questions list | article stringlengths 9 6.44k | id stringlengths 9 14 |
|---|---|---|
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "was thankful for his brother Nick's support"
},
"options": [
"joined the Backstreet Boys at the age of seven",
"fell in love with music after Nick became famous",
"was not allowed to sing by his family",
"was thankful f... | Not long ago, a rock band called the Backstreet Boys _ on the music scene. Young people everywhere loved their songs. One of the band's biggest fans was a young boy named Aaron Carter. Aaron had a special reason for taking such an interest in the band. Nick Carter, one of the Backstreet Boys, was Aaron's big brother.
Even before Nick joined the band in 1996, Aaron loved music. From the age of two, Aaron spent most of his time listening to the radio. He sang along with his favorite songs. He made up dances to go with them. So Aaron's family was not surprised when Aaron decided to follow Nick into the music world.
Aaron got off to a fast start. At the age of seven, he joined a band in his hometown of Tampa, Florida. But after two years, Aaron didn't want to be part of a band anymore. He wanted to sing alone. Soon, Brother Nick gave Aaron a helping hand. During a Backstreet Boys show in Germany, Aaron sang a song. He did an amazing job! After the show, someone from a record company asked Aaron to make an album . Of course, Aaron said yes!
Since that day, Aaron has made lots of songs that sell well. His songs include "Crush on You" and "I'm Gonna Miss You Forever".
Aaron has worked hard to become a success. But he never forgets how his brother gave him his start. As Aaron has said, "If Nick wasn't a singer, then I wouldn't be there." | high5131.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "reported news by taking pictures"
},
"options": [
"did very well in writing news",
"reported news by taking pictures",
"focused on industrial news as a reporter",
"began her career by working for Fortune"
],
"qu... | Margaret Bourke-White was one of the leading news reporters of the 20th century. But she did not write news. She told her stories with a camera. Margaret Bourke-White began her career as an industrial photographer in the early 1930s. In 1936, she accepted the American publisher Henry Luce's invitation and went to his magazine, called Life, and later another magazine called Fortune.
In the 1930s, Margaret Bourke-White met the American writer Erskine Caldwell. They decided to produce a book about poor country people of the South. They traveled through eight states. Their book, You Have Seen Their Faces, was published in 1937. It was a great success.
In 1938, some countries in Europe were close to war. Margaret Bourke-White and Caldwell went there to report on these events. The next year they got married.
During the World War Two, she became an official photographer with the United States Army. Her photographs were to be used jointly by the military and by Life magazine. She was the first woman to be permitted to work at the front during World War Two.
After the war, she went to India and took a famous photograph of Mohandas Gandhi called "Gandhi at His Spinning Wheel". She was the last person to photograph Gandhi before he was murdered in 1948.
Often, Margaret Bourke-White was not satisfied with what she had done. She would look at her pictures and see something she had failed to do, or something she had not done right. Reaching perfection was not easy. Many things got in the way of her work. She said, "There is only one moment when a picture is there. And a moment later, it is gone forever. My memory is full of those pictures that were lost." | high17476.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "a computer connect to the museum by telephone line"
},
"options": [
"floppy discs",
"a computer and a printer",
"pictures and drawings on paper",
"a computer connect to the museum by telephone line"
],
"question... | There are many famous museums throughout the world where people can enjoy art. Washington, D.C. has the National Gallery of Art; Paris has the Luvre; London, the British Museum. Florida International University (FIU) in Miami also shows art for people to see. And it does so without building, or even a wall for its drawing and paintings. FIU has opened what it says is the first computer art museum in the United States. You don't have to visit the University to see the art. You just need a computer linked to a telephone. You can call the telephone number of a university computer and connect your own computer to it. All of the art is stored in the school computer. It is computer art, produced electronically by artists on their own computers. In only a few minutes, your computer can receive and copy all the pictures and drawings. Robert Shostak is direction of the new computer museum. He says he starts the museum because computer artists had no place to show their works.
A computer artist can only record his pictures electronically and send the records to others to see on their computers. He can also put his pictures on paper. But to print good pictures on paper, the computer artist needs an expensive laser printer . Robert Shostak says the electronic museum is mostly for art or computer students at school and universities. Many of the pictures in the museum are made by students. Mr Shostake said the FIU museum will take computer art more fun for computer artists because more people can see it. He says artists enjoy their work much more if they have an audience. And the great number of home computers in America could mean a huge _ for the electronic museum. | high2138.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "they move around too much"
},
"options": [
"they move around too much",
"new bees soon replace all the bees studied by researchers",
"they are too tiny",
"they never return to hives"
],
"question": "Bees are har... | All across California, honeybees are flying away from their hives and dying. Empty hives are causing a lot of worry about some important food crops.
Bees give us a lot more than delicious honey. They are pollinators --they enable plants to produce the fruits and nuts we enjoy by carrying pollen from one plant or flower to the next. The wind pollinates oats, corn, and wheat, but many other plants (like apple and cherry trees and melon vines) depend on insects, bats, and birds. In the U.S., millions and millions of bees kept by human beekeepers fly around doing a lot of this important work for food crops. "Bees are worth protecting because their work adds so much to our diet," says Dr. Jeff Pettis of the Bee Research Laboratory.
California's almond crop alone depends on about half the bees in the country. But now the almond crop and many others could be in trouble with so many bees dying.
Researchers at government and university labs all over the country are trying to figure out why so many bees are dying. However, bees are hard to study. Most die away from the hive, so researchers don't have dead bodies to examine. And when researchers return to a hive after two weeks, about half the bees they studied on their first visit will be dead, replaced by new ones in the natural life cycle of bees. "It isn't like studying a large animal like a cow that doesn't move around much and is easy to find out in the cow field," says Pettis.
Researchers have some ideas about what could be affecting bee health. They could be sick from poisons widely used to kill insects, or they might not be getting enough good food to stay strong. Also, tiny insects called mites feed on bees. "A virus or bacteria could also be doing the killing." explains Pettis. | high5657.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "is advocated by California state governor"
},
"options": [
"will probably take effect in six years",
"covers all the high school subjects",
"has been approved by all states",
"is advocated by California state governor"
... | California has a new program called the Digital Textbook Initiative. "Starting this fall with high school math and science, we will be the first state in the nation to provide schools with a state-approved list of digital textbooks." That was Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in June, talking about his effort to get schools to use materials available free online. He listed reasons why he thinks digital textbooks make sense.
California approves traditional textbooks in six-year cycles. Digital ones can offer the latest information. They lighten the load of school bags. They save paper and trees, and make learning more fun and interactive. And above all, he said, they help schools with their finances.
The state has had to make severe cuts in school spending because of deep financial problems. More than six million students attend California public schools.
Earlier this year, California invited content developers to offer digital math and science materials for high schools. These had to meet at least 90% of the state's learning requirements. Specially trained teachers examined 16 textbooks and approved ten of them. Six of the ten were published by the CK 12 Foundation, a nonprofit group that had been developing digital science and math books for about two years. The foundation paid teachers and other education professionals to write and edit them. The money came from a group financed by the Khosla Family.
California cannot require schools to use the digital textbooks. Individual school districts will have to decide for themselves. Susan Martimo, a California Department of Education official, says she does not expect widespread use right away. Her best guess is that some schools with a lot of technology will be the first to use them, but only in addition to their traditional books.
School administrators point out that the texts may be free online, but students need a way to access them. Not everyone has a computer or electronic reader. Schools could print out copies, but that would not help the environment. Also, there is the cost to train teachers to use digital textbooks effectively. | high18023.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Women overtake men in IQ testing"
},
"options": [
"The history of IQ testing",
"The modernity of the world",
"Women are becoming stronger than men",
"Women overtake men in IQ testing"
],
"question": "What would ... | It is a finding which is certain to be hotly discussed. According to the latest research, women are brighter than men. For the first time in IQ testing, psychologists have found that female scores have risen above those of men.
Since IQ testing began a century ago, women have been as much as five points behind. But that gap has been narrowing in recent years and this year women have moved ahead, according to James Flynn, leader of the research.
"In the last 100 years the IQ scores of both men and women have risen but women's have risen faster," said Mr. Flynn. "This is a result of modernity, which is making our brains adapt and raising our IQ."
One possible explanation is that women's lives have become more demanding as they multitask between raising a family and doing a job. Another is that women have a slightly higher potential intelligence than men and are only now realizing it.
Mr. Flynn, who will publish his findings in a book, said more data was needed to explain the trend. "The full effect of modernity on women is only just starting," he added.
He compared IQ result from countries in western Europe and from the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Argentina and Estonia. These showed that in westernized countries the gap in scores between men and women had become minimal .
The data for making comparison was limited and could be carried out for only a few countries. It included Australia, where male and female IQs were found to be almost the same. In New Zealand, Estonia and Argentina, women scored slightly more than men.
Mr. Flynn said, "As the world gets more complex, people are adapting." He added, "I suspect that the same trends are happening in Britain, although the data is too limited to be true." | high17310.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "What do you do when you suddenly feel lonely in a crowd?"
},
"options": [
"What is the character of the introvert?",
"Why do people feel lonely in a crowd?",
"How can we make ourselves calm down in a crowd?",
"What do y... | People are different. Some are _ . These people are outgoing, confident, and know the "gift of the gab". They also feel very comfortable when in groups of people.
Unfortunately we have the other extreme. This is the introvert. The introvert feels sick in crowds, and does not like them. These people feel awkward in the crowds, when placed in this type of situation. Many introverts are shy and lack confidence. They need to get used to people, and want to run away when questioned by people.
The introvert feels very lonely in a crowd, but this could happen to the outgoing as well.
I think that I fall into the middle of the two kinds. Sometimes if I am comfortable about the type of people in the crowds, I feel welcome. If for some reason the crowd consists of different types of people, then I do not feel very comfortable in the crowd.
So what do I do when I suddenly feel lost and alone in the crowd? I try to calm my mind by taking deep breath and telling myself that even this will pass. I then try, and get away from the crowd by making excuses or even trying to get to my car and go home. This, of course, is a poor excuse and doesn't often work well. These are excuses that are employed. The ones that I am not so proud of are acting like I have an emergency to go to. This is a very good lie, but I feel really bad afterwards.
I have tried this one, and have succeeded. I try and find someone who feels just like I do. I then try and make a new friend. Sometimes this works and sometimes it does not. This is quite a noble way of staying in the crowd. | high4549.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "lasting appeal"
},
"options": [
"lasting appeal",
"long history",
"exciting records",
"great success"
],
"question": "The passage is written here to show that Lennon has _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_ques... | On December 8, 1980, John Lennon -an English musician who rose to fame as one of the founding members of Liverpool pop band The Beatles - was shot dead outside his New York apartment.
In the 1960s and 70s, Lennon was one of the most iconic men on the planet. Some 30 years ago on from his death, he is still respected by many people in the West.
The Beatles, formed in 1960 in Liverpool, were one of the most commercial successful acts on the history of pop music, with, according to some estimates, global record sales over 1.1 billion.
The band conveyed the progressive ideals in which many young people of the time believed.
In the 1960s and 70s, widespread tension developed in both British and American society, regarding issues such as women's rights and the Vietnam War.
Lennon in particular became known for his message of peace and for his opposition to the war in Vietnam. This led to an attempt by former US president Richard Nixon to drive him away from the US. Lennon's second-wife Yoko Ono was also politically active.
Lennon was also hugely admired for his musical abilities. Along with fellow-Beatle Paul, Lennon and McCartney were the Beatle's song-writing team.
After Lennon was shot by crazy fan Mark Chapman,one of his most iconic songs, Imagine, became a humanist anthem .
Lennon's legacy survived his death and continued till this day. In 2008, he was ranked the fifth greater singer of all time in US-based Rolling Stone magazine.
Former possessions of Lennon or furnishings from his homes continue to be sold for vast sums.
In an auction to be held next week in London, lines written by Lennon on the back of a demand for an outstanding bill are expected to sell for PS350,000(3.7 million yuan).
In August, a bathroom from his last home in Britain, was auctioned for PS9,500. And in 2009, a British film describing his early years before the Beatles began, was one of the most successful films of the years in the UK.
But do Lennon and his music continue to resonate with the young people of today? | high11761.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "children have less exercise and eat unhealthily"
},
"options": [
"parents also have weight problem as their children",
"children drink too many Cokes",
"schools are more interested in sports teams",
"children have less ... | Children of America are getting fatter every time. 13% of the children at the age of 6 to 11 are overweight(too fat).
When we look at children's lives today in the USA, we can see the root(origin)of the problem--sports and foods. Young children like sports but they don't have enough around the start of high school. That's especially true for girls. Meanwhile, to make matters worse, schools are becoming much more interested in sports teams. So children are not able to get enough exercise just when they need it the most. There is also the food problem. Children get most of their calories at restaurants or parties or somewhere else away from home. They often drink too many Cokes. Parents have a lot of fears about telling a child he needs to lose weight-- they are afraid it will push a child into an eating disorder. Some parents fear that pushing children to lose weight means their children will think they're not good enough, or not loved because of their weight. Parents need to come to terms with the fact that the family is very important to the children. The most useful program for children is called "family weight control". This is good news. Mom and Dad, even if they don't have weight problems, have to go through the same program as their children and learn how to get some exercise and how to eat healthily. | high9.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "a memorial building"
},
"options": [
"a prison",
"a gift to Mumtaz",
"a memorial building",
"a tourist attraction"
],
"question": "The Taj Mahal was first built as _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questio... | Say you are a 17th century construction worker who's worked long and hard to build a splendid tower for the dead wife of your emperor.
Now say that the emperor orders your fingertips cut off so you can never build another one. Yes, that is the Taj Mahal,one of the most famous buildings in the world. And the tale behind the construction is just as impressive as the building itself.
First, there's the emperor of northern India, Shah Jehan,also called the King of the World. In 1612,Shah Jehan married Mumtaz Mahal. Madly in love, they had 14 children over the next 20 years. But then sadness came. As Mumtaz was about to give birth to child'number 14, she said she had heard her unborn baby cry out. It was a sign of death. And as Mumtaz lay dying, she asked Jehan to build a lasting memorial to celebrate their love.
When the heartbroken Jehan appeared eight days after his wife's death, his people were shocked to see that his coal-black hair had turned snow-white.
Putting away his sadness, Jehan ordered his wife's dying wish carried out. More than 20,000 workers labored nearly 22 years to complete the construction. In 1653,Jehan placed Mumtaz's remains in the center under the building.
And then, son number five, Aurangzeb, murdered his brothers and took over the power from his aging father. Hehan lived the rest of his days-eight years, to be exact-imprisoned not far from the Taj Mahal. Jehan was only allowed to climb onto the top of his prison to see the timeless
treasure from a distance. But never again would he be allowed to visit it--until he was buried next to his wife.
Today 25,000 people visit the Taj Mahal each day. Though the reason for building the tower was a strange, sad story, those who see its breath-taking beauty are reminded of the happiness that inspired its construction. | high15507.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "people eating more red meat have a higher risk of death"
},
"options": [
"big meat eaters eat a 6oz steak per day",
"big meat eaters have heart disease ten years earlier",
"people eating more meat will suffer from a heart att... | Scientists have produced new evidence suggesting eating lots of red and processed meat damages health. They found big meat eaters had a raised risk of death from all causes over a 10-year period. In contrast, a higher intake of white meat was associated with a slightly reduced risk of death over the same period.
The US study, based on more than 500,000 people, found those whose diet contained the highest proportion of red or processed meat had a higher overall risk of death, and specifically a higher risk of cancer and heart disease than those who ate the least.
People eating the most meat were eating about 160g of red or processed meat per day-- approximately a 6oz steak. Those who ate the least were only getting about 25g per day-- approximately a small piece of bacon. Just the opposite, those who ate the highest proportion of white meat had a lower risk of overall death, and a lower risk of fatal cancer or heart disease than those who ate the lowest proportion.
Meat is a major source of saturated fat, which has been associated with breast and colorectal cancer. In addition, lower meat intake has been linked to a reduction in risk factors for heart disease, including lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. The latest study adds to a growing body of research linking high red and processed meat consumption to an increased risk of ill health. Ed Yong, of the charity Cancer Research UK, said, "Evidence from large studies tells us that cutting down on processed food, such as bacon or burgers, can reduce the risk of dying from cancer and other diseases."
Dr Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina stressed there were health benefits from eating some red meat. But he added: "The need is for a major reduction in total meat intake, an even larger reduction in processed meat and other highly processed and salted animal source food products and a reduction in total saturated fat." Dr Mark Wahlqvist, a nutrition expert from Australia, said eating small amounts of red meat--around 30g a day--provided a good source of key nutrients. He said, "Fresh, lean red meat of these amounts is likely to be of more benefit than harm." | high8373.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "choose the best people in the country"
},
"options": [
"test people's luck",
"focus more on writing",
"choose the best people in the country",
"write an article explaining ideas from those books"
],
"question": ... | How did people in ancient China change their luck? Most of them would take the exam, Keju, which began during the Sui Dynasty and lasted for 1,300 years before it was ended in the Qing Dynasty.
Keju, the early "gaokao", played a very important role in choosing qualified persons to work for the king.
The Keju exams were mainly based on classical literature and philo- sophy. Poetry was very important in earlier Keju exams, and later Keju focused more on writing.
All _ had to write an article explaining ideas from those books, which was called Eight Part Essay. Two sentences were required at the start of the article, about the main idea of the title, which was called "to clear the topic". The exams also focused on more practical matters.
Most candidates in ancient China had to go a long way to the capital city for the exam. As transportation in ancient times was not developed, they usually went to the capital on foot, and some took several months to reach the capital.
The exam was held once every three years and it was made up of four levels: the county examination, provincial examination, academy examination and palace examination. Candidates had to first pass one level in order to take part in the next level. Each examination would take from one to three days to finish, and they were locked in a small room and received cold meals.
On the exam day, candidates had to first go through safety check. They had to let their hair loose so that it could be checked and their trouser legs, shoes and socks, even bottoms were also checked. | high14619.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "VLC might solve the spectum crisis."
},
"options": [
"mobile devices will consume more data",
"radio-frequency bandwidth needs to be freed up.",
"VLC might solve the spectum crisis.",
"the world has a complete lighting ... | Flickering lights are annoying but they may have an advantage. Visible light communication (VLC) uses rapid pluses of light to transmit information wirelessly. Now it may be ready to compete with conventional Wi-fi.
In a recent TED talk, Harald Hasas from the University of Edinburge,UK demonstrated one VLC prototype ,"Li-Fi", transmitting a video from a store-bought LED lamp to a solar cell to a laptop. "Li-Fi is essentially the same as Wi-Fi,except for a small difference- we use LED lights around us to transmit the data wirelessly as opposed to using radio," Haas says.
Once established, VLC could solve some major communication problems. In 2009, the US Federal Communications Commission(FCC) warned of spectrum crisis: because our mobile devices are so data- hungry we will soon run out of radio-frequency bandwidth.Li-Fi could free up bandwidth, especially as much of the infrastructure is already in place."There are around14 billion light bulbs worldwide, they just need to replaced with LED ones that transmit data", says Haas.
The idea of transmitting data through the visible light spectrum is not new.Alexander Graham Bell transmitted sound via a beam of sunlight in 1880 using a photo phone, a sort of solar-powered wireless telephone. In the past several decades, a number of researchers have looked at using visible light to transmit data.
But what Haas seized on is the use of simple LED light bulbs for data transmission. LED bulbs are controlled by a driver, which can rapidly di the light or turn it on or off. Therefore, Haas figured, data could be encoded in subtle shifts of the light's brightness. Eventually, he creaded a working transmitter and receiver system with an IKEA lamp and a solar panel.
Li-Fi stands to be much faster than Wi-Fi. According to Haas research, Li-Fi can achieve data density 1000 times greater than Wi-Fi,because Li-Fi signals are contained in a small area, as opposed to the more diffuse ,radio signals.The system wouldn't mean having to keep your lights on all the time either, Haas says---bulbs could be dimmed to such a point that they appear off, but still transmit data.
Now, Haas' team hopes that Li-Fi could make its way into homes in a few years. The system can easily network any device with an LED light--an electric kettle, an oven. Eventually, this could bring about the Internet of Things era much faster. Haas also sees Li-Fi as a way to bring internet to remote location, using hilltop transmitters and rooftop solar panels. LED streetlights could even be used to form a network of outdoor Li-Fi, making it possible to stay connected when walking around the city.
But some sound a cautious note about VLC's future. It becomes less powerful , for example,when light is blocked, wheather due to fog or other conditions. | high13176.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "To prove early musical training affects the function of the brain."
},
"options": [
"To suggest how new roles for musical training work.",
"To prove early musical training affects the function of the brain.",
"To explain how ... | New findings show that musical training affects the structure and function of different brain areas, how those areas communicate during the creation of music, and how the brain interprets and combines sensory information. The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2013, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. These views suggest potential new roles for musical training including training plasticity in the brain, offering an alternative tool in education, and treating a range of learning disabilities.
Today's new findings show that long-term high level musical training has a broader effect. Researchers found that musicians have a better ability to combine sensory information from hearing, touch, and sight. The age at which musical training begins influenced brain structure and its function. Beginning training before the age of seven has the greatest effect.
Even older adults who took music lessons as children but haven't actively played an instrument in decades have a faster brain response to a speech sound than those who never played an instrument, according to a study appearing November 6 in the Journal of Neuroscience. The finding suggests early musical training has a lasting, positive effect on how the brain deals with sound.
"Playing a musical instrument is a multi-sensory and motive experience that creates emotions and movements--from finger tapping to dancing -- and engages pleasure and reward systems in the brain. It has the potential to affect brain function and structure when done over a long period of time," said Gottfried Schlaug, MD, PhD, of Harvard Medical School, press conference speaker, also an expert on music.
"As today's findings show, musical training brings about new processes within the brain, at different stages of life, and with a range of effects on creativity, cognition , and learning," he added. | high9086.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "In a way they please."
},
"options": [
"In a way they please.",
"In a scientific way.",
"In a careless way.",
"In a common way"
],
"question": "How did American parents usually name their children?",
"questi... | American parents generally can choose any name they want for their children. They may choose a name because it honors a family member. Or they may choose a name just because they like it.
A website called Baby Center lists some unusual names given to American babies born last year. Some were named for characters in old stories, such as Hero, Thor and Ulysses. Other people named their babies after kinds of food, like actress Gwyneth Paltrow. She named her daughter Apple. Other people named their babies Banana, Pumpkin and Cookie.
Still some babies were named for places. These included Brazil, India and Rome. Some parents used names of famous people from history such as Newton and Hannibal. Other parents named their babies after flowers or the weather. These babies were named Buttercup, Iris, Sunshine and Thunder.
Recording artists and movie actors influence some parents' choices of names. Babies were named Beyonce, Charlize, Reda, Pierce, Shajira and Whitney. Movie actors themselves often give their babies unusual names. For example, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt named their baby daughter Shiloh. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes named their little girl Suri.
Some American parents do not want unusual names. They want their baby's name to honor their religious faith. Such names include Abraham for boys or Sarah for girls. And many people give their babies the same name as a family member or good friend.
The United States Social Security Administration once published a list of the most popular names for American girls and boys born. Many of the top ten boys, names are from the Jewish and Christian Bibles. | high12283.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "People can download and read lots of newspapers on it"
},
"options": [
"It looks like a table mat",
"It's as light as a magazine.",
"People can download and read lots of newspapers on it",
"People can receive the BBC re... | A British-designed electronic newspaper which is made of plastic and no larger than a table mat is to enter the market next year. The new newspaper was conceived by Cambridge University scientists. They came up with the idea of replacing silicon chips with plastic ones. it is being developed by Plastic Logic, a company based in Dresden, Germany.
"It looks just like a table mat, and is as light as a magazine. But you can download hundreds of newspapers at the touch of a button, and read them quite safely," the BBC reported on its website.
The plastic paper is produced in a safe "clean room" at the Plastic Logic factory, which opened last month as the world's first plastic-electronics factory. Every part of the product, from the screen to the electronics, is made of plastic. And it is described by engineer Dean Baker as "top quality". Baker says the plastic newspaper could help solve the problem of waste material associated with traditlional newspapers.
"There's a huge amount of waste . We have paper distributed all over the country each day and then thrown into the bin. This doesn't need to happen any more. All of the copies could be made electronically and stored on a single e-reader with the appearance of paper." he says.
People can expect to see the plastic newspaper next year, the BBC says. | high8398.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "87 out of 140 volunteers developed pancreatic cancer"
},
"options": [
"the healthcare in Singapore should be greatly improved",
"2 soft drinks a day are considered harmful to health",
"sugar might not be the only cause of pan... | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who drink two or more sweetened soft drinks a week have a much higher risk of pancreatic cancer , an unusual but deadly cancer, researchers reported on Monday.
People who drank mostly fruit juice instead of sodas did not have the same risk, the study of 60,000 people in Singapore found.
Sugar may be to blame but people who drink sweetened sodas regularly often have other poor health habits, said Mark Pereira of the University of Minnesota, who led the study.
"The high levels of sugar in soft drinks may be increasing the level of insulin in the body, which we think contributes to pancreatic cancer cell growth," Pereira said in a statement.
Writing in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, Pereira and colleagues said they followed 60,524 men and women in the Singapore Chinese Health Study for 14 years.
Over that time, 140 of the volunteers developed pancreatic cancer. Those who drank two or more soft drinks a week had an 87 percent higher risk of being among those who got pancreatic cancer.
Pereira said he believed the findings would apply elsewhere.
"Singapore is a wealthy country with excellent healthcare. Favorite pastimes are eating and shopping, so the findings should apply to other western countries," he said.
But Susan Mayne of the Yale Cancer Center at Yale University in Connecticut was cautious.
"Although this study found a risk, the finding was based on a ly small number of cases and it remains unclear whether it is a causal connection or not," said Mayne, who serves on the board of the journal, which is published by the American Association for Cancer Research.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, with 230,000 cases globally. In the United States, 37,680 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in a year and 34,290 die of it. | high21649.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "stressful"
},
"options": [
"easy",
"stressful",
"attractive",
"useless"
],
"question": "According to the passage, learning music in college will be quite _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
... | Many people don't realize the importance of music education in the schools today.A new study showed, however, music education is extremely important.
In college, music education is one of the largest programs.Teachers have to learn general education materials and techniques. They must learn to play every instrument; they must learn music history and music theory; they must learn instrument repair and teaching methods; they must learn conducting and so much more.At the same time, much of our culture and tradition is absorbed in music.
Music plays a very important role in our education.
Music helps with math and science. Students learn to count, and how to multiply and divide.Students also use science to help them discover what sounds good together and what doesn't.Students also need science to understand something called the "overtone series", which is about how music is produced by vibration and why.
Students learn a lot about languages through music.Many songs are written in other languages, including ancient ones.Students must learn to translate these works to understand what they are singing about. A song is likely to be a famous short work set to music; so students are exposed to that very often while singing.
Students learn a huge amount of cooperation of body parts through music, so parts of the body can work better together.Students must use motor skills in order to play an instrument.Singers and wind players must learn breath control and be in good shape to play.
Students learn about art. Some famous pieces were written about important pieces of art, and students learn about the artists and styles as they're playing the music.
Music education also brings higher thinking to our children.It allows them to think about complex patterns.Students have to be aware of what every other musician does at every time.In that way, it develops cooperation, as well.They tend to develop more ability for learning.
As one can see, music is very important to education. | high5864.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the measurements of heats in ocean may not be exact"
},
"options": [
"the measurements of heats in ocean may not be exact",
"the global temperture rise has dropped down",
"it still needs higher technical tools for measuring m... | Something's not quite right with the climate.While global CO2emissions have continued to swell, the global temperature rise has leveled off.Meanwhile, satellites and other observational tools indicate that the net heat retained by the planet has continued to increase, and that excess energy should be pushing up surface temperatures.But it's not.
In fact, up to half the heat energy that was expected to fuel global wanning since 2003 has gone " missing.M Kevin Trenberth and John Fasullo of the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR) wonder where that heat may have gone--and what it could mean for the future of the climate.
One possibility is that some of our measurements could be off.Although scientists have a lot of confidence in their ability to measure CO2buildup and the energy balance in the atmosphere--the data used in the measurements comes from multiple sources, all of which, Fasullo says, "tell the same story"--our data on ocean temperatures isn't as good."Keeping track of temperature over the whole oceans isn't that easy," says Fasullo.
So, it is likely that the missing heat is being trapped deep in the ocean, well below the 900m to 1,500m range of our surface sensors.But despite their vastness, the deep oceans have a limit, says Fasullo, who thinks they won't behave as a heat sink over the long term."That's not what we've seen over long time scales in the past," he says."We clearly know the ocean can't absorb the heat indefinitely.
Overall, the missing heat doesn't change expectations for future climate change, because the heat won't stay missing forever.Eventually it will resurface and impact the climate system, and the recent and deceptive reprieve from rapid warming we've enjoyed will come to an expected end.When that will happen is unknown, but better science can give us a clearer idea."At the end of the day, the system will come back to balance, and that suggests temperature will end up increasing," says Fasullo.So it's still up to us to do something about it. | high21891.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "The nervous system in the nose can repair itself."
},
"options": [
"The nervous system in the nose can repair itself.",
"Cells from the nose can be easily transplanted.",
"The nervous system in the nose has more cells.",
... | Darek Fidyka, a 38-year-old Bulgarian, had been paralyzed from the chest down for four years after a knife attack. Scientists from Britain and Poland took cells from his nose, transplanted them into his back and re-grew his spinal cord . Now he can walk and even drive a car. The doctors were delighted but said it was the first step in a long journey.
The breakthrough came after 40 years of research by Professor Geoff Raisman, who found that cells had the possibility to repair damage to nasal nerves, the only part of the nervous system that constantly re-grows. "The idea was to take something from an area where the nervous system can repair itself and put it into an area that doesn't repair itself," Professor Raisman said.
Polish doctors injected the nasal cells into Mr Fidyka's spinal cord above the injury and used some nerves from his ankle to form a bridge across the damaged tissue. The nasal cells appear to have caused the spinal nerves to repair themselves.
Professor Raisman achieved this with rats in the late 1990's, but this is his greatest success. "I think the moment of discovery for me was Christmas in 1997 when I first saw a rat, which couldn't control its hand, put its hand out to me. That was an exciting moment, because I realized then that my belief that the nervous system could be repaired was true."
Doctors chose the easiest case for their first attempt--it might not work for others. But there is a real sense of hope that an idea once thought impossible has been realized.
David Nicholls, who helped provide money for the breakthrough, said information about the breakthrough would be made available to researchers across the globe.
"What you've got to understand is that for three million paralyzed people in the world today, the world looks a totally brighter place than it did yesterday," he said. | high10494.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Low-price is Xiaomi's advantage over Apple's iPhones."
},
"options": [
"Xiaomi sold more cellphones than SaM:ung in 2010 in China.",
"Compared to Xiaomi, Apple's iPhone 6 is thinner and lighter.",
"Low-price is Xiaomi's advan... | BEIJING -- Rising smartphone star Xiaomi is moving upmarket and taking aim at Apple's iPhone. The Chinese maker known for low-priced phones on Thursday unveiled a new model that Chairman J un Lei said is comparable to Apple's iPhone 6 but thinner, lighter and much cheaper. The phone starts at 2, 299 yuan ($375), less than half the 5,288 yuan ($ 865) price of an iPhone 6 in China.
Xiaomi, founded in 2010, passed South Korea's SaM:ung Electronics Co. in the second quarter of last year as the best-selling smartphone brand in China by number of phones sold. The company is expanding into India and other developing markets but has yet to announce plans to enter the United States or Europe.
Xiaomi "is a respected brand that already has an Apple-like following" in China, said analyst Brian Blair, who tracks mobile device makers at Rosenblatt Securities. Apple is still a relatively small player in China, selling about 45 million iPhones there last year, Blair estimates, but will continue to grow.
"Apple is very much a premium brand," said Blair. "The company that's more at risk is SaM:ung, which has been losing share in that market."
Privately held Xiaomi said last year's sales tripled to 61. 1 million phones and revenue more than doubled to 74. 3 billion yuan ($12.2 billion). The company, based in Beijing, recently completed a round of fundraising from investors that it said valued Xiaomi at $ 45 billion, making it one of the world's most valuable technology brands.
Xiaomi ran into legal trouble in India in December after a court blocked sales while it hears a complaint by Sweden's LM Ericcson that the Chinese company violated its patents.
In a blog post earlier this month, Lei called the case a "rite of passage" for a young company. | high11952.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "some people just sampled pudding but didn't buy them"
},
"options": [
"many shoppers would sample pudding before buying them",
"some people just sampled pudding but didn't buy them",
"the Christmas season was the time to prom... | In a certain store where they sell puddings, a number of these delicious things are laid out in a row during the Christmas season. Here you may select the one which is most to your taste, and you are even allowed to sample them before coming to a decision.
I have often wondered whether some people, who had no intention of making a purchase, would take advantage of this privilege. One day I asked this question of the shop girl, and I learned it was indeed the case. "Now there's one old gentleman, for instance," she told me, "he comes here almost every week and samples each one of the puddings, though he never buys anything, and I suspect he never will. I remember him from last year and the year before that, too. Well, let him come if he wants it, and welcome to it. And what's more, I hope there are a lot more stores where he can go and get his share. He looks as if he needed it all right, and I suppose they can afford it."
She was still speaking when an elderly gentleman limped up to the counter and began looking closely at the row of puddings with great interest. "Why, that's the very gentleman I've been telling you about," whispered the shop girl. "Just watch him now." And then turning to him: "Would you like to sample them, sir? Here's a spoon for you to use. "The elderly gentleman, who was poorly but neatly dressed, accepted the spoon and began eagerly to sample one after another of the puddings, only breaking off occasionally to wipe his red eyes with a large torn handkerchief. "This is quite good". "This is not bad either, but a little too heavy". All the time it was quite evident that he sincerely believed that he might eventually buy one of these puddings, and I am positive that he did not for a moment feel that he was in any way cheating the store. Poor old chap! Probably he had come down in the world and this sampling was all that was left him from the time when he could afford to come and select his favorite pudding.
Amidst the crowd of happy, prosperous looking Christmas shoppers, the little black figure of the old man seemed pitiful and out of place, and in a burst of benevolence, I went up to him and said:
"Pardon me, sir, will you do me a favor? Let me purchase you one of these puddings. It would give me such pleasure."
He jumped back as if he had been stung, and the blood rushed into his wrinkled face.
"Excuse me," he said, with more dignity than I would have thought possible considering his appearance, "I do not believe I have the pleasure of knowing you. Undoubtedly you have mistaken me for someone else." And with a quick decision he turned to the shop girl and said in a loud voice, "Kindly pack me up this one here. I will take it with me." He pointed at one of the largest and most expensive of the puddings.
The girl took down the pudding from its stand and started to make a parcel of it, While he pulled out a worn little black pocketbook and began counting out shillings and pennies on to the counter. To save his "honor", he had been forced into a purchase which he could not possibly afford. How I longed for the power to unsay my tactless words! It was too late though, and I felt that the kindest thing I could do now would be walk away.
"You pay at the desk," the shop girl was telling him, but he did not seem to understand and kept trying to put the coins into her hand. And that was the last I saw or heard of the old man. Now he can never go there to sample puddings and more. | high18976.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "It came from Danish words meaning \"play\" and \"well.\""
},
"options": [
"It is a combination of Greek and Latin words.",
"It was created by Ole Kirk Christiansen's son.",
"It was created in 1947 for naming the plastic toys.... | The Lego Group had a very low beginning in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen,a carpenter from Denmark.Christiansen began creating wooden toys in 1932.Two years later, he came upon the Lego name by putting together the first two letters of the Danish words Leg and Godt,which mean "play well."The name could be interpreted as "I put together" in Latin;it is also similar to the Greek verb meaning "gather" or "pick up".
In 1947,the company enlarged to making plastic toys.At first,the use of plastic for toy production was not highly regarded by salesmen and consumers of the time.Many of the Lego Group's shipments were returned,following poor sales.However, Christiansen's son,Godtfred Kirk Christiansen,saw the great potential in Lego bricks to become a system for creative play-As the junior managing director of the Lego Group,he spent years trying to improve the "locking" ability of the bricks and made the bricks more versatile .In 1958, the modem interlocking brick design was finally developed and patented .
Today Lego is sold in more than 1 30 countries.Every minute 33,824 Lego bricks are made,and kids around the world spend 5 billion hours a year playing with Lego.There will be more than 400 million people playing with Lego bricks this year.On average,every person in the world owns 62 Lego bricks,and about seven Lego sets are sold every second.
This year Lego fans all over the world are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the tiny building blocks.Though already 50 years old,Lego is still the same product it was in the 1950s.
Bricks bought then are still compatible with present bricks and that is probably the reason the toy has never fallen out of favor. | high16783.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The music of Mozart."
},
"options": [
"The music of Justin Bieber.",
"The music of Mozart.",
"The music of David Guetta.",
"The music of David Lewis."
],
"question": "Whose music can help you do maths homework a... | Whether it is Mozart or Miley, your choice of music could determine whether you will perform well at your job. A new study suggests that listening to music in the office improves the speed and accuracy of tasks such as data entry, proofreading and problem solving. In an officebased experiment, 88 per cent of participants were found to produce their most accurate work when listening to music.
The study also found that 81 per cent completed their work fastest when music was played. And it matters what type of music you listen to. For instance, if you're doing your tax returns, then classical music is the most effective as it improves maths skills.
Listening to Jessie J or Justin Bieber could also improve your speed, with 58 per cent of participants completing data entry tasks faster while listening to pop songs. During proofreading, dance music, such as David Guetta, had the biggest positive impact with participants increasing their speed by 20 per cent compared to tests undertaken with no music at all. Dance music also had a positive effect on spellchecking with a 75 per cent pass rate compared to 68 per cent when no music was played at all.
The research, undertaken by Brightonbased Mindlab International, suggests that silent offices may be the least productive. The Music Works experiment revealed a positive correlation between music and productivity. Overall, it showed that when listening to music, nine out of ten people performed better, said Dr David Lewis, chairman of Mindlab International. | high13823.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "native speakers' English is hard to understand"
},
"options": [
"non-native speakers speak English even better",
"the author's English is hard to understand",
"native speakers' English is hard to understand",
"it is eas... | It is an issue I have realized ever since I heard about an Austrian banker who said,"I always find it easier to do business with partners from Greece or Russia or Denmark. But when the lrish call, it gets complex and difficult." ks5u
As I wrote recently, those speaking English as a second language frequently say they find it easier to talk to each other than to someone from the US, the UK ,Canada ,Ireland or Australia.
Anyone wanting to get to the top of international business, medicine or academia(but possibly not sport)needs to be able to speak English to a pretty high level .Equally, any native English speaker wanting to deal with these new high achievers needs to know how to talk without confusing them.
Because so many English-speakers today are monoglots ,they have little idea how difficult it is to master another language. Many think the best way to make foreigners understand is to be chatty and informal. This may seem friendly but,as it probably involves using informal expressions, it makes comprehension harder.
Speaking slowly helps, but avoiding figurative or idiomatic expressions is more important. Phrasal verbs are another trouble for non-native English speakers; imagine trying to understand the difference between" I couldn't put up with him"and " I agreed to put him up".It's better to say "I couldn't tolerate him"and " I agreed to let him stay for night ". The words may be longer but the meaning is easier to understand.
The greatest friend to anyone trying to understand another language is repetition; not saying the same thing over and over again,but saying it in different ways. | high22426.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Its sales and income have dropped."
},
"options": [
"Its share goes down to $21.",
"Shake Shack has taken its place.",
"It' s not popular with Americans.",
"Its sales and income have dropped."
],
"question": "Wh... | Shake Shack is a new kind of restaurant becoming more popular in the U.S. The restaurants are not"fast food" . They are known as"fast casual" .
Observers say Americans want more choices and fresh food when choosing where and what to eat. This trend is one reason why the fast food restaurant McDonald' s has struggled financially. In the last quarter of 2014, McDonald' s net income dropped by about $300 million. The January earnings report brought more bad news. Worldwide sales dropped for the eighth month in a row and even more than expected. While McDonald' s is struggling to get their customers back, Shake
Shack, is doing well in making money. The New York-based burger chain had a very successful IPO, or initial public offering, of shares at the end of January. On its first day of trading, Shake Shack went from $21 a share to just under $46 a share. Being part of the "fast casual "trend has helped Shake Shack. Other fast casual restaurants in the U.S. include Chipotle and Panera.
Bonnie Riggs, a restaurant expert with NPD has studied Americans' restaurant habits for almost 30 years. She says one reason why Americans like fast casual food is that it' s new. It' s creative, it' s something different and people like to try new things. Her study shows Americans made 61 billion visits to restaurants last year. Three out of four visits were to fast food restaurants, like McDonald' s. Fast casual is still a small percentage of restaurant visits, but it has developed fast. Just as Ms. Riggs says,"It' s growing _ because they meet consumers' needs. They know it' s being prepared while they wait, it' s fresh, quality food, good tasting food at what they say are reasonable and affordable prices."
Many Americans still like their fast food. They just are not going as often. They are finding other ways to have a meal. | high9938.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Because their bag was overweight."
},
"options": [
"Because they got up late.",
"Because they didn't wait in line.",
"Because they came to the airport late.",
"Because their bag was overweight."
],
"question": "... | Last July, my parents and I went to visit my aunt and uncle in Seattle, a city on the northwest American coast. Dad did some research and had no difficulty in finding us cheap tickets online.
On the day of our flight, we had to wake up very early. When we checked our bags in, we found that one bag weighed too much, so we had to pay a fine. After that, Dad insisted that we go and have some breakfast at the airport restaurant. We had a lot of fun watching many different people there. Then we realized it was getting late, so we rushed to the gate. It took one hour for everyone to get on the plane, but finally the door was shut and we were on our way!
I think my favorite experience during our trip was our visit to Mount Rainier, a volcano near Seattle. It was nothing like I had expected. Before we left, my aunt lent us hats to protect us from getting sunburned, so I supposed that it would be very hot. Imagine my surprise when we drove up the mountain and I discovered the top was covered in snow and ice!
My uncle led us to a small path beyond the main trails to increase our chances of seeing wildlife. We walked over a small hill, and suddenly before us there appeared a field of snow. Small wild flowers grew up through the snow; underneath the snow we could hear rushing water -- a small stream. Little animals stood still to avoid being noticed; tiny birds rose into the air. It was the most beautiful sight that I'd ever seen. | high24057.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "attach importance to hearing"
},
"options": [
"present the mental decline",
"attach importance to hearing",
"compare hearing with other senses",
"exaggerate the damaging effects"
],
"question": "Mass does the re... | Older people with hearing loss may suffer faster rates of mental decline. People who have hearing trouble suffered meaningful impairments in memory, attention and learning about three years earlier than people with normal hearing, a study published online January 21 in JAMA Internal Medicine reveals.
The finding supports the idea that hearing loss can have serious consequences for the brain,says Patricia Tun of Brandeis University in Waltham,Mass., who studies aging. "I'm hoping it will be a real wake-up call in terms of realizing the importance of hearing. "
Compared with other senses, hearing is often overlooked, Tun says. "We are made to interact with language and to listen to each other, and it can have damaging effects if we don't."
Frank Lin of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and colleagues tested the hearing of 1,984 older adults. Most of the participants, who averaged 77 years old, showed some hearing loss -- 1,162 volunteers had trouble hearing noises of less than 25 decibels, comparable to a whisper or rustling leaves. The volunteers; deficits reflect the hearing loss in the general population: Over half of people older than 70 have trouble hearing.
Over the next six years, these participants underwent mental evaluations that measured factors such as short-term memory, attention and the ability to quickly match numbers to symbols. Everybody got worse at the tasks as time wore on, but people with hearing loss had an especially sharp decline, the team found. On average, a substantial drop in performance would come about three years earlier to people with hearing loss.
Lin cautions that the study has found an association between hearing loss and mental abilities; the researchers can't conclude that hearing loss directly causes the decline. Yet more and more studies are turning up ways that diminished hearing could damage the brain.
A person who can't hear well might avoid social situations, and isolation is known to be bad for the brain. "You gradually become more socially withdrawn, " Lin says. "Social isolation is a major, major factor for dementia and cognitive decline. "
Other studies suggest that when people struggle to interpret and decode words, their brains _ energy away from other tasks, such as memory. Audiologist and psychologist Kathy Pichora -- Fuller says that this brain drain happens to everyone, even people without hearing loss. Studies have shown that people are worse at remembering things when they're in a noisy room, for instance. People with hearing loss may be constantly diverting a large swath(--)of their brainpower,leaving less for other mental tasks, says Pichora-- Fuller, of the University of Toronto Mississauga. | high7915.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "believes fears protect us negatively"
},
"options": [
"thinks it difficult to control our fear",
"believes fears protect us negatively",
"thinks it's good to criticize ourselves",
"values the advantages of feeling fear"... | Fear can be a wonderful feeling in our lives, protecting us from dangerous situations and keeping us safe. But fear can also limit our lives significantly. While it may not be conscious, fear may make us think we are unacceptable or that what we have to offer isn't valuable. Fear may make us feel that we are not safe being ourselves.
To avoid feeling fear, we may limit our lives greatly, living in tiny boxes. Living this way gives us the illusion of safety but leaves us with an unfulfilling life of no passion. If we shine a light on many of our fears, we see they have a very limited view of what is "safe" and how to "protect" us. Many of our fears are concerned only with protecting us from humiliation and failure. While these fears are doing their jobs incredibly well, they are doing so with faulty and outdated programming. Many fears we have as adults are trying to protect us as they protected us when we were children. Indeed, many of our current, automatic reactions to fear were actually formed when we were children.
Even so, it's important not to judge ourselves for feeling these types of fears. If we judge ourselves, we will bury our fears or disguise them. By denying our fears, however, we also deny our energy, creativity and passion.
So what do we do with fear? We recognize the fear for what it is--- a feeling we've experienced many times in the past and a feeling we will experience many times in the future. We become very familiar with our own particular brand of fears and how we allow them to control our lives. It is especially beneficial for each of us to become aware of the particular behavior patterns we've adopted when we feel fear, so we can look at our reactions with a sense of humor and compassion. Then, if we wish, we can choose a different response, which can be a scary yet very exciting experience. | high628.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the earthquake struck Ya'an about 12 kilometers in depth"
},
"options": [
"the earthquake's strength is 7.0 according to the USGS's information",
"the earthquake is 115 miles away from the provincial capital, Chengdu",
"the e... | A strong earthquake struck the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan on Saturday, killing more than 30 people and injuring hundreds of others, local authorities said on April 20th 2013.
The quake struck Ya'an just after 8 a.m. local time about 115 kilometers (70 miles) away from the provincial capital, Chengdu, at a depth of around 12 kilometers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There was conflicting information about the earthquake's strength, with the USGS putting the magnitude at 6.6 and the China Earthquake Networks Center gauging it at 7.0.
Earthquakes happen without warning. They can happen any time of a day, at any point during the year. When an earthquake is happening, you should know what you should do or not do.
Do NOT go outside. You could get injured from falling glass or parts of buildings. If you are outside, stay away from buildings and power lines.
Stay under a desk, table, or other strong furniture. Hold on to it. Or stay in a corner of the building. Cover your face and head with your arms and cover your mouth with a towel or clothing. Stay inside until shaking stops and it is safe to go outside.
Keep away from pictures or advertisements on the wall or the building, and anything else that could fall and hurt you. Most people get injured by falling things during an earthquake, not by the shaking itself.
Also keep away from a fire. You could fall down and burn yourself on the fire.
If you are driving when an earthquake happens, stop the car if it's safe. Stay inside your car until the earthquake stops, and don't drive near bridges. Try not to stop by power lines or trees. These could fall and hurt you. | high23738.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the most active economy group in today's world"
},
"options": [
"the most active economy group in today's world",
"the most powerful economies in western world",
"leading countries with fast development of humanity",
"t... | South Africa hosted the fifth BRICS Summit in March 2013,which completed the first cycle of BRICS summits,BRICS is an acronym for the powerful grouping of the world's leading up-and-coming economies,namely Brazil,Russia,India,China and South Africa.The BRICS aims to achieve peace,security,development and cooperation.It also seeks to contribute to the development of humanity and build a more stable and fairer world.
The industry leaders from the business communities of the five countries agreed that the BRICS countries will actively support industrialization on the African continent in order to contribute significantly to its development and to expand trade links between Africa and BRICS.The global economic situation,though improving,continues to remain uncertain with the Euro-crisis a major concern.The task ahead is to build on these developments and BRICS countries remain committed to the cause of promoting sustainable growth.Greater economic cooperation among BRICS countries can be significantly important,which will prove beneficial for global economic growth.
According to Dr.Rob Davies,South African Minister of Trade and Industry,the African continent is recognized as the second fastest growing continent after Asia.There are four drivers of the economic growth in African continent.These are the boom in mineral products in the African continent,the development of the service industries,the benefit of not having the financial crisis,and infrastructure development.Davies also adds that other BRICS countries have advantage of large populations providing big home markets for their products.The South African population is small compared to other BRICS countries,but if you add up numbers on continent then you have a critical mass that can support the new industrial wave in Africa:That is why the South African needs to create large trading blocks across large parts of African continent. | high14194.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "friend and neighbor"
},
"options": [
"friend and colleague",
"neighbor and leader",
"neighbor and worker",
"friend and neighbor"
],
"question": "Linda is Elizabeth's _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_question... | Dear Mr. Wolfson,
The purpose of this letter is to inform you of one of our citizens who I believe should receive some special recognition for dedicated community service. The person I recommend is Elizabeth Samuelson. I believe you know her in your position as volunteer coordinator .
I have known Elizabeth for more than 20 years as both a friend and a neighbor. During that time I have seen her work tirelessly on scores of community projects and committees. As far as I know, she has never received any kind of recognition from the community for her work. I believe she should be given some sort of special recognition.
Just last year alone, she worked on at least six different community projects including the Park Renewal Project and the Heritage Homes FundRaising Banquet. In addition, she is a weekly driver for the MealsonWheels program and she visits patients in the care unit on a regular basis. Whenever a project or committee needs her, she will put herself into the work wholeheartedly. I'm sure that if you check with a few of your staff members who have been there over the years, they will confirm Elizabeth's community service record and probably be able to add many examples to the few I have given here. By the way, Elizabeth has no idea that I am writing this. She is a humble person, and if she were aware of it, she would not allow me to send it.
I thought about writing such a letter about her a number of times in the past but just never took action. Then last week, I noticed in the paper that you sponsor an annual dinner at which dozens of awards are given out to people with much less community service than Elizabeth. In fact, I checked with her and she has never even been invited to that annual event!
I urge you to correct that omission now and take action to see that Elizabeth is properly recognized for her many years of silent but outstanding service to this community.
Sincerely,
Linda Sullivan | high13837.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "better at controlling their attention"
},
"options": [
"smarter than others",
"better at all skills",
"better at controlling their attention",
"higher in intelligence"
],
"question": "Being bilingual can make pe... | In the early nineteen fifties, researchers found that people scored lower on intelligence tests if they spoke more than one language. Research in the sixties found the opposite. So which is it?
Researchers presented their newest studies last month at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The latest evidence shows that being bilingual does not necessarily make people smarter. But researcher Ellen Bialystock says it probably does make you better at certain skills. She says bilingual people are often better at controlling their attention--a function called the executive control system.
Ms Bialystock is a psychology professor at York University in Toronto, Canada. She says the best method to measure the executive control system is called the Stroop Test. A person is shown words in different color1s. The person has to ignore the word but say the color1. The problem is that the words are all names of color1s.
Her work shows that bilingual people continually practice this function. They have to, because both languages are active in their brain at the same time. They need to limit one to be able to speak in the other.
This mental exercise might help in other ways, too. Researchers say bilingual children are better able to separate a word from its meaning, and more likely to have friends from different cultures. Bilingual adults are often four to five years later than others in developing dementia or Alzheimer's disease.
Foreign language study has increased in the United States. But linguist Alison Mackey at Georgetown University points out that English-speaking countries are still far behind the rest of the world. In England, like in the United States, bilingualism is seen as something special and unique and something to be commented on and perhaps work towards, while in many other parts of the world being bilingual is just seen as a natural part of life. | high22432.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "To keep competitive."
},
"options": [
"To be a bridge between the two big countries.",
"To keep competitive.",
"Because they are always interested in it.",
"To gain advantage in trade."
],
"question": "Why do mo... | China is having such a huge influence on the United States that many Americans are struggling to learn the Chinese language in a bid to keep competitive.
"Interest in learning Chinese among American youth and their parents has grown quickly in the past five years," said Vivien Stewart, vice president at the Asia Society. China's quick rise to near-superpower and its effects politically, economically and culturally are driving the American's interest to learn the language, experts say. From kindergartens to high schools, studies by the Asia Society show, there is a "rapid rise" in interest among pupils to study the Chinese language. "The Chinese rich cultural traditions and _ economy mean that it is now important for all of our students to be better prepared," said Michael Levine, Asia Society's executive director of education. A survey found that 2,400 high schools - an unbelievably high number - would be interested in offering the Advanced Placement (AP) courses in Chinese language and culture when the courses become available in 2016.
China, the world's most popular nation, is important to the United States because it is a leading trader, consumer and investor. Its political influence is also rising across the world. It has replaced the United States as the world's largest consumer and could become the second largest economy in the world, after the United States, in the next two to three decades.
Even though the US State Department has described the Chinese language "critical" to national prosperity and security, "the current facilities to support recruitment of students and teachers as well as the growth of high quality programs is terribly not enough," an Asia Society study says. The Society has set an aim of having at least five percent of American high school students learning Chinese by 2015.
"Millions of Chinese are learning English, but only 24,000 Americans are learning Chinese," said Andrew Corcoran of the San Francisco-based Chinese American International School. The most popular languages after English in US schools at present are Spanish and French while Japanese is the most popular Asian language. | high7901.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "introduce some books about astronomy"
},
"options": [
"tell us something important about space",
"introduce some books about astronomy",
"show some planets discovered recently",
"explain something secret in the universe... | If You Decide to Go to the Moon
By Faith Mcnulty, Steven Kellogg(illustrator)---This book is written in the second person and tells you the most important information you need to know if you go to the moon. I especially appreciate the information on how to get home. You know, just in case...
Discover Space
By Cynthia Pratt Nicolson, Bill Slavin---Like its companion book in this series, Discover the Planets, this delightful book provides a fun and educational look at the "final frontier". This book should surely be added to your young reader's library.
This Rocket
By Paul Collicutt---Here's an excellent book dealing with rockets from where they came from to where they are going. The illustrations will capture younger readers while older kids will enjoy the story.
Voyage to the Planet and Beyond
By Tim Haines, Christopher Riley---Published to accompany the Discovery television series of the same title, this book is about space travel (based on the experiences of real astronauts) to tell the imagined story of a 6-year space mission. Your future astronaut will get a joy from following the adventures in this book.
Space (Our Planet)
By Eduardo Banqureri---From the origin of the universe to the international space station, this book gives readers an up-close look at planet Earth and its solar system. Add this one to your space library, in the solar system section.
The Planets
By Gall Gibbons (illustrator)---This is an excellent kids book that discusses the movements, location, and characteristics of the known planets of our solar system. | high24043.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "a Nobel Prize winner and his literary achievement"
},
"options": [
"a literary figure's personal affairs",
"a famous novelist's family background",
"a Nobel Prize winner and his literary achievement",
"European people's... | The 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature went to the French novelist "for the art of memory" with which he has "uncovered the lifeworld of the occupation".
Although the 69yearold writer is a very popular literary figure in France, he is little known elsewhere.
So who is this Patrick Modiano, why does his memory have such an influence upon him, and what exactly has he uncovered?
Modiano was born in a suburb of Paris right after World War IIended in Europe in July 1945.His father was a JewishItalian businessman who met his Belgian actress mother during the Nazi occupation of Paris.
As The New Yorker magazine put it, Europeans born in 1945 share a condition--They escaped the war, but "not the taint of the war".
Modiano's life has been influenced by Nazi Germany's occupation during the war, and his family's connections to it.According to New Yorkbased newspaper Forward, his father survived the war dishonorably.When Paris' Jews were brought together to be sent to concentration camps, the businessman did not join them but spent the time making money from deals with Nazis on the black market.
"The novelist has a duty to record the lives of the people who have disappeared, the people who were made to disappear," French writer Clemence Boulouque, also an expert in Jewish studies, told The New Yorker magazine.
In his more than three dozen novels, Modiano has returned again and again to the same themes:Jewishness, the Nazi occupation, and loss of identity.His characters collect pieces of old evidence, handwriting, photographs, police files, and newspaper cuttings.
His most admired novel,Missing Person, is a good example.It's the story about a detective who has lost his memory.He tries to find out who he really is by following his own steps through history.
Although Modiano's win is a surprise outside France, people are celebrating in his home country.Modiano is the 15th French literature winner.After Le Clezio's 2008 win, it seemed unlikely that there would be another so soon. | high14180.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "love cooking at home"
},
"options": [
"have s in Europe",
"love cooking at home",
"often hold parties",
"own a restaurant"
],
"question": "We can learn from the text that Lieberman's family _ .",
"questi... | Growing in Philadelphia, Lieberman started cooking with his stay-at-home dad when he was seven. His food-loving family had two kitchens, and quickly learned what was the best way to bake his cakes. Lieberman improved his kitchen skills greatly during a year abroad before college, learning from a cook in Italy and studying local specialties in Germany, Spain and France. At Yale, he was known for throwing dinner parties, single-handedly frying and baking while mixing drinks for dozens of friends. Just for fun, he and some friends decided to tape a show named Campus Cuisineabout his cooking. Lieberman was a real college student showing his classmates how to do things like make drinks out of dining-hall fruit. That helped the show become very popular among the students. They would stop Lieberman after classes to ask for his advice on cooking. Tapes of the show were passed around, with which his name went beyond the school and finally to the Food Network.
Food Network producer Flay hopes the young cook will find a place on the network television. He says Lieberman's _ is key."Food TV isn't about food anymore,"says Flay."It's about your personality and finding a way to keep people's eyeballs on your show."
But Lieberman isn't putting all his eggs in one basket. After taping the first season of the new show, Lieberman was back in his own small kitchen preparing sandwiches. An airline company was looking for someone to come up with a tasteful, inexpensive and easy-to-make menu to serve on its flights. Lieberman got the job. | high20225.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "they don't want to spend time and energy on them"
},
"options": [
"they don't want to spend time and energy on them",
"they never have a chance to question them",
"they think they deserve tickets for their mistakes",
"t... | Few things can get normally calm people angry like finding a parking ticket attached to the windshield of their cars,especially when they seem undeserved.But most people don't want to invest the time and energy to beat them.
Now a new iPhone app,Fixed,will take on the task of beating a ticket:suggesting reasons it might be wrong,gathering supporting evidence and submitting proper paperwork to get drivers out of them. If the driver beats the ticket,they pay Fixed 25%of what it would have cost.
"When you mention parking tickets to people,most people think they've received an unfair one,"said David Hegarty,the designer of Fixed,who came up with the idea after getting six parking tickets in one day.
When someone gets a ticket,they snap a photo of it on their iPhone and enter the code.The app will tell them what percentage of those types of tickets are usually overturned and then show a list of possible reasons it could be found wrong such as a traffic sign covered by a leafy tree or a broken parking meter.If the motorists think they have a case,the app will remind them to get any additional photographic evidence with their phone and then digitally sign a letter.
Fixed's business model isn't completely new.There are companies that handle such cases for large companies such as FedEx and UPS.The difference is that Fixed is making the service available to individuals,thus helping in any area where the fee amount is small enough not to protest in person,but still big enough to make someone angry."That's our sweet spot,"David said. | high17489.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Quack was quite sure of his success"
},
"options": [
"Quick had been well prepared for it",
"Quack was quite sure of his success",
"Quick decided to teach Quack a lesson",
"Quick and Quack planned a trick for each other... | Quick and Quack were two brave little ducks who lived with their mother. Both were really fast and were always competing against each other.
One day, after visiting their uncle Ducklass, Quack shouted, "Last one home is a goose!" and both ducks swam quickly down the river. They both knew the way well, but
Quack had been preparing a trick for some time. He had realized that the current in the middle of the river was stronger, and would help him. So, even though Mother Duck had told them never to swim in the middle of the river, Quack paddled over to it. "I'm old enough now to swim here," he thought to himself.
It wasn't long before he realized his mother had been right. He was going much faster than Quick, and was developing a big lead. Quick was not amused. He never disobeyed his mother, and now he was going to lose the race! As they went on, the current got stronger.
Quack proudly crossed the finishing line, without realizing he headed straight for a big whirlpool in the middle of the river. Before he could react, he was turning around in it, unable to escape.
No duck was strong enough to swim in those waters, and poor Quack kept swallowing water. The fact that he was struggling hard didn't help matters much either.
Fortunately, a cow from a nearby farm came by, and seeing Quack, he jumped in and rescued him. When he was on dry ground, he remained uncomfortable for quite some time. That provided quite a laugh for different animals that had been watching. | high18962.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "keeping patients healthy"
},
"options": [
"curing a disease",
"herbal treatment",
"continuous development",
"keeping patients healthy"
],
"question": "Modern holistic medicine centers upon _ .",
"question... | The oldest forms of medicine are enjoying a comeback. Modern holistic medicine is an approach that treats the whole patient, not just the disease. It is a way to maintain good health rather than cure illness. The most important influences on today's holistic medicine are ancient Chinese medicine and Indian Ayurvedic medicine, both of which promoted the whole body health.
Holistic medicine usually combines diet, physical exercise and meditation, together with other alternative techniques such as massage and acupuncture . Herbal treatment ,a practice of treating illness by using plants, is influenced by the writings of Culpeper as well as Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. Homeopathy is one of the forms of holistic medicine which is widely practiced in Europe and the USA. Homeopathy began in Germany in the early 1800s, when Samuel Hahnemann described how very tiny doses of a drug had an effect on his patients. According to Hahnemann, the more the drug was diluted , the stronger its effects. The substance selected would produce similar effects to the disease itself if given in large doses. In the UK homeopathy is regarded as a non-traditional but just about acceptable treatment.
Meditation and contemplation have an important role in holistic medicine. They were brought to Europe by Indian teachers who combined Indian Ayurvedic medicine with Western beliefs. Transcendental meditation is one of the best known of these techniques. People repeat words inside their head to reach a state of deep relaxation.
The holistic movement has made many doctors look at the whole patient, not just the disease. Life-style, emotional problems and diet are just some of the factors that can affect a person's health. Holistic medicine emphasizes good diet, exercise and fresh air, all of which contribute to health. Some clinics now offer holistic medicine along with traditional treatments, so that their patients can choose a combination of treatments that suits them. One problem with holistic medicine is that it is difficult for people to be sure a doctor is reliable. To solve this, many countries want alternative doctors to form professional bodies. | high16797.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "another person's parachute stopped his from opening"
},
"options": [
"his feet hit the ground too hard",
"his parachute was under another person's",
"another person's parachute stopped his from opening",
"he was trainin... | In 1986, when Monty Reed was a member of the Army Rangers ( ), he had an accident. "It was a night jump, and we were jumping low," he recalls. "We were training. Somebody got too close to my parachute ."The parachute below blocked Reed's air and his parachute failed to open. Reed crashed a hundred feet to the ground, breaking his back in five places.
The next morning, Reed could not move. "Doctors said it was likely that I would never walk again." Reed stared out of his hospital window, wondering what the future would be like. It was the saddest moment of his life. "The experts are telling me my body doesn't work! What am I supposed to do?" he thought.
To distract himself, he picked up a book: Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. The science-fiction describes a set of man-made muscles that would allow people to carry 2,000 pounds. He thought that if he could build something like that, it might be able to lift him out of his wheelchair. So he began his project and finally succeeded in building a set of robot legs. Several years later, he made an amazing recovery and was able to get up and walk away from his wheelchair. He even jumped out of an airplane again to celebrate.
Reed wanted to do something for others with the second chance that life had given him. He has now perfected the robot legs that can get the injured, the elderly and the paralyzed out of their wheelchairs. Now he has started his own company to make the legs. "I've seen them compete in marathons and go swimming and mountain climbing," he said. "So never give up!" | high2879.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "he was too nervous to express himself well"
},
"options": [
"he was not familiar with the topic",
"the audience didn' t understand him",
"he was shy and miss the key points",
"he was too nervous to express himself well"... | SPEAKING in front of groups may not be a big deal for some people, and there are those who probably sail through their careers without ever having to do so.When I was studying for my C.P.A., I was sure that I d be safe.But life isn't predictable.I ended up in a career that depends on public speaking.
I ran my own accounting firm for eight years, and in 2009 was co-founder of the American Institute of Certified Tax Coaches, a nonprofit group based in San Diego that educates accountants, lawyers and other tax professionals.
Before we started the organization, in fact, I thought I) d better get some practice--but my first talk around that time, in front of group of 200 professional advisers for older taxpayers, with
my body trembling all the time, was a fiasco .
After that, I decided to _ as many speaking opportunities as possible, to try to become more comfortable with the idea of talking before groups.I knew it wouldn't be easy.I know the material --I've written two books about taxes ?but I am a bit of a perfectionist and rely heavily on notes, which can create a lot of anxiety.
I talked to my father about how the magic trick had bombed, and he suggested that I have him criticize me.I gave the same speech to him, without the magic trick.He said that I seemed more nervous when I relied on my notes and that I should speak more from my heart.I've done that ever since, and it has helped. To gain more experience, I still look for speaking opportunities. I speak before various associations, and I started appearing on television news and talk shows a little more than a year ago.I've been on local TV in places like San Diego, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Hawaii.
I've made much progress.I've had several audience members come up to me and say they thought my talk was great and that they learned a lot.It' s hard to believe, but some people have asked: u Do you ever get nervous? Because you don' t look nervous at all.You' re such a natural at this. | high21885.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "A couple who learn how to climb."
},
"options": [
"A family who love rock climbing.",
"A couple who learn how to climb.",
"A woman who is brave to climb.",
"A story about a pregnant woman."
],
"question": "What ... | Erica and Steve Lineberry have been rock climbing since 2005. They were first introduced to it while visiting a family in Montana. Now they are at climbing centers, like Inner Peaks in Charlotte, three times a week, and on weekends they climb outdoors.
Steve said they first started climbing as part of their exercise. Years later, he lost 60 pounds. But as the couple's interest in the sport grew, they consulted some _ and started climbing outdoors.
Then Erica got pregnant. "Most people think that rock climbing and pregnancy don't go very well together," Erica said. But with lots of places to go, Erica kept climbing through her pregnancy. Then her son, Canaan, was born. She says the baby immediately started participating in the family sport. "He went to the gym the first time with us at four weeks old, and then we took our first outdoor trip, just a day trip, at six weeks old with him."
Now Canaan is three-year-old, and Erica is once again pregnant: 7 months along. During her first pregnancy, she blogged about climbing while pregnant. Now her Cragmama.com website is a top resource for families who rock climb. Erica said, "I think a lot of people will say, they'll wait a few years until they get into an easier age or an easier life phase with their kids. And I think if they wait for that they're going to wait forever." Her message to women is to quickly climb back into the things you love; and that your life is not over once you are a mother.
Cragmama.com website is quickly becoming the face of mommy rock climbing. She contributes to a handful of climbing magazines. Outdoor equipment companies ask her to wear and use their gear . And her website is a popular resource for families who are not only interested in climbing with their children, but also interested in taking on other adventures too. | high10480.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "It will cause plants to have some kind of disease."
},
"options": [
"We can still see an object clearly covered with the liquid.",
"It will cause plants to have some kind of disease.",
"Plants still have access to oxygen when... | Invented in Turkey and patented by Nanopool, a German company, the spray-on liquid glass might become one of the most useful inventions in the field of nanotechnology. The product was tested at the Saarbrucken Institute for New Materials.
It is worth mentioning that the invention is transparent and non-poisonous. The liquid glass can protect any type of surface from damages caused by water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. Besides, it is flexible and breathable, which means that the liquid glass can be applied on plants and seeds as well. Researchers found that the spray greatly increases the resistance of plants to bacteria-caused diseases. The trials also showed that the sprayed seeds grew faster.
Depending on the type of surface that is to be covered, researchers can add water or ethanol to the spray. Scientists say that _ . The spray produces a coating that is just 100nm thick. Trials by food processing plants in Germany have concluded that foods covered with the glass can store longer than those stored in normal condition.
According to Neil McClelland, UK project manager with Nanopool, due to its capabilities, the spray-on liquid glass can become one of the most useful inventions around the world, ending up being used by a lot of industries that will cover their products. At present, the invention is being used by a train company and a hotel chain in the UK, as well as a hamburger chain in Germany that are carrying out tests of the liquid glass for various uses.
The spray-on liquid glass was also tested in a Lancashire hospital, where it showed "very promising" results, being used to cover medical equipment and bandages. The invention could be also used on clothing, because it cannot be seen by the naked eye, thus clothes could become stain resistant. Due to its unique characteristics, the liquid glass can be used to cover bathrooms, sinks and many other surfaces in the home. According to the researchers, the spay-on glass can last for a year. It is expected to hit the DIY stores across Britain at a price of 5 pounds. | high20543.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "To read effectively in an active way."
},
"options": [
"To get the students out of the classrooms.",
"To make the students more active in sports.",
"To read effectively in an active way.",
"To help the overweight studen... | Sitting at a desk in a classroom all day can be pretty boring.
The teachers at Ward Elementary in Winston -Salem,North Carolina ,picked up on that and traded in their students' desks for exercise bikes as a part of their Read and Ride program!
The Read and Ride program began five years ago.One classroom has enough bikes for every student in any given class,and throughout the day teachers bring in their students to the room to ride them and read their books.
Even regular classrooms have one bike in the back of each room for students who just can't sit still to use to help them burn energy in a good way.
Students love being more active! Teachers enjoy seeing students eager to read.Parents appreciate stronger,smarter children.Headmasters value this effective and cost-free program."Riding exercise bikes makes reading fun for many kids who get frustrated when they read.Thus,they have a way to release that frustration while they ride,"said Scott Ertl,who started the program."As we can see,everyone wants to promote literacy and lose weight! But many students who are overweight struggle with sports and activities since they don't want to always be the last or lose with others watching on the playground.On exercise bikes,however,students are able to exert themselves at their own level--without anyone noticing when they slow down or take a break."
As it turns out,not only are the bikes helping the students burn calories,they're also helping them learn better and stay focused.At the end of the school year the school analyzed testing data and found that students that spent more time reading and riding did more than twice as well on reading tests than their fellow students who spent the least time in the program. | high9092.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Men have learnt to use language."
},
"options": [
"Men have learnt to use language.",
"Men can learn.",
"Men can understand things quickly.",
"Men have brains."
],
"question": "In what way are men different from... | Man has a big brain. He can think, learn and speak. Scientists once thought that men are different from animals because they can think and learn. They know that animals can learn--dogs, rats, birds can learn. So scientists are beginning to understand that men are different from animals because they can speak. Animals cannot speak. They make noises when they are afraid, or angry, or unhappy. Apes can understand some things more quickly than human, one or two have learnt a few words. But they are still different from us. They cannot join words and make sentences; they cannot think like us because they have no language. They can never think about the past or the future.
Language is a wonderful thing. Man has been able to build a modern world because he has language. Every child can speak his own language very well when he is four or five--but no animal learns to speak. How do children learn? What happens when we speak? Scientists do not know.
They only know that man can speak because he has a big brain. | high13189.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "get people to sing and improve their health"
},
"options": [
"encourage people to sing for God at Christmas",
"study the effects of singing on people",
"get people to sing and improve their health",
"bring happiness to ... | Whether it's a carol service or an evening of karaoke in the pub, many people will enjoy a good old singsong this Christmas. Singing aloud will not just lift the spirits---it's good for your physical health as well. Filling the lungs with air, increasing the heart rate and getting blood pumping round the body faster can all help our physical health.
For the past few years Heart Research UK has been Funding a Christmas campaign aimed at getting people singing, simply for the benefit it can bring. The organizer of the campaign says singing is a safe, simple and social activity that everyone can enjoy. "Singing is linked to long life, stress reduction, and general health protection. It also brings a great amount of happiness. It is impossible to sing well with a long face because it affects your pitch ."
Professor Graham Welch, who leads the International Music Education Research Centre at the University of London, has spent more than 30 years studying the effects of singing. He says that singing is a form of exercise. It means we're also having a strong aerobic activity when we're singing, which results in increasing the feeling of pleasure while decreasing that of stress.
"And communal singing--like in a singing group, a church service or even a singsong in the pub--helps improve our sense of self-respect. It increases our sense of satisfaction with ourselves, a greater sense of feeling included. "
Helen Astrid, a singing teacher, also sees the great effects that singing brings. "It lifts us up on a spiritual level, it helps our self-respect, and it's great for all ages from small kids to grannies--you can have a good sing and _ ."
But she warns people not to have too many beers or glasses of wine, though a glass may help them gather courage before taking to the stage during the holidays. | high12297.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "a way of warning"
},
"options": [
"showing they are happy",
"a way of warning",
"showing they are angry",
"a way of greeting"
],
"question": "Some scientists believe that most of the time bird's singing is actua... | Have you ever wondered why birds sing? Maybe you thought that they were just happy. After all, you probably sing or whistle when you are happy.
Some scientists believe that birds do sing some of the time just because they are happy. However, they sing most of the time for a very different reason. Their singing is actually a warning to other birds to stay out of their territory.
Do you know what a 'territory' is? A territory is an area that an animal, usually the male, claims as its own. Only he and his family are welcome there. No other families of the same species are welcome. Your yard and house are your territory where only your family and friends are welcome. If a stranger enter your territory and threaten you, you may shout. Probably this is enough to frighten him away.
If so, you have actually scared the stranger away without having to fight him. A bird does the same thing. But he expects an outsider almost any time, especially at nesting season. So he is screaming all the time, whether he can see an outsider or not. This screaming is what we call a bird's song, and it is usually enough to keep an outsider away.
Birds sing loudest in the spring when they are trying to attract a mate and warn others not to enter the territory of theirs.
You can see that birds have a language of their own. Most of it has something to do with attracting mates and setting up territories. | high22354.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "praise people for their good performances"
},
"options": [
"give helpful criticism",
"regard others as real heroes",
"praise people for their good performances",
"praise everyone"
],
"question": "The part Always... | Being considered a leader in our society is indeed of high praise.Leadership means power,
commands respect and, most important, encourages achievement.Unlike vitamin C, leadership
skills can't be easily swallowed down.They must be carefully cultivated.
Different from popular belief, most good leaders are made, not born.They learn their skills in their everyday lives.But which do they develop? How do they (and how can you) get others to follow?
Always give credit.Many leaders note that the most efficient way to get a good performance
from others is to treat them like heroes.Giving public credit to someone who has earned it is the best leadership technique in the world.It is also an act of generosity that's never forgotten.
Giving credit is more effective than even the most constructive criticism , which often
hurts rather than helps.Kenneth Blanchard, the author of The One-Minute Manager, agrees.
"Catch people doing something right!" he says.Then tell everyone about it.
Take informed risks." The best leaders know that taking a risk is not a thoughtless exercise,"
says management adviser Marilyn Machlowitz."Sky divers don't go up in an airplane without checking the parachutes beforehand."
Because the idea of risk also carries with it the possibility of failure, many of us usually wait
for others to take charge.But if you want to be a leader, you must learn to fail - and not die a
thousand deaths.Pick yourself up and start all over again.
Encourage enthusiasm ."When people understand the importance of work, they lend
their mental strengths," says Lee Ducat.But when they get excited about the work, all their energy gets poured into the job.That's a great force! Is this the best way to create excitement? Be
enthusiastic your-self - You will be followed by everyone. | high21675.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "The community clinics."
},
"options": [
"The community clinics.",
"Large hospital .",
"Private clinic .",
"Small hospital ."
],
"question": "Where does a person go to see first if he gets sick according to the p... | Beijing, April 2----Starting from this year, the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau will begin to promote a home medical service. With this service a medical team which is made up of a doctor, a nurse and a medical health worker will be sent to some communities in the city. They will set up a medical filing recorder for every resident in community and publicize their contact information to them. If people in the community feel sick, they can consult their community doctor first. If community doctors cannot treat their illness, they will then be transferred to large hospitals. Liang Wan, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, made the statement last Friday .
In addition ,the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau will set up some funds to train home medical service workers for families whose members suffer either from high blood pressure, diabetes,cerebral apoplexy , or coronary heart disease . The home medical service workers will remind patients to take pills on time and lead the patients to follow some health tips in their daily life. They will also learn some practical knowledge to save patients in case of an emergency .
The work will first begin in the medical service room in the 25 community centers and spread to all communities in Beijing. The disease prevention and control centers at various counties and districts in Beijing will be responsible for teaching community doctors and giving home medical service lectures, or advice . These workers will not be able to work until they pass related examination and obtain the work certificates. It is expected that by the end of this year, there will be 10000 home medical service workers in Beijing . | high5858.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "only wild,irresponsible,lawless young men enjoy motorcycling"
},
"options": [
"motorcyclists are all blue-collar workers",
"motorcycling has become one of prefix = st1 /America's most popular sports",
"only wild,irresponsible... | In the U.S.,the public has tended to believe that all motorcycles are ridden by wild,irresponsible lawless young men.
There are several things about motorcycling that the average citizen dislikes.A cyclist's appearance has something to do with this dislike.Motorcyclists frequency look dirty;in fact,they are dirty.0n the road there is little to protect them from mud,crushed insects and bird droppings.For practical reasons they are often dressed in old clothing which looks much less respectable than the clothing of people who ride in cars.For the same reason motorcyclists usually wear dark color1s.Perhaps this helps to explain why they are sometimes suspected of having evil natures. In old plays of long ago,evil characters usually wore black. In cowboy movies the"bad guys"usually wear black hats while the"good guys"wear lighter color1s.Something else about their appearance makes an unfavorable impression. In their practical,protective clothing they look very much like the men on military motorcycles in the movies of World War II--cruel enemies who roared into peaceful villages filling people's hearts with fear.
Probably the machine itself also produces anger and fear. Motorcycles are noisy,though some big trucks are even noisier.But trucks are big and carry heavy loads;they are accepted(if not really welcomed)because they perform a needed service,making America move.Motorcycles,on the other hand,make all unpleasant noise just to give their riders pleasure.That is what is commonly thought.In the woods motorcycles,frighten animals.Roaring along quiet streets, they wake sleeping families and make babies cry.
Of course the danger of motorcycling,also helps account for many people's low opinion of the sport.Its defenders, however,claim that careful cyclists are in less danger than commonly behaved.
A cyclist must drive as if everybody around him wanted to kill him.He must pay careful attention to his driving.From that point of view,a man on a motorcycle is safer than,a man in a car. | high23062.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "comes unexpectedly"
},
"options": [
"comes unexpectedly",
"is inherited from parents",
"results from hard work",
"is trained in early times"
],
"question": "According to some parents, prodigies' extraordinary ta... | Matt Haimovitz is 42 and a renowned cellist in the world. He rushed into the classical music scene at the age of 12 after Itzhak Perlman, the famed violinist, heard him play.
But nothing in his family history explains where Haimovitz got his extraordinary talent. And that's typical, Ellen Winner, a professor says.
"People are fascinated by these children because they don't understand where their talent came from. You will see parents who say, 'I wasn't like this, and my husband wasn't like this.' It seems to sometimes just come out of the blue," Winner says.
It's not clear whether a prodigy's brain is any different from the brains of other children, in part because there have been no study comparing the brains of prodigies to those of average people.
"But I believe that anything that shows up so early, without training, has got to be either a genetic or some other biological basis," Winner says. "If a child suddenly at the age of 3 goes to the piano and picks out a tune and does it beautifully, that has to be because that child has a different brain."
Children who are extremely gifted tend to be socially different, too, Winner says. "They feel like they can't find other kids like themselves, so they feel strange, maybe even like a freak, and feel like they don't have anybody to connect with. On the other hand, they also long to connect with other kids, and they can't find other kids like themselves."
As Haimovitz got older, he became frustrated. He wanted to play other kinds of music but felt constricted by the image and the expectations of the boy prodigy who played classical music and filled concert halls.
"When you start that early, you suddenly start to grow up in public, and I wanted to experiment," Haimovitz says.
So he took his cello into punk rock clubs and coffee houses. He played Bach, Haydn and Hendrix. "My teacher was Leonard Rose, and we never played any 20th-century music. He didn't like it. But once I was exposed to James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix, Miles Dewey Davis El and others, I couldn't really turn back. I wanted to know more," he says. | high6389.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "in her early twenties"
},
"options": [
"in her early twenties",
"in her early teens",
"in her late twenties",
"in her late teens"
],
"question": "Jane Austen paid two long visits to Bath _ .",
"question_t... | Jane Austen, a famous English writer, was born in Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775, and died on July 18,1817. She began writing early in life, although the prejudices of her times forced her to have her books published anonymously. .
But Jane Austen is perhaps the best known and best loved of Bath's many famous local people and visitors. She paid two long visits during the last five years of the eighteenth century and from 1801 to 1806, Bath was her home. Her deep knowledge of the city is fully seen in two of her novels, Northanger Addey and Persuasion, which are largely set in Bath. The city is still very much as Jane Austen knew it, keeping its streets and public buildings the well--ordered world that she described so well in her novels. Now the pleasure of learning Jane Austen's Bath can be enhanced by visiting the Jane Austen Center in Gay Street. Here, in a Georgian town house in the heart of the city, you can find out more about Bath in Jane Austen's time and the importance of Bath in her life and work.
The Center has been set up with the help and guidance of members of the Jane Austen Society. After your visit to the Center, you can look round the attractive shop, which offers a huge collection of Jane Austen related books, cards and many specially designed gifts. Jane Austen quizzes are offered to keep the children busy.
You can also have walking tours of Jane Austen's Bath, which is a great way to find out more about Jane Austen and discover the wonderful Georgian city of Bath. The tour lasts about one and a half hours. The experienced guides will take you to the places where Jane lived, walked and shopped. | high172.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "students who plan to apply for American universities"
},
"options": [
"Chinese students who want to go to college in America",
"American students who intend to apply for college admission in China",
"students who plan to appl... | You may complain that there are too many tests on the way to college entrance, but an increasing number of students want to take one more. That is the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT, an American test for students who intend to apply for college admission.
Chen Huanlu, aged 18, from Shandong Province took part in the SAT subject tests (SAT 2) in Hong Kong on June 2. She has also been scheduled to take the SAT reasoning test (SAT 1) in October.
"I hope to study environmental engineering at an American university, where I may have more opportunities to get cutting-edge knowledge in this area," said Chen.
However, not all SAT test takers want to apply to American universities.
"I wanted to see how I would do when faced with plenty of stress and also to evaluate my scholastic level by an American standard. The SATs made my school life more diverse," said Senior 2 student Zhou Yuxiang from Sichuan Province.
Zhou, aged 17, a top student in his school, was inspired by some of his friends. They have taken this test and been admitted to American universities, including Harvard and Yale. Last winter vacation he took a 20-day SAT course at Chengdu New Oriental School.
"As I prepared for the test in the following months, I was forced to balance my everyday schedule better. Fortunately I was optimistic enough to have undergone the most difficult time," he said.
In May and June, Zhou flew alone to Hong Kong to sit for the SAT1 and SAT2.
"They are both the standards which have been set for us to reach. What we should do more sensibly is to try harder to prepare for them. Survival of the fittest is true both in America and in China. That is something I have learnt beyond the SAT itself," he said. | high14816.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "its dishonesty in business"
},
"options": [
"its dishonesty in business",
"its bad management",
"its previous images",
"its poor service"
],
"question": "The downfall of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm is du... | "Image is everything." An entire industry has been built upon the concept that image is everything, but an appealing image isn't enough when there's no substance behind it.
First of all, one should consider how important image is in selling products and services. Advertising agencies have raised the art of creating an image to a state of near perfection. But if the product or service doesn't live up to it, customers will be very dissatisfied. The recent scandal about the Arthur Andersen accounting firm showed that behind that image, it had unfair business practices under the table. Despite the previous positive image, the firm is being accused of criminal actions. Although the image had been nearly perfect, the reality behind the image has led to its downfall.
Similarly, personal consultants can build up a very positive public image for politicians and movie stars in the view of the general commons. But once again, history is filled with examples of both that fell from grace like the story of the Hollywood actor giving in to the pressures of fame and fortune. With people, just as with products and services, image is certainly important, but without positive substance behind it, failure is close.
To conclude, it's clear that an appealing image is extremely important to success, whether that image is related to selling a product or service or to the "selling" of a person. But image is only half of the equation . What lies behind that image is every bit as important as the image itself -- the person or product must live up to that image or there's little chance for long-term success. | high7097.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "looked down upon disabled people"
},
"options": [
"helped disabled people",
"looked down upon disabled people",
"imagined herself sitting in a wheelchair",
"saw some healthy people moving around in wheelchairs"
],
... | I always felt sorry for the people in wheelchairs. Some people, old and weak, cannot get around by themselves. Others seem perfectly healthy, dressed in business suits. But whenever I saw someone in a wheelchair, I only saw a disability, not a person.
Then I fainted at Euro Disney due to low blood pressure. This was the first time I had ever fainted, and my parents insisted that I rest for a while after first aid. They said to me, " _ !" I agreed to take it easy, but as I stepped toward the door, I saw my dad pushing a wheelchair in my direction! Feeling the color burn my cheeks, I asked him to wheel that thing right back to where he found it.
I could not believe this was happening to me. Wheelchairs were fine for other people but not for me, as my father wheeled me out into the main street, people immediately began to treat me differently.
Little kids ran in front of me, forcing my father to stop the wheelchair suddenly. Bitterness set in as I was thrown back and forth.
"Stupid kids! They have perfectly good legs. Why can't they watch where they are going?" I thought. People stared down at me, pity in their eyes. Then they would look away, maybe because they thought the sooner they forgot me the better.
"I'm just like you!" I wanted to scream." The only difference is you've got legs, and I have wheels."
People in wheelchairs are not stupid. They see every look and hear each word. Looking out at the faces, I finally understood: I was once just like them. I treated people in wheelchairs exactly the way they did not want to be treated. I realized it is some of us with two healthy legs who are truly disabled. | high9904.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "To make her husband go to work conveniently"
},
"options": [
"To find a part-time job in the library.",
"To make new friends with the local people.",
"To enjoy the beauty of the Mississippi River",
"To make her husband ... | In our old neighborhood, neighbors chatted over fences. Newcomers were welcomed with chocolate and bread. It had been easy to find friends there. Our new community was different. It seemed that family roots grew deep. Deep as the Mississippi river that flowed past the tiny river town.
We'd moved to decrease my husband's commute to work. Only thirty miles.
After living there for six months, I was ready to move back home. I was lonely for a friend. My three boys were lonely. My husband, Lonny, fared okay, but he spent his days at work.
Lonny noticed my sinking disposition.
"Shawnelle, you look unapproachable," he said. He and I were sitting in lawn chairs. Samuel, our three-year-old son sat in his own little chair.
"What do you mean?"
"Body language. You placed our chairs fifteen yards away from everyone else."
"It doesn't matter. I'm not going to have friends here. " Just then Samuel looked up. "Mom's right, Dad. And we just want to go home. "
That's when I knew that I needed an adjustment. I didn't want my boys to learn that the way to work through a tough time was to use a wounded and bitter attitude.
Over the next few months I smiled when I didn't feel like it. We signed up for reading programs at the library and frequented parks and the bike path along the river.
One afternoon Samuel and I clambered up the stairs to the library activity room. A woman who I hadn't seen before sat at an oblong table with a tiny boy.
"Hi," she said. "I'm Tammy. Do you need a seat? There's one right here."
I sat down next to Tammy. Soon class was over, and I still had a lot to say. "Why don't you come over later?" Tammy asked. "I live on a farm. There's plenty of room for the kids to run. " We went. And since that day, we've been back a million times.
When I look back, I'm grateful for that tough time. I learned to persevere. I'm glad I didn't give up.
And as for my boys, they learned a lesson too. "Keep moving forward," is what I tell them. "Your heart will follow." | high23704.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Some suggestions of dealing with exam stress."
},
"options": [
"How to design revision plans for exams.",
"How to increase confidence to pass exams.",
"Some suggestions of dealing with exam stress.",
"The influence of e... | The exam period is always a stressful time and it does not do justice for our mind and our physical body. We all cope with pressure in various ways. Yet you have no fear because there are ways to keep a healthy mind and healthy body.
Whether you are planning your week or planning your day of study, a revision timetable will keep you focused and it will make it a lot less difficult to achieve those glorious high marks. A timetable will direct your efforts in the right direction. Besides, you also enjoy the satisfaction you get as a result of completing the most impossible timetable. Strict deadlines and time management techniques increase your confidence and make you work more efficiently .
Unfortunately, the work does not stop after perfecting the revision timetable. It is much easier to get motivated but more difficult to insist. It is fundamental that you choose to study in a quiet place where any distractions are out of sight. However, one mistake we all make is where we sit down, bury ourselves in books and remain in the same position until the sun goes down. You may think you have had a highly productive day of revision but in fact the quality of your work would have been better if you had allowed yourself short and often breaks. There is of course a limit to how long you can concentrate for. Therefore, it is important that you get some fresh air throughout the day. These breaks help to absorb what you have learnt and help avoid information overload.
And lastly, avoid separating yourself from everybody else. Remember we have all felt under pressure at one point. Ask questions if you do not understand something. Learn to talk about it with friends or family when you are feeling stressed. You will have the ability to put everything back into a bright future. | high18792.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "the stores are often overcrowded in this month"
},
"options": [
"she has to spend more money shopping in stores",
"the stores are often overcrowded in this month",
"she cannot buy what she needs in stores",
"people may ... | For 11 months of every year, I am without doubt, a dedicated lover of shopping. During my lunch breaks, you'll often find me wandering through a nearby department store, sandwich in hand. On the weekends, I'll likely be searching the stores of my local markets and fairs.
Come December however, it's an entirely different story. The time of year generally connected with joy and cheer can be unbelievably stressful. From buying Christmas presents to ransacking grocery stores in preparation for family gatherings, December is a month that traditionally includes spending a lot of time and money in overcrowded shopping centers and supermarkets.
What's worse than this pre-Christmas rush are the sales that happen in its wake. Every year in Britain, Canada and Australia, Boxing Day sales bring thousands of shoppers to malls and department stores. Attracted by the promise of impressive price reductions, some people start lining up outside stores the night before sales even begin. This year, during the US' post-Thanksgiving "Black Friday" sales, 20 were injured after a woman, too eager for a discounted Xbox video game, squirted pepper spray inside a Walmart.
It's madness like this that has now driven me to the world of online shopping. Not only can I avoid having my personal space invaded by crowds of crazy shoppers, but nowadays, most brands and online stores offer their own sales and special deals.
Say goodbye to human rushes and bad department store music.
While websites like eBay are great for general items and secondhand goods, the Internet now offers a huge variety of specialty stores .
For clothes and accessories, ASOS.com (UK) and Shopbop.com (US) are personal favorites. Both of these offer a range of great designers, discounted prices and free worldwide shipping. In terms of brand-name makeup and beauty products, strawberrynet.com (US) is my go-to site, with its large collection and heavily reduced prices.
When shopping online, it's important to stick to safe websites, so be sure to read the privacy and safety policies before making any buying.
When paying, I prefer using third party services, like those provided by PayPal, to make sure my financial details remain secret. Also, if you're looking to buy your Christmas presents online, it's best to keep in mind the shipping time needed. The last thing you want is for your brother's jacket to arrive a week into January. Ks5u | high16967.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "You can easily rent a car to explore its most beautiful touring routes."
},
"options": [
"More travelers make the flying fees among airlines higher than before.",
"You can easily rent a car to explore its most beautiful touring rou... | You know Australia is a big country, but you may not know how easy it is to get around. The _ beaches that go for miles and deserts that touch the horizon are just there, waiting to be reached and explored. The following are the different ways you can explore our vast country.
Getting around Australia
Air
Flying is the best way to cover large distances in a short time. You can spend more time on the Australia's can't-miss landscapes and relaxing lifestyle. Moreover, competition among airlines makes great flying fees available for you.
Drive
Australia has a vast network of well-maintained roads and some of the most beautiful touring routes in the world. You have no difficulty finding car rental companies at major airports, central city locations, suburbs and attractions.
Bus
Bus travel in Australia is comfortable, easy and economical. Buses generally have air conditioning, reading lights, adjustable seats and videos. Services are frequent, affordable and efficient.
Rail
Train travel is the cheapest and gives you an insight into Australia's size and variety, all from the comfort of your carriage. Scheduled services are a great way to get quickly between our cities and regional centers.
Ferry
The Spirit of Tasmania runs a passenger and vehicle ferry service between Melbourne and Tasmania nightly. Extra services are running during summer rush hours. Sealink ferries connect South Australia and Kangaroo Island several times a day. Ferries connect suburbs in our capital cities.
Walk
With easy on the feet pedestrian streets, walking is a great way to get around our cities.
Besides all the above, you can also experience some of the longest tracks and trails in the world in central Australia--impressive journeys of a thousand kilometers or more that can take several weeks to complete. | high3597.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "complaint"
},
"options": [
"apology",
"sympathy",
"appreciation",
"complaint"
],
"question": "The first email is basically an email of _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | To: "The Shoe People" <inquiries@shoepeople.com>
From: "John Trimbald" <jtconstruction@img.com>
Subject: Customer Complaint
To Whom it May Concern,
I have trusted the Shoe People to protect the feet of my employees for over ten years now. I recently purchased a few pairs of boots from your company for my crew. Though my men were initially satisfied with the boots, the soles began to fall apart on them after just twelve weeks. This was extremely surprising considering they came with a six year warranty. The boots are unsafe to wear because my men are pouring hot concrete. Please respond as soon as possible with instructions on how I can return the boots and receive a refund.
Thank you,
John Trimbald, Foreman, JT Construction
To: "John Trimbald" <jtconstruction @ img. com>
From: "The Shoe People" <inquiries @ shoepeople. com>
Dear Mr. Trimbald,
Thank you for your e-mail concerning the poor quality of our rubber soled black workboots. A representative will be by your office next week to pick up the damaged boots. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you and your crew.
Along with five new pairs of workboots for your crew (we included one extra pair), we have enclosed a free year's supply of sole protector spray. In our retail stores, this spray is always recommended to buyers who work on heated floors. This should have been brought to your attention at the time of your initial order. Please excuse our oversight.
To date we have had no complaints about these workboots from customers who have used the protector spray. However, should you use the spray and find that you are still unsatisfied with the boots, please return the boots and spray for a full refund. Thank you for supporting The Shoe People. Have a Happy New Year.
Sincerely,
Stan Mason, President | high2851.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": ".they have to spend more time taking care of their home than men"
},
"options": [
"they are not expected to be high achievers",
".they have to spend more time taking care of their home than men",
".they are expected to ensure... | Men have always believed that they are smarter than women. Now, a study has found that
while this is certainly true, men also have to deal with the fact that they are also more stupid than the fairer sex.
In the study, scientists measured the IQ of 2500 brothers and sisters and they found an
uneven number of men not only in the top two percent, but also in the bottom two percent. The
study's participants were tested on science, maths, English and mechanical abilities.
Though there were twice as many men as women in the smartest group, there were also
twice as many men among the foolish.
The total scores of men and women were similar.
One of the study's authors, psychology professor Timothy Bates, said that the phenomenon
may be because men have always been expected to be high achievers and women have been
restricted to spend more time taking care of their home.
"The female developmental program may be tilted more towards ensuring survival
and the safety of the middle ground."the Daily Mail quoted Professor Bates, of Edinburgh
University, as saying.
The research agrees with past results that men were more likely than women to receive first
class University degrees or thirds and women secured the seconds.
It has been said that men are more ready to take a risk when it comes to academics.
While women have always been found to be steadier in their learning.
A past study has shown that women are securing more firsts and seconds, while men are
continuing to receive more thirds.
The argument for the change is that the increase of coursework at the cost of exams favors
women's steady approach. | high21113.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "The comparison between dolphins and humans."
},
"options": [
"The comparison between dolphins and humans.",
"The relationship between dolphins and humans.",
"Different types of dolphins.",
"The habitual behavior of dolp... | Many people say dolphins are very intelligent. They seem to be able think, understand, and learn things quickly. But they are smart like humans or more like cats or dogs? Dolphins use their brains differently from people. But scientists say dolphin intelligence and human intelligence are alike in some ways. How?
FACT 1: Talk to Me
Like humans, every dolphin has its own "name". The name is a special whistle . Each dolphin chooses a specific whistle for itself, usually by its first birthday. Actually, scientists think dolphins, like people, "talk" to each other about a lot of things, such as their age, their feelings, or finding food. And, like humans dolphins use a system of sounds and body language to communicate. But understanding their conversations is not easy for humans. No one "speaks dolphin" yet, but some scientists are trying to learn.
FACT 2: Let's Play
Dolphins are also social animals. They live in groups called pods, and they often join others from different pods to play games and have fun ---just like people. In fact, playing together is something only intelligent animals do.
FACT 3: Fishermen's Helpers
Dolphins and humans are similar in another way: both make plans to get something they want. In the sea of southern Brazil, for example, dolphins use a interesting strategy to get food. When fish are near a boat, dolphins signal to the fishermen to put their nets in the water. Using this method, the men can catch a lot of fish. What is the advantage for the dolphins? Why do they assist the men? The dolphins get to eat some of the fish. | high18786.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "convince voters to support him"
},
"options": [
"take a trip",
"have himself photographed",
"make a speech about Illinois",
"convince voters to support him"
],
"question": "Lincoln went to the East in order to ... | When Abraham Lincoln was invited to give a speech in Brooklyn, New York, in February 1860, he was already famous throughout Illinois, but almost no one in the East knew what he looked like.
The presidential election of 1860 was coming, and Lincoln, as a possible Republican candidate , wanted to increase his popularity. Hoping to introduce himself to hundreds of new voters , Lincoln eagerly accepted the invitation to the East. He wrote a powerful speech opposing slavery . Then he went to Springfield, Illinois by train.
When Lincoln arrived in New York, he was surprised to learn that so many people had bought tickets for his speech that it had been moved from a small Brooklyn church to a New York City college.
Lincoln got to town exhausted. His suit was badly wrinkled , and his one piece of luggage was old and covered with dust. Worst of all, his plain face, uncombed hair shocked those who greeted him. However, his admirers decided to have Lincoln photographed . If the cameraman could make Lincoln a little handsome, perhaps he could win more votes. They found the city's most famous photographer Brady. Brady and his assistants looked through the camera and surprised by what they saw. So they decided to make an adjustment before they took the picture.
Brady walked over to Lincoln and pulled up Lincoln's shirt collar as high as it would go. As a result, the picture successfully covered up his long, ugly neck, which made Lincoln appear quite handsome.
Lincoln's speech that day proved to be a triumph. So did the photograph. The photo inspired thousands of copies; so many that Brady insisted that this picture became the means to Lincoln's election to the Presidency nine months later. If that's true it might be said that Lincoln won the election by a neck--a neck that had been shortened in New York. | high16973.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "giving examples"
},
"options": [
"giving examples",
"listing reasons",
"making comparisons",
"using quotations"
],
"question": "The writer developed the passage mainly by _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_ques... | Earlier this month, the Obama Administration called for increased protection of the world's most southern continent, Antarctica.Scientists say climate change and human activity have increasingly led to the melting of massive pieces of Antarctic ice.The disappearance of ice will not only affect wildlife in the area such as seals and penguins.The melting will also cause oceans and seas around the world to rise.
This represents a major threat, especially to coastal areas.For example, the ancient city of Venice, Italy has long been threatened by rising sea levels.The situation is made worse by the fact that its ancient buildings, built on a body of water called a lagoon , are slowly sinking.When the city was founded about 1,600 years ago, the level of the Adriatic Sea was almost two meters lower than it is today.
Rising sea levels are not the only threat.The salty water is also destroying Venice's famous buildings and artworks.The Italian government is trying to fix the problem with the construction of a seven-billion-dollar system of moving flood barriers.
Climate change is also leading to the melting of ice in other areas, such as Mount Kilimanjaro in northeastern Tanzania.It is the highest point in Africa, measuring almost 6,000 meters.The mountain supports five vegetation zones and many kinds of animals.
The ice glaciers on the mountain are disappearing very quickly.This will have a bad effect on the mountain's ecosystems and on Tanzania's travel industry.Also, a valuable record of thousands of years of weather history will also be lost if the ice melts.Scientists study pieces of glacier to understand weather patterns from thousands of years ago.
In the United States, the icy masses in Glacier National Park in Montana may soon completely disappear because of climate change.In 1850, there were an estimated 150 glaciers in the more than 400,000 hectare park.
There are 26 glaciers remaining today.Scientists estimate that the glaciers will be gone by 2030.Warming temperatures are also threatening the many kinds of plants and animals that live in this mountain ecosystem. | high21107.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "both in rural and urban communities"
},
"options": [
"near the river",
"only in rural areas",
"only in urban locations",
"both in rural and urban communities"
],
"question": "People can find a community garden ... | A community garden is a shared garden. A group of people get together and share a piece of land for their garden. This could be an empty place, or simply one at a neighbor's house.
Community gardens are not limited to urban locations. Many rural communities share garden space as well . Some communities will divide their garden into individual plots and others will work on the entire garden together. You may find some community gardens on rooftops. This provides a platform for city citizen, where they can communicate with nature even when there no yard space.
community garden can be used to grow flowers and other plants as well as produce. Some community gardeners choose to sell their homegrown goods. Others choose to use it themselves and some do a combination of both . Some community gardeners donate part of their produce to local food banks . Besides, homegrown produce is also much fresher and tastier.
When you belong to a community garden it also gives you a chance to socialize with your neighbor. You'll develop a better sense of involvement and belonging. You'll be communicating with people of similar interests, as well as people with different ideas .Community gardening often leads to setting up other community projects.
It brings a sense of achievement to know that you've taken apiece of waste land and turned it into something beautiful .The entire neighborhood will enjoy the benefits of your bard work.
A community garden is an opportunity for education as well .You may learn from your fellow gardeners .You can also ask local children to join you .This gives them a way to show their creativity and keep them busy, and points them in the right direction. | high2845.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Cape Canaveral and the Canadian Rockies."
},
"options": [
"Alaska and New York City.",
"Alaska and Cape Canaveral.",
"Cape Canaveral and the Canadian Rockies.",
"New York city and Cape Canaveral."
],
"question":... | Are you looking for some interesting and meaningful places to take your kids to? Here are some places for you to choose before they grow up:
Alaska
Not to sound cool, but "it's a good chance to experience a trip through the icebergs. There are over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska, more than anywhere else in the world combined. You can also spot whales and other wildlife, visit the famous Denali National Park, enjoy the landscapes and even learn about the roughly 20 different native languages Spoken there
New York City
You definitely don't want to be chasing after your shopaholic teens in Manhattan, so plan your trip to _ Apple when the kids are still young enough to enjoy the family-friendly trips! There are several family-friendly Broadway shows to see. You can also bring them for a walk in Central Park, pay a visit to the giant M&M'S store in Times Square, take a City Sightseeing Cruise, get on a boat to see the Statue of Liberty, visit the Brooklyn Children's Museum, and even enjoy a yummy street hot dog
Cape Canaveral
There are few things m the world as cool as rockets that fly to the outer space, so obviously ,a visit to Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Centre is one of the coolest trips you can you're your children on. Though you won't see any more launches from this space station and its retired rockets, you can find out what it feels like to be in the Shuttle Launch Experience flight simulator Plus, it's only one hour away from Orlando, Florida, so if you visit Disney World as well, this quick side trip will be an easy one to make.
The Canadian Rockies
If you happen to visit the Canadian portion of the nor them Rocky Mountains, a visit to Banff National Park will certainly not disappoint you. There are so many great activities for the whole family to enjoy like wildlife viewing, spaceflight tours, fishing, horseback riding, and hiking. Let your children experience the beauty of the Canadian Rockies and learn more about the history of this impressive UNESCO World Heritage site. | high9910.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Today there are about 13,000 RO plants in the Persian Gulf, Israel, Australia and China."
},
"options": [
"This technology is not widely used in its birthplace.",
"Today there are about 13,000 RO plants in the Persian Gulf, Israel,... | If California were not already so famous for Sillicon Valley and Hollywood, it might be well-known for the groups of water-technology firms in its San Diego County. The reverse-osmosis (RO) spiral module, the technique that supports turning seawater and waste-water into drinkable stuff, began in San Diego in 1964. Today dozens of firms in the area supply many of the world's approximately 13,000 RO plants in places from the Persian Gulf and Israel to Australia and China.
Southern California itself, however, has not so far been a big user of its own technology. This is surprising, given that the whole American south-west faces a water problem. But now as the climate gets warmer and the population increases, there is more agreement that the existing infrastructure, consisting of vast pipes that carry water from the Sacramento Delta in the north and the Colorado River in the east, will not be enough. In places such as San Diego, which has inadequate and salty groundwater and currently imports 90% or its water, the answers must be greater conservation, reusing as much water as possible, and getting most of the rest from the sea.
The first part, conservation, has been widely accepted by the public. San Diego today uses less water with a larger population than it did in 1989, the year water consumption peaked. The second part, water recycling has been a hard sell, because of an unpleasant factor. Americans still use the term "toilet-to-tap" for recycling, even though properly treated waste-water is nowadays completely clean. Singapore made its programme acceptable in part by renaming it as NEWater.
This is where desalination comes in, which means taking the salt out of salt water. A firm called Poseidon Resources is now close to building the biggest desalination plant in America behind a power station by the beach in Carlsbad. The power plant sucks in 304m gallons of seawater a day for cooling, so Poseidon plans to change 104m gallons a day by using the RO spiral module.
Lots of people like the idea. Once fully running in 2015, the plant could produce 10% of the region's water. And there are plans for more desalination plants. Many places would need to take much less water from the endangered Colorado River. But a few people hate it a lot. Joe Geever, an expert in biology, says desalination uses too much energy and that Poseidon plant would kill too much sea life. He understands that there is a role for desalination, he says, but would rather not have it right there, right now, and on this scale. | high600.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "going without food"
},
"options": [
"movement",
"going without food",
"quickness",
"certain kind of food"
],
"question": "What is the meaning of the word \"fast\" in the phrase \"break the fast\"?",
"questio... | Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It is also the most neglect . Common reasons for not eating breakfast include having no time, not feeling hungry, traditional dislike and dieting.
Breakfast simply means "break the fast''. Your body spends at least 6 to 12 hours each night in a fasting state. In the morning your body needs energy for the day's work ahead.
A good breakfast should provide 1/3 of your total calorie needs for the day. On average, we eat 400 less calories for breakfast than for dinner. If breakfast doesn't appeal to you in the morning, try eating a lighter dinner earlier in the evening or save half of your dinner for breakfast in the morning.
If you still aren't hungry in the morning, start with something small like juice or toast or have a nutritious mid-morning snack later when you are hungry.
So, you say you are on a diet. Some people fear that eating breakfast will make them hungrier during the day and they will eat more. It is true that eating breakfast is likely to make you feel hungry throughout the day. That is because your body is working correctly. Although you may feel as if you are eating more all day long, in reality you are probably not.
Not eating breakfast can also cause you overeat, since a fall in blood sugar often makes you feel very hungry later. To make matters worse, since your body is in a slow state, it will not be able to burn those extra calories very efficiently . If you feed your body healthy snacks and meals throughout the day, you are less likely to become hungry and stuff yourself as soon as you begin to eat.
Since breakfast is the first and most important meal of the day, choosing the right food is important. The best breakfast foods are fruits, juice, lean meat and grain products such as bread, rice, noodles and cereals. | high1394.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "the details of the crime should not be shown on the screen"
},
"options": [
"the details of the criminal technique should be kept",
"the details of the crime should not be shown on the screen",
"children should not imitate wh... | The use of the word imitation reminds me that we ought to make some more comments on the risk of people imitating what they see on the screen in the way of crime or violence. First there was always a risk of children acting out scenes which could be dangerous. For example, I remember a woman who was head of a middle school telling me that she had happened to look out of her window when the children were on the playground and had seen them putting a small boy on a chair with a rope round his neck and the rope over the branch of a tree; fortunately she was in time to get there before the child was hanged. I remember a film in particular in which the hero who was imprisoned had escaped by electrocuting his guard, the technique of doing this being shown in detail. This was the kind of scene which we could cut for these reasons.
In films for young people and adults we always tried to keep off the screen the details of criminal techniques, such as how to open a locked door with a piece of hard plastic or how to open a safe; if we were consulted before production, I used to advise that the details should not be shown. When I gave talks in prisons about film checking I had full support for this, since fathers who were in prison for criminal offences did not want their children to get on crime.
Every time I gave a talk in a prison someone used to mention the French film Rififi. made by Jules Dassin in 1954. This remarkable film showed in great detail a robbery of a jeweler's shop, the robbery lasting about half an hour and being backed by only natural sound...one of the most brilliant film sequences of all time. I remember our discussion at the time. We thought that the robbery was finished only with the use of advanced and obviously expensive equipment and that only the most experienced and skilled criminals could possibly imitate it; we believed therefore that it was ly safe. When talking in prisons some years later I learned that there had been several robberies in which the techniques had been copied, so perhaps we were wrong. | high23710.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "A number of celebrations to welcome the New Year in London."
},
"options": [
"The \"ChinainLondon\" season.",
"A number of celebrations to welcome the New Year in London.",
"The grand parade of London.",
"Varieties of s... | This week,prefix = st1 /Londonwill be full of celebrations to welcome the Year of the Rat. Every year, London's Chinatown holds a great event to celebrate Chinese New Year, the largest event outside of Asia.
This year in theUK, there seems to be a huge amount of interest in Chinese culture. For the third year running, the "ChinainLondon" season is being held. This extended event will run from February to April, ending in the Olympic torch relay, when the Olympic flame will pass throughLondonon its way to the start of the Beijing Games.
The "ChinainLondon" season will _ a huge number of events, ranging from art exhibitions to modern dance, film festivals to tea tastings, musical concerts to children's half-term activities. In addition, another Chinese culture festival, "China Now" is launching at Chinese New Year.
This is a nationwide season of events leading up to the Beijing Olympics. As well as cultural events, this programme includes an education programme for schools to develop relationships withChina, and a Football Exchange, where the UK Football Association will be coaching children inChinaand offering a lucky few the chance to visitBritainon a football tour.
The main Chinese New Year celebration will be held on Sunday 10th February, and is expected to attract around 300,000 visitors. It will showcase both traditional and contemporary Chinese arts, bringing together British-born and Chinese performers.
The most important thing of the day is the grand parade through the streets of London, led by a traditional dragon dance, followed by musicians, acrobats, artists and children. There will be a large stage and screen in Trafalgar Square featuring martial arts, music and dance.
It wouldn't be Chinese New Year without fireworks and firecrackers, soLeicester Squarewill see displays on the hour all afternoon. Nearby theatres and arts centres will also be holding special New Year events, such as variety shows.
Happy New Year to you, we hope you enjoy your celebrations as much as we will enjoy them inLondon. | high23076.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "No one."
},
"options": [
"His wife.",
"Other parents.",
"The firemen.",
"No one."
],
"question": "Who came to help the father when he was digging?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer"... | After a serious earthquake happened, a father left his wife safely at home and rushed to his son's school, only to find that the building where his son studied had collapsed and looked like a pancake.
He was shocked. He didn't know what he should do for a while, then he remembered the words he had said to his son, "No matter what happens, I'll always be there for you! "And tears began to fill his eyes. He started digging through the ruins .
As he was digging, other helpless parents and the firemen arrived and tried to pull him off the ruins, saying, "It's too late! They're all dead! There's nothing you can do! " To them he replied with one line, "Are you going to help me now? " And then he kept on digging.
No one helped, however. He went on alone because he needed to know for himself: "Is my boy alive or is he dead? " He dug for eight hours. . . 12 hours. . . 24 hours. . . 36 hours. . . then, in the 39th hour, he pulled back a rock and heard his son's words. He shouted his son's name, "ARMAND! " He heard back, "Dad!?! It's me, Dad! I told the other kids not to worry. I told them that if you were alive, you'd save me and when you saved me, they'd be saved. You promised, 'No matter what happens, I'll always be there for you!' You did it, Dad! "
"What's going on in there? How is it? " the father asked.
"There are 14 of us left out of 33, Dad. We're frightened, hungry, thirsty and thankful you're here. When t he building fell down, it made a triangle , and it saved us. "
"Come out, boy! "
"No, Dad! Let the other kids out first, because I know you'll get me! No matter what happens, I know you'll always be there for me! " | high166.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The comfort of the sofa."
},
"options": [
"The lack of time.",
"The comfort of the sofa.",
"The shortness of money.",
"The security of the product."
],
"question": "According to Amy Cashman, which is not the rea... | Do you like shopping? Or does the thought of wandering around the shops fill you with terror? For some of us, shopping is an enjoyable way of spending our spare time and our money. For me, it's something I would rather avoid. Thank goodness for the Internet! It's more convenient to buy CDs, electrical items, even food from the comfort of your sofa. But that's not the only reason: price is an important factor. We can buy goods and services cheaper online. But sometimes the problem is knowing what to buy. This has led to a type of shopping called "showrooming".
Showrooming is something I've done. I will go to a shop to see, touch and try out products but then go home and buy them online at a knock-down price. I'm not alone in doing this. Research by a company called Foolproof, found 24% of people showroomed while Christmas shopping in 2013.
Amy Cashman, head of Technology at TNS UK, says the reasons for this new shopping habit are that "people are lacking time, lacking money and they want security about the products they are buying". She explains that consumers are not only shopping online at home but they are using the Internet in store or on their smartphones to shop around.
But does this mean technology will kill shops? Certainly shops will change. They will have to offer more competitive prices or encourage people to buy more by giving in-store discounts or free gifts.
We mustn't forget that buying in a shop means you can get expert advice from the sales assistant and you can get good aftercare. It's good to speak to a real human rather than look at a faceless computer screen, but at least by showrooming, you get the best of both worlds! | high14802.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "It was feared that the shock would kill her."
},
"options": [
"It was feared that she would kill herself.",
"It was not yet certain he was dead. Ks5u",
"She had no one there to support her.",
"It was feared that the sho... | Knowing that Louise Mallard had heart trouble, care was taken to tell her the news of her husband's death.
It was her sister, Josephine, who told her. Her husband Richard had been in the newspaper office when the news of the railway accident was received, with Brent Mallard's name leading the list of "killed".
On hearing the news Louise cried at once in her sister's arms. When her tears ended she went to her room alone. She would have no one follow her. She sank into the comfortable armchair that faced the open window, as if she was pressed down by a sadness that seemed to reach into her soul.
From the window she could see the tops of trees and new green spring life. The delicious smell of rain was in the air. Some blue sky could be seen through the clouds. She was young, with a fair, calm and intelligent face. But now there was an empty look in her eyes, as she dully stared out at the sky.
Fearing for her sister, Josephine came to the door and begged Louise to come out. Finally she opened the door. She held her sister's waist and together they came down the stairs. Richard stood waiting for them at the bottom.
Suddenly there was the sound of someone opening the front door. Brent Mallard entered. He had been far from the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood in shock as Louise let out a scream.
When the doctor came, he said Louise Mallard had died of a heart attack. | high22368.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Talking to ourselves is believed to be good for our health."
},
"options": [
"Talking to ourselves is believed to be good for our health.",
"It does harm to have \"self-talk\" when we are alone.",
"Talking to ourselves helps ... | A popular saying goes, "Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." However, that's not really true. Words have the power to build us up or tear us down. It doesn't matter if the words come from someone else or ourselves - the positive and negative effects are just as lasting.
We all talk to ourselves sometimes. We're usually too embarrassed to admit it, though. But we really shouldn't be, because more and more experts believe talking to ourselves out loud is a healthy habit.
This "self-talk" helps us motivate ourselves, remember things, solve problems, and calm ourselves down. Beware, though, that as much as 77% of self-talk tends to be negative. So in order to stay positive, we should only speak words of encouragement to ourselves. We should also be quick to _ . The next time you finish a project, do well in a test, or finally clean your room, join me in saying, "Good job!"
Words possess power because of their lasting effects. Many of us regret something we once said. And we remember unkind words said to us! Before speaking, we should always ask ourselves: Is it true? Is it loving? Is it needed? If what we want to say doesn't pass this test, then it's better left unsaid.
Words possess power: both positive and negative. Those around us receive encouragement when we speak positively. We can offer hope, build self-esteem and motive others to do their best. Negative words destroy all those things. Will we use our words to hurt or to heal? The choice is ours. ks5u | high21661.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "It stopped and wouldn't start again."
},
"options": [
"It fell over a cliff.",
"It had an accident.",
"It stopped and wouldn't start again.",
"They exchanged it for another one."
],
"question": "What happened to... | Three men were travelling across the desert when their car broke down. There were no other traffics, so their only hope was to walk.
Before they set off, they looked around in the car for useful things to take with them. One of the men took a bottle of whisky. Another took an umbrella. The third unscrewed a door from the car and carried that.
After they had been walking for almost a day, they came across a camel caravan travelling towards them.
"Let's try to join the caravan," one of the men said. "It's going the wrong way but we'll be safer than if we keep on alone across the desert."
The other s agreed, so they asked the leader of the caravan for permission to join it.
"You can join the caravan only if you answer three questions," he said. He pointed to the first man's bottle. "What is that and why are you carrying it?" he asked.
"It's a bottle of whisky. I decided to carry it with me so that if I feel miserable and want to give up, I can get drunk, cheer myself up and then keep on walking."
"Very sensible," the leader of the caravan said. Then he pointed to the next man and his umbrella.
"It hasn't rained in the desert for many years," he said. "Why are you carrying an umbrella?"
"I don't want to get heat exhaustion," he replied. "The umbrella will give me shade from the sun."
"Very sensible," the leader of the caravan said. He pointed to the third man and his car door. "And why are you carrying a car door?" he asked him.
"I thought that if I got too hot I could open the window and let some air in," he explained. | high5694.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."
},
"options": [
"It's never too late to learn.",
"Whoever cares to learn will always find a teacher.",
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.",
"You can't teach an old dog new ... | Life-long learning is the concept that "It's never too soon or too late for learning." -- a philosophy that has taken root in a larger number of different organizations. Life-long learning is an attitude -- learners believe that one can and should be open to new ideas, decisions, skills or behaviors. Life-long learning throws the well-known rule "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" out of the door. Life-long learning provides the general public with learning opportunities at all ages and in different ways: at work, at home and through leisure activities, not just through formal channels such as school and higher education.
Life-long education is often achieved through distance learning or e-learning, continuing education, home schooling, etc. It also includes training programs for those who want to improve their qualifications, bring their skills up to date or retrain for a new line of work. In later life, especially in retirement, continued learning takes various forms, crossing traditional academic limits.
One of the reasons why life-long education has become so important is the rapid progress of modern science and technology. Although the period of primary, secondary and university education is increased, the knowledge and skills gained there are usually not _ for a professional career spanning three or four decades. | high10133.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "encourages you to list your personal information"
},
"options": [
"brings about the generation gap",
"is very careful about people's privacy",
"encourages you to list your personal information",
"lists the telephone num... | MySpace, the social networking website, is different from other websites which only provide stories about other people. MySpace is a place that allows you to broadcast your own stories and personal information to as many people as you like. Started two years ago, it is a big source of information for and about American kids.
Teenagers and their parents feel very differently about it. Teens are rushing to join the site, not sharing their parents' worries. It signals yet another generation gap in the digital era.
For teenagers, it is reliable network to keep in touch with their friends. They will often list their surnames, birthdays, afterschool jobs, school clubs, hobbies and other personal information.
"MySpace is an easy way to reach just about everyone. I don't have all the phone numbers of all my acquaintances . But if I want to get in touch with one of them, I could just leave them a message on MySpace." said Abby Van Wassen. She is a sixteen year old student at Woodland Hills High of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Parents on the other hand are seriously concerned about the security problems of MySpace.
"Every time we hold a parents meeting, the first question is always about MySpace," said Kent Gates, who travels the country doing Internet safety seminars .The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has received at least 288 MySpace related complaints, according to Mary Beth Buchanan, a lawyer in Pittsburgh.
"Your profile on MySpace shows all your personal information to anyone on the Web. And MySpace even lists this information by birthplace and age. It's like a free checklist for troublemakers and it endangers children," Buchanan said. | high2474.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "over 16,000"
},
"options": [
"more than 18,500",
"over 16,000",
"over 470,000",
"more than 2,500"
],
"question": "The number of the people who died in the disaster is _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questio... | Five years after a deadly earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, recovery remains years away.
More than 16,000 people died in the disaster and more than 470,000 were removed from their homes, says the Japanese Red Cross Society. Over 2,500 people are still missing and predicted dead. After pressure from survivors, the Japanese Coast Guard began underwater searches for the missing.
In Fukushima, more than 100,000 families still cannot return home, says the Red Cross Society. This is because of radioactive pollution from the damaged Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
In Japan, the disaster is known as "3-1-1" , marking the date five years ago.
It was really three disasters rolled into one.
"It started with an earthquake devastating in itself, then the tsunami, and then the radiation from the nuclear plant," said Shioko Goto, a Japan expert at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C..Goto said the disaster showed the world, "Japanese resilience and Japanese unity."
But it also showed shortcomings. Among the most notable, the long time it took to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant after it was flooded from the tsunami, Goto said. That process took eight months. Another, Japan's dependence on nuclear power, she said. The disaster forced Japan to close all of its nuclear power plants, leaving parts of the country without electricity.
Goto offered up one major difference from the last major Japanese disaster, the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. In 2011, social media was everywhere, she said. Social media offered up plenty of "unfounded rumors and fear-mongering ," Goto said.
But it also kept pressure on Japanese authorities to do more. Chikara Yoshida lost his only son, a 43-year-old volunteer fireman, on March 11, 2011. He and his daughter posted a petition on Facebook to restart underwater searches. It drew over 28,000 signatures, according to the Associated Press.
The Japanese Coast Guard announced that it would resume searches this week. There have also been complaints that reconstruction efforts in hard-hit northern Japanese communities have been too slow. This week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government will respond. | high19671.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "a poet"
},
"options": [
"a poet",
"an artist",
"a novelist",
"a playwright"
],
"question": "Cummings was chiefly famous as _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_i... | Unconventional in every way, Edward Estlin Cummings made striking use of grammar. His arts were poetry, painting, and drama, and in all of them he was an experimenter. The poetry -- for which he is best remembered -- was marked by strange combinations of words and expressions and produced in very strange print. The unusual techniques that Cummings used served to present his ideas more forcefully and effectively than would have been the case with more ordinary styles.
Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Oct. 14, 1894. He graduated from Harvard College in 1915 and received a master's degree in 1916. During World War I he served as an ambulance driver in France. He spent six months in prison because of his friendship with another American who had supposedly criticized the countries that fought against Germany in the First World War. This experience increased his distrust of all officialdom , a distrust that showed itself in many of his later poems as well as in his first book, "The Enormous Room", published in 1922.
Between the two world wars Cummings divided his time between Paris and New York City. His first book of poetry was "Tulips and Chimneys" (1923). The poems in the book were collected in "Complete Poems" (1968). The strangeness of his style was criticized by some, but others found it meaningful.
Among Cummings' plays were "Him", first performed in 1927, and "Tom" (1935), a work based on "Uncle Tom's Cabin". An experimental prose book, "Eimi" (1933), recorded a 36-day visit to the Soviet Union.
Cummings died at his home in North Conway, N.H., on Sept. 3, 1962. He was the second most widely read poet in the United States, after Robert Frost. He was buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. | high17884.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "His small foot."
},
"options": [
"His small size.",
"His small foot.",
"His light weight.",
"His big lungs."
],
"question": "What makes it possible for Nick to swim in the water?",
"question_type": "factiod_... | Nick Vujicic was born with no arms or legs, but the brave 32-year-old man, plays football and golf, swims, and surfs. Nick has a small foot on his left side, which helps him balance and enables him to kick. He uses his one foot to type, write with a pen and pick things up between his toes.
"I call it my chicken drumstick ," joked Nick, "I'd be lost without it. When I get in the water I float because 80 per cent of my body is lungs and my drumstick acts as a propeller."
When Nick was born his father was so shocked he left the hospital room to vomit. His _ mother couldn't bring herself to hold him until he was four months old.
"It was so hard for them, but right from the start they did their best to make me independent. My dad put me in the water at 18 months and gave me the courage to learn how to swim. " said Nick.
Throughout his childhood Nick dealt with the typical challenges. At the age of seven, Nick tried out some specially designed electronic arms and legs, in hope that he would be more like the other kids. During the short trial period of the electronic arms and legs, Nick realized that even with them, he was still unlike his peers at school, and they turned out to be much too heavy for Nick to operate, affecting his flexibility quite significantly.
"When I was 13 I read a newspaper article about a disabled man who had managed to achieve great things and help others," said Nick, "I realized why God had made us like this - to give hope to others. It was so inspirational to me that I decided to use my life to encourage others and decided to be thankful for what I do have, not get angry about what I don't."
"I tell people to keep on getting up when they fall and to always love themselves," he said. "If I can encourage just one person then my job in this life is done." By now, he has visited 35 different countries, touring the world as a motivational speaker. | high12724.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "She started to practice songs at a bar."
},
"options": [
"She found the perfect singer.",
"She started a project with her partner.",
"She started to practice songs at a bar.",
"She was able to sing all of her songs."
... | Back in the days when I wrote my first songs, I hated my voice. I saw myself as a songwriter and guitarist but never a singer! I continued to write songs, and to search for the perfect singer. After a few years I did discover a singer, so we started a project together. We held a few concerts, and put a lot of work into it. She forces me to sing some songs at concerts myself, so I started going to a bar to practice them. This was my first, small breakthrough.
One day she came round to my flat and informed me that she could no longer work with me, and also that the bar owner at the open mic venue had replaced us at short notice because some New York jazz star happened to be in town, and was available that evening to perform. The first bit of news made me sad and disappointed, but the second made me angry.
However, that same evening, with as much determination as I could muster , I resolved to play three new songs at the bar, just as I had planned before. I was quite nervous, but I dragged myself down to the bar and sang those songs! I never felt so liberated . That night I couldn't get to sleep. I was simply astonished, hardly believing that I was a person who acted so courageously, and that I'd been able to sing my songs myself.
Since then I've begun to encourage others to adopt a similar approach when they aren't able to see their own potential. One example is an amateur fiddler who could barely bring herself to lift her instrument to play in front of people. I forced her to ignore her fear, and simply get on with it. Now, a year or two later, she is a passionate, happy performer in front of any crowd!
Once you get the ball rolling in yourself, you can start inspiring those around you. | high14355.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "parents had to make food and necessity themselves for their daily-life"
},
"options": [
"fathers often pursue employment at home",
"parents had to make food and necessity themselves for their daily-life",
"many families produ... | 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 a 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 some-thing of great value if mother's employment prevents her from being home to greet them when they return from school. | high9521.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Tom is her dog"
},
"options": [
"Tom follows her everywhere",
"Tom is her child",
"Tom is her dog",
"Tom often falls ill"
],
"question": "Catherine pays taxes for Tom because _ .",
"question_type": "cloze... | Tom goes everywhere with Catherine Green, a 54-year-old secretary. He moves around her office at work and goes shopping with her. "Most people don't seem to mind Tom," says Catherine, who thinks he is wonderful. "He's my fourth child," she says. She may think of him and treat him that way as her son. He moves around buying his food, paying his health bills and his taxes, but in fact Tom is a dog.
Catherine and Tom live in Sweden, a country where everyone is expected to lead an orderly life according to rules laid down by the government, which also provides a high level of care for its people. This level of care costs money.
People in Sweden pay taxes on everything, so aren't surprised to find that owning a dog means more taxes. Some people are paying as much as 500 Swedish kronor in taxes a year for the right to keep their dog, which is spent by the government on dog hospitals and sometimes medical treatment for a dog that falls ill. However, most such treatment is expensive, so owners often decide to offer health and even life _ for their dog.
In Sweden dog owners must pay for any damage their dog does. A Swedish Kennel Club official explains what this means: if your dog runs out on the road and gets hit by a passing car, you, as the owner, have to pay for any damage done to the car, even if your dog has been killed in the accident. | high14433.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "In her old neighborhood church."
},
"options": [
"In her old house",
"In her old neighborhood church.",
"In the nursing home.",
"In the hospital."
],
"question": "Where did Alice spend her Christmas Eve accordin... | I work in a nursing home and my job is to take care of the elderly.
This year, a very sweet old lady that I cared for,Alice, had gone through a difficult time .She got _ and so she had been in the hospital twice .In November I was finally able to get her back to her"home".
Alice had thought her daughter was coming to visit her on Christmas day and that they were going to have the whole family together like the old days. When she finally realized that that happy moment was not going to happen,she was very sad.Knowing that her daughter was coming after Christmas was not enough to make her feel happy,I hated the idea of her being alone on the holiday!
On Christmas Eve,I gave her a surprise by asking if she could like to go to a candlelight service at church that night
Instead of taking her to my church,I took her to her old neighborhood church where all her friends were. We got there early and I got her a seat where her friends could see her as they came in.Then soon some of her friends came to the church and they rushed over to greet her and sit with her.
The candlelight service was beautiful and Alice got a lot of love from her old and new friends there.
The truth of the story is that I am the one who got the best gift: the smile on Alice's face | high9247.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "constant exercise"
},
"options": [
"high speed",
"strict coaches",
"constant exercise",
"good techniques"
],
"question": "According to the text confidence comes from _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_question... | Don't you just love ice skating every winter?I am sure,that since winter is approaching,your skates are set to come out,just waiting to be used.Impress your friends with your new trick on how to iceskate backwards with the help of these tips.Skating backwards on ice is a bit difficult but once you master the basic,there's nothing like it.Follow the steps given below and you will be able to skate backwards in no time.
Stand Straight
The first thing that you need to do is,stand straight.If you feel that you are falling backwards,then just put your chin up and slightly bend your knees.Don't worry;this happens to all.
Confidence Is What You Need
The most important step while learning how to skate backwards,is having enough confidence in yourself and in what you are doing.How can you achieve this?By practice.Just practice rolling backwards down a gentle slop every single day or just by pushing off from a wall or something of that sort.But before you do that,make sure that the place where you are practicing is free from any kind of debris because otherwise,you could land up in the hospital due to some accident.While going backwards,just get used to the feeling of moving backwards.One of the important ice skating tips and techniques is that if you feel that you are losing your balance,then scissor your skates.Keep practicing this till you are confident about it.
Maintain Speed
Confident now?Great!Now the next step is to maintain your speed.While rolling in a straight line with one skate,with the other try sculling ,that is,keep pushing yourself backwards with an outwards stroke .Now bring the skate which you were using to scull,and then again,repeat the same process.Make sure that you put most of your weight on the skate which is moving straight and not the one with which you are sculling.Now,try the same thing using the other foot.Again keep doing this till you are confident enough.
Increase Your Speed Now
Once you are confident that you can scull with either foot,the next thing that you have to do is increase your speed.Try some of your own tricks now.Scull with either foot or with both at the same time.
Scull and Be Aware
While you keep one foot straight,keep sculling with the other.You can do that simultaneously with both feet.Concentrate on what you are doing but don't get so involved,that you don't see where you are going.If you are not watching your back,you might just bang against something or someone. | high6174.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "He was angry with his agent."
},
"options": [
"He was mad at the telephone.",
"He was angry with his agent.",
"He was anxious about his wife.",
"He was impatient with the secretary?"
],
"question": "Why did the ... | I was waiting for a phone call from my agent. He had left at message the night before, telling me that my show was to be cancelled. I called him several times, but each time his secretary told me that he was in a meeting and that he would call me later. So I waited and waited, but there was still no call. Three hours passing by, I became more and more and impatient. I was certain that my agent didn't care about my work, and he didn't care about me. I was overcome with that thought. I started to shout at the phone, "Let me wait, will you? Who do you think you are?"
At that time I didn't realize my wife was looking on. Without showing her surprise, she rushed in, seized the phone, tore off the wires, and shouted at the phone, "Yeah! Who do you think you are? Bad telephone! Bad telephone!" And she swept it into the wastebasket.
I stood watching her, speechless. What on earth...?
She stepped to the doorway and shouted at the test of the house, "Now hear this! All objects in this room----if you do anything to upset my husband, out you go!"
Then she turned to me. Kissed me and said calmly, "Honey, you just have to learn how to take control." With that, she left the room.
After watching a crazy woman rushing in and out, shouting at everything in sight , I noticed that something in my mood had changed. I was laughing. How could I have trouble with that phone? Her aunties helped me realize I had been driven crazy by small things. Twenty minutes later my agent did call. I was able to listen to him and talk to him and talk to him calmly. | high8159.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The field mice were eating up the farmers' corn."
},
"options": [
"People wouldn't worry about their chickens.",
"The number of the field mice became too large.",
"The number of the field mice became small.",
"The field... | Not many years ago, some American farmers began to complain about hawks . The hawks were killing chickens. The farmers did not know what to do. They went to the government officials and asked for help.
The officials said, " We'll pay you for each hawk you kill." The farmers began to kill the hawks. Many hawks were killed, but the farmers now had another problem. The field mice were growing in number and they were eating up the farmers' corn. Hawks eat not only chickens but also field mice. They eat more field mice than chickens. But if the farmers had known that, they would not have upset the balance of nature. In one part of the USA, there are deer which eat a kind of wild rose. The deer are eaten by mountain lions. The number of deer, mountain lions, and wild rose does not change much if people stay away from them. If there are too many deer, mountain lions will increase rapidly in number and kill many deer. If there are too many mountain lions, there will be fewer deer and there will be more roses.
It is always necessary for us to keep the balance of nature. The government once killed almost all the mountain lions to protect the deer. Soon there were so many deer that they ate up all the wild roses. Then they began to eat the green leaves of young trees which were important to the farmers.
So the farmers protected their trees from the deer. The deer had nothing to eat, and many of them died.
The government learned a valuable lesson from nature. | high22181.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "was well-educated at school"
},
"options": [
"was interested in business",
"had achieved great success",
"often looked down upon his brother",
"was well-educated at school"
],
"question": ". Before the younger s... | A businessman had two sons. While he gave the younger son a lot of love and gifts, he neglected the elder son. It was completely puzzling and no one knew why.
When the boys grew up, they were asked to manage the father's business. The elder son was absorbed in the business. From morning till late in the evening, he was busy working. Within a few years, he ran the business very well and even expanded it.
What about the younger son? He didn't have much to do except have a good time. But the father believed that his favorite son would be a success. If the elder son could be a successful businessman, surely the younger one, with a higher education, would do much better.
A few years later, the results of his decision became clear. Uninterested in business, the younger son continued spending his time enjoying himself. And he went out of business. But the elder son's far smaller share of business had expanded and he had proved himself to be a good decision maker.
Ashamed at the turn of events, the father met the elder son and was angry with the younger one. The elder son, who was listening to all this quietly, suddenly said he wanted to set up an independent business and live on his own.
"Why?" asked the father.
"I blame one person for the way my brother has turned out, and it's not him. You can't blame children for the faults of their parents, can you?" asked the elder son. | high12042.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The effect of high heels on health."
},
"options": [
"The trend of high heels.",
"Women who wear high heels.",
"The function of high heels.",
"The effect of high heels on health."
],
"question": "What is the pas... | High heels were first worn in the 1500s, and were popular with both women and men. Today, high heels are strictly a female fashion that is easily found in stores. High heels are the hit items featured on the runway and are widely worn by celebrities. For instance, in the popular TV drama, Sex and the City, the main character, Carrie, is a lover of high heels that in almost every episode, she purchases a pair of gorgeous 4-inch high heels. Carrie loves the heels so much that she even sets her email address as "shoe girl". This clearly shows how much modern women love high heels.
Even though high heels are popular, they are not the most comfortable shoes to wear. In many ways, high heels have already changed the shape of people's lives. Doctors have warned that continuous wear can cause back pain and serious damage to the knees. Though it is yet to be proven, some psychological reports suggest that high heels can lead to mental disorder, as it is stressful to the people who wear high heels, in the sense that they have to bear the pain in every step. According to Mayann Los Russo, chief editor of Footwear News, high heels are desirable because they make people appear taller. She says, "I think it goes back to the idea of pain before beauty." Indeed, some people feel that they always need to look appealing in front of their peers.
Still, Dr. Casey Kerrigan, a professor at Harvard Medical School, warns, "It takes a long time to feel the effects. And once you do, it's too late." Despite the damage high heels can do to the feet and legs, they remain popular. Most women accept the pain because they like how they look wearing high heels. It is important that we all understand that we should never hurt ourselves just to please others. | high19117.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Watching shows for homework."
},
"options": [
"Talking about TV shows.",
"Watching captions on TV.",
"Enjoying films about nature.",
"Watching shows for homework."
],
"question": "Which activity is NOT suggested... | Many people have described television as a passive activity that is harmful to children's education. However, there are good and bad ways to watch television. Parents who are interested in exploiting television as a learning tool can actually turn time in front of TV into an educational chance.
Probably the most familiar educational way to use television is to simply watch educational programs. In particular, this means selecting channels and programs specially designed for educational purposes. Along with traditional educational shows for children on public broadcasting channels, cable television now offers kids and adults a wide variety of educational programs, with everything from nature shows to historical events in different countries.
Captioning ,such as "closed captioning" for hearing disabled viewers provides another way for parents to exploit the educational possibilities of television.One study showed that children who watched captioned TV got great improvement in their vocabulary and oral reading ability. In addition, parents can make any show a learning class by watching television together with children. By actively joining children in the programs that they are watching, parents can help with the development of such skills as predicting and summarizing. In order to develop predicting skills, parents and children could first refer to a program's description in a viewing guide.After reading the program description and guessing what might happen in the program, parents and children could watch together to see which predictions were correct. And to practice summarizing, after watching a program, parents can turn off the TV and ask what the story was about. This kind of activity helps children develop thinking skills such as arranging events in an order and memorizing information.
Although there will still be plenty of times when children watch TV simply for passive enjoyment, parents can help make at least part of their children's viewing time a more productive activity.Used intelligently by exploiting the learning chances available through various programs, television can play an instructive role in children's education. | high16224.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Three"
},
"options": [
"Three",
"Four",
"Five",
"Six"
],
"question": "How many children talk about love between a husband and wife?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
... | A group of professional people put this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?" The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined:
"When my grandmother got arthritis , she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails any more. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."
Rebecca-----age 8
"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."
Chrissy-----age 6
"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."
Danny----age 7
"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, and then he wears it every day."
Noelle----age 7
"My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."
Clare---- age 6
"Love is when my mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."
Chris----age 7
Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four-year-old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing. I just helped him cry." | high18209.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "lose its dominant position"
},
"options": [
"remain widespread and important",
"be more important than any other language",
"lose its dominant position",
"die away in the near future"
],
"question": "In David Gr... | English is fast becoming the language of science around the world, but what is its future among everyday speakers? One expert points out that the percentage of native English speakers is declining while the languages of other rapidly growing regions are being spoken by increasing numbers of people. But English will continue to remain widespread and important.
However,British language scholar David Graddol says English will probably drop in dominance by the middle of this century to rank,after Chinese,about equally with Arabic,Hindi,and Urdu. "The number of people speaking English as a first language continues to rise,but it isn't rising nearly as fast as the numbers of many other languages around the world,simply because the main population group has been largely in the less developed countries where languages other than English have been spoken," he says.
In a recent article in the journal Science,Mr. Graddol noted that three languages that are not near the top of the list of the most widely spoken now might be there soon. These are Bengali,Tamil,and Malay,spoken in south and southeast Asia.
David Crystal,the author of The Cambridge Encycloredia of the English Laeguage, says about 1. 5 billion of the world's six billion people speak it as a second tongue compared to the 400 million native speakers. But another expert on the English language says Mr. Graddol underestimates the future of its dominance. _ but nobody quite knows what's going to happen because no language has been in this position before. " he said. | high20796.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "He was a prisoner there."
},
"options": [
"He owned the island.",
"He was a prisoner there.",
"His family lived there.",
"He liked the island."
],
"question": "Why did Napoleon live on St. Helena?",
"questio... | Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 5, 1821, on the island of St. Helena off the coast of Africa. He was 51 years old at the time. When doctors examined Napoleon's body, they said that the former emperor of France had died from cancer of the stomach. That was the cause of death recorded in the official report. However, other doctors disagreed. One doctor who was present during the examination of the body said that Napoleon died of hepatitis. Other historians and medical experts have suggested that Napoleon died of syphilis, tuberculosis, or perhaps malaria. Now, after careful research, a British chemist thinks that Napoleon might have been poisoned -- not by a person, but by his wallpaper.
Napoleon was sent to the island of St. Helena in 1815 after he lost the battle of Waterloo. He was a prisoner on the island. Although he had servants to attend to him, he had to live in one small building. St. Helena is a very wet island, so the walls of the building were always covered with mold. Napoleon became ill from spending too much time inside his house. Almost constantly he had a fever, chills, and felt sick to his stomach. He often felt pain in his shoulders and in his side. His skin turned yellow. He got frequent headaches, and he would become dizzy and vomit . None of the medicine that the doctors gave Napoleon seemed to help. They were not sure what was the matter. Finally, Napoleon was too weak to leave the house. One night, while he was sleeping, he went into a coma and died.
Many doctors who later reviewed the reports of Napoleon's illness found that the symptoms did not show a man who suffered from stomach cancer. It seemed obvious that Napoleon had died from some other cause. In 1961, a Swedish doctor examined some of Napoleon's hair and found a high level of arsenic, a chemical poison. Was Napoleon murdered? It is doubtful. Arsenic was used in many types of medicine during Napoleon's time, so he might have taken the arsenic as a cure for his illness. Then, in 1982, Dr. David Jones from England began to look into the mystery and suggested that Napoleon might have breathed in arsenic which was in the air of his house. In the 1700s and 1800s, arsenic was used to make a kind of green paint used on cloth and wallpaper. If the paint was used on a wet wall, the arsenic would go into the air. A person in the room might breathe that air. After studying the wallpaper in the room where Napoleon died, Dr. Jones found high levels of arsenic in the green paint on the walls. | high10655.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "people should be careful when receiving e-mails"
},
"options": [
"computer viruses are not so as destructive as mobile phone viruses",
"people should be careful when receiving e-mails",
"people find it difficult to use electr... | When people talk of a virus these days, chances are that they are talking about computer virus that have the power wipe out all the valuable work people may have stored in their computers. Imagine, the virus has the power to make military systems, giant banks, airports, hospitals and traffic system come to stop!
What does a computer virus do? It targets electronic objects that are programmed. The virus spreads through connections between these electronic objects. For virus spreading experts, e-mail is a favorite method of sending their destructive weapon.
But scientists warn that this is not the worst that can happen. There is more. People are also connected through phones. The next virus may actually target mobile phones, especially those that are programmed to do many tasks apart from just communicating. It would then be easy for a virus to infect those programs and create major disorder.
For example, these virus may have the power to record your phone conversations and make others hear them. They create problems with your electronic money accounts, or they could create a mountain of telephone bills for calls you never made. And that would be a disaster. A report on this was published in the New Scientist recently.
One way out would be to have simpler phones with not so many different functions. This would mean there would mean there would be fewer programs for the virus to attack. But mobile phone producers are _ . People on longer want an electronic item to perform just one task. They want more and more functions added. That would mean more software programs to make the mobile phone perform all those functions. And that means the possibility of more viruses. | high2312.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "In Malaysia"
},
"options": [
"In Pulau Ta Ngah",
"In Malaysia",
"In the Atlantic Ocean",
"In The Arctic"
],
"question": "Where is Langkawi?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | How could I turn down an opportunity for a weeklong cruise on a luxury motorsailer in the Andaman Sea? Without a second thought, I packed my bags and jumped on a plane to Singapore, and the following day I found myself looking out the airplane window at the beautiful waters surrounding the island of Langkawi off the coast of Malaysia.
The last time I was in Langkawi was in 2001, when it was relatively quiet. Langkawi has come a long way since then; there are 4, 5, and even 6-star hotels, as well as spas, golfing, horseback riding and even a cable car taking visitors to the highest point on the island.
At the Langkawi International Airport I met my shipmates and we were driven to Pantai Tengah with a quick pit stop for sunblock and duty-free goodies. Many other shopping opportunities abound since Langkawi was designated as a duty-free zone in 1987 to entice tourists to the island.
A luxurious yacht tender picked us up. Phillipe, the first mate, maneuvered the tender between sailboats and as we went around a small island there she was, S/V Blue Gold. This majestic 10-passenger sailboat--all 165 feet of her--had been built in Italy and recently underwent a full retrofit. Once aboard, the crew welcomed us with refreshments and big smiles. Before we got too comfortable and settled into the plush comforts of the boat, Alain, the captain, took us on a tour of Blue Gold's impressive accommodations. The master suite had a king-size bed, with a lounge area and "his & hers" wardrobes. The VIP cabin had a queen-size bed, also with a lounge area. Both had ensuite bathrooms.
The first evening aboard was the perfect start to our voyage--a small cocktail party followed by a light meal of seared tuna salad. It was exactly what our jet-lagged bodies craved, and we all slept very well aboard what would become our new home for the next 7 days.
In the morning after breakfast, we sailed to Pulau Ta Ngah (also spelled "Pulau Tengah"; pulau means island in Malay). In the 1970s the site had been a Vietnamese refugee transit camp. Not long after the end of the war, the camp was shut down and the island was gazetted as a marine park by the Malaysian government. Officially "uninhabited," it does boast a golf course, but we were unable to determine if it was still in operation. The most intriguing event on the island occurs in July when the giant leatherback turtles lay their eggs on a beach on Ta Ngah. | high3018.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Agriculture"
},
"options": [
"International Affairs",
"Entertainment",
"Agriculture",
"Culture"
],
"question": "On which section of a newspaper will this passage appear?",
"question_type": null
},
{
... | American farmers are raising five percent more goats for meat these days.
Goat meat is high in protein and lower in unhealthy fat than many other meats.Even so,the industry is small compared to chicken,beef and pork. But immigration has brought more of a taste for goat to America from all over the world.
Experts from the University of Illinois offer some questions for people to consider if they are thinking about raising goats.
First of all,do you understand that there always has to be someone to care for the goats?
*How much land do you have available? And how good is it? Poor ground may support two to four goats on half a hectare.Better grassland can support six to eight. If goats and cattle share the land,two goats can be added for each cow. The goats will eat weeds and other plants that cattle do not like.
*Do you have buildings for the number of female goats you plan to keep during winter? An open,cold,dry barn is better than a closed,warm barn where the air is wet.
*Do you have the equipment to clean barns and to harvest hay to feed your goats? Or will you get someone else to do it,or buy the hay?
The experts say a profitable business in goat meat may take three to five years to establish.And, of course, there are no guarantees . | high10899.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The uniformity of facial expressions in revealing emotions."
},
"options": [
"The techniques for comparing facial expressions across cultures.",
"The photography of faces.",
"Cultural variations in mask.",
"The uniformi... | Face masks are commonly used in ceremonies and performances. They not only hide the real face of the mask wearer but they often evoke powerful emotions in the audience--danger, fear, sadness, joy. You might think, because so many things vary cross-culturally, that the ways in which emotions are displayed and recognized in the face vary too. Apparently they do not. Recent research on masks from different cultures supports the conclusion that masks, like faces, tend to represent certain emotions in the same ways. We now have some evidence that the symbolism used in masks is often universal.
The research on masks builds on work done by anthropologists, who used photographs of individuals experiencing various emotions. These photographs were shown to members of different cultural groups who were asked to identify the emotions displayed in the photographs. Emotions were identified correctly by most viewers, whatever the viewer's native culture.
Coding schemes were developed to enable researchers to compare the detailed facial positions of individual portions of die face (eyebrows, mouth, etc.) for different emotions. What exactly do we do when we scowl? We contract the eyebrows and lower the corners of the mouth; in geometric terms, we make angles and diagonals on our faces. When we smile, we raise the corners of the mouth; we make it curved.
Psychologist Joel Arnoff and his colleagues compared two types of wooden face masks from many different societies--masks described as threatening versus masks associated with nonthreatening functions. As suspected, the two sets of masks had significant differences in certain facial elements. The threatening masks had eyebrows and eyes facing inward and downward and a downward-facing mouth. In more abstract or geometrical terms, threatening features generally tend to be angular or diagonal and nonthreatening features tend to be curved or rounded, a face with a pointed beard is threatening; _ is not. The theory is that humans express and recognize basic emotions in uniform ways because all human faces are quite similar, skeletally and muscularly. | high4777.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "what they have learned on the mainland will bring them a bright future"
},
"options": [
"Taiwan will reunite with the mainland sooner or later",
"the fees asked for are lower than those of Taiwan",
"what they have learned on ... | TAIBEI - Increasing numbers of Taiwanese students are joining the island's "China rush", seeking education on the Chinese mainland.
According to official Chinese figures, the number of Taiwanese students admitted into college and postgraduate programs on the mainland totaled 461 in 1996, 928 in 1997 and 839 in 1998.Although no latest official numbers were available," Netbig.com Said this number had risen between 30 to 50 percent annually in the past two years with well over 1000 entering mainland campuses last year.
The Internet site, based in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, provides education service and information on Chinese mainland colleges and universities. "Many Taiwanese believe a Chinese education giving more knowledge about the people and culture in the mainland will increase their chances in the Chinese job market, Net.com vice-president Ingrid Huang said."I believe _ will give me hands-on experience in the business field in the Chinese mainland and a better understanding of the Chinese mainland people," said Lydia Chang, a 19-year-old majoring in journalism at Shih Shin University. Chang plans to go on to get a master's degree in business administration in Shanghai, which she says offers the best environment for such studies.
A journalism graduate student, surnamed Lin, at the National Taiwan University said he would like to study law on the Chinese mainland since "there will be better career prospects now that more Taiwanese companies are going there". "They hope the children could build up connections which could later become useful in their business operations," said Yang Ching-yao, professor of the Chinese mainland studies. A Netbig.com survey showed the campuses favored by Taiwan students included Beijing, Qinghua and Renmin universities in Beijing, and Jinan and Zhongshan universities in Guangzhou. The most popular studies were law, business and Chinese medicine.
At present, Chinese Taibei doesn't recognize diplomas earned in the Chinese mainland nor help with any inquiries about studying there. But recognizing the trend, education authorities are giving a final form to a policy accepting certificates from selected universities. | high5469.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "performing experiments in anechoic rooms can be a frightening experience"
},
"options": [
"performing experiments in anechoic rooms can be a frightening experience",
"architects make practical use of the information gathered by sci... | Complete silence is found only in laboratories called anechoic rooms. The walls and ceilings, made of blocks of special sound-sucking materials, are more than three feet thick, while floor coverings are six-foot layers of feathers or cotton wool. Silence here can be as painful to the ears as the din(continuous loud noise) of a steelworks or a rocket blast-off, yet scientists get used to this and stay in these silent rooms for hours at a time, using microphones and electronic equipment to test the various materials being developed to make the world a less noisy place.
Architects have used scientific discoveries to solve noise problem in a number of ways. Walls are hollowed (having empty space inside) and then filled with sound-sucking materials similar to cotton wool. Extra-thick carpets cover the floors, and thick woolen curtains cover the windows. Air conditioning and heating channels are made less noisy by having the air passing through hundreds of tiny holes in baffles made of sheets of soundsucking materials.
Unfortunately, these techniques and others often work too well in some buildings. Noise-proof rooms become almost anechoic and people living in them are disturbed by the lack of sound. One way of handling this problem is to use what they call "sound perfume"--artificial (similarly produced, made by man) noise is piped to rooms through small loudspeakers. | high20782.txt |
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