more than 50% has been forgotten. After a month, 80% has been forgotten, and so on.
This shows revision is very important. If you revise new material you have learnt, you remember much more. So it's of vital importance to revise newly learned material often, and have frequent breaks. We best remember what we learn at the beginning of a learning period and at the point where we stop. After the break, revise what was learned before the break and then continue learning the new material. These breaks should happen every 20 or 45 minutes.
Other experiments have shown the brain needs time to "digest" what has been learned. The time necessary for this is 5 to 10 minutes. After the break, the memory will have absorbed what it has just learned, and more will be remembered. During this period it is important to exercise the right side of the brain, because the left side is used during the learning period. Therefore you should relax. Listening to music, breathing in fresh air, and looking at a picture are all ways of using the other side of the brain. So when you are studying alone, make a plan which shows when to have breaks and to revise newly learned material immediately before you begin studying again. If you do in this way, your memory will improve. | high11307.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "a college degree was the key to the author's dreams"
},
"options": [
"the author was an ambitious student",
"the author should set more realistic goals",
"a college student would lead an easier life",
"a college degree ... | College students constantly hear the praises of education.We have all become used to believing that a college education is always a guarantee of an easier life.I was nine years old when my fourth-grade teacher presented me with a task, to write down all of the things I wanted in my life.I filled my paper with things like: own a big house and have servants; be rich and have a good job.The next day my teacher handed back my paper and in red ink she wrote: " GO TO COLLEGE." For a long time, I was convinced that once I obtained an education, BAM! Life would be easier.
However, education cannot promise all wishes, dreams, and desires.Society must reject the foolish idea that a college education's main purpose is to satisfy our desires and secure success.Like most challenging things, education is a gamble in which results depend entirely on people's ability to look past their wants to see the realism and reason behind their wants.
For instance, my first year of college, I took a sociology class.In class, we were taught that Third World countries were poor.We learned that our quality of life would be almost impossible for an average person in those countries.I began to examine my own desire to be rich.To always go after money felt selfish when knowing others had none at all.Learning about other society's financial situations forced me to look beyond what I wanted.
Through the process of education, everything once desired is tested.Wanting something no longer is enough; it's more important to examine why we want it and whether we really want it.When my desire for money changed, everything changed.I stopped longing for money-driven careers and stopped valuing the people who had them.I began to examine the things I purchased and my reason for wanting them.
Education is a tool to be used to develop and advance our desires, so we can discover the things that are truly significant in life.Education is a source to expand our society to see beyond the superficial appeals and the "quick fixes" , leaving the belief of an effortless life behind in order to desire a meaningful one. | high12626.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Taste many kinds of apples."
},
"options": [
"Attend experts' lectures.",
"Visit fruit-loving families.",
"Taste many kinds of apples.",
"Plant fruit trees in an orchard."
],
"question": "What can people do at t... | If you are a fruit grower -- or would like to become one --join in Apple Day to see what's around. It's called Apple Day but in fact it's more like Apple Month. The day itself is on October 21, but since it has become popular, events now last through most of October around Britain.
Visiting an apple event is a good chance to see, and often taste, a wide variety of apples. To people who are used to the limited kinds of apples such as Golden Delicious and Royal Gala in supermarkets, it can be quite eye-opening to see some classical apples still in existence, such as Decio which was grown by the Romans. Although it doesn't taste of anything special, it's still worth a try.
There are also varieties developed to suit certain local conditions. One of the very best varieties for eating quality is Orleans Reinette, but you'll need a warm, sheltered place with perfect soil to grow it, so it's _ for most apple lovers who fall in love with it.
At the apple events, you can also meet expert growers and discuss which ones will best suit your conditions, and because these are family affairs, children are well entertained with apple-themed fun and games.
Apple days are being held at all sorts of places with an interest in fruit, including stately gardens and commercial orchards . If you want to have a real orchard experience, visit the National Collection at Brogdale, near Faversham in Kent. | high14257.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Dongzhimen and Sanyuanqiao."
},
"options": [
"Dongzhimen and Xizhimen.",
"Jianguomen and Fuxingmen.",
"Dongzhimen and Sanyuanqiao.",
"Zhichunlu and Shaoyaoju."
],
"question": "At which of the station, passengers... | (BEIJING, August 10)--The Beijing Dailyhas put together a number of tips for cost-efficient travel in Beijing.
Subway transfer
"Transfer" is a word frequently used by volunteers helping visitors choose the best way of transport during the ongoing Beijing Olympics to save time.
On the seven subway lines now in operation, the transport authorities have set up a total of 16 transfer stations:
Transfer between Line 2 and Line 1 at Jianguomen and Fuxingmen stations;
Transfer between Line 2 and Line 5 at Chongwenmen and Yonghegong stations;
Transfer between Line 2 and Line 13 at Dongzhimen and Xizhimen stations; Dongzhimen station can also bring you to Beijing Capital International Airport via the Airport Line;
Transfer between Line 1 and Line Batong at Sihui and Sihuidong stations;
Transfer from Line 1 to Line 10 at Guomao station to reach Zhongguancun, the north Third Ring Road (going north and west) or Jinsong (going south).
Via Line 10, transfer to Line 8 at Beitucheng station to reach the Olympic central zone, where the "Bird's Nest" and other venues are located; transfer to Line 5 at Huixinxijie Nankou; transfer to Line 13 at Zhichunlu and Shaoyaoju stations; Sanyuanqiao station takes you to the airport via the Airport Line.
From subway to bus
Beijing's subway system is thoroughly linked with bus routes.
The Beijing Railway Station, which can be reached via the Line 2 subway, has bus lines going north, southeast and to the West Railway Station, covering Chaoyang, Tongzhou, Daxing and other districts.
Xizhimen station is linked to many bus routes that go south and northeast. The long-distance bus routes near Dongzhimen station pass through Shunyi, Pinggu and other outskirts.
Park and ride
Park and ride facilities allow commuters to leave their personal vehicles in a parking lot and transfer to a bus or rail system.
In Beijing, because of city planning and other factors, park and ride is limited to bus and subway stations beyond the Fourth Ring Road. Since the Line 5 subway began operating, a low-fare parking lot, the largest in Beijing, was created at Tiantongyuan Beizhan station. Drivers are encouraged to spend just two yuan per day parking their vehicles and take the subway into the city. | high9423.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "What effects will the weak dollar have?"
},
"options": [
"Why is the dollar losing value?",
"What caused the weak dollar?",
"What to do with the weak dollar?",
"What effects will the weak dollar have?"
],
"quest... | The dollar is becoming weaker and weaker. What effects will it have?
Look at the recordhigh price of oil. Even if the same amount of oil is being pumped out of the ground,since it is traded in dollars and the dollar has weakened,the price of oil has increased to make up for the lost value of the dollar,creating a sort of vicious cycle .
Oilproducing countries don't want to keep all the dollars they are getting for their oil,since it's declining in value,so they exchange their dollars for euros or other currencies. That pushes more dollars back out into currency markets,which in turn pushes down the dollar's value.
One expert told ABC News that Russia used to have 90 percent of its financial reserves in dollars. It now has 45 percent in dollars,45 percent in euros and 10 percent in British pounds.
In the US itself,the news is mixed. It's good,because it makes what we produce here cheaper to sell in foreign markets,and that in turn spurs exports of our products around the world. That translates into more manufacturing and more jobs.
But a weak dollar is bad,because it leads to inflation in this country. Imports from foreign countries will become more expensive,and in particular,oil will be more expensive. That puts pressure on businesses to increase prices for anything that uses oil or products that come from overseas. One benefit for American shoppers is that China has largely pegged its currency to ours,so that keeps the price of Chinesemade goods low and therefore,keeps a check on inflation. | high6710.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "To excite children's interest in reading."
},
"options": [
"To donate books to libraries and schools.",
"To encourage students to use the library.",
"To excite children's interest in reading.",
"To introduce some new co... | Several months ago, I attended the opening event for a new children's literacy campaign at the Burbank Library in California. The campaign is called Marvel Comics Close-Up, aimed at using comic books to encourage kids to read. Disney and Marvel donated 210,000 books to libraries and schools across the country.
Stars from Disney XD participated. They read Spider-Man comic books to 70 kids from Boys & Girls Clubs in southern California. The stars included Drake Bell (Ultimate Spider-Man), Dylan Riley Snyder (Kickin' It), Olivia Holt (Kickin' It) and Cole Jenson (Crash & Bernstein).
Drake Bell said that the Marvel reading campaign is aimed at kids who are bored with books, believing comic books are the answer for kids who say they'd rather play video games. "Comic books really get you into the story," he told TFK(Time For Kids). "They are not just words or pictures on a page."
Dylan Riley Snyder knows from his experiences that comic books have the power to inspire kids' imagination. His mom was a teacher and she used comic books to interest students who thought they weren't interested in reading. Dylan attended these classes. He would read the comic books and draw the characters along with the students. "It was a great way for these kids to start to enjoy reading," Dylan said. "That's how I got interested in reading too. Now I can share my love for comic books with others through the Marvel Comics Close-Up program."
David Levine is the Vice President of Disney XD Worldwide. He said great stories and great characters, like Spider-Man and The Avengers, were key to making reading fun. "Reading can encourage you to explore new things and take you to all sorts of exciting places," he told TFK. | high13538.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "He wants to create a good impression."
},
"options": [
"He is interested in the baby.",
"He wants to create a good impression.",
"He wants to be always polite to him.",
"It's a way to start a chat with great politeness.... | I've just got to talk about this problem I'm having with my postman. It all began a year ago, after the birth of his first child. Not wanting to appear rude, I asked him about the baby. The next week, not wanting him to think I had asked out of mere politeness the week before, I asked all about the baby again. Now I can't break the habit. I freeze whenever I see him coming. The words "How's the baby?" come out on their own. It holds me up. It holds him up. So why can't I stop it? The answer is that I want him to like me. Come to think of it, I want everyone to like me.
My sister had the same problem with the caretaker of her block of flats: "All he ever does is complain; he talks at me rather than to me, never listens to a word I say, and yet for some reason I'm always really nice to him. I'm worried in case I have a difficulty one day, and he won't lift a finger to help."
What about at work? Richard Lawton, a management trainer, warns: "Those managers who are actually liked by most of their staff are always those to whom being liked is not the primary goal. The qualities that make managers popular are being honest with staff, treating them as human beings and observing common politeness like saying hello in the morning." To explain the point, Richard mentions the story of the company chairman who desperately wanted to be liked and who, after making one of his managers fired, said with moist eyes that he was so, so sorry the man was leaving. The employee replied: "If you were that sorry, I wouldn't be leaving." The lesson being, therefore, that if you try too hard to be liked, people won't like you.
The experts say it all starts in childhood. "If children feel they can only get love from their parents by being good," says Zelda West-Meads, a marriage guidance consultant, "they develop low self-confidence and become _ ." But is there anything wrong in being a giver, the world not being exactly short of takers? Anne Cousins believes there is. "There is a point at which giving becomes unhealthy," she says. "It comes when you do things for others but feel bad about it."
I am now trying hard to say to people "I feel uncomfortable about saying this, but..." and tell myself "Refusal of a request does not mean rejection of a person" and I find I can say almost anything to almost anyone. | high10031.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Octopuses."
},
"options": [
"Octopuses.",
"Crocodiles.",
"Bats.",
"Koalas."
],
"question": "Which animal moms die when their babies are born?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | Animal moms are great moms. You might be surprised at some of these moms.
Octopuses
The mother octopus lays about 50,000 eggs. For about 300 days, she stays with the eggs, cleans them and protects them. She does not leave to feed. However, this animal mom dies as soon as the eggs are hatched .
Crocodiles
A crocodile mother puts a lot of time and effort into raising her babies. She starts by building a nest , which she guards for over two months! When the eggs are ready to hatch, the young crocs call out to their mother, who digs them out and helps them hatch. She then carries them in her mouth down to the water, where she will guard them for several more weeks or months until they learn to hunt on their own.
Bats
Bats become moms by hanging head up in a cave, giving birth. Catching the youngster before it can fall to the ground below, she puts it in a pouch . Bat moms may carry babies with them when feeding for the first few days. As the little bats get bigger and heavier, moms help them hang on the wall of their caves and return often to feed them. It continues for about three weeks, until the babies are grown up and able to fly on their own.
Koalas
The animal mom gives birth after a pregnancy of only 35 days. The hairless baby climbs into its mother's pouch and lives there for another five months. When the little koala is between five and eight months old, it leaves the pouch for short periods of time but returns for safety. Once it is too big to return to the pouch, it will climb onto its mother's back and ride there until it is about 12 months old. | high2576.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "New Hope for Elephants."
},
"options": [
"New Hope for Elephants.",
"Elephants are dying.",
"Elephants are valuable.",
"How to protect elephants"
],
"question": "What's the best title for this passage?",
"qu... | The illegal ivory trade has been a major problem in Africa for decades. Poachers and hunters have killed off hundreds of thousands of elephants to obtain this precious material. Now, affected areas are taking action. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced on Wednesday that key states where poaching takes place have promised to stop the ivory trade and protect Africa's elephants.
In the 1980s, as many as 1 million elephants across Africa were killed for their ivory tusks. This continued until 1989, when the Convention on International Trade in Species (CITES) voted to ban all trade in ivory. With trade
, demand for ivory fell. Elephant populations slowly began to increase. However, this progress was short-lived.
According to the IUCN, 2011 saw the highest levels of poaching and illegal ivory trading in at least 16 years. Around 25,000 elephants were killed in Africa that year. Preliminary data from the IUCN shows even higher levels of illegal trade may have been reached in 2013. "With about 22,000 elephants illegally killed in 2012, we continue to face a critical situation," said John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary-General. "Current elephant poaching in Africa remains far too high, and could soon lead to local extinctions if the present killing rate continues."
At the African Elephant Summit, key African states where elephants make their home agreed to develop a "zero-tolerance attitude" towards poaching. The deal calls for maximum sentences for poachers and hunters, and increased cooperation between affected states. Officials are determined to classifying wildlife trading as a serious crime -- and to making sure that the people who commit it are punished. All participants at the conference agreed to sign the deal. With these states coming together, there may yet be hope for elephants. (293 words) | high16440.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Smoking causes skin aging"
},
"options": [
"The danger of smoking",
"Smoking causes skin aging",
"Quit smoking for health",
"A survey of smokers"
],
"question": "The best title for this passage would be _ .",
... | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Smoking not only can wrinkle the face and turn it yellow -- it can do the same to the whole body, researchers reported on Monday.
The study, published in the Archives of Dermatology, shows that smoking affects the skin all over the body -- even skin protected from the sun.
"We examined non-facial skin that was protected from the sun, and found that the total number of packs of cigarettes smoked per day and the total years a person has smoked were linked with the amount of skin damage a person experienced," Dr. Yolanda Helfrich of the University of Michigan, who led the study, said in a statement.
"In participants older than 65 years, smokers had significantly more fine wrinkling than nonsmokers. Similar findings were seen in participants aged 45 to 65 years," Helfrich's team added in their report.
The researchers tested 82 people, smokers and nonsmokers, taking pictures of the inner right arms. They ranged in age from 22 to 91 and half were smokers. Independent judges decided how wrinkled each person's skin was.
When skin is exposed to sunlight, notably the face, it becomes coarse, wrinkled and discolored with a pale yellow tint, Helfrich's team wrote.
Several previous studies have found that cigarette smoking contributes to premature skin aging as measured by facial wrinkles, the study said, but little has been done to measure the aging of skin not exposed to light.
The report did not discuss the mechanism involved but previous research has found that cigarette smoke, among other things, causes blood vessels beneath the skin to constrict , reducing blood supply to the skin.
Smoking can also damage the connective tissue that supports both the skin and the internal organs. | high3668.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the origin and usage of several \"hold \"expressions"
},
"options": [
"the origin and usage of several \"hold \"expressions",
"how to distinguish between four \"hold\"expressions",
"the classifications of \"hold\" expressions... | "Can't hold a candle to" is a popular expression. It is from the time before electricity, when people used candles for light. Someone who lived in a big house would have a servant light his way by holding a candle. The expression meant that the person who cannot hold a candle to you is not fit even to be your servant.
"Hold out" is an expression one hears often in sports reports and labor news. It means refusing to play or work. Professional football and baseball players hold out if their team refuses to pay them what they think they are worth. Members of labor unions hold out and refuse to work until they get the work agreement they want.
The expression "hold up" has several different meanings. One is a robbery. A man with a gun may say, "This is a hold up. Give me your money." Another meaning is to delay. A driver late for work may tell his boss, "I was held up by heavy traffic." Someone who was robbed on the way to work might say, "Sorry, boss, I was held up by a hold up." Still another meaning of the expression is for a story to be considered true after an investigation. The same driver late for work could say, "My boss did not believe a hold up held me up. But the police confirmed what I said so my story held up."
"Hold on" is another expression. Often it means wait or stop. As you leave for school, your brother may say, "Hold on, you forgot your book." Hold on is also used to ask a telephone caller to wait and not hang up his telephone. | high17986.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "use for their schoolwork"
},
"options": [
"connect them to libraries",
"access the Internet",
"work at home",
"use for their schoolwork"
],
"question": "The main purpose of the laptop program is to give each stu... | Laptop computers are popular all over the world.People use them on trains and airplanes, in airports and hotels.These laptops connect people to their workplace.In the United States today, laptops also connect students to their classrooms.
Westlake College in Virginia will start a laptop computer program that allows students to do schoolwork anywhere they want.Within five years, each of the 1500 students at the college will receive a laptop.The laptops are part of a $10 million computer program at Westlake, a 110-year-old college.The students with laptops will also have access to the Internet.In addition, they will be able to use e-mail to "speak" with their teachers, their classmates, and their families.However, the most important part of the laptop program is that students will be able to use computers without going to computer labs.They can work with it at home, in a fast-food restaurant or under the trees--anywhere at all!
Because of the many changes in computer technology, laptop use in higher education, such as colleges and universities, is workable.As laptops become more powerful, they become more similar to desktop computers.In addition, the portable computers can connect students to not only the Internet, but also libraries and other resources.State higher-education officials are studying how laptops can help students.State officials are also testing laptop programs at other universities, too.
At Westlake College, more than 60 percent of the staff use computers.The laptops will allow all teachers to use computers in their lessons.As one Westlake teacher said, " Here we are in the middle of Virginia and we're giving students a window on the world.They can see everything and do everything." | high11449.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "are specially gifted in a way"
},
"options": [
"can be cured totally",
"can not understand what is being said",
"are specially gifted in a way",
"should be treated equally and nicely"
],
"question": "Dr. Oliver ... | Believe it or not but it is true. There are people who lose the ability to understand or use words due to brain damage. But they become extremely good at something else. They become experts at spotting liars. The condition in which people lose their power to understand or use words due to brain damage are called aphasia . A study conducted in Massachusetts, U.S., has clearly proved that aphasics make good lie detectors .
In the last 100 years, many doctors studying the brain have mentioned examples of this amazing power of patients suffering from aphasia. Recently, scientists conducted tests to see if all that was said about aphasics was true. They studied the powers of a mixed group of people. Some were normal; others were aphasic. And it was proved clearly that the normal volunteers still got fooled by words. The aphasics were far ahead of them in recognizing false speech. The results of the study were reported in the magazine Nature.
`Fourteen years ago, famous American doctor, Dr. Oliver Sacks, wrote about his experiences with aphasic patients in a book. He remembered a particular incident in a hospital. Patients from the aphasia room were watching TV. Their president, Ronald Reagan, was giving a speech. He was trying to put feelings into each and every word of his speech. But his speech had an opposite effect on the patients. They were not impressed. On the contrary, the whole room shook with their laughter. The aphasics knew that he did not mean a word of what he was saying.
Dr. Sacks saw aphasics as more gifted than normal people. Normal people "get carried away" by words. An aphasic cannot understand words. But he or she can still understand what is being said. He said most of the aphasics had this superior understanding. So, while normal people think of aphasic patients as brain damaged, they actually seem to understand human expressions better. | high19015.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "from her husband"
},
"options": [
"from her father",
"from her husband",
"in a shop",
"in the advertising department"
],
"question": "Diane Arbus got her first camera _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_quest... | Diane Arbus is known for creating intense black and white photographs of very unusual people. She used a special camera that produced square shaped images. One art expert said Diane Arbus turned photography inside out. Instead of looking at her subjects, she made them look at her.
Diane Arbus was born in 1923 to a wealthy family in New York City. After finishing high school at the age of 18, Diane married Allan Arbus. Mr. Arbus worked in the advertising department of her father's store.
It was Mr. Arbus who gave Diane her first camera. Diane soon decided to take a class with the famous photographer Berenice Abbott. The Arbuses eventually started taking photographs of clothing. These images were used as advertisements for Diane's father's store. After the birth of their daughter, Doon, the Arbuses started a business together. Their purpose was to photograph clothing fashions. Diane Arbus was the stylist. She would prepare the hair and faces of the fashion models who wore the clothing being photographed. Allan Arbus took the pictures.
The couple soon had jobs from important fashion magazines such as "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar". Their work was very successful during the 1950s. They became part of a group of artists that were helping to redefine visual culture. They were breaking with past traditions to create a new look for a new decade, the sixties.
But Diane was not satisfied with her secondary role. She wanted a more active part in making photographs. She wanted to explore her own artistic expression and freedom. To do this, she stopped working with her husband. Then she started taking photography classes at the New School in New York City.
Arbus' teacher, Lisette Model, influenced her in many ways. She showed Diane how to use a camera like an expert. She also taught Diane to use her art to face her doubts and fears. Miss Model once said that Diane soon started "not listening to me but suddenly listening to herself." | high16326.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "He is anxious about the misunderstanding of Frost's idea."
},
"options": [
"He thinks highly of Frost' s poems.",
"He has a low opinion of Frost's neighbor.",
"He looks down upon the TV commentator.",
"He is anxious abo... | "Good fences make good neighbors", the television commentator said, misquoting Robert Frost for the millionth time in my memory.It made me wonder if the poet was not looking down from Heaven and sadly shaking his head.
No line of poetry has ever been more misused in history than that one.It comes from Frost' s great poem Mending Wall.In it he writes of him and his neighbor repairing the broken stone wall that divides their property .Frost questions why they are doing so, because there are no animals that need fencing in.He sees as well that the wall is a symbol of the barriers that people create to separate themselves from each other.He wisely writes that, "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom I was like to give offence .'Something there is that doesn't love a wall, that wants it down'."
His neighbor, however, who Frost describes as a "stone savage" who "moves in darkness" refuses to part from the ways of his forefathers and goes along foolishly with their belief that "Good fences make good neighbors."
I wonder if Mr.Frost would have ever written his poem if he had known that the line he wrote in irony would be used again and again to encourage what he was so against.Perhaps he would have written a different one about tearing down the fences that separate us and breaking apart the walls that hide our hearts from each other.Either way, we should embrace the wisdom he shared with us.Fences and walls separate us from each other.We need to take them down stone by stone, walk through them, and embrace each other in joy.We need to love our neighbors.We need to see that good fences DO NOT make good neighbors.They just make lonely hearts. | high20694.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Peer pressure includes direct and indirect pressure."
},
"options": [
"Peer pressure includes direct and indirect pressure.",
"Peer pressure comes from smoking, drinking and using drugs.",
"Teens facing pressure can't tell ri... | As children enter their teens, they usually begin to pay more attention to their peers or friends. Peer pressure can be direct or indirect, but it is almost always present. Learning to deal with peer pressure makes a teen mature , and able to get along well with others.
Bad peer pressure is when teens feel pressured to do something that they know is wrong, such as smoking, drinking, or drugs , and it can remain with them into adulthood. This is the main reason teens have to learn how to deal with it.
Some of the things you can do to deal with peer pressure include:
* Choose friends who share your values. Good friends use positive peer pressure to help you be your best self.
* Keep away from situations where people are doing things you don't want to do.
* Think about your reasons for doing things. Are they good reasons? Are you being true to yourself and your values?
* Practice ways of saying no, giving excuses if necessary.
* Talk to your parents, or other trusted adults, about the kinds of peer pressure you face, and listen to their advice.
* Let the adults know when you need help to get out of a bad situation, and don't know what to do about it.
Remember that if just one teen _ peer pressure, usually others will join him or her. Learning to deal with peer pressure will make you confident and mature. | high10757.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "the world'syoungest college professor"
},
"options": [
"America's youngest bachelor of science",
"Drexel University's youngest student",
"the world'syoungest college professor",
"the world's youngest female teacher"
... | Alia Sabur, from Northport, N. Y., US, went to college at age 10. And four years later, Sabur became a bachelor of science in. Applied Mathematics summa cum laude from Stony Brook University -- the youngest female in US history to do so. Her education continued at Drexel University, where she earned a Master of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Science and Engineering.
With an unlimited future ahead of her, Sabur directed her first career choice to teaching. "I really enjoy teaching," she said. She was three days short of her 19th birthday in February, 2008, when she was hired to become a professor at Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea. This distinction made her the youngest college professor in history, according to the Guinness' Book of Worm Records, beating the previous record held by Colin Maclaurin, a student of Isaac Newton, in 1717.
Although she doesn't start until next month, Sabur has taken up teaching math and physics courses at Southern University in New Orleans. Sabur is old enough to teach in the city, but not to join her fellow professors in a bar after work. In Korea, where the drinking age is 20, _ . In traditional Korean culture, children are considered to be 1 year old-when they are born, and add a year to their age every New Year instead of their actual birthday, so in Korea Sabur is considered 20.
On top of her unprecedented academic achievements, Sabur has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do . She is also a talented clarinet player who has performed with musicians like Lang Lang and Smash Mouth. So is there anything Sabur can't do? | high1719.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "tell people what happiness is"
},
"options": [
"give audience enough fun",
"write memoirs to introduce their lives",
"show unhappiness behind fun",
"tell people what happiness is"
],
"question": "According to th... | I live in the land of Disney, Hollywood. You may think people in such an attractive and exciting, fun-filled place are happier than others. If so, you have some mistaken ideas about the nature of happiness.
Many intelligent people still consider happiness equal to fun. The truth is that fun and happiness have little or nothing in common. Fun is what we experience during an act. Happiness is what we experience after an act. It is a deeper, more lasting emotion.
Going to an amusement park or ball game, watching a movie or television, are fun activities that help us relax, temporarily forget our problems and maybe even laugh. But they do not bring happiness, because their positive effects end when the fun ends.
I have often thought that if Hollywood stars have a role to play, it is to teach us that happiness has nothing to do with fun. These rich, beautiful people have constant access to glamorous parties, fancy cars, expensive homes, everything that brings "happiness". But in memoir after memoir, famous people expose the unhappiness hidden beneath all their fun -- depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, broken marriages, troubled children and extreme loneliness.
Ask an unmarried man why he refuses to get married even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he's honest, he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure and excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.
Similarly, couples that choose not to have children are deciding in favor of painless fun over painful happiness. They can dine out whenever they want and sleep as late as they want. Couples with babies are lucky to get a whole night's sleep or a three-day vacation. I don't know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children.
The way people stick to the belief that a fun-filled, pain-free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever achieving real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equal to happiness, then pain must be equal to unhappiness. As a result, they fear the pain unavoidably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment and self-improvement.
But, in fact, the opposite is true. More times than not, things that lead to happiness involve some pain. The very efforts are the source of true happiness. Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations we can ever come to. | high14531.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Give them more allowance if they help do the housework"
},
"options": [
"Stop giving them allowance at once.",
"Buy them something they are in need of.",
"Give them more allowance if they help do the housework",
"Encour... | As an expert on education, I finished a Junior Achievement course at a local middle school last week. I received some meaningful answers when I asked teens what they would want to tell their parents about money.
Max said,'Dear Mom, I need to give you some advice on money. I need more allowance !" I have to say many teenagers have the same idea as him. As an expert, I advise a little money for teens and more if they help with the housework. Now that your children are in middle school, it's time to think about paying them to do something. My daughter missed a lot of school when she was a junior so I promised to buy her a notebook computer if she didn't miss any school as a senior -- she got the computer finally. What worked for my other daughter was a clothing allowance for her joining in the housework. She would receive a set amount every two months; it taught her a valuable lesson: when the clothing money ran out, she couldn't buy more clothes until she got enough money through doing the housework. "I need more allowance," should be the start, not the end, of a dialogue.
Grace wanted to tell Mom, "Only buy what we need." Spending wisely and saving money was a good theme from all the students. The idea of thinking carefully about spending is just what I taught them at class, but this is not the subject of this Junior Achievement course. It shows me that these teenagers look at their parents' spending habits, but they don't tell their parents their opinions about them. Therefore, Moms and Dads, pay attention and remember: your children watch everything you do when it comes to money -- do it right, point them in the right direction.
Nikola's advice is valuable to all parents -- "Mom and Dad, I think I should be more involved in money and financial things so I know how to do everything without a struggle when I get older." This child has got it right. Her answer shows the fact that parents are responsible for the financial training of their children. It is one of our most important parental goals. | high9345.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "I can share many reviews and performances online with my friends in South Africa"
},
"options": [
"I often leave campus for more than few days",
"I often attend some of them in person",
"I bought a bigger Ford? Mustang",
... | It's time to remind myself what I love about life here in California,USA, to remember what I desperately miss when I go home.
Real radio
In the USA there are so many radio stations that those iPod tuner things don't work at all. _ . It took me a while to discover the USA's many public radio stations, which don't broadcast any advertisements. KCRW is my favorites station, for its blend of indie music and current affairs. But I also listen to KJAZZ and KPCC. But before you feel jealous -- it's all online. My favorites: American life Snap Judgement and Henry Rollins live every Saturday night. Take listen online for free News? Well, there's not a lot of news from South Africa, and when it is, it's bad and full of fear, so I ignore it. But I care about any place I live in, and that includes the USA. And on public radio, the USA is covered in depth, from the perspective of individual stories rather than statistics.
The festivals
I'm jealously watching tweets and Facebook boasts and reviews from SXSW -- seems like half the people I used to work with in South Africa are there,meeting Grumpy Cat and watching bands they've always wanted to see live. It's great to know that these 1000s of festivals are so close, and that one day,if film school schedule ever allows me to leave campus for more than a few days, I can go to one or two of them. I have already exchanged my much loved Ford Mustang for a bigger, less sexy car -- a car spacious enough to sleep in -- so that next year I can be there, not just dream of it.
The famous people
When I go back to SA, I'm often asked if I've spotted any famous people. It's awkward for me. I feel the the same way about it as I feel when an American asks me if there are lions in the streets. Except yes, I have. No,not lions. I have met some famous people. I chatted to RJ Mitte from Breaking Bad outside a dub in West Hollywood. Many of my professors are famous directors. The problem is, once you meet these famous people, they're just people, FFS. This feels disappointing at first, like you're missing a Jesus moment of some sort. But if you think about it, it's inspiring. What it means, is that I, litlle me (right now, also "just a person") could be a famous just-a-person person one day, and get to make all the films I just dream of now. | high6076.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "on March 5ththere will be two plays for us to choose"
},
"options": [
"Story of Puppets is played held in China Children's Theater",
"all the artists who have won prizes will perform magic tricks",
"on March 5ththere will be ... | Keep in the air:The Chaoyang Theater is one of Beijing Theaters to present acrobatic programs all year round.
Top acrobatic artists invited from all over the country perform for Chinese and foreign tourists.The program features trick cycling,leaping through hoops and Chinese magic tricks.Some of the artists have won prizes in international competitions.
Time:7:15p.m.Daily
Place:36,Dongsanhuan Belu.Chaoyang District
Tel:6507---2421 6507---1818
Use your head:Green head is a new drama given by a group of young Chinese actors.It's a reworking of American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous novel The Scarlet Letter .It describes the heroine's great courage in finding the true love against a backdrop of disapproval.
Time:7:15p.m. until March 5th,except Mondays
Place:China Children's Theater
Tel:6603---7255 6603---7265
Mix and match:Story of Puppets tells a fairy.Zixia,who looks for true love in the human world.After watching a puppet play Peony Pavdion ,she thinks it must be true love in reality,so she uses magic to turn the puppet characters into the humans,wanting to fall in love with the puppet hero.But things don't go as she planned.
Li Liuyi,the director of the play has made several successful attempts to join different traditional operas together in one play.This time he combines Peking Opera,Kunqu Opera,Pingju Opera and an orchestral accompaniment,using the structure of modern drama.
Time:7:30 p.m until March 10th,except Mondays
Place:Small Playhouse of Beijing People's Art Theater
Peking Opera:The Peking Opera Troupe will give two performances at the Chang'an Grand Theater.
Each performance consists of two classical plays. One is Wenxi(a play focus on singing and dancing);the other is Wuxi(a play full of acrobatic dancing).
The first night will be The crossroad and Presenting a pearl of the Rainbow Bridge.And the second night will see the performance of The Godess of Heaven Scatters Flowers and Havoc in Heaven.
Time:7:30p.m. February 27th,28th
Place:Chang'an Grand Theater
Tel:86531043 | high22083.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Singing for those working in the fields."
},
"options": [
"Wearing a big hat and playing a guitar.",
"Using the rising and falling voice.",
"Telling about his love, hope and loss.",
"Singing for those working in the fie... | Wearing a big hat and playing a guitar, a country music singer is using his rising and falling voice to tell the audience about his love, hope and loss. Few people could avoid getting caught up in his feelings.
This is the appeal of country music, which speaks to the basic emotions of human life. Throughout the 20th century, it has grown into one of the most original and lasting American musical forms.
Country music's roots are in the songs of the American South, brought over by early immigrants from England. Those songs expressed the hardships of rural life and deep religious beliefs. In the 1920s, country music came into being as its first recordings were made. Early stars like Jimmy Rodger, known as "The Father of Country Music", and the Carter Family established its strong traditions - good song-writing, singing and playing.
Much of this music was written for and brought to the American public through the cowboy films of the 1930s and 1940s. It was widely popular then and many singers turned up on stage wearing Western fringe and cowboy hats.
In the 1950s, the country music recording industry was set up in Nashville and moved away from its rough roots. But singers like John Denver, with his hit track "Take Me Home, Country Roads", insisted on the originality and emotions of "real" country music.
Younger artists in the 1990s turned to older country styles and mixed t3vhem with elements of rock 'n' roll. Steve Earle, with his song "The Devil's Right Hand", is typical of this so-called "another country music".
Country music continues to speak to Americans of all ages and backgrounds. And it gives the nation an identity .
Unlike pop music, country music was American, and only American. During its development, it continued to emphasize that "American" element and sounded completely different from its English ancestors. It may even be said that its sound and story tell the history of the United States. | high7368.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "she wrote socially critical novels and plays"
},
"options": [
"she was an Austrian woman writer",
"she wrote socially critical novels and plays",
"her novel \"The Piano Teacher\" was made into a movie",
"the nature of h... | For a writer, there is hardly any greater honor than winning the Nobel Prize for literature.
And for a woman writer, claiming the prize is even harder, for only eight women once won it. Austria's Elfriede Jelinek is the ninth and the first since 1996.
The Stockholm-based Swedish Academy announced last Thursday that Jelinek won this year's Nobel Prize in literature. She is recognized for her socially critical novels and plays.
Jelinek, 57, made her literary debut in 1967. She has written plays, novels and poetry. She is best known for her autobiographical 1983 novel "The Piano Teacher", made into a movie in 2001.
The basic theme of her work is the inability of women to live as people beyond the roles and personalities traditionally expected of _ . Her characters struggle to lead lives not normally acceptable in society. "The nature of Jelinek's texts is often hard to define. They shift between prose and poetry and songs, they contain theatrical scenes and film script," said the academy.
The Nobel Prize was founded by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. Nobel died in 1896 and left his fortune of about US $920 million to a fund to honor people who have helped other human beings. This year each prize is worth US $13 million. | high12140.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "lonely"
},
"options": [
"happy",
"lonely",
"free",
"excited"
],
"question": "Those who have big houses may often feel _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index":... | Happiness is for everyone. You don't need to care about those people who have beautiful houses with large gardens and swimming pools or those who have nice cars and a lot of money and so on. Why? Because those who have big houses may often feel lonely and those who have cars may want to walk on the country roads at their free time.
In fact, happiness is always around you if you put your heart into it. When you are in trouble at school, your friends will help you; when you study hard at your lessons, your parents are always taking good care of your life and your health; when you get success, your friends will say congratulations to you; when you do something wrong, people around you will help you to correct it. And when you do something good to others, you will feel happy, too. All these are your happiness. If you notice a bit of them, you can see that happiness is always around you.
Happiness is not the same as money. It is a feeling of your heart. When you are poor, you can also say you are very happy, because you have something else that can't be bought with money. When you meet with difficulties, you can say loudly you are very happy, because you have more chances to challenge yourself. So you cannot always say you are poor and you have bad luck. As the saying goes, life is like arevolving door. When it closes, it also opens. If you take every chance you get, you can be a happy and lucky person. | high299.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Arthur Conan Doyle"
},
"options": [
"Arthur Conan Doyle",
"Daniel Libeskind",
"Art Spiegelman",
"Anita Shreve"
],
"question": "Who is the writer of the latest book published among the four books?",
"question... | New Annotated Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Price: PS28.00
Publication Date: 30/11/2006
Publisher's description:
Collect Doyle's fifty-six classic short stories, arranged in the order in which they appeared in late-nineteenth-and-early-twentieth-century book editions, in a set complemented by four novels, editor biographies of Doyle, Holmes, and Watson as well as literary and cultural details about Victorian society.
Breaking Ground by Daniel Libeskind
Price: PS16.00
Publication Date:11/10/2006
Brief description:
This is a book about the adventure life that can offer each of us if we seize it, and about the powerful forces of tragedy, memory and hope. For Daniel Libeskind, life's adventure has been through architecture, which he has found has the power to reshape human experience. Although often relating to the past, his buildings are about the future. This biology of one man's journey brings together history, personal experience, our physical environment and a fresh international vision.
In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman
Price: PS16.00
Publication Date:02/09/2006
Brief description:
On 11th September 2001, Art Spiegelman raced to the world Trade Center, not knowing if his daughter Nadja was alive or dead. Once she was found safe---in her school at the foot of the burning towers---he returned home, to mediate on the trauma , and to work on a comic strip . In the Shadow of No Towers is New Yorker Art Spiegelman's extraordinary account of "the hijacking on 9.11 and the following hijacking of those events" by America.
Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
Price: PS14.00
Publication Date:07/10/2006
Publisher's description:
This is the 11th novel by Anita Shreve, the critically accepted bestseller. A moving story of love and courage and tragedy and of the ways in which the human heart always seeks to heal itself.
Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
Price: PS20.99
Publication Date:11/08/2006
Brief description:
Camping in the garden, riding bikes through the woods, climbing trees, picking wildflowers, running through piles of autumn leaves... these are the things childhood memories are made of. But for a whole generation of today's children the pleasures of a free-range childhood are missing, and their indoor habits contribute to obesity, attention disorder and childhood depression. This book shows how our children have become increasingly distanced from nature, why this matters and how we can make a difference. Richard Louv is chairman of the Children and Nature Network and co-chair of the National Forum on Children and Nature. He is the author of seven other books and has written for newspapers and magazines including the New York Times and the Washington Post. | high23389.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "They did what the bear safety handbook had said."
},
"options": [
"They went to the wild to watch the bear.",
"They did what the bear safety handbook had said.",
"They were the first people to trap the bear.",
"They aba... | Campers Gene and Marie Marsden took pride in being good citizens when in the wild. While driving miles to the Green River Lakes area, they taught their children what they had learned in the bear safety handbook put out by the Bridger-Teton Forest Service.
Mr. and Mrs. Marsden did their best to keep a tidy camp. As the handbook had said to hang all food at least ten feet off the ground and four feet out from the trees, they did that and locked their food in their trailer at night. It was already dark when they went to bed, but they _ the campsite with flashlights, making sure nothing was left out. Following the bear book's advice, they slept a hundred yards from where they cooked their food, and kept the car near their tents, separated from the trailer, which they left up at the other camp.
The Marsdens liked having their dog Spike on guard. But on the first night, Spike would not stop barking. When Marie Marsden pulled the tent open and shone her flashlight, she saw a young bear.
They all piled into the car and drove quickly down the path, calling out of the window to Spike and abandoning the trailer. They drove to a pay phone and called a Fish and Game Department guard, who identified the bear by the white ring of the fur the Marsdens had seen around his neck. The authorities informed the Marsdens that the bear was a young male that they'd been keeping an eye on.
The next morning, the Marsdens heard helicopters circling over the mountain and wondered if it might have something to do with the bear.
After spending the night in the public campground, they drove back to their site. Wandering the area in search of clues, Marie came to a stop below a tall tree. She slapped her head and shouted, "Oh no!"
"What is it?" Gene asked.
Marie pointed at the ground where Spike's dog food bowl lay upside down.
A week after their return home, the Marsdens read the headline in their local paper. "Bear Killed in Wind Rivers." According to the article, the Fish and Game Department had shot the young bear because, having been rewarded for invading a human campsite, it would likely to do so again.
The Marsdens knew they had been lucky in the encounter, yet much to their shame and sadness, they also knew that the bear had not. | high14525.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Water's becoming salty."
},
"options": [
"Climate change.",
"Water's becoming salty.",
"Population growth.",
"Water's being wasted."
],
"question": "Which of the following is NOT a reason for a water crisis?",
... | Everyone needs safe drinking water, but about 1.1 billion people have no access to clean water. Most of the world's water is salty ocean water or frozen polar ice. By 2050, the world's population could grow from 6.7 billion to more than 9 billion. All of those people will need water to drink. But the bad news is that some areas of the world are growing drier because of climate change. The total area of the Earth's surface classified as very dry has doubled since the 1970s. Sadly, the precious resource is still misused in industry, in farming and at homes.
Therefore, the world is facing a crisis over water. "You do the math, and it gets a little scary," says Stuart Minchin, a water expert in Australia. "We're waking up," he says. "But not fast enough."
In southern Australia, farmers have been hit hard. They can't irrigate their fields well enough. The Australian government has launched a $1.3 billion project to improve Australia's irrigation system to stop the crop production dropping further.
Australians have serious water worries, but it could be worse. They don't have to fear that when they turn on the tap, nothing will come out. That's the case in India. Many people in New Delhi, the capital, go without clean water for days.
City leaders have taken stricter measures to save water. Users pay a very high but affordable price for it. Homeowners who waste water are given large fines. There are 1.9 million people who live in Las Vegas, Nevada. Now it has grown by more than 300,000 people since 2002. But it uses less water today than it did seven years ago. | high22097.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "It is a computer program created by Rafael Perezy Perez."
},
"options": [
"It is a computer program that can write fiction stories on its own.",
"It is a computer program created by Rafael Perezy Perez.",
"It is blamed for lo... | While it may be unlikely for a computer to write a best seller, a technology expert has created a computer program that writes its own fiction stories with minimal user input. The program, called MEXICA, is the first to generate original stories based on computerized representations of emotions and tensions between characters.
An Internet survey was carried out to see the popularity of the computer-generated stories, other computerized stories and stories written solely by a human. The result was that readers ranked MEXICA stories highest for flow and coherence, structure, content, suspense and overall quality. Rafael Perezy Perez, the creator of MEXICA, explained that a story might begin with something as basic as, "The enemy wounded the knight. The princess cured the knight. The knight killed the enemy. The knight rewarded the princess. The end."
The program reads characters as variables and assigns a numerical value, between a continuum from -3 to +3, to emotional connections that are defined as either amorous or non-amorous. The numerical value is equivalent to the degree of emotion, with -3 being intense hate and +3 being intense love. The program also understands story tension, such as linking the word "wounded" with tension. This too is assigned a numerical value.
Once these clusters of emotional links and tensions are established, the program begins what is called an "engagement reflection cycle". Basically this involves searching a database of story actions and other happenings, which are called "atoms", and determines the best match for the characters and contexts for that moment.
The process repeats itself again and again until the system can no longer make any matches. At this point, the computer analyzes the story for coherence and "interestingness". The program views a story as interesting when tension levels increase and fall throughout the piece. If the program finds that the story is boring or incoherent in places, it will replace or insert atoms until a version is thought to be satisfactory. | high12154.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "he has a consideration for the visitors"
},
"options": [
"his museum shows a lack of money",
"admission fees should be forceful",
"he is in favor of New York's action",
"he has a consideration for the visitors"
],
... | Visitors to museums have to pay "voluntary" admission fees, Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, urged yesterday. He said that encouraging visitors to set a value on museums and art galleries, which have been free since 2001, would work extremely well. Mr. Johnson held up New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art as a model. Although New York's museums are officially free, visitors are strongly encouraged to pay a recommended entry fee of $20. At the Met, entry is impossible without first going to the ticket desk.
Mr. Johnson's spokesman later admitted that free admission was a "huge draw" for London, but he said, "Having visited the Met last week, the mayor is impressed by how they maximize voluntary contributions and believes there are lessons to be learnt." Mark Jones, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, told The Timesthat the museum already requested a PS3 donation but was not as forceful as New York's institutions. He said, "I'm not in favor of anything that makes people feel they won't want to go because they feel like they will have to pay."
When entrance fees to national museums were decided not to be charged here in 2001, there was a 70 percent increase in visitor numbers in the first year. Political parties have since been unwilling to suggest change, despite concerns about cost. Hugo Swire, the former Shadow Culture Secretary, was dismissed in 2007 for suggesting that "museums and galleries should have the right to charge if they wish".
Some in the art community argue, however, that free entrance has done little to increase the breadth of visitors and has caused shortfalls in the budget for the museums. In response to it, Colin Tweedy, chief executive of Arts & Business, said that Britain was "leading the world" in allowing its treasures to be freely available. He said, "To return to museum charging would be a return to the dark ages."
Ben Bradshaw, the Culture Secretary, said, "The mayor showed his true intention when he suggested those who could afford it should be encouraged to contribute to the arts. I believe _ is a disaster for the culture, arts and sport." He thinks that free museums and galleries have once been one of this Government's great successes. | high20858.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Moms play a significant role in handling kids' emotions ."
},
"options": [
"Orphan bonobos never give a hand to friend .",
"There were 370 bonobos involved in the research .",
"The ability to comfort others is unique to human... | What do you usually do to comfort your friends when they are feeling sad or depressed ? You probably pat them on the back or shoulder , or maybe you give them a big , warm hug .
We used to think that knowing when and how to comfort others was an ability that only humans have . But scientists have discovered that apes have this ability , too , according to a study published in the Journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
Two researchers from Emory University in Atlanta , US , went to an Ape Protection Centre in Congo to study bonobos , which are closely related to humans .
The researchers analyzed the bonobos' reactions after more than 370 cases of stressful situations , such as fights and losing temper , and found that some bonobos rushed to hug those that were screaming after being attacked , just like humans would have done .
However , researchers noted hat not all bonobos were capable of comforting others . In the protection centre , many bonobos are orphans whose mothers were killed by hunters . They were found to be more anxious in times of tension and to have greater difficulty controlling their own emotions , making them worse at reaching out to help friends in need .
" Orphans , who have not had the benefit of a mother helping them handling their emotions , are much worse at comforting others , " Professor Frans de Waal , one of the researchers , told The Telegraph . " Bonobos with moms were able to curb their negative emotional reactions more quickly . Therefore , they pay more attention to others . "
This pattern mirrors the way that human children have been found to react . Those who seem more capable of handling their own emotions - for example , the ones who can calm themselves down more quickly after upsetting experiences - are usually better at expressing their concerns for others . | high19001.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "introduce books to readers"
},
"options": [
"teach students how to learn idioms",
"introduce books to readers",
"increase students' knowledge about idioms",
"offer learning materials to readers for free"
],
"que... | One of the most difficulties in learning a language is learning the idiomatic phrases, slang and common usage of native speakers. These four books focus on giving students a hand when learning North American idiomatic language.
Ya Gotta Know It by Hania Hassan
It provides an excellent mixture of materials for classroom lessons and American slang reference. Its unique feature is that students are provided with ongoing context reminding learners of idioms learned while improving their understanding by using the same characters and a developing story line. Exercises provide a chance for students to practice in proper situations.
Price: $11.66
ISBN: 9780074560167
Common American Phrases by Richard A. Spears
It has a wide variety of resources on American English. It contains more than 2,000 phrases and idioms. Excellent for classroom use as this reference guide focuses on standard phrases that can be found in everyday standard usage.
Price: $ 7.06
ISBN: 978007405607
American Idioms and Some Phrases Just for Fun by Edward Swick
The book's strength is its translation of more formal English of a number of idioms. These phrases are then repeated in a number of different contexts giving students a good idea of common usage. There are also a number of exercises designed to help students put their newfound idiomatic understanding into use.
Price: $ 5.49
ISBN: 9780764108075
American Slang by Robert L. Chapman
It provides a guide for advanced level English students. This references guide to slang is best used by those interested in the very latest and up-to-date slang and slang you might hear in the laterst films from Hollywood.
Price: $ 1.99
ISBN: 9780062731722 | high4675.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "it would be a waste of money"
},
"options": [
"the theatres would be overcrowded",
"it would be a waste of money",
"pensioners wouldn't get free tickets",
"the government wouldn't be able to afford it"
],
"quest... | Tens of thousands of theatre tickets will be given away to young people next year as part of a government campaign to inspire a lifelong love for theatre.
The plan to offer free seats to people aged between 18 to 26--funded with PS2.5 million of taxpayers' money--was announced yesterday by Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary. It received a cautious welcome from some in the arts world, who expressed concern that the tickets may not reach the most underprivileged.
The plan comes as West End theatres are enjoying record audiences, thanks largely to musicals teaming up with television talent shows. Attendances reached. 13.6 million in 2007, up 10 percent on 2006, itself a record year. Total sales were up 18 percent on 2006 to almost PS470 million.
One theatre source criticised the Government's priorities in funding free tickets when pensioners were struggling to buy food and fuel, saying: "I don't know why the Government's wasting money on this. The Yong Vic, as
reported today, offers excellent performances at cheap prices."
There was praise for the Government's plan from Dominic Cooke of the Royal Court Theatre, who said: "I support any move to get young people into theatre, and especially one that aims to do it all over England, not just in London."
Ninety-five publicly funded theatres could apply for funding under the two-year plan. In return, they will offer free tickets on at least one day each week to 18 to 26-year-olds, first-come, first-served. It is likely to be on Mondays, traditionally a quiet night for the theatre.
Mr. Burnham said: "A young person attending the theatre can find it an exciting experience, and be inspired to explore a new world. But sometimes people miss out on it because they fear it's 'not for them'. It's time to change this perception."
Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Culture Secretary, said: "The real issue is not getting enthusiastic children into the theatre, but improving arts education so that more young people want to go in the first place. For too many children theatres are a no-go area." | high16332.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "1776"
},
"options": [
"1786",
"1800",
"1842",
"1776"
],
"question": "From the passage we can infer that America won its independence in _ .",
"question_type": "summarization_questions"
},
{
"answe... | As we all know, it was Thomas Jefferson who wrote the Declaration of Independence (<<>> ). He wrote it in two weeks, and after a few changes, it was accepted by the Congress . As a result, he became famous.
Born in 1743 in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, a wonderful student at school and almost talented( ) lawyer later, was much interested in politics.
Jefferson was elected the Governor of Virginia in 1779, and he was sent to France as the representative of the American government in 1784. Sixteen years later, at the age of 57, he was elected president after Washington and Adams.
Far from a handsome man, he was tall with long arms and big hands. Jefferson, who was an amusing talker in conversation but a poor speaker, was generally good-natured.
Jefferson was regarded as a defender of freedom in America. As a president, he protected the right of free speech. Interestingly enough, in his eight years as president, Jefferson never vetoed a bill which the Congress had passed. He did a lot in organizing the new University of Virginia.
Thomas Jefferson died on July the fourth, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence. | high10743.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Rolls's car could go faster than four miles an hour"
},
"options": [
"they could watch the car coming from the other direction",
"Rolls's car could go faster than four miles an hour",
"they could make sure no one was in the w... | At one time no one could travel on an English road faster than four miles an hour. That was the law until 1896. A man had to walk in front of a car which could not go faster than the man. At night the man had to carry a red lamp.
Once Charles Rolls brought a car from France to England, but he wanted to drive faster than four miles an hour. In order to have no trouble with the police, he had a talk with some of the police officers, who ordered their policemen to look the other way when the car came along the road. This was a good plan in the country, but not so easy to follow in the busy streets of London.
One night Rolls and some friends started from London on their journey to Cambridge. One of the men walked in front with the red lamp, but he walked as fast as he could. The police became very interested in walls and shop-fronts when they heard the car and not one of them saw it.
They reached a hill, but what a waste of time it was to drive down the hill at four miles an hour! Rolls was getting ready to jump into the car, but then he noticed a policeman who was not looking the other way. The slow car reached him.
"Good evening," said the policeman, looking at the car.
"Good evening," said Rolls, holding the lamp.
"One of these horseless things," said the policeman, looking at it with interest.
"Yes," said Rolls, and waited.
"I've often wanted a ride in one, but of course policemen can't buy things like that." He turned and looked hopefully in Rolls's face.
"Jump in," said Rolls.
"Thanks," said the policeman, and did so. "Now," he said, sitting down, "You can let it go just as you like down this hill. There isn't another policeman on this road for a mile and a half." | high10025.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "removing people's bad living habits"
},
"options": [
"keeping people in a healthy physical condition",
"monitoring patients' body functions",
"removing people's bad living habits",
"ensuring people's psychological well-... | As we have seen, the focus of medical care in our society has been shifting from curing disease to preventing disease--especially in terms of changing our many unhealthy behaviors, such as poor eating habits, smoking, and failure to exercise. The line of thought involved in this shift can be pursued further. Imagine a person who is about the right weight, but does not eat very nutritious foods, who feels OK but exercises only occasionally, who goes to work every day, but is not an outstanding worker, who drinks a few beers at home most nights but does not drive while drunk, and who has no chest pains or abnormal blood counts, but sleeps a lot and often feels tired. This person is not ill. He may not even be at risk for any particular disease. But we can imagine that this person could be a lot healthier.
The field of medicine has not traditionally distinguished between someone who is merely "not ill" and someone who is in excellent health and pays attention to the body's special needs. Both types have simply been called "well". In recent years, however, some health specialists have begun to apply the terms "well" and "wellness" only to those who are actively striving to maintain and improve their health. People who are well are concerned with nutrition and exercise, and they make a point of monitoring their body's condition. Most important, perhaps, people who are well take active responsibility for all matters related to their health. Even people who have a physical disease or handicap may be "well" in this new sense, if they make an effort to maintain the best possible health they can in the face of their physical limitations. "Wellness" may perhaps best be viewed not as a state that people can achieve, but as an ideal that people can strive for. People who are well are likely to be better able to resist disease and to fight disease when it strikes. And by focusing attention on healthy ways of living, the concept of wellness can have a beneficial impact on the ways in which people face the challenges of daily life. | high2562.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Because they show the day in the same order."
},
"options": [
"Because they are small.",
"Because they are big.",
"Because they can be put on the desk.",
"Because they show the day in the same order."
],
"questi... | The New Year is the time to buy a new calendar . Yet it can take a lot of time just to choose the right one. There are lots and lots of choices. There are small ones. Big ones. Calendars sit on a desk. Calendars hang on the wall. Calendars are carried around. In one way all calendars are the same. They all list the same days of the year in exactly the same order.
Calendars have become popular gifts because many are filled with beautiful pictures. Some have pictures of famous art works. It is like hanging a different painting on your wall each month. You can even learn from calendars. They often give information about their subject--such as famous writers or American Indians or flower gardens.
There are calendars about food and about beautiful places in the world. Calendars about sports and about movies. Funny calendars with popular cartoon characters. For pet lovers, there are calendars with pictures of cats doing unusual things. Three hundred sixty-five of them--one for each day of the year. There are calendars with pictures of cars, too. There are even calendars for children who can draw the pictures themselves.
Some people do not just look at their calendars. They use them to write down important things they must remember, like meetings or doctor's appointments. Busy people can buy small calendars to carry around to help them organize and plan their life.
Since there are so many choices, you must spend your time choosing your favourite calendars. | high18479.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "was once a guest in the Greens"
},
"options": [
"is a member of the Greens",
"had no idea whether to watch TV",
"was once a guest in the Greens",
"prefers ITV to the BBC"
],
"question": "We can conclude that Jim... | One of the first things that Jim discovered while living with the Greens was that there were different television channels in Britain, the BBC broadcasts on two channels: BBC1 and BBC2. There is a mixture of serious and light programmes on BBC1; there are mainly serious programmes on BBC2. ITV is an independent channel which carries advertisements . There are no advertisements on the BBC, so everyone must pay some money to the BBC each year. There are both serious and light programmes on ITV. Because of the different channels, it is not surprising that you often see each member in Mg. Green's house wants to choose his or her own favorite channel. This is the sort of thing you hear:
"There's sports programme on ITV."
"What's that, children?"
"We were wondering if we could watch the sports programme on ITV."
"But I was wondering whether to watch the other programme on BBC1." And so on. The children like ITV; mother prefers BBC1; father prefers BBC2. Jim hasn't made up his mind. | high19767.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Douglas Adams and his works"
},
"options": [
"Douglas Adams, always loved by fans",
"Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy",
"Douglas Adams and his works",
"Douglas Adams's personal lives"
],
"q... | Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge in March 1952, educated at Brentwood School, Essex and St John's College, Cambridge where, in 1974 he gained a BA (and later an MA) in English literature.
He was the creator of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy(<<>> ), which started life as a BBC Radio 4 series in March 1978. Since then it has been transformed into a series of best-selling novels, a TV series, a record album, a computer game and several stage adaptations.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's success sent the book straight to Number One in the UK Bestseller List and in 1984 Douglas Adams became the youngest author to be awarded a Golden Pan. He won a further two (a rare feat), and was nominated--though not selected - for the first Best of Young British Novelists awards.
He followed this success with The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980); Life, The Universe and Everything (1982); So Long and Thanks for all the Fish (1984); and Mostly Harmless (1992). The first two books in the Hitchhiker series were adapted into a 6-part television series, which was an immediate success when first showed in 1982. Other publications include Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (1988). In 1984 Douglas teamed up with John Lloyd and wrote The Meaning of Life and their second huge success, The Deeper Meaning of Life followed in 1990. One of Douglas's personal favorites was written in 1990 when he teamed up with zoologist Mark Carwardine and wrote Last Chance to See an account of a world-wide search for rare and endangered species of animals.
Douglas sold over 15 million books in the UK, the US and Australia. He was also a best seller in German, Swedish and many other languages.
Douglas Adams died on Friday, May 11, 2001, in Santa Barbara, CA. He will be greatly missed by fans worldwide. | high4113.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "sad music may help arouse positive emotions"
},
"options": [
"sad music may help arouse positive emotions",
"sad music can make people relax",
"Sad music has a positive effect on people's health",
"many experts recommen... | A new study suggests that sad music might actually arouse positive emotions. The finding helps to explain why people enjoy listening to sad music, say Ai Kawakami and her colleagues from Tokyo University of the Arts and the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan. Ai Kawakami and her colleagues asked 44 volunteers, including both musicians and nonspecialists, to listen to two pieces of sad music and one piece of happy music. Each participant was required to use a set of keywords to rate both their perception of the music and their own emotional state.
The sad pieces of music included Glinka's La Separation in F minor and Blumenfeld's Etude Sur Mer in G minor. The happy music piece was Granados's Allegro de Concierto in G major. To control the "happy" effect of major key, they also played the minor key pieces in major key, and vise versa.
The researchers explained that sad music aroused contradictory emotions because the participants of the study tended to feel sad to be more tragic and less romantic than they felt themselves while listening to it.
" In general, sad music causes sadness in listeners, and sadness is regarded as an unpleasant emotion. If sad music actually arouses only unpleasant emotion, we would not listen to it," the researchers wrote in the study.
"Music that is believed as sad actually causes romantic emotion as well as sad emotion.And people, regardless of their musical training, experience this ambivalent emotion to listen to the sad music," added the researchers.
Also, unlike sadness in daily life, sadness experienced through art actually feels pleasant, possibly because the latter does not cause an actual threat to our safety. This could help people to deal with their negative emotions in daily life, concluded the authors.
"Emotion experienced by music has no direct danger or harm unlike the emotion experienced in everyday life. Therefore, we can even enjoy unpleasant emotion such as sadness. If we suffer from unpleasant emotion aroused through daily life, sad music might be helpful to
negative emotion," they added. | high16454.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "you enjoyed your meal"
},
"options": [
"you enjoyed your meal",
"you are not full",
"your meal is not good",
"you want to eat more"
],
"question": "In Mongolia, burping is a way of showing that _ .",
"ques... | Many years ago, children who had good manners kept quiet if their parents were talking with other persons. Today, well-mannered children have more freedom.
Sometimes good manners in one place are bad manners in other place.
Suppose you are a visitor in the prefix = st1 /landofMongolia. Some friends ask you to eat with them. What kind of manners do they want you to have? They want you to give a loud "burp" after you finish eating. Burping will show that you like your food. In some countries, if you give a loud burp, you are told to say, "Excuse me, please."
In many places people like to eat together. But in some parts of Polynesia, it is bad manners to be seen eating at all. People show their good manners by turning their back on others while they eat.
What are good manners like in an East African town? The people try not to see you. They are being polite. You may see a friend. He may not see you at all. If you're polite, you will sit down beside him. You will wait until he finishes what he is doing. Then he will talk to you.
Suppose you visit a friend in Arabia. You should walk behind the tents until you come to his tent. If you pass in front of the other tents, you will be asked into them. The people will ask you to eat with them. And it is bad manners if you say no. | high17992.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "there may be a monster"
},
"options": [
"it's very deep",
"there may be a monster",
"there's a bag in it",
"it's in Scotland"
],
"question": "The reason why the lake is famous is that _ .",
"question_type... | In the summer of 1980 a Spanish tourist, Gaspar Carner, went to Great Britain on holiday. When he was travelling in Scotland, he decided to visit Loch Ness, the famous lake where people say there is a monster. But while he was going across the lake in a boat, his bag fell into the water. In the bag were his passport, car keys, pen, and all his money. Loch Ness is 150 metres deep, so he didn't expect to see the bag again!
Fourteen years later, in 1994, some scientists decided to explore the lake. They looked for the Loch Ness monster. Suddenly one of them saw something black in the water. They carefully went nearer. They thought the black thing was the monster. They went nearer and nearer. It was a bag. They took the bag out of the lake. They found that the photo on the passport was still clear. One of the scientists happened to be familiar with Gaspar Carner. So the bag was returned to him. | high8729.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "describe the poor education conditions of African girls"
},
"options": [
"find the cause of Africa's poverty",
"describe the poor education conditions of African girls",
"prove the inequality in African society",
"refor... | Fatimah Bamun dropped out of Balizenda Primary School in the first grade, when her father refused to buy her pencils and paper. Only after her teachers said to him that his daughter showed unusual promise did he change his mind. Today, Fatimah, 14, tall and slender, studies math in a dirt-floored fourth-grade classroom.
Whether she will reach the fifth grade is another matter. Fatimah is facing the realities of a school with no toilet, no water, no hope of privacy other than the shadow of a bush, and no girlfriends with whom to share feelings. Fatimah is the only girl of the 23 students in her class. In fact, in a school of 178 students, she is one of the only three girls who have made it past the third grade.
"I have no friend in the class," she said. "Most of my friends have dropped out to get married. So during the break, I just sit in the classroom and read."
Her father, however, now says he is fully behind her. "The people from the government are all the time telling us to send our daughters to school, and I am listening to these people," he said.
But in many cases, parents don't listen. Parents think that if the girls stay home, they can help with the harvesting, fetch the water and collect the firewood. So they take them out of school.
In a region where poverty, tradition and ignorance make about 24 million girls not even have an elementary school education. There are many other barriers that prevent girls going to school, such as the lack of school toilets and water.
The issue is not only equality. The World Bank thinks that if women in sub-Saharan Africa had equal education, land and other wealth, the region's economy could improve greatly. There is a connection between growth in Africa and sex equality. It is of great importance but still ignored by so many people. | high9437.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "took it as a good medicine"
},
"options": [
"enjoy it",
"wanted to taste it",
"took it as a good medicine",
"was a foolish boy"
],
"question": "The boy ate up the raw fish head only in two gulps, because he _ ... | How to Become Cleverer? Once a boy came to ask a fisherman how to become cleverer, because his mother always called him "foolish boy".
"That's easy," answered the fisherman. "I know one way to make you become cleverer."
"Really?"
"Of course. It is said a fish head is good for brain. If you eat one, you'll become cleverer indeed. Pay only three pounds for one fish head." The boy paid him three pounds and the fisherman cut off a fish head and handed it to him.
A raw fish head is not good--not even for a hungry boy to eat but the boy ate it up in two gulps.
"Do you feel anything?" asked the fisherman.
"Not in my head," said the boy.
The boy lay on the ground and thought. "One whole fish costs only two pounds. I had paid him three pounds for the fish head. Why couldn't I have the whole fish for soup, a head for brain and one pound left over?" He jumped up and shouted at the fisherman. "You thief! You are fooling me!" The fisherman laughed, saying, "The fish head works now, you see. " | high14243.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "a fun run around central Brisbane"
},
"options": [
"a fun run around central Brisbane",
"an international Star Wars Day",
"a buskers festival in QUT",
"QUT's learning Potential Fund"
],
"question": "The purpose ... | The stars have come together for the 2014 QUT Classic fun run on Sunday, May 4! This year's fun run around central Brisbane not only promises a fantastic family day out--it also happens to be International Star Wars Day.
Hundreds of seriousand not so seriousparticipants will contest a choice of scenic l km , 5km or l0km routes around QUT (Queensland University of Technology), South Bank and the CBD on Sunday, May 4.
May 4 has become Star Wars Day for fans around the globethe date being chosen as a play on "May the Force (fourth) be with you"
To celebrate, Yoda will make a special guest appearance at the QUT Classic at 7:20am to help kids warm up for the l km event while the Indie Chamber Orchestra does a live performance of the Star Wars theme. The special visit has been organized by Healthstream QUT, who operate the university's pools and gyms.
Classic organizer Cheryl Goodwin from QUT Student Engagement said the second annual event would also be combined with a buskers festival, ensuring plenty of entertainment around Gardens Point and along the route.
"The Classic Buskers Festival is being organized by the QUT Music Society and will Feature some of Brisbane's best buskers and bands as well as QUT talent.There's going to be a mix of music,dance,circus and comedy."she said.
The QUT Classic will also raise funds for QUT's Learning Potential Fund,which provides scholarships for low income students.About 1200 people registered for last year's event and organizers are hoping for a similar--if not bigger-turnout in 2014.
The race will begin and end at QUT Gardens Point,where breakfast will be available for purchase.Both the 5km and 1 0km events will begin at 8:00 am,with the l km event starting at 7:30 am.
QUT Classic registration costs$25 for the l km event,$30 for 5km and$35 for 10km.
People can register as individuals or in teams.One of the biggest teams is expected to be the Learning Potential Fund team,which is open to QUT staff ,students and the general public.
Participants who register before 30 April will receive a race pack.The first 1 000 participants will also receive a free 1imited edition QUT Classic T-shirt.
QUT Running is offering all registrants free training sessions in the six weeks leading up to this event.
For more information on the QUT Classic,contact Cheryl Goodwin on 07 3138 9447 orc.goodwin@qut.edu.au.
Media contact:Mechelle McMahon,QUT media,media@qut.edu.au | high6704.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "some anxiety can lead to changes for the better"
},
"options": [
"anxiety is a good thing",
"anxiety is a symptom of mental illness",
"some anxiety can lead to changes for the better",
"no anxiety is bad for society"
... | Anxiety is the appropriate emotion when the immediate personal terror--of a volcano, an arrow, a stab in the back and other disasters, all directed against one's self--disappears.
The kind of world that produces anxiety is actually a world of safety, a world in which no one feels that he himself is facing sudden death. The anxiety exists as an uneasy state of mind, in which one has a feeling that something unspecified and indeterminable may go wrong. If the world seems to be going well, this produces anxiety--for good times may end.If the world is going badly--it may get worse. Anxiety tends to be without focus; the anxious person doesn't know whether to blame himself or other people. He isn't sure whether it is the current year of the administration or a change in climate or the atom bomb that is to blame for this undefined sense of unease.
It is clear that we have developed a society which depends on having the right amount of anxiety to make it work...While we agree that too much anxiety is harmful to mental health, we have come to rely on anxiety to push us into seeing a doctor about a symptom which may indicate cancer, into checking up on that old life-insurance policy which may have out-of-date provisions in it, into having a conference with Billy's teacher even though his report card looks all right.
People who are anxious enough keep their car insurance up, have the brakes checked, don't take a second drink when they have to drive. People who are too anxious either refuse to go into cars at all--and so complicate the ordinary course of life--or drive so tensely and carefully that they help cause accidents. People who aren't anxious enough take chance after chance, which increases the terrible accidents of the roads. | high22929.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "by time"
},
"options": [
"by space",
"by examples",
"by time",
"by comparison"
],
"question": "The passage is developed _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_inde... | Audrey Hepburn was born on May 4, 1929 in Brussels, Belgium. She really was blue-blood from the beginning with her father, a wealthy English banker, and her mother, a Dutch baroness . After her parents divorced, Audrey went to London with her mother where she went to a private girls school. In World War II she fell on hard times during the Nazi occupation, and Audrey suffered from depression and malnutrition. After the liberation she headed to America to try her luck there.
Audrey gained immediate prominence in the US with her role in Roman Holiday in 1953. This film turned out to be a smashing success as she won an Oscar as Best Actress. This gained her enormous popularity and more roles. Roman Holiday was followed by another similarly wonderful performance in the 1957 classic Funny Face. Sabrina, in 1954, for which she received another Academy nomination, and Love in the Afternoon, in 1957, also garnered rave reviews . One of Audrey's most radiant roles was in the fine production of My Fair Lady, in 1964. Her co-star Rex Harrison once was asked to identify his favorite leading lady. Without hesitation, he replied, "Audrey Hepburn in MY FAIR LADY". After a couple of other movies, she gained another nomination in 1967's Wait Until Dark.
By the end of the sixties, after her divorce from actor Mel Ferrer, Audrey decided to retire while she was on top. Later she married Dr. Andrea Dotti. From time to time, she would appear on the silver screen. In 1988, Audrey became a special ambassador to the United Nations UNICEF(United Nations Children's Fund)fund helping children in Latin America and Africa, a position she retained until 1993. She was named to People's magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world. Her last film was Always in 1989. Audrey Hepburn died on January 20, 1993 in Tolochnaz, Switzerland. She had made a total of 31 high quality movies. Her elegance and style will always be remembered in film history as evidenced by her being named to Empire magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time". | high17077.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "mobile phones are too popular among people now"
},
"options": [
"people admire those who don't have mobile phones",
"people don't like to have mobile phones nowadays",
"mobile phones are too popular among people now",
"... | As the mobile phones so widely appear in our daily life, someone said it would be cool if you didn't have a mobile phone nowadays. It might be true to some extent, but as for an adult, a mobile means contact. It connects your work, relatives, friends, etc. It should do great deeds for us.
Months ago, my uncle gave his dear son a phone, because my nephew's school is far from his home. He can only come back once a term, and the phones haven't been so expensive yet. However, someone has criticized the young people for playing on mobiles, but not using. They are fond of sending messages, taking pictures and so on. They buy expensive, high level and fashion types for showing. They play on the mobiles day in and day out ..... Holy cow!
So, what happens to youngsters around you? Do they have a phone? What do they use it for? Do you think it's necessary for teenagers who are still in school to have a phone?
POSTER 1:
In my view, mobile phones are only a tool for communication purpose, just like any other tools which have the potential to be misused. In my opinion, I can see young people using it for security reason, emergency purpose, etc. If the parents can afford to pay big phone bills for their kids, well, that's their business, like the old saying goes, _
--- Mary Smith
POSTER 2:
From psychological point of view, teenagers are more likely to be relaxed or pleasure-oriented. They would like to make something different. Buying brands that are considered "COOL" is important to them. They want others to like and admire themselves, and sometimes, even exaggerate their own personality to show off. This can be seen as a kind of psychology during this certain range of age.
--- Dick Gates
Currently, people should tend to be more sociable, and age should not be seen as a barrier for teenagers to own their phones. They also need to set trends on the social circuit . But here parents should play an important role in controlling their children about how to use the phones more properly. | high5530.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Rumors about Charles Manson's secret son."
},
"options": [
"Commonly-asked beauty questions.",
"Celebrity news.",
"Rumors about Charles Manson's secret son.",
"Lifestyle topics."
],
"question": "Which content sh... | TV IN CHICAGO(May, 7, 2013)
2:30 AM Weekend ABC 7 News(Repeat)
The top local, regional and national news events are presented by the ABC 7
Weekend News Team, along with weather, sports and travel conditions.
3:00 AM Inside Edition(New, TV-PG)
Rumors about mass murderer Charles Manson's secret son.
3:30 AM America This Morning(New)
Live reports from ABC News headquarters in Washington D. C. early morning news events and the top headlines of the day are examined and reported.
4:30 AM ABC 7 News This Morning(New)
The ABC 7 Morning News Team provides a general look at overnight and early morning news events, weather forecasts and traffic updates for early risers.
5:00 AM Mirror Mirror
Reporter Rebecca Spera provides the latest developments in the beauty, health and fashion industries and answers commonly-asked beauty questions.
5:30 AM Home with Lisa Quinn
Professional designer Lisa Quinn shows how to refurnish, reorganize and redesign the home in order to maximize convenience and style.
6:00AM Everyday Living
Quick beauty tips;protect yourself from money problems;the four most commonly parenting mistakes.
7:00AM Windy City Live(Repeat)
Tile ABC 7 team of hosts provides the latest on things of interest in Chicago including cultural events, lifestyle topics, fashion trends and celebrity news.
*TV-PG:programs for children with parents' guidance | high18344.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "They help you to read much faster."
},
"options": [
"They help to improve your memory.",
"They help you to read much faster.",
"They offer you the latest ideas.",
"They include many tests."
],
"question": "What ... | As We Speak
by Peter Meyers, Shann Nix
The world is full of brilliant people whose ideas are never heard. This book is designed to make sure that you're not one of them. Whether you are speaking to a large audience or in a one-on-one conversation, the way in which you communicate ideas, as much as the ideas themselves, can determine success or failure. In this invaluable guide, you'll learn to master principles that you can apply in a wide variety of situations.
Triple Your Reading Speed
by Wade E.Cutler
This fourth edition of the book does just that--with tests that make it fun and simple to acquire the skills that will give you an advantage in school and on the job. The method helps you to break old habits that may be slowing you down, and develop strategies for increased comprehension in less time.
The Memory Book
by Harry Lorayne, Jerry Lucas
Unlock the hidden power of your mind through Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas's simple memory system, and you can become more effective and more powerful. Discover how easy it is to remember things; learn foreign words with ease; read with speed and greater understanding; shine in the classroom and shorten study hours.
How to Become a Straight-A student
by Cal Newport
Most college students believe that straight A's can be achieved only through cramming and painful all-nighters at the library. But Cal Newport knows that real straight-A students don't study harder--they study smarter. A breakthrough approach to completing academic tasks very well, How to Become a Straight-A student reveals for the first time the proven study secrets of real straight-A students across the country and turns them into a simple, practical system that anyone can master. | high10718.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "News reporters."
},
"options": [
"Netizens.",
"Government officials.",
"News reporters.",
"Telecommunication operators"
],
"question": "Who helped the mobile users most to realize the harm of the \"one ring\"cal... | Although mobile phones have brought a lot of convenience to people,they have also brought troubles.
Besides endless spam text messages( ),another problem seems even more
annoying.That is the so-called "one ring"call.It is a phone call that only rings one time and stops before the receivers is able to pick it up .When the receiver calls back,the other side is usually a recorded advertisement.And by the time people realize that they have been _ they've already paid for the call.
An article in the China Youth Dailysays that these terrible calls trouble many mobile users day and night.But up till now,the government hasn't taken any steps to solve the problem. It seems that if someone chooses to use a cellphone,he must bear( )the trouble.
The number of mobile phone users in China has risen to more than 570 million.Thanks to news reports,many people have come to understand the harm of the "one ring"call.Some users say they won't call back if it is an unknown number.But the article points out that this doesn't mean the related government departments should turn a blind eye to it.
According to an online survey of more than 200,000 Chinese netizens ( ),
nearly 70 percent believed telecommunication( )operators make money from these annoying phone calls.The article argues that "one ring"calls not only take away people's money,but also trouble their lives.
New technology should not do harm to society.Instead,people should enjoy the convenience of information technology. Thus, the article advises that laws should be set up to protect people's legal rights. | high20803.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "youths have sharper intuition and quicker reactions than adults"
},
"options": [
"youths are smarter and more fearless than adults",
"youths are more willing to take risks in space",
"youths have sharper intuition and quicker... | HE is one of the most charming young heroes since Harry Potter. Like Potter, he is chosen by fate to carry out a
, but unlike the boy wizard, he doesn't get any chances to have fun or hang out with friends because he's a little too busy preparing to lead during an upcoming war to save the Earth.
Meet Ender Wiggin, 15, the main character of the hit US sci-fi movie Ender's Game (<<>> ), which will come out on Jan 7 in China.
The story opens in 2086, 50 years after an insect-like alien race, called the Formics, attacked the Earth and killed tens of millions of people before being driven back to their home planet. Since then, human beings have been in a state of fear, awaiting a second attack.
Earth's military leaders seek young warriors to risk going into space for battle, and children are taught to compete for these positions. As the film explains, youths can make leaps of logic and intuition, devising effective attack strategies more quickly than adults.
So here comes Ender, the savior of all mankind. Though Ender is a skinny kid, smaller than most, he is also smarter than average. He tends to analyze situations and easily find ways to achieve the most positive outcomes. This rare gift makes him stand out in the program and get promoted to the Battle School, where he is directed to plan and carry out a series of virtual attacks on the Formics.
Can he use his military talents to wipe out Earth's enemies?
Despite the obvious "be all you can be" subtext , the movie "explores complex issues, including the consequences of violence and maintaining humanity and morality during wartime with intelligence and insight," commented Yahoo.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film best presents the power of empathy , which is what makes Ender a good leader. "The reason Ender succeeds is because he understands what makes his opponents tick on the battlefield," explained the entertainment news site. | high16369.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "A weight that the body doesn't want to change."
},
"options": [
"A weight that the body doesn't want to change.",
"A weight that you have kept for a long time.",
"A weight that you are trying to lose.",
"A weight that c... | The last five pounds. The vanity pounds. The dream weight. The fantasy weight. The high school weight. Yes, many names are given to the weight - the five pounds - that seems just out of reach no matter how much we exercise and improve our eating habits.
But why is it out of reach? Is it all in our heads? Or is it because the body has a set-point or ideal weight - a weight to which it doesn't want to give in?
"There is no such thing as ideal body weight," says James, author of "Weight Loss That Lasts." "But your body does resist you when you are trying to lose weight. It gets used to a certain weight over a long period of time and then will defend that weight."
In other words, the body's "set point" can be lowered - or raised, he says, but it takes time to reset that new weight. That period of time is at least six months. "I often ask patients, 'What is the lowest stable weight of your adult life?' to get an idea of what is realistic" in terms of weight loss and maintenance , James says.
He refers to the body's refusal to change, weight-wise, as an "biological control system that prevents us from going hungry and dying - part of our primitive biology."
Some people might get down to their dream weight for a short period but then can't keep it long because the calorie limits are too strict once the body starts defending itself against weight loss.
"That's why it's important to set realistic goals," he says. "The idea of the 'ideal weight' or 'dream weight' is really just a useless exercise."
But let's say your goal is realistic and has been set by a nutritionist or other weight-loss professionals and _ . What could be going on? The reason is that you need fewer calories the less you weigh. So if you want to continue to drop weight, you have to drop calories and increase calorie-burn.
James encourages people to tell the difference between weight loss goals for health reasons and those to do with vanity. "They are different issues," James says. "One is where important health benefits are seen and the other is about vanity - wanting to look good in a bathing suit." | high8014.txt |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.