questions list | article stringlengths 9 6.44k | id stringlengths 9 14 |
|---|---|---|
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "That someone speaks a new language in a sudden."
},
"options": [
"That someone becomes unconscious.",
"That someone speaks a new language in a sudden.",
"That someone doesn't like his mother language.",
"That someone is... | Imagine going to sleep then waking up speaking another language. It may sound impossible, but it's actually happened.
The phenomenon of being able to suddenly speak another language is known as"Xenoglossia", from the Greek words"xenos"(foreigner)and "glossa"(language).
_ once happened to a 13yearold girl from Croatia. After being unconscious because of a disease for 24 hours in 2010,she woke up speaking fluent German. The girl, who came from the town of Knin in the south of Croatia,was studying German at school but she'd only started recently. Her parents said that she'd been reading German books and watching German TV at home, but that she wasn't fluent in the language.However ,since waking up, she's been able to communicate "perfectly"in German.What's really strange is that she's now unable to speak Croat,her mother language.Doctors at Split's KB Hospital have asked some experts to examine the girl as they try to find out what caused the change.Dr Mijo Milas said,"In earlier times this would have been considered as a miracle ;we prefer to think that there must be an explanation--it's just that we haven't found it yet."
In 2007,Matej Kus from Czech became unconscious after a motorbike accident. On waking up 45 minutes later,he could speak fluent English.Matej was only 18 years old at the time, and had just started studying the language and so was at a low level.Peter Waite,Kus's teammate said,"I couldn't believe what I was hearing.It was really clear English.It was unbelievable to hear him talk in unbroken English."Unluckily,Matej's new language skills didn't last.Two days later, when he recovered fully from the accident, he'd completely forgotten his English.
We still don't know exactly what happened to the two people. Perhaps scientists will discover something new and exciting. But until then, keep studying! | high5326.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "you don't have to be rich in order to give"
},
"options": [
"giving means you will lack money",
"the excitement of giving can bring you money",
"you don't have to be rich in order to give",
"when you give away money,you... | Like most people,1 was brought up to look upon life as a process of getting It was not until in my late thirties that 1 made this important discovery:giving-away makes life so much more exciting You need not worry if you lack money This is how 1 experimented with giving-away.If an idea for improving the window display of a neighborhood store flashes to me,I step in and make the suggestion to the storekeeper.One discovery I made about giving-away is that it is almost impossible to give away anything in this world without getting something back,though the return often comes in all unexpected form.One Sunday morning the local post office delivered an important special delivery letter to my home,though it was addressed to me at my Office.1 wrote the postmaster a note of appreciation More than a year later I needed a post--office box for a new business 1 was starting 1 was told at the window that there were no boxes left,and that my name would have to go on a long waiting list.As 1 was about to leave,the postmaster appeared in the doorway.He had overheard our conversation."Wasn't it you that wrote US that letter a year ago about delivering a special delivery to your home?"I said yes"Well,you certainly are going to have a box in this post office if we have to make one for you.You don't know what a letter like that means to us. We usually get nothing but complaints.'' | high17661.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "He suffers from loneliness greatly."
},
"options": [
"He was deserted by his family.",
"He found many sources of food.",
"He came to the island for a test.",
"He suffers from loneliness greatly."
],
"question": ... | The loneliest chimp in the world just got the best surprise--a hug from a new friend. Ponso has been by himself for nearly three years, finding himself alone after his wife and children died on the island where they were abandoned by a medical testing company many years ago.
For years a nearby villager named Germain has been Ponso's only company, visiting him so often to bring bananas and bread--the chimp's only source of food on the tiny island. It was clear how much Ponso missed companionship when he was recently visited by Chimpanzee Conservation Centre Director Estelle Raballand. The chimp immediately embraced Estelle Raballand in a huge hug and laughed as she reached out for him, with his smile from ear to ear.
For those who know Ponso's backstory, his immediate ease and trust in humans might be surprising. Ponso was one of 20 chimps, all between the ages of 7 to 11 years old, relocated to an island off the Ivory Coast after being used for testing by the New York Blood Centre. After the tests were completed in 2005, the lab reportedly transferred the chimps to a string of islands, occasionally dropping off food and water because there was none in the chimps'new homes.
Disease and hunger soon left only Ponso, his mate and their two children standing. But at the end of 2013 they died within days of each other and Ponso was now completely alone.
A group called SOS PONSO is trying to raise money for the poor lonely chimp, already achieving its goal of e 20, 000-all of which will be used for Ponso's care. | high19894.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Signing Commonwealth documents every day."
},
"options": [
"Traveling around the UK.",
"Declaring when the world is at war.",
"Inviting other leaders to have dinner with her.",
"Signing Commonwealth documents every day.... | The royal family is a part of British history and cultural identity.
Up until the 17th century, people believed that the British king or queen had a "divine right" to rule. This was the idea that God chose the king or queen and that he or she was therefore above the law. However, this idea was challenged during the English Civil War, when King Charles the First was put in prison and then killed in 1649.
So what role does the British royal family have today?
The Queen is head of the UK and the Commonwealth. She has important formal duties that go with her different titles. As Head of State, for example, she represents the UK on visits abroad and invites other world leaders to visit the UK;as Head of the Armed Forces in name, only she can declare when the UK is at war or when a war is over. She has to sign many government and Commonwealth documents every day.
Although the royal family does the work for the UK, there are British people called"anti-monarchists "who do not believe there should be a royal family. One criticism is that the British people should not have to pay for the royal family with their taxes .
Today, the royal family works hard to be relevant in the modern world. The Queen still gives a speech to the nation on television at Christmas, but it gets less and less formal every year;now it is even available as a podcast .
In 2005, after graduating from university, Prince William spent time teaching English in Uruguay, the sort of work many ordinary young British people do in their gap years. | high2449.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "they watch TV too often"
},
"options": [
"they watch TV too often",
"they have done too much homework",
"they have to fulfill too many duties",
"teachers are too strict with them"
],
"question": "Children are be... | "It hurts me more than you", and "This is for your own good" --these are the statements my mother used to make years ago when I had to learn Latin, clean my room, stay home and do homework.
That was before we entered the permissive period in education in which we decided it was all right not to push our children to achieve their best in school. The schools and the educators made it easy for us. They taught that it was all right to be parents who take a let-alone policy. We stopped making our children do homework. We gave them calculators, turned on the television, left the teaching to the teachers and went on vacation.
Now teachers, faced with children who have been developing at their own pace for the past 15 years, are realizing we've made a terrible mistake. One such teacher is Sharon Clomps who says of her students--"so passive" --and wonders what has happened. Nothing is demanded of them, she believes. Television, says Clomps, contributes to children's passivity. "We're talking about a generation of kids who' vet never been hurt or hungry. They have learned somebody will always do it for them, instead of saying 'go and look it up', you tell them the answer. It takes greater energy to say no to a kid."
Yes, it does. It takes energy and it takes work. It's time for parents to end their vacation and come back to work. It' s time to take the car away, to turn the TV off, to tell them it hurts you more than them but it' s for their own good. It's s time to start telling them no again. | high1140.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the face of the Sphinx looks like Pharaoh Khafre."
},
"options": [
"the face of the Sphinx looks like Pharaoh Khafre.",
"the Great Pyramid was built by Pharaoh Khafre.",
"Pharaoh Khafre built his tomb beside the Sphinx.",
... | Along with the Great Pyramid of Giza. The Sphinx is one of the most studied ancient monument of mankind's history. The whole complex of Giza, composed of the Sphinx, the Great Pyramid, other pyramids, and distinct structures, definitely holds the key to understanding advanced past civilizations. In the examination of the mystery of the great Sphinx we run into a similar situation. The Egyptians wrote very little about the construction of the Sphinx. However, the Egyptians, Romans, and Arabs did write accounts concerning its numerous restorations, which will be discussed later in this article. In addition, it should be said that other cultures had their form of a Sphinx. For example, the Greek Sphinx was a female with a human head, breast, and the body of a feminine lion.
Now there are basically two schools of thought on the origin, the age and the builder of the Sphinx in Egypt. The traditional view of Egyptologists is that Pharaoh Khafre of the Fourth Dynasty built the Sphinx along with the Great Pyramid around 2,500 BC. The evidence is that the face of the Sphinx is thought to look like Pharaoh Khafre. This theory makes the Sphinx about 5,000 years old according to Dr Zahi Hawass, director of Giza Saqqara of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization.
The other school of thought doesn't believe that the Egyptians built the Sphinx, but thinks that it was built by an advanced civilization before the Egyptians. The Egyptians came later and built their tombs and temples along the sides of these great structures.
This school of thought has been around for hundreds of years, but new buildings give it more _ . Recently, Graham Hancock , the author of the famous book Finger-prints of the Gods and some American scholars have presented certain evidence that challenges the traditional thought on the Sphinx.
They present proofs that may cause a rethinking of the so-called fact used to determine who built the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza and for what purpose. Their proofs consist of basically two pieces of evidence astronomical calculations of the stars and geological evidence that the erosion of the Sphinx and other monuments of Giza was due to water rather than sand, wind or sunshine according to Robert Bauval's book _ . It is this evidence that has turned the Egyptologists' world upside down. | high22802.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Jennifer's uncle."
},
"options": [
"Jennifer.",
"Jennifer's mother.",
"Jennifer's uncle.",
"Jennifer's brothers."
],
"question": "Who fixed the sailboat with Jennifer's father?",
"question_type": "factiod_qu... | Jennifer's Hurricane Experience
I have evacuated lots of times in my life. To make sure everything is safe, my family have to move a lot of things. I usually help my mom and my brothers help my dad. Mom and I take all of the special keepsakes to low safe places. Another thing we have to do is to take our sailboat out into deep water and anchor it really well. When it's time to anchor the sailboat, Scott, my father's brother, comes over. I just need to wait in the car with my mom and brothers before we evacuate.
John's Hurricane Experience
My family evacuated for hurricane Opal in 1995. We left two days early because we were going to my dad's 35thHigh School Reunion . There was a lot of traffic getting out of town. But we didn't get into trouble as we had arrived at the school. During hurricane Georges, I slept. But there was a lot of lightning, thunder and rain at that night. The next morning, there were a lot of branches, twigs and leaves everywhere.
Catherine's Hurricane Experience
This year, we experienced two hurricanes, Earl and Georges. We did the same thing in both hurricanes. We would always be watching the news. There was a lot of rain ... a whole lot of rain. The hurricane never really got close enough to do very much damage. I have never evacuated, and I don't think that I ever will.
Ryan's Hurricane Experience
I am a police officer on an island in the Texas Gulf Coast. I was directly affected by the violent weather throughout the hurricane season. Our department was ordered to stay on the island while all the other citizens were evacuating. I didn't feel at all prepared for the situation. So I went to the grocery store and purchased some food. I thought a survival kit would have helped ease some of the tension in my mind. | high13407.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "didn't know how serious Grandma's illness was"
},
"options": [
"knew Grandma would appear in a local medical journal",
"found that something was wrong with the costumes",
"didn't realize that Grandma was feeling unwell",
... | It was the day after Halloween when my grandmother was admitted to the hospital with the worst headache she'd ever had. While posing in our costumes the night before, we knew something was wrong, just not how wrong.
Grandma's house was the central gathering place of my family. Sunday lunches, birthday dinners, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas -- all were our traditions, with her as hostess. While my parents were busy running their small business, there were many nights when Grandma fed me and put me to bed in her spare room, until they came to get me. I spent my summers at Grandma's and I went everywhere with her. I couldn't imagine a time when she wouldn't be around me.
Then November 1, 1991 began her month-long stay in the hospital--she suffered from a rare infection called nocardia asteroides. After being born in the year of the Great Depression, living through World War II, raising three kids, and being widowed at the age of 48, Grandma never expected to live into her seventies. The infection in her brain seemed to confirm that she wasn't long for this world. But that's not the end of her story. A team of doctors successfully removed the abscess , and Grandma even made it into a local medical journal. Her doctor called her "the brain lady".
Grandma celebrated her 85thbirthday in March this year. In the almost 23 years since her recovery, she's seen two of her four grandchildren get married and welcomed three great-grandsons. Although they damage something in her house, she loves it when my two boys come over. And while I know they make her day, seeing her love blossom for another generation makes my day too. Happy Grandparents' Day to my amazing grandmother! | high14368.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Bush and the students of Qinghua discussed something about how to make China richer and stronger."
},
"options": [
"Bush think bilateral contacts and mutual understanding will promote Sino-U.S. relations.",
"Many Americans are inte... | Visiting U.S. President George W. Bush said in Beijing Friday that both China and the United States should encourage bilateral contacts and exchanges to promote mutual understanding.
"It's important for our political leaders to come to China," said Bush, who gave a speech Friday morning at Qinghua University, one of the most prestigious universities in China.
His working visit to China and discussions with Oinghua students "help promote" Sino-U.S. relations, Bush said in response to a student's question about what he would do to promote Sino-U.S. relations.
"Many people in my country are very interested in China," he said, adding that these Americans have learned more about China's culture and the Chinese people.
He said that he would keep encouraging such contacts and exchanges between the two countries.
Bush said that he would describe back home what he has seen here and that China as a great nation not only has a "great history" but also an "unbelievably exciting future."
The president said that the 2008 Olympic Games would make a significant opportunity for the rest of the world to understand China, which enables more people to come to China and feel the modernization taking place, and many more people will see it on the television.
Bush arrived in Beijing Thursday for a two-day working visit to China. | high7531.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "hat"
},
"options": [
"trousers",
"jacket",
"boots",
"hat"
],
"question": "The little girl was more satisfied with her _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index":... | It was the first snow of winter -- an exciting day for every child but not for most teachers. Up until now, I had been old enough to dress myself, but today would need some help. Miss Finlayson, my kindergarten teacher, had been through brst snow days many times, but I think she may still remember this one.
I managed to get into my wool snow trousers. But I struggled won my jacket because it didn't fit well. It was a hand-mc-down from my brother, and if made me wonder why I had to wear his ugly clothes, At least my hat and scarf were mine, and they were quite pretty. Finally it was time to have Miss Finlayson help me with my boots .
In her calm, motherly voice she said, "By the end of winter, you will all be able to put on your own boots." I didn't realize at the at the time that this was more a statement of hope than of confidence .
I handed her my boots and stuck out my foot. Like most children, I expected grown-ups to do all the work. After much pushing, she managed to get first one into place and then, with a sigh, worked the second one on too.
I announced, "They're on the wrong feet."
She struggled to get the boots off and went through the joyless task of putting them on again.
"They're my brother's boots, you know," I said. "I hate them".
Somehow, from long years of practice, she managed to act as though I wasn't an annoying little girl, She struggle with me, she asked, "Now, where are your mittens ?"
I looked into her eyes and said, "I didn't want to lose them, so I hid them in the toes of my boots. | high8164.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "her mother made her nervous"
},
"options": [
"she couldn't talk with her mother",
"her father wanted to teach her",
"her mother made her nervous",
"she didn't trust her mother"
],
"question": "The author couldn'... | Car Talk
When I got the driving license last summer, Mom and I took our first trip around an empty parking lot. Then I found that my mother was not the best teacher for me. It wasn't that she shouted, or told me that I was doing poorly. As you can imagine, my mother's "helpful instructions" only managed to make me more nervous.
Since I could no longer practice with her, the job was placed in the hands of my father. The idea of learning from Dad was not one that thrilled me. I loved him dearly, but I just did not see Dad as someone I could be comfortable learning from. He almost never talked. We shared a typical father-daughter relationship. He'd ask how school was, and I'd say it was fine. Unfortunately, that was the most of our conversations. Spending hours alone with someone who might as well have been a stranger really scared me.
As we got into the car that first time, I was not surprised at what happened. Dad and I drove around, saying almost nothing, aside from a few instructions on how to turn. As my lessons went on, however, things began to change. Dad would turn the radio up so I could fully appreciate his favorite Stones music. And he actually began talking. I was soon hearing about past failed dates, "basic body" gym class, and other tales from his past, including some of his first meeting with Mom.
Dad' s sudden chattiness was shocking until I thought about why he was telling me so much in the car. In all the years that I had wondered why my father never spoke that much, I had never stopped to consider that it was because I had never bothered to listen. Homework, friends, and even TV had all called me away from him, and, consequently, I never thought my quiet father had anything to say.
Since I began driving with him, my driving skill has greatly increased. More important, though, is that my knowledge of who my father is has also increased. Just living with him wasn't enough--it took driving with him for me to get to know someone who was a mystery. | high6149.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Ideas still vary in the identity of Pluto."
},
"options": [
"Ideas still vary in the identity of Pluto.",
"Only scientists could watch the flyby live.",
"Mars is the first planet visited by a spaceship.",
"New Horizons ... | NASA-s New Horizons probe flew by Pluto this morning, sending back history's first up-close looks at the vast freezing-cold world. Closest approach came at 7:49 a.m. EDT. To celebrate, NASA gave out the latest photo of Pluto. It showed a reddish world with an amazing heart-shaped feature on its surface.
After today's close encounter, all the nine solar system's traditionally recognized planets have now been visited by a spaceship-a huge project begun in 1962 when NASA's Mariner 2 probe flew past Venus, a planet in the solar system. More than l,200 scientists, NASA guests and important persons, including 200 reporters, watched the flyby live at New Horizons' mission control center.
That close encounter has been a long time coming. The$723 million New Horizons mission launched in January 2006 but began taking shape in 1989. "New Horizons is'a capstone mission'," Glen Fountain, mission project manager told Space, com. "It is the first completion of the observations of our solar system. It-s giving us a new idea about how we human beings fit into the universe."
New Horizons "faced a crazy number of challenges," Stern, a driving force behind New Horizons said, "So many people stuck with this for so long. They got knocked down; they stood up. They got knocked down again; they stood up again."
In a coincidence, today's close approach falls on the 50th anniversary of the first flyby of Mars, another planet, which was completed by NASA-s Mariner 4 spaceship.
There are no longer nine officially recognized planets, of course. The International Astronomical Union regarded Pluto as "a dwarf planet" in 2006 in a decision that remains controversial today. | high13361.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "It is extremely useful and convenient, but it may be inconvenient or even harmful."
},
"options": [
"It should replace old-fashioned letters completely.",
"It is perfect and always does good to you.",
"It is extremely useful ... | Online Communication
In an age when technology moves faster than most can keep up with, a small group of people still remain in the time of old-fashioned letter. Frankly speaking, I was once certain that traditional letters could never be replaced by other means of communication.
But a story about online communication changed my mind.
An old man, who suffered a lot from Parkinson's disease, was not able to talk clearly and could hardly write his name. Living totally alone, he managed to keep in touch with nearly all the members of his family. How did he achieve this? He clicked out words on his computer keyboard.
I, therefore, managed to get an E-mail box as soon as the opportunity came. My life changed. E-mail, and all online communication, is something truly different. It has capabilities that few other products can match.
E-mail is convenient. It takes less time with its fast speed and 24-hour connection. The slow postal service is no match. If you wouldn't want to have a face-to-face talk with your manager, you might talk with him through E-mail even if you are in the same office.
Naming all the good things about online communication is not easy. But wait. E-mail can be inconvenient. It can waste time and energy. Just think what may happen when you take a short vacation and return to find your e-mail box filled with 200 unread messages. You could easily spend half a day clearing _ ads.
Then, online communication will keep us staying at our computer while it connects us to distant strangers. Once we throw ourselves into the machine, we may forget the human touches we once held so dear. I'm sure there is and always will be a place for the old-fashioned letter, phone call, and face-to-face meeting... even in the world of modern communication.
As I listen to the sound of the modem , I was excited at stepping out to the outside world but, at the same time, I sensed a loss of control over something valuable in my personal life. | high5440.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "To seek freedom."
},
"options": [
"To seek freedom.",
"To seek wealth.",
"To seek good education.",
"To seek a good job."
],
"question": "Why did the Belarskys come to the US according to the passage?",
"que... | What Is Today's American Dream
They may not have called it the American Dream, but for centuries people have gone to America in search of freer, happier, and richer lives. But is today's American Dream a mythical concept or still a reality?
Isabel Belarsky's tiny Brooklyn apartment fills with the sound of her father's voice. Sidor Belarsky sings an Aria in Russian and 90-year-old Isabel, her lips painted an elegant red, sways gently to the song coming from her stereo.
Isabel speaks with pride about her father's talent and his success as an opera singer: Albert Einstein was such a fan she says that he invited Sidor to accompany him on his speaking engagements and would ask him to sing to the audience.
How the Belarskys came to be in America is an extraordinary tale that Isabel loves to tell. It was the offer of a six-month job by a Mormon college president, who had seen Sidor singing in Leningrad, that enabled the Belarskys to escape from Stalin's Russia in 1930. "Our dream was being in America," Isabel says. "They loved it. My mother could never think of Russia, it was her enemy and my father, he made such a wonderful career here."
Like generations of immigrants before them, the Belarskys came to America in search of freedom--to them the American Dream meant liberty. But Isabel says it promised even more. "The dream is to work, to have a home and to get ahead. You can start as a janitor and become the owner of the building."
The American Dream is not written into the constitution but it is so ingrained in the national psyche that it might as well be. Many point to the second sentence in the Declaration of Independence--the "certain unalienable rights" that include "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" as the "official" version of the phrase. But it was actually in 1931 that the term was popularized, when historian James Truslow Adams wrote in The Epic of America that the Dream means "a better, richer, and happier life for all our citizens of every rank".
The concept of the American Dream has not stayed static. For European immigrants, like Isabel, fleeing persecution in the first half of the last century, the Dream was about a life without persecution.
But somewhere in the middle of the last century the dream changed. As America's post war economy boomed, the new arrivals wanted more than freedom--they wanted a share of the prosperity as well.
In the 1950s, TV commercials featured housewives proudly showing off kitchens filled with gleaming appliances. The quest for liberation became a quest for Coca Cola. As the century wore on, the materialistic slant of the dream overtook the political side. Dallas and Dynasty suggested this was a country where it was possible to become not just rich, but filthily rich.
Cheyanne Smith was shocked at the deprivation that greeted her in America. She arrived in New York from the Caribbean seven years ago. Having watched endless American TV shows as a child, she thought she knew what to expect when her family moved to Brooklyn. Instead, the deprivation of one of New York's poorest neighbourhoods shocked her.
"I thought this is not America because this is not what I see on television," she says. Like Cheyanne, 18-year-old Franscisco Curiel is also ambitious. He came from Mexico City three years ago to go to college here but he's worried that Brooklyn's schools aren't going to give him a good enough education. "The system is broken; we can't get the superior education that they supposedly want to give us," he says.
Through the centuries America's immigrants have endured terrible hardship and sacrifice so that they and their children can get ahead. Perhaps it's not surprising to hear the members of the Bushwick youth group lament the multiple, low paid jobs that their parents must do simply to get the rent paid and put food on the table. What is startling is that these bright, ambitious youngsters just don't believe that talent and hard work are enough to ensure they will ever have a shot at that mythical American Dream. | high18234.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "both Fear and Faith trust something in the future"
},
"options": [
"both Fear and Faith trust something in the future",
"Fear and Faith have nothing in common",
"neither negative nor positive future will happen",
"peopl... | Do you know what Fear and Faith have in common? Fear believes in a negative future. Faith believes in a positive future. Both believe in something that has not yet happened. So I ask you, if neither the positive nor negative future has happened yet then why not choose to believe in the positive future?
I believe during these challenging times we have a choice between two roads: the positive road and the negative road. And our bus can't be on two roads at the same time. So we have to make a choice and this choice determines our belief about the future and the attitude and actions we bring to the present.
I'm not saying we shouldn't have any fear. There are times when fear is a gift. A healthy dose of fear causes us to examine our situation and plan for the future. It moves us to smell the cheese and expect change. When used wisely it allows us to manage risk and make better decisions. Some fear is good.
However, what I have observed lately is a supersized, huge dose of fear that is spreading the hearts and minds of far too many people. This oversized fear is causing leaders and their organizations to either act unreasonably or to not act at all. They are either hurrying in a million different directions because of fear. In both cases, fear is leading them to take the negative road to failure.
The answer is the positive road paved with faith and a belief that your best days are not behind you but ahead of you. With this belief you make the right choices and actions today that will create your positive future tomorrow. You stay calm, focused and committed to your purpose. You look for ways to save money and cut costs without making unreasonable fear-based decisions that sacrifice your future success. You identify opportunities in the midst of the challenges and you focus on solutions instead of problems.
Your faith and belief in a positive future leads to powerful actions today. The future has not happened yet and you have a say in what it looks like by the way you think and act. Fear or Faith. The choice is yours. | high17107.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "in the European films there were only little roles for her to act"
},
"options": [
"in the European films there were only little roles for her to act",
"in the Americana there were many important film roles waiting for her to act",... | Audrey Hepburn (*) was born on May 4, 1929 in Brussels, Belgium. She really was blue-blood from the beginning with her father, a wealthy English banker, and her mother, a Dutch noblewoman. After her parents divorced, Audrey went to London with her mother where she went to a private girl school. Later, when her mother moved back to the Holland, she attended private schools as well. While taking a vacation with her mother in Arnhem, Holland, Hitler's army took over the town. It was here that she
during the Nazi occupation. Audrey suffered from depression and poor nutrition.
After the liberation, Audrey went to a ballet school in London on a scholarship and later began a modeling career. As a model, she was graceful and, it seemed, she had found her job suitable for her in life - until the film producers came calling. After being spotted modeling by a producer, she was signed to a bit part in the European film Nederlands in 7 lessen in 1948. Later, she had a speaking role in the 1951 film, Young Wives' Tale (1951) as Eve Lester. The part still wasn't much, so she headed to America to try her luck there. Audrey gained immediate prominence in the US with her role in Roman Holiday in 1953. This film turned out to be a splendid success as she won an Oscar as Best Actress. This gained her enormous popularity and more plum roles. One of the reasons for her popularity was the fact that she was self-like, unlike the sex-goddesses of the time. Roman Holiday was followed by another similarly wonderful performance in the 1957 classic Funny Face.In 1988, Audrey became a special ambassador to the United Nations fund helping children in Latin America and Africa, a position she retained until 1993.Her elegance and style will always be remembered in film history as evidenced by her being named in Empire magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time." | high16219.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Store and sell them."
},
"options": [
"Throw them away.",
"Store and sell them.",
"Cut them into pieces.",
"Give them to the students in Inner Mongolia."
],
"question": "What do Wang Boxuan and his schoolmates d... | June 5 is World Environment Day. This makes us pay more attention to our environment and the need to protect it.
When Wang Boxuan, a Beijing high schoolboy, uses up his exercise books, he does not throw them away. Each one is stored at his school with hundreds of exercise books given by other students. Then they are sold to a Beijing paper making factory.
The paper is recycled and used again by students and teachers in the school. At the same time, the money made from the sales goes towards schools in Inner Mongolia for planting trees and grass. This place is one of the sources of the sandstorms that often attack Beijing during springtime.
Wang's school is one of the schools in the capital that take part in the "Green Promise" --environmental protection activity. So far, nearly 210,000 students have taken part in the activity, collecting more than 87 tons of waste paper.
Students are eager to help make the capital a more pleasant place. | high11576.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "detect potential contacts between vehicles in advance"
},
"options": [
"detect possible dangerous crossroads",
"compute the movement of the contacting vehicles",
"brake the car automatically in as little time as possible",
... | Driving speeds have largely stabilized, and nowadays, safety concerns are important and reducing road accidents to minimum is a must. So, automakers are focused on safety systems more than ever before.
Given the emphasis on improving safety, it's possible that well-known phrases such as "live fast and die young" may lose their meaning as innovative new devices are built into cars and trucks and other things that go.
Many of the new safety systems that are being added to high-end vehicles are computer-assisted technologies that transfer some of the vehicle's operations to the vehicle itself, rather than relying only on the driver's decision-making skills.
For example, predictive brake assist is an in-vehicle feature that prepares the vehicle for braking when its built-in sensors detect a potential object ahead. The predictive brake assist basically places the vehicle's braking system on alert, which helps the system to slow down the car in as little time and as short a distance as possible.
Other in-vehicle sensors will detect moving and still objects and will even distinguish the objects based on simple patterns, such as other vehicles vs. a person.
What's more, built-in "active systems", i.e., predictive precollision systems, will provide drivers with advance detection of potential contact between vehicles. These systems compute the movement of the objects and detect possible dangerous intersections .
What technological developments have enabled innovations like predictive precollision systems? Essentially, these so-called active systems are the result of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications.
These communication links allow highways to provide a vehicle's owners with services such as renting a movie during the trip, as well as reduce reaction delays when medical care is needed due to a crash.
Despite these new technologies, drivers cannot take safety for granted.
Until all vehicles are fully automated, it is the drivers themselves who are responsible for operating their vehicles and obeying traffic laws designed to keep roadways secure. So, keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the steering wheel . | high20973.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "everyday life and feelings"
},
"options": [
"everyday life and feelings",
"farmers' feelings",
"the lives of workers",
"the lives of farmers"
],
"question": "Country music is usually about _ .",
"question... | Are you interested in country music? I like it very much! It will take me away for a while after I am tired .The guitars and songs will take me to mountains and fields.
Country music usually talks of everyday life and feelings. It's the spirit of America, easy to understand, slow and simple.
Country music developed in the Southern United States. It was the folk music of American countryside. Many of songs tell about the lives of farmers .They talk about love, crops or death.
The life of the countryside can be hard, so the words in country music are often sad. At first, people played the music only at family parties. But it became more popular later. In the 1920s, people played country songs on the radio, and they made them into records.
When people in the countryside moved to towns and cities to look for work, they took their music with them. Country music continued to change and became popular across America.
John Denver was one of America's most famous country singers in the 1970s.His song "Take Me home, Country Roads" is well-known and people still play it today. | high3031.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "the effect of exposure to radiation is slow in coming"
},
"options": [
"exposure to even tiny amount of radiation is fatal( )",
"the effect of exposure to radiation is slow in coming",
"radiation is avoidable in space explora... | Space is a dangerous place, not only because of meteors but also because of rays from the sun and other stars. The atmosphere again acts as our protective blanket on earth. Light gets through, and this is necessary for plants to make the food that we eat. Heat, too, makes our environment endurable. Various kinds of rays come through the air from outer space, but enormous quantities of radiation from the sun are screened off. As soon as men leave the atmosphere they are exposed to this radiation but their spacesuits or the walls of their spacecraft, if they are inside, do prevent a lot of radiation damage.
Radiation is the greatest known danger to explorers in space, The unit of radiation is called "rem" Scientists have reason to think that a man can put up with far more radiation than 0.1rem without being damaged; the figure of 60 rems has been agreed on. The trouble is that it is extremely difficult to be sure about radiation damage. A person may feel perfectly well, but the cells of his or her sex organs may be damaged, and this will not be discovered until the birth of _ children or even grandchildren. Missions of the Apollo flights have had to cross belts of high radiation and , during the outward and return journeys, the Apollo crew accumulated a large amount of rems. So far, no dangerous amounts of radiation have been reported, but the Apollo missions have been quite short. We simply do not know yet how men are going to get on when they spend weeks and months outside the protection of the atmosphere, working in a space laboratory. Drugs might help to decrease the damage done by radiation, but no really effective ones have been found so far. | high12057.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "he was worried the vendor would take revenge on him"
},
"options": [
"the man should know bargaining is a way of life here",
"he couldn't exchange his garment if he did so",
"he was worried the vendor would take revenge on hi... | As I stood in a stall of Beijing's Silk Market, waiting to exchange a silk garment, I watched in amazement as the young vendor pulled out silk nightgown after nightgown for a foreigner, who sounded like an American, but frankly could have been from any English-speaking Western country.
The man appeared satisfied when she pulled out a bright, purple nightgown and said, "This one, very good." and probably asked how much it cost, for the owner pulled out her calculator showing 800. My heart was pounding heavily. After all, I was holding a similar gown in my hand for which I had paid all of 60 yuan ($9.39) just the previous day. I wanted to scream and say, "Wait, you are _ ". But I just kept silent.
As I moved away from the stall a thousand thoughts flashed in my mind. Should I have just stepped in and stopped it? I may have saved the man but could have brought danger to myself. Maybe I could have pretended to seek help with some English from that man and warned him not to be cheated?
When I told the incident to some of my friends, most seemed to think it was unfortunate but one couldn't fault the vendor. Everyone visiting China knows, or ought to know, that bargaining is a way of life here, they said.
Although I do agree that the man should have been better informed, it just doesn't seem right that the place, to which tourists from all over the world are brought and made to believe is a Mecca for shopping in Beijing, should be allowed to get away with such daylight robbery.
I still think I should have done something about what I witnessed. | high22194.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "The picture can play what's been recorded as if the person in the picture \"talks\"."
},
"options": [
"The picture can play what's been recorded as if the person in the picture \"talks\".",
"You can have a talk with the person in t... | How can you hear your friends' voices when they are far away and you can't make a long--distance call? Besides the web camera system with your computer, we have a new high-tech way to solve the problem and ease your pain of missing them.
The Japanese company Combiwith created a system--
. It makes people in pictures speak!
The "talking picture" has a special pen. It is actually a pen-shaped scanner. It can scan information in special--made pictures. A connected player will then play the information out loud.
First, you need to take a picture and record what you want to say with the company. The company will then make special barcodes onto your picture(you can't see those codes). Those codes are your voice and your words. When you hold up the pen to scan your picture with barcodes, a player connected to the pen will start to play. It plays things you've recorded. That way the invention makes the "you" in the picture speak!
Do you want your friends and families talking out of pictures? Have them make pictures like that, and you can hear them whenever you want, only with the "talking picture" system. The system can play messages for up to 12 minutes.
"The pictures would be useful for those who hope to hear the voice of someone living far away," said Mayumi Fuji, a spokeswoman for the company. "Grandparents, for example, longing to know about their grandchildren, would be happy to hear their voice when they see the picture," Fuji said.
But it is troublesome to go to the company for taking a special picture first. And, it is much more expensive than using a telephone. The photo with barcodes costs between 17,040 and 17,990 yen (160 and 169 dollars). The larger picture you want, the more you pay.
Now, just raise a finger, lonely people can have their loved ones speak out of pictures. But, whether the "talking picture" is practical or not, let's wait and see. | high15738.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "can go into your soul without being noticed"
},
"options": [
"you feel others do better than you",
"can go into your soul without being noticed",
"positive enough to make yourself do better",
"makes you as worthy as the... | Jealousy is a horrible feeling that weeds its way into your life and relationships before you know it. You might want something someone else has, or feel like they're happier than you. It might seem like an uncontrollable emotion, but it's truly not!
Remember your big accomplishments. If your coworker gets the promotion you wanted, it doesn't mean you haven't done great work. List out your accomplishments and think about how you got them and what you've done since then. You'll quickly find that you're just as worthy as the person you're envying!
Appreciate your own good fortune. Think of where you are in your life and how you got there. Did you just buy your first car? Are you able to save one paycheck each month? Are you surrounded by loving family and amazing friends? You have a lot of good things,and you have a lot of good fortune coming your way. Stop letting jealousy eat you alive and realize that you can better spend that energy on furthering your own success and happiness.
Appreciate that others can do what you can't. How boring would life be if everyone was the same? What if the entire population of your city was applying for your job, and they all had the same qualifications? Appreciate that everyone is different. Some people are better in powerful management positions, while maybe you're better working with people. A friend might be an excellent artist--a quality you're envious of, but don't forget that you're a great musician! Acknowledge that people need to be different, need to be better at various things. | high6161.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "online wealth has to be gained bit by bit"
},
"options": [
"expert knowledge is badly needed",
"you are short of money at the beginning",
"online wealth has to be gained bit by bit",
"family and friends will be against ... | Rome wasn't built in a day, and the Internet didn't come out of a golden egg. Many of today's creations were not born of people who had creative ideas, but who did not stop at simply having an idea. They took one brick of capital , another brick of knowledge, perhaps a brick or two of family and friends, and built their empires brick by brick.
If you want to build an online empire, you cannot settle for simply having a website full of articles, or a website full of pictures--there are already thousands of sites like that, so you need to come up with something new and creative.
So if you are starting to build something up, ask yourself: what do you really want to do, and what are you really good at? Believe it or not, you can make money at something that you are an expert in, and you need to know what that is.
Remember, having an online empire does not mean that you have to do it alone. You can take _ along with you. Having a friend advertise your services online is a good way to attract more visitors to your empire.
Building an online empire, you will have to be prepared to not only come up with creative ideas, but to carry your ideas through. Talk to people who have already succeeded in building their own empires. Talk to people who are struggling. Join a mailing list that will help you get through your struggle to achieve your goal.
As you move forward, you will find that you can help other people, and you will have a good many stories to tell--not to mention a lot of money in the bank.
If you learn the real secrets of creating a long term stable online business then you will have enough money to retire on. | high14426.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Because people have lost sensible judgment."
},
"options": [
"Because their children are disappointing.",
"Because they have to look serious in public.",
"Because life is becoming a greater burden.",
"Because people hav... | These days, it seems that almost all of us are too serious.My older daughter often says to me, "Daddy, you've got that serious look again." Even those of us who are committed to non-seriousness are probably too serious.People are frustrated and anxious about almost everything -- being five minutes late, witnessing someone look at us wrong or say the wrong thing, paying bills, waiting in line, overcooking a meal, making an honest mistake -- you name it, and we all lose perspective over it.
The root of being anxious is our unwillingness to accept life as being different, in any way, from our expectation.Very simply, we want things to be a certain way but they're not a certain way.Life is simply as it is.Perhaps Benjamin Franklin said it best: "Our limited perspective, our hopes and fears become our measure of life, and when circumstances don't fit our ideas, they become our difficulties." We spend our lives wanting things, people, and events to be just as we want them to be -- and when they're not, we fight and we suffer.
The first step in recovering from over-seriousness is to admit that you have a problem.You have to want to change, to become more easygoing.You have to see that your own anxiety is largely of your own creation -- it's made up of the way you have set up your life and the way you react to it.
The next step is to understand the link between your expectations and your frustration level.Whenever you expect something to be a certain way and it isn't, you're upset and you suffer.On the other hand, when you let go of your expectations, when you accept life as it is, you're free.
A good exercise is to try to approach a single day without expectation.Don't expect people to be friendly.When they're not, you won't be surprised or bothered; if they are, you'll be delighted.Don't expect your day to be problem-free.Instead, as problems come up, say to yourself, "Ah, another barrier to overcome." As you approach your day in this manner you'll notice how elegant life can be.Rather than fighting against life, you'll be dancing with it.Pretty soon, with practice, you'll lighten up your entire life.And when you lighten up, life is a lot more fun. | high9252.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Its winner got a cash prize."
},
"options": [
"It lasted five days.",
"It was held in Japan.",
"Its winner got a cash prize.",
"Its winner will work in Fukushima."
],
"question": "What do we know about this year... | Contestants from around the world met in Pomona, California, this month to test their skills at things like driving a car, walking down stairs, and opening doors. Sounds easy, right? But the competitors weren't people--they were robots!
The bots were participating in the final round of the US's DARPA(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Robotics Challenge. This event, which took place on June 5-6, tested robots on how well they could respond during a disaster and the winning team finally took home a $2 million grand prize.
The DARPA challenge was created after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. An earthquake caused a tsunami, which damaged a nuclear power plant. Workers at the plant needed to shut off an important valve , but it was too dangerous for humans to reach it. The US scientists at DARPA wondered whether the disaster could have been avoided if a robot had been sent to do _ . So they set up the robotics competition.
Turning a valve was just one task a robot might have to perform when entering a disaster zone. In addition to doing this, robots participating in the challenge had to navigate a course containing several other tasks: driving and exiting a vehicle, opening a door, walking over or clearing objects, cutting a hole in a wall, plus climbing a flight of stairs.
Teams had to complete the challenge in one hour, and points were awarded based on how quickly the robots completed a task. They didn't have to attempt all the tasks. To make things even more realistic, challenge organizers caused short computer-system blackouts that prevented robots and the human operators controlling them from communicating. That means teams had to program their robots to be partially autonomous . Robots also couldn't be attached to anything that could keep them from falling down, which happened a lot. | high13349.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "3"
},
"options": [
"4",
"3",
"2",
"5"
],
"question": "How many of the seven ads are placed by people who want to hire someone for certain job?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | (1)Secretary. Part time. 20 hours a week. Busy doctor's office. Experience preferred. Good typing. Call 555-2438.
(2)BABY SITTER. 3 to 6 weekday afternoons. I will take you home. $5.00 an hour. Call 555-5593.
(3)Guitar lessons. Your home or mine. Experienced musician. Master's degree in music. Call Louise 555-6131.
(4)TENTH STREET BLOCK PARTY. Sunday, July 15. Noon to 8. Food, games, prizes, live band, Tenth Street between Main and North,
(5)APARTMENT FOR RENT. 3 sunny rooms on high floor, great view. Separate kitchen. Wall-to-wall carpeting. The living room can be used as dining room. Email: SDGT@163.com.cn.
(6)TAXI DRIVER WANTED. Full or part time. Experience necessary. A good knowledge of the city is required. Call 555-8860 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekday.
(7)A stereo system for sale, It has two speakers. The system has an AM/FM radio. It also has a tape deck and turntable. It is in good condition. The stereo was owned for only one year. The price is $200 including the speakers. The owner will also take the highest price offered if the asking price is not met. Call Bill after 6 p.m., at 555-9834. | high2307.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "they take no interest in classes"
},
"options": [
"they have failing grades",
"they are lazy and not intelligent",
"they are discriminated against",
"they take no interest in classes"
],
"question": "According t... | A survey suggests that people who have dropped out from high school just earn an average of $9,000 less per year than graduates. Now a new study removes a common belief why they quit. It's much more basic than flunking out .
Society tends to think of high school dropouts as kids who just can't cut it. They are lazy, and perhaps not too bright. So researchers were surprised when they asked more than 450 kids who quit school about why they left.
"The vast majority actually had passing grades and they were confident that they could have graduated from high school." John Bridgeland, the executive researcher said. About one million teens leave school each year. Only about half of African-American and Hispanic students will receive a diploma , and actually all dropouts come to regret their decision. So, if failing grades don't explain why these kids quit, what does? Again, John Bridgeland: "The most dependable finding was that they were bored." "They found classes uninteresting; they weren't inspired or motivated. They didn't see any direct connection between what they were learning in the classroom to their own lives, or to their career aspirations."
The study found that most teens who do drop out wait until they turn sixteen, which happens to be the age at which most states allow students to quit. In the U.S., only one state, New Mexico, has a law requiring teenagers to stay in high school until they graduate. Only four states: California, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, plus the District of Columbia, require school attendance until age 18, no exceptions. Jeffrey Grin, another researcher, says raising the compulsory attendance age may be one way to keep more kids in school.
"As these dropouts look back, they realize they've made a mistake. And anything that sort of gives these people an extra push to stick it out and see it through to the end, is probably helpful measure."
New Hampshire may be the next state to raise its school attendance age to 18. But critics say that forcing the students unwilling to continue their studies to stay in school misses the point--the need for reform. It's been called for to reinvent high school education to make it more challenging and relevant, and to ensure that kids who do stick it out receive a diploma that actually means something. | high10640.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "To tell us the benefits of playing sports"
},
"options": [
"To advise parents to take exercise",
"To tell us the benefits of playing sports",
"To explain why girls like playing sports.",
"To introduce some ways of takin... | Why do we play sports?You might say "to get exercise"and you'd be right.To have fun? That's true,too.But there's more.In fact,there are at least 5 more reasons.According to the Women's Sports Foundation,girls who play sports get a lot more than just fit.
Girls who play sports do better in school.You might think that playing sports will take up all your study time.But research shows that gilrs who play sports do better in school than those who don't.Exercise improves learning,memory,and concentration,which can give active girls an advantage in the classroom.
Girls who play sports learn teamwork and goalsetting skills.Sports teach valuable life skills.When you work with coaches,trainers,and teammates to win games and achieve goals,you're learning how to be successful.Those skills will serve you well at work and in family life.
Sports are good for a girl's health.In addition to being fit and keeping a healthy weight,girls who play sports are also less likely to smoke.And later in life,gilrs who exercise are less likely to get osteoporosis .
Playing sports improves self-confidence.Girls who play sports feel better about themselves.Why?It builds confidence when you know you can practice,improve,and achieve your goals.Sports are also a feel-good activity because they help girls get in shape,keep a healthy weight,and make new friends.
Exercise cuts the pressure.Playing sports can reduce stress and help you feel a little happier.How?The brain chemicals released during exercise improve a person's mood.Friends are another mood-lifter.And being on a team creates tight bonds between friends.It's good to know your teammates will support you--both on and off the field! | high20783.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "It lasted for a whole school year."
},
"options": [
"The teachers were also encouraged to drink water.",
"The students surveyed were all overweight.",
"It surveyed children in the countryside.",
"It lasted for a whole s... | Putting in water fountains at schools, and teaching children about the health benefits of water, could reduce their risk of getting extra pounds, reports a new study that is published in the latest issue of the journal Pediatrics.
The findings are based on a survey in 32 elementary schools of two German cities, Dortmund and Essen. The researchers, led by Rebecca Muckelbauer, a nutritionist at the Research Institute of Child Nutrition Dortmund, weighed about 3,000 children, and asked them about their beverage consumption .
At the beginning of the school year, the experts had water fountains added to 17 of the schools. The scientists also worked with teachers to carry out educational programs that promote the benefits of drinking water. In contrast to schools in the United States, there are very few schools in Germany that have water fountains.
At the beginning of the study, there were no big differences in the number of overweight children in the different groups. But by the end of the school year, children in the schools with water fountains were 31 per cent less likely to gain extra pounds, compared to kids who went to other schools, where water drinking was not encouraged.
Children in the schools with fountains increased their water consumption from about 3 up to 4 glasses a day, while those in the other schools continued to drink an average of 3 glasses. Over the research, the number of overweight kids upped from 384 to 385 out of 1,641 at the schools with water fountains. In comparison, the number of overweight kids at the other schools increased from 339 to 364 out of 1,309, Dr. Muckelbauer said.
The experts cannot make any final conclusions and explain why the students who were encouraged to drink water were less likely to gain extra weight. Dr. Muckelbauer noted that according to a few other studies, drinking of water increases the rate at which calories are burned, while some other research suggested that water may temporarily decrease appetite . | high5468.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "By air."
},
"options": [
"By sea.",
"By air.",
"By train.",
"By car."
],
"question": "How did they go to the city of Lulea?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index... | At the end of every British summer I find myself praying for a proper winter, one that will allow a bit of fun: sledging, snowballing, snowman-building. I'm not very demanding; I don't need amazing downhill skiing and the Cresta Run. What I want is a few days out with the kids. And, much as I like blue skies and sun in summer, I'd exchange it every time for frozen ponds, a hillside covered in fresh snow and ice hanging off the houses. Maddy, 11, wants the same and so, instead of waiting and hoping, we are going to make sure. We are going to Sweden.
Winter fun in Sweden is a bit more advanced than in most of the UK. They do snowshoeing, ice-fishing, snow house-building and so on. They also do lots of Father Christmas matters, which Maddy didn't want: "I'm too old for that kind of nonsense, Dad." Above all, what Maddy wanted was dogs with puppies. She's not too old for that.
We flew to Lulea, a city at the top of the finger of Baltic Sea that reaches out to the north between Sweden and Finland, almost touching the Arctic Circle, then transferred, with some other winter-hungry families, to woodland houses by the sea. There was plenty of snow and ice, but the guides were keeping a nervous eye on the instrument for measuring temperature, which was dangerously close to zero.
"Normally, we are 10degC below," said Roger, our guide, who was also handing out our equipment for the days ahead: snowshoes, boots, gloves and so on. A holiday that provides all the necessary outfits will save you a fortune. | high19102.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "he tried to understand her point of view"
},
"options": [
"he was shocked and jumped",
"he tried to understand her point of view",
"he thought that telling the truth was a merit",
"he decided to teach her something abou... | Sarah came running in saying, "Look what l found. " Over the top of the paper I was reading I saw a long object that made me jump. It was a piece of snakeskin that had been shed by one of our garden snakes.
'Isn't it beautiful?" said my wide-eyed 7~year-old daughter. I stared at the organic wrapper and thought to myself that it really was not that beautiful, but I did not want to disappoint Sarah. Everything children see for the first time is elementary to their sense of beauty and creativity. They see only merit and excellence in the world.
"Why does it do this?" Sarah asked. I like to teach my children that there is something else going on besides what they see in front of them. "Snakes shed their skin because they need to renew themselves," I explained.
"Why do they need to renew themselves?" Sarah asked. "We often need to shed our skins, those coatings that we cover ourselves with," I said to my now absorbed daughter. "We outgrow some things and find other stuff unnecessary. This snake no longer needs this skin. It is probably too old, and the snake probably doesn't think it looks as smart in the skin as it once did. Like buying a new suit. "
Of course, I'm sure this explanation won't suit naturalists. But Sarah got the point. As we talked, I knew that she began to understand that renewal is part of progress; that we need to take a good look at ourselves, and rooms and schoolwork and creativity, and she began to see what we need to keep and what need to cast off. I was careful to point out that this is a natural process, not one to be forced.
"Snakes don't peel off their skin when they feel like it," I explained. "lt happens as part of their growth. "
"I see, Dad. " said Sarah. She then jumped off my lap, grabbed the snakeskin, and ran off.
I hoped she would remember this. Often, in order to find our real selves underneath the layers of community and culture we are cloaked in year after year, we need to start examining these layers. We need to gently peel some away, as we recognize them to be worthless, unnecessary, or flawed ; or at best, remember the things we discard to teach us how we can improve. | high3019.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "For a new exhibit."
},
"options": [
"For a marketing ploy.",
"It's devised to make fun.",
"People really need them.",
"For a new exhibit."
],
"question": "For what does the museum pay for cockroaches?",
"que... | Get a reward for every bug you bring to live in new science museum exhibit.
In a city with trillions of American cockroaches , the Houston Museum of Natural Science has agreed to pay a quarter per bug-up to 1,000-as it seeks to populate a new insect exhibit alongside its Cockrell Butterfly Center.
Nancy Greig, the museum's director insists the public payday for roaches isn't just a marketing ploy .
"Absolutely, this wasn't devised as a joke," Greig said. "We needed more roaches for the exhibit, so I sent this message out to everyone in the museum asking people to bring them in. Well, someone decided to tell the press, and all hell has broken loose."
"But we really do need cockroaches."
"One might be forgiven for never considering how to catch a live cockroach. But it's simple enough to fool them," Greig said, "and even easier to catch them." American cockroaches are the most common kind in Texas, measuring up to 2 inches long and invading homes.
Despite their less-than-attractive reputation, cockroaches actually aren't that dirty. Greig even went so far as to call them "fastidious" saying they don't enjoy rooting in waste. They're only dirty if, say, they used a sewer line to gain access into a home.
The roaches collected by the museum will become part of a display in a new exhibit that showcases insects such as cockroaches, dung beetles and termites.
There's more to like about roaches, too. They don't bite, and they don't carry diseases like a mosquito, so they're generally safe to handle. | high17891.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the bus was on the way to Shenzhen"
},
"options": [
"the bus was on the way to Shenzhen",
"most of the passengers were sound asleep",
"all the passengers were given immediate rescue",
"it was snowing hard"
],
"q... | Fifteen people were killed and 38 others injured in a road accident early Wednesday morning in Ens hi, Central China's Hu bei Province.
The bus, travelling from Wanzhou in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality to Shen zhen in South China's Guangdong Province, had 53 _ on board,three more than permitted.
At around 1 am on Wednesday, the bus increased speed gradually on a curve and plunged more than 30 metres into a valley below. Thirteen people, including one of the two drivers, died at once. Two others died on the way to hospital.
Although the cause of the accident is still unclear, the local police said the driver paid no attention to the official warning signs on the expressway .
It hit a section which had been closed as a result of snow.
Because of the cold weather and icy roads,the expressway had been closed by police since Tuesday morning. But the bus drivers took the dangerous route, paying no attention to the warnings.
The rescue team, which included more than 30 medical workers and 120 local villagers,joined together and rushed to the scene at the news of the accident. By 5 am, all of the injured had been sent to three local hospitals for emergency treatment. A hospital source said most of the patients were in a stable condition but a few were still in danger.
According to a 2009 national public opinion poll, traffic accidents ranked as people's third biggest security concern. | high11238.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "were looked down upon"
},
"options": [
"were not allowed to take buses",
"only stood in the buses",
"were looked down upon",
"had no right at all"
],
"question": "From the passage we can infer that in Rosa Parks... | Rosa Parks was an African-American woman who began the civil rights movement by refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a bus . She
what she believed was right , and her courage inspired countless others to do the same.
Born in Alabama in 1913 , Mrs. Parks grew up on a farm just outside Montgomery in a town called Pine Level . She was home-schooled until she was 11. She later attended the Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery. She briefly attended the Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes , but had to drop out to take care of her mother and grandmother when they became ill.
Mrs. Parks married Raymond Parks in 1932 . He encouraged her to finish her education . This was very uncommon at that time , especially for a woman. Less than 7 percent of African-Americans studied in a high school in the 1930s.
Mrs. Parks also succeeded in gaining the right to vote, which was very difficult for blacks under the segregation laws( ) . In 1943, she began working as a secretary for the NAACP----National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Mrs. Parks made her historic decision on December 1,1955. She recalled in her autobiography :
"When the driver saw me still sitting, he asked if I was going to stand up and I said , ' No, I'm not.' Then he said , ' Well , if you don't stand up , I'm going to have to call the police and have you arrested .' I said , ' You may do that.'"
Mrs. Parks died on October 24,2005. " She sat down in order that we might stand up," said civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson. " Her imprisonment opened the doors for our long journey to freedom." | high16557.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "to visit her father"
},
"options": [
"to talk with the officer",
"to visit her father",
"to get a piece of paper from the officer",
"to pay a visit to her favorite place"
],
"question": "The author goes to the p... | I get off the bus and walk a few blocks. I stop when I get to a garage-like place and walk to the metal door with brown paint. I turn the knob and walk in. A thousand eyes look at me as I take my place at the end of the long line. When I finally get up to the window, I hand the officer my ID. "I'm here to visit Mr C. Yes, I'm his daughter."
I learn that line by heart. The officer hands me a piece of paper with my name as the visitor and my father's as the prisoner. It tells me which floor to go to. As I get on the elevator, a rush of excitement runs through me. Then I go to the eighth floor, look around and see the faces I see here every Sunday and Thursday.
There he is. I stand on tiptoe to get a better view since I can hardly see him. He doesn't look like my father. He's got a beard now and he looks a lot weaker. He's the dad that I see through a window. My dad who is separated from the world. The only place he now knows is his room in the prison. When I look deep into his eyes, I see emptiness and pain.
It's difficult to hear him through the thick glass and over everyone else who is trying to talk. We try to carry on a normal conversation about simple things including my day and what I'm doing in school, but we mostly talk about how we can't wait until he gets out. After an hour my time is up. We say our good-byes and love-yous.
I get on the bus to go home. My favorite place is where my father is--prison. I know, how can prison be anyone's favorite place? But it is because my father is there. It'll no longer be my favorite place once he gets out, though--home will be. | high4010.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "achieve weight loss"
},
"options": [
"stay in fashion",
"enjoy its taste",
"gain more energy",
"achieve weight loss"
],
"question": "People drink diet soda to _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},... | Let's face it.No one drinks die t soda for the taste.People drink diet soda in the hope that it will help them lose weight or at least keep them from gaining it.Yet it seems to have exactly the opposite effect, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Texas said those who drank two or more diet sodas a day had waist size increases that were six times greater than those of people who didn't drink diet soda."What we saw was that the more diet sodas a person drank, the more weight they were likely to gain," said Sharon Fowler.
The study was based on data from 474 participants in a large, ongoing research project, where the participants were followed for nearly l0 years.
While the findings are surprising, they also offer some explanations.
Nutrition expert, Melanie Rogers, who works with overweight patients in New York, has found that when patients are switched from regular to diet soda, they don't lose weight at all."We weren't seeing weight loss necessarily, and that was confusing to us," said Rogers.
So why would diet soda cause weight gain? No one knows for sure yet, but it could be that people think they can eat more if they drink diet soda, and so over-compensate for the missing calories( ).
A related study found some sweeteners raised blood sugar levels in some mice." Data from this and other potential studies suggest that the promotion of diet sodas and artificial sweeteners may be risky," said study researcher Helen P.Hazuda, professor at the University of Texas's school of medicine. Theymay be free of calories, but not of consequences. | high19664.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "his company's different stages of development"
},
"options": [
"the change of his character with the time",
"the various opinions of different journalists",
"his company's different stages of development",
"his populari... | Throughout my 41 years at General Electric, I've experienced a lot.In the media, I've gone from prince to pig and back again.And I've been called many things.
In the early days, some called me a crazy, wild man.When I became CEO two decades ago, Wall Street asked, "Jack who?"
When I tried to make GE more competitive by cutting back our workforce in the early 1980s, the media called me "Neutron Jack." When they learned we were focused on values and culture at GE, people asked if "Jack has gone soft." I've been No.1 or No.2 Jack, Services Jack, Global Jack, and, in more recent years.Six Sigma Jack and e-Business Jack.
When we made an effort to acquire Honeywell in October 2000, and I agreed to stay on through the transition ( ) , some thought of me as the Long-in-the-Tooth Jack hanging on by his fingertips to his CEO job.
Those characterizations said less about me and a lot more about the stage our company went through.Truth is, down deep, I've never really changed much from the boy my mother raised in Salem, Massachusetts.
When I started on this journey in 1981 , standing before Wall Street analysts for the first time at New York's Pierre Hotel, I said I wanted GE to become " the most competitive enterprise on earth." My objective was to put a small-company spirit in a big-company body, to build an organization out of an old-line industrial company that would be more high-spirited, more adaptable, and more flexible than companies that are one-fiftieth our size.I said then that I wanted to create a company " where people dare to try new things ?where people know that only the limits of their creativity and drive, their own standards of personal excellence, will be the ceiling on how far and how fast they move."
I've put my mind, my heart, and my courage into that journey every day of the 40-plus years I've been lucky enough to be a part of GE. | high17649.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Charge"
},
"options": [
"Charge",
"Baht",
"Won",
"Ringgit"
],
"question": "Which of the following is NOT the unit of money?.",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"a... | The porter brings your bags to your room and helpfully explains all you want to know.Then he points to the phone and says:"If there's anything else you need, just call."All this time you have been thinking of one thing:"How much should I tip him?" To make your next trip a little easier, here's guide to tipping across some Asian countries.
Bangkok
In general, the more westernized the place is, the more likely you will be expected to leave a tip.Some top-end restaurants will add a 10% service charge to the bill.If not, waiters will appreciate your tacking on the 10% yourself.However, if you're eating at a lower-end restaurant, a tip is not necessary.If you're staying at one of Bangkok's many five-star hotels, expect to tip the porter 20 to 50 baht ,depending on how many bags you have.Taxis are now metered in Bangkok.Local custom is to round up the fare to the nearest five baht.
Hong Kong
Tipping is customary in this money-mad metropolis .Most restaurants add a 10% service charge to the bill, but the extra money often ends up in the pocket of the owner. If the service is good, add another 10% to the bill, up to HKMYMl00 in an especially nice restaurant.For HK MYM10 hotel porters should do it at all but the nicest hotels where a new HKMYM20 bill may be more acceptable.When in a taxi, round up to the nearest dollar.
Kuala Lumpur
Tipping in Malaysia is limited to the expensive westernized hotels, which often add a 10% service charge to your meal or hotel room.If you are at a hotel restaurant, expect a 10% service charge.
But at local restaurants, there's no need to add a tip. At five-star hotels, one or two ringgit will satisfy a porter. At lower-end buildings don't feel you have to tip Like Bangkok, many taxis are now metered so you can just round up to the nearest ringgit.
Seoul
Tipping is not part of Korean culture, although it has become a matter of course in international hotels where a 10% service charge is often added.If you're at a Korean barbecue joint , there's no need to add anything extra.But a nice Italian restaurant may require a 10% contribution.
If you're at a top-end hotel, so expect to pay 500~l,000 won per bag.Taxi drivers don't accept a tip.Keep the change for yourself. | high2461.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Health."
},
"options": [
"Technology.",
"Society.",
"Culture.",
"Health."
],
"question": "In which part of the newspaper will you read this passage?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
"an... | Just because you are in a wheelchair doesn't mean you can't enjoy the competitiveness --the all-around fun --that playing sports offers you. More and more wheelchair users are playing sports every day --some even on a professional level. The following are just a few examples of the different choices you have.
Wheelchair basketball is a very common wheelchair sport. It was started over forty years ago as part of a medical recovery program. Over the years it has grown rapidly. Today wheelchair basketball is a professional sport that has more than 180 teams across the United States. In order to play wheelchair basketball, it is essential to have a lightweight wheelchair. Several different kinds of sports wheelchairs are on the market today just for sports fans.
Another wheelchair sport, quad rugby , was specifically designed for people who can't move their arms or legs and are unable to play wheelchair basketball. It is a mixture of wheelchair basketball and ice hockey. To play the game you must have two teams of four players each.
Power soccer is another fun wheelchair sport that can be very fun and exciting. Players in power soccer must have an electric wheelchair. Two teams have two 30-minute halves to push the soccer ball over the other team's goal line. The first team to reach the other team's goal line most frequently wins.
Based on the sport you choose to take part in, there are several things you can buy for your wheelchair, including belts, gloves, bags for carrying things, drink holders and special back supports. | high9534.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "feel lonely"
},
"options": [
"feel lonely",
"feel shy",
"be fearful",
"be disappointed"
],
"question": "If a dog snaps at things, it is because it may _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
... | A dog can't speak words, but it can "talk". It has feelings just as you do. At times it may feel angry or afraid. Watch a dog closely. You can see what it is trying to tell you. When you are afraid, you may look down shyly. A fearful dog looks away from you. It may run away too. When you are angry with people, you stare at them and press your lips together. An angry dog also stares. Sometimes the hair along its back stands up.
Do you feel _ when you have done something you shouldn't? Dogs can feel guilty, too. At times when I come home, my dog gives me a guilty look. Then I know he's done something wrong.
Dogs need love and attention. Some dogs are very unhappy when they are left alone for a long time. Some dogs even snap if they don't get enough attention.
You may have a dog or you may know a dog. Treat it well if you want to have fun with it. Play with it. Take it for a walk. Don't order it round too much. Try not to punish it one time and not the next for doing the same thing. Always remember, a dog has needs and feelings just as you do. Talk to a dog, it'll talk to you, too. | high12731.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "save electricity"
},
"options": [
"keep watch on his house",
"keep his house safe",
"monitor the elderly people inside",
"save electricity"
],
"question": "The system was first designed for a house owner to _ ... | Smart home applications can share all kinds of helpful information with homeowners. There appears a new housing platform which can detect the stress on electricity -- and the stress on the heart.
"There is a growing population of elderly people, and there are statistics to show that more and more of them are going to live alone in the home," said Johann Siau, a senior lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire in the U.K., who was leading the InterHome project.
The system was originally designed to provide remote access to a house so owners could be more energy-efficient. In a small type of the system, set-in controller devices connect securely to the Internet. The owner can then monitor them with a cell phone or computer. User feedback helps the system adapt to routines, saving on electricity.
While thinking about responding to user behavior and an increasingly elderly population, the researchers decided to add wristband technology that senses important organs of the body such as body temperature and pulse, Siau said. "If someone were to fall, it would detect the fall and it would immediately start the monitor of the pulse to see if the person has gone into shock ," he said.
The wristband communicates with the home system wirelessly. Data from the band can be securely transmitted to the home network and accessed by authorized users. "We're working on trying to reduce it to a level where it could potentially be a wrist-sized product," Siau said.
But he warned that the technology presented new challenges. "When you start using that on a larger scale, you have issues of privacy or security," he said. Siau said the InterHome home system isn't intended to invade privacy. "We're thinking about the elderly people who are living alone with no one looking after them," he said. "Hopefully this will be able to decrease some concerns and possibly save a few lives." | high6613.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "keep the health of the mind of the senior"
},
"options": [
"keep the health of the mind of the senior",
"popularize the use of computers among the old",
"organize the senior as a group to work",
"help the senior connect... | "Let's go down one more, push your enter key..." says a volunteer helping senior citizens work a web session on the Inter-net.
David Lansdale has found a way to light up the lives of the elderly. He gets them wired to the Internet. " If you hit your enter key, it will bring up this particular e-mail..."
Pauline Allen is one of those who has started using the Internet," I thought I was through with life, I was ready for a rocking chair, because I was 86 years old. And I haven't found the rocking chair yet. " " You found the keyboard?" asks the reporter. " That's right, I found the keyboard. "
The average age of Lansdale's students is around 68. All are in nursing or assisted care homes. He used family relationships to introduce them to the World Wide Web.
David Lansdale says," Here they are in California, the family was back in New York, the opportunity to connect, to cross the time and space, was incredibly precious (valuable) to them. "
"I hear you are so beautiful. " Lillian Sherly writes an e-mail to a newborn great granddaughter. Working with one another, the senior learn as a group. They learn to master the Internet and to overcome what Lansdale calls the maladies of the institutionalized :loneliness, helplessness, boredom, and loss of memory.
Mary Harvey says," Bingo just doesn't interest me. But this does, believe me, this does. "
Ninety-four-year-old Ruth Hyman is a star pupil and instructor. She says," When I send a letter to my grandchildren, and great grandchildren, they hang it up in their offices, just like I used to hang their drawings on my refrigerator. Ha, ha. "
David Lansdale says," There's a collective benefit. There is an element of treatment. Remember we started as a support group. "
Dixon Moorehouse says,"I just wish I was 15 years old and getting to learn all this. " The senior calls their weekly meetings Monday Night Live. And many say the meetings have given them new life. Ruth Hyman says," Three years ago, they told me I wasn't going to live. But I showed them, and got work, and I've worked ever since. | high9520.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "have their people environment changed"
},
"options": [
"join a new social community",
"influence their friend around",
"choose their friendships purposely",
"have their people environment changed"
],
"question":... | When going through major life changes, like changing careers, I would change the people with whom I spent the most time. We've all gone through periods when the people in our lives have changed--graduation, moving to a new city, getting a new job, joining a new club, etc. I don't think I need to convince you just how much influence other people can have over your identity. If you've ever experienced a major switch in your people environment, then you know that you change as well.
Most people don't make these choices consciously, though. You might consciously decide to spend more time with a certain friend, or you may ask someone out on a date to begin a new relationship. But few people choose their existing friendships deliberately.
_ . People are always dropping into and out of each other's lives. Associations grow into friendships, and friendships fade into associations. You don't get rid of anyone. The truth is that in order to make room for new people and new experiences, you may need to loosen up some of your existing connections.
What about loyalty? Shouldn't you always be loyal to your friends? Once you have a close friend, even if his influence on you is slightly harmful, shouldn't you stick by him?
Loyalty to a friend sometimes means having to let go. It means being loyal to his highest and best self as well. If someone is destroying his health by smoking, for example, you aren't showing loyalty by smoking right along with him. True loyalty sometimes requires that you break damaging connections, get yourself back on solid ground, and then decide what you can really do to help your friend.
It can take a lot of courage to tell someone, "I'm sorry, but I can't have you in my life anymore." But even though this might seem like a selfish act at times, it's often the best thing for the other person, too. If a relationship is holding you back in some way, understand that it's also hurting the other person. For example, if you work for a violent boss, your acceptance of that situation is considered to be silent approval, encouraging your boss to continue to behave violently. | high14354.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Because she can help discover cancer early."
},
"options": [
"Because she can help discover cancer early.",
"Because she can smell the urine and breath samples.",
"Because she has saved many people's lives by barking.",
... | Dogs have an amazing sense of smell thanks to 300million smell receptors in their noses, compared to only five million in the human nose. Medical dogs are trained by smelling samples of people already diagnosed with cancer and those of people without the disease so they can learn to tell the difference.
Dr Claire Guest began training her dog Daisy to smell out the killer disease in urine and breath samples when she was young. So far Daisy has found cancer in 551 patients, of which 93 per cent were accurate. And she discovered Dr Guest's breast cancer before it was diagnosed- the first time she has discovered the disease actually growing in someone's body, rather than by smelling a sample.
Dr Guest, 50, chief executive of charity Medical Detection Dogs, said: "She pushed against my body with her nose repeatedly - I pushed her away, but she pushed against me again, clearly upset. She pushed me so hard that it hurt me. "Her behaviour was totally out of character - she was normally such a happy dog ... I felt the tender area where she'd pushed me, and over the next few days I discovered the tiniest lump .
"If it wasn't for Daisy it would have gone hidden for much longer and could have been more serious," Dr Guest added. "My own pet labrador saved my life."
Animal rescue charity Blue Cross presented Daisy with a medal for her achievements. She faced tough competition, including JJ, a bomb detection dog who has saved soldiers' lives in Afghanistan.
Steve Goody, the charity's deputy chief executive, said: "Cancer affects the lives of thousands of people and Daisy has made a huge contribution to the diagnosis and early treatment of cancers - she's a very deserving medal _ t."
Daisy is now helping to train a team of 12 dogs at Medical Detection Dogs and is a 'senior consultant' for the UK's first ever trial using dogs to discover breast cancer. | high12725.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "To develop new crops"
},
"options": [
"To develop new crops",
"To plant more crops.",
"To control population growth.",
"To improve farming technology."
],
"question": "According to Professor David Battisti, what... | Half the world's population could face a shortage of food by 2100 due to climate change, a new report by US scientists warns. Rapid global warming is likely to reduce crop production in the tropics and subtropics , according to Professor David Battisti of the University of Washington.
"The most extreme summers of the last century will become common," he says. "We must immediately create crops that can bear heat and drought if we are to adapt in time," he writes in Science journal.
"The stresses on global food production from temperature alone are going to be huge," said Mr. Battisti. "And that doesn't take into account water supplies stressed by the higher temperatures."
He worked with Professor Rosamond Naylor on Food Security and the Environment, to examine the influence of climate change on the world's food supplies. They predict there is a greater than 90% probability that by 2100, the average growing-season temperatures in the tropics and subtropics will be higher than any temperatures recorded there to date.
"We are taking the worst of what we've seen historically and saying that in the future it is going to be a lot worse unless there is some kind of adaptation," said Professor Naylor. "This is a powerful reason for us to invest in adaptation, because it is clear that this is the direction we are going in terms of temperature and it will take decades to develop new food crop varieties that can better bear a warmer climate."
"In the tropics, the higher temperatures could be expected to cut production of the primary food crops by 20-40%," the researchers said. Rising temperatures are also likely to reduce soil moisture , cutting production even further.
Three billion people live in the tropics and subtropics now, and their number is expected nearly to double by the end of the century.
"You are talking about hundreds of millions of additional people looking for food because they won't be able to find it where they find it now," said Professor Battisti.
Crop failures would not be limited to the tropics, the scientists concluded. | high17885.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "pleasant"
},
"options": [
"dangerous",
"pleasant",
"healthful",
"difficult"
],
"question": "Thomas Pettigrew thinks snowboarding is _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | A schoolboy, who has been unable to play sports, has found the perfect entertainment--snowboarding. Thomas Pettigrew is enjoying himself by performing difficult actions at freestyle events.
The youngster can't join in PE lessons at school, because he suffers from a rare condition, which means his body dangerously overheats. This makes it difficult for his body to cool down naturally. But the ice-cool temperatures on the mountains mean Thomas can slide down the slopes freely.
His father Richard came up with the idea of taking Thomas snowboarding in March, 2010. Now while other children look forward to playing outside in the sunshine, Thomas is applying his new activity at the Snow Zone in Castleford, in temperatures of about -5degC. Mr. Pettigrew said, "When Thomas tries most sports, he has to stop when he gets too hot but that never happens with snowboarding. I was surprised at how good he was when he started. He now goes every week for three or four hours. He's been so enthusiastic about his snowboarding that he's even persuaded me to have a go, so we can enjoy it together."
Thomas's parents have spent the past 10 years watching the schoolboy for any signs of overheating, only taking him on holiday in the cooler months. "He has no energy and no interest in doing anything if he overheats and we do whatever it takes to cool his temperature, such as putting him in the car with the air conditioner working or running cold baths."
Aiden Harington, head of the ski school at Snow Zone, said, "Snow sports are a great way for anyone to keep fit, but seem to be particularly beneficial to Thomas as he is able to make sure he stays cool. Thomas does very well in snowboarding, and he can now perform plenty of freestyle actions. I'm sure that he will continue to progress in the coming months, and hopefully take part in some of our freestyle events." | high19670.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "$230"
},
"options": [
"$200",
"$215",
"$220",
"$230"
],
"question": "If you order $200 worth of food, which of the following is a proper total payment?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
... | When I worked as a waitress in Chicago, US, my coworkers and I would sigh whenever we heard someone with a foreign accent coming into our restaurant. We knew what it meant to serve a non-American: no tip. We would work just as hard as we always did, but we might not get paid.
Americans have an unspoken rule about tipping: they give tips to almost everyone who offers them a service of some kind. Americans tip their waiters, barbers and taxi drivers. An appropriate tip is between 15 and 20 percent of the amount charged for the service (But the charge for the tip doesn't appear on the bill. The customer is expected to add it himself/herself.) Tipping less than this sends a message to your waiters that you think they've done a bad job serving you. And to leave no tip at all is simply unacceptable.
It's not that American waiters are greedy. In many countries, waiters are paid a salary for their work. They'll earn money even if no one comes into the restaurant. This system offers much more safety for waiters than the American version. In the US, waiters know that a night without customers means a night without pay.
Some countries include a tip for waiters - a "service charge" - on the bill itself. Since the tip is included with the other charges, waiters don't need to worry about people forgetting to tip. But in the US, waiters do not receive a salary, and service charges only appear on bills when there are six or more customers at the table.
Since almost all American customers are familiar with the system, they know to add a tip without being told. But visitors to the US may expect waiters to be paid a salary, or think that the tip is included on the bill.
So much as we waiters loved hearing stories about other places from our foreign customers, we were always nervous when they got ready to leave the restaurant. We were never sure what to expect. | high2313.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The hunter shot the duck in the wing."
},
"options": [
"Animal sanctuaries are homes specially for wounded animals.",
"The hunter shot the duck in the wing.",
"Ducks do not move at all for the whole winter.",
"The hunte... | There is a brown female Canadian duck that weighs only four hundred fifty grams. The duck had flown to the southern state of Florida for the winter.A hunter shot it on January fifteenth and took it to his home in the city of Tallahassee.He put it in the refrigerator .Two days later the man's wife opened the refrigerator door.The duck lifted its head and looked at her.It was alive!
The family took the duck to a doctor who treats animals.The doctor gave the duck to the Goose Creek Animal Sanctuary .Animal sanctuaries provide homes for animals and teach people about their care.
The doctor said it was easy to understand why people thought the duck was dead. He said ducks generally do not move a 1ot,especially after being shot.And he said its low body temperature helped it survive in the refrigerator.
_ was enough to make the duck famous around the world.The Tallahassee newspaper published the story that was re-printed in many different countries.But that was not the end of the story.
Workers at the wildlife sanctuary named the duck Perky.And they got the doctor to give an operation to repair the duck's damaged wing.During the operation,Perky stopped breathing--not just once but two times.The doctor tried to save Perky by giving her oxygen.But he finally said the duck had died.A few seconds later, however, Perky began to move.Reports say the people in the operating room were so happy that they cried.
Workers at the wildlife sanctuary say Perky will not have any more operations. It seems the drugs that were used had side-effects on her.Perky is expected to live at the sanctuary.And a local company has begun to sell T-shirts showing a picture of the lucky duck. Money from the sale of the shirts will help pay for Perky's care. | high10654.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Polycap was proved basically safe and effective."
},
"options": [
"Polycap was tested for its five different combinations.",
"Polycap was proved basically safe and effective.",
"All the participators had at least one symptom ... | Studies have shown that the fewer medicines a person has to take the more likely he or she will take them. Last week, a study was released about a new treatment that combines 5 medicines for heart disease in one pill. Salim Yusuf of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada was the lead investigator. He presented the findings at the American College of Cardiology Conference in Orlando, Florida.
The experimental drug is known as Polycap. It contains aspirin, a drug to lower cholesterol and three medicines to lower blood pressure. The study was carried out at 50 health centers across India. More than two thousand people between the ages of 45 and 80 took part in the study. All had at least one risk factor for heart disease. These include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or being severely overweight.
The people were divided into 9 groups of about 200 people each. One group took Polycap. The other groups took either a single drug or different combinations of the medicines in the Polycap pill. The study showed that Polycap lowered blood pressure and cholesterol without many side effects. Doctor Yusuf said the single pill, taken once a day, could reduce the average person's risk of heart disease and stroke by about half. The maker of Polycap, Cadila Pharmaceuticals of India, paid for the study.
Cardiovascular diseases of the heart and blood vessels are the number one cause of death around the world. These diseases kill more than seventeen million people every year. 80 percent of them are in low and middle income countries. Doctor Yusuf said the single pill treatment could revolutionize heart disease prevention. People would be more likely to take one pill a day than many pills. And one pill would cost less than several pills.
Other heart doctors say heart disease prevention is important but not necessarily with pills. They say patients might be able to get the same results with changes in diet and exercise.
Doctors say that more research on Polycap is needed. They say the drug should be tested on thousands more people, including those in different risk, age and ethnic groups. | high20797.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the beetle's hydrophilic skin matters in surviving in the desert"
},
"options": [
"the Namib Desert is the driest place on earth",
"there is not any rain at all in the Namib Desert",
"it is ly impossible to plant crops in th... | The Namib Desert in Africa is one of the driest places on earth.With half an inch of rain falling every year,humans call barely survive there for a week with no water.But the Namib beetle does just fine.It collects morning dew that condenses on its back.
Inspired by this little creature,27--year--old Edward Linacre,a former student from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne,Australia,has designed a new"Airdrop" irrigation system which can pull water from even the driest desert air.His invention won the 2011 James Dyson Award,an international design award.Hopes are high that the system will be able to solve the problems of growing plants on dry land,according to the may Mail.
Linacre studied the Namib beetle and found that it had hydrophilic skin on its back,which helped catch water molecules passing in the air.These water molecules accumulated into small drops of liquid water.He realized that as long as the air temperature was low enough,even the driest air contains water molecules that can be extracted .
Following this principle,he designed the new system which works by pumping air through a network of underground pipes to cool it to the point at which water condenses.The water is then delivered directly to the roots of plants.
According to the research,about 11.5 milliliters of water could be collected from every cubic meter of air in the driest desert.Further development could raise that number even higher .
The idea of getting water from the air is not new.However,the Airdrop has certain advantages compared with its competitors.Similar systems often require great amounts of energy because they use refrigeration equipment to lower the temperature.But Airdrop simply uses the temperature difference between the air and the cool earth underground | high21489.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "we will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage.\nE. The more you have a sense of belonging, the happier you will be.\nF. Happiness is a journey, not a destination.\nG. Then life would begin."
},
"options": [
"Looking back, we... | Happiness is a journey
We always convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, than another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough and we'll be more content when they are. After that we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with.36. _ .
We always tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together. when we get a nice car, and are able to go on a nice vocation when we retire. 37. _ If not now, when? Our life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to ourselves and decide to be happy anyway.
One of my favorite quotes comes from Alfred Souza. He said."for a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin, real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid.38. _ At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life." This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment that you have. 39. _ So stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school; until you get married, until you get divorced; until you have kids; until you retire; until you get a new car or home; until spring; until you are born again to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy.... | high19116.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "spent most of her time taking care of a man in a coma"
},
"options": [
"mainly helped the nurses with their paper work",
"made up her mind to become a nurse herself one day",
"spent most of her time taking care of a man in a ... | When I was in the seventh grade, I was a candy striper at a local hospital in my town. I volunteered about 30 to 40 hours a week during the summer.
Most of the time I spent there was with Mr. Gillespie. He never had any visitors, and nobody seemed to care about his condition. I spent many days there holding his hand and talking to him, helping with anything that needed to be done. He became a close friend of mine, even though he responded with only an occasional squeeze of my hand. Mr. Gillespie was in a coma .
I left for a week for a vacation with my parents, and when I came back, Mr. Gillespie was gone. I didn't have the courage to ask any of the nurses where he was, for fear they might tell me he had died. So with many questions unanswered, I continued to volunteer there through my eighth-grade year.
Several years later, when I was a junior in high school, I was at the gas station when I noticed a familiar face. When I realized who it was, my eyes filled with tears. He was alive! I got up the nerve to ask him if he was Mr. Gillespie, and if he had been in a coma about five years ago. With an uncertain look on his face, he replied yes. I explained how I knew him, and that I had spent many hours talking to him in the hospital. His eyes welled up with tears, and he gave me the warmest hug I had ever received.
He began to tell me how, as he lay there comatose , he could hear me talking to him and could feel me holding his hand the whole time. He thought it was an angel , who was there with him. Mr. Gillespie firmly believed that it was my voice and touch that had kept him alive. Then he told me about his life. We exchanged a hug, said our good-byes and went our separate ways.
Although I haven't seen him since, he fills my heart with joy every day. I know that I made a difference between his life and his death. As importantly, he has made a great difference in my life. I will never forget him and what he did for me: He made me an angel. | high4762.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Be careful"
},
"options": [
"Don't look out",
"Look out for the water",
"Be careful",
"Look everywhere"
],
"question": ". In the dialogue the phrase \"Look out\" actually means \" _ \".",
"question_type": ... | A: I once heard someone shout, "Look out." I put my heard out of the window and a bucketful water fell on me. It seems that "Look out" may mean "Don't look out".
B: I was once on a ship and heard the captain shout, "All hands on deck ." I put my hands on the deck and someone walked on them.
C: I once called early on an English friend and the servant who came to the door said, "He's not up yet. Come back in half an hour." When I went again for him, she said, "He's not down yet." I said, "If he's neither up nor down. Where is he?" | high12043.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "kids live an unsafe life in parts of the world"
},
"options": [
"kids live an unsafe life in parts of the world",
"the balls sent to kids should be of good quality",
"young kids can not overcome the difficulties",
"kids... | The HOPE IS A GAME--CHANGER PROJECT will deliver unbreakable soccer balls to kids who, all too often, see things horrible, broken and not survive the simplest of circumstances. The project started taking form well before anyone knew where it would lead -which is to test the power of like-minded people working together to turn inspiration into action.
Four years ago Bobby was in Rwanda offering help to the people there and taking photos of a child soldier named Moise with his "soccer ball",which was a pile of rubbish tied together with a string. This "ball" was the only thing Moise could call his own --- no family, no home, no place to go. Forced to fight in the Congo and having killed three people at the unbearably young age of seven, the boy's spirit was broken. And Bobby knew, as he took one photo after the next, that he'd never forget him. In fact, he returned the following year to tell Moise he had stayed deep within his heart ---but he was gone.
I recently helped Bobby launch his new bookThe Power of the Invisible Sunwhich features a photo of Moise, his ball, and kids from war-torn areas around the world. All of his earnings go towards the HOPE IS A GAME-CHANGER PROJECT for the kids he visited over the past decade. They caught the emotional landscape from heartbreak to joy, but share the undeniable longing for recovery and hope.
Bobby and I share the unchangeable belief that delivering hope is really a game-changer, especially to a child. We believe that each indestructible ball will come to represent a lasting symbol of hope. A light no matter how small---The Power of the Invisible Sun.
This holiday season, I ask you to think about whether you are doing enough to help someone else in the world. Or as Bobby likes to put it, consider _ , which added together, can create transformational change. It's my great hope that the HOPE IS A GAME-CHANGER PROJECT will change the lives of children the world over --- one book, one ball at a time. | high8158.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "In 1896"
},
"options": [
"In 776 BC",
"In AD 394",
"In 1990",
"In 1896"
],
"question": "When was the first new Olympics Games held?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answ... | The original Olympics took place nearly 3000 years ago in the year 776 BC. Many different sports were played, including boxing, running, throwing the discuss , though there were fewer sports involved than those in the modern Olympics. The Games were held every five years until they were forbidden by the Romans in AD 393. The first new Olympics were held in 1896 in Greece. From 1900, the Games were held every four years, only three Olympics were wiped out because of wars---1916, 1940 and 1944.
Nowadays, different countries hold the Games in turns. The country which holds the Games provides vast facilities, including a stadium , swimming pools and accommodation , but competing countries pay their own players' expense.
The Olympics start with the arrival in the stadium of a torch , lighted on Mount Olympus by the sun's rays. The well-known Olympic flag, however, is a modern conception : the five interlocking rings symbolize the uniting of all five continents that take part in the Games. | high22180.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "involve everyone to struggle for the end of gender inequality"
},
"options": [
"give women more freedom than men",
"give men more freedom than women",
"involve everyone to struggle for the end of gender inequality",
"in... | This is an excerpt from Emma Watsons speech at the United Nations headquarters.
Today we are launching a campaign(called "He For She"). I am reaching out to you because we need your help. We want to end gender inequality, and to do this, we need everyone involved. This is the first campaign of this kind in the UN. We want to try to involve as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for change.
I started questioning gender-based assumption a long time ago. When I was 8, I was confused being called bossy because I wanted to direct a play that we put on for our parents, but the boys were not. When I was 14, I started to be sexualized by certain elements of the media. At 15, my girlfriends started dropping out of a lot of sports teams because they didn't want to appear masculine. At 18, my male friends were unable to express their feelings.
I decided that I was a feminist. This seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word. Women are choosing not to identify as feminists. Why has the word become such an uncomfortable one? I'm from Britain and I think it is right that I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decisions that will affect my life. I think it is right that socially, I am afforded the same respect as men.
But sadly, I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights. No country in the world can yet say that they have achieved gender equality. These rights, I considered to be human rights, but I am one of the lucky ones.
My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn't love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn't assume that I would end up nowhere because I might give birth to a child one day. These influences were the gender equality ambassadors that made me who I am today. They may not know it but they are the inadvertent feminists who are changing the world today. We need more of those.
Men, I would like to take this opportunity to extend you a formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue, too. Because to date, I've seen young men suffering from mental illness, unable to ask for help for fear it will make them less of a man, or less of men. I've seen men made fragile and insecure by distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don't have the benefits of equality, either. Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive, both men and women should be free to be strong. This is what "He For She" is about. It's about freedom.
You might be thinking: who is this Harry Potter girl? What is she doing at the UN? I've been asking myself at the same thing. All I know is that I care about this problem and I want to make it better. And having seen what I've seen and given the chance, I feel my responsibility to say something. Statesman Edmund Burke said _
In my nervousness for this speech and in my moment of doubt, I told myself firmly: If not me, who? If not now, when? If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you, I hope those words would be helpful. Because the reality is that if we do nothing, it will take 75 years, or for me it will be nearly 100 before women can be expected to be paid as same as men for the same work. 15.5 million girls will be married in the 16 years as children. At current rate, it will be until 2086 before all rural African girls can have secondary education. We are struggling for a uniting world, but the good news is we have a uniting movement. It is called "He For She". I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen and to ask yourself: if not me, who? If not now, when?
Thank you. | high9246.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "How to Mend a Troubled Friendship"
},
"options": [
"Easy Ways to Make Friends",
"Ups and Downs in Friendship",
"How to Mend a Troubled Friendship",
"How to Take the Lead in Making Friends"
],
"question": "What w... | When asked to point out one or two things that are most important to themselves, many put friends ahead of homes, jobs, clothes and cars.
A true friendship carries a long history of experience that determines who we are and keeps us connected. It is a treasure we should protect. Unfortunately, the better friends you are, the more probably you'll have disagreements. And the result can be what you don't want--an end to the relationship.
The good news is that most troubled friendships can be mended. First, don't let your pride get in your way. Most of us can forgive each other when differences are brought out in the open. Second, apologize when you're wrong -- even if you've been wronged. Over the course of a friendship, even the best people make mistakes. Sometimes, it may be best if the _ takes the lead and apologizes. When you apologize, give your friend a chance to admit that he has been wrong. Third, see things from your friend's point of view. And finally, accept that friendships change as our needs and lifestyle change. Making friends can sometimes seem easy. The hard part is keeping the connections strong during the natural ups and downs that have an effect on all relationships. My suggestion: consider friendship as an honor and a gift, and worth the effort to treasure and nurture . | high14432.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Differences between British and American English"
},
"options": [
"The development of American English",
"Differences between British and American English",
"The influences of British English on American English",
"The ... | British English and American English are almost the same. But there are slight differences between British and American English in vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling and grammar.
The first difference between British and American English is in vocabulary. Almost all of the words used in British English and American English are exactly the same. Only a very small number of words are used _ . For example, Americans would say "apartment", but the British would say "flat" to talk about the place where they live. In addition to some common words, many idiomatic expressions are different. In England people might say "I'll ring you up tonight", but in the US, people might say "I'll call you up tonight".
The second difference between British and American English is in Pronunciation. The main difference in pronunciation concerns the vowels . Some American dialects and some British dialects use vowels in different ways. Sometimes, Americans and the British don't understand each other's pronunciation. But most of the time, the British and Americans do understand each other's pronunciation because most of the sounds of the two dialects are the same.
The third difference is very small. This is the difference in spelling. A few types of words are spelled differently in British and American English. The most common example is in a word like "center". In British English, this word would be spelled C-E-N-T-R-E, while in American English the same word would be spelled C-E-N-T-E-R. Another example is "or" vs "our". The word "color"is spelled C-O-L-O-U-R in Britain but C-O-L-O-R in the US.
There are a few differences in grammar, too. The British may say "Have you got..?" while Americans prefer "Do you have..?" An American might say "my friend just arrived", but a British would say "my friend has just arrived". Sometimes function words are used differently: the British may say "at the weekend", but Americans would say "on the weekend". | high99.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Her daughter seems to be loosing her friends"
},
"options": [
"Her daughter doesn't respect other kids",
"Her daughter seems to be loosing her friends",
"Her daughter cares too much about her friends",
"Her daughter doe... | Dear David,
My daughter will be five years old. She is happy, well-mannered, loving and pretty. She has attended a Montessori school since she was 16 months old and has made two friends. The three girls are always together, or talking with each other.
But recently the girls told my daughter that they would not play with her if she kept playing with the boy who was disliked by most of the class. My daughter always finds good things in others and insisted they play with him, too. Then one of the friends told my daughter she didn't have straight hair and shouldn't play with them. Then she started ignoring my daughter. My mother-in-law decided to iron my girl's beautiful curly hair .
With her birthday coming, my child decided to invite her friends to her party. When I asked her why, she said because they were always together, but I know one of the girls will not attend her party.
I'm concerned about her. I feel lost, not knowing how to help my child.
Jenny
Dear Jenny,
It's always painful to a mother when someone hurts her child. Your daughter's friends weren't nice to her, but little kids are still learning how to get along with others. As a result, young friendships are often fleeting, even changing from day to day. Your daughter seems to be remarkably loving, outgoing and mature beyond her years. Perhaps you need to be proud of the way she treats people.
Ironing your daughter's hair won't send your daughter or the other girls a good message. It implies that there is something wrong with the way she is. You have no choice but to let your daughter know that one of the girls won't be attending her birthday party. If she seems upset, remind her that other friends will be there. My guess is that she will rise to the occasion.
Hope this helps.
David | high23711.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the energy people take in is more than they need"
},
"options": [
"the energy people take in is more than they need",
"high technology makes people use less energy",
"food contains too much energy",
"people like to eat ... | Children are getting so fat that they may be the first generation to die before their parents, an expert says.
Today's young people will be affected by potential killers such as heart disease because of their weight. Fatty fast-food diets combined with the lifestyles with televisions and computers could mean kids will die young, says Professor Andrew Prentice, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. At the same time, the shape of the human body is going through a great change because adults are getting so fat.
Here in Britain, the latest research shows that the average waist size for a man is 36~38 inches and may be 42~44 inches by 2032.This compares with only 32.6 inches in 1972. Women's waists have grown from an average of 22 inches in the 1920s to 24 inches in the 1950s and 30 inches now. One of the major reasons why children now are at greater risk is that we are getting fatter younger. In the UK alone, more than one million under 16 years old are thought
to be overweight or fat--double the number in the 1980s. One in ten of four-year-olds are also medically said to be obese.
The obesity which started in the US, has now spread to Europe, Australia, Central America and the Middle East. Many nations now record more than 20 percent of their population as obese and well over half of the population as overweight.
Professor Prentice says the change in our shape has been caused by high-energy foods combined with a dramatic drop in the energy we use as a result of technology developments.
He is not alone in his concern. Only last week one medical magazine revealed how obesity was fuelling a rise in cancer cases. Obesity also increases the risk factor for heart disease and so on. An averagely obese person's lifespan is shortened by around nine years while a seriously obese person by much more.
Professor Prentice says,
"So _ will _ parents _ live _ longer _ than _ their _ children, _ as _ an _ American _ obesity _ expert _ said _ recently?"
"The answer is yes--and no." Yes, when most children become obese. No, because this is now becoming an alarmingly serious problem in the US. "Such children will have a greatly reduced quality of life on both body and mind."
So say "No" to sandwiches and hamburgers. | high1395.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "About 3 weeks."
},
"options": [
"About 3 weeks.",
"A single day.",
"About a month.",
"About 2 weeks."
],
"question": "How long will the 115th Christmas Bird Count last?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"... | The 115m Christmas Bird Count is officially underway. The count is an annual investigation of local and migratory birds and it's organized by the National Audubon Society. From December 14 to January 5, volunteers will gather in more than 2,000 locations in North, Central and South America to count the birds in their area.
Each count takes place in a circle about 24 kilometers wide. The volunteers follow specific routes within the circle and record the number of individual birds and the different species they see there in a single day. The results are sent to the National Audubon Society and later published on Audubon's Christmas Bird Count website. The data collected during the bird count is a key source Of information for ornithologists, scientists who study birds.
This information is used to develop conservation programs to protect bird habitats and the environment /n general. Data from the bird count was also used to determine that three species-the Western screech owl, the rusty blackbird and the Newfoundland red crossbill - should be added to Canada's list of species at risk.
The annual bird count was created to protest another Christmas tradition at the very beginning .in the United States in the 19th century, people would often hold "side hunts" on Christmas Day.
Teams of hunters would compete to see who could kill the most birds or other animals that day. In December 1900, Frank Chapman, an American ornithologist, suggested that instead of hunting birds, people should count them.
Twenty-seven people in 25 locations joined in the first Christmas bird count Last year, more than 70,000 volunteers took part. This year, counts are scheduled to take place in 17 countries, ranging from the Arctic to the Antarctic, with most located in Canada and the United States .instead of taking place only on Christmas day, counts are now held on different days for different areas. | high9911.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "They can be filmed or changed into a TV play."
},
"options": [
"His children will put them together with him after his death.",
"His grandchildren will continue to write following his habit.",
"They can be published by famous... | What should I do with the diary I've kept for 50 years?
I've been keeping a journal since I was 16 and I'm now 65. I have more than 80 notebooks in a big box. I don't want my children embarrassed by _ when I die. But I can't bring myself, yet, to burn the case. My journals are still part of me. Might my grandchildren, with a bit more distance, be interested? Or is there some way I could turn them into something creative? I'm thinking about art instead of a book.
* _ 5 March 2012, 11:22 p.m.
Please don't burn them! What a wonderful source of memories for you--or if you feel you'd rather not keep them, possibly what a wonderful resource for others! Why not contact something like the Mass Observation Project at the University of Sussex? Then they will remain as a record of everyday life throughout your lifetime, and if your grandchildren are interested they'll know where to find them.
* _ 6 March 2012, 8:30 a.m.
Please don't burn them! If possible, transcribe them, or have them transcribed, into a computer medium before your words are lost because the paper has decayed. I recently had an opportunity to read a similar diary of the WWII record of an ordinary soldier. It was attractive in the way it differed from the official record. I suppose to some degree it all depends on what you have recorded, but many social historians and similar people would find such a complete personal record of a life led during the second half of the 20thcentury to be very valuable.
Please don't stop writing now just because you are 65! | high21106.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Fares will be taken out upon each ride automatically."
},
"options": [
"They're only available for Singapore's local people.",
"Fares will be taken out upon each ride automatically.",
"Each Ez-Link card has a fixed stored val... | Buses in Singapore
The introduction of air conditioners into the buses means a comfortable ride for the passengers. And instead of looking for loose change for the bus fares, travelers can easily get from one point to another with an Ez-Link card. Operating from 6 am to midnight, the fare ranges from $0.90 to $1.80 for all buses. The Ez-Link card will deduct the fare upon each ride on an automatic basis.
The attraction of buses now lies in its more extensive travel, with a wider option of drop-off points, as opposed to MRT .
Singapore Trolley , Tram Service for City Viewing
The introduction of the Singapore trolley tram makes it easier for tourists to travel around the hot spots of Singapore such as the Orchard Road shopping belt, the Central District and the Singapore River. These are places known for the highly outstanding architectural value with a very commercial appeal, suitable for everyone. Tickets can be purchased on board or from the hotel concierge.
With fares at $ 9.00 for adults and $ 7.00 for children per day, the rides are unlimited and you can easily enjoy any of these places that meet your fancy without worry about extra monetary incurrence.
Singapore River Taxi, Cruise by the River
There are several pick-up and drop-off points for the river taxi. Pay between $ 3 and $ 12 and enjoy a scenic ride along the river that holds so much history and memories. Perhaps this is the most ideal way to finish an evening at the Singapore River.
Singapore Mass Rapid Transit, MRT
The MRT network is the quickest way of getting around the island. Stops are frequent and it will give passengers an idea of the lesser-known areas of Singapore. Train operations start from 5:30 am and end about midnight.
However, it is advised to check with the station masters first as some lines end earlier. Traveling on the MRT is cheap, with fares ranging from $ 0.80 to a maximum of $ 1.80. The Ez-Link cards, which are tapped upon every entry and exit of the stations, have a $ 15.00 stored value with a refundable $3 deposit included. Available at every train station.
The Different Taxis & Cabs in Singapore
Taxis are the easiest ways to go around Singapore, though more costly than the rest. Taxis can be flagged on the streets or at taxi stands located at all train stations, malls and hotels. The initial flag-down meter fare starts between $ 3.00, $ 3.60, $ 3.80 and $ 5.00, which covers the first 1 km.
Different taxi companies impose different extra charges, so do check with the driver before you board the taxi. You can also use the streetdirectory app to calculate your taxi fare rate from point A to B. | high19499.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "There wasn't enough time."
},
"options": [
"There wasn't enough time.",
"The cubs' body parts sold badly.",
"The cubs were protected by the rangers.",
"They didn't bring enough tools to carry them."
],
"question... | In the hot jungles of Thailand, forest rangers came across a terrible sight one day in 2010. Two tiger cubs lay dead in a wildlife preserve .
The rangers were too late to find the cubs' mother. All that remained of her was blood on the ground. Poachers had poisoned the tigers. Then they ran off with the mother's body. If the rangers had not arrived, the poachers would have taken the cubs too.
Tigers in trouble
One hundred years ago, there were about 100,000 tigers. Today, only about 3,200 remain in the wild. Poachers are a major problem. These killers sell tiger fur, teeth, claws, and other body parts in illegal markets. One tiger's parts can see for $50,000.
Because they hunt in huge jungles thick with trees, poachers are hard to find. But they must be caught, says Elizabeth Bennett of the Wildlife Conservation Society. This group works to help endangered animals.
Tiger "fingerprints"
Finally, after many months, the rangers spotted the poachers again. After an exchange of gunfire, they arrested the criminals.
Soon, the police found evidence that the poachers had killed again. The evidence came from a cell phone. On a poacher's phone, police found photos of the men posing with a dead male tiger. The poachers claimed that the photos were from a nearby country where tigers aren't protected. But another photo told a different story.
Deep in the Thai forest, the rangers had set up camera traps, which take photos when they sense movement. A camera trap photo showed the same male tiger walking through a wildlife preserve before he was killed. That meant that the tiger came from a protected area. But how could police prove it was the same tiger?
Tiger stripes are like fingerprints. No two patterns are the same. When police compared the photos, the stripes on the tiger's head matched.
The poachers were given up to five years in prison. That might not seem like much for killing tigers. But since the poachers were caught in July 2011, no tigers have been killed in that wildlife preserve. | high16972.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "They were sent there."
},
"options": [
"They are in urgent need of full-time care.",
"They were rather willing to go there.",
"They were sent there.",
"They were volunteers there."
],
"question": "According to t... | For four lonely years, Evelyn Jones of Rockford, Illinois, lived friendless and forgotten in one room of a cheap hotel. "I wasn't sick, but I was acting sick," the 78-year-old widow says, "Every day was the same. I would just lie on my bed and maybe cook up some soup." Then, six months ago, she was invited to The Brighter Side -- Rockford's day care center for the elderly. Every weekday morning since then, she has left her home to meet nine other old people in a church for a rich program of charity work, trips, games, and -- most important of all -- friendly companionship.
Just a few years ago, there were few choices for the elderly between a normal life in their own homes and being totally confined in nursing homes. Many of them were sent to rest homes long before they needed full-time care. Others like Mrs. Jones were left to take care of themselves. But in 1971, the White House Conference on Aging called for the development of alternatives to care in nursing homes for old people, and since then, government-supported day-care programs like The Brighter Side have been developed in most big American cities.
"This represents a real alternative to the feared institution and makes old people believe they have not left the world of living", says Alice Brophy, 64, director of New York City's Office for the Aging, "They do well at the centers, and I hate it when people describe us as elderly playpens ." New York's 138 centers encourage continuing contact for the aged with the community's life. The centers serve more than 15,000 members, and volunteer workers are always looking for new ones. If someone doesn't show up at the center for several days in a row, a worker at the center calls to make sure all is well. And although participation in the center is free, those who want to can pay for their lunches.
No normal studies have been made of these centers for the elderly, but government officials are enthusiastic. In the future, the Public Health Service will do a study to decide if the programs can receive federal Medicare money. And the old people themselves are very happy with the programs. "There is no way", says Evelyn Jones, smiling at her new companions at the Brighter Side, "that I will ever go back to spending my day with all those loses at the hotel." | high18787.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "children"
},
"options": [
"children",
"teachers",
"parents",
"college students"
],
"question": "According to the passage, these activities are mainly intended for _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
... | Educational Camps 2011
21st Century Princess Program: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday through Friday, July 23-27. For girls 12-15. Girls learn hair care, good manners and the importance of inner beauty. Homewood Suites by Hilton, 2001 E. Highland Ave., Phoenix. $495. www. homewoodsuites. hilton.com. (623) 848-1844.
Barrow Institute Summer Camp: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, July 23 through Aug. 3. For ages 12-14. Activities include exploring laboratories and researching the effectiveness of treatments and medicines. July 23-27 for beginning students, and July 30-Aug. 3 for advanced students. Barrow Neurological Institute, 350 W. Thomas Road, Phoenix: $195-$220: www. thebni, com.(602) 716-2028.
Digital Kids World Summer Camp: 9 a.m.--4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, July 30 through Aug. 17. For kids 6-14. Choose from a variety of technical classes, such as comic book design and video game design. Morning and afternoon camps held in weekly sessions . Digital Kids World, 5070 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. $150 weekly for kids 6-9; $225 weekly for kids 10-14. www. digitalkidsworld, com.(602) 445-3925.
Kids Advanced College Program: Mondays through Thursdays, July 30 through Sept. 19. For ages 8-14. Classes include lively computer design, engineering and writing. Prices and times vary. Paradise Valley Community College, 18401 N. 32nd St., Phoenix. $99--$379. www.pvc.maricopa.edu. (602) 787-6804.
Camp Zoo: Mondays through Fridays, July 30 through Aug. 13. For ages 4-14. Younger kids work with smaller animals, basic care giving and art projects, while older children explore animal medicine. Morning, afternoon, evening and full-day sessions available. Phoenix Zoo, 455 N. Galvin Parkway, Phoenix. $153-$280 per week. www. phoenixzoo.org. (602) 273-1341. | high21660.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "swans were a delicious dish on royal banquets"
},
"options": [
"swans were better protected than now",
"a lot of swans were killed by dogs",
"swans were a delicious dish on royal banquets",
"common people could catch th... | LONDON(Reuters)--Quiet please--Britain's Queen Elizabeth is preparing to have her swans counted.
Buckingham Palace has announced that the annual Swan Upping, a tradition dating back to the 12th century which involves a counting of the swan population on the River Thames, will be conducted by the Queen's official Swan Marker from July 20 to July 24.
"With the assistance of the Queen's Swan Warden, Professor Christopher Perrins of the University of Oxford, the swans and young cygnets are also assessed for any signs of injury or disease," Buckingham Palace said in announcing the count.
The process involves the Swan Marker, David Barber, rowing up the Thames for five days with the Swan Warden in traditional wooden boats while wearing special scarlet uniforms and counting, weighing and measuring swans and cygnets.
It may seem strange, but it is very important to the Queen. According to custom, Britain's queen or king owns all unmarked, mute swans in open water, but the Queen now exercises the right only on areas of the Thames and its nearby _
In medieval times, the Swan Marker would not only travel up the river counting the swans, but would catch as many as possible as they were sought after for banquets and feasts.
This year, the Swan Marker and the Swan Warden are particularly keen to discover how much damage is being caused to swans and cygnets by attacks from dogs and from abandoned fishing tackle .
It is also an important year because Queen Elizabeth has decided to join her team of Swan Uppers for part of the census. She will follow them up the river and visit a local school project on the whole subject of swans, cygnets and the Thames.
"Education and conservation are essential to the role of Swan Upping and the involvement of school children is always a rewarding experience," Buckingham Palace said. | high22369.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "They stayed on the beach."
},
"options": [
"The",
"They stayed on the beach.",
"They packed up the cars.",
"They visited their neighbors."
],
"question": "What did the family do before the storm came?",
"que... | When the sand began kicking up and hitting our faces, I started to worry that maybe we had made a mistake.
That afternoon, my dad had stood on the deck of our home and laughed as our neighbors packed up their cars and headed inland. They left to spend the night in motels or at friends' homes that were out of range of approaching summer storm.
Challenging the weather that threatened to damping our spirits, we lit a fire on the beach. Dad told jokes and we had a good time. When it was 6:30 p.m., all laughter disappeared. Our eyes were drawn to the sky. A tornado was headed straight for us! In a flash, we were all on our feet. The wind started screaming and now we were running to the cottage. My mom stopped next to the front door. "Where can we go?" She shouted at my dad.
Most cottages on this part of Lake Michigan had been built without basements. Ours was no exception. The huge windows and the cottage itself wouldn't offer safety from high wind.
"Follow me!" my dad yelled. We crawled beneath the deck, pressing ourselves against the foundation of the cottage. Between the deck supports, we watched the approaching storm in silent terror.
My dad shouted, "Hold on!" and something else I couldn't hear over the screaming wind. I think he was praying. By the time it reached our cottage, it was nothing more than a strong wind. The rest of the storm lasted for an hour and then simply blew away.
"Next time, we'll stay inland at Grandma's. Okay?" my dad said. | high14803.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Geographically speaking, it's time to hold the 2012 Games in a non-Asian and non-American country."
},
"options": [
"It's impossible for two successive Olympics to be held on the same continent.",
"The 2008 Summer and Winter Olympi... | The International Olympic Committee named a short list of five cities as possible hosts for the 2012 Olympics.
The five--London, Madrid, Moscow, New York and Paris--became official candidates, beginning a 14-month race that ended with the selection of a winning bid by the IOC's assembly in Singapore in July 2005.
Havana, Leipzig, Rio de Janeiro and prefix = st1 /Istanbulwere the victims in 2004, as the field was cut down from nine applicants.
Geography would appear to favor a European city after the 2008 Summer Games in Asia--Beijing and the 2010 Winter Games in North America--Vancouver.
IOC president Jacques Rogge said the list could be further cut in the next month if any of the bidding cities fall short of IOC expectations.
"What we have done today is retain five cities which we believe will deliver, but we will have to check if they do deliver," said Rogge. "I do not like the word 'rejection' and this in no way reflects that we do not trust these countries. "
The nine original competitors launched their bids in January, 2004 with the emphasis on agreement and easily accessible venues .
Favorites Paris and London promoted the attractions of their landmarks, Madrid promised an environmentally friendly Games while New Yorkcalled itself the "world city".
Paris bid organizers said they would stage beach volleyball at the foot of the EiffelTowerand host many of the events at two clusters on the edge of the French capital.
"Our experience with previous bids has taught us a great deal about the needs and aspirations of the IOC," Parisbid chief Philippe Baudillon said. "We firmly believe thatPariswill meet those needs."
London organizers countered it by promising to hold the beach volleyball competition in Horse Guards Parade.
Seventeen sports, including athletics and swimming, would be staged at a new venue in the city's deprived East End.
"I am very pleased that Londonhas been named a candidate city for the 2012 Olympic Games. But I am not surprised we have cleared this most important hurdle," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a statement. | high23077.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "courage"
},
"options": [
"heart beat",
"physical health",
"potential strength",
"courage"
],
"question": "All the four extreme sports are mainly intended to test one's _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questi... | Dangerous as they are, extreme sports remain appealing among many Australian young people! Camp Xtreme is the perfect test of your heart.
Kite Surfing
It's the exciting mixture of kite, board and waves. The idea of using a kite to accelerate speed seems like a new challenge, yet the art of kite flying dates back to the 13th-century Chinese when _ was used as a simple means of transport.
Catch a wind and you're moving -- up, down and across the surf. "It's always exciting. You'd jump 5 feet or 35 feet. You never know if you're going to go up in the air, and your heart is just going boom, boom, boom."
Coasteering
It is by far the best activity and the event that everyone is still talking about. This is exploring the coastline without worrying about a coastal path or finding a rocky bay blocking your route. You climb, dive and swim from one place to another. With Coasteering, you don't have to be able to swim as the wet suit and buoyancy aid will keep you floating when you are in the water.
Sky Diving
Traditional parachuting doesn't sound risky enough. So now sky diving is the name for jumping from a plane and listening to your heart beating heavily as you move fast towards earth before you open your parachute at the last moment.
Mountain Biking
It's been around so long that bikers are no longer satisfied with just going up and down a mountain. Mountain biking is a sport which consists of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough land, using specially adapted mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes, but include features designed to improve strength and performance in rough areas.
For details, please call us on 1300-792-668 or click here: www.xtremecamp.com.au. | high7096.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "initiative"
},
"options": [
"sales skills",
"carefulness",
"attitude",
"initiative"
],
"question": "According to the passage the company wanted to test the applicants' _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questi... | A company advertised in the newspaper for a sales position. Details of the prerequisite , salary and benefits were given. It was also clearly stated that applicants needed to take an aptitude test and an interview. However, looking at the whole advertisement, one could not find any contact information of the company.
Most interested applicants thought that it was the company's HR department's carelessness or a printing error. They therefore waited patiently for the newspaper to publish an amendment. But instead of waiting for the newspaper to publish the company details, another three applicants took the initiative to find out the company's contact information themselves.
Tim did a search on the Internet. By typing the company's name, he easily obtained all the information including its contact number. Lisa called up the local telephone number search service and found out the company's office number. She called up the office and got the required contact information. Donna put in a greater effort in her search. She remembered seeing a poster by the same company in the city so she drove all the way down and made a few rounds to search for it. She finally found it together with the company's contact information.
Three days after that advertisement was published in the newspaper, most interested applicants were still waiting eagerly for an amendment. On the other hand, the application letters and resumes of Tim, Lisa and Donna had already reached the hands of the company's HR manager. They were then called up for an interview. During the interview, all went well and immediately they were hired. The three of them were a little surprised at how fast things went on. They were expecting for an aptitude test as stated in the advertisement. The HR director answered them, smiling, "Our test is hidden in the advertisement itself. To be a good salesperson in this age, he or she has to be broad-minded and very importantly, does not follow rigid steps or rules. You are all clever and agile. In a short time, you've managed to find ways of contacting us. It shows clearly that you have passed the test with flying colors!"
The fools sit around waiting for their chances whereas the wise actively take actions with great initiative . | high14817.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "physical means"
},
"options": [
"chemical means",
"physical means",
"bitter chemicals",
"sandy materials"
],
"question": "To defend themselves, oak trees use _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
... | Animals can move from place to place, but plants cannot. When an animal is under attack, it can run away or fight back. Plants certainly cannot run away, and they lack teeth and claws. But plants can defend themselves by using both physical and chemical means.
Some plants have their own ways to keep animals away. For example, the leaves of the holly plant have sharp spines that discourage grass-eating animals. Holly leaves on lower branches have more spines than leaves on upper branches. This is because the lower leaves are easier for most animals to reach.
Some plants, such as the oak tree, have thick and hard leaves that are difficult for animals to eat. Some grasses may contain a sandy material; eating such grasses wears down the animal's teeth.
Many plants also have chemical defenses. Some plants produce chemicals that taste bitter or cause an unpleasant reaction. Some plants may fight against an attack by increasing the production of these chemicals. When a caterpillar bites a tobacco leaf, the leaf produces a chemical messenger. This messenger sends to the roots the information to produce more nicotine. The higher levels of nicotine discourage the caterpillar.
Many plants depend on both physical and chemical defenses. A certain plant in China, for instance, has prickly leaves, and each prickle contains poisonous venom A single experience with this kind of plant will teach an animal to stay away from it in the future. | high173.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "whether to cheat or not"
},
"options": [
"whether to cheat or not",
"what to do if they fail",
"how to cheat",
"how to keep calm"
],
"question": "The tough decision that many students have to make before an exam... | It's five minutes before the exam and you are in a state of panic. You just have to pass it, but how? You didn't even open the book the night before and you hear a voice in your head saying "Cheat, cheat ..." So what are you going to do, ignore it and fail or go for it? It's a tough decision many students must make.
Most young people believe that cheating is wrong. However, they have cheated at least once in their high school years. So, why do they do it? Are they too lazy to study? Perhaps, it's not as simple as that. According to some experts, one main reason why students cheat is that they see their friends get away with it. It's an easy way out. They avoid embarrassment and their parents' anger for not doing well in an exam. Another reason is that students think it's OK to cheat if the subject isn't important for their future career. What's more, most students have to put up with the pressure of getting into university. They need to get good marks to carry on with their studies. This means that there will always be students who will do anything for a better mark.
It has never been easier to cheat than it is today. With all the technology available, students needn't cheat by looking over their shoulders anymore. They use mobile phones to send answers to each other during a test. There is also the Internet. With hundreds of websites, students don't have to worry because they can find lots of material which they can copy and use in projects. There are even tips on the art of cheating in exams.
Obviously, if you get caught cheating, you fail the exam or the subject. But it doesn't really matter whether you get caught or not. What's important is that it's wrong. You mustn't cheat because cheating is a lie. It deceives people into thinking you know more than you actually do. How can you be proud of something you have achieved through cheating? In the end, it's not about deceiving your teachers and your parents, but about fooling yourself that you can do something you really can't. | high6388.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "A means of broadcasting electricity to gadgets."
},
"options": [
"A wireless instrument used for charging.",
"The only company to show the ambitious technology.",
"A means of broadcasting electricity to gadgets.",
"A ne... | No more batteries,no more chargers and no more wires.This is the future promised by "wireless power".a means of broadcasting electricity through the air to laptops,iPods and other gadgets without the need for cables and sockets .
Wireless lighting,audio speakers and digital picture frames are expected to be among the first commercial products exhibited in Las Vegas this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show,the world's biggest gadgets tradeshow.
Experts believe this is just the beginning and that eventually wireless electricity could do for battery life what WiFi did for,the Internet.In a world without wires,laptop users in cafes and airport terminals would be inside an "electricity hotspot" and no longer have to delve an awkwardly located socket.
"You'd be able to buy.a desk that charged any gadget placed on it, or power any PC you put on top," said James Holland,editor of gadgets website Eleetricpig.co.uk."If each room had wireless power,you'd know that once you walked through the front door your nmbile would start charging up--even while still in your bag or pocket.You'd never need to hunt for the right charger again."
Among the companies showcasing the ambitions technology at CES is Power Beam.Its system turns electricity into an invisible laser, then beams it as heat,across the room to a solar cell that conveys it back into dectricity.
David Graham,the co-founder of Power Beam,said:"We're going to delete the word 'recharge' from the English dictionary.If your,cell phone is recharging on your desk.all day,you won't be thinking about.it." The Silicon Valley company can currently use a laser to generate about 1.5 watts of power to _ a solar.cell 10 meters away.This, sould be enough to power an electronic speaker or small LED lights,but not enough to operate a laptop,which requires about 30 to 50 watts.However,Graham said that the technology could comfortably be scaled up .
Power Beam insists its laser does not lead to a risk to users' health because it is simply moving heat from one place to another.Graham said that,if someone walked through the beam,it would shut down within a thousandth of a second,then restart once the path is clear.The technology also promises because it would only power products when needed. | high23063.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The development of table manners in Western countries."
},
"options": [
"The importance of proper table manners .",
"The development of table manners in Western countries.",
"Some unwritten rules of table manners in the US an... | Whether you're eating at a fancy restaurant or dining in someone's home. Proper table manners are likely to help you make a good impression. According to a US expert, Emily Post, "All rules of table manners are made to avoid ugliness."
While Henry Hitchings of the Los Angeles Times admits that good manners can reduce social conflict, he points out that mostly their purpose is protective - they turn our natural warrior-like selves into more elegant ones.
So where did table manners come from?
In medieval England, a writer named Petrus Alfonsi took the lead to urge people not to speak with their mouths full. And King David I of Scotland also proposed that any of his people who learned to eat more neatly be given a tax deduction .
Disappointingly, that idea never _ . It was during the Renaissance, when there were real technical developments, opinions of correct behavior changed for good. "None of these was more significant than the introduction of the table fork," wrote Hitchings. "Gradually, as forks became popular, they brought the new way of eating, making it possible, for instance, to consume berries without making one's fingers dirty."
Forks were introduced to Britain in 1608 and 25 years later, the first table fork reached America. Yet while most of the essentials are the same on both sides of the Atlantic, there are a few clear differences between what's normal in the US and what holds true in the UK. For example, in the US, when food needs cutting with a knife, people generally cut a bite, then lay aside the knife and switch the fork to their right hand. Then they pick up one bite at a time. By contrast, Britons keep the fork in the left hand and don't lay the knife down.
Though globalization has developed a new, simpler international standard of table manners, some people still stick with the American cut-and-switch method.The Los Angeles Times noted, "They are hanging on to a form of behavior that favors manners above efficiency." | high5681.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The island was not a real place."
},
"options": [
"Their ideas were not considered worthy enough.",
"They were too concerned with acquiring fame.",
"The organization had already broken up.",
"The island was not a real p... | When Luca first heard of the Island of Inventions, he was still very young. But its wonders sounded so incredible that they were forever burned in his memory. From that moment, he never stopped searching for clues which might lead him to the island. He read hundreds of adventure books, histories, volumes of physics and chemistry, even music.
Over time, he pieced together his idea of what the Island of Inventions was like. It was a secret place, where all the great wise men of the world would meet to learn and invent together. Access to the island was totally restricted. To join, you had to have created some great invention for humanity. Only then could you receive the special invitation -- which came with directions to the island.
So Luca spent his youth studying and inventing. Every new idea he got, he made it into an invention, and if there were something he didn't understand, he'd seek others to help him. Soon he met other young inventors and he told them about the Island of Inventions. They too dreamed of one day receiving an invitation letter.
As years passed, the disappointment of not receiving their invitation made Luca and his friends work harder and co-operate more. They would meet in Luca's house, share their ideas and build new machines. Their inventions became known throughout the world, and improved the lives of millions.
But still, no invitation came.
They didn't lose heart. They continued learning and inventing every day, trying to come up with more and better ideas. Fresh young talent joined their group, as more inventors dreamed of getting to the island.
One day many years later, Luca, already very old, was speaking with a brilliant young man named Roberts, who had written to him, asking him to join the group. Luca started telling the man of the wonderful Island of Inventions, and of how he was sure that some day they would receive an invitation. Surprised, the young inventor interrupted: "You mean this place isn't the Island of Inventions? Isn't the letter you sent me the real invitation?"
It was only then that Luca realised that his dream had become true in his very own house. No island could exist which would be better than where he was now. No place of invention would be better than what he and his friends had created. Luca felt happy to know that he had always been on the island, and that his life of invention and study had been a truly happy one. | high5859.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "hoped that some memories can be remembered"
},
"options": [
"showed his anxiety",
"told us his experience",
"hoped that some memories can be remembered",
"did not like the third year"
],
"question": "From the pa... | Those people, those things, such as bursts of light rain in the lake left ring watermark four scattered to each other to melt each other's impact; just like the quiet shining star, not very bright, but clearly made. They do not know how much to spend with me during the bright day and silent night.
In my memory, the third year is not gray, because I still remember seeing sunrise and sunset with my friends, and it's that nice.
Youth is the eye lotus spring, third year is spring season that this eye bubbled. I, however, strongly smell in the bubble years of the Problem tests. I do not exclude these, but _ . Unfortunately, after the college entrance examination, even the pressure would become the memories, and be my third year living memory of the dead evidence. In the time before we are so powerless, the only left on just the eye springs, and we have no regrets of the promise, I hope day after day, year after year, when I return to this page, people still have remembered the beauty.
I have read one another frightening words: Some people say that once you start to like the memories of those, you will get old. I only admit mature, do not believe they have been growing old. My friends are growing up day by day, and were young and mature, how can I grow old ahead of time?
"Heaven Rain in green and so on, and I am waiting for you, the moonlight was recovered, the faint opened the outcome." Jay's sad voicehas been completely different from the business for the time sentimental ; Bard will be the years the pace of a camel carved into the blue and white porcelain in that respect.
Our future? Friends ah, I will time the other end, waiting for you. | high21674.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "prevent the passengers' idleness"
},
"options": [
"prevent the passengers' idleness",
".help invent the concept of standard time",
"show the railroad company's patience",
"follow the ancient tradition of New York City"
... | For a commuter rushito catch a train, a minute can mean the difference
between dinner with the family and foods in the microwave. What most passengers don't realize
is that their minute is already there.
Every commuter train that departs from New York Cityabout 900 a d
leaves a minute later than scheduled. If the timetable says 8:14, the train will actually leave at
8:15.In other words, if you think you have only a minute to get that trainwell, relax. You
have two.
The courtesy minute , in place for decades and published only in private
timetables for employees, is meant for those who need the extra time to get off the platform and
onto the train.
"If everyone knows they get an extra minute, they're going to waste time doing
unimportant things," explained Marjorie Anders, a spokeswoman for the Metro-North Railroad.
Told of this article, Ms. Anders laughed. "Don't blow our cover!"she said.
Entirely hidden from the riding public, the secret minute is an odd departure from the
railroad culture of down-to-the-second accuracy. The railroad industry helped invent the concept*
of standard time, and time zones were established in the United States in the 1880s, 35 years
before they were written into law. And most commuters know their train by the accurate minute
it departs. The trains quickly make up the minute:at all other stops, the public timetable is
carried out. The courtesy minute does not exist at commuter railroads in Chicago, Los Angeles,
Philadelphia, or San Francisco. But in New York, the secret minute dates back decades.
"That's been done forever, from my knowledge," said Jack Swanberg, 70, an unofficial
historian of Metro-North. "I was the trainmaster starting in 1970 and I'm sure it's been the case
since 1870 for all I know." | high21112.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "something about American social visits."
},
"options": [
"how to accept Americans' invitations.",
"something about American social visits.",
"something about American business visits.",
"how to make a living in America.... | Americans often plan social gatherings on short notice, so don't be surprised if you get invited to someone's home or to see a movie or baseball game without much warning. If the time is convenient for you, surely accept their invitation. But if you're busy, don't be afraid to _ the invitation, perhaps suggesting a time that would be better. Your host won't be shamed.
Invitations are usually sent in person or over the telephone. The main exception is for some formal occasions, in which case a written invitation will be mailed. You would normally receive a written invitation to a wedding .
For a casual dinner invitation, don't arrive more than 5 minutes early, because your host may still be preparing for your visit. Arriving more than 10 minutes late is considered rude if very few people were invited. If many people were invited, it's OK to arrive a little late, even as much as half an hour late. For example, it's OK to arrive late for a party, for a potluck dinner or for a social gathering inviting a large group of people.
If you're invited for dinner, it's proper to bring the host a bottle of wine, a gift basket of fruit, a box of candy , or a bouquet of flowers. Don't bring roses, as men often give roses to women on a date .
If you wish to thank the host for his or her hospitality , it's right to call or send a brief written thank-you note the next day. | high2850.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Hard-working"
},
"options": [
"Better educated.",
"Richer.",
"Independent.",
"Hard-working"
],
"question": "Which of the following about the young is NOT mentioned in the article?",
"question_type": null
}... | Old people are always saying that the young are not what they were. The same comment is made from generation to generation and it is always true. It has never been truer than it is today. The young are better educated. They have a lot more money to spend and enjoy more freedom. They grow up more quickly and are not so dependent on their parents. They think more for themselves and do not blindly accept the life goals of their elders. Events which the older generation remembers vividly are nothing more than past history. This is as it should be. Every new generation is different from the one before. Today the difference is very noticeable indeed.
The old always believe that they know best for the simple reason that they have been around a bit longer. They don't like to feel that their values are being questioned or threatened. And this is exactly what the young are doing. Wouldn't people work best if they were given complete freedom and responsibility? And what about clothing? Who said that all the men in the world should wear dull grey suits and very short haircuts? Who said that human differences can best be solved through normal politics or by violent means? Why have the older generation so often used violence to solve their problems? Why are they so unhappy and guilty in their personal lives, so occupied with mean ambitions and the desire to collect more and more wealth? Haven't the old lost touch with all that is important in life?
These are not questions the older generation can shrug off lightly. Their record over the past forty years or so hasn't been exactly spotless. Traditionally, the young have turned to their elders for guidance. Today, the situation might be opposite. The old--if they are prepared to admit it--could learn a thing or two from their children. One of the biggest lessons they could learn is that enjoyment is not wrong. Enjoyment is a principle one could apply to all aspects of life. It is surely not wrong to enjoy your work and enjoy your free time. It is surely not wrong to live in the present rather than in the past or future. This emphasis on the present is only to be expected because the young have grown up under the shadow of the bomb: the constant threat of complete annihilation . This is just what the older generation has passed down to them. | high16966.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Emotional expressions affect how human eyes collect or focus light."
},
"options": [
"Changes of human eyes lead to different emotional expressions.",
"Evolutionary development helps humans survive different dangers.",
"Emoti... | Why do our eyes open wide when we feel fear? And why do our eyes become narrow when we express disgust ? According to a new research, it has something to do with survival.
In a recently published paper, researchers concluded that expressions of fear and disgust changed the way human eyes gather and focus light. They argued that these changes were the result of evolutionary development and were intended to help humans survive, or at least discover, very different dangers.
In order to test their hypothesis ,researchers examined two dozen volunteer college students with standard eye-exam equipment, and asked them to show expressions of fear and dislike. It was found that when the students widened their eyes, more light was admitted and their field of vision was expanded. When they wrinkled their noses in disgust, their eyes narrowed. This had the effect of blocking out more light but focusing on a specific point.
Although some scientists have admitted that emotional expressions are intended primarily to communicate information, expressions of fear and disgust seem to perform different visual functions.
"Eye widening may help to find a potential danger that requires much attention. And this would agree with the hypothesized function of fear," said researchers. "On the other hand, eye narrowing may help to distinguish and avoid different kinds of dangers, such as disease carriers and dirty foods. And this would agree with the hypothesized function of disgust."
These findings supported naturalist Charles Darwin's view that expressions are not necessarily for communication and are not arbitrary ."If our expressions were arbitrary, they would show little cross-cultural relationship." researchers said. "But actually, our expressions probably have some universal functional principles." | high18793.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The controversy over DNA databases"
},
"options": [
"The possibilities opened up by DNA technology",
"The controversy over DNA databases",
"How DNA databases are built",
"What role DNA plays in solving crimes."
],
... | In American crime movies, policemen search crime scenes for anything that might belong to a criminal-- bits of fingernail , blood or hair-- in order to find out who they are. What they hope to find is the key to their identity--their DNA.
DNA is the chemical that contains a person's genetic makeup. Every person, except for identical twins, has unique DNA information. That is why we can use it to identify someone.
There is no doubt that DNA evidence is becoming a very powerful tool for law enforcement officers. In the US, all 50 states and the federal government keep DNA databases of some criminals after they have been convicted . Whenever a crime happens, the police collect DNA from the crime scene and compare this with samples they already have in the criminal database. If they match any suspect in the database, then they've caught their criminal. Even if they don't, the DNA sample can still be used to determine the person's sex, height, hair and eye color1 and other characteristics. This helps police to create a physical profile of the criminal.
Some people feel that the database should be made bigger to contain everyone's DNA and help to solve many more crimes. This would also avoid mistakes when someone is wrongly convicted of a crime. DNA doesn't make mistakes.
However, other people are worried that it would violate their privacy. Someone's DNA can be used to gather information such as the person's family and ethnic background, whether he or she has a gene mutation or certain genetic diseases, and other personal issues. People are afraid that this information might be used inappropriately. They may fear that employers might read it and treat them differently. People may also be afraid that personal data might get into the hands of insurance firms or loan companies. For example, if they knew from your DNA that you had a genetic risk of a serious disease, they might be able to refuse you life insurance, a loan, or even a job.
Clearly, the use of DNA evidence will continue to help the police solve crimes. However, social and ethical concerns about DNA will also remain a topic of debate. | high23705.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "On the 3 different nights before Christmas."
},
"options": [
"At Christmas Eve.",
"On the 3 different nights before Christmas.",
"On Christmas Day.",
"On the 3 different days before Christmas."
],
"question": "W... | Scrooge looked around him angrily. It was Christmas and his only friend Jacob Marley, had been dead for seven years. What was there for him to celebrate? He listened with growing anger to the people calling out greetings in the street and _ his nephew Bob Cratchit, who was just ready to go home. "Merry Christmas, uncle," called Bob as he hurried out of the door.
Scrooge sighed. He might just as well go to bed. Aware that he should not waste his candle, he quickly undressed and climbed into bed. But no sooner had he done so than the ghost of Marley, covered in chains, appeared. "What's the matter, Jacob?" he asked. "There are the chains I made in my life," answered the ghost. "I'm forced to wander around with no rest and no peace. I have come here to warn you that if you do not change, this too will be your fate. You will be visited by three spirits. Expect the first one tomorrow when the clock strikes one. Expect the second and the third on the following nights at the same hour." With that Marley vanished. "Nonsense!" he said and going back to bed, fell fast asleep.
When Scrooge awoke it was dark. The clock struck one. At the sound, light flashed into the room and there stood a young boy. "Who are you?" asked Scrooge in an unsteady voice. "I'm the spirit of Christmas past," replied the spirit. "Come with me." "Do you remember this?" he asked. Scrooge did. He heard the happy cries of people, and looking around he found himself, as he used to be, sitting on a chair and reading. It was a Christmas. Suddenly Scrooge watched his younger self joined in a band, dancing and laughing. "Strange," said the spirit, "that such little things should make people so happy." The ghost let him go and Scrooge sank down into a deep sleep.
When he awoke again the second night, the clock sounded one again. Before he doubted the second spirit already turned up. The fat and jolly spirit was smiling,"I'm the spirit of Christmas present."Again Scrooge grasped the spirit's hand and was transported to a small house filled with a number of children and their mother. "Why, it's my nephew Bob's house," cried Scrooge in astonishment. His surprise increased when the door opened and in came Bob carrying a small, sick boy, Tiny Tim. "Sit down," cried Bob to his family. "Let's have the best Christmas dinner!" They all began to eat eagerly. Scrooge watched at the happiness and contentment of his poor nephew's family. "A Merry Christmas to us all!" cried Bob. "God bless us everyone!" added Tiny Tim, who sat very close to his father and Bob held his thin hand tightly. "No, not for the uncle, but for you and the children. Nobody knows better than you how mean that man is." exclaimed Bob's wife. "Spirit," cried Scrooge. "Will Tiny Tim live?" "If the future remains the same," said the spirit, "there will be an empty chair next year." Again the spirit moved Scrooge away, and he fell asleep as he fell back into his bed.
The third night he woke and waited for the hour and the third spirit. This time the spirit didn't come in a flash of light but arrived quietly wearing a black cloth that covered its face and form. "I'm the spirit of Christmas that is to come." The spirit pointed and led him to a large stone. It was at the foot of a grave that was clearly neglected. Scrooge looked closer with trembling fingers and with horror read his own name on the stone. "Oh, spirit, no, no!" The spirit's finger remained steady pointing at the grave. "I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year," cried Scrooge in terror. He reached out to hold the spirit's hand, but it slipped away. Scrooge looked around him. he saw he was in his own bed with his own thing around him.
"I have learned from the past, present and the future," he rushed to the window and shouted to the boys below: "What day is it today?" "Why, it's Christmas Day," they replied in amazement. "Wonderful," cried Scrooge. He rushed to his office to wait for Bob. When he entered, Scrooge pretended to look angry. "Do you know what day it is, my boy?" he asked Bob. "I'm not going to stand for this any longer," he continued, "and so I'm going to raise your salary." Bob looked amazed. "A Merry Christmas, Bob," cried Scrooge slapping him on the back. "I want to help you and your family. Let's talk about it this very afternoon." | high7928.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "working far into the night"
},
"options": [
"sleeping in bed",
"just sitting up without doing anything",
"walking about in the room",
"working far into the night"
],
"question": "\"Stay up late at night\" here m... | A good way to pass an examination is to work hard every day in the year. You may fail in the examination if you are lazy for most of the year and then work hard only a few days before the examination. A few days before the examination you should start going to bed early. Do not stay up late at night learning things. Before you start the examination, read carefully over the question paper. Try to understand the exact meaning of each question before you pick up your pen to write. When you have at last finished your examinations, read over your answers. Correct any mistake which you see and make sure that you have not missed anything out. | high615.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "He never returned them."
},
"options": [
"He hid them.",
"He never returned them.",
"He lent them to others.",
"He broke them."
],
"question": "What did the neighbor do with most of the things he had borrowed?",... | Mr. and Mrs. Wu were fed up with their neighbor. He was always borrowing things from them.
"It's not right." Mr. Wu said to his wife one evening. "At some time or another that man has borrowed nearly everything we have. Almost every day he comes over to borrow something."
"You are quite right," his wife replied, "and most of the things he's never returned."
"What I want to know," her husband said, "is why he can't buy the things he needs like everyone else."
"Because people like us are foolish enough to lend him what he needs." she replied. "As long as we are willing to lend, he'll keep on borrowing."
"Then we'll never lend him anything again." Mr. Wu said. "The next time he asks to borrow something, I'll say no."
"We must have a good reason for saying no," his wire said, "and we must always try to be polite to him. We don't want to make an enemy of the man."
It was not long before their decision not to lend their neighbor anything ever again was put to the test.
The next morning there was a knock on the door.
Mr. Wu went to answer it.
Their neighbor was standing there. Mr. Wu knew he was going to ask to borrow something, and was ready to refuse him politely.
"Good morning," their neighbor said, "I'm sorry to trouble you, but I wonder if I could borrow your garden scissors."
"I'm sorry," Mr. Wu said, "but I'm afraid my wife and I will be using them today. We'll be spending all day working in the garden."
"Oh, ! see." the neighbor said, "In that case, may I borrow your golf clubs? You won't be needing them if you are working in the garden all day, will you?" | high1381.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "in a horrible physical state"
},
"options": [
"being shot by its owner",
"tied to a fence near an animal clinic",
"in a horrible physical state",
"hiding from its owner inside a bag"
],
"question": "When Augusty... | A dog found shot in the head and face with a pellet gun, stuffed in a garbage bag and left to die is recovering from his injuries at an animal clinic in Texas. The bag containing the 3-year-old male mixed breed was discovered tied to a fence in Conroe, Texas, earlier this month. When local residents opened the bag, the dog appeared, took a few steps and fell.
Augustyn rushed the dog to an emergency animal clinic, where he was treated for many pellets to the face, eyes, mouth, neck and shoulders. The dog was stabilized, but according to Dr Ron Hendrick, a vet at the Animal Emergency Clinic of Conroe, pellets remain in both eyes and it's unclear whether the dog nicknamed Buck was left blind forever.
A Facebook page, Buck Needs Bucks for His Buckshot Injuries, was launched last week by Augustyn. It was created to help pay for the dog's medical bills. The page has attracted nearly 7,000 "likes" and, according to its creator, already more than enough donations to pay for his treatment.
"The last 24 hours has been overwhelming for me," Augustyn wrote on the page. "I have gone from not knowing if I would have enough money to pay for Buck's emergency bill to having an unbelievable amount of money to provide the best possible care for Buck's recovery. I have thought long and hard about this today and how I should handle this. The conclusion is that I will open a separate bank account for Buck and all donations will be used for Buck's recovery and necessities." With the help of Facebook, Buck's story quickly sparked international interest. "Buck is now walking," Augustyn says.
Police in Montgomery County say they are investigating the incident, and Augustyn says she has been in contact with law enforcement officials about donating a reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who tortured the dog.
Sadly, cases like Buck's are not uncommon, particularly in Texas. | high16796.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "people value family in Fijian culture"
},
"options": [
"the author's parents had been classmates before",
"the author had lived in Fiji for about five years",
"the author had no memories of her grandma",
"people value f... | The island Fiji has always been around me in my life. My parents met in Fiji when my father was a teacher as a Peace Corps volunteer and my mother a student. They taught me about its people, culture, foods and religious beliefs.
At the age of two, I made my first trip across the Pacific Ocean to Fiji. My mother and I made that trip unexpectedly because my grandma was ill and longed to see her American granddaughter. Although I have few memories of that first trip, I do remember grandma braiding my hair every day. The brush gliding through my hair is a feeling I will treasure forever because she passed away soon. I returned to America when I was five years old. This time I had a brother, Martin, who was two.
I resisted my third trip to Fiji when I was 15, being a teenager who did not want to spend the summer away from friends. It was this trip, however, that made me realize that Fiji is not just a place to visit but a part of who I am. The smells and sounds and sights came back to me, but the best part was getting to know my relatives.
Vishal was one cousin I quickly bonded with. Born two days before me, I had only known him through pictures before. Though raised oceans apart in different cultures, we talked and laughed about everything from American sports to Fijian dancing. I was able to form close ties with all my cousins, and when I talk about them now, it's as if I have known them my whole life. Spending time with them helped me understand the traditions and values my mother grew up with. Hospitality and care and respect for family members are central values in Fijian culture.
I truly enjoyed learning about my roots during this trip. Fiji is just like a second home, and I will never forget the time I have spent there. | high2878.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the personality development"
},
"options": [
"the personality development",
"mental health",
"human relations",
"family lives"
],
"question": "According to the passage, humor matters a lot in the following EXCEP... | Humor is very important in any relationship. It is truly a unique gift when someone has the ability to make another laugh. Humor allows a person to forget his troubles and focus on positive aspects of his life. Personally speaking, making another laugh, whether it is a family member, a close friend, or even a stranger, has always given me a good feeling!
Humor plays an important role in our family lives. The interaction , between husband and wife and between a parent and a child, is very important, just thinking how much better our relationships would be if we would take the time to laugh.
Humor and laughter are especially important during difficult times. No matter how bad a person may feel, a family member or a friend can make him feel good by laughing with him. I once had a co-worker, for whom there was no humor in her daily life. She seldom smiled and seemed to focus on only the negative or the dark side. One day I was told she was very unhappy, had few friends, and had poor relations with family members. Later, I learnt that she couldn't remember laughing or enjoying life. In order to enjoy her life, she was advised to have humor and laughter each day of her life. In the end, it seemed to make a huge difference.
We do live in a difficult world. "Stress" seems to be a major factor contributing to health problems of our society. So, in order to live easily, we should put humor into our daily lives. I have a plaque hanging on the wall, which reads "Live, Love and Laugh"! | high18963.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "the buildings he designed were beautiful"
},
"options": [
"he showed how to change an ugly old building into a lovely modern one",
"the buildings he designed were beautiful",
"he began his professional life as a painter, befo... | Frank Lloyd Wright did not call himself an artist. He called himself an architect. But the buildings he designed were works of art. He looked at the ugly square buildings around him, and he did not like what he saw. He wondered why people built ugly homes, when they could have beautiful ones.
Frank Lloyd Wright lived from 1869 to 1959. When he was young, there were no courses in architecture, so he went to work in an architect's office in order to learn how to design buildings. Soon he was designing buildings that were beautiful.
He also wanted to make his buildings fit into the land around them. One of the houses he designed is on top of a high hill. Other people built tall, square houses on hills, but Wright did not want to lose the beauty of the hill. He built the house low and wide.
Now other architects know how to design buildings to fit into the land. Frank Lloyd Wright showed them how to do it. | high20224.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "she found the cat looked very fat"
},
"options": [
"she named it Samson immediately",
"she thought Samson was troublesome",
"she asked Ruby to adopt it",
"she found the cat looked very fat"
],
"question": "When ... | It was six or seyen years ago that I first witnessed a ginger cat break into my house.His name was Samson and, while"cat''was one description you might have applied to him, another more accurate one was"ginger beach ball that just happened to have a cat's head on top".He belonged to Ruby,a lady in her 80s living across the road.Soon the two of us became friends:me allowing him to steal my cat's biscuits,him allowing me to stroke him while staring up at me in a relaxed way.If he had been able to speak,the maj ority of his sentences would have ended in the word"dude" .
When Ruby died in 2009,a friend who lived several miles away adopted Samson.A strict diet foilowed,which,left Samson looking less like a beach ball and more like a smaller cat wearing a baggy ginger sweater.While he had been around,I had complained a little about mv extra cat food bills and feared for my armchairs and sofa which were often violently scratched. but in the year or two after he'd gone I missed him a lot.
In the past two and a half years,I've been visited by a succession of ginger cats,all of whom have been lovable,and all of whom have proved costly in either an emotional or financial sense.
I'm moving out soon and facing up to the fact that I might never see them again.I've told the buver of my house about the essential information of it,especially the visiting cats.The chances are that one day if a cat,whether it is from one of the neighbours or just a stray one,turns up by his doorway,he can at least feed it. | high17488.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Bridges House Hotel."
},
"options": [
"Bridges House Hotel.",
"Hotel Juliana.",
"Shanghai Hotel.",
"Hotel de Koophandel."
],
"question": "Which hotel is the best choice if someone is extremely tall?",
"quest... | Recommended Delft Hotels
Bridges House Hotel
Bridges House Hotel is a hotel in the centre of Delft and has shops and museums next door. There are many restaurants in the area where you can eat a lovely dinner in the evening. The market square is within easy walking distance. The comfortable rooms are all uniquely decorated and have a splendid bathroom.Air conditioning and free WiFi are available. There are extra long beds for your convenience.
Breakfast is served in the hotel lounge. In the evenings, guests can have a drink here as well.
Hotel Juliana
Just a 5minute walk from the centre of Delft, this friendly family hotel is close to everything and offers comfortable rooms at an affordable price. The main priority is to provide you with quality service through personal attention and by creating a pleasant atmosphere.
This hotel is also conveniently located near the Technical University of Delft. Other cultural spots and a series of bars and restaurants are just a stroll away.
Shanghai Hotel
This unique hotel features Chinesestyle decoration and an elegant bar. Shanghai Hotel is located next to the A13 highway, only a 10minute drive from Delft city centre. It offers free onsite parking.
Each of the rooms at Shanghai Hotel includes flatscreen cable TV, a desk and tea/coffee making facilities plus a refrigerator.The comfortable modern bathrooms have a shower, a hairdryer and free makeup.
Hotel de Koophandel
Located on the central Beesten Market, Hotel de Koophandel is surrounded by cafes and restaurants in the heart of Delft. In the breakfast room, you can enjoy various breads, toasts,cereals, eggs and fruits in the morning.
The comfortable and uniquely decorated rooms are equipped with a private bathroom and free WiFi. Coffee and tea facilities are available. Because of the perfect location, you can easily walk around the city centre and visit the main places of interest.
For more detailed information, please click here www.booking.com/hotel/nl. | high14181.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Food-choosing"
},
"options": [
"Exercising",
"Hunger",
"Food-choosing",
"Eating milk and bananas"
],
"question": "According to the passage, the best way to keep slim is _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_quest... | Some people don't mind being fat. Other people can keep slim without any effort. But a lot of people do put on too much weight and don't like it. The question is, what can they do about it?
Some believe exercise can be helpful. But the trouble is that it only makes you want to eat more. You might sweat out a couple of pounds playing tennis or climbing a mountain, but you put it all back on again with a big steak or bread and jam.
A helpful way is food choosing. But what sort of food should you choose? Some believe that the less they eat, the slimmer they will be. They don't eat anything until they become weak with hunger. Some stick to milk and bananas. You'll find you need a lot of bananas, and unless you live where they grow, they aren't cheap. Others say that if you eat things like hard-boiled eggs, and apples with their skins on which are hard for your stomach to digest, the more you eat, the thinner you get. This is because you use up the fat in your body to get the energy to digest the food.
For most of us these methods are too extreme. The simplest way is just to cut down on the carbohydrates that means not eating bread, potatoes, cakes, sugar, rice, and so on and eating anything else you like. It's straight forward and often quite effective. | high24042.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "good transports."
},
"options": [
"grand mountains.",
"clean rivers.",
"kind people",
"good transports."
],
"question": "Which of the following is not included in the advantages of Yunnan?",
"question_type":... | Last summer holiday, I took a trip to Yunnan. It is in the southern part of our country .It is really a very beautiful place-grand mountains, clean rivers and kind people. Trees and flowers are seen everywhere. Every year there are lots and lots of visitors.
Maybe you have heard about Shi Lin (stone forests). There are all kinds of strange stones. Some of the small stones look like graceful girls; and the big stones look like handsome men. Other stones look like cats, peafowls, double-edged swords, mice, elephants and so on. Of all the stones, the stone like a beautiful girl in a legend is the most famous .Its name is A Shima.
I also went to Li Jiang. The roads in that city are just like the Eight Diagrams. Any road in the city goes to the center of Li Jiang. A river runs through the whole city. If you go along the river, you'll never get lost. There are many ethnic minority people in Yunnan. They are very cordial. And they all like singing and dancing. We danced with them around the campfire that night. I really had a good time.
I like the elephants and fruits there best. An elephant is even taller than me! I even mounted the elephant, though I was very afraid at first. But the elephant seemed very friendly. I took some photos with it. The fruits there are very fresh and delicious. They are very good for our health.
The trip to Yunnan impressed me greatly. I will never forget it. | high7900.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "People communicate more since telephone has been created."
},
"options": [
"People don't communicate without telephone.",
"People communicate because of the creating of the telephone.",
"People communicate more since telephon... | When I asked my daughter which item she would keep: the phone, the car, the cooker, the computer, the TV, or her boyfriend, she said "the phone". Personally, I could do without the phone entirely, which makes me unusual because the telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology.
Point 1: The telephone creates the need to Communicate, in the same way that more roads create more traffic. My daughter comes home from school at 4: 00 p. m. and then spends an hour on the phone talking to the very people she has been at school with all day. If the phone did not exist, would she have anything to talk about?
Point 2: The mobile phone means that we are never alone. "The mobile saved my life," says Crystal Johnstone. She had an accident in her Volvo on the A45 between Otley and Skipton. Trapped inside, she managed to make the call that brought the ambulance to her rescue.
Point 3: The mobile phone removes our secret. It allows marketing manager of Haba Deutsch, Carl Nicolaisen, to ring his sales staff all round the world at any time of day to ask where they are, where they are going, and how their last meeting went.
Point 4: The telephone separates us. Antonella Bramante in Rome says, "We worked in separate offices but l could see him through the window. It was easy to get his number. We were so near--but we didn't meet for the first two weeks!"
Point 5: The telephone allows us to reach out beyond our own lives. Today we can talk to several complete strangers simultaneously on chat lines (at least my daughter does. I wouldn't know; what to talk about). We can talk across the world. We can even talk to astronauts (if you know any) while they're space-walking. And, with the phone line hooked up to the computer, we can access(, ) the Internet, the biggest library on Earth. | high22433.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Because his wife persuaded him to."
},
"options": [
"Because his wife persuaded him to.",
"Because they were of no use at all.",
"Because they were heavy on the moves.",
"Because they occupied space too long."
],
... | For twenty years, I saved all my college course notes and textbooks: that's a lot of paper.
Worse, it's not easy to carry them around -- and trust me, they aren't light -- on at least seven moves. Yet I never once looked at them. They sat in our basement, covered in a thick layer of dust. If books and papers could wonder, they'd wonder why they were still under our stairs after all those years. When would the Big Day come?
Well, the Big Day eventually did arrive; only it was different than expected. My wife, always more accepting changes than I am, finally talked me into clearing out the entire mess.
The pain I experienced was also unexpected. What hurt me was to come across those terrible papers I'd written, which reminded me of my poor study habits, and an embarrassing lack of comprehension. It was great to get rid of them. But it was also a clearing of personal history.
At first, I struggled with this. The truth was in the record that my books, my notes, and my papers were primary source materials, documenting an important time in my life. To clear them out was to clear out the truth.
What I've learned since taking this leap is that the process is more important than the truth. I feel as if much of my real education during my college years isn't in the documents but now in me.
So I am glad to free myself of this physical burden. And what's better is that I don't need to look back to those painful moments. They belong to the past.
You might want to consider doing something similar, either under the stairs of your basement or in your mind.
What is the personal rubbish piling in your life? Clear _ out and make your life awesome. | high13836.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "A sudden storm started with thunder and lightning."
},
"options": [
"A sudden storm started with thunder and lightning.",
"The seawater rose suddenly and flooded the land.",
"Huge waves came upon the land, damaging the buildi... | The worst earthquake in 40 years shook South Asia on Sunday, starting with horrible waves that swept entire villages into the sea. At least 20,000 people in six countries were killed in the disaster, and millions were left homeless.
The quake shook deep beneath the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It was felt more than 3000 miles away in East Africa, where heavy tides kept fishermen at home and resorts closed.
It was as if the sea had struck the land. Residents of Sri Lanka, a small island country off the coast of India, ran to the hills to find safety from the tsunami. Many took their radios, televisions, and other valuables with them. The disaster hit Sri Lanka hardest. Of its 20million people, 1 million lost their homes, and 10000 died.
"The water simply raised itself up and huge waves came ashore," wrote eye-witness Peter Thomas from India. "It was moving very fast. The force broke the glass walls of a restaurant on the beach here and damaged hundreds of boats."
In some places, the _ struck with no warning. "The weather was fine with no clouds," wrote an eye-witness in Indonesia. "Suddenly the seawater just hit the city. In some parts the water was up to chest level."
A massive effort to help the affected countries is already underway. Leaders from around the world have promised to help, and teams of aid workers and doctors are rushing to the sea. "The United States stands ready to offer all the help to those nations most affected." Said White House spokesman Trent Duffy. Organizations from the Red Cross to the International Monetary Fund have started fund-raising drives to make up the costs of rebuilding. | high12296.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The fast growth of material needs."
},
"options": [
"The increase in population.",
"Shortage of food and water.",
"The fast growth of material needs.",
"Failure to protect the environment."
],
"question": "Accor... | It is true that world population is growing, but this is not the cause of our current and future global problems. Believing this will cause us to ignore the real problem and risk long-term damage to our planet.
Let me start by explaining why overpopulation is a _ . For one thing, the UN Population Division regularly predicts population growth but provides a low variant , medium variant, and high variant to factor in various possibilities. In the 2010 revision, their high variant suggests that the world population will be almost 16 billion in 2100, but the low variant predicts it will peak at 8 billion and decrease to just over 6 billion by 2100. In most cases, it is the low variant that has come true in the past, suggesting the same will be true of their future population predictions. In addition to this, the size of families is actually decreasing.
For another, if the Earth is overpopulated, there needs to be insufficient food, water, and space for humans to live. However, Indian economist Raj Krishna estimates that India alone is able to increase crop produce to the point of providing the entire world's food supply. The World Food Programme confirms that there is sufficient food grown to feed the world and there is the same amount of fresh water on the planet now as there was 10,000 years ago. So how is it possible that the number of people in the world is affecting our planet?
Therefore, it is not an increase in population but an increase in consumption that is a severe threat. Materialism and overconsumption are facts of life for everybody in the western world, as possessions reflect a person's status in society and people strive to obtain happiness through owning the latest fashionable goods. Not only that, but waste is a common occurrence which has a huge effect on our resources. It is a sad truth that 80% of the world's resources are currently used by just 20% of the world's population.
Our overconsumption must be addressed now to make our lives more sustainable and avoid continuing the terrible damage to the environment we are causing. The key is education. If we do not work towards this but instead focus on the wrong issue, we may find ourselves living on a planet that can no longer sustain human life. | high13188.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the flexibility in Laresce's back helps her to lift heavy weight"
},
"options": [
"Laresce is suffering a lot from hypermobility",
"hypermobility is helpful to increase one's strength",
"Laresce didn't go to school because of... | Laresce was born with a condition called hypermobility which meant her joints were"bend".The condition can use severe joint pain and lead to dislocations .
But rather than feel sorry for herself, she used her misfortune to inspire her to become Britain's strongest schoolgirl.
Just two years ago,the condition left Laresce in so much pain that she couldn't even take part in sports.But now she has six British and World Champion power lifting records.It's an incredible achievement.
Laresce's trainer Tania George said her condition is the secret to her success."She has more flexibility in her back than most people,which gives her the technique of bending her back strongly and safely.Most power lifters would kill to try to bend their backs like Laresce.She has perfected the technique to lift incredibly heavy weights,"Tania said.
"I used to suffer a lot of pain from my hypermobility.I remember coming home from school with pains in my knees,joints and hips.It would stop me doing normal things at schoo1.The pain would be so much that some nights I couldn't sleep at all and I just couldn't face going to school like that.And after each dislocation,I had to do six months of physiotherapy to recover,"said Laresce.
However, since taking up the sport of power lifting 18 months ago she is now effectively cured."really enjoyed the feeling of power I got and the excitement of people encouraging me to do my very best,"she said.
"I've made lots of friends a It's an incredible feeling when everyone's cheering me on.It's the support of other people that makes the difference to winning.Becoming a champion was a big surprise--I just started off for fun and wasn't expecting anything.So to win six titles over just a few months was amazing." | high9093.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Because it helps them do other activities freely."
},
"options": [
"Because it looks beautiful.",
"Because it's a duty for them to bring it.",
"Because they can put all the books into it.",
"Because it helps them do oth... | parents usually go to malls to find new school supplies for their children. One of the most important things to get during this time is the backpack. Most students choose to bring a backpack because it allows them to have both hands free. This makes the bag less likely to hinder other activities that the person carrying it may be doing at the same time. Here are the ways parents can choose the perfect backpack for school.
How many books will children be carrying to school? How many notebooks should be inside the bag? Parents should know these details before buying a bag for their children. Each situation requires a different bag so it pays to ask children about the expected load.
Do children need special storage for the bag? If they will be carrying a laptop computer inside the new backpack,make sure that parents get a model that's designed specifically for laptop use. This will protect the computer from bumps and falls that might damage the device if it had less protection.
Are children going to use the bag for a long time? If they want to use a bag for a long time,parents will be better off investing in a good brand that is known for quality. Parents may have to pay extra cash to get the top of the line and the best backpack in the market.[:## Count the pockets. Backpacks usually come with a lot of pockets,and generally,the more pockets,the better. This allows children to organize their things,like pens and pencils inside small pockets.
Picking the perfect school backpack is all about getting the sweet compromise between form,function and price. Remember to choose the best fit for children's needs.[:] | high11947.txt |
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