questions list | article stringlengths 9 6.44k | id stringlengths 9 14 |
|---|---|---|
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "at around 9: 06"
},
"options": [
"at 8: 30",
"18 minutes earlier than the north tower",
"at around 9: 06",
"at 8: 48"
],
"question": "From the passage , we know that the south tower was hit by the plane _",
... | The Attack on September 11th
New York: When the first jet struck Tower 1 at World Trade Center at 8: 48 am on Tuesday, the people in Tower 2 at World Trade Center with a view of the instant damage across the divide had the clearest sense of what they too must do : get out fast.
Katherine Ilachinski, who had been knocked off her chair by the blast of heat exploding from the neighboring tower, was one of those. Despite her 70 years of age, Ms Ilachinski, an architect working on the 91st floor of Tower 2 at World Trade Center, the south tower, went for the stairs. Twelve floors above her, Judy Wein, a manager, screamed and set off too.
But others up and down the 110 floors, many without clear views of the damage across the way and thus unclear about what was happening, were not so sure. And the 18 minutes before the next plane would hit were ticking off.
Among the uncertainty about what was the best thing to do, formal announcements inside the south tower instructed people to _ , assuring them that the building was sound and the threat was limited to the other tower.
Some left, others stayed, some began to climb down and, when met with more announcements and other warning to stop or return, went back up. The decisions made in those instants proved to be of great importance, because many who chose to stay, were doomed when the second jet crashed into the south tower killing many and stranding (...) many more in the floors above where the jet hit.
One of those caught in indecision was the manager at Fuji Bank USA. Richard Jacobs of Fuji Bank left the 79th floor with the other office workers, but on the 48th floor they heard the announcement that the situation was under control. Several got in the lifts and went back up two minutes or so before the plane crashed into their floor. | high12683.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "People have other choices for fun."
},
"options": [
"Surfing the Internet is not convenient.",
"People have other choices for fun.",
"The government has taken proper measures.",
"People are too busy with their work."
... | The Internet is now a central part of everyday life. The number of Internet hours in the West is increasing each month, but online addiction is still not attracting a great deal of attention.
Perhaps one reason Internet addiction has not _ in the West is that there are too many other vices available. In a society ly open to sex, gambling, alcohol and drugs, computer games are not always appealing to young people. In fact, there is almost a shame attached to playing online games. Many consider it an "uncool" thing to do. They would rather spend their free time meeting friends.
But this is not to say that people don't do it. One website, wowdetox.com, still offers support to recovering "addicts". One user posted on the website: "I would play all night and spend all day sleeping. I just quit a month ago. Best decision ever." This is just one example from around 1,660 pages of confessions . Still, computer game addiction is not officially recognized in the West. Just last years, the American Medical Association refused calls to have computer game addiction classified as a disease, saying that, "Nothing suggests it is a complex disease similar to alcoholism."
Online gaming is more personal in the West. It is rare for people to visit Internet cafes or play with friends at home. After all, the majority of households have their own fast Internet connection. This removes the social joy with friends. And this choice of playing alone is not very appealing to many people. | high17923.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "for her skin disease"
},
"options": [
"for a diet of healthy foods",
"for her skin disease",
"to invite him to give a talk at a ladies' meeting",
"to get the results of some tests."
],
"question": "Mrs Black wen... | Mr.Black was having a lot of trouble with her skin, so she went to her doctor about it. He could not find anything wrong with her, however. So he sent her to the local hospital for some tests. The hospital , of course, sent the results of the tests direct to Mrs. Black's doctor, and the next morning he telephoned her to give her a list of the things that he thought she could not eat, as any of them might the cause of her skin trouble.
Mrs. Black carefully wrote all the things down on a piece of paper, which she then left beside the telephone while she went out to a ladies' meeting.
When she got back home two hours later, she found her husband waiting for her .He had a big basket full of packages beside him, and when he saw her, he said , "Hello, dear. I have done all your shopping for you."
"Done all my shopping?"she asked in surprise. "But how did you know what I wanted?"
"Well, when I got home , I found your shopping list beside the telephone," answered her husband. "So I went down to the shops and bought everything you had written down."
Of course, Mrs. Black had to tell him that what he had bought were all the things the doctor did not allow her to eat. | high21249.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "In a newspaper."
},
"options": [
"In a tour guided book.",
"In a geography book.",
"In a book.",
"In a newspaper."
],
"question": "Where are we likely to find this passage?",
"question_type": null
},
{
... | BEIJING - China's National Tourism Administration (NTA) said Saturday that 215 Chinese tour groups in Japan were safeandsoundafter a _ 8.8-magnitude earthquake jolted the country's eastern coast Friday.
A total of 4,578 Chinese tourists were staying in Japan at the time of the quake. By Saturday noon, all the 215 tour groups that they booked with had contacted domestic travel agencies, with no death or injury reported, said the NTA upon information from local tourism authorities.
The NTA has activated the emergency response system and issued a travel alert for Japan and countries along the Pacific Rim, it said in a statement on its website.
The NTA has also called for travel agencies to protect the security of Chinese tourists in Japan and keep in touch with the Chinese embassy and consulates in Japan, as well as China's tourism authorities.
Chinese tour agencies had started to bring back tourists from the quake-hit Japan and many trips had been called off.
China CYTS Tours, one of China's major travel agencies, had promised a full refund for trip cancellation and offered to bear the extra expense for tourist protection in disasters and unrest.
A massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck the east coast of Japan's main Honshu Island at 1:46 pm Beijing Time Friday, which had triggered huge tsunami along Japan's Pacific coast and caused hundreds of deaths and catastrophic damage. | high20157.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "they are hungry"
},
"options": [
"they are attacked",
"they are angry",
"they are sad",
"they are hungry"
],
"question": "Elephants often cause problems in Kenya, because _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_que... | Kenya is the first country to protect elephants by text messages. Mobile phone SIM cards are inserted in the collars of elephants. The cards will send a text message when the elephants wander too close to farms, allowing wildlife protectors to drive them off rather than shoot them.
Hungry elephants cause big problems for farmers and villagers in some parts of Kenya when they are searching for food. Two years ago the Kenyan wildlife service had to unwillingly shoot five elephants who continued to destroy crops.
In order to prevent such bad activities, the Elephants charity put a mobile phone SIM card on a huge bull elephant called Kimani. The conservationists then set up a virtual fence. Each time Kimani came near the fence, a text message was sent to farmers. So far he's been stopped from going into the danger area fifteen times.
The project seems to be working successfully as Kimani hasn't come near a farm for four months. A similar system has now been put into operation in another part of the country.
One of the biggest benefits of the project is that elephants seem to learn from one another, which can help a whole group change their habits.
The elephants can also be tracked using Google Earth software. This is also helping the protectors know where to use their resources to protect the animals well. | high3815.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Gender."
},
"options": [
"Gender.",
"Education.",
"Career.",
"Family networks."
],
"question": "What's the most important factor to predict if people will actively care for the elderly?",
"question_type": "f... | According to a new US study, couples who expect their children to help care for them in old age should hope they have daughters because they are likely to be twice as attentive overall.
The research by Angelina Grigoryeva, a sociologist at Princeton University, found that, while women provide as much care for their elderly parents as they can manage, men do as little as they can get away with and often leave it to female family members.
Her analysis of the family networks of 26,000 older Americans concluded that gender is the most important predictor of whether or not people will actively care for elderly parents.
In a paper being presented at the annual conference of the American Sociological Association in San Francisco, she concludes that simply having a sister makes men statistically likely provide less care.
Using data from the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, a study which has been tracking a cross-section of over-50s for the last decade, she calculated that women provide an average of 12.3 hours a month of care for elderly parents while men offer only 5.6 hours.
"Whereas the amount of elderly parent care daughters provide is associated with limitations they face, such as employment or childcare, sons'caregiving is associated only with the presence or absence of other helpers, such as sisters or a parent's spouse ," she explained.
"Sons reduce their relative caregiving efforts when they have a sister, while daughters increase theirs when they have a brother."
"This suggests that sons pass on parent caregiving responsibilities to their sisters."
In the UK, the 2011 census showed that there are now around 6.5 million people with caring responsibilities - a figure which has risen by a tenth in a decade.
But many are doing so at the risk of their own health. The census showed that those who provide 50 hours or more of care a week while trying to hold down a full- time job are three times more likely to be struggling with ill health than their working counterparts who are not carers. | high10094.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "To prevent kids from getting lost."
},
"options": [
"To make school buses safer for kids.",
"To prevent kids from getting lost.",
"To help parents locate their missing kids.",
"To save some time for school children."
... | School districts are turning to high-tech solutions-from fingerprint scans to electronic cards - to track kids on school buses and keep them from getting off at the wrong stops. A fingerprint scanning system, approved this month for testing at the Desert Sands district, northeast of San Diego. Students will be scanned as they get on and off the bus.
"Kids get lost. It happens in every school district, every year," says John DeVries, president of Global Biometrics Security, which developed the Biometric Observation Security System (BOSS) that's being tested. It happened Oct. 13 when a Prince George's County (Md.) school employee took a 5-year-old student to the wrong bus and the student got off several blocks from home.
With BOSS, students' fingerprints are scanned and sent to a database. When they get off, they provide a "check out" print. An alarm sounds if the child tries to get off at the wrong place. The fingerprints are not stored, DeVries says. They are converted into a series of numbers that cannot be used to re-create the print, he says.
Margaret Gomez of Palm Springs, Calif., whose daughter, then 6, was let off a bus about a mile from her home three years ago, supports the idea. "Anything is better than what they have in place now."
Other tracking systems include the ZPass from Seattle-based Zonar Systems, which uses a programmed card carried by students or tied to a backpack. It is in about 30 districts, including North Kansas City Schools and Illinois School District 128 in Palos Heights, company executive Chris Oliver says.
Paul Stephens, of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego, says tracking students is reasonable, but the data could fall into unauthorized hands. "What if a child predator was able to get access to this?" he says. | high20631.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Robinson is worried about population growth."
},
"options": [
"Robinson is happy after talking to the Ethiopian girl.",
"Robinson is a successful expert in population studies.",
"Robinson is worried about population growth.",... | Former Irish President Mary Robinson was just making a polite conversation with an Ethiopian teenager about her wedding day. The 16yearold had already been married for a year. "She looked at me with the saddest eyes and said, 'I had to drop out of school'," Robinson said in a telephone interview. "That conveyed to me the reality," said Robinson, the first woman to serve as Ireland's president and former U.N. high commissioner for human fights. "Her life, as far as she is concerned, had more or less ended."
Robinson said keeping girls in school was one of the most important things policymakers could do to address the coming challenges of an ever-increasing population, predicted by the United Nations to reach 7 billion soon. "European countries are concerned about aging populations as is Japan, but this is much less of an issue than the huge number of people which we are going to see over the next 40 years when the population goes from 7 billion to 9 billion," she said. "Almost all of that increase will be in poor developing countries, so that we have a very big challenge."
Family planning experts worry in particular about the future population explosion in subSaharan Africa. In May, the United Nations projected the world population would reach 9.3billion in 2050 and 10.1 billion by 2100. Much of that growth will come from Africa, where the population is growing at 2.3 percent a year--more than double Asia's 1 percent growth rate. If that rate stays consistent, which is not certain, Africa's population will reach 3.6 billion by 2100 from the present 1 billion.
Joel Cohen, a professor of population studies at Rockefeller University and Columbia University in New York, said universal secondary education offered a way to reduce population in high birthrate regions. In addition to providing information about birth control, a secondary education teaches women to reduce their own fertility , improve the health of their children and allows them to move from a mindset of having many children, in the hopes that some will survive to improving the quality of each child's life, Cohen wrote in the journal Nature. | high16383.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Water and different foods"
},
"options": [
"fibre",
"food",
"water",
"Water and different foods"
],
"question": "We need _ for a healthy diet.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {... | "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Similarly, if we drink a little more water ever day, we may find that we need to go to the doctor a lot less often. A healthy diet is made up of water and a great many different kinds of foods. We know that healthy foods like fruits, vegetables and fish, are important as they provide us with energy and fibre, without giving us too much fat and sugar. But why is water important?
The human body needs water to survive. Water is important as it carries poisons and waste out of our bodies. However, doctors advise us to drink plenty of water, much more than the small amount we need to stay alive.
Some doctors believe that water is important for our health in all kinds of ways. They believe that a great many illnesses and health problems stars as a result of dehydration--a lack of water in the body. Most people are dehydrated at least some of time, although they probably don't know it. It is surprising to learn that if we feel thirsty, we are already in the first stages of dehydration. In fact, we are advised to drink water before we feel thirsty.
These doctors think that health problems such as headaches, high blood pressure and asthma could be helped if people drink more water. They also believe that drinking more water can help people who are overweight. Water contains no calories so it will not make us put on weight. If we drink water, we will probably drink less sugary soft drinks such as Coca-cola. Doctors also believe that drinking more water may stop people from overeating. They say that many people think that they are hungry when they are, in fact, thirsty. Doctors suggest, therefore, that we eat less food and drink more water.
There are still many health problems that cannot be solved by drinking water, so we should not stop going to seeing the doctor completely. However, if we make a decision to drink water every day, we may find that we need to go to the doctor a lot less often. | high1964.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "escape in it"
},
"options": [
"escape in it",
"get to the other side of the island",
"use it for food",
"go around the island"
],
"question": "The purpose of making a canoe on the island was to _ .",
"que... | During all this time I never stopped thinking about escape. When I traveled across to the other side of the island, I could see the other islands, and I said to myself, "Perhaps I can get there with a boat. Perhaps I can get back to England one day."
So I decided to make myself a boat. I cut down a big tree, and then began to make a long hole in it. It was hard work, but about six months later, I had a very fine canoe . Next, I had to get it down to the sea. How silly I was! Why didn't I think before I began work? Of course, the canoe was too heavy. I couldn't move it! I pulled and pushed and tried everything, but it didn't move. I was very unhappy for a long time after that.
That happened in my fourth year on the island. In my sixth year I did make myself a smaller canoe, but I did not try to escape in it. The boat was too small for a long journey, and I did not want to die at sea. The island was my home now, not my prison, and I was just happy to be alive. A year or two later, I made myself a second canoe on the other side of the island. I also built myself a second house there, and so I had two homes.
My life was still busy from morning to night. There were always things to do or to make. I learnt to make new clothes for myself from the skins of dead animals. They looked very strange, it is true, but they kept me dry in the rain.
I kept food and tools at both my houses, and also wild goats. There were many goats on the island, and I made fields with high fences to keep them in. They learnt to take food from me, and soon I had goats' milk to drink every day. I also worked hard in my corn fields. And so many years went by. | high22026.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "a lie told by the writer"
},
"options": [
"a piece of news",
"a lie told by the writer",
"the passage's topic sentence",
"a case from the competition"
],
"question": "The article begins with _ .",
"questi... | A disastrous competition is going on in England, with billions of dollars and hundreds of lives in danger. OK, that's not true. But competitors from around the world gathered on Thursday to compete for the title of 2012's World's Biggest Liar.
Each participant is given up to five minutes to make up the best lie in the competition, which was started in honor of 19th-century Bridge Inn owner Will Ritson, who was reportedly famous for his lies. Competitors gather at the Bridge Inn every year for the competition, a small pub in northwestern England. Anyone can take part in the competition. Well, almost anyway; the reporters note that lawyers and politicians are banned, who is said to enjoy "an unfair advantage" in the proceedings .
A study published this past July in the journal Evolution & Human Behavior found that nearly all lies are detectable through visible facial muscle reactions in the person telling a lie. "Thus, while interpersonal deception often is highly successful, signs of hidden emotional states are communicated clearly to the informed observer," the study concluded.
A churchman of Carlisle reportedly holds what may be the greatest lie of all time in the competition, simply stating, "I have never told a lie in my life."
In 2003, Abrie Krueger of South Africa became the first non-Brit to win the competition. Ironically, Krueger was accused by some of cheating.
In 2006, comedian Sue Perkins became the first female to win the competition, telling a tale about people riding camels to work as a result of climate change.
Last year's winning entry came from Glen Boyland, who told a lie about competing in a snail-racing competition with Prince Charles. | high23338.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "He will choose a less challenging task."
},
"options": [
"He will ask his teachers for advice.",
"He will hide his mistakes from his teachers.",
"He will work harder to avoid mistakes.",
"He will choose a less challengi... | We live in a culture that sends out very mixed messages about mistakes: We're told we learn by making them, but we work hard to avoid them. So the result is that most of us know that we are going to make mistakes, but deep down, we feel we shouldn't.
Experiments with schoolchildren who did well on a given test show that those who were praised for being smart and then offered a more challenging or less challenging task afterward usually chose the easier one. On the other hand, children praised for trying hard-- rather than being smart--far more often selected the more difficult task.
If we try hard to avoid mistakes, we aren't open to getting the information we need in order to do better. In a writing study, experiments showed that those who are so scared to make mistakes perform worse in writing tasks than those who aren't as worried about being perfect. They fear receiving any kind of negative feedback, so they don't learn where they went wrong and how to get better.
We don't just learn more when we're open to mistakes, we learn deeper. Research tells us that if we're only concerned about getting the right answer, we don't always learn the underlying concepts that help us truly understand whatever we're trying to figure out. Mistakes need to be seen not as a failure to learn, but as a guide to what still needs to be learned. As Thomas Edison said, "I am not discouraged, because every abandoned wrong attempt is another step forward."
Furthermore, we often make mistakes because we try new things--we wander away from accepted paths. Teflon, penicillin--these are examples of great discoveries made by mistake. Take a page from Albert Einstein, who said, "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. " | high14594.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "fat people have fewer advantages"
},
"options": [
"the standards of fat people",
"the number of fat Americans",
"fat people have fewer advantages",
"how long is the study"
],
"question": "The passage mainly tell... | A new study shows that fat people in the United States suffer direct economic and social effects because of their size. The findings are from an 8-year study of about 100,000 people. The people who were studied were between the age of 18 and 24 when the research began.
The researchers who carried out the study say they consider the people fat if they are in the top of 5% of the measurement in which weight is linked to height. For example, fat women in the study were about 160 centimeters tall and weighed about 90 kilograms. Fat men in the study were about 175 centimeters tall and weighed 100 kilograms. The researchers say that more than 1,000,000 Americans are that big. The researchers found that fat young women were from wealthy families. The fat women also were 20% less likely to get married and they earned an average of about $6,700 a year less than other women. The study showed less
effects on fat men. They earned an average of about $3,000 a year less than other men. Fat men also were 11% less likely to get married. | high15852.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "work in a hospital for a while"
},
"options": [
"see much of the country",
"make friends with a Nepalese",
"work in a hospital for a while",
"find wildlife in the forest"
],
"question": "The writer's purpose to ... | Last year I went to Nepal for three months to work in a hospital. I thought I might as well take the chance to see as much of the country as I could, but it was difficult to travel around Nepal. The hospital let me have a few days' holiday, so I decided to go into the forest and I asked a Nepalese guide, Damal Rai, to go with me.
We started preparing for the trip at six in the morning, and let two elephants carry our equipment. It was hot, but Kamal made me wear shoes and trousers to protect me from snakes. In the forest there was a lot of wildlife, but we were trying to find big cats, especially tigers. We climbed onto the elephants' backs to get a better view, but it is unusual to find tigers in the afternoon because they sleep in the heat of the day.
Then in the distance, we saw a tiger, and Kamal told me to be very quiet. We crept near and found a dead deer, still bleeding. This was the tiger's lunch! Suddenly I started to feel very frightened.
We heard the tiger a second before we saw it. It jumped out like a flash of lightning, five hundred kilos plus and four metres long. I looked into its eyes and face, and saw right down the animal's throat. It grabbed Kamal's leg between its teeth, but I managed to pull Kamal away. One of our elephants ran at the tiger and made it go back into the grass. So we quickly escaped to let the tiger eat its lunch. That night it was impossible to sleep. | high22032.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Natural killer cells are much more in the bloodstreams of runners than in the sedentary mice."
},
"options": [
"Natural killer cells are much more in the bloodstreams of runners than in the sedentary mice.",
"Levels of interleukin-... | The relationship between exercise and cancer has long both intrigued and puzzled oncologists and exercise physiologists.
Exercise is strongly associated with lowered risks for many types of cancer. At the same time, exercise involves biological stress, which typically leads to a short-term increase in inflammation which can contribute to higher risks for many cancers.
Now, a new study in mice may offer some clues into the exercise-cancer paradox. It suggests that exercise may change how the immune system deals with cancer by boosting adrenaline , certain immune cells and other chemicals that, together, can reduce the severity of cancer or fight it off altogether.
To try to better understand how exercise can both elevate inflammation and simultaneously protect the body against cancer, scientists at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and other institutions decided to closely examine what happens inside mice at high risk for the disease.
So, for the new study, they began by gathering a group of adult lab mice. These animals generally like to run.
The scientists then implanted melanoma skin cancer cells into the mice before providing half of them with running wheels in their cages while the other animals remained sedentary. After four weeks, far fewer of the runners had developed full-blown melanoma than the sedentary mice and those that had been diagnosed with the disease showed fewer and smaller lesions.
They drew blood from both the exercising and sedentary animals and cells from any tumors in both groups. As expected, they found much higher levels of the hormone adrenaline in the blood of the exercising animals, especially right after they had been working out on the wheels but also at other times of the day. The body releases adrenaline in response to almost any type of stressful experience, including exercise.
They also found higher levels of interleukin-6 in the blood of the runners. This is a substance that is released by working muscles and is believed to both increase and decrease inflammation in the body, depending on where and how it goes to work.
Perhaps most important, they found much higher numbers in the bloodstreams of runners than in the sedentary mice of a type of immune cell named natural killer cells that are known to be strong cancer fighters.
So the scientists repeated their original experiment multiple times, inducing cancer while allowing some mice to run and others to sit. In some of these follow-up experiments, the scientists injected the runners with a substance that blocked the production of adrenaline and gave sedentary animals large doses of added adrenaline.
What they now found was that when running mice could not produce adrenaline, they developed cancer at the same rate as the sedentary animals, while the sedentary animals that had been injected with extra adrenaline fought off their tumors better than other sitting mice.
More remarkably, the scientists determined that adrenaline seemed to be sending biochemical signals to some of the animals' IL-6 cells, making them physiologically more alert, so that when a tumor began to develop in the affected animal, those IL-6 cells in turn activated the natural killer cells in the bloodstream and actually directed them to the tumors, like minute guide fish.
With these results, "we show that voluntary wheel running in mice can reduce the growth of tumors, and we have identified an exercise-dependent mobilization of natural killer cells as the underlying cause of this protection," said Pernille Hojman, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen who oversaw the new study. It perhaps provides one more incentive for us to get up and move. | high14580.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Thomas Jefferson"
},
"options": [
"Thomas Jefferson",
"Lincoln",
"Washington",
"Adams"
],
"question": "Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer":... | 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 in America's history.
Born in Virginia,Thomas Jefferson,a brilliant student at school and almost talented lawyer later,was much interested in politics.
Jefferson was elected 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 is 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 Of America.As a president,he protected the right of speech.Interestingly enough,in his eight years as president,:Jefferson never said "No" to 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 America's independence. | high15846.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "They preferred to keep their traditional working methods."
},
"options": [
"They called themselves the technophobes.",
"They got full support from their factory owners.",
"They preferred to keep their traditional working meth... | Please help! I live in Germany with my wife and three kids. My parents live in the UK. I want my kids to have as much contact with their grandparents as possible. The kids all use e-mail, Skype and SMS but my parents won't. I've bought them a laptop, paid for broadband, given them both mobile phones and a digital camera, but they won't use them. My parents say they hate computers and new technology. What can I do with these " _ "?
Daniel, Buremburg, Germany
Actually, the original technophobes were the Luddites, a group of cloth workers in 19thcentury Britain during the Industrial Revolution. The Luddite cloth workers, who traditionally made cloth by hand, were worried that machines were going to take away their jobs and way of life. These machines could make cloth much faster and cheaper than humans. In 1811 and 1812 the Luddites destroyed the machines that they hated so much, but the British government supported the factory owners. Many Luddites were arrested. Charlotte Bronte's novel Shirley will tell your parents all about it.
Laura, Valencia, Spain
Laura makes some interesting points, I think. Technophobes has been a common theme in science fiction. Frankenstein, one of the first science fiction, is a warning of what could happen if humans began to experiment with human life.
Freda, Copenhagen, Denmark
One thing you could try is to find hardware that is designed for older people to use. An example is the mobiles made by the US company, Jitterbug. Instead of icons and menus the Jitterbug phones ask users simple "yes/no" questions and have larger keypads. The company realized that there are potentially 100 million older users in the US alone.
Graham, Patras, Greece | high20625.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Norman Mailer wrote many great books"
},
"options": [
"Norman Mailer was loved by all people",
"Norman Mailer wounded other authors",
"Norman Mailer wasn't successful",
"Norman Mailer wrote many great books"
],
... | Loved and hated, but never boring. That is what people say of American writer Norman Mailer, who died late last year at the age of 84. He was the author of some of the greatest books of the 20th century.
But Mailer will be remembered as much for his personality as for his writing. He was rude and bad-tempered. He violently attacked other authors and even wounded one of his six wives.
However, this never stopped Mailer from being successful. People always wanted to read his books. His provocative writing style and willingness to deal with difficult subjects made his books bestsellers.
"He was willing to take risks with just about everything," says the author Gore Vidal. "He had a radical imagination, a way of approaching subjects that was never boring."
In a career that lasted six decades, Mailer wrote about a wide variety of subjects from history and politics to sport and celebrities. But he was most famous for writing novels and he twice won the Pulitzer Prize.
His best book was The Naked and the Dead, a story about the tensions between American soldiers fighting Japan in World War II. Drawn on his own experiences as a soldier, it is a study of men at war examining their cruelty and bravery.
Mailer's brilliance as an author was his ability to capture human behavior. He did so through interesting characters, realistic dialogue and rich descriptions. The author William F. Buckley said, "He created the most beautiful metaphors in the English."
Mailer leaves behind more than 40 books as his literary legacy . However, he never achieved his life's goal. He wanted to write what he called the "big one", the greatest novel ever written about America. Well, at least it wasn't for a lack of trying. | high17937.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "She enlightened her daughter with love."
},
"options": [
"She tolerated it.",
"She enlightened her daughter with love.",
"She gave her daughter a lesson.",
"She ignored it."
],
"question": "How did the mother tr... | It was late in a spring afternoon. I was sitting at a fruit stand beside Beihai Lake looking at the shinning ripple , which awoke me to a full sense of life.
A mother and her daughter were sitting opposite to me. The latter, a lovely girl of seven or eight with a pretty, small nose, was occupied with an ice cream. Her mother, holding the child's sweater, was whispering to her.
A sudden breeze blew and the child sneezed. Her mother rapidly put the sweater on her and began to button it up. In her hurry the buttons were wrongly matched, which was unnoticed by her until several had been done. The mother at once unbuttoned the sweater and did it again. Such an unimportant incident, however, did not escape the child's eye. "Ha-ha, mum, see how your mind has wandered!" said the girl with a loud laughter, which brought a bit angry look to the mother's face.
As an onlooker, I imagined a good dressing down for the little girl because of the impolite remark she made. But instead there was only an embarrassing interval of a few seconds. Then I heard the mother's gentle voice: "Yes, it surely has, for my heart has gone out to you!" said the mother, pointing a kind finger at the girl's little chest. The child blinked puzzlingly, hiding her red face in the arms of her mother who hugged her gently. A smile of satisfaction spread over the mother's face.
I was deeply moved by the scene of motherly love. What was the most praiseworthy thing about the mother was her way of treating the child's behavior. Nowadays many people seem to forget that the best way to educate a child is not tolerating or blaming, or even moral lecturing, but tender enlightening with love. | high20143.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "a sunny winter day"
},
"options": [
"a sunny winter day",
"a rainy winter day",
"a sunny summer day",
"a rainy summer day"
],
"question": "The winter met the blind man on _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_ques... | It was a sunny winter day. I had gone down the tower when a blind man came toward me. He kept close to the wall, touching it lightly with his arm. I stood still and looked at him walking toward the tower.
"What does a blind man want to climb up the tower for?" I wondered, "Not the view certainly, perhaps he wants to jump. "Thinking of this terrible reason, I thought I should follow him.
He went up slowly and stopped from time to time. I followed him a few steps behind. When he got to the first corner of the bell tower, I came close to him. "Excuse me," I said as politely as I could, "but I wonder why you came up."
"You'd never guess." he said.
"Not the view or the fresh air on this winter day?"
"No." he said.
"Tell me, then."
He smiled, "Perhaps climbing up the tower. You have noticed - and yet, not being blind, perhaps you won't - how the sun shines into the tower through the windows here and there, so that one can feel the cool steps suddenly become quite warm, even in winter. But behind the wall there is shade . There is no place so good as this for feeling the difference between light and darkness. Though I'm blind, I also want to feel the happiness brought by the sunlight. In fact, it isn't my first time to be here." He said and seemed as pleased as a child.
I had never thought that even a blind man could have his way to enjoy the beautiful life. But we often paid no attention to its value because we never lost it.
We went down the tower together and I left him. From then on, I began to treasure what life has given me. | high10080.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "they are flexible and adventurous"
},
"options": [
"they learn to speak Spanish",
"they are flexible and adventurous",
"they live in a local family",
"they experience different projects"
],
"question": "Everyone... | I would recommend uVolunteer Programs in Costa Rica to anyone. Everyone can learn something and enjoy their time here if they have the ability to adapt to different circumstances and a sense of adventure.
I came to San Ramon---the capital of Costa Rica, hardly knowing any Spanish, so the first thing I did there was to take Spanish courses at Spanish Language School for a week. My family stay was also of great help to my language study, but that experience with the classes gave me _ on the language, which has been extremely valuable.
Once in San Ramon, I was fortunate enough to experience several projects with amazing people. I taught Adult English Night Classes, helped at an elementary school, and also went to the Community Center in Bajo. The adult classes are just so awesome because it can be really engaging, social, and fun while being educational. We all learned a lot from each other and became pretty close. The Sabana School was a nice elementary school right by the dorm. The kids were so incredibly nice, even giving me lots of hugs and small gifts. I came at a time when there were many holiday celebrations so there were some scheduling challenges, resulting in me being there to assist English classes a couple of hours in the morning. I decided to go to Bajo in the afternoons. I, like all of the other volunteers, absolutely loved it. This is a place where I felt I was really helping in a more significant way. The kids started to open up more to me the more I was there playing with the kids and helping with the educational programs. The staff and kids are just incredible.
Aside from work, we decided on some weekend trips. By the end of my stay I had experienced hot volcanic springs in La Fortuna, snorkeling and hiking with incredible wildlife in Puerto Viejo, caving in Nicaragua, and kayaking and night fishing (we ate the fish too) in Playa Hermosa. I also enjoyed dancing, eating, and watching performances during the San Ramon festivals. | high13589.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "who just begin to learn how to play the piano"
},
"options": [
"who just begin to learn how to play the piano",
"who are experienced in playing the piano",
"who show interest in teaching the piano lessons",
"who are wil... | Introduction to Piano
No matter what you do in life, it's always important to start with the basics. Taught by experienced musician Dennis Dykstra, this class will give beginning piano learners an introduction to the keyboard, keys, scales, chords, melodies, and note reading. This class is combined with adult class.
Brinton ( Beg. , Ages 8-17 )...# 487919
Sat. , Apr. 13---Jun 1, 10:30 AM---12 PM
$56 Residents / $112 Non-residents
Guitar Lesson
Learn basic chords, notes, and different strumming techniques. Strum your way to fun. Bring your own guitar. Classes are combined with youth guitar classes.
Brinton ( Beg./ Int. , Ages 12-17 ) ...# 37623
Sat. , Apr. 13 --- Jun.1, 2 PM --- 3:30 PM
$110 Residents / $220 Non-residents
Hip Hop Culture & Modern Dance
Hip hop is a dance form that has origins in New York's folk culture and has become popularized by the entertainment industry. The steps _ from tap, jazz & belly dance. The class will consist of clean hip hop music techniques, steps and a routine.
Hamilton( Ages 6-12 )...# 38475
Tue. , Apr, 16---Jun 4, 7 PM --- 8 PM
$18 Residents / $36 Non-residents
Science of Magic and Fantastic Fliers
This super science sampler introduces participants to two hot topics: magic and flight! In science of magic, participants learn the science behind illusions, mind reading and perform a magic escape! Amaze and amuse friends.
In fantastic fliers, participants will fly through flight and aerodynamics ( ) basics. Discover the four forces that affect flight. Make and test various plane designs to see these forces in action! Not suitable for free or reduced fees.
Jueau ( Ages 4-12 )... #370956
Mon. , Feb. 4, 5:30 PM --- 7:30 PM
$80 Residents / $160 Non-residents | high8954.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "wasn't concentrating"
},
"options": [
"made mistakes",
"damaged things",
"was natural",
"wasn't concentrating"
],
"question": "By using \"Tom continued painting and answered carelessly\", the author shows Tom ... | It was Saturday when the entire summer world was bright and fresh. Tom looked at the fence, which was long and high, feeling all enthusiasm leaving him. He dipped his brush into the whitewash before moving it along the top board of the fence. He knew other boys would arrive soon with all minds of interesting plans for this day. As walking past him, they would tease him for having to work on a beautiful Saturday--which burnt him like fire.
He, putting his hands into his pockets and taking out all he owned with the expectation of letting someone paint, found nothing that could buy half an hour of freedom. At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea occurred to him, pouring a great bright light into his mind. He took up his brush and continued to work pleasantly with calm and quietness.
Presently, Ben Rogers came in sight--munching an apple and making joyful noises like the sound of a riverboat as he walked along. Tom went on whitewashing, paying no attention to the steamboat. "Hello!" Ben said, "I'm going swimming, but you can't go, can you?"
No answer. Tom moved his brush gently along the fence and surveyed the result. Ben came nearer. Tom's mouth watered for Ben's apple while he kept painting the fence.
Ben said, "That's a lot of work, isn't it?"
Tom turned suddenly saying "Here you are! Ben! I didn't notice you."
"I'm going swimming," Ben said. "Don't you wish you could go? Or would you rather work?" Tom said, "Work? What do you mean 'work'?"
"Isn't that work?" Tom continued painting and answered carelessly, "Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. All I know is it suits Tom Sawyer."
"Do you mean that you enjoy it?"
"I don't see why I oughtn't to enjoy it."
"Does a boy have a chance to paint a fence frequently" said Tom.
Ben stopped munching his apple.
Tom moved his brush back and forth--stepped back to note the effect--added a little paint here and there. Ben watched every move, getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. After a short time, he said, "Tom, let me whitewash a little."
Tom seemed to be thinking for a moment before he said, "No, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. If it was the back fence, maybe you could do it. But this fence beside the street is where everybody can see it. It has to be done right."
"Oh, come on, let me try. I'll be careful. Listen, Tom. I'll give you part of my apple if you let me paint." "No, Ben, I'm afraid--" "I'll give you all the apple!"
Tom handed the brush to Ben with unwillingness on his face but _ in his heart. While the riverboat worked and sweated in the hot sun, Tom, an artist sat in the shade close by, munching his apple, and planning how he could trick more of the boys.
Before long there were enough boys each of whom came along the street; stopped to laugh but soon begged to be allowed to paint. By the middle of the afternoon, Tom had got many treasures while the fence had had three layers of whitewash on it. If he hadn't run out of whitewash, he would have owned everything belonging to the boys in the village.
Tom said to himself that the world was not so depressing after all. He had discovered a great law of human action: in order to make a man cover a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. | high9492.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "improve mutual trust and benefit regional peace and development"
},
"options": [
"be all open to the media",
"improve mutual trust and benefit regional peace and development",
"be held at the Zijinshan Summit for Entrepreneur... | NANJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping and Ma Ying-jeou will shake hands in their historic meeting scheduled in Singapore on Saturday, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said on Wednesday.
The two-part meeting includes one session open to the media and another behind closed doors, said Zhang Zhijun, who is also head of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, when interviewed at the Zijinshan Summit for Entrepreneurs across the Taiwan Strait.
According to Zhang, Xi and Ma, as "leaders of the two sides" of the Taiwan Strait, will exchange views during the closed-door meeting.
After the meeting, press conferences will be held by both sides. Later, the two leaders are expected to attend a dinner, said Zhang.
Zhang said the meeting will lift cross-Strait communication to a new high.
The landmark meeting is a breakthrough in face-to-face exchange and communication between the leaders across the Taiwan Strait after the relationship became strained following the events of 1949.
Zhang said the meeting will improve mutual trust and allow for an exchange of opinions on handling the cross-Strait ties.
In addition, the meeting will help strengthen the 1992 Consensus , which was reached in talks between the two sides in 1992 and recognizes the one-China principle, and safeguards the peaceful development of cross-Strait ties, according to Zhang.
Zhang added that the scheduled meeting will also benefit regional peace and stability.
Also at Wednesday's summit, Chiang Pin-kung, former chairman of the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation, _ the upcoming meeting between the two leaders as a milestone for cross-Strait ties.
Chiang told the media that he believed the meeting will give a boost to the peaceful development of cross-Strait ties. | high12697.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "They just provide the next turn."
},
"options": [
"They just provide the next turn.",
"They are harmful to eyes.",
"They make drivers tired easily.",
"They often break down suddenly."
],
"question": "What is the... | Global Positioning Systems(GPS) are now a part of everyday driving in many countries. These satellite-based systems provide turn-by-turn directions to help people get to where they want to go. But, they can also cause a lot of problems, send you to the wrong place or leave you completely lost. Many times, the driver is to blame. Sometimes a GPS error is responsible. Most often, says Barry Brown, it is a combination of the two.
We spoke to Mr. Brown by Skype . He told us about an incident involving a friend who had flown to an airport in the eastern United States. There he borrowed a GPS-equipped car to use during his stay. BARRY BROWN: "And they just plugged in an address and then set off to their destination. And, then it wasn't until they were driving for thirty minutes that they realized they actually put in a destination back on the West Coast where they lived. They actually put their home address in. So again, the GPS is kind of 'garbage in garbage out'."
Mr Brown says this is a common human error. But, he says, what makes the problem worse has to do with some of the shortcomings, or failures, of GPS equipment. BARRY BROWN: "One problem with a lot of the GPS units is that they have a very small screen and they just tell you the next turn. Because they just give you the next turn, sometimes that means that it is not really giving you the overview that you would need to know that it's going to the wrong place."
Barry Brown formerly served as a professor with the University of California, San Diego. While there, he worked on a project with Eric Laurier from the University of Edinburgh. The two men studied the effects of GPS devices on driving by placing cameras in people's cars. They wrote a paper based on their research. It is called "The Normal, Natural Troubles of Driving with GPS."
It lists several areas where GPS systems can cause confusion for drivers. These include maps that are outdated, incorrect or difficult to understand. They also include timing issues related to when GPS commands are given.
Barry Brown says, " To make GPS systems better we need a better understanding of how drivers, passengers and GPS systems work together." | high6979.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "fathers often pursue employment at home"
},
"options": [
"fathers often pursue employment at home",
"parents had to make food and necessity themselves for their daily-life",
"many familie2s produce goods at home for sale",
... | Parents have to do much less for their children today than they used to do,and home has become much less of a workshop.Clothes can be bought ready made,washing can go to the laundry,food can be bought cooked,canned or preserved,bread is baked and delivered by the baker,milk arrives on the doorstep,meats can be had at the restaurant,the work's canteen,and the school dining-room.
It is unusual now for father to pursue his trade or other employment at home,and his children rarely, if ever,see him at his place of work.Boys are therefore seldom trained to follow their father's occupation,and in many towns they have a fairly wide choice of employment and so do girls.The young wage-earner often earns good money,and soon acquires a feeling of economic independence.In textile areas it has long been customary for mothers to go out to work,but this practice has become so widespread that the working mother is now a not unusual factor in a child's home life,the number of married women in employment having more than doubled in the last twenty-five years.With mother earning and his older children drawing substantial wages father is seldom the dominant figure that he still was at the beginning of the century.When mother works,economic advantages accrue,but children lose something of great value if mother's employment prevents her from being home to greet them when they return from schoo1. | high21275.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "be practical"
},
"options": [
"be practical",
"control others",
"avoid risks",
"depend on others"
],
"question": "According to the passage, self-confident people tend to _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_quest... | Self-confidence is an attitude which allows individuals to have positive yet realistic views of themselves and their situations. Self-confident people trust their own abilities, have a general sense of control in their lives, and believe that,within reason, they will be able to do what they wish., plan., and expect. Having self-confidence does not mean that individuals will be able to do everything. Self-confident people have expectations that are realistic. Even when some of their expectations are not met,they continue to be positive and to accept themselves.
People who are not self-confident depend too much on the approval of others in order to feel good about themselves. They tend to avoid taking risks because they fear failure. They generally do not expect to be successful. They often put themselves down and tend to ignore compliments paid to them By contrast,self-confident people are willing to risk the disapproval of others because they generally trust their own abilities. They tend to accept themselves;they don't feel they have to conform in order to be accepted.
Many factors affect the development of self-confidence. Parents' attitudes are crucial to children's feelings about themselves,particularly in children's early years. When parents pro- vide acceptance, children receive a solid foundation for good feelings about themselves. If one or both parents are much to critical or demanding, or if they are overprotective and discourage children's moves toward independence, children may come to believe they are unqualified or inadequate.
Surprisingly, lack of self-confidence is not necessarily related to lack of ability. Instead it is often the result of focusing too much on the unrealistic expectations or standards of others, especially parents and society. Friends' influences can be as powerful or more powerful than those of parents and society in shaping feelings of one's self. Students in their college years reexamine values and develop their own identities and thus are particularly sensitive to the influence of friends. | high5280.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "increasing urbanization takes place in China"
},
"options": [
"it is the only model way to save the cities",
"it helps stop destroying the rural areas",
"increasing urbanization takes place in China",
"China has the lar... | As China becomes increasingly urbanized , it has to find space for its urban and rural citizens as both groups become increasingly integrated. Experts suggest a possible model way may be "re-inventing" a "garden city".
China's mega-cities are bursting at the borders and the country is now undergoing the quickest and biggest urbanization in the history of mankind. It is estimated that by 2025, China will have 400 million more people living in its cities, raising its urban population to 900 million. Besides, new satellite towns are mushrooming on the urban fringes while city ring roads are rippling outwards into the countryside at amazing speed. Satellite maps collected by Professor Joshua Bolchover at the University of Hong Kong bring the problem sharply into focus. They track the changing rural-urban framework in the past 30 years, and suggest that cities are cruelly destroying surrounding rural land and rapidly reducing the amount of arable land, which gives way to new residential blocks, new industrial zones, new financial centers and the other inevitable signs and signatures of economic growth.
This, however, is not sustainable growth pattern, especially when China has the world's largest population to feed. So concerned urban planners are starting to note the social and physical effects of diaspora when replaced rural communities are forced into the cities.
On the other hand, a trend of thought is gradually taking shape and this is the concept of the "garden city", a combination of country and city that is being proposed by architects and city planners. Hua Li, from Tao Architects, is among the many professionals with such a voice. His argument is supported by a long-term study on this subject. As Hua says, the answer is to preserve patches of productive farmland within urban boundaries. Less transportation means we have fresh agricultural products at lower costs and less carbon emission in the city. And urban farmland can also be showcased for agricultural tourism and education.
The concept is already practiced at the grassroot level. Agriculture has gone into the air, up to roof and balcony in some communities in the cities. It's common to see organic "hanging garden" on the roof of some traditional courtyard home. According to some people, the rooftop project translate to tangible (=" practical)" benefits, such as safe, nutritious vegetables, a cooler home in summer. Some say thanks to the tomatoes they plant that are natural insect killers, there're fewer mosquitoes. Apart from these, it also contributes to better bonding with neighbors. Zhang, a doctor in Beijing, began creating his hanging garden five years ago. Since his garden became home to 30 kinds of vegetables and fruit --- all enough to feed his family, neighbors have enjoyed dropping by for a relaxing chat or just to see how well the lovely vegetables and fruit are doing.
Although people like Zhang are still rare and the greening of roof space with vegetables and fruit takes skill and energy, with more positive media exposure and advanced technology there is the prospect that garden city will become common practice in the near future. By then, cities will no longer look so gray when seen from the satellites. | high3829.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Students"
},
"options": [
"Students",
"Parents",
"Teachers",
"Actors"
],
"question": "Who is the passage mainly written for?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"a... | Make a five-minute film and win!
Do you love the winter holidays but hate being bored? Then why don't you enter the Film Street Summer Shorts Competition by making a short film this winter with your family and friends?
What you have to do
To enter the competition, you have to make a short film that is around 5 minutes long (It can be shorter but not longer!) on a digital camera, or mobile phone.
Awards
The best short film entered into our competition will be shown in Film Street's Cinema and you'll win a Cineworld Cinema pass for yourself and three more for other members of your filmmaking crew . If you have a Cineworld Cinema pass, you can watch as many films as you like for a year, for free, at any Cineworld Cinema.
Rules
We can't show films that tell others about either your or any other kids' names or addresses.
We can't show films that hurt, harm or insult other people.
We can't show films that have bad languages.
Copyright Checklist
Getting permission to use someone else's work in your film can be expensive, so check your film to make sure that:
Your film is _ and you haven't copied anyone else's.
There are no scenes of branding on shop signs, books, magazines or CDs.
There are no scenes of anyone else's artwork.
Address and Date
Post your finished film on tape, CD or DVD by Monday, October 1st, 2011 to:
Film Street Summer Short Competition
First Light Movies
Unit 6, Third Floor, The Bond
180-182 Fazeley Street
Birmingham
So what's stopping you? Start making your Film Street Summer Short now! | high572.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "the wine from famous vineyards"
},
"options": [
"five-year-old Pinot Grigio",
"the wine labeled from older vines",
"the wine from famous vineyards",
"two-year-old Beaujolais Nouveau"
],
"question": "It's better ... | Say you're in the wine store and you want to buy something new. You have nothing to go by outside of the label. Will the label tell you anything you should know? Here's some general advice:
Vintage. This is the first thing we look for ourselves. You don't need to care whether 2001 or 2002 was a better year in the Sierra Foothills. The vast majority of wines at the store are meant to be drunk right away, so you make sure the wine isn't too old, particularly if you're buying it expecting lively, fresh fruitiness. We often see five-year-old Pinot Grigio and two-year-old Beaujolais Nouveau at stores, for example, so as soon as we see that kind of age on wines like those, we know we can skip them and move on(and possibly not shop there again).
Alcohol content. Too many wines have too much alcohol, which leaves them unbalanced. Sure, there are some classic wines with high alcohol levels, but many of today's regular table wines--Merlot, Chardonnay--have levels at 15% or above. Some of those might be terrific, but if we had nothing else to go on, we'd look for alcohol content at about 14% and below.
The more specific the better. A wine that says it's from Napa is probably a better bet than a wine that simply says it's from California. Unfortunately, this will also probably be reflected in the price, so this might not tell you much about value, If you care enough to know a few of famous vineyards for producing high-quality grapes, they might help you make an educated guess about quality.
Old vines. Theoretically, older vines produce fewer, but more flavorful grapes, but the problem is that no one has defined what an "old vine" is, so anyone can put this on the label. Just ignore it.
A phone number. You'd be surprised many small-production wines these days include a phone number on the back and an invitation to call the winerY, which is a sign of a highly personal winerY. We have called those numbers many times over the years and it's amazing how often the winemaker or winerY owner answers the phone. | high6789.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Tu's road to success is not traditional"
},
"options": [
"Tu is the first woman to win a Nobel Prize",
"Tu has a medical degree",
"Tu's road to success is not traditional",
"Tu discovered a cure for malaria"
],
... | Tu Youyou has become the first Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize, for her work in helping to create an anti-malaria medicine. The 84-year-old's route to the honour has been anything but traditional. In China, she is being called the "three nos" winner: no medical degree, no doctorate, and she's never worked overseas.
In 1967, malaria, a then deadly disease, spread by mosquitoes was _ Chinese soldiers fighting Americans in the jungles of northern Vietnam. A secret research unit "Mission 523 "was formed to find a cure for the illness. Two years later, Tu Youyou was instructed to become the new head of "Mission 523".
"Mission523" read ancient books carefully for a long time to find historical methods of fighting malaria. When she started her search for an anti-malarial drug, more than 240,000 compounds around the world had already been tested, without any success. Finally, the team found a brief reference to one substance, sweet wormwood , which had been used to treat malaria in China around 400 AD. The team took out one active compound in wormwood, and then tested it. But nothing was effective until Tu Youyou returned to the original ancient text. After another careful reading, she changed the drug recipe one final time, heating the compound without allowing it to reach boiling point.
After the drug showed promising results in mice and monkeys, Tu Youyou volunteered to be the first human recipient of the new drug. "
In any case, Tu Youyou is consistently praised for her drive and passion. One former colleague. Lianda Li, says Ms Tu is "unsociable and quite straightforward", adding that "if she disagrees with something, she will say it."
Another colleague, Fuming Liao, who has worked with Tu Youyou for more than 40 years, describes her as a "tough and stubborn woman". Stubborn enough to spend decades piecing together ancient texts, she applies them to modern scientific practices. The result has saved millions of lives. | high12867.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "to tell readers that dogs can smell out victims buried in the ruins"
},
"options": [
"to show the way to rescue the victims in the ruins",
"to introduce the instruments to save victims in a disaster",
"to tell readers that do... | Dogs may help save the day in the Philippines, as they use their noses to smell out survivors buried by Friday's mudslide . The team of dogs arrived in the Philippines from Spain, and this Tuesday they were just beginning their work. Search officials told CNN they hope the recent rain will wash away the smell of rescue teams so the dogs can do their job more accurately.
The dogs were brought in after sound equipment found sounds coming from deep inside the ruins, at a place where a school stood before the mudslide covered it. The sounds could mean people are still alive under all the mud or it could just be the earth resettling.
On Monday, rescue workers worked at the school site until three in the morning, trying to locate survivors, and they will begin digging again as soon as the dogs think they find someone.
Human teams from the US, Malaysia, and Australia are all trying to help, too. But so far they have yet to locate any survivors. Rescue workers told CNN that an earlier report that 50 survivors had been found was false.
How did all that mud bury the village in the first place? On Friday, 2,400-foot Mt Kanabag turned into a mudslide after two weeks of constant rain weakened it. The mountain crumbled and the mud fell onto the village Guinsaugon, burying the 1,800 people who lived there . Out of the 300 houses in the village, only 3 were not covered by the mud . The village is on a southern Philippine Island called Levte. Rescue efforts have been difficult because the village takes six hours to reach from the nearest airport. Hopefully, the dogs can help their human friends find survivors. | high7497.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Time is valuable ."
},
"options": [
"Time is equal to dollars, pounds...",
"Time is gold .",
"Time is valuable .",
"We must spend time in buying goods"
],
"question": "When we say \"Time is money.\"we mean _",... | A proverb says :"Time is money."But in my opinion, time is even more valuable than money. Why? Because when money is spent ,we can earn it back .However when time is gone ,it will never return .This is the reason why we must value time.
There is no doubt that the time we have is unusually limited. So even an hour is extremely precious. We should make full use of our time to do useful things .As students we must not relax our efforts to engage in our studies so as to serve our society and our nation in the future.
But it is pity that there are a lot of people who do not know the importance of time .They spend their valuable time smoking, drinking and so on. They do not realize that wasting time is equal to wasting a part of their valuable life.
In a word, we should get into a good habit of saving time. Do not put off what can be done today until tomorrow. Laziness will not only bring us failure but also lead us to the road of poverty. | high6951.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "\"Long time no see\" used as standard American English"
},
"options": [
"the Chinglish expression \"Long time no see\"",
"\"Long time no see\" used as standard American English",
"so many literal translation of the expression... | "Long time no see" is a very interesting sentence. When I first read this sentence from an American friend's email, I laughed. I thought it was a perfect example of Chinglish.
Obviously, it is a word-by-word literal translation of the Chinese greetings with a ruled English grammar and structure! Later on, my friend told me that it is a standard American greeting. I was too thrilled to believe her. Her words could not convince me at all. So I did a research on google.com. To my surprise, there are over 60 thousand web pages containing "Long time no see." This sentence has been widely used in emails, letters, newspapers, movies, books, or any other possible places. Though it is sort of informal, it is part of the language that Americans use daily. Ironically, if you type this phrase in Microsoft Word, the software will tell you that the grammar needs to be corrected.
Nobody knows the origin of this Chinglish sentence. Some people believe that it came from Charlie Chan's movies. In the 1930s, Hollywood moviemakers successfully created a world wide famous Chinese detective named "Charlie Chan" on wide screens. Detective Chan likes to teach Americans some Chinese wisdom by quoting Confucius. "Long time no see" was his trademark. Soon after Charlie Chan, "Long time no see" became a popular phrase in the real world with thanks to the popularity of these movies.
Some scholars refer to America as a huge pot of stew. All kinds of culture are mixed in the stew together, and they change the color and taste of each other. American Chinese, though a minority ethnic group in the United States, is also contributing some changes to the stew! Language is usually the first thing to be influenced in the mixed stew.
You can have some other examples than adoptions from Chinese, such as pizza from Italian, susi from Japanese, and deja vu from French etc. There is a long list! Americans do not just simply borrow something from others. They will modify it and make it their own, so you would not be surprised to find a tofu and peanut butter hamburger in a restaurant, or to buy a bottle of iced Chinese green tea with honey in a grocery store. Since Americans appreciate Chinese culture more and more nowadays, I believe more Chinese words will become American English in the future. In this way the American stew keeps adding richness and flavor. | high1958.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "students can get help from the JCR"
},
"options": [
"The collegiate system is beyond his expectation",
"all students live together, as he expects",
"parties are too difficult for students to hold",
"students can get hel... | Oxford University students think about the collegiate system as follws:
*"The collegiate system is exactly what I expect, lots of students all living together, with the JCR(Junior Common Room) acting to support students and organize parties and social events."
2nd year undergraduate, Archaeology and Anthropology
*"Most of all, I like the collegiate structure, which appeals to me as it is less of an imposing 'body' to get involved with. This allows you to play sports and do other things similarly at any level that you like. I play football and cricket for my college and also play recreational rugby and tennis where I can fit it in."
2nd year undergraduate, Biochemistry
*"I choose to study at Oxford firstly because I want to study at the highest level and stretch my mind;I felt that the Oxford tutorial system is the best environment to achieve this. Secondly because the collegiate system seems to offer a friendlier atmosphere than a large campus..."
2nd year undergraduate, Mathematics
*"Not only is Oxford one of the top universities in the world...students here have the benefit of the social support of a small college community."
3rd year undergraduate, Medicine
*"The aspect of Oxford that I appreciate the most is the sense of belonging that the collegiate system offers. If you choose to accept it, your college will provide you with the social scaffolding to ensure that both your weeks and weekends are fun.."
DPhil student, Inorganic Chemistry
*"The college system and the amazing sports opportunities make the experience of Oxford even better because there is so much more to do once you leave the lab..."
DPhil student, Physiology | high23304.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "they should face the consequence of losing their own money"
},
"options": [
"you should give them some allowances to pay for the pumpkins",
"they should be rid of their opportunity to celebrate Halloween",
"you should ensure ... | One potential problem with allowances is that children's responsible behavior can become about earning the allowance rather than the intrinsic value of their family responsibilities. For example, if you pay your children for taking out the rubbish, they see this chore as a job that they should be rewarded for instead of a responsibility they must fulfill as part of the family. But giving children an allowance for weekly chores is not necessarily bad. You are rewarding them for fulfilling their family responsibilities, but it is not for a specific act. It is an appreciation of their commitment to your family values. You are also conveying another important message that their actions have consequences: if they do good things, good things happen. They also learn a lesson about the market economy, namely that work is rewarded.
Allowances can also be used as punishment and to teach children lessons about family values. For example, if your children join a group of kids smashing pumpkins on Halloween, a part of a reasonable punishment might be to require them to pay the families out of their allowance to replace the pumpkins. Thus, your children learn that bad behavior has financial consequences. Meanwhile, by relating the punishment to the misdeed, you ensure that your children see the connection and learn the value lesson.
How much allowance should you pay your children? The precise amount depends on your family's financial situation, the cost of living and your children's needs. Children can start to earn a weekly allowance as early as 5 years of age. An increase of $ 1 per week for each year of your children's lives is realistic until they reach their mid-teens. When they begin to drive and date, you can calculate their expenses and establish a reasonable allowance that covers their needs. | high214.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Resolution."
},
"options": [
"Action.",
"Capacity.",
"Resolution.",
"Enthusiasm."
],
"question": "Which of the following is the first-to-none element in the 19th-century character model?",
"question_type": n... | In the 19th century, there used to be a model of how to be a good person. There are all these torrents of passion flowing through you. Your job, as captain of your soul, is to erect dams to keep these passions in check. Your job is to just say no to laziness, lust, greed, drug use and the other sins.
These days that model is out of fashion. You usually can't change your behavior by simply resolving to do something. Knowing what to do is not the same as being able to do it. Your willpower is not like a dam that can block the torrent of self-indulgence. It's more like a muscle, which tires easily. Moreover, you're a social being. If everybody around you is overeating, you'll probably do so, too.
The 19th-century character model was based on an understanding of free will. Today, we know that free will is bounded. People can change their lives, but ordering change is not simple because many things, even within ourselves, are beyond our direct control.
Much of our behavior, for example, is guided by unconscious habits. Researchers at Duke University calculated that more than 40 percent of the actions we take are governed by habit, not actual decisions. Researchers have also come to understand the structure of habits--cue, routine, reward.
You can change your own personal habits. If you leave running shorts on the floor at night, that'll be a cue to go running in the morning. Don't try to ignore your afternoon snack craving. Every time you feel the cue for a snack, insert another routine. Take a walk.
Their research thus implies a different character model, which is supposed to manipulate the neuralnetworks inside.
To be an effective person, under this model, you are supposed to coolly examine your own unconscious habits, and the habits of those under your care. You are supposed to devise strategies to alter the cues and routines. Every relationship becomes slightly manipulative, including your relationship with yourself. You're trying to arouse certain responses by implanting certain cues.
This is a bit disturbing, because the important habitual neural networks are not formed by mere routine, nor can they be reversed by clever cues. They are burned in by emotion and strengthened by strong yearnings, like the yearnings for admiration and righteousness.
If you think you can change your life in a clever way, the way an advertiser can get you to buy an air freshener, you're probably wrong. As the Victorians understood, if you want to change your life, don't just look for a clever cue. Commit to some larger global belief. | high4820.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "she needed the right time to look after her children"
},
"options": [
"she wanted to earn more money to support her family",
"she had suffered a lot of mental pressure",
"she felt tired of taking care of patients",
"she... | Margaret, married with two small children, has been working for the last seven years as a night cleaner, cleaning offices in a big building.
She trained as a nurse, but had to give it up when her elder child became seriously ill. "I would have liked to go back to it, but theshifts are all wrong for me, as I have to be home to get the children up and off to school."
So she works as a cleaner instead, from 9 p.m. till 6 a.m. five nights a week for just PS90, before tax and insurance. "It's better than it was last year, but I still think that people who work 'unsocial hours' should get a bit extra."
The hours she's chosen to work meant that she sees plenty of the children, but very little of her husband. However, she doesn't think that puts any pressure on their relationship.
Her work isn't physically very hard, but it's not exactly pleasant, either. "I do get angry with people who leave their offices like a place for raising pigs. If they realized people like me have to do it, perhaps they'd be a bit more careful."
The fact that she's working all night doesn't worry Margaret at all. Unlike some dark buildings at night, the building where she works is fully lit, and the women work in groups of three. "Since I've got to be here, I try to enjoy myself----and I usually do, because of the other girls. We all have a good laugh, so the time never drags."
Another challenge Margaret has to face is the reaction of other people when she tells them what she does for a living. "They think you're a cleaner because you don't know how to read and write," said Margaret. "I used to think _ but I don't think that way any more. I don't dislike the work though I can't say I'm mad about it." | high2289.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "protect turtles"
},
"options": [
"help her teacher",
"prove an idea",
"protect turtles",
"become a scientist"
],
"question": "Kim Reich does research on where baby turtles go because she wants to _ .",
"q... | Where do the turtles go?
Every summer, thousands of endangered green sea turtles climb onto beaches around the world. Each mother sea turtle produces 100 or more eggs in a hole, and covers the hole with sand before she swims away.
Two months later, the eggs hatch , and the baby turtles climb out of the sand and swim into the ocean. They don't reappear until they have grown as large as dinner plates. Until now, no one knows where the baby turtles go or what they do.
"if we don't know where these little turtles are, we can't protect them," says Kim Reich, who helps solve part of the mystery.
Her teacher, Karen Bjorndal, has studied green sea turtles for more than 30 years. Every year, Bjorndal goes to the Bahamas Islands. Many young sea turtles come here to live and eat at the end of their childhood.
These turtles are the only sea turtles that live as plant eaters. In fact, their name may be a result of what they eat. The turtles don't look green but they do have green fat. Scientists learned that the turtles eat green sea plants, which may turn their fat green.
Between 2002 and 2004, Bjorndal caught 44 green sea turtles in the Bahamas. After testing them, she found something to support the 20-year-old idea: baby green sea turtles eat meat before they turn to a diet of plants. In fact, they eat animals that live in the open ocean.
Scientists still need to find where exactly green sea turtles grow. We now know that baby green sea turtles are out in the open ocean, but the open ocean is a big place.
" _ is really a problem," says Bjorndal. The discovery may help us do a better job of protecting this sea animal. | high10916.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the picture"
},
"options": [
"the picture",
"the shape",
"the voice",
"the weight"
],
"question": "What is the main difference between an HD-TV and a normal television? It is _ .",
"question_type": "cloze... | In the near future, people in some parts of the world will watch a new kind of television. It is called the high definition television or the HD-TV. The main difference between an HD-TV and a normal television is the picture. It is more clear and detailed. This is because the HD-TV has many more points and lines that make a television image. Every color television picture contains thousands of red, green and blue points. They all come together as an image in the eye of the person watching. The points are organized in lines that go across the television screen. There are more than five hundred lines in a normal television. The HD-TV has two times as many. To get this clear picture, you must have a big screen. Experts say people using a small screen will see little difference.
The HD-TV also has clear sound. It is like the sound on a CD. All these improvements make an HD-TV very costly. One kind in Japan now sells for more than twenty thousand dollars .A major problem with the HD-TV is its broadcast signal(.The signal is bigger than normal because it carries more electronic information. | high3197.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Nearly 2 tons"
},
"options": [
"Nearly 3 tons",
"Nearly 2 tons",
"Almost 1 ton",
"A half ton"
],
"question": "How much bamboo does a panda eat every year?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
... | Giant pandas are now extremely rare. Their number is less than 1,000 in the wild. The hunting of pandas has been banned for many years, so this is not the problem. Destruction of its habitat, when areas are cleared for growing crops, is one of the main reasons for panda's decline . Another reason is that the bamboo on which they mainly feed, is dying back. The pandas find it difficult to move to new feeding areas. As the bamboo disappears, the pandas simply starve to death.
Bamboo is a poor source of food, and pandas have to eat up 45kg of it every day, a process that takes them up to 16 hours. The process goes on day and night, with the pandas in a constant cycle of eating for eight hours and sleeping for four. They can eat other foods, but will rather starve than change their diet when bamboo is scarce.
Giant pandas are very good climbers, and use this skill to escape from the enemy. The giant panda lives alone for most of its life, only coming together with another of its species for long enough to mate. A newborn panda baby is born hairless and blind, is about 15cm long and weighs only 100g. The baby will stay with its mother for about 18 months, until it is able to set up its own territory
Chinese and American scientists are studying giant pandas and their habits in order to put in place a major conservation programme. Zoos around the world are taking part in panda breeding programmes. There is still hope that with human's help, the giant panda can survive in the wild. | high18386.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "you can tell the difference between them"
},
"options": [
"you will have a strange feeling",
"you will learn how to reach out",
"you can tell the difference between them",
"you can tell what color1s they are"
],
... | "If you want to see a thing well, reach out and touch it!" That may seem a strange thing to say. But touching things can help you to see them better. Your eyes can tell you that a glass ball is round. But by holding it in your hands, you can feel how smooth and cool the ball is. You can feel how heavy the glass is. When you feel all these about the ball, you really see it. With your skip, you can feel better. For example, your fingers can tell the difference between two coins in your pocket. You can feel a little drop of water on the back of your hand, too. You can even feel sounds against your skin. Have you ever wanted to know why some people like very loud music? They must like to feel the sounds of music.
All children soon learn "what Don't touch!" means. They hear it often. Yet most of us keep on touching things as we grow up. In shops,we touch things we might buy, such as food, clothes and so on. To see something well, we have to touch it.
The bottoms of our feet can feel things, too. You know this when you walk on warm sand, cool grass or a bad floor. All feel different under your feet.
There are ways of learning to see well by feeling. One way is to close your eyes and try to feel everything that is touching your skin. Feel the shoes on your feet, the clothes on your body, the air on your skin. At first, it is not easy to feel these things. You are too used to them!
Most museums are just for looking. But today some museums have some things which you can touch. Their signs say, "Do touch!" There you can feel everything on show. If you want to see better, reach out and touch. Then you'11 really see! | high20619.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Standing up for others."
},
"options": [
"Standing up for others.",
"Forwarding a hurtful e-mail.",
"Voting for the fat girl on a website.",
"Saying cruel words to upset others."
],
"question": "Which of the fol... | Who knows why kids do anything? When it comes to cyberbullying , they are often motivated by anger or frustration . Sometimes they do it for entertainment or because they are bored and have too much time on their hands and too many tech toys available to them. Many do it for laughs or to get a reaction. Some do it by accident, without thinking before they do something. The power-hungry do it to make others suffer. And some think they are righting wrong and standing up for others. Because their motives differ, the solutions and responses to each type of cyberbullying incident has to differ, too. There is no "one size fits all" when cyberbullying is concerned.
However, education can help considerably in preventing and dealing with the consequences of cyberbullying. If we can help kids understand how much bullying hurts, and how in many cases words can hurt, fewer may cooperate with the cyberbullies. They will think twice before forwarding a hurtful e-mail, or visiting a cyberbullying "vote for the fat girl" site, or allowing others to take videos or cell phone pictures of personal moments.
And, in addition to not lending their efforts to continue the cyberbullying, we also need to teach our children not to stand silently by while others are being hurt. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that in the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Kids will feel more comfortable to break the silence if given an anonymous method of reporting cyberbullying web-sites. School administration, community groups and even school policing staff can receive these anonymous tips and take action quickly.
If our children do not allow the cyberbullies to use them to embarrass or hurt others and realize that silence, when others are being hurt, is not acceptable, cyberbullying will quickly stop. It's a tall task, but a noble goal. And in the end, our children will be safer online and offline. We will have helped create a generation of good cybercitizens, controlling the technology instead of being controlled by it. | high19098.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "daily bad news and broken marriage saddened him"
},
"options": [
"he wanted to forget his marriage life",
"he wanted to make his bloc successful",
"1,000 simple,free,happy things excited him",
"daily bad news and broken... | Upset by reading bad news daily,Neil Pasricha decided to try to focus on the positive and come up with l,000 simple,free,good things,posting one each day on a blog .
Pasricha,aged 30,said his blog aimed to focus on life's simple pleasures,such as finding forgotten money in a pocket, or fixing a TV set with a heavy blow.Little did he realize his blog would attract 40,000 people a day to join his discussions.He was amazed to win two Webby awards.known as "the Oscars of the Internet,'' something positive at a time when his marriage broke up and one of his closest friends killed himself.
"I turned the worst year of my life into my best year by focusing on the positive," Pasricha told reporters in a telephone interview."Every day I try to find something that is happy,free and universal to share, 1ike the smell of a bakery or when a cashier opens up a new line at a store*"
Pasricha said when he began his blog in June 2008 he thought he might have trouble finding out l,000 simple, happy moments in life but now he is more than halfway through and ideas keep crowding in,from himself and from followers of his blog.
"These moments can start a huge conversation.Most of our life is really about hitting green lights on the way home from work,or waking up before your alarm clock rings and realizing you have more time in bed. But it is those small moments we forget about."
Although his blog got a great success.Pasrieha does not want to change his daily life."I travel regularly for an hour a day to work.I like work because I like the people in my office.I'm not a writer and I don't know the writing skills either.I just like observing the world and putting it down." he said. | high23310.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "recorded their experiences in different ways"
},
"options": [
"made friends with local residents",
"complained about the poor living conditions",
"enjoyed the sunset in the Karoo desert most",
"recorded their experience... | For six hours we shot through the landscape of the Karoo desert in South Africa. Just rocks
and sand and baking sun. Knowing our journey was ending, Daniel and I just wanted to remember all we had seen and done. He used a camera. I used words. I had already finished three notebooks and was into the fourth, a beautiful leather notebook I'd bought in a market in Mozambique.
Southern Africa was full of stories. And visions. We were almost drunk on sensations. The roaring of the water at Victoria Falls, the impossible silence of the Okavango Delta in Botswana . And then the other things: dogs in the streets, whole families in Soweto living in one room, a kilometre from clean water.
As we drove towards the setting sun, a quietness fell over us. The road was empty -- we hadn't seen another car for hours. And as I drove, something caught my eye, something moving next to me. I glanced in the mirror of the car; I glanced sideways to the right, and that was when I saw them. Next to us, by the side of the road, thirty, forty wild horses were racing the car, a cloud of dust rising behind them -- brown, muscular horses almost close enough to touch them, to smell their hot breath. I didn't know how long they had been there next to us.
I shouted to Dan: "Look!", but he was in a deep sleep, his camera lying useless by his feet. They raced the car for a few seconds, then disappeared far behind us, a memory of heroic forms in the red landscape. When Daniel woke up an hour later I told him what had happened.
"Wild horses?" he said. "Why didn't you wake me up?"
"I tried. But they were gone after a few seconds."
"Are you sure you didn't dream it?"
"You were the one who was sleeping!"
Typical, he said. "The best photos are the ones we never take."
We checked into a dusty hotel and slept the sleep of the dead. | high1794.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Because he thought men without wives could be better soldiers."
},
"options": [
"Because there were few women in his country at that time.",
"Because he thought men without wives could be better soldiers.",
"Because there was... | February has long been a month of romance. With the sweet smell of roses in the air, romantic films hit cinemas and love stories fill newspapers and magazines.
On the 14th day, it is a custom for a boy to take his girlfriend out to dinner, buy her flowers and chocolates, write poems, sing to her or even spell out her name with rose petals! This is what you see on Valentine's Day, a day named after Valentine who was a priest in the third century Rome. When the emperor decided that single men could become better soldiers than those with wives, he didn't allow marriage.
But Valentine continued to perform marriage ceremonies for young lovers in secret. When his actions were discovered, the emperor sentenced him to death. While in prison, it is said that Valentine fell in love with the daughter of his prison guard. Before his death, he wrote her a letter, which he signed "From your Valentine", an expression that is still in use today. Valentine died for what he believed in and so he was made a Saint , as well as becoming one of history's most romantic characters.
Nowadays, Valentine's Day is also popular among Chinese young people. Some students are planning to make Valentine's cards for parents, teachers and friends. Others want to hold parties at which they will exchange small gifts and eat heart-shaped cakes. The idea is to have fun and encourage people to share in the spirit of St. Valentine. | high200.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The effect of African elephants' search for food."
},
"options": [
"Disappearance of African elephants.",
"Forests and savannas as habitats for African elephants.",
"The effect of African elephants' search for food.",
"... | The African elephant, the largest land animal remaining on the earth, is of great importance to African ecosystem . Unlike other animals, the African elephant is to a great extent the builder of its environment. As a big plant-eater, it largely shapes the forest-and-savanna surroundings in which it lives, therefore _ of existence for millions of other animals that live in its habitat.
It is the elephant's great desire for food that makes it a disturber of the environment and an important builder of its habitat. In its continuous search for the 300 pounds of plants it must have every day, it kills small trees and underbushes, and pulls branches off big trees. This results in numerous open spaces in both deep tropical forests and in the woodlands that cover part of the African savannas . In these open spaces are numerous plants in various stages of growth that attract a variety of other plant-eaters.
Take the rain forests for example. In their natural state, the spreading branches overhead shut out sunlight and prevent the growth of plants on the forest floor. By pulling down trees and eating plants, elephants make open spaces, allowing new plants to grow on the forest floor. In such situations, the forests become suitable for large hoofed plant-eaters to move around and for small plant-eaters to get their food as well.
What worries scientists now is that the African elephant has become an endangered species. If the elephant disappears, scientists say, many other animals will also disappear from vast areas of forest and savanna, greatly changing and worsening the whole ecosystem. | high566.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "existed merely in urban and industrial areas"
},
"options": [
"caused widespread damage in the countryside",
"affected the entire eastern half of the United States",
"almost brought worldwide effect",
"existed merely in... | Many people once thought that air pollution had a bad influence upon only the area immediately around large cities with factories and heavy automobile traffic. Today, we know that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution, the problem is nearly worldwide. On several occasions over the past decade, a heavy cloud of air pollution has covered the entire eastern half of the United States and led to health warnings even in rural areas away from any major concentration of factories and automobile traffic. In fact, the very climate of the entire earth may be affected by air pollution. Some scientists feel that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide( ) in the air resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil) is creating a"greenhouse effect" - holding in heat reflected from the earth and raising the world's average temperature. If this view is correct and the world's temperature is raised only a few degrees, much of the polar ice cap will melt and cities such as New York, Boston, Miami, and New Orleans will be under water.
Another opinion, less widely held, is that increasing tiny substances in the atmosphere are blocking sunlight and lowering the earth's temperature-a result that would be equally disastrous.A drop of just a few degrees could create something close to new ice age and would make agriculture difficult or impossible in many of our top farming areas. At present we do not know for sure that either of these conditions will happen (though one recent government report prepared by experts in the field concluded that the greenhouse effect is very likely). Perhaps, if we are very lucky, the two tendencies will make up for each other and the world's temperature will stay about the same as it is now. | high8968.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "improving his life"
},
"options": [
"improving his life",
"honoring his grandfather",
"helping do research for cancer",
"supporting people with cancer"
],
"question": "The purpose of the author's starting Hives ... | My family had always been close and lucky. No one died and no one was sick. We were all living a happy life until my grandfather had cancer. No matter how much I told myself he might not die, somehow I still felt as if it was a death sentence. He fought so hard but died at 63. I honestly didn't know how I dealt with. I never cried alone. I had the support of my family and teachers. I just remembered my grandfather's wish that we should celebrate his life.
That's how we came up with the idea for Hives for Lives -- a business my sister and I started where all the profits go to the American Cancer Society (ACS). During our first year we donated more than $2,000 to the ACS. The next year a man who belonged to my grandparents' "bee club" gave his honey to us, and our little business grew. We sold at wine festivals, schools, and to anyone else who would buy! We had my uncle sell in California and my grandmother sell in Chicago. We have sold honey in 13 states -- even in Puerto Rico! This year we donated more than $10,000 to the ACS and we're hoping to do more next year. Hopefully our business will help research into the causes of cancer or just improve the life of someone with cancer.
I feel like Hives for Lives is a way to honor my grandfather. Honor his love, his life, and his strength. With Hives for Lives reminding me of my grandfather every day, I feel as if I can move on in life, that he will always be alive in my heart and memories. It made me deal with his death, because I felt like I had truly honored his wish of celebrating his life. | high23476.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Worried"
},
"options": [
"Confident.",
"Worried",
"Curious.",
"Uninterested."
],
"question": "How did the writer feel when she walked into her junior year?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
... | My high school life has been filled with many ups and downs, whether it was social or academic. Even though my current high school was not my first choice, I never regretted attending Southside High School. "Since you have chosen it, then it is the best for you," said my parents.
Up until the junior year I did not realize my capabilities as a student. Being in the IB Program, I was told that my junior year would be the toughest in all the years of high school. With this "little" piece of information, I walked into my junior year, scared of my grades. As weeks went by, I started to believe that the junior year was not as hard as everyone had said, but I was wrong. My grades were rapidly declining and by the end of the first term I had had five Cs in seven of my classes! I could not believe it --- I did not want to believe it. I tried my best to get my grades up myself without any help from anyone, but my pride just made my grades worse. And I had to miss out on one of the most important speech and debate competitions all year: States. I was heartbroken. I realized that I could not survive my junior year on my own, so I had to get help fast.
Once I got a tutor, my grades went from Cs, Ds, and even some Fs, to nothing but As and Bs. I slowly started to gain my confidence back in all of my classes and even myself. By the time the third and fourth quarter came around, I had been on the honor roll twice, and I was receiving awards from speeches and debates, tennis and school.
Southside has taught me to always keep my head up and never give up on myself no matter what life throws at me. I am proud to be a Southside Tiger. | high12873.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "This concept includes three themes."
},
"options": [
"No matter when it is , we need green space.",
"This concept includes three themes.",
"Let's carry the theme of Green Olympics through to the end.",
"The logo uses a ... | As we know, the concept of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is "Green Olympics, High-tech Olympics and People's Olympics." _ . Among them "Green Olympics" embraces the essence of the 3000-year long Chinese philosophy, namely harmony and unity of nature and human existence.
On the World Environment Day in 2003, Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Game began the Green Office Project. _ .
On September 24, 2005, the logo of the Green Olympics was shown at the Beijing Young Palace. _ . It consists of the crown of a tree and the shape of a human being that are used to create the form of a large tree reaching the sky. The image represents harmony and unity between human beings and nature. Just like swinging color1ed strips that surround and cross each other, the green lines form a crown of tree and recall flowers in full bloom, expressing the sustainable development of environment protection. | high22768.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "North Asia"
},
"options": [
"North Asia",
"Australia",
"South Pacific",
"South Asia"
],
"question": "It is generally considered that the first Native Americans came from _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_ques... | A "lost tribe" that reached America from Australia may have been the first Native Americans, according to a new theory.
If proved by DNA evidence, the theory will break long established beliefs about the southerly migration of people who entered America across the Bering Strait, found it empty and occupied it.
On this theory rests the belief of Native Americans to have been the first true Americans. They would be classified to the ranks of escapee, beaten to the New World by Aboriginals in boats.
To a European, this may seem like an academic argument, but to Americans it is a philosophical question about identity, Silvia Gonzales, of Liverpool University said .
Her claims are based on skeletons found in the California Peninsula of Mexico that have skulls quite unlike the broad Mongolian features of Native Americans. These narrow-skulled people have more in common with southern Asians, Aboriginal Australians and people of the South Pacific Region.
The bones, stored at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, have been carbon-dated and one is 12,700 years old, which places it several thousand years before the arrival of people from the North. "We think there were several migration waves into the Americas at different times by different human groups," Dr. Gonzales said. "The timing, route and point of origin of the first colonization of the Americas remains a most contentious topic in human evolution."
But comparisons based on skull shape are not considered conclusive by anthropologists, so a team of Mexican and British scientists, backed by the Natural Environment Research Council, has also attempted to take out DNA from the bones. Dr. Gonzales declined yesterday to say exactly what the results were, as they need to be checked, but indicated that they were consistent with an Australian origin. | high7483.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "L-theanine"
},
"options": [
"L-theanine",
"Gamma delta T cells",
"interferon",
"bacteria"
],
"question": "We may know from the text that _ can be found in different kinds of tea.",
"question_type": "cloz... | American researchers say drinking tea may help strengthen the body's defense system against infection. Doctors at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, did the study. The team studied a chemical found in black, green, oolong and pekoe tea. This chemical is an amino acid called L-theanine. The scientists say it may increase the strength of gamma delta T cells. That's the letter T, not the drink. Gamma delta T cells are part of the body's defense.
First, the researchers mixed some of these cells with antigens found in the amino acid . Antigens help the body react to infection. Then the scientists added some bacteria. Within twenty-four hours, the cells produced a lot of interferon, a substance that fights infection. Cells not mixed with the antigens did not produce interferon.
In the second part of the study, eleven people drank five to six cups of black tea every day. Ten other people drank the same amount of instant coffee. That is dried coffee mixed with hot water.
Two weeks later, and again two weeks after that, the researchers tested the blood of all twenty-one people. They also looked at what happened when they added bacteria to the blood cells. They found that the tea drinkers produced five times more interferon after they started drinking tea. The coffee drinkers did not produce interferon.
Doctor Jack Bukowski led the study. He says the antigens added to the gamma delta T cells were responsible for the increased reaction to the bacteria. He says that the study also showed that the cells were able to remember the bacteria and fight them again the next time.
Earlier research already has found that tea can help prevent heart disease and cancer. Doctor Bukowski says the new study must be repeated by more people. "If the findings prove to be true," he says, "then tea drinking might also help protect against bacterial infections." He says the amino acid L-theanine could be removed from the tea and used as a drug to strengthen the body's defenses. | high5294.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Winter is not always a happy time."
},
"options": [
"\"Winter Wonderland\" is a song written by two brothers.",
"Most people feel very sad in winter.",
"\"California Dreaming\" is the most famous song about winter.",
"W... | Snow can be very beautiful. When snow covers everything around you , the world looks like a "Winter Wonderland". That is the name of a very popular song about winter. Richard Smith and Felix Bernard wrote the song in 1934.
But winter is not always such a beautiful and happy time. It is cold outside.The wind blows and makes it even colder. The days are shorter and darker. The sun rarely shines. The leaves on the trees are brown or have fallen to the ground. The flowers are mostly gone. It is not surprising that some people are sad in winter. And some people dream about being somewhere else where it is warm and pretty----like the state of California. The Mamas and the Papas recorded their famous song, "California Dreaming" in 1965.
During the 1960s, many other famous rock groups sang songs about winter. Here is a song by Simon and Garfunkel called "A Hazy Shade of Winter". They sing about life and hope.
In 1968, the group Blood, Sweat and Tears recorded this gentle, sad song about winter. They sing about a lost love and forgotten memories in "Sometimes in Winter".
Gordon Lightfoot wrote and recorded another sad and lovely song about winter in 1975.Sarah McLachlan recorded "Song for a Winter's Night" for an album in 2006.She sings about reading a love letter and wishing the writer were with her.
Finally, on a lovely note, we leave you this sad song by Wayne. | high20194.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The order of birth can have an effect on IQ"
},
"options": [
"IQ scores have little to do with the order of birth.",
"Intellectual families favor the first-born",
"The order of birth can have an effect on IQ",
"The orde... | Does your older brother think he's cleverer than you ? Well, he's probably right. According to a new research published in the journal Intelligence, the oldest children in families are likely to have the highest IQs and the youngest the lowest.
A number of studies have suggested that IQ scores decline with birth order. In the most recent study, at Vrije University, Amsterdam, researchers looked at men and women whose IQ had been tested at the ages of 5,12 ,and 18.
The results , which show a trend for the oldest to score better than the youngest in each test, involved about 200,000 people. That showed that first-borns had a three-point IQ advantage over the second-born, who was a point ahead of the next in line.
The order of birth can also affect personality, achievement, and career, with first-borns being more academically successful and more likely to win Nobel prizes. However, eldest children are less likely to be radical and pioneering. Charles Darwin, for example, was the fifth child of six.
Exactly why there should be such differences is not clear, and there are a number of theories on environmental influences on the child.
The so-called dilution theory suggests that as family resources, both emotional and physical, as well as economic, are limited, it follows that, as a result , as more children come along, the levels of parental attention and encouragement will drop. Another theory is that the intellectual environment in the family favors the first-born who has, at least for some time, the benefit of individual care and help.
The theory which enjoys the most support is that the extra time and patience that the earlier-borns get from their parents, compared with those arriving later, gives them an advantage. | high17738.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "just as important as a knowledge of woodcraft"
},
"options": [
"more important than a knowledge of woodcraft",
"less important than a knowledge of woodcraft",
"just as important as a knowledge of woodcraft",
"not as imp... | Jungle country is not friendly to man,but it is possible to survive there. You must have the right equipment and you must know a few important things about woodcraft . Then your chances of staying alive are very good.
No one should go into the jungle without the right equipment. You need lightweight clothing, a good knife, and a compass. Fishhooks and a line,a rifle,matches in a waterproof container and a poncho are necessary too. So is a mosquito net to protect the head.
In the jungle you can get hopelessly lost within five minutes after leaving known landmark . That is why you should always carry a compass. In open country during the day, you can tell which way to go by studying the sun. At night the stars are sure guides to direction. But in most places the jungle rooftop is so thick that it is impossible to see the sun or the stars. Again and again you must check your position by the compass.
Keep alert . Watch the ground in front of you carefully. Stop and listen now and again. Avoid haste , and rest often. In a place that is hot and humid , the person who sets a fast pace will soon become tired. A steady and even pace is wisest in the long run.
If you lose your way, don't panic. Try to decide how long it has been since you were sure of your position. Mark the spot where you are with blazes on a tree. Put them on four sides of the tree, so that you will be able to see them from any direction. Then you can beginretracing your steps(going back exactly the way you have come), knowing that you can always find the spot from which you started. Except in an emergency, never try to travel the jungle at night.
Whenever possible, _ that are going in your general direction. This may cause you many extra miles of travel. But in the end it will save time and energy. Nothing is moreexhausting(extremely tiring) thanhacking(cutting) a way through unbroken jungle.
Surviving in the jungle is a science. The jungle people have become perfect in this science, and you can too. Learn as much as you can about what to expect in the jungle. Make sure you have the right equipment. Then no part of the jungle will seem completely or frightening. In fact, you will be able to "live off" it for a long time. | high2510.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "be prepared to work full-time"
},
"options": [
"be prepared to work full-time",
"have plenty of teaching experience",
"be allowed by the law to live in the US",
"be able to write workbooks independently"
],
"que... | Teachers Wanted for Nexus English Language Learning Centre
Posted By: Nexus English Language Learning Centre (nexus.english.dos@gmail.com)
A fantastic opportunity has arisen for starting teachers that have just finished their qualification to work and to get professional experience. The position will suit enthusiastic and hardworking career-minded people who want to show how good they are or can become.
Of course, you need to have excellent subject knowledge. And you must be prepared to do front and back end work including developing guidebooks and co-writing workbooks. High rewards await top performers who also want to be leaders. You will also need to be a team player and a skilled organizer.
Application Requirements
* You must have the legal right to work in the UK.
* You must hold a UK recognized teaching qualification.
The Benefits
Nexus English Language Learning Centre (NELLC) offers competitive rates of pay, additional bonuses , a chance to work in top London schools, and continuous professional development. We pride ourselves on our personal service and support. If you work hard with a strong teaching skill including a high self-motivation, then we certainly want you.
* Location: Talbot Avenue, Leeds LS17 6SF
* Salary : PS110 -- PS150 per day
* Hours: Full Time
* Telephone: 0113 3368585
* Published: 8, February 2014
* Closing Date: 5, April 2014
Due to the large number of applications, it is not always possible to respond to each candidate. If you are interested in this position, send us a personalized cover letter and tell us more about yourself right now. | high10057.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Obesity has become a big killer in India."
},
"options": [
"Obesity has become a big killer in India.",
"Heart disease is troubling people in India.",
"People in India live a very unhealthy life.",
"Malnutrition remains... | Malnutrition remains a serious problem for India. But a new study shows that India's leading causes of death now also include diseases related to obesity such as heart disease.
India's National Family Health Survey shows that more than twenty percent of Indians living in cities are overweight or obese. And in the northwestern state of Punjab, that is true for almost forty percent of women.
Aradhna Tripathi is a business professional in New Delhi. She said, " Eating is the most important thing in any Indian household and how you show your love and gratitude for a person is through the kind of food you serve him. And the kind of lifestyle we are leading is one of the reasons why we have the number of obese people increasing every day.
But Aradhna Tripathi says she has decided to lose weight. Her mother and grandmother are also diabetic . In fact, the International Diabetes Federation says India is now the diabetes capital of the world. Researchers say Indians store more body fat per kilogram than Europeans. That means obese Indians are even more at the risk of diabetes than other people.
Doctor Anoop Misra at Fortis Hospital in New Delhi says the risk of diabetes is crossing social and economic lines. _
But Doctor Misra is hopeful that the spread (,)of obesity can be slowed. And he says it must start in schools by giving all Indian children the same instruction on physical activity and diet.
The World Health Organization says China is also moving up in obesity rates. The estimate has reached about five percent countryside and as high as twenty percent in some cities. | high11349.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Three"
},
"options": [
"Two",
"Three",
"Four",
"Five"
],
"question": "How many reasons for the rise of selfie culture are mentioned in the passage?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
"ans... | MANY of us enjoy doing it: you turn on the camera on your mobile phone and hold it at a high angle , making your eyes look bigger and your cheekbones more marked out. You turn to your best side and click.
There it is - your selfie.
Over the past year, "selfie" has become a well-known term across the globe. This August the Oxford dictionary added the word to their online dictionary and defined it as: "A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website."
Today it's not difficult to find social networking pages full of photos people have taken of themselves and their friends. And selfie culture has become especially related to young people. As many as 91 percent of teenagers have posted photos of themselves online, according to a recent survey by the US Pew Research Center.
So what are the reasons for the rise of selfie culture?
"The cult of the selfie celebrates regular people," Pamela Rutledge, a professor at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, told Vogue magazine. "There are many more photographs available now of real people than models."
Posting selfies also allows you to control your image online. "I like having the power to choose how I look, even if I'm making a funny face," Samantha Barks, 19, a high school student in the US, told Vogue.
In addition to self-expression and documentation , selfies "allow for an close friendship for long-distance friends, because you can see each other's faces every day", wrote Casey Miller at The Huffington Post.
But US psychologist Jill Weber is concerned that selfies might lead to social problems. "There's a danger that your self-esteem may start to be tied to the comments and 'likes' you get when you post a selfie, and they aren't based on who you are - they're based on what you look like," Weber told Vogue. "When you get nothing or a negative response, your confidence can
" | high16426.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "persist@4Ever"
},
"options": [
"never2&late",
"1u#Life",
"HEALTHY*keeping",
"persist@4Ever"
],
"question": "According to the author's company, which code is suitable?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"an... | I was having a great morning until I sat down in front of my office computer. "Your password has run out," a server message flashed on my screen, with instructions for changing it. Coming up with a new code doesn't seem like a big deal unless you work at my company, where we have to change it monthly, using at least one uppercase character, one lowercase character, one symbol, and one number. Oh, and the whole thing can't be fewer than eight characters. And I can't use any of the same passwords I've used in the past three months.
Suddenly I was cross. What didn't make it any better was that I was deeply depressed after my recent divorce. The flashing cursor was still waiting for me to type a password that I'd have to re-enter many times for the next 30 days. I remembered a tip from my former boss: I'm going to use a password to change my life.
I decided to choose a password, which would remind me that I shouldn't let myself be a victim of my recent breakup and that I was strong enough to do something about it. I made my password Forgive@h3r.
I had to type this statement several times a day. Each time my computer would lock. Each time my screen saver with her photo would appear. Each time I would come back from eating lunch alone. In my mind, I wrote "forgive her" every day.
The simple action changed the way I looked at my ex-wife. That constant reminder led me to accept the way things had happened at the end of my marriage and adopt a new way of dealing with my depression. As the month wore on, I felt slow healing began to take place. By the time my server reminded me to reset my password the following month, I felt free. | high19715.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "They can smell all kinds of explosive materials."
},
"options": [
"They have a good sense of smell.",
"They are too light to set off buried landmines.",
"They can smell all kinds of explosive materials.",
"They cost peo... | The rat is named Lola and she's at the top of her class of risk-running animals being trained to smell out landmines in Colombia, home to the world's highest number of mine-related deaths and injuries last year. Of the victims, many are children who died in _ while walking to school or playing in the countryside.
The smartest rat among the first six that the government is teaching to locate landmines equipment planted by rebels has a 90 percent success rate in locating landmines material in her lab training.
Police animal trainers, tired of seeing their landmines-smelling dogs blown up by stepping on mines, hope the white-furred, pink-eyed creature will lead her classmates through coming open field tests and then into the country mine fields before the end of the year. It takes about 400 grams of pressure to detonate a mine while Lola only weighs about 220 grams. "The dogs can easily set off the landmines, sometimes killing people nearby," they said.
Police animal trainer Jose Pineda says that rats have more sensitive noses than dogs, which should allow them to better smell out mines in difficult terrain .
Plus, it takes the police about six months to train mine-smelling dogs. Training the rats is expected to take about half that time once the program is established.
Trainers think that they are much smarter than the dogs. The second-best scorer in the laboratory is Lucrecia, with an 83 percent success rate. Males, such as one named Runcho, have fallen behind until now but may do better in the coming field tests. Pineda said that the next step of training will present new challenges to the rats as they are sure to meet distractions in the open. | high4161.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Providing rooms for the noble when they traveled."
},
"options": [
"Providing rooms for the noble when they traveled.",
"Keeping the Japanese traditional style of life.",
"Making people feel elegant in the ryokan.",
"At... | Heading back to the room for dinner and a hot shower may sound like the act of a tired tourist ,but in a traditional Japanese inn - or ryokan - those activities can be as interesting as anything along the sightseeing trail."People going looking for a sort of nostalgic ,old-fashioned ,and traditional view of Japanese life will find it most easily in a ryokan,"said Peter Grilli, the president of Japan Society of Boston, Massachusetts.
Many ryokans sprang up in the 17th century to put up feudal lords traveling along the Tokaido highway to Edo(now Tokyo). Today tourists looking for a taste of the country's historic lifestyle find varying levels of understated elegance in ryokans throughout the country.
A typical stay starts with a greeting from the inn's staff and a change from street shoes into slippers .An attendant leads guests to their rooms, where slippers are removed before walking on the rice-straw flooring, called tatami. Walking slowly along behind a kimonoclad attendant on the creaky wood floors of Fukuzumiro ryokan,s hallways is like stepping back in time. The inn was established in 1890 by a former samurai .
Tim Paterson ,33, a banker living in Tokyo, has stayed at several ryokans. This New Zealand native leaves after a recent stay at Fukuzumiro. "I think it's quite good mixing culture with history and not just going to see it ,but living in it, staying in it,"he said. Sliding glass doors line the inn's rural hallways, bringing in the sound of tricking water and the quietness of the stone and tree-filled courtyards outside. | high7468.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Their ambiguity brings great trouble to our life."
},
"options": [
"They share the same spellings regardless of meanings.",
"We can't know their meanings without context.",
"We may still feel confused even with context.",
... | Homonym: a word that has the same spelling and the same pronunciation as another world, but a different meaning
Same spelling, different meaning
Imagine, then a situation where two words are spelt and pronounced exactly the same way, but have completely different meanings.Welcome to the world of homonyms.Take, for example, the word 'fail' --- it can be a kind of festival, and adjective to describe the color of your hair or how you should play a game.
Don't take it literally
So how do you know which meaning someone is referring to? --- You don't, except by the context.Obviously, if someone asks you to 'give them a hand', they don't want you to remove what is at the end of your arm.
What's in a name?
Sometimes even the context doesn't help much --- the result can be amusing.These sentences play with the double meaning of a noun:
I used to be a banker, but I lost interest.
Have you heard about the cross-eyed teacher who couldn't control his pupils?
A small boy swallowed some coins and had to go to hospital.When his grandmother phoned to ask how he was, the nurse said: 'No change yet'.
More ambiguity
And these examples play with the different meanings of a verb:
I wondered why the ball was getting bigger.Then it hit me.
No one knew she had a dental implant until it came out in a conversation.
A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.
Double trouble
And sometimes a word can be a noun and a verb, but have different meanings.Can you work this one out?
Time flies like an arrow.Fruit flies like a banana.
If you like these homonyms, you will be pleased to know that English has plenty more!
Explanations of jokes in the text
I used to be banker, but I lost interest.(I became bored with the job / I lost money)
Have you heard about the cross-eyed teacher who couldn't control his pupils? (students / parts of his eyes)
A small boy swallowed some coins and had to go to hospital.When his grandmother phoned to ask how he was, the nurse said: 'No change yet'.(no difference in the situation / no money)
I wondered why the ball was getting bigger.Then it hit me.(the ball hit me / I suddenly realized)
No one knew she had a dental implant until it came out in a conversation.(became known / fell out)
A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.(can't be better / difficult to mix with a fork)
Time flies like an arrow.(time goes quickly) Fruit flies like a banana.(insects enjoy eating fruit.) | high12640.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Bus drivers."
},
"options": [
"Painters.",
"Musicians.",
"Poets.",
"Bus drivers."
],
"question": "According to Dr. Adele Juda, which of the following group has the lowest rate of mental illness?",
"question_... | It seems that great artists and scientists often suffer from mental problems. Both Einstein and Dickens had mental illness. Now scientists have started to look at whether mental illness and genius are linked .
Dr. Adele Juda studied 5,000 creative people in Germany. She found there were more people with mental illness in this group than in the general population. Poets had the highest rate of mental illness, followed by musicians, with lower numbers for painters and architects.
Other scientists did research which also showed a strong link between mental problems and creativity. But, it did nothing to explain it.
Dr. Ruth Richards of Harvard University _ . Instead of studying creative people, she took a group of psychiatric patients and tested them for creativity. The patients got much higher scores than a normal group.
Also, the patients' close relatives were much more creative than the patients and a normal group. This suggests that the key to the link between creativity and mental illness is in our genes .
But this is a problem. According to Darwinism, harmful genes should be removed. Some scientists believe that evolution has created a balance, where the madness of a few people leads to the development of the whole human race.
Geniuses may be mad, bad or just difficult to understand, but their discoveries have improved the world we live in. It seems that a little creative madness is good for us all. | high8983.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "humorous"
},
"options": [
"cruel",
"humorous",
"disapproving",
"critical"
],
"question": "The tone for the writer to write the passage is _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
}
] | A survey said the average Asian dad spent one minute a day with his children.I was shocked. I mean, a whole minute? Every day? Get real. Once a week maybe. The fact is, many Asian males are terrible at kid--related things. In fact, I am one of them.
Child--rearing doesn't come naturally to guys. My mother knew the names of our teachers, best friends and crushes. My dad was only vaguely aware there were short people sharing the apartment. My mother bought healthy fresh food at the market every day. My dad would only go shopping when there was nothing in the fridge except a jar of capers and a bay leaf.Then he' d buy beer. My mother always knew the right questions to ask our teachers. My dad would ask my English teacher if she could get us a discount on school fees.My mother served kid food to kids. My dad added chili sauce to everything, including our baby food.
The truth is, mothers have superpowers. My son fell off a wall once and hurt himself all over. I demanded someone bring me a computer so I could google what to do. My wife ignored me and did some sort of chanting phrase such as "Mummy kiss it better," and cured l7 separate injuries in less than 15 seconds.
Yes, mothers are incredible people, but they are not always right. Yet honesty forces me to record the fact that mothers only know best 99.99 percent of the time.Here are some famous _
The mother of Bill Gates: " If you' re going to drop out of college and hang out with your nerdy friends, don' t come running to me when you find yourself penniless." The mother of Albert Einstein: "When you grow up, you' ll find that sitting around thinking about the nature of time and space won' t pay the grocery bills." The mother of George W.Bush: "You'll never be like your dad, who became President of the United States and started his own war." | high12898.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Over 20 years"
},
"options": [
"20 years",
"11 years",
"Over 30 years",
"Over 20 years"
],
"question": "How long has the man been drinking?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | I work in a busy Emergency Room( E. R. ) . This weekend, I had a patient who was very nervousand paranoid.
After looking at his chart, I saw that he was seeking treatment for alcoholism. There is an immediate prejudice against substance abuse in my E. R. One -we do not have a detox facility.The people seeking treatment for addiction are sometimes looked down on as being less worthy of treatment than other serious physical " ailments" .
At first glance, I found out that the man was now somewhere in his mid-thirties, was very weak and had a generally aggressive character. He could not sit still and had a cough. He had not had a drink in four days. His hands were shaking and there was a scared look in his eyes.
He told me that he began drinking about age 11 when his mother supplied him with it. He had tried to quit many times before but had not been able to." So . what's different this time ?"I asked.
"Because I'm starting to be mean to the people I love, but now I don't want to be. I ca:n see that I'm changing into something else. "
That answer helped change my attitude toward him. I could see the pain behind his eyes. Behind the appearance, there was a terrified person whose goodness was being claimed by the alcohol. He was desperate for help, but not so sure that his condition could be changed.
I, thank this man for showing me that the goodness is dressed in all sorts of disguises . Sometimes we have to undress it. It's worth doing. My patient was admitted to the hospital for help ,despite us not having a detox facility. | high6776.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "wanted to do something for the people there"
},
"options": [
"felt it was the most terrible experience of her life",
"wanted to do something for the people there",
"was afraid that a tornado would strike her home",
"was... | When a tornado hit the small town of Otwell, Indiana years ago, Kathryn Martin, 32, who lived 60 miles away in Evansville, couldn't get the news out of her mind. "I kept thinking, 'Those poor people. Somebody's got to help them,'" she says. She knew firsthand what they were going through.
Six months earlier, a tornado had struck her town, taking the lives of her 2-year-old son, C.J. and her mother-in-law. "It was the most terrible experience of my life," she says. "That _ will never go away, and it broke my heart to think about what these families were going through in Otwell."
So Kathryn loaded her car with juice boxes, snacks and toys and drove to Otwell. She gave the items to the Red Cross, and as she was leaving, she saw a couple sorting through the ruins of their home while their children were watching. So Kathryn stopped and gave a few toys to the kids and played with them for a while. "The parents couldn't thank me enough for what I did for their children," she says.
On the drive back to Evansville, Kathryn came up with an idea to help more kids. She talked her family, friends and neighbors into joining her and spent the next few months organizing fundraisers. Finally, in August 2007, she showed C.J.'s Bus, a 35-foot school bus that was turned into a mobile playroom.
In the following years, stocked with video games and DVDs, toys, crafts, books and more, the bus traveled to disaster-torn towns, giving the children there a safe place to play. So far, C.J.'s bus has traveled to three states affected by tornadoes or floods, cheering up more than 756 children, aged 3-13. | high9445.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The counselors at Summer Camps all have rich experience."
},
"options": [
"The camps are free for little children.",
"There are mainly three activities at Full-day Camp.",
"Specialty camps are only open to young athletes.",
... | About us
Summer Camps offer many programs that develop athletic skills, teamwork and healthy habits to kids. We create a safe and noncompetitive environment for learning and making friends. Our counselors are required to complete much training. Directors and head counselors are certified in CPR and First Aid and so on.
Full-day Camp (ages 6-13)
A typical camp starts with soccer, kickball, basketball or field games. After lunch, the kids do three activities. Depending on location, there are swimming, science and nature, arts and crafts, rope courses.
Li'1 Rascals Day Camp (ages 3-5)
Preschoolers get all the fun of full-day camp in half the time. Activities include arts and crafts, sports, games and relays. Each week has different themes. All participants must be able to be taught to use a patty .
Specialty camps (ages 14-16)
These specialty camps build many athletes. Our experienced staff will help your child be excellent in his or her favorite sport.
*Tennis *Basketball *Soccer *Dance *Cheerleading
Fee: $120
Contact Information
Call: 068-990-3224; E-mail: summercampsforkids@hotmail.com or Write to: 125 Seventh
Avenue South New York, NY 10014
What the parents from last year say about the camps:
"All the activities were perfect. My son definitely wants to return next year and I will recommend the camp to others." --Kate
"I think this is one of the best camps that my children have attended. The counselors and directors are enthusiastic and friendly. The programs are excellent and it is the only camp that they ask to go back to." --Jack
"My children had an excellent time at your camp. I was very impressed by both your friendly, helpful counselors and directors and the excellent way that the entire camp was organized and run. I will consider next year! Many thanks." --Mary | high14231.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "To inform us that phone apps can help stop counterfeiters' trade."
},
"options": [
"To tell us that Information Technology is developing fast.",
"To persuade us to resist counterfeit goods.",
"To advise us to use phone apps w... | Counterfeit goods, or false versions of products, may cost the government of Kenya as much as $1 billion each year. The fake goods also hurt business owners who find it hard to keep customers. But information technology is being used to try to stop the problem. Jemima Mwafigu is a 34-year-old businesswoman who sells products like perfume. But in the first year of running her business, she found it hard to keep customers because of counterfeit goods.
Ms. Mwafigu says her business has improved since she began using a smart phone application called Barcode Scanner. The app is used to authenticate products. It checks to make sure the products are not counterfeit.
"With this application I'm able to scan the bar codes of each perfume and instantly I get the production date, the _ and I'm able to know the safety," she says. "That way, I have confidence in selling to my customers."
In 2010, Kenya created the Anti-Counterfeit Agency, or ACA, to fight against illegal trade. The ACA has successfully asked government officials for stronger punishments for counterfeiters.
Agnes Karingu is the agency's acting director for research and awareness. She says the ACA is trying to stay one step ahead of those making fake goods.
"We are also looking into IT solutions where we can be able to use SMS programs, bar codes and information sharing," she says. "The end users of the products will actually be able to get the authentication information, and this information comes back to ACA and intellectual property rights holders."
The agency is testing another program called Allvirtuous. The application is another way to find out if a product is real or not by scanning its barcode. The barcode information is sent to a database. Then a result is sent back to the app.
The International Chamber of Commerce is a global business organization. It says the value of counterfeit goods produced around the world is expected to be more than $1.7 trillion this year. | high14557.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "It is making much of the continent colder."
},
"options": [
"It is causing the ice to melt faster.",
"It is making much of the continent colder.",
"It is making the e",
"It is reducing the amount of water in Antarctic."... | The hole in the Earth's ozone layer has until now protected Antarctic from the worst effects of global warming, but scientists have warned that as the hole closes up in the next few decades, temperatures on the continent could rise by around 3degC on average, with melting ice contributing to a global sea level increase of up to 1.4 meters.
In the past decades the western Antarctic has seen rapid ice loss as the world has warmed, but the other parts of the continent have,
, been cooling, resulting in a 10% increase in ice in the seas around the region. This is because the hole in the ozone layer has increased cold winds in Antarctic, making much of the continent surface colder than usual.
But now that the gases that cause the ozone hole have been banned, scientists expect the hole to repair itself within the next 50 to 60 years. By then the cooling effect will have faded out and the Antarctic will face the full impact of global warming. This means an increase in average air temperatures of around 3degC and a reduction in sea ice by around a third.
The biggest threat to the continent comes from warming seas. Robert Johnson, a scientist who monitors Antarctic ice sheets, said, "The ice sheets in Antarctic are hundreds of meters thick. But once warm ocean waters start flowing underneath, the ice will begin thinning and could break up very quickly." Thinning ice sheets cause ice to break away from the continent and to melt even faster. Escaping ice from western Antarctic has already resulted in a 10% rise in global sea level in recent decades.
Johnson believes that international action to reduce global warming is required immediately or it may be too late. "Everything is connected----Antarctic may be a long way away but it is an important part of the Earth's system," said Johnson. "It contains 90% of the world's ice, 70% of the world's fresh water and that is enough, if it melts completely, to raise sea levels by 63 meters."
Even in a worse-case situation scientists don't expect the ice to entirely disappear, but predict that, because of the melting ice sheets, average sea level rise will be around 1.4 meters higher by the end of the century. | high15891.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "they have a sharp blade to cut leaves"
},
"options": [
"they can teansport the leaves effectively",
"they have a sharp blade to cut leaves",
"other members are busy with other work",
"they can finish the job in a better... | Ants have a reputation for strength,organization and teamwork.But researchers have now discovered that a key secret to the success of ants is their ability to identify the importance of age in the work place.
A study of Gentral American leaf-cutter ants has shown that the younger and stronger members are give the toughest job of cutting therough the leaves they harvest.Their sharp youn teeth do this job effectively,but as they get older their teeth become relatively worn and _ .
But rather than being retired or abandoned by the group,the ageing ants are given a new role more suyted to their physical abilities.They become carriers and teansport the leaves back to the kingdom where they are harvested for food.
The findings by researchers from the University of Oregon and the Oregong State University support previous research showin the survival of a leaf-cutter kingdom depends on the efficiency of is workers.
"Cuting leaves is hard work,"said Dr.Robert Schofield,who led the research team."Much of the cutting is done with a V-shaped blade between teeth on their jaws.This blade starts out as sharp as the sharpest razor blade that humans have developed."But over rime the teeth become blunter and the cutting job slows down.The team estimated that,because of this age-related wear,a colony spent twice the energy cutting leaves than it would if all the ants had sharp blades.Its findings support the idea that wear and break can be significant problems for insects as well as largre animals.
Like humans,leaf-cuttre ant recognize that older members of the group can still make a worhwhile contribution to society."This study shows an advantage of social living that we are familiar with,"said Dr.Schofield. | high12126.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "how language was reflected"
},
"options": [
"how language was reflected",
"whether they could express the same idea",
"whether they could describe what they had seen",
"how the structure of language changed"
],
... | Speakers of different languages not only describe the world differently but think about it differently too, according to a new study.
Researchers used a cartoon cat Sylvester to study how language was reflected in the gestures people made. Dr. Sotaro Kita of the University of Bristol's Department of Experimental Psychology , showed the cartoon to a group of native English, Japanese and Turkish speakers and then watched their gestures as they described the actions they had seen. He found speakers of the three different languages used different gestures to describe the same event, which appeared to reflect the way the structure of their languages expressed that event. For example, when describing a scene where the cat swings on a rope, the English speakers used gestures showing an arc trajectory and the Japanese and Turkish speakers tended to use straight gestures showing the motion but not the arc.
Dr. Kita suggests this is because Japanese and Turkish have no proper verb to express the English meaning "to swing". While English speakers use the arc gesture as their language can readily express the change of location and the arc-shaped trajectory, Japanese and Turkish speakers cannot as easily express the idea of movement with an arc trajectory so they use the straight gesture.
Dr. Kita said, "My research suggests that speakers of different languages cause different spatial images of the same event in a way that matches the expressive possibilities of their own languages. In other words, language influences spatial thinking at the moment of speaking." | high16340.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "the smokers may become very annoyed at once"
},
"options": [
"the smokers will accept your advice willingly",
"the smokers may become very annoyed at once",
"the smokers will take your words into account",
"the smokers ... | You can't escape the message that smoking is bad for you. But what if one or both of your parents smoke? You might be worried about their health, sick of smelling the smoke, or even a little embarrassed by it. You can't order your mom or dad to stop smoking, but you can encourage them to quit. There are lots of good reasons. Here are some you can mention:
*Smoking will hurt their health.
*Smoking creates secondhand smoke, which you don't like.
*Smoking will make it hard for them to keep up with you because they might run out of breath easily.
If you think it will help, you could print out articles like this one to give it to your mom or dad. But what if your parent gets angry with you for bringing up the topic of smoking? People don't like to be reminded that they are doing something unhealthy, so it's possible that your parents will be insulted or angry, especially if they're worried they won't be able to quit. Maybe they have tried before and failed.
Remember to be kind and respectful when you discuss smoking with your mom or dad. Also remember that it is difficult to quit. Some people try several times before they're able to quit for good. Instead of yelling at them, tell them that you love them and want them to enjoy many healthy years ahead. In time, your mom or dad may realize you are right about smoking .And if they do agree to stop smoking, be their biggest supporter. Ask if there's anything you can do to help them when they feel the urge to smoke .Maybe you could go for a walk, do a puzzle, or listen to music together. As they reach milestones, such as a month without smoking, be sure to celebrate the achievement. Way to go, mom! Way to go, dad! | high19073.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "spend more money than they have"
},
"options": [
"spend more money than they have",
"spend less money than other people",
"save money",
"make money"
],
"question": "The hotheaded are people who _ .",
"que... | Although credit cards are becoming a more acceptable part of the financial scene, they are still regarded with doubts by many as being a major part of the "live now pay later" syndrome .Along with hire-purchase, rental and leasing schemes , they provide encouragement to spend more money.Of course, it is only the hotheaded who give way to the temptation to live, temporarily at least, beyond their means, and such people would no doubt manage to do so even without credit cards.
Advertising campaigns have, however, promoted a growing realization of the advantages of these small pieces of plastic. They prevent need to carry large amounts of cash and are always useful in emergencies.
All the credit card organizations charge interest on a monthly basis which may work out as high as 25 per cent a year, yet sensible purchasing using a card can mean that you obtain up to seven weeks, interest-free credit.Using the card abroad, where items frequently take a long time to be included on your account, can extend this period even further.
It is worthwhile shopping around before deciding on a particular credit card. It is necessary to consider the amount of credit granted; interest rates, which may vary slightly; the number and range of outlets , though most cards cover major garages, hotels, restaurants and department stores; and of course, what happens if your card is lost or stolen.A credit card thief may be sitting on a potential goldmine particularly if there is a delay in reporting the loss of the card.
However, if used wisely, a credit card can cost nothing, or at least help to _ financial difficulty. | high2276.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "dysbiosis of gut microbiota"
},
"options": [
"dietary modulation of gut microbiota",
"beneficial gut bacteria",
"an improved gut microbiota",
"dysbiosis of gut microbiota"
],
"question": "Which of the following ... | BEIJING - A research team led by Chinese scientists have discovered dietary modulation of gut microbiota can alleviate both genetic and simple obesity in children.
The findings of the team, led by Zhao Liping with Shanghai Jiaotong University, Yin Aihua with the Guangdong province children's hospital, and Tang Huiru with Chinese Academy of Sciences, have been published on EBioMedicine, a renowned medical journal co-sponsored by Cell and The Lancet in July.
The team identified bacterial genomes specifically for producing obesity-related metabolites , and said an improved gut microbiota can significantly help to treat genetic obesity such as Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS).
Beginning in childhood, PWS affected kids develop an insatiable appetite, leading to chronic overeating and obesity.
The scientists used a diet therapy with beneficial gut bacteria on trial patients and found considerable _ appetite, weight loss and improved health conditions on the patients.
The paper concluded dysbiosis of gut microbiota is highly related with both genetic and simple obesity in children, implicating dietary modulation of gut microbiota a potentially effective treatment method. | high10731.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "During most typhoons people can keep safe just by staying at home."
},
"options": [
"They mostly happen early in the morning.",
"They mostly do damage during winter.",
"During most typhoons people can keep safe just by stayin... | IF you lived by the sea, you'd know that typhoons are frequent visitors during summer .They bring Strong winds, heavy rain and flooding But most of the time, when people stay indoors, they're just all right.
This is what the people in the Philippines used to believe - until they met the "super typhoon", Haiyan.
The typhoon hit the country on Nov 8, at around 5 am, when most people were still asleep. But being at home didn't keep them safe, since few buildings remained standing once they were hit by wind as violent as 376 kilometers per hour, according to NBC News.
"This is at the top end of any tropical system that we've seen on our planet," said Bryan Norcross, a weather scientist working for NBC. And so far, Haiyan has caused more than 3,600 deaths and left millions of people homeless.
.But where did Haiyan get its destructive power?
According to Brian McNoldy, a tropical weather expert at the University of Miami, US, Haiyan was so strong because "it had everything working for it"
"All typhoons feed off the warm ocean waters," Colin Price, a weather researcher at Tel Aviv University in Israel, told National Geographic. Tropical storms are like giant engines ,powered by the heat transferred from the ocean waters to the air above. However, because of climate change, the oceans have been warming up in recent decades. "Warmer oceans will result in more intense storms," Price said.
Also, Haiyan started near the equator ,where it was able to pick up more heat before heading to the Philippines. Moreover, the route it traveled was mostly along open ocean, which means no land prevented it from gathering steam .
In addition, there happened to be very little "wind shear in the area this time. Wind shear is a sudden change in wind speed or direction, which can tear apart developing storms. This is like when you stir a glass of water with a chopstick: a swirl will form, 'but if you move the chopstick in the opposite direction, the swirl will quickly disappear."
"When all those things _ in a certain way, you're going to get something like'Haiyan'."Jim Kossin, a scientist with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told National Geographic. | high5519.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "More and more foreign capital will be brought in"
},
"options": [
"Chinese capital will be attracted by foreign countries",
"Foreigners will be likely to acquire more opportunities to attract Chinese capital",
"More investmen... | Foreigners are likely to acquire more investment opportunities in China since the central government has passed a fresh regulation on Tuesday to attract foreign capital .
The regulation, which will take effect on April 1, outlines how prefix = st1 /Chinawill expand cooperation with foreign investors. Compared with the old foreign investment guideline, the government has given foreigners more investment opportunities. And the government also encourages foreigners to take part in the key state owned enterprises reform .
According to the regulation, overseas investors are expected to become shareholders in the key state owned enterprises. Overseas investors will even be allowed to hold the controlling stake in the large state owned enterprises, except for those of key importance to national or economic security.
"China's WTO membership has reduced the risks and costs for foreign investors, and more capital and advanced techniques and expert knowledge or skill are expected to flow in," an official said.
In particular, the new regulation appeals ( makes an earnest request ) for capital for agricultural technology, transportation, energy and new material industry. The service industry, including banking, telecommunication, insurance, and tourism, will gradually become another focal point of cooperation.
The country hopes foreign investors start businesses in the western regions, where they will enjoy more favorable taxation policies for the next 10 years. | high19067.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "To hire language teachers to work in Japan"
},
"options": [
"To introduce a language school in Japan.",
"To hire language teachers to work in Japan",
"To describe working conditions in Japan.",
"To make clear the requir... | Tired of Working in Your Country ?
With over 500 instructors and 20 years of experience , we are the leader in the field of teaching foreign language . We now have positions open in Osaka for instructors of English ,German ,Spanish and French .
Teach many different kinds of classes using the latest technology in small classes of up 3 students
Accommodation and other necessary document will be ready before you leave.
Excellent teacher training programs. If you are young with a university degree and are willing to experience different culture , apply now . Experience in teaching is an advantage but not specially required . Knowledge of the Japanese language is not necessary but good English skills and computer knowledge are basic requirements.
Apply with C.V. and send letters to
NOVA France , Mr, Sampy (IHT 3/2)
34,BD. Haussmannn, 75009 Paris ,France
Fax: 33348034804
Or visit our website :www.teachjp.com
The manager expects to meet and talk successful applicant in Paris in June and July. | high2262.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "emotion"
},
"options": [
"anger",
"emotion",
"sadness",
"regret"
],
"question": "We can clearly feel that the author wrote this passage with deep _",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer"... | The earth is dying before us yet we sit and watch. If the TV or the game system breaks, we run off to the stores to get it fixed immediately no matter what the cost. Why aren't we willing to fix our earth? Are our televisions and game systems more important to us than where we live? Where shall we continue to live, until the end of time?
The earth is our home and cannot be replaced. We must take care of it. We have come up with so much technology that limits us instead of helping us. Take that game system we run to repair. What does it do? It occupies kids' time! The earth has already given kids plenty of entertainment in the forms of fields and hills, forests and plains, water and land. However, instead of using what the earth has given us, and helping kids by giving them exercise as they run around, we decide to ruin kids' minds with game systems that glue them to the screen for hours, and make them ignore their homework and chores. We have polluted this earth by making these things which do not even help in any way!
We have already messed up this world, we have ruined the air, water, and animals that it has so willingly provided for us. We need to stop this destruction of life and bring back the world we had before. It will not be easy, but everybody can help! What about something as simple as turning the lights off when you leave a room? Recycling what can be recycled? Picking up litter? Donating money to an environmental organization? None of these things are very hard. We can't just always say, "Oh, the earth is a mess. Ah, well, those big companies that are polluting so much can stop and fix it." Instead, we need to help out. It's not only those big companies; it's everyday things that we do too that are ruining the earth. So stop and think about what you can do to make a difference to our world! | high10725.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "diagnosed with eventual blindness at the age of 35"
},
"options": [
"haft blind in both eyes when he was born",
"completely deaf in both ears when he was born",
"diagnosed with eventual blindness at the age of 35",
"a s... | I had a successful career as an environmental health manager in London. But my life changed beyond recognition at the age of 35. I was born 50% deaf in both ears. But my world was totally transformed when I was diagnosed with deafness and eventual blindness.
It was my wife Elizabeth who first noticed there was a problem. She moved a pencil past my face and was shocked to discover I couldn't see it unless it was directly in front of me. My eyesight had been failing for years but I simply hadn't noticed. I couldn't imagine how my life could get any worse, but in fact it has improved immeasurably.
Of course, coming to terms with it was hard at first. My first reaction was denial, followed by severe depression. I had built effective coping strategies to deal with my hearing loss; losing my sight, too, just felt too much to handle. You absorb so much information about the world through your eyes, so the idea of that being taken away was terrifying. I spent several days on the sofa, feeling depressed. I felt all my opportunities were reduced.
But I am very positive and didn't wallow for long. I have seen some people react to the news by withdrawing from life, but I chose differently. I got off the sofa and decided to train as a homeopath . Looking back, I think this was a way of working through my problems.
We left London to start a farm in the country, which I combined with starting my own environmental health business. It was just what I needed: clean air, spring water and space. So many wonderful things have happened so far and now, age 50, I feel that I am living a second life. I aim to remain active and engaged with life. I don't think of myself as disabled. Instead, I've learned to live with them. | high18379.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "can talk to the strangers at table"
},
"options": [
"are forbidden to eat with their fingers",
"can talk to the strangers at table",
"will book the menu in a dark bar",
"can take their mobile phones into the dining room... | Dining in a completely dark room, unaware what's on your plate while sitting next to a complete stranger may not sound like an ideal restaurant experience but it's certainly an _ way to spend a rainy night in London.
Dans le Noir, close to London's financial district, is a restaurant full of blind waiters and waitresses who become your eyes around the restaurant, whose original Paris branch opened in 2004.
In the bar with the light, you choose whether you want the fish, meat or vegetable, but the dishes themselves remain a secret, as do the ingredients of the "surprise" cocktails. Bags, coats and devices that light up, including watches and mobile phones, are kept in the bar. Placing your hand on the shoulder of your guide, you are led to a table in a black dining room that sets up to 60 people. And it is dark.
The waiters tell you when the food is being placed down in front of you, then the fun begins, trying to get food into your mouth, then identifying just what it is that's on your plate, and finally whether you have missed any of it.
It's also a great chance to break social convention and eat using your fingers. Those same fingers are also the only way you can tell how much wine you're pouring into your glass.
The happy atmosphere in the dining room also made the night memorable. You can't really avoid talking to the person next to you at the long tables and guessing what the dishes are certainly provides adequate fuel for the conversations.
All will be revealed at the end of the meal when you are led back out into the lit bar. Not only do you finally get to see what you've just been eating but also who you' ve been talking to for the last 90 minutes. | high6004.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "feel as if he was in space"
},
"options": [
"visit there for free",
"become a true astronaut",
"feel as if he was in space",
"do any space experiments he wants"
],
"question": "Anyone who goes to the Euro Space ... | Reach for the stars at the Euro Space Center. Find out everything you need to know about space -- from the origins of the universe to the future space exploration plans. Light, sound and special effects help to bring your space journey to life. Throughout your tour, our specially trained guides will answer your questions and provide you with any information you require.
Begin your tour with our exhibition about the planets, then move on to the Space Laboratory and see some of the experiments carried out in space. Visit our international space station, where you can climb into our full-scale Space Shuttle model and experience life on board as an astronaut.
You will know all about space by now and to help you further, our Space Center astronaut will tell you about how young people train as astronauts in our own training school. Finally, you can watch our amazing Space Show in our IMAX cinema, which will help you understand everything you have learned during your visit better.
Outside we have an outdoor exhibition including a giant solar system, full-size rocket models and outdoor games. Don't worry if it rains -- much of this is under cover.
After that, why not visit our restaurant Resto Space for food and drink on a space theme? And don't forget our Space Shop, offering you a lot of gifts to take home.
The Euro Space Center is open every day during school holidays, and also during other times except Mondays. Opening times are 10:00-5:00. For entrance fees, call our booking service on + 32-61-650133. Or you can email us for up-to-date entry information at info@eurospacecenter.be. | high14543.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Because it addresses the subjects faced by the youth."
},
"options": [
"Because it is a breakthrough in the producing style.",
"Because it is the most influential sitcom of all time.",
"Because it predicts the future of the y... | If a sitcom that lasts for l0 years is considered popular, then surely one that still arouses emotions after 20 must be considered a classic. Friends first aired in the US in 1994, telling about six young men and women in New York.Since then, it's become one of the most famous titles in the sitcom style, aired in over 100 countries and regions in the world.
The show is typical among those who grew up in the 1990s because it explores basic yet important themes like friendship, struggling to survive in a big city, and finding independence and identity, all of which are still relevant to young audiences today.
Against the background of the Internet age, IT staff who were once marginalized and laughed at have been brought back to life due to the popularity of hit show The Big Bang Theory, in which four talents lacking normal social skills make an attempt at living on a college campus.
At the same time, Gossip Girl, describing a young cast of New Yorkers born with silver spoons in their mouths, showing the difficulties upper-class adolescents experience. The play's fashion and mature subject matter allowed it to draw the interest of both teenagers and adults.
Although these typical TV shows cover a wide timeline and a variety of themes, they all have a universal topic. Why are they still appealing? It remains to be found out. | high9337.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "a place in Europe"
},
"options": [
"a place in Europe",
"not a real place",
"dangerous place",
"a place visited twice by the man"
],
"question": "The Black Forest is _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_question... | A man once had a dream about the Black Forest in Germany. In his dream he was walking in the forest when two men ran out and tried to throw him to the ground. He ran off as fast as he could, but they followed him. He reached a place where he saw two roads in front of him, one to the right and the other to the left. Which road should he take? He heard the two men behind him, getting nearer, and at the same time he heard a voice in his ear. It told him to go to the right, and he did so. He ran on and soon came to a small hotel. He was received there kindly and given a room, and he was saved from the two men. That was the dream.
Twenty years later he was really in the Black Forest and, as happened in the dream long ago, two men ran out and tried to throw him down. He ran off, and came to a place with two roads, like in the dream. He took the road to the right without thinking. He soon reached a small hotel, was taken in, and so was safe. His dream of twenty years before had saved his life. | high8029.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "get enough information concerned"
},
"options": [
"get enough information concerned",
"advertise his products",
"produce high quality goods",
"none of the above"
],
"question": "In making market investigation, o... | The market investigation is indispensable to sales promotion. They are closely related as the lips and teeth, so to speak. What you produce is for sale on the market. It would be impossible to succeed in selling a product without first investigating the market.
In the international market, goods on sale coming from different countries and suppliers are always facing keen competition. Under such circumstances, they will try everything possible to familiarize themselves with the market conditions. In making investigations, we ought to get information about what similar items the competitors are offering on the market, what prices they are quoting , what features their products have, who are their regular customers, etc.
Then, how can we obtain such information? There are many channels that we can make use of in doing this sort of work. The commercial counselor's offices of our embassies stationed abroad can help us in making market investigations. Nowadays, our import and export corporations send their trade groups abroad every now and then. One of their purposes is to make market surveys on the spot.
Certainly, face-to-face talks with foreign businessmen are also important channels to get market information. The Chinese Export Commodities Fairs and some other fairs of similar nature as well as visits of foreign businessmen provide us with such opportunities. Of course , there are some other ways of making market investigations. | high22797.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "keep a healthy diet"
},
"options": [
"lose weight fast",
"keep a healthy diet",
"cook delicious food",
"clean fridge in time"
],
"question": "The kitchen of the future may help you _ .",
"question_type": ... | Have you ever run out of coffee or tea? Found no eggs in the fridge? No bread for the sandwich and the nearest shop is too far away? Well, all that can change in the future.
If all goes well, the intelligent future kitchen will soon help solve all your problems. In the future, all kitchen units will be connected to the Internet. The intelligent future kitchen will give wise advice on planning your menu for the day. Worried about your weight? -- It will tell you the right diet and what is good for your health. It will even keep in mind your likes and dislikes!
Designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this smart kitchen promises to pay attention to all your needs. The computer's system will help keep an "eye" on the fridge. If the fridge is empty, the kitchen will _ call and place an order at the local supermarket. So you don't have to worry about it at all.
You get home late, and don't know what to make from the collection of ingredients in your fridge. A while back you might have ordered a take-out but now, instead of worrying about eating a collection of this and that, you're excited. You can pull out each vegetable, and pass each one in front of a web camera next to your fridge. A few moments later, a screen on your fridge would display a tasty recipe.
After dinner, you take your plates to a box next to the sink. You don't have to clean them, your machine does. It produces new plates every time you need to eat. Later in the evening, you phone your other half, who is on a business trip half-way around the world. As you drink your cup of hot coffee, it makes your other half's cup change color on the other side of the world, another special way to keep in touch. | high12654.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the author met the boy accidentally"
},
"options": [
"Santa Claus would bring the doll to the girl",
"the story happened in winter",
"the boy was with his father at the store",
"the author met the boy accidentally"
... | On the last day before Christmas, I hurried to a store to buy some gifts. While looking in the toys section,. I noticed a small boy of about five years old, pressing a doll against his chest.Keeping on touching the hair of the doll, the boy murmured sadly, "I don't have enough money.What can I do?" I walked towards him and asked him curiously who he wanted to give the doll to.
" It is the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for this Christmas.She was so sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her." I told him that maybe Santa Claus would bring it to her after all and not to worry.However, he replied sadly, " No, Santa Claus cannot take it to where she is now.I have to give the doll to my mother so that she can give it to her when she goes there." His eyes looked so sad while saying this. " My sister has gone to be with God.Daddy says that Mommy will also join God very soon so I think that she can take the doll with her to give it to my sister." My heart nearly stopped.
The boy looked up at me and said, " I told Daddy to tell Mommy not to go yet.I asked him to wait until I come back from the store." Then, he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was laughing.He told me, " I also want Mommy to take this photo with her so that she will not forget me, I love my Mommy and I wish she didn't have to leave me but Daddy says that she has to go and join my little sister." Then he looked at the doll again quietly with sad eyes.
I quickly reached my hand into my pocket, saying, "What if we checked again, just in case, to see if you have enough money?" | high8997.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Dealing with some easy jobs, people with higher working memory will daydream."
},
"options": [
"People who often have daydreams probably own a pretty capable working memory.",
"On the working memory test, people with wandering mind... | Catch yourself daydreaming while washing the dishes again? If this happens often you probably have a pretty capable working memory and a sharper brain, new research suggests.
This mind wandering, it seems, actually gives your working memory a workout. Working memory is the mental work space that allows the brain to _ multiple thoughts at the same time. The more working memory a person has, the more daydreaming they can do without forgetting the task at hand.
Researchers studied groups of people from the University of Wisconsin-Madison community, ranging in age from 18 to 65. The volunteers were asked to perform simple tasks, like pressing a button every time they took a breath or clicking in response to a letter popping up on a computer screen; these tasks were so easy that their minds were likely to wander, the researchers figured.
The researchers checked in periodically, asking the participants if their minds were on task or wandering. When the task was over, they measured each participant's working memory capacity by having them remember letters while doing math questions. Though all participants performed well on the task, the researchers noticed that the individuals who indicated their minds had wandered more than others also scored higher on the working memory test.
"What this study seems to suggest is that, when circumstances for the task aren't very difficult, people who have additional working memory resources allocate them to think about things other than what they're doing," said Jonathan Smallwood, a study researcher of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitve and Brain Science.
When our minds run out of working memory, these off-topic thoughts can take the main stage without us consciously meaning them to; for instance, arriving at home with no memory of the actual trip, or suddenly realizing that they've turned several pages in a book without understanding any of the words.
"It's almost like your attention was so absorbed in the mind wandering that there wasn't any left over to remember your goal to read," study researcher Daniel Levinson, said in a statement.
People with overall higher working memory were better able to stay focused when the task at hand required it. Those who had low working memory often had their thoughts drift away from the task, and did less well at it.
The findings add to past research suggesting these mind drifts can be positive moments. For instance, daydreaming has often been associated with creativity--researchers think that our most creative and inventive moments come when daydreaming. It's likely that the most intelligent among us also have high levels of working memory, Levinson noted. | high599.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "To report new findings about migrating birds' \"V\" formations."
},
"options": [
"To explain how birds benefit from migration.",
"To introduce how migrating birds find their way.",
"To tell some applications of migrating bird... | Scientists have been puzzled by the phenomenon that migrating birds fly not just in groups all the time, but in "V" formations and they have tried to figure out what benefit birds get from this particular formation. Now, a research group from University of London may have found the answer -- migrating birds fly in a "V" to save energy, according to a study published in the journal Nature.
When a bird flaps its wings, it stirs the air around it and causes it to move indifferent directions. Scientist found in the study that the air creates an upward-moving wave at the tips of the wings, which means that if a bird flies around the wingtips of another bird, it can get a boost from the rising air and therefore use less energy to stay in the air.
Apart form the "free ride" strategy, scientists were also surprised to observe that migrating birds timed their wing beats and adjusted their positions in a very precise way to maximize the lifting effect while avoiding areas where the air move downward.
"They're able to sense what's going on from the bird in front, where this 'good air' is coming from and now how to position themselves perfectly in it," lead researcher Steven Portugal told BBC.
In fact, the "V" formation has long thought to help birds fly more efficiently . A previous study showed that birds' heart rates went down when they were flying together in a "V" formation. Jet fighters were also found to be able reduce their energy use by up to 18% by staying near the wingtips of other jet fighters. Both of these findings led scientists to suspect that the "V" formation had an efficiency purpose, but until now they still lack proof.
"For scientists, the new study provides an insight into an interesting natural phenomenon. But it could mean even more for aircraft companies -- helping them understand how they can _ that with their plane formations to save fuel, said Portugal." | high6762.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Random House"
},
"options": [
"Ecco",
"Atria Books",
"Random House",
"Riverhead Books"
],
"question": "If the readers want to know about the life of Salinger, they should buy the book published by _ .",
"q... | Mini Book Excerpts
Biography
When Salinger learned that a car park was to be built on the land, the middle-aged writer was shocked and quickly bought the neighboring area to protect it ... The towns-people never forgot the rescue and came to help their most famous neighbor.
J.D. Sulinger : A Life by Kenneth Slawenski
(Random House, $27)
Mystery
" You' re a smart boy. Benny's death was no accident, and you 're the only one who saw it happen. Do you think the murderer should get away with it?" The boy was staring stubbornly at his lap again.
A thought suddenly occurred to Annika, " Did you... You recognized the man in the car, didn't you?"
The boy hesitated, twisting his fingers, " Maybe," he said quietly.
Red wolf by Liza Marklund (Atria books, $25.99)
Short stories
She wants to say to him what she has learned, none of it in class. Some women are born stupid, and some women are too smart for their own good. Some women are born to give, and some women only know how to take. Some women learn who they want to be from their mothers, some who they don't want to be. Some mothers suffer so their daughters won't. Some mothers love so their daughters won't.
You Are Free by Danzy Senna
( Riverhead Books, $15)
Humor
Do your kids like to have fun? Come to Fun Times! Do you like to watch your kids having fun? Bring them to Fun Times! Fun Times! 's " amusement cycling" is the most fun you can have, legally, in the United States right now. Why spend thousands of dollars flying to Disney World when you can spend less than half of that within a day's drive of most cities?
Happy: And Other Bad Thoughts by Larry Doyle
(Ecco, $14.99) | high23489.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Its underground is too loose."
},
"options": [
"Its buildings are too heavy.",
"It has an overlarge population.",
"Its underground is too loose.",
"It is resting on top of a lake."
],
"question": "Why is Bangkok... | Thailand's capital Bangkok is both attractive and wonderful, a city of glass towers and concrete buildings crowded with nearly 10 million people. The ground beneath is spongy and moist. Imagine a brick resting on top of a birthday cake. That's Bangkok-and it's sinking into the Earth at an alarming rate.
Thailand's disaster specialists have been warning of this coming disaster for years. One expert has said he's worried about Bangkok resembling Atlantis. Another previously told Global post that the city will be under five feet of water by 2030. The latest estimates suggest that Bangkok is now sinking as fast as two centimeters per year in parts of the city. The predictions for 2100 are even more terrible. By then , Bangkok will be fully submerged and unlivable.
Like global warming, which will accelerate the city's submersion by raising the sea leavel, Bangkok's sinking problems are repeatedly _ But the monsoon season, currently underway, tends to bring this crisis to mind. A nasty storm can suddenly turn Bangkok's streets into gushing streams. Sewers overflow, taxis move through dirty water and, occasionally, kids can pick up displaced fish.
Anond Snidvongs, director of the Southeast Asia Regional Research Center, predicts the city's outskirts will be the first to go. Parts of the shoreline ebyong Bangkok are already liend with pumps that make noises and help to transform invading seawater. They don't always work. During heavy rains, salt water flows in the streets of the city.
Bangkok is swallowed up a little more each day. Experts tend to offer two solutions. The first is to pu up a massive seawall that could cost nearly $3 billion-nearly 1 percent of Thailand's current GDP. The second option is to give up entirely and move the capital to higher ground. | high14225.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "In Edinburgh"
},
"options": [
"In France",
"In the US",
"In London",
"In Edinburgh"
],
"question": "Where is the director of overseas finance supposed to work?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{... | Director of Overseas Finance
Financial Services
Edinburgh
Permanent
Updated October 30, 2014
Reporting into the Administration and Finance Partner, this is a new role with responsibility for oversight and leadership in international financial matters, overseas tax issues and overseas operational management.
_
*Overseeing development and implementation of overseas tax strategy and managing relationships with relevant authorities and advisors.
*Managing international financial planning, forecasting and reporting requirements.
*Analysis and communication of impacts and responses to tax and other regulatory
documents.
*Establishment and maintenance of appropriate systems, controls and records.
*Managing and leading senior accountants and managers.
_
The successful candidate will be a qualified accountant with a strong academic record and will have:
*Experience of managing the finances of an international commercial organization.
*A track record of delivering improved efficiency and effectiveness in financial operations.
*Experience of leading and developing teams with proven change management experience.
_
Baillie Gifford is one of the UK's leading investment management firms and is a major player in the asset management business. As a market leader they have built their success around the stability of their partnership structure which provides guarantee for customers and motivation for employees. As by 31 December 2013 they managed more than PS72 billion (US 113 billion)in active equity and bond portfolios for customers in the UK and throughout the world.
_
Attractive Salary + Benefits Package | high9451.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The Flower portrait has been found to be a fake."
},
"options": [
"It was found that he painted a portrait in 1814 instead of in 1609.",
"The Flower portrait has been found to be a fake.",
"Three portraits of Shakespeare are ... | Birthdays often involve surprises. But this year's surprise on the birthday of the great British playwright William Shakespeare is surely one of the most dramatic.
On April 22, one day before his 441st birthday anniversary, experts discovered that one of the most recognizable portraits of William Shakespeare is a fake. This means that we no longer have a good idea of what Shakespeare looked like. "It's very possible that many pictures of Shakespeare might be unreliable because many of them are copies of this one," said an expert from Britain's National Portrait Gallery.
The discovery comes after four months of testing using X-rays, ultraviolet light, microphotography and paint samples. The experts from the gallery say the image --commonly known as the "Flower portrait"-- was actually painted in the 1800s, about two centuries after Shakespeare's death. The art experts who work at the gallery say they also used modern chemistry technology to check the paint on the picture. These checks found traces of paint dating from about 1814. Shakespeare died in 1616, and the date that appears on the portrait is 1609.
"We now think the portrait dates back to around 1818 to 1840. This was when there was a renewed interest in Shakespeare's plays," Tarnya Cooper, the gallery's curator , told the Associated President.
The fake picture has often been used as a cover for collections of his plays. It is called the Flower portrait because one of its owners, Desmond Flower, gave it to the Royal Shakespeare Company.
"There have always been questions about the painting," said David Howells, curator for the Royal Shakespeare Company. "Now we know the truth, we can put the image in its proper place in the history of Shakespearean portraiture."
Two other images of Shakespeare, are also being studied as part of the investigation and the results will come out later this month. _ | high2504.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "dependence on parents"
},
"options": [
"dependence on parents",
"disobeying rules and regulations",
"making his own decisions",
"preparing to undertake adult duties"
],
"question": "A rebellious teenager has the... | As your charming child changes into a rebellious teenager, take a deep breath and have a good look at the situation before you throw up your arms in anger or distress. Your teen takes a vital step towards adulthood by way of fighting against your rules, regulations and attitudes. Moving beyond their previous dependence on parents, teachers and other adults, teens learn to make decisions, understand the consequences of their behavior and get ready to take on adult responsibilities.
The growing need for independence sits at the heart of teenage rebellion. Many teens prefer to use peers as role models and often begin to question the reasoning behind home and school boundaries as they step closer to adulthood. The physical changes involved in adolescence coincide with(...) emotional, intellectual and moral growth, points out Kids Health---all of these can affect teenagers strongly and leave them feeling at a loss and stressed. They test different types of behavior, and it's through this testing and boundary pushing that they learn what works and what does not from their own successes and mistakes.
Changes to a teenager's hair and clothing emphasize her growing independent tastes and highlight her _ a group of friends. Her opinions may begin to differ from yours as she develops her own values, leading to potential conflicts on subjects ranging from television programs to world affairs. A teen may break family rules regarding chores, loud music and schoolwork and find herself facing unwelcome punishment as a result. These acts of rebellion normally occur from time to time rather than continuously. They give teenagers the chance to see the results of their decisions for themselves and learn when rebellion may be a mistake.
Unhealthy patterns of rebellion can include acts of rebellion that increase in frequency. Violent bursts of anger, physically and emotional destructive behavior and offensive language may indicate that your teen feels bitter hatred towards adults and authority and needs help in navigating those feelings. Watch for falling grades, frequent truancy from school or sudden changes to friendship, as these could indicate a variety of problems, including drug, alcohol or tobacco abuse. | high10043.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "feel it harder to experience happiness"
},
"options": [
"feel it harder to experience happiness",
"associate their happiness less with others",
"will take fewer risks in pursuing happiness",
"tend to believe responsibil... | (2013*,D)When asked about happiness,we usually think of something extraordinary,an absolute delight,which seems to get rarer the older we get.
For kids,happiness has a magical quality.Their delight at winning a race or getting a new bike is unreserved .
In the teenage years the concept of happiness changes.Suddenly it's conditional on such things as excitement,love and popularity.I can still recall the excitement of being invited to dance with the most attractive boy at the school party.
In adulthood the things that bring deep joy-love,marriage,birth-also bring responsibility and the risk of loss.For adults,happiness is complicated .
My definition of happiness is "the capacity for enjoyment".The more we can enjoy what we have,the happier we are.It's easy to overlook the pleasure we get from the company of friends,the freedom to live where we please,and even good health.
I experienced my little moments of pleasure yesterday.First I was overjoyed when I shut the last lunchbox and had the house to myself.Then I spent an uninterrupted morning writing,which I love.When the kids and my husband came home,I enjoyed their noise after the quiet of the day.
Psychologists tell us that to be happy we need a mix of enjoyable leisure time and satisfying work.I don't think that my grandmother,who raised 14 children,had much of either.She did have a network of close friends and family,and maybe this is what satisfied her.
We,however,with so many choices and such pressure to succeed in every area,have turned happiness into one more thing we've got to have.We're so selfconscious about our "right" to it that it's making us miserable.So we chase it and equal it with wealth and success,without noticing that the people who have those things aren't necessarily happier.
Happiness isn't about what happens to us-it's about how we see what happens to us.It's the skillful way of finding a positive for every negative.It's not wishing for what we don't have,but enjoying what we do possess. | high16432.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "They can take Friday afternoons off."
},
"options": [
"They don't work on Friday.",
"They have flexible working hours on Friday.",
"They can take Friday afternoons off.",
"They might leave an hour early on Friday aftern... | An increasing number of people are being allowed to finish the working week early during the summer months. Does your boss trust you to spend an afternoon in the sun?
Each year the number of companies which offer employees the choice of an early finish to the working week grows. Or, perhaps, each year,more people who work on ordinary Fridays hear about people playing on summer Fridays.
When the sun is shining,it makes sense that you should be given Friday afternoons off,right? Sadly,not all managers agree with the policy.
Companies that offer employees Friday afternoons off usually expect the hours to be made up. UK publishers Pan Macmillan and Penguin Random House (PRH) are among those offering summer hours. At PRH, those who wish to take off Friday afternoons are expected to work an extra 45 minutes a day from Monday to Thursday. On Fridays, a rota ensures each team has been covered. "Most of us don't leave at exactly lpm,"Editor Anderson says. Depending on your workload,you might just leave an hour or so early,but it's still nice to do. "
Simon Hayward, CEO of Cirrus, says that the "Summer Fridays" policy requires trust, and that managers need to be seen to take advantage of the offer too. "If a manager offers summer Fridays and then obviously expects employees to work on Friday afternoons, there is a risk associated with it that reduces the sense of well-being .I think there's a genuine fear in some organizations about flexible working hours. Do you trust your employees to do their best for the buti- ness as well as for themselves and their families,or do you fundamentally mistrust them?"
Managers in the former camp tend to be comfortable with summer hours. Those in the latter worry that summer Fridays will lead to late Mondays and long-lunch Tuesdays. | high19701.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Nathan Phillips is an American."
},
"options": [
"Nathan Phillips has been a freshman at the university.",
"Nathan Phillips is an American.",
"Nathan Phillips is an African.",
"Nathan Phillips likes riding a bike."
... | Nathan Phillips, who will formally begin his freshman year at the University of San Diego(USD) on Aug. 31, will arrive on campus in an unusual and philanthropic manner.
Phillips is expected to arrive between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Thursday on his bicycle, having pedaled 1,450 miles from Astoria, Ore.
Phillips combined his desire to complete a long bike ride before entering college with his interest in helping the children of Uganda.
He is raising funds for Invisible Children, a San Diegobased organization seeking to end conflicts annoying northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic and stop the use of children as soldiers.
Phillips had raised $1,540 before embarking Aug.11 and hopes to reach $2,000.
Phillips, who is from Redmond, Washington, visited Uganda during high school and worked in an orphanage there. He was also inspired by a presentation by Invisible Children at his high school.
"I have been to Uganda and personally gotten to know some of the kids affected by the war," Phillips said in a statement released by the university."I would do anything to help these kids."
Phillips' new roommate, Kyle Sharp, has joined him for the last 600 miles of the trip. Students and other members of the USD community are expected to join him for the last 13 miles.
"Nathan's passionate commitment to improving the lives of children more than 8,000 miles away resonates with USD's mission to prepare future leaders to change the world for the better," Pamela Gray Payton, assistant vice president of public affairs at USD, said in a prepared statement."We are delighted to have Nathan as a member of our campus community."
Supporters from USD and Invisible Children will greet Phillips and his followers when they arrive in front of Founders Hall on campus. The public is invited as well. | high8767.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The more you eat out, the higher rates of obesity you have."
},
"options": [
"The less you eat out, the higher rates of obesity you have.",
"The less you eat at home, the lower rates of obesity you have.",
"The more you eat o... | Deborah Cohen is a senior natural scientist at the Rand Corp and the author of the book A Big Fat Crisis: The Hidden Forces Behind the Obesity Epidemic and How We Can End It. According to the book, there are lots of misunderstandings of obesity.
1. If you're obese, blame your genes.
Obesity rates have increased. Yet, between 1980 and 2000, the number of Americans who are obese has doubled--too quickly for genetic factors to be responsible.
At restaurants, a dollar puts more calories on our plates than ever before, because restaurant meals usually have more calories than what we prepare at home, so people who eat out more frequently have higher rates of obesity than those who eat out less.
2. If you're obese, you lack self-control.
Research shows that if we are faced with too much information, we have a tendency to make poor dietary choices. Our world has become so rich in temptation that we can be led to consume too much in ways we can't understand. Even the most vigilant people may not be up to the task of controlling themselves.
3. Lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables is responsible for obesity.
Although the US Department of Agriculture estimates that fewer than 5 percent of Americans live in the "food deserts", about 65 percent of the nation's population is overweight or obese. For most of us, obesity is not related to access to more fresh fruits and vegetables, but to the choices we make in supermarkets.
4. The problem is not that we eat too much, but that we don't exercise.
Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign is based on the idea that if kids exercise more, childhood obesity rates will decrease. But there was no significant decrease in physical activity levels as obesity rates climbed in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, although a drop in work-related physical activity may account for up to 100 fewer calories burned, leisure physical activity appears to have increased. The problem is that we eat too much. | high7454.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "can grow in poor conditions"
},
"options": [
"may pollute water and soil",
"can grow in poor conditions",
"provide much less energy",
"need more special care"
],
"question": "Compared with corn and soybeans,alga... | With petroleum reserves decreasing,the search is on to replace gas with a cleaner,greener alternative.Though much eco-talk has centered on biofuels from corn and soybeans,the biofuel that looks more likely to replace petroleum comes from a most unlikely source:algae .
Algae,like corn,soybeans,and other crops,grow via photosynthesis and can be processed into fuel oil.However,they _ 30 times more energy than land crops such as soybeans,according to the U.S.Department of Energy.Many algae species also can grow in saltwater and polluted water-while corn and soy require arable land and fresh water that will be in short supply as the world's population balloons.
"If you replaced all the diesel in the U.S.with soy biodiesel,it would take half the land mass of the U.S.to grow those soybeans,"says Matt Caspari,chief executive of Aurora Biofuels,a Berkeley,Calif.-based private firm that specializes in algae oil technology.On the other hand,the Energy Department says that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States,it would require 15,000 square miles,which is a few thousand miles larger that Maryland (12,407 square miles),the 42nd state in land area.
Another bonus:Because algae can be grown just about anywhere in a closed space,they 're being tested at several power plants across the nation as a carbon absorber.Smokestack emissions can be pumped directly into the ponds,feeding the algae while keeping greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.
Although processing technology for algae fuel--also known as "oilgae" in some environmentalist circles--is improving,it's still years away from reaching your local gas pump."It's just a question of cost,because no large-scale facilities have been built yet," Caspari says. | high6992.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Children's growing up and leaving home."
},
"options": [
"Children's cutting off contact with their parents.",
"Children's not liking spending time with their parents.",
"Children's growing up and leaving home.",
"Child... | Your youngest son or daughter has just graduated from high school, and soon he or she will trade his or her bedroom in your home for a college residence hall. You're starting to worry about the coming silence in your home and are wondering how you will fill the hours that you previously spent with your son or daughter attending his or her school and sporting events.
Take heart -- the empty nest "is often worse in anticipation than in day-to-day practice", says psychologist Bert Hayslip Jr.
Hayslip, who has studied retirement adjustment and other aging problems, such as aging sleeplessness, for many years, points out that, more often than not, children who leave do not completely cut off contact with their parents. He advises parents to think of _ as a series of life events, instead of a sudden change. He also says an empty nest can cause bigger problems to surface "if a couple hasn't looked after their marriage while raising their children". According to Hayslip, some couples may find they no longer have anything in common once the children are out of the house.
Thinking of an empty nest as the loss of children makes the adjustment more difficult. "With the empty-nest syndrome , parents actually need to deal with the loss of the parenting control over children, not with having really lost their children," Hayslip says. "They just have to find a new way to get along with their children."
"Relating to their college-age children in this new way will come easily to parents as the months pass. As with many things, the passage of time heals the pain of loss," Hayslip says. | high5243.txt |
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