questions list | article stringlengths 9 6.44k | id stringlengths 9 14 |
|---|---|---|
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The family don't like being linked to their neighbors."
},
"options": [
"The father is not responsible for the boy.",
"The family don't like being linked to their neighbors.",
"The boy lives with Rick James Lohstroh.",
... | HOUSTON (AP) --- A 10-year-old boy fatally shot his father Friday, striking him several times as he sat in the front seat of a SUV to pick up the boy from his mother's home for a weekend visit.
The incident happened about 3pm on a cul-desac in the 1700 block of Cedar Cove Court, said Sgt. Williams of the Harris County Sheriff's Department.
An investigation found that Rick James Lohstroh, 41, was shot by his son, who was sitting in the back seat of the man's Toyota 4-Runner, said Sgt. Williams. The shooting took place outside the home of Lohstroh's ex-wife, where the boy lives with his mother and a 7-year-old brother.
"We're not certain of anything until we finish our investigation," Williams said. "The information we have at this time is that the 10-year-old did fire the weapon."
The mother and the 7-year-old were inside the house when the shooting occurred, said Williams.
Williams said the gun belonged to the boy's mother. After firing shots through the back seat, the boy exited the back of the vehicle and continued to fire at the car.
The man died on the way to Memorial Herman Hospital.
Lohstroh was a doctor at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
The man and woman shared custody of the children.
Williams said the mother and the boy were still in the home talking to investigators Friday night.
Neighbors described the family as being quiet and keeping to themselves.
Justin Gray, 17, was walking in the neighborhood when he heard gunshots. "We've had a suicide in this neighborhood once, but never anything like this," Gray said. | high5118.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "made friends with some famous composers."
},
"options": [
"performed works for family and friends",
"published Porte-enseigne Polka",
"taught the General's daughter to play the piano",
"made friends with some famous com... | Born in a landowner family, Modest Mussorgsky learned his first lessons in piano from his mother. When he turned nine, Mussorgsky had already started performing for family and friends. The very next year, he was admitted to St. Peter's School and then went ahead to publish a piano piece called Porte-enseigne Polka, which was funded by his father. The family tradition of military service was carried on by Mussorgsky, as he joined the Cadet School of the Guards at age of 13. There he continued to take piano lessons with the General's daughter. He graduated from the school in 1856. While in service, he developed friendship with Alexander Borodin and Alexander Dargomyzhsky, the famous Russian composers who had a deep impact on his musical career.
Mussorgsky decided to devote his life to music in 1858, he joined Mikhail Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar. He produced a four-hand piano sonata in 1860 which was his only movement in sonata form. By this time, he had finished his studies. In the same year, he began to work on an opera called Salammbo on which he spent three years of his life. But, his musical career came to a standstill after his mother died in 1865. This led him into alcoholism. In 1867, he finished Night on Bald Mountain which was his most famous composition. During 1868-1869, he composed an opera describing the life of the Tsars which was rejected by Mariinsky Theatre. Later, he made a few changes to the opera and the new version was accepted in May, 1872.
His alcoholism made him drift away from his circle of friends and worsened his situation in later life. His later year's compositions include Sunless and Khovanschina. Though his physical condition improved for some weeks, he soon passed away on March 28, 1881, a week after his 42nd birthday. | high19472.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "thought"
},
"options": [
"oral speech",
"sign language",
"body language",
"thought"
],
"question": "Which of the following ways can not be used as a form of communication?",
"question_type": null
},
{
... | For as long as humans have lived on the earth, they have made use of various forms of communication. Generally, this expression of thoughts and feelings has been in the form of oral speech. When there is a spoken language problem, communication can be carried out through sign language, in which gestures stand for letters, words, and ideas. Tourists and people unable to hear or speak have often had to turn to this form of expression. When gestures describe words or ideas, they can often be used internationally. When used for spelling words however, where each gesture stands for a single letter, people must share the same written language.
Body language sends ideas or thoughts by certain actions, either meaningfully or not. A wink can be a way of showing that the person is only joking. A nod means agreement, while shaking the head indicates disagreement.
Other forms of language can be found in Braille (a reading system of raised dots read with the fingertips used by the blind), signal flags, Morse code, and smoke signals. Road maps and picture signs also guide and warn people. While language is the most common form of communication, other systems and techniques also express human thoughts and feelings. | high4206.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Musical traditions of Scotland and Ireland."
},
"options": [
"His great success in Irish traditional songs.",
"His grandfather's band.",
"Musical traditions of Scotland and Ireland.",
"Charles Dickens' novels."
],
... | If God could sing, his name must be Declan Galbraith. The boy was born on December 19, 1991 in the UK. He is an English singer of Scottish and Irish origin. His grandfather, who was in a band and played several instruments, often took Declan to concerts he was participating in. The mix of Scottish and Irish musical traditions inspired Declan and became his early musical influence. k%s5$u
Declan's talent was publicly acknowledged for the first time when, at just 7 years old, he insisted on singing at the annual Rochester Dickens Festival, a two-day event where people were invited to dress up in Victorian costumes to celebrate the life and times of the famous novelist Charles Dickens and his links with town. Little Declan, dressed up as a chimney sweep, started singing. Soon after this, he started to enter local talent contests and within a year he had won 15 titles and more than PS1000.
His first self-titled album, Declan, with Irish traditional songs and some specially written materials became a big success and charted in the UK and Ireland. Within the year of release , it had 200 000 copies in Germany.
Although Declan is a British citizen and singer, Declan is better-known abroad, especially in China where his songs were chosen as part of the Chinese education curriculum for children learning English. In May 2008, Declan undertook a successful tour in China, and the cities included were Beijing and Shenzhen. | high16741.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "he thought they deserved help"
},
"options": [
"he benefited from Operation Mend",
"he was afraid of burned faces",
"he thought they deserved help",
"he didn't know how to spend money"
],
"question": "Neidorf de... | In a generous display of maturity and sympathy, one Jewish boy made his first deed as a man in his faith a great act of charity.
Joshua Neidorf, a 13-year-old boy from Los Angeles, donated most of his birthday money to Operation Mend, a program that reconstructs the faces of severely burned U. S. veterans .
The young man decided to donate his money after getting to know Army Sgt. Louis Dahlman, who was undergoing a series of reconstruction surgeries at UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) thanks to Operation Mend. The Neidorfs had signed up to be Dahlman's "buddy family", spending time with him whenever he visited Los Angeles for a surgery.
"I just love knowing that it's going somewhere...to help the people who save our lives and keep us safe every day," said Neidorf. His mother added, "It makes me feel like our world is going in a good direction with this next generation."
In all, Neidorf gave $13,000 to Operation Mend. He also encouraged his friends to donate to the cause. He is the organization's youngest donor so far.
Operation Mend is a privately funded program that works in partnership with the UCLA Medical Center. Ron Katz, a board member at the hospital, started the program in 2006 after seeing a TV programme about Aaron Mankin, a veteran who had gone through dozens of surgeries after a fight in Iraq which completely burned off his face.
Mankin ended up being Operation Mend's first patient, starting the first of 20 reconstructive facial surgeries at UCLA in Sept. 2007. In a 2011 interview, Katz shared how his experience of helping Mankin made him realize the need to establish a more permanent program.
"My wife and I soon realized that there were dozens of Aarons out there," Katz said. "They deserve the best that we offer them." | high3569.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The space station crew has been reduced to two due to an accident."
},
"options": [
"They were busy fixing a camera.",
"They had to throw a data - collecting device.",
"They had to stay aboard.",
"The space station crew... | Two space walkers fixed a camera on the outside of the international space station on Monday and threw overboard a data - collecting device , sending it rolling off into space like a football. The new camera will help space station astronauts add new pieces onto the orbiting station.
Mr Arthur and his Russian crewmate left the or biting station unmanned during the 5 - hour spacewalk. Normally, one crew member stayed aboard while two others worked outside. But the space station crew has been reduced to two since the space shuttle prefix = st1 /Columbiadisaster in 2003, and it has been left empty nine times during spacewalks since then.
The device thrown overboard was once used to collect data on electrical activity around the space station. It was designed to work for only a few months and was no longer needed. Engineers were afraid pieces might break off and damage the space station, so they decided to cut it loose. The device, which weighs about 60 pounds and has solar panels that extend about 2 feet, is expected to burn up in the atmosphere in about three months.
Happily, the space walking pair helped each other into their spacesuits without the help of a third crew member. The space walk was put off by an hour because of trouble with the US airlock , which did not depressurize completely at first. But the pair quickly made up for the lost time as they worked outside. It was the first time in two years that space walkers exited through the USairlock. | high23922.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "introduce the topic of the text"
},
"options": [
"make a brief summary",
"introduce the topic of the text",
"compare Ebola with cancer",
"show the latest study of viruses"
],
"question": "The news of Ebola in Gu... | When we hear of dangerous diseases, cancer and heart disease are often what first comes to mind. Recently, a virus called Ebola has reappeared in Guinea (a country in West Africa), killing 62 people so far. It leads to viral hemorrhagic fever, which is characterized by high fever and internal bleeding etc, Ebola can kill 90% of those infected, especially in underdeveloped societies like those in Africa.
Ebola is named after the Ebola River, where it was first discovered in 1976. There are five different types of the Ebola virus, each named after where they first happened: Sudan, Ivory Coast, Restoon, Bundibugyo, and Zaire. The deadliest of the five, Zaire, was responsible for the 2012 outbreak, and is believed to be attacking Guinea.
Ebola is naturally found in fruit bats , which pass on the virus to other animals by biting or sucking on their blood. Humans who are suffering from the Ebola infection might have touched the bodily fluids of the infected animals. Once infected, a human becomes a carrier of the deadly virus.
Since we live in an interconnected world, where the situation in one country can affect us all, the influences of Ebola are huge: damaging trade relations, affecting foreign visitors, and weakening entire countries. Already the Guinea virus is spreading fast with a few cases spotted in Conakry -- the capital of Guinea, far away from the origin of the virus. It is feared that the disease may have already reached neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone, too.
Unfortunately, there are no disease-specific treatments for Ebola. Healthcare workers only supply the infected people with water to keep them in good condition. Since there have been many cases of nurses catching the disease from patients, they are forced to wear strict protective clothes, and in some cases, not even allowed to get close to the affected. The fact that there is no cure for the Ebola virus is what makes the outbreak a challenging one to control. | high12527.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "it was found on a famous trail"
},
"options": [
"it was an important clue to life in the past",
"it was found on a famous trail",
"it at one time belonged to a VIP",
"it was a fashionable shoe at that time"
],
"... | Every object tells a story. Even the most ordinary objects can present to us powerful images. Sometimes it is the ordinary nature of these objects that actually makes them so extraordinary. Such is the case with an old leather shoe in a museum in Alaska. At first glance it does not look like much. It is a woman's shoe of a style popular in the 1890s. But what is unique about this shoe is where it was found. It was discovered on the Checkout Pass, the famous trail used by the people seeking gold in Alaska. Who it belonged to or why it was left there is not known. Was it perhaps dropped by accident as the woman climbed up the 1500 stairs carved outface? Or did she throw away goods that she didn't need in order to travel lighter?
Over 100, 000 people with "gold fever" made this trip hoping to become millionaires. Few of them understood that on their way they would have to cross a harsh wildness. Unprepared for such a dangerous journey, many died of starvation and exposure to the cold weather.
The Canadian government finally started requiring the gold seekers to bring one ton of supplies with them. This was thought to be enough for a person to survive for one year. They would carry their supplies in backpacks each weighing up to fifty pounds; it usually took at least 40 trips to get everything to the top and over the pass. Whoever dropped the shoe must have been a brave and determined woman. Perhaps she was successful and made it to Alaska. Perhaps she had to turn back in defeat. No one will ever know for sure, but what we do know is that she took part in one of the greatest adventures in the 19th century. | high832.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Having the right types of genes."
},
"options": [
"Eating healthy food every day.",
"Having the right types of genes.",
"Having a healthy lifestyle.",
"Taking drugs that prevent ageing."
],
"question": "Accordin... | Good Genes Mean Long Life
Scientists have discovered that living to the age of 100 may have nothing to do with the lifestyle you lead and everything to do with the type of genes you have.
For the lucky carriers of "Methuselah" genes, worries over smoking, eating unhealthily and not getting enough exercise may not be as necessary as to those of us without the special gene pattern .
The "Methuselah" genes could give extra protection against the diseases of old age such as cancer and heart disease. They could also protect people against the effects of the unhealthy lifestyles that we believe will lead us to an early death, scientists say. However, the genes are very rare.
The genes include ADIPOQ, which is found in about 10 percent of young people but in nearly 30 percent of people living past 100. They also include the CETP and the ApoC3 genes, which are found in 10 percent of young people, but in about 20 percent of people over 100 years old.
Some of those genes were discovered by a research group at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, led by Professor Nir Barzilai. The team studied the genes of over 500 people over 100 years old, and their children.
The studies show that tiny mutations in the make-up of some genes can greatly increase a person's lifespan . Barzilai told a Royal Society conference that the discovery of such genes gave scientists clear targets for developing drugs that could prevent age-related diseases, allow people to live longer and stay healthy.
David Gems, a researcher at University College London, believes that drugs to slow ageing will become widespread.
"If we know which genes control longevity then we can ... target them with drugs. That makes it possible to slow down ageing," he told The Times.
"Much of the pain and suffering in the world are caused by ageing. If we can find a way to reduce that, then we are obliged to take it." | high15248.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "28 years"
},
"options": [
"18 years",
"28 years",
"6 years",
"19 years"
],
"question": "How long was Nelson Mandela sent to prison?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answ... | Former South African President Nelson Mandela who was treated for a recurring lung infection, dies on Dec. 5th, 2013, at the age of 95.
People around the world are mourning the loss of the country's first black president. He was often called humble, charming, loyal person and a man who cared about others.
"He seemed to have that special charismatic personality," said Herman Cohen, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Africa from 1989 to 1993. "He became the symbol in the fight against _ ."
Mandela was born on July 18, 1918. As a young man he became active in the anti-apartheid movement and joined the African National Congress, or ANC, in the 1940s.
The white-led government banned the ANC in 1960, but the group continued to operate secretly. Mandela became head of the group's new military wing, coordinating a sabotage campaign against South African military and government targets.
In 1962, he was arrested and put on trial for his actions and sentenced to life in prison on Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town. He spent 18 years there, refusing a government offer to release him if he would renounce the ANC's armed struggle. But he was freed in 1990 after South African President Frederik de Klerk legalized all political parties and discharged most political prisoners.
Shortly after his release, Mandela was elected president of the African National Congress. And in 1994, when the ANC won South Africa's first all-race elections, he was inaugurated as the county's first black president at age 75.
"Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another," he said.
President Mandela said he would stay for only one five-year term. Cohen says Mandela earned international respect for South Africa's national reconciliation.
"Mandela devoted himself mainly to rallying the Africans to this new era to work on economic development, having good education, also he was very much of a spokesman on the international scene." he said.
In 1993, Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize with his once bitter enemy F.W. de Klerk for their contribution to the peace process in South Africa. After receiving the award, Mandela praised the South African people.
"All have created a society which recognizes that all people are born equal," he said. In a country torn apart by years of racial conflict, Nelson Mandela is considered a remarkable leader -- a man who turned South Africa away from violence and hatred into a country of greater peace and understanding. | high9722.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "they can't do whatever they want to"
},
"options": [
"they can't do whatever they want to",
"they feel it unnecessary to have laws",
"laws only protect those who worked out them",
"laws and rules are too complicated to ... | As rules, laws are people's rights and responsibilities toward society. Laws are agreed on by society and made official by governments.
Some persons look on laws with fear, hatred, or annoyance. Laws seem to limit people's freedom to do many things they would like to do. Though laws may prevent us from doing things we wish to do at the moment, laws make everyone's life safer and more pleasant. Without laws we could not hold on to our property; we could not go to bed at night expecting to wake up in the morning and find that we had not been robbed; no stores in which we buy food, clothes, and other necessities could stay open and sell to us. Our banks would not be safe places to keep our money.
Social life would be impossible without laws to control the way people treat one another. It is not the laws that should be feared but the trouble that comes to everyone when laws are broken. Once this is understood, a citizen will not fear or hate the law. Understanding the need for good laws and the evil results of breaking laws is the first requirement of good citizenship and government.
Philosophers once believed that in prehistoric time people lived without laws in a "state of nature". People were free to do as they pleased unless someone stronger stopped them by force. As a result, life became so dangerous and unsafe that leaders had to create laws to protect life and property.
This is no longer believed to be true. Scholars now think that as soon as people began living in small groups, they worked out rules for getting along with one another. In time everyone accepted and supported the rules. Manners, customs and beliefs controlled the living habits and behavior of the group. Such rules and habits of life are called folkways.
Folkways are probably the real meaning of human laws, as well as of religion, morals, and education. As life became more complex, folkways became more complete guides to living. After thousands of years, some of the important folkways were put into writing as the earlier laws. And as life grew more and more complicated with faster transportation and the rise of modern industry and big cities, more human acts and interests had to be ruled by law. This led to a great increase in the number of laws.
But we know that unless laws are enforced, they cannot protect us. Poorly enforced laws invite crime and violence. So we agree that the best protection against crime is planned social change and law reform -- to reduce the causes of crime and to encourage people to obey the laws. Such a solution would join a sound system of law enforcement with forces working to prevent crime. To attain this goal, all citizens must understand the need for good laws and for their enforcement. | high14156.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "We needn't worry about the children and our late life."
},
"options": [
"The children are so clever that we need not worry about their study.",
"Someone else can take care of the children and our late life.",
"We are rich eno... | We can't help but grow older physically, but we can stay young in other ways. Do you want to stay young? If yes is the answer, here is what you can do:
1. _ . This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him/her.
2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop."
4.Enjoy the simple things. When the children are young, that is all that you can afford. When they are in college, that is all you can afford. When you are on retirement, that is all you can afford!
5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. Laugh so much that you can be tracked in the store by your distinctive laughter.
6. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it is family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, or hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
7. Value your health. If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
8. The tears happen. Endure sorrow, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be alive while you are alive.
9. At every opportunity, tell the people you love that you love them. | high72.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Yantai University"
},
"options": [
"Yantai University",
"Peking University",
"Suzhou University",
"Nankai University"
],
"question": "According to the text, up to now, Apart from Renmin University, which Univers... | Every year in late April, students at Renmin University of China become the subjects of admiration and jealousy of their peers on other campuses in Beijing. Why? Because they get a week off in the middle of term, the so-called spring break.
" _ 's been a unique tradition of our school for a decade," said Wang Yueran, 20, a journalism major at Renmin University, who organized a weeklong trip to Sichuan with 12 classmates last year.
But having fun is just one dimension of the spring break. Field trips, voluntary work, and social projects are all on students' to-do lists. Experts say the spring break is not just for students to enjoy a few days off, but for them to gain new experiences beyond the campus walls.
Push them out
The traditional Chinese belief of the exploration of knowledge and truth emphasizes "reading 10,000 books and traveling 10,000 miles", which indicates the importance of experience as much as theory. But while Chinese universities have the tradition of spring outings, what's the benefit of making spring break an institution?
Qin Jianguo, of the student affairs office at Shenzhen University, thinks the idea of the spring break in some universities in China comes from the intention of pushing students out of the ivory tower to experience more diversity in their lives.
"Take traveling for example. A week traveling is a very different experience to a one- or two-day outing," said Qin. "Students are expected to acquire the spirit of teamwork and compromise, and learn survival and communication skills when put out there in an unfamiliar context."
Diverse approaches
Many countries have similar vacations in the middle of the semester for students to do things out of their own interest. Taking Japan as an example, instead of partying like their US counterparts, many Japanese students choose to work as interns or engage in study-related projects.
"The spring break is an opportunity for many of our students to put their learning to use," said Hiroshi Kanno, dean of the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University, in the school's description of a recent spring break project.
As for Chinese students who take a week off around the Labor Day holiday, many tend to do volunteer work. Duan Zhipeng, a 22-year-old economics major at Renmin University, applied for a project to go back to his hometown in Jiangxi province to introduce his university's enrollment policies and campus culture to local high school students.
Not a trend yet
Apart from Renmin University, only a few other universities, such as Yantai University, have a spring break for their students. The concept in China is still far from the culture and norms built around it in the US.
Wei Xiang, a professor specializing in holiday economics at Beijing International Studies University, said that the spring break is a good experiment for universities to make study schedules smoother in order to give students more options to arrange their own leisure and study activities. | high6411.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "deals with bacteria with radiation"
},
"options": [
"takes a whole night to kill bacteria",
"deals with bacteria with radiation",
"is a kind of liquid like dishwasher soap",
"has to be plugged into the wall to work"
... | Phone Soap: Charge and Clean Your Phone
You may charge your phone every day, but do you clean your phone as much? Whatever your hands touch, your phones touch. It has been discovered that some phones have 18 times more bacteria and viruses than any surface in a public restroom. So it probably won't surprise you that a 2011 University of London study found that one in six of our phones have bacteria and viruses on them--specifically, the bacteria called E. coli.
The research on bacteria and viruses led to the invention of Phone Soap. It is not actually liquid like dishwasher soap. It is a phone charger that uses the electromagnetic radiation used in hospitals to kill 99.9 percent of bacteria and viruses, cleaning your phone while it charges.
"There are really certain types of bacteria and viruses that we should not be in touch with, and they are really on our phones," says Wes Barnes, the Phone Soap co-founder. It all started while his cousin and co-founder, Dan LaPorte, was in his cancer research lab at college. "He realized he got the idea of getting rid of bacteria and viruses on the phones," said Barnes. "In the lab they used UV-C light for destroying them. He realized this would be the fastest, most powerful way to kill any bacteria and viruses living on electronic machines."
Phone Soap looks like a little metal suitcase. Your phone rests in to charge and get cleaned at the same time. Instead of plugging your phone into the wall, you'd plug it into the Phone Soap charger box. The process only takes a few minutes but, Barnes says, "The idea is that you can leave it in there overnight if you want to keep charging. Reflective paint keeps the light completely around the phone so it cleans the phone fully."
The co-founders spent 2013 finding the right companies and they started shipping the product in late November. By last week's International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Phone Soap was all grown-up. Both co-founders have left their previous jobs and are selling Phone Soap nonstop. "We're shipping almost more than we can handle each day," Barnes says. "It's been a great adventure." | high13639.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "raised by the selling of shares in the companies"
},
"options": [
"exchanged for part ownership in the Stock Exchange",
"raised by the selling of shares in the companies",
"repaid to its original owners as soon as possible",
... | Large companies need a way to reach the savings of the public at large. The same problem, on a smaller scale , faces practically every company trying to develop new products and create new jobs. There can be little hope of raising the money needed from friends and people we know, and while banks may agree to provide short-term finance , they are generally unwilling to provide money, for long-term projects. So companies turn to the public, inviting people to lend them money, or take a share in the business in exchange for a share in future interests. This they do by issuing stocks and shares in the business through the Stock Exchange. By doing so they can put into circulation the savings of single persons and institutions, both at home and abroad.
When the saver needs his money back, he does not have to go to the company with whom he originally placed it. Instead he sells his shares through a stockbroker to some other saver who is seeking to _ his money.
Many of the services needed both by industry and by each of us are provided by the government or by local organizations. Without hospitals, roads, electricity, telephones and railways, this country could not work. All these require continuous spending on new equipment and new development if they are to serve us properly, requiring more money than it is raised through taxes alone. The government, local organizations and nationalized industries therefore frequently need to borrow money to finance(...) major capital spending, and they, too, come to the Stock Exchange.
There is hardly a man or woman in this country whose standard of living does not depend on the ability of his or her employers to raise money to finance new development. In one way or another his new money must come from the savings of the country. The Stock Exchange exists to provide a channel through which these savings can reach those who need finance. | high7690.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "liked writing stories"
},
"options": [
"liked writing stories",
"was good at writing poetry",
"could understand poetry well",
"was often praised by his teacher"
],
"question": "When the author was a pupil, he ... | For about three years now, I have been writing poetry. It was not until my junior year in high school that I developed an interest, love, and skill for writing poetry.
Back in elementary school, I love to write stories. I would write stories on post-it notes and anywhere I could. Yet when I had to write a limerick for an assignment, I could not wrap my head around poetry. I had a very hard time figuring out how to rhyme words and have the words make sense. I eventually tossed the paper with the attempted limerick in the trash. I did not try my hand at poetry again until several years later.
Many years later in my freshman year of high school, my English teacher gave my class a poetry project as an assignment. I still remember my limerick assignment and was afraid of doing the poetry. For the project, we had to analyze a poem and write a response to it. I choose to respond to Robert Frost's poem Fire and Ice. I also wrote my own poem first. I become really excited when writing the poem.
Two years later, I started writing poetry, as a hobby and for fun. To learn how good or bad my poems were, I handed them in to some magazines and contests. I won second place in the North Carolina Poetry Society's Sherry Pruitt Award Contest with a poem called The Ocean, and had my two poems published as high merit poems. I have continued to write poetry, and have even self-published three collections of poetry in both print and e-book formats, which can be found at my store on Lulu.
Now, I love writing poetry, but I don't hate writing short stories. I just find it more difficult and not my style of writing, even though I still write short stories occasionally. | high9865.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Now conditions ask people to use less time to know more information."
},
"options": [
"Now there is limited information than ever before.",
"Now conditions ask people to use less time to know more information.",
"Now people c... | So much to do, so little time.So much information, so little time to read .In this age there is more information than ever before.There is not enough time to read everything we want to read.However, you can take in and understand more information in shorter time through speed-reading.This article will not make you read 3 000 words per minute, but it will show you how to increase your speed greatly.You will also learn the basic techniques of speed reading, along with the dos and don'ts of speed-reading.
When you first learned to read, you would say the word out loud and sound it out.Then you might whisper the word because people can become annoyed when you read aloud.The stage you are now at is saying the word in your head.Most people tend to read this way.Saying the word in your head will cut your reading speed tremendously .
How do you calculate your reading speed? The speed is measured by how many words per minute you can read.Get some reading material, preferably a book.Find out how many words are on the page.Time yourself one minute.Start your timer and start reading.When the timer sounds, stop at once.If you counted 500 words on the page and you read half of the page, then you are probably reading at 250 words per minute.
The first thing about speed-reading is looking at the word and recognizing it.Don't say the word in your mind, just look at it and recognize its appearance.Later you will recognize groups of four words or more to increase your speed.This is the first and most important step in speed-reading.
The next step is technique.As with any other skill, speed-reading requires technique.You should first be sitting up straight with your book on a horizontal surface, such as a table or desk.Next, should be able to see the entire page.This is necessary if you want to recognize clumps of words.Lastly, _ .It's hard to read a lot of noise.Find a quiet place to read.This will help your understand of the text.You need something to guide your eyes while reading.Then right, you should use your hand, Remember when you were little, you would read using your finger.That is a great technique, only now you're using your hand to underline each line.Move your finger smoothly across page.No need to go rush , start our slow.Keep your eyes focused on words as you recognize them while using your hand as a guide.This will increase you speed.
The third step is practice.Practice makes perfect.Set time intervals .Read using different techniques, but make sure you understand what you're reading. | high7848.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "to clear the mind"
},
"options": [
"to clear the mind",
"to practice a religion",
"to develop a technique",
"to carry out an experiment"
],
"question": "The goal of meditation is _ .",
"question_type": "c... | Across the planet there are millions of people who engage in some type of meditation, the practice of concentrating and clearing the mind to bring the body into a state of peace, at least a semi-regular basis. For some, particularly among practitioners of Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, this is _ of their religious practice.
For others, particularly in Western cultures, meditation tends to be a response to stress. With the world economy approaching meltdown and people worried about their job or their ability to keep their home, it's a way for people to attain a state of peace of mind and well-being.
For those interested in taking up the practice, instruction in meditation for beginners can be found in literally thousands of sources.
One of the most popular styles of mediation in the West, with classes offered in most major cities, is called Transcendental Meditation. TM, as it is known among its practitioners, first came to worldwide attention when the Beatles began practicing it in 1967. For direct, guided, personal instruction in meditation for the beginner, TM may be the hallmark.
Part of the confusion about how to practice meditation effectively is due to the fact that there are literally hundreds of techniques championed by various groups and individuals. As a general principle, it might be said that all meditation techniques seek to have the practitioner attain a state of consciousness that is different to our ordinary state of awareness. They attempt to train people to clear their minds and achieve a sense of inner peace. It sounds simple enough, but of the huge number of people experiment with meditation, very few are able to maintain its practice over the long haul. In most cases, this is due to frustration over the inability to experience any dramatic, instantly recognizable effects.
This is quite a sad state of affairs, that so few these days are willing or equipped to persist in something that doesn't provide immediate life-changing results. It reflects a culture in which demands for discipline and sustained effort are considered unnecessary or even unfair. It is no surprise therefore that many people abandon their efforts at meditation before they have a chance to bear fruit.
But for anyone who does decide to take up this worthwhile practice, please remember. You must clear your mind, relax and "take it as it comes". Maintain the practice with a sense of discipline and devotion, and eventually benefits of inner peace and calm will be yours. | high775.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "It would enable him to avoid arousing suspicion."
},
"options": [
"It would make traveling abroad more possible.",
"It would make it easier for him to meet people.",
"It would enable him to avoid arousing suspicion.",
"... | The Colonel asks Ashenden a good many questions and then suggested that he had particular qualifications for the Secret Service. Ashenden knew several European languages and the fact that he was a writer provided excellent cover: on the pretext that he was writing a book he could, without attracting attention, visit any neutral country.
It was while they were discussing this point that the Colonel said, "You know you might get material that would be very useful to you in your work. I'll tell you an incident that occurred only recently. Very dramatic. A foreign government minister went down to a Mediterranean resort to recover from a cold and he had some very important documents with him that he kept in a dispatch case . A day or two after he arrived, he picked up a beautiful blonde at some restaurant or other, and he got very friendly with her. He took her back to his hotel, and when he came to himself in the morning, the lady and the dispatch-case had disappeared. They had one or two drinks up in his room and his theory is that when his back was turned the woman slipped a drug in his glass.
"Do you mean to say that happened the other day?" said Ashenden.
"The week before last."
"Impossible," cried Ashenden. "Why! We've been putting that incident on the stage for sixty years, we've written it in a thousand novels. Do you mean to say that life has only just caught up with us?"
"Well, I can guarantee the truth of the story." said the Colonel, "And believe me, the government has been put to no end of trouble by the loss of the documents."
"Well sir, if you can't do better than that in the Secret Service," sighed Ashenden, " I'm afraid that as a source of inspiration to the writer of fiction, it's washout." | high23665.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "have a strong sense of self"
},
"options": [
"get along well with others",
"pursue a profession in chemistry",
"follow their parents' advice",
"have a strong sense of self"
],
"question": "According to the passa... | Some novels simply entertain and others contain a powerful message in the story line and characters. In his first novel, A Wind In Montana, Mitch Davies tells a story about young adults and how they accept responsibility for their lives.
A Wind in Montana is a great tale of two teenagers, Rory Coleman and Victoria Beach, high school students at the same school, who struggle to make the right decision for themselves. As each of them nears adulthood, they become more concerned with the future and set goals that will bring them happiness and a sense of achievement.
Without any advice from his parents, Rory chooses to pursue a profession in chemistry, applies for a chemistry scholarship, and determines to do everything he can to achieve it. Along the path, Rory finds that even though he has a plan, there are obstacles that could prevent him from realizing his goals. Victoria's struggles are different from Rory's. Although her father has decided that she should become a professional musician, Victoria has other plans for her life. Together, Rory and Victoria attempt to follow their dreams, despite the obstacles in their paths. A Wind In Montana contains a lesson for all teens about to enter adulthood -- that disappointment and setbacks are going to occur no matter how determined they are and that they need to develop skills along the way that will help them deal with them effectively.
Mitch Davies' book stands out among today's teen books that deal with imaginary situations. A Wind In Montana is a real story about real people facing real-life situations. It's entertaining and also helps readers think about their own lives and offers various ways to handle situations that may arise. | high5087.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "How to be a better person."
},
"options": [
"How to be a better person.",
"The culture of ancient China.",
"How to make their big dreams come true.",
"A complete introduction to Confucius and Mencius."
],
"quest... | What are the most popular courses at Harvard University, US?
Unsurprisingly, Intro to Economics and Intro to Computer Science claim the top two spots. But what about Classical Chinese Ethical and Political Theory (<<>> ), a course focused on ancient Chinese philosophers and their theories? As the third most popular course, it has drawn so many students that Harvard had to move the class to its Sanders Theater, the biggest lecture hall on campus.
According to The Atlantic, Professor Michael Puett requires his students to read original texts Such as Confucius' Analects (<<>>) and the Mencius (<<>>). But doesn't that make the class boring ?Not at all, says The Atlantic: "It' s clear that students are attracted by Puett's promise: This course will change your life."
Puett introduce his students not just to a completely different culture worldview. More
importantly , he puts Chinese thought "in the context of contemporary American life to help 18 and 19-year-olds figure out how to be good human beings and become successful people". Puett told The Atlantic that nowadays , more students are pressured to think big and achieve individual excellence. They usually direct all of their courses, and even their activities after class, towards practical career goals. www.ks5u.com
However, Puett believed that being calculating about one's plans is the wrong way to make any sort of important life decision."The Chinese philosophers would say that this strategy makes it harder to remain open to other possibilities," he explained to The Atlantic."Students who do this are not paying enough attention to the daily things that actually inspire them."Our smallest actions ,said Chinese philosophers, have ripple effect .To really change our lives for the better, we have to start with mundane things."Holding open the door for someone or smiling at the grocery clerk can change the course of the day by affecting how we feel," said Puett."Paying attention to small clues can change everything that we can become as human beings." | high16806.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Tommy's Hobby"
},
"options": [
"Important Hobbies",
"Tommy's Hobby",
"Different Hobbies",
"Hobby of Collecting Butterflies"
],
"question": "What's the best title for this passage?",
"question_type": null
}... | The class teacher thought that hobbies were very important for every child.She encouraged all her pupils to have one, and sometimes arranged for their parents to come and see the work they had done as a result.
One Friday morning the teacher told the class that those of them who had a hobby could have a holiday that afternoon to get the things they had made as parts of their hobbies ready for their parents to see the following afternoon.
So on Friday afternoon, while those of the pupils who had nothing to show did their usual lessons, the lucky ones who had made something were allowed to go home, on condition that they returned before five o'clock to bring what they were going to show, and to arrange them.
When the afternoon lessons began, the teacher was surprised to see that Tommy was not there.He was the laziest boy in the class, and the teacher found it difficult to believe that he had a hobby.However, at a quarter to five, Tommy arrived with a beautiful collection of butterflies in glass cases.After his teacher had admired them and helped him to arrange them on a table in the classroom, she was surprised to see Tommy pick them up again and begin to leave.
"What are you doing, Tommy?" She asked."Those things must remain here until tomorrow afternoon.That's when the parents are coming to see them."
"I know they are coming then, " answered Tommy, " and I will bring them back tomorrow, but my big brother doesn't want them to be out of our house at night in case they are stolen."
"But what has it got to do with your big brother?" asked the teacher, "Aren't the butterflies yours?"
"No, " answered Tommy."They belong to him."
"But Tommy, you are supposed to show your own hobby here, not somebody else's ! "said the teacher.
"I know that , " answered Tommy, "My hobby is watching my brother collecting butterflies." | high21072.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "It is basically a good way to protect one's privacy."
},
"options": [
"It is a way of signaling that you don't like the caller.",
"It is natural to tell lies about small things",
"It is basically a good way to protect one's p... | There is a famous story about British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was writing a poem when he was interrupted by a knock at the door.
This was an age before telephones. Someone was delivering a message. When Coleridge got back to his poem, he had lost his inspiration. His poetic mood had been broken by the knock on his door. His unfinished poem, which could otherwise have been a masterpiece, would now never be more than a fragment.
This story tells how unexpected communication can destroy an important thought, which bring us to the cellphone.
The most common complaint about cellphones is that people talk on them to the annoyance of people around them. But more damaging may be the cellphone's interruption of our thoughts.
We have already entered a golden age of little white lies about our cellphones, and this is by and large a healthy, protective development. "I didn't hear it ring" or "I didn't realize my phone had shut off" are among the lies we tell to give ourselves space where we're beyond reach.
The notion of being unreachable is not a new concept--we have "Do Not Disturb" sign on the doors of hotel rooms. So why must we feel guilty when it comes to cellphones? Why must we apologize if we decide to shut off the phone for a while?
Now time alone, or a conversation with someone next to us which cannot be interrupted by a phone, is something to be cherished. Even cellphone devotees , myself usually included, can't help at times wanting to throw their phone away, or curse the day they were invented.
But we don't and won't, and there really is no need. All that's required to take back our private time is a general social recognition that we have the right to it. In other words, we have to develop a healthy contempt for the rings of our own phones.
A cellphone call deserves no greater priority than a random word from the person next to us,though the call on my cellphone may be the one-in-a-million from Steven Spielberg--who has finally read my novel and wants to make it his next movie. But most likely it is not, and I'm better off thinking about the idea I just had for a new story, or the slice of pizza I'll eat for lunch. | high2930.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "An introduction of eye-controlling technology."
},
"options": [
"An introduction of a new device.",
"An introduction of smart-phones.",
"An introduction of eye-controlling technology.",
"An introduction of a new technol... | In the near future,we may be using our eyes to operate our smart-phones and tablets,even when it comes to playing popular games like Fruit Ninja.
The Gaze Group has been developing eye-controlled computer technology for nearly 20 years.But those devices have been firstly designed to help those with disabilities,and are very expensive.
"After a while,we figured out that probably the best way is to go for a mass-market way," says Gaze's Sune Alstrup Johansen."where everybody would have this available."
Johansen and some of his colleagues have formed a new company,the Eye Tribe,which is hoping to develop the technology on a mass commercial level.
The technology works with the help of the computing device toward the user's face. After making sure of the user's eye movements,the technology is then able to easily find where a person's eyes are moving,and then allow the eyes to control a cursor .
"Our software can then determine the location of the eyes and know where you're looking on the screen to make sure what you're looking at,"reads an explanation on the Eye Tribe site.
There has been a gradual change toward hands-free technology in recent years, particularly in the gaming world.Recently Xbox released the Kinect device,which lets users control their Xbox and play certain games using only their hands,legs and voices. But still,most of these devices have been more of a _ than a practical way to use one's hands to control a mobile device.Johansen said a replaceable filter would be a cheap,convenient way for most consumers.
And even as companies like The Eye Tribe work to create such a product for the average user, making the eye-controlled technology more accessible and less expensive will have similar benefits for physically disabled users.
For more articles on modern science,please CLICK here. | high4399.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "teamwork"
},
"options": [
"self-confidence",
"teamwork",
"making efforts",
"taking risks"
],
"question": "Based on this text successful people often have spirit of _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"... | Simon and Garfunkel once famously sang "I am a rock, I am an island". It's a great song, but is simply isn't true! For whatever reason, we all seem afraid to ask for help, even from those closest to us, regardless of whether we need or deserve it. There's something in our society than seems to dictate that we have to do it all by ourselves ---- either the views that we'll be seen as weak, or just simply pride.
This, however, doesn't seem to be true of successful people. They haven't bought into the fallacy that asking for help is wrong. They know the truth that great things are achieved when people cooperate.
We all have different skills, knowledge and experiences. Each person you know is a whole new set of untapped reference material and expertise. So if you want to get hold of it and use it, all you have to do is ask them. People are rarely unwilling to assist ---- it's in our nature to be part of communities.
A good example I sometimes use in seminars is to pick a delegate at random and ask him how many people he knows in total. The usual answer is somewhere between 200 and 500. For the sake of this illustration, let's select the lower figure and call it 200. Then I ask the person how many people each of those people knows. On the assumption that they have similar-sized circles, they almost certainly know at least 200 people each. On this basis, the people within one degree of separation(1:)for a person who knows 200 people comes to 40,000 ---- can you imagine the size of that experience and knowledge pool?
Looking as it this way, giving your friends, family and colleagues the opportunity to help you open your resource bank to thousands of people. That's a whole army of potential volunteers all waiting to be praised!
So, next time you need help, don't suffer in silence. Pick up the phone or mention it to a friend. You'll be pleasantly amazed at what you can achieve together. | high21714.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "You have to read others' expressions to understand them."
},
"options": [
"You are interested to listen to others' talking.",
"You have to read others' expressions to understand them.",
"You can only understand others over th... | Parties, iPods, concerts, movies, TV shows, video games, traffic. All of these things of the modern world make life entertaining and enjoyable. But our 21st-century lifestyle is also loud and, if we don't take notice, it can have an effect on our hearing.
Most teenagers don't think about hearing loss. But if you experience any of the followingsymptoms , you may already be hearing damaged: you make efforts to hear normal talk, you have to turn up the TV or radio so high that others complain, you watch other people's expressions to understand what they are saying, you ask people to repeat themselves, you misunderstand what people are saying or you hear ringing in your ears.
iPods and other MP3 players are as common as the clothes you wear, and just as fashionable. But if you turn up an iPod to more than 60 percent of itsmaximum volume , and listen to music for more than an hour, you are asking for trouble. And, it does not matter if the music you play is classical, rock or heavy metal.
Some researchers find that young people who break the so-called 60-percent/60-minute rule in listening to iPods are at the risk of suffering hearing loss.
Why is an iPod dangerous? With ear buds placed directly in the ear canal and high-volume music played over a long period of time, it's like working in a loud factory all day, being amaintenance person under a jet airplane or using ajackhammer on a building site.
Similarly, iPod music can cause a short time orpermanent hearing damage. A loud iPod can cause aruptured eardrum and, over time, may cause permanent damage to the tiny hairs in the inner ear. If these tiny hairs are damaged, they cannot effectively send sounds to theauditory nerves that connect to the brain. If this happens, hearing loss becomes permanent. | high3390.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Wild time for children"
},
"options": [
"Wild time for children",
"Benefits of wild time",
"More space for children",
"Adventures of children"
],
"question": "What is the best title of the text?",
"question_... | Today,we are told,children don't spend enough time in the fresh air.Many of them are addicted to a screen either on a computer or a TV--they seem to be living in a virtual world.They have lost touch with nature.
But now 400 organizations in the UK,from playgroups to the National Health Service,are encouraging children to have some"wild time".They want kids to swap at least 30 minutes of watching TV or playing computer games for time playing outside.Activities such as building dens, climbing trees, rummaging for conkers and playing hide and seek are just some of the things kids can do. Even if they live in a city,they can go on adventures in the garden or the park.
Children often need a helping hand from mum and dad.They need to be shown what to do and where to go.Andy Simpson from National Health Service says,"We want parents to see what this magical wonder product does for their kids' development,independence and creativity,by giving wild time a go".
So despite the complicated world that young people grow up in now,it seems that going back to basics and experiencing"nature's playground"is what modern children need.David Bond from Project Wild Thing says,"We need to make more space for wild time in children's daily routine,freeing this generation of kids to have the sort of experiences that many of us took for granted".
This might sound a bit old fashioned to you or maybe,like me,it's made you think about sticking on your boots,getting outdoors and reliving your childhood.There's no age limit on enjoying yourself! | high5939.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the amount of carotenoids"
},
"options": [
"the contents of intake",
"the levels of carrots",
"the time of eating fruit and vegetables",
"the amount of carotenoids"
],
"question": "The red and yellow color1s wer... | You know eating fruit and vegetables is virtuous. But did you know it can also make you look good?
People who increased their intake over just six weeks developed a healthy glow and appeared more attractive, researchers found.
Scientists at St Andrews University found eating them subtly increased yellow and red pigments in the volunteers' skin.
They monitored the food intake of 35 people and took pictures of their faces, arms and hands using a sensitive camera at the start, and after three and six weeks.
Increasing their intake of greens by 2.9 portions a day was found to make the person look healthier and an extra 3.3 portion could enhance their attractiveness, when their photographs were rated by others.
Fruit and vegetables are rich in carotenoids , which are known to protect against cell damage from pollution and UV rays, and can also prevent age-related diseases including heart disease and cancer.
But while it was known eating extreme amounts of certain vegetables such as carrots could turn skin orange, it was not known a small increase was perceptible to others and was seen as _ .
A camera measured changes to the skin's redness, yellowness and lightness, and found it significantly changed in people who naturally increased their intake. These changes were not evident at three weeks.
Using light sensors, the researchers showed these red and yellow hues(,) were linked with the levels of carotenoids in their skin.
There are hundreds of carotenoids but those thought to have the most dramatic effect are lycopene which gives tomatoes and red peppers their red color1 - and beta-carotene found in carrots as well as broccoli, squash, and spinach.
Skin color1 is also affected by chemicals called polyphenols , found in apples, blueberries and cherries, which cause blood rush to the skin surface. | high18195.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "its temperature"
},
"options": [
"its poses",
"its temperature",
"its special clothes",
"its special yoga mat"
],
"question": "Hot yoga is different from regular yoga in _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_ques... | Hot yoga is not terribly different from regular yoga. You will do the same poses and will need a yoga mat. However, the catch is that the temperature will be at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit and sometimes higher. The heat is what makes this type of yoga not for everyone. Regardless of your overall health, talk to your doctor before taking a hot yoga class and let your doctor know that you plan to take one.
I personally cannot do hot yoga due to a condition that is greatly worsened by temperature extremes, so I am an example of someone who cannot do this form of exercise. I do regular yoga just fine, but the temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit would be severely uncomfortable and possibly dangerous.
The climate is said to help with muscle flexibility and you will sweat like there is no tomorrow-- which is believed to force out more toxins .It is important to keep in mind that even if you are in good health, the high temperatures can take some getting used to. You may want to start with a shorter class and work your way up.
You will be sweating greatly in hot yoga temperatures. Drink plenty of water before, during and after your class. It is also important to pay attention to your body. If you are feeling very tired, it is time to sit down and get some water. You should also remove yourself from the hot environment, but not into a very cold environment. For example, just go into a hallway--a place that is at a normal temperature and start to drink some water.
Things like heat stroke are possible with this type of yoga. These issues are most often seen in those over 60 years of age, but younger people with chronic health problems are also at risk. Anyone can fall victim to heat stroke. Children are also especially vulnerable to heat stroke, so leave the kids at home while you attend your yoga class.
If during class you ever start to feel bad or weak, immediately stop and tell your instructor so that he or she can get you help. Do not try to finish the class. | high23103.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "To collect water from rainfall."
},
"options": [
"To make the trees beautiful.",
"To produce electricity.",
"To help the trees' swaying.",
"To collect water from rainfall."
],
"question": "What is the special in... | Breakthroughs in science and technology are paving the way for modern cities to support bigger populations. Now, we see the most exciting urban innovations to show you exactly how they'll improve your city's infrastructure .
Lighting Up The Night
Anthony Di Mari dreamed up an electric tree to help irrigate public parks and light them at night. These electric trees contain a special infill that collects water from rainfall. The water is then distributed through a shallow underground irrigation system with the help from the trees' swaying movement. An electric motor turns energy from the waving of the artificial trees into electricity, which is used to light up the trees' outer LEDs.
Thinking Outside The Box
As more people flock to urban areas, city planners will need to get increasingly creative about how to satisfy residents' health and transportation needs within decreasing available space. One way to achieve this is by updating infrastructure to support biking and walking by building suspended roundabouts like hovering in the Netherlands. By lifting bicycle and pedestrian traffic above busy roadways, cities can significantly decrease over-crowded traffic condition.
Waving Hello To Clean Energy
Cities that don't receive enough sunlight may find an attractive alternative in wave power. Since ocean waves rarely experience disruption , electric engines driven by their clockwork push-and-pull can reliably provide power throughout the year. Further, thanks to advances in wave power technology, engineers have been able to move wave power engines farther offshore, where the waves pack the most punch, making the engines extremely efficient. So in the future, heavily populated coastal cities may use wave to meet their energy needs. | high14977.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "an adventure film"
},
"options": [
"a tragedy",
"a comedy",
"an action film",
"an adventure film"
],
"question": "Pirates of the Carribean is _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer":... | Good morning. I'm Chen Hua. Here's my culture report for today, Monday.
A new film starts tonight at the student cinema at eight o'clock. The film is Pirates of the Carribean.It's a fantastic adventure film. Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom are the stars. They are both very popular and famous, and they both act well in this film, and make their characters believable.
The story is about an old ship. It sails around the Carribean islands. Depp and Bloom try to find some lost gold. Then they come face to face with some terrible men, and have to fight them. There's lots of action, and the fighting looks really dangerous. They also saves Keira Knightly. She plays Elisabeth, the daughter of a rich man. The scenes with Knightly and Bloom are beautiful and romantic.
The film isn't true to life, but it' s very exciting, and some of it is very funny. It' s an enjoyable film, although in my opinion there's too much fighting. But except for that, it's an excellent film.
You didn't see it when it first came out, I advise you to go and see it now. I' m sure you' 11 enjoy it. It' s showing all week. | high23117.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "appreciated Mary's kindness and work attitude"
},
"options": [
"was grateful for Mary's kindness",
"wanted to encourage Mary to do more good deeds",
"appreciated Mary's kindness and work attitude",
"thought highly of th... | The old man walked slowly into the restaurant. With head tilted, and shoulders bent forward he leaned on his trusty stick with each unhurried step. His torn cloth jacket, patched trousers, worn out shoes, and warm personality made him stand out from the usual Saturday morning breakfast crowd. He stopped, turned with his whole body, and winked at a little girl seated by the door. She flashed a big smile right back at him.
A young waitress named Mary watched him walk toward a table by the window. She ran over to him, and said, "Here, Sir. Let me give you a hand with that chair." She pulled the chair away from the table. Steadying him with one arm, she helped him move in front of the chair, and get comfortably seated. Then she moved the table up close to him, and leaned his stick against the table where he could reach it.
In a soft, clear voice he said, "Thank you, Miss. And bless you for your kind gestures."
"You're welcome, Sir." She replied. "And my name is Mary. I'll be back in a moment, and if you need anything at all in the mean time, just wave at me!"
After he had finished a hearty meal, Mary brought him the change from his ticket. He left it on the table. She helped him and walked with him to the front door. Holding the door open for him, she said, "Come back and see us, Sir!" He turned and nodded a thank-you. "You are very kind." he said softly, smiling.
When Mary went to clean his table, she almost fainted. Under his plate she found a business card, and a note scribbled on a napkin. Under the napkin was a one-hundred-dollar bill.
The note on the napkin read, "Dear Mary, I respect you very much, and you respect yourself too. It shows by the way you treat others. You have found the secret of happiness. Your kind gestures will shine through those who meet you."
The man she had waited on was the owner of the restaurant where she worked. This was the first time that she, or any of his employees had ever seen him in person. | high1593.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "voice processing"
},
"options": [
"sensing technology",
"voice processing",
"machine learning",
"deep learning"
],
"question": "\"Tianzhi\" includes services in the following fields EXCEPT _ .",
"question... | China's largest search engine Baidu has said it will make its latest artificial intelligence (AI) technology accessible to developers and businesses as part of the company's latest move into AI, big data and cloud computing.
AI solution "Tianzhi" was launched at a cloud-computing summit held in Beijing Wednesday. It includes services in three fields: sensing technology, such as image and voice processing, machine learning, and deep learning, an advanced form of machine learning, said Zhang Yaqin, CEO of the Nasdaq-listed company, at the summit.
Developers can access facial or voice recognition, algorithms for data analysis and projections, and deep learning applications, Zhang said, adding that the technology could help users innovate in their sectors.
"With more devices connected to the cloud, enterprises will use cloud computing and AI more frequently," said Wu Hequan, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, " _ "
The company also revealed a plan to invest 10 billion yuan (1.45 billion U.S. dollars) in cloud computing in the next five years and establish an innovation center, which will serve 10 million enterprises. | high14963.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "If one gains weight, one's friends are likely to get fat."
},
"options": [
"If one gains weight, one's friends are likely to get fat.",
"Social problems like alcoholism are easy to deal with.",
"Friends usually don't follow e... | When one person gains weight, their close friends often follow. Researchers have just offered evidence in a study that says obesity appears to spread through society. But the findings might also offer hope.
If friends help make obesity acceptable, then they might also be influential in losing the fat. The researchers note that support groups are already an effective tool in dealing with other socially influenced problems, like alcoholism .
The findings appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers used information collected from 12,000 people. It was collected between 1972 and 2003 as part of the Framingham Heart Study.
The information was highly detailed. There was even contact information for close friends of the people in the study.
The researchers examined more than 40,000 social ties. They found a person's chances of becoming severely overweight increased by 50% if a friend had become obese.
A sister or brother of a person who became obese had a 40% increased chance of becoming obese. The risk for a wife or husband was a little less than that. Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School was a lead researcher in the study. He says there is a direct causal relationship between a person getting fat and being followed in weight gain by a friend.
The study found that the sex of the friends was also an influence. In same-sex friendship, a person had a 71% increased risk of becoming obese. Men had a 44% increased risk of becoming obese after weight gain in a brother. In sisters, it was 67%.
The researchers also considered the effect of where people lived in relation to each other. James Fowler of the University of California was the other lead expert. He says a friend who lives a few hundred kilometers away has as much influence as one in the same neighborhood. He says the study demonstrates the need to consider that a major part of people's health is tied to their social connections.
Both researchers say their research shows that obesity is not just a private medical issue, but also a public health problem. | high22209.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "healthy man--he lived longer than all his enemies"
},
"options": [
"friendly man--he never made any enemies",
"healthy man--he lived longer than all his enemies",
"lucky man--his enemies had all died",
"terrible man--he... | "That's right." said the old man. "Ninety-nine years old, and I haven't an enemy in the world. They're all dead."
"Well, sir." said the interviewer , "I hope very much to have the honour of interviewing you on your hundredth birthday."
The old man looked at the young man closely, and said, "I can't see why you shouldn't. you look fit and healthy to me!" | high21700.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "shade against the sun"
},
"options": [
"protection against rain",
"shade against the sun",
"a symbol of power and authority",
"a symbol of honor and authority"
],
"question": "The first use of umbrella was as ... | To us it seems so natural to put up an umbrella to keep the water off when it rains.But actually the umbrella was not invented as protection against rain.Its first use was as a shade against the sun.
Nobody knows who first invented it, but the umbrella was used in very ancient times.Probably the Chinese were the earliest to use it in the eleventh century BC.We know that the umbrella was used in ancient Egypt and Babylon as a sunshade.And there was a strange thing connected with its use: it became a symbol of honor and authority.In the Far East in ancient times, the umbrella was allowed to be used only by royalty or by those in high offices.
In Europe, the Greeks were the earliest to use the umbrella as a sunshade.And the umbrella was allowed in common use in ancient Greece.But it is believed that the earliest persons in Europe to use the umbrella as protection against rain were the ancient Romans.
During the Middle Ages, the use of the umbrella practically disappeared.Then it appeared again in Italy in the late sixteenth century.And again, it was considered a symbol of power and authority.In around 1680, the umbrella appeared in France and later on in England.
By the eighteenth century, the umbrella was used against rain throughout most of Europe.Umbrellas have not changed much in style during all this time, though they have become much lighter in weight.It wasn't until the twentieth century that women's umbrellas began to be made in a whole variety of colors. | high3384.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "middle school students"
},
"options": [
"college students",
"English teachers",
"adult English learners",
"middle school students"
],
"question": "The new-added Cambridge Dictionaries online are probably most su... | Welcome to Cambridge Dictionaries Online!
Cambridge University Press publishes a range of dictionaries for learners of English all around the world. You can search our dictionaries using the search box at the top of the page. New for elementary learners
We've added two new choices to Cambridge Dictionaries Online-Essential British English and Essential American English. Both are for elementary, and lower intermediate learners of English, and are specially written to make the definitions and examples easy to understand.
They cover all of the vocabulary that elementary and lower intermediate students need to make progress, and help students to arrange their learning by showing the words that should be known at Al, A2, and B1 levels. You can look up the dictionaries from the dropdown box at the top of the page.
More than just a dictionary
Don't forget to visit our New Words, which keeps you up to date with those words and meanings that are just starting to be used in English. There's also About Words, our fascinating blog about how the English language behaves. You can give your opinion on new expressions or blog posts by voting or leaving comments, so get involved!
Tell your friends!
If you find something you like, you can now share it with your friends. Just elide on the relevant icon to spread the word. You can also become a fan on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or add a Cambridge Dictionary toolbar to your computer -- it's now easier than ever.
Do you like Cambridge Dictionaries Online? Could you make it even better? Let us know your thoughts and ideas! Email us and let us know: dictionary@cambridge.org.
Paul Heacock
Dictionaries Publishing Manager
Cambridge University Press | high18181.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "$10."
},
"options": [
"$28.",
"$5.",
"$43.",
"$10."
],
"question": "How much did the couple spend at the fair?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"... | Matt and his wife lived in the country. Matt was very mean and hated spending money. One day a fair came to the nearby town.
They went to the fair and looked at all the things to buy. Matt's wife wanted to buy a hat only costing $28, but was refused. Later on, a comb of $5 attracted her attention, but he would not let her spend any money.
Then, in a nearby field, they saw a small airplane. "Fun flight!" the notice said, "$10 for 10 minutes."
Matt had never been in an airplane and he wanted to go on a fun flight. However, he didn't want to pay for his wife either. "I've only got $10," he told the pilot. "Can my wife come with me for free?" The pilot wasn't selling many tickets, so he said, "I'll make a bargain with you. If your wife doesn't scream, she can have a free flight."
Matt agreed, and got into the small airplane with his wife. The pilot took off and made his airplane do all kinds of things. At one moment it was flying upside down.
When the plane landed, the pilot said, "OK, your wife didn't make a sound. She can have her ride free."
"Thank you," Matt said, "it wasn't easy for her, you know, especially when she fell out." | high2924.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Because she believed that if they were well prepared, they could achieve high goals."
},
"options": [
"Because she believed one of the students in the classroom could go on to greatness.",
"Because the words of an eighth-grade leve... | You heard about the sign posted on a farm fence? Inside there was a big and mean bull. The sign read, "Don't attempt to cross this field unless you can do it in 9.9 seconds. The bull can do it in 10!"
Don't try to cross that field unless you are prepared! And isn't that the way it is in life? We have to be ready when the opportunity arises or else we will have little chance of success.
Sixth-grade teacher Ms. Shelton believed in readiness. When she walked into the classroom on the first day and began writing words of an eighth-grade level on the blackboard, the students immediately said that the words were not at their level and they couldn't learn them.
Their teacher insisted that they could and would learn these words. She said that she would never teach down to them. Ms. Shelton ended by saying that one of the students in the classroom could go on to greatness, maybe even be president someday, and she wanted them to prepare for that day.
Ms. Shelton said those words many years ago. Little did she know that someday one of her students--Jesse Jackson--would take them seriously. She believed that if they were well prepared, they could achieve high goals.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "People only see what they are prepared to see." If that's true, then it is also true that they only become what they are prepared to become. And a lot of life is just about getting ready.
Think of today as a chance to prepare yourself for the exciting future you are looking for. Today is not wasted. If you desire more from life, you can use today as training. For you will experience only what you are prepared to experience. Something wonderful can happen. And you can use today to get ready for tomorrow. | high21066.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Dakota Fanning is a lonely orphan."
},
"options": [
"Dakota Fanning is a young gifted actress.",
"Dakota Fanning is a lonely orphan.",
"Dakota Fanning is a creative pupil.",
"Dakota Fanning has many interests."
],
... | On the New York set of the film Hide and Seek, ten-year-old Dakota Fanning spends her time playing a deeply disturbed girl who deals with her mother's suicide by creating an imaginary friend, who may not frighten her family.
Today, though, she has the day off. "This week I only worked two days,"says Fanning, sitting in a sofa in her hotel's library, "but I get bored when I'm not working. Especially because it's cold here and I can't do anything, you know? So, I've been knitting --- all day, every day."The actress, who's held her own opposite Oscar winners such as Sean Penn and Denzel Washington, recently mastered the fine art of scarves . Though she's about ready to move on to hats, she first plans to make a souvenir scarf for Robert De Niro, who plays her father in the film. "He's the nicest guy you'd ever meet in your entire life,"she says, her voice dropping to a whisper. "I would make him a brown one."
Like any other fifth-grader, Fanning spends several hours a day going to school. In addition to her personal trailer --- which is kept well-supplied with hot chocolate packets, lemon Gatorade, and a TV that doesn't always work --- she has another trailer where her teacher, Jan, conducts classes in history, spelling, reading, math, science and health. "We have this big board where we have a calendar ,"Fanning says. "When we were here in January, I wrote the calendar in all blue. February was red, and March was green."
On this particular morning, she had a spelling test. "There was a topic for each of the word lists,"she says, sitting on her knees. "This one was flowers --- they were all names like oxygen, carbon dioxide, chrysanthemum ..."Chrysanthemum? "Well, they didn't make me spell that one. They just had me fill in the 'e'. But I can spell it: c-h-r-y-s-a-n-t-h-e-m-u-m." | high7684.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "had no idea what was wrong with their family life"
},
"options": [
"failed to hear from him for a long time",
"had no idea what was wrong with their family life",
"blamed herself for something wrong she did",
"wondered ... | Sixteen years ago, Eileen Doyle's husband, an engineer, took his four children up for an early morning cup of tea, packed a small case and was never seen or heard from again. Eileen was astonished and in a state of despair. They had been a happy family and, as far as she knew, there had been nothing wrong with their marriage.
Every day of the year a small group of men and women quietly pack a few belongings and, without so much as a note or a good-bye, close the front door for the last time, leaving their debts, their worries and their confused families behind them. Last year, more than 1,200 men and nearly as many women were reported missing from home -- the highest in 15 years. Many did return home within a year, but others rejected the past completely and are now living a new life somewhere under a different identity.
To those left behind this form of desertion is a terrible blow to their pride and self-confidence. Even the finality of death might be preferable. At least it does not imply rejection or failure. Worse than that, people can be left with an unfinished marriage, not knowing whether they will have to wait seven years before they are free to start a fresh life.
Clinical psychologist Paul Brown believes most departures of this kind to be well planned rather than impulsive. "It's typical of the kind of personality which seems able to ignore other people's pain and difficulties. Running away, like killing yourself, is a highly aggressive act. By creating an absence the people left behind feel guilty, upset and empty." | high9871.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Global warming has kept bringing icebergs into being."
},
"options": [
"The temperature in Arctic is rising faster than that in Antarctica.",
"The ocean food chain breaks due to the melting of icebergs.",
"Floating icebergs h... | Masses of floating ice are so large that they dwarfs your ship, making you question whether your ship still can be spotted among such floating mountains. They are so improbable looking that you simply look in wonder. It seems that nothing that large could be natural-- and then it strikes you that something so large could only be natural.
Now, people realize that as climate change is raising global temperatures, more icebergs are being born. Antarctica creates far more of them than Greenland, the source of bergs in Arctic waters. Antarctica's are also much larger, sometimes reaching the size of small countries. Recent data show the average atmospheric temperature has increased about 4.5degF in the western Antarctic Peninsula since the 1940s, making the region, among the fastest warming on earth. This jump has been shown in the recent breaking of major ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula. As a result, thousands of new icebergs have broken off, from ice shelves into the Southern Ocean at an accelerated rate.
Even as more icebergs are being created, scientists are learning that these beauties are far from inactive masses of ice. In fact, they strikingly alter their environments biologically, chemically, and physically, making them islands of life in the open sea. Observers at sea had long remarked that they attract seals, and seabirds, and divers had noticed that fish are more numerous near them than in the surrounding sea. Now scientists are learning just what the attraction is all about.
Depending on their size, location, and the season, icebergs can be nurturers or destroyers. During their existence--typically years from breaking off from an Antarctic or Greenlandic glacier to their gradual melting as they float into lower altitudes, they support animals on, around, even inside their splendid ice castle. They fertilize the ocean with nutrients, increasing sea creature production. Grounded bergs can shelter areas of the seafloor, protecting bottom-living creatures from free-floating icebergs. However, large bergs can also trap sea ice, preventing its annual breakup and thus stopping phytoplankton from getting life-giving sunlight, breaking the food chain at its first link. ...
Icebergs will continue to astonish and attract visitors to the polar regions with their size and extraordinary beauty. But now these frozen masses are taking on a new dimension of wonder as we uncover their vital role in the environment of polar seas. No longer can we look at icebergs as mere passive beauties. They are active agents of change, each one an icy oasis with a wake of life as it floats on its unstoppable oceanic journey to melting. | high23671.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "their husbands stick to sports"
},
"options": [
"they are serious in religion",
"they are devoted to sports",
"their husbands stick to sports",
"their husbands are missing"
],
"question": "Many a wife becomes a ... | For many people in the US,sports are not just for fun. They're almost a "religion".Thousands of sports fans buy expensive tickets to watch their favorite teams and athletes play in person .Other fans watch the games at home,sticking to their TV sets,never missing a game. Many a wife becomes a "sports widow" during her husband's favorite season. Americans' devotion to sports has created a new class:professional athletes. Sports stars often receive milliondollar salaries. Some even make big money by appearing in advertisements for soft drinks,shoes and almost everything.
Sports are an important part of American culture. Throughout their school life,Americans learn to play many sports. Many students try out for the school teams. Athletic events at universities attract scores of fans and benefit the whole community. Many people also enjoy noncompetitive activities,like hiking,cycling,horseback riding,camping or hunting.
Many sports were imported from other countries. Europeans brought tennis,golf,bowling and boxing to America .Football and baseball came from other Old World games. Only basketball has a truly American origin. Americans export sports fever as well. Satellites broadcast games to sports fans around the globe. NBA is a good example. The names of American superstars like basketball great Michael Jordan have become household words all over the world. | high20350.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "What a pointless question"
},
"options": [
"Forget about it",
"What a ridiculous point",
"Think about it",
"What a pointless question"
],
"question": "Which of the following can be the missing heading?",
"qu... | Obviously!
Until Descartes came along in the seventeenth century, everyone assumed that we exited. Obviously. The fact seemed so mind-blowing obvious that it wasn't really discussed. We could see ourselves in the mirror, we could feel pain and pleasure, we could think thoughts for ourselves and, more importantly, perhaps, all the world's main religions assumed that we do exist. So we exist.
No you don't it!
You don't exist. That's because it's impossible to show once and for all that you do. There's no proof. You might think you exist-that you are sitting at a table reading this book, for instance-but how could you show with 100 percent certainty that this is true? There's no experiment that could prove it. Although Descartes said just you could prove your own existence by the fact that you are able to think, this isn't actually, according to the British philosopher A. J. Ayer. Just because we know that we are thinking, this doesn't mean that there is a "you" doing the thinking. It just shows that the thoughts are happening, not that anyone is having them. Thoughts exists, "You" don't.
_ !
What a waste of time this question is. Although you can argue until the end of time whether you exist or not, it doesn't get you anywhere. Unless you forget about this unanswerable question, you'll be stuck thinking about it forever, and that isn't of any use to anyone. Move on. Think about something more important! This very roughly, is the view of almost all philosophers, who prefer to answer other, apparently more useful, questions.
Yes, but...
You exist, but not in the way you might think. According to the great French philosopher Ren Descartes, you can't show that anything exists--apart from your own self. The existence of the entire world can be doubted in one way or another, but the facts you're having thoughts shows that there might be something (that's you) having them. This let Descartes to write the famous philosophical phrase, " I think before I am". | high10293.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "College Football Player Plays Parent's Role."
},
"options": [
"Ray Ray McElrathbey Works Hard at College.",
"Ray Ray McElrathbey Loves His Brother.",
"Parents Fail to Raise Their Children.",
"College Football Player Pla... | Like other student athletes, Ray Ray McElrathbey deals with schoolwork, practice and games. But after a long day of studying and working out on the football field, the prefix = st1 /ClemsonUniversityplayer can't relax with friends. Ray Ray has to make sure his 11-year-old brother, Fahmarr, gets a good dinner, does his homework and goes to bed.
Since taking responsibility for Fahmarr this August, "I've aged dramatically , " said Ray Ray. "I can't be running around at all hours, making 19-year-old decisions. " Ray Ray has temporary custody of Fahmarr. Their mother struggles with drug addiction , and they are not in touch with their dad.
Ray Ray didn't want to see his brother go into foster care, where they both had spent time. The brothers now live together in an apartment near the campus in Clemson,South Carolina.
Clemson Tigers fans aren't the only people supporting Ray Ray.Sports Illustrated, ESPNandABCnews have featured the story. The brothers have received praise and many offers of help. But Ray Ray attends the university on a scholarship. Under the rules, he can't accept money or gifts. Coaches'family members can't even give Fahmarr a ride home from school.
This changed a few weeks ago, when the National Collegiate Athletic Association allowed Clemson to set up a trust fund for Fahmarr. It will help provide for his basic needs, including food and clothing. But the brothers can give each other something that all the money in the world can't buy. Ray Ray says he hopes to instill qualities of "strength and intelligence"in Fahmarr. He says having his brother around is "a great thing, knowing he will grow up right. " | high18817.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "there are many freshmen and more activities"
},
"options": [
"it is across the parking lot from Slade Hall",
"it is small and quite far away from the playground",
"there are many second and third year students there",
"... | I have been a student at Bentley College in Waltham for some time now, so I have a lot of experience and know how things work at Bentley. As a freshman at Bentley College you will be living in the Tree Dorms, Slade Hall or Miller Hall. I would highly suggest that you choose to live in the Tree Dorms because this is where most fresh-men are going to be living. There will be a lot of activities going on in the building and you will meet lots of people. Slade Hall is next to the parking lot and not far from the Tree Dorms, so that would be your second choice. As Miller Hall is small and far away, it would be my last choice for freshmen housing. If Bentley offers you the chance to live with second or third year students you'd better refuse their offer and live with freshmen. Living with your classmates will make the transition into college life a lot easier.
As a freshman your classes should be easy. After freshman year your classes will become a lot more difficult, so I advise that you get down to business early in the first year. There are two very easy things you can do to increase your knowledge as a freshman. The first is to just go to class and the second is to always do your homework. I also highly advise that you do it on your own and try to stay disciplined. It is too easy to put your homework away and then get really behind and not be able to learn everything before a mid-term or final exam. | high991.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "throw the most balls into the trailers of the opposing robots"
},
"options": [
"have the most trailers connected to them",
"throw the most balls into the trailers of the opposing robots",
"stand still when throwing balls",
... | April 2009, in the state of Georgia, USA, twenty thousand people watched high school students from twenty- eight countries compete with robots they had built. More than ten thousand students and more than five hundred robots took part in the competition. Almost 1,700 high school teams took part
in the competition called LUNACY.
In January, the organization sent the same robots to each team. The teams had six weeks to build robots that could compete in the LUNACY game. The playing area consisted of six robots, three on each team. Each robot had a trailer connected to it. The robots had to pick up large balls and throw them into the trailers of opposing robots. The robots were moving on a platform where they could move smoothly. A team from the USA won the LUNACY competition.
American inventor Dean Kamen started the competition in 1989 to increase young people's interest in science and technology. The organization holds robotic competitions around the world. It offers programs that help young people learn about science, technology, engineering and maths, and at the same time build life skills. Many companies provide support for the organization.
Mr. Kamen says the goal is more than building robots. He says the student competitors showed they could solve difficult technological problems and, he says that it is good news because the world needs creative thinkers to solve the increasingly difficult problems of the future. | high22547.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "You can't always make people believe the truth"
},
"options": [
"People seldom tell the truth.",
"You can't always make people believe the truth",
"If you try to defend yourself,people will believe you.",
"People never ... | The host poured the tea into the cup and placed it on the small table in front of his guests,who were a father and his daughter,and put the lid on the cup with a clink.Obviously thinking of something.he hurried into the inner room,leaving the thermos on the table.His two guests heard a chest of drawers opening and rustling.
They remained sitting in the sitting room,the ten-year-old daughter looking at the flowers outside the window,the father just about to take his cup,when the crash came,right there in the sitting room.Something was hopelessly broken.
It was the thermos,which had fallen to the floor.The girls looked over her shoulder suddenly,shocked, staring. It was mysterious;neither of them had touched it,not even a little bit.True.it hadn't stood steadily when their host placed it on the table,but it hadn't fallen then.
The crash of the thermos caused the host,with a box of sugar cubes in his hand,to rush back from the inner room.He looked foolishly at the steaming floor and blurted out. "It doesn't matter! It doesn't matter!''
The father started to say something.Then he said in a low voice,"Sorry I touched it and it fell."
"It doesn't matter,"the host said.
Later,when they left the house,the daughter said,"Daddy,did you touch it?''
"No.But it stood so close to me."
"But you didn't touch it.I saw your reflection in the window .You were sitting perfectly still."
The father laughed."Then how would you explain the cause of its fall?"
"The thermos fell by itself , The floor is uneven. It wasn't steady when Mr. Li put it there.
Daddy,why did you say that?"
"That won't do,girl.It sounds more acceptable when I say I knocked it down.There are things which people accept less true it sounds."
The daughter was lost in silence for a while.Then she said,"Can you explain it only this way?"
"Only this way."her father said. | high23881.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "won the championship of The Voice of China"
},
"options": [
"won the championship of The Voice of China",
"signed a contract with a big company",
"first sot foot on the Chinese stage",
"was successful in her study"
... | With her pretty face and soulful voice, Zhang Bichen was instantly thought a possible champion when she first set foot on the stage of the TV show The Voice of China.
On Oct 7, 2014, the 25 - year - old girl won the fierce competition and received the title of the "Voice of the Year". Zhang's dream of being a singer star came true at last. What impressed people was not only Zhang's singing skills, but her willingness to make an effort. "I gained the opportunity to sing on The Voice of China," she said.
In fact, being a singer has always been her dream. She wanted to apply to a college for singing, but her parents insisted that she should have a stable job after graduation because she did very well at academic studies. So Zhang gave in to her parents and learned French at university. However, in the first year of her college, she was discovered by a South Korean company when she entered a singing competition. To pursue her dream, Zhang signed a contract with the company, started her career in South Korea, and became a member of a band.
"My company had rules that did not allow us to use cell phones. During the first few months after I arrived in South Korea, a totally unfamiliar country, I felt terribly homesick. But I could only phone my parents in the restroom when nobody noticed." said Zhang. "When I did not have much income, I had to eat instant noodles every day for months."
It was her positive attitude and outgoing character that helped her through. "When I feel down, I tell myself it is not winning or losing that matters. The most important things are standing on the stage and singing for people." she said. | high9859.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "They were afraid the students would make fun of him."
},
"options": [
"There was a lot of housework for him to do.",
"They had no money to pay for his tuition.",
"There were not enough schools in the country.",
"They we... | Ibrahim became disabled after contracting polio when he was three years old. At first his parents, like many other parents of disabled children in Niger, did not want to send him to school. They were worried he would be laughed at by his classmates.
Despite his disability, and his parents' doubts, Ibrahim was determined to go to school. "When I was eight," Ibrahim says, "other kids of my age were going to school while I stayed at home. I did not like that. So, I pestered my parents until they finally let me go to school."
Ibrahim's parents sent him to a private school nearby. Although the journey to and from school was a short one, it still wasn't easy for Ibrahim. He had to use his hands to help him move along, protecting them with plastic slippers. But at least he was getting an education.
However, after only a year in school, Ibrahim's education was interrupted when his parents separated. His mother did not have the means to continue paying for his tuition.
In 2007, Ibrahim received some money to be fitted with a leg brace , corrective shoes and his first pair of crutches . Now that he was more mobile than before, the most important thing for him was to find a way to go back to school.
"I wanted to start school again last October," Ibrahim says. "After my mother told me she could not afford it, I went to visit some of my relatives for support. And I collected 5,000 francs CFA (US $8) to pay my tuition for half a year. I will find the rest of the money somehow."
Ibrahim attends a school in which he is the only disabled student. According to his teacher, he is among the top five students in a class of 55. | high12484.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The scripture was blown into the sky."
},
"options": [
"He felt very sad about his mistake.",
"The scripture was blown into the sky.",
"He was punished by the gods.",
"Many wind-house flags were flying."
],
"que... | We often see wind-horse flags in Tibetan areas. They are long cloths on which pictures of horses and scriptures are printed. People often put these flags on top of houses, or leave them where a vehicle accident happened. They prevent evil spirits from injuring people again.
A wind-horse flag can be white, yellow, red, green or blue. These five colors symbolize the five elements that form the world; earth, water, fire, wind and sky. Another explanations that red is the sun, green is the grassland, yellow is the earth, blue is the sky, and white is the cloud.
The wind-horse flag originated with a monk who obtained a scripture from India. When he crossed a river, he carelessly dropped the scripture into the water. He quickly saved the scripture and spread it out on a big rock to dry as he sat in meditation . Suddenly violent thunder sounded like drums. The monk felt liberated from all of his sadness, and when he opened his eyes he saw that the scripture had been blown into the sky by a strong wind. Finally, he went straight to heaven.
In order to honor the spirit of the monk and the Buddhist scripture, people printed the scripture on a piece of cloth and hung it up between the sky and the earth as though the scripture was flying in the sky.
We also know why people put the wind-horse flag on the top of mountains and houses. The Tibetan ancestors had a very great idea about chanting scripture. They thought people not only could chant scripture, but also the five elements. The wind-home flag is a good example of how they use the wind to blow the flag, which means that the wind also chants scripture. | high7874.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "It is made of smaller molecules."
},
"options": [
"It can be made as easily as common rubber.",
"It is environmentally-friendly.",
"It can repair itself at room temperature.",
"It is made of smaller molecules."
],
... | Broken rubber bands and flat tires requiring replacement could soon be a thing of the past.
French researchers have developed a new kind of rubber that can repair itself when broken.The new rubber is made from widely available materials including vegetable oil and a common industrial chemical.All the materials are considered safe to the environment and can be easily reused.
The best part is that the new rubber can be repaired and used again and again without losing its strength or ability or stretch.When cut, the rubber can be made new again, simply by pressing the two broken ends back together.
The product can be repaired at room temperature, around twenty degrees Centigrade;other self-healing materials require higher temperatures for repair.
Traditionally, rubber substances are made from huge molecules connected by strong chemical links, or bonds.The new rubber is made of smaller molecules.The molecules are linked together using hydrogen bonds.When connected in this way, the molecules act like one long molecule, forming what is called supramolecular networks .When the rubber is cut, the molecules attempt to connect with whatever molecule is near them.When pressed together, the molecules are able to repair themselves at the molecular level, making the repaired rubber like new.
However, time is an important element in the process.If the broken ends are not brought together quickly, a repair is not possible.This is because molecules will form bonds with molecules on their own side.The inventors say the surfaces of the rubber can be repaired within a week of being separated.
The rubber is the creation of scientists at the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Education Institution in Paris.The organization is part of France's National Center for Scientific Research.The new material is described in greater detail in the research publication Nature. | high24136.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "the protection of lands surrounding Glacier National Park"
},
"options": [
"the endangered species in Glacier National Park",
"the protection of lands surrounding Glacier National Park",
"conservation laws imposed by the stat... | Glacier National Park in Montana shares boundaries with prefix = st1 /Canada, an American Indian reservation, and a national forest. Along the North Fork of the Flathead River, the park also borders about 17,000 acres of private lands that are currently used for ranching, timber, and agriculture. This land is an important part of the habitat and migratory routes for several endangered species that frequent the park. These private lands are essentially the only ones available for development in the region.
With encouragement from the park, local landowners initiated a landaus planning effort to guide the future of the North Fork. The park is a partner in an interlocal agreement that calls for resource managing agencies to work together and with the more than 400 private owners in the area. A draft plan has been prepared, with objective of maintaining traditional economic uses but limiting new development that would damage park resources. Voluntary action by landowners, in cooperation with the park and the county, is helping to restrict small lot subdivisions, maintain wildlife corridors, and minimize any harmful impact on the environment.
The willingness of local landowners to participate in this protection effort may have been stimulated by concerns that congress would impose a legislative solution. Nevertheless, many local residents want to retain the existing character of the area. Meetings between park officials and landowners have led to a dramatically improved understanding of all concerns. | high23659.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Europe"
},
"options": [
"Europe",
"Australia",
"America",
"Africa"
],
"question": "The jackdaw lives in _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"a... | If your mother wants to tell you something , she uses words . Birds can not talk as we do . But some birds can make sounds to warn their young of danger . They have their own ways to make the young birds do certain thing .
The jackdaw is a kind of blackbirds that lives in Europe . Jackdaws live together in flocks. Yong jackdaws do not know their enemies . When an older jackdaw sees a dog , it makes a loud tattling sound. The young birds know this sound means an enemy is nearby. The sounds warns them to know their enemy .
If a young jackdaw is in a dangerous place, a jackdaw parent flies over him from behind .The parent bird flies low over the young birds back, the parents' tail feathers move quickly from side to side, It is trying to say , " Follow me ."
At the same time , the parent calls out , " Key-aw ,Key-aw ." The parent means , " Fly home with me ." The young bird then follows the older one home .
Young jackdaws do not have to learn what certain sounds mean. They know the meaning of these sounds from the time they hatch (,). | high9681.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "show what budget trips are generally like"
},
"options": [
"show what budget trips are generally like",
"introduce the best trip she's had over the years",
"show how difficult it can be to spend as little money as possible",
... | One day on my luxury holiday cost 30 yuan. Bus ticket: 2 yuan. Breakfast, lunch and dinner: 5 yuan. Hotel: 20 yuan. OK, so it was a 10-seater bus with only four seats that weren't broken and 20 other people on it. OK, all my food came from one steamed bun stand at the side of the road, and the "hotel" was a hostel , and I shared a room with four strangers. But the steamed buns I bought were so delicious and the bed in the hostel was soft and comfortable and I had the best night's sleep I'd had in years.
Cheap travel is " _ ". It's on reality shows, and it's all around us. People who once went to five-star scenic spots are suddenly filling youth hostels and campsites, showing off to their friends about their 24-hour trip in the third-class sleeper train across Mongolia.
Now, I'm not a millionaire who can afford more than a budget holiday. But even if I could, I don't think I'd spend the money.
Budget travel is addictive . It's partly the challenge of squeezing the most out of your pennies -- and it can get a bit ridiculous . My stomach wasn't too impressed with the meat stir-fry I bought from a stand simply because it was 1 yuan, for example.
But it's easy to travel in a smart way, too. With the Internet, you can always check out reviews and find hostels, food and things to do, recommended by other budget travelers who've been there before. You don't have to suffer, and it means you can afford to spend more nights on holiday, see more things and have more experiences. | high14793.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "unfriendly"
},
"options": [
"unfriendly",
"surprised",
"thankful",
"excited"
],
"question": "When Brant heard the author's voice on the phone, he was _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
... | I hated writing thank-you notes as a child, but I had no choice: My mother was adamant about honoring other people's kindness and generosity. But now after a childhood spent crafting those notes, the music of gratitude flows naturally from me.
I hire Brant to build an arbor around my front door. I drew it exactly as I wanted, and he realized my vision perfectly. Surprised at how the arbor's beauty uplifted me every time I stepped into my house, I called Brant a few weeks after the arbor went up. He answered the phone defensively.
"What can I do for you?" he asked, his voice cold and distant.
"You can say, 'You're welcome,' " I responded.
"I don't understand," Brant shot back.
"I am calling to say 'Thank you.' ''
Silence.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I love my arbor, and I wanted you to know how much I appreciate your work."
More silence.
"I've been doing this work for 20 years, and no one has ever called to thank me for it," said Brant. "People only call me when they have problems." He was doubtful.
I also had a similar experience with L.J. He answered my questions, didn't push, and gave me space to think and decide. I wrote to let him know that he completely exceeded my expectations of what a beat-them-down car sales experience would be like, and that I was happy with my car choice. L.J. called me a few days later. He said that this was the first thank-you note in the history of the dealership.
Are we really living in an age when feedback only closes with complaint? It seems to me that when we focus on problems, we only have dissatisfaction and complaint. But when we focus on celebrating goodness, we are likely to turn it into something positive. | high22221.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "creative"
},
"options": [
"popular",
"useful",
"scientific",
"creative"
],
"question": "It can be inferred from the passage that the author thought the exercises in the book were _ .",
"question_type": "s... | In a recently published book , I came across some exercises with interesting names such as fishbone diagrams , lotus flowers and clustering . As I used these exercises in my classes , I noticed that students were interested . They said more and wrote more . They enjoyed expressing their ideas and sharing them in groups .They were no longer passively _ , but actively took part in the lesson . I find that creativity can act as a way to increase participation and improve fluency .
Creativity has become a popular word in recent years . Scholars in the arts ,psychology , business , education , and science are all working to get a deeper understanding of it . Robert J. Sternberg is a creativity specialist and Yale professor of psychology. He defines creativity as "the ability to produce work that is both new (original) and appropriate (applicable to the situation)". This definition is useful, as we want our students to use language in a new way, and to use it correctly and properly. Most scholars say there are two types of creativity: big "C" creativity and small "c" creativity. Big "C" creativity refers to genius level thinking that results in artistic masterpieces and scientific breakthroughs. Small "c" creativity refers to everyday level thinking that can be used in any situation. Our emphasis is on the latter. While it goes without saying that any of our students could go on to be the next Picasso or Edison, our aim is to help students produce more ideas and use language in new ways . | high21728.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "population pollution"
},
"options": [
"the increase of resources",
"population pollution",
"the development of mankind",
"the present rate"
],
"question": "The rapid increase in population is considered to be ... | Many of the world's pollution problems have been caused by the crowding of large groups of people into the cities. Supply for the needs of the people leads to further pollution by industry. If the rapid increase of world population in countries continues at the present rate, there may be much greater harm to human beings. Some scientists speak of the increase in numbers of people as "population pollution."
About 2,000 years ago, the world population was probably about 250 million. It reached a billion in 1850. By 1930 the population was two billion. It is now three and a half billion. It is expected to double by the year 2,000. If the population continues to grow at the same rate, there will be 25 billion in the world a hundred years from now.
Man has been using the earth's resources more and more rapidly over the past years. Some of them are almost used up. Now many people believe that man's greatest problem is how to control the growth of the population. The material supplies in the world will be far from enough to support the human population in time to come, if the present rate of increase continues. Already there is overcrowding in many cities and starvation in some countries. Should man's population keep on growing so rapidly as before? Many people believe that human survival in the future depends on the answer to this question. | high16184.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "People from northern Asia"
},
"options": [
"People from northern Asia",
"People from Europe",
"People from Germany",
"Columbus"
],
"question": "_ went to America first.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"... | Over thirty thousand years ago,people from northern Asia went to America.Today, we call these people Indians .
The Indians went to America because the weather began to change.Northern Asia became very cold. Everything froze. They had to move or die. How did the first Indians go to America? They walked!
Later Columbus found the New World in 1492.At first,only a few Europeans followed .They travelled to America in boats. For the next three hundred years, about 500,000 people went there. Then the number grew very quickly. From 1815 to 1915,over thirty-two million Europeans left their countries and went to the United States. The biggest groups were from Germany and Italy .These Europeans spoke many different languages.Most of them took almost no money.They went to America so that they could find a better life. | high5905.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "They look similar to the environment around them."
},
"options": [
"They will die if they leave Earth.",
"There are more lichens than plants on Earth.",
"They look similar to the environment around them.",
"They are too... | Lichens are difficult to see. They don't move. They often mix into the living place. You might not even recognize one if you are looking right at it.
Lichens live on rocks, branches, houses, and even metal street signs. You can find these colorful organisms almost everywhere -- from deserts to rainforests, and from Antarctica to Africa. They've traveled in outer space, and some scientists think there might even be lichens on Mars.
What you probably don't realize is that a lichen is more than a single thing. It includes two different types of living organisms: a fungus and an alga . Neither of these organisms is a plant, so the lichen isn't a plant either.
Through photosynthesis , the alga gets the sun's energy to make food for the fungus, which is the place for the alga to live in. However, the alga cannot leave the fungus.
Around the world, scientists have found tens of thousands of types of lichens. Many may not even have been discovered yet. As scientists continue to find new kinds of lichens, they are also working to understand how they are connected to one another. By putting together a lichen family tree, they hope to understand why so many different types of lichens have grown in so many places around the world.
Many researchers are trying to understand basic facts about the organisms and their connections. Researchers are also using lichens to examine the health of the environment. | high11833.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Virginia"
},
"options": [
"Florida",
"Pennsylvania",
"Massachusetts",
"Virginia"
],
"question": "According to the passage, Faust was born in _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer":... | Drew Gilpin Faust made history in 2007 when she became the first female president of Harvard University, Massachusetts, US. Faust is an excellent historian known especially for her work on the history of the American South. She was a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania for 25 years. In 2001, she became dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard.
Born in 1947, Faust grew up in a traditional family. She has often spoken of her "continued confrontations " with her mother "about the requirements of what she usually called femininity ". Her mother used to tell her, "It's a man's world, sweetie. And the sooner you learn that, the better off you'll be."
However, the daughter was a rebellious one. For example, Faust would fight with her mother over whether it was suitable for her to drive a car at night, even if one of her three brothers was a passenger. "She was raised to be a rich man's wife," said a friend, Elizabeth Warren. "Instead she becomes the president of the most powerful university in the world."
As a girl, Faust rebelled against not only the strict rules of femininity, but also the racial injustice that existed in her native Virginia. At age 9, after a conversation with her family's black handyman and driver, she sent a letter to President Dwight D. Eisenhower decrying racial injustice. When studying in Bryn Mawr, a women's college in Pennsylvania, she was a student activist who would go on to march in the civil rights protests in the 1960s.
What would her mother, who never went to college and died in 1966, have to say about her appointment? "I've often thought about that," she said. "I've had dialogues with my dead mother over the 40 years since she died." | high20436.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "There was less chance of being detected there."
},
"options": [
"There is a greater demand there than in America.",
"There was less chance of being detected there.",
"Britain was Spring's birthplace.",
"The price were h... | Robert Spring, a 19
century forger ,was so good at his profession that he was able to make his living for 15 years by selling false signatures of Americans. Spring was born in England in 1813 and arrived in Philadelphia in 1858 to open a bookstore. At first he became rich by selling his small but real collection of early U.S. autographs . Discovering his ability at copying handwriting, he began imitating signatures of George. Washington and Ben Franklin and writing them on the title pages of old books. To lessen the chance of detection , he sent his forgeries to England and Canada for sale.
Forgers have a hard time selling their products. A forger can't deal with a respectable buyer but people who don't have much knowledge in the field. Forgers have many ways to make their work look real. For example, they buy old books to use the aged paper of the title page, and they can treat paper and ink with chemical.
In Spring's time right after the Civil War, Britain was still fond of the Southern states, so Spring invented a respectable maiden lady known as Miss Fanny Jackson, the only daughter of General "Stonewall" Jackson. For several years Miss Fanny's financial problems forced her to sell a great number of letters and manuscripts . Spring had to work very hard to satisfy the demand. All this activity did not prevent Spring from dying in poverty, leaving sharp-eyed experts the difficult task of separating his forgeries from the originals. | high16190.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "City-dwellers are more likely to develop mental illnesses."
},
"options": [
"Country-dwellers are more likely to develop mental illnesses.",
"City-dwellers are more likely to develop mental illnesses.",
"Country-dwellers live... | Country-dwellers often say the constant noise, heavy traffic and crowds of the city would drive them mad. Well, they might be right, according to the latest research. City residents are more likely to develop mental illnesses than those who live in villages, a study has found.
Researchers from Cardiff university examined the lifestyles of more than 200,000 people in Sweden and found that those who lived in urban areas were more at risk from mental illnesses than people who lived in villages.
The experts don't know exactly why this is but they suggest that town and city residents are more likely to be ostracized by those around them. They are more likely to experience discrimination if they do not fit in, which can lead to them feeling anxious and even developing mental illnesses.
Dr Stanley Zammit, who led the research said that people living in towns and cities are more likely to develop other mental illnesses that result in personality changes -- a condition known as non-affective psychosis .
Earlier this year an official report found that village-dwellers live an average of two years longer than those living in towns and cities. According to figures from the Office of National Statistics in the UK, men who live in villages are likely to live for between 78 and 79 years, while those in towns and cities can expect to survive to an age of 76. Women on average survive to their 81stbirthday in towns and cities, but live to between 82 and 83 in villages. The small marked town of Wimborne Minster in rural Dorset was named the healthiest place to live in. | high5911.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Most children like reading as well as going online."
},
"options": [
"Children don't like reading any more after the age of 8.",
"Most children like reading as well as going online.",
"All kids like reading e - books instead ... | The saying that children don't like reading any more has been proved untrue. A new study finds that 75 percent of kids between five and 17 say that although they love technology, they still want to read books.
The Kids & Family Reading Report also says that 62 percent of kids prefer reading printed books rather than those on a computer.At the same time, those who search an author's website or use the Internet to find books by a particular author, are more likely to read books for fun every day.
The study also once again proves that the time kids spend reading books for fun decreases after the age of eight and continues to drop through the teen years.The report is a follow-up to a 2006 study.But this time the focus is on the role of technology and when kids' interest in reading starts to drop.
"Despite the fact that after the age of eight more children go online daily than read for fun daily, high frequency Internet users are more likely to read books for fun every day," says Heather Carter, a writer of the report.
One in four kids between five and 17 say they read books for fun every day and more than half of kids say they read books for fun at least two to three times a week.One of the key reasons kids say they don't read more often is that they have trouble finding books they like - a requirement that parents underestimate .
The study also finds that parents have a strong influence on kids' reading, but only about half of all parents begin reading to their kids before their first birthday.The percent of children who are read to every day drops from 38 percent among five-to eight-year-olds to 23 percent among nine-to 11-year-olds - exactly the same time that kids' daily reading for fun starts to drop.
"Parents' engagement in their child's reading from birth all the way through the teen years can have a great influence on how often their children read and how much they enjoy reading," adds Carter. | high11827.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "he had to work as a coal miner"
},
"options": [
"there were no schools for slave in America",
"blacks were not allowed to receive education",
"he had to work as a coal miner",
"he was not smart enough to receive educati... | Booker T. Washington was born in a black slave family in Virginia of the USA in 1856, seven years before slavery was abolished by Abraham Lincoln in January, 1863.
He wrote a book about his life called Up From Slavery, which was published in 1901. In the book, he said that he had no choice but to work in a coal mine when he was 16 years old. He had no chance to go to school. He heard two coal miners talking about a school for black children which was called the Hampton Institute.
He determined that he would go there. He gave up his job and told other members of his race that he was going to school across the state. The older people had spent their best years as slaves and were poor. However, some gave Booker some pocket money or a handkerchief. Hardly had anyone expected any of their race to leave home to attend a boarding school. He took a train to Richmond, Virginia, where he ran out of money. It was 82 miles from the Hampton Institute. He slept under a wooden sidewalk . He helped unload pigs and iron from a ship for some money and when he had enough, he continued his journey, arriving at school with 50 cents.
This diligence pushed him to graduate and become a teacher at the Hampton Institute. When he was 25 years old, he was asked to start a new school for black children in Alabama. called the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. Thirty-four years later, this school had 1,500 students and 200 teachers and Booker T. Washington became the most influential black leader of his generation. | high20422.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "looks more like a person"
},
"options": [
"is more popular",
"performs more jobs",
"moves more quickly",
"looks more like a person"
],
"question": "Compared with Readybot, the Japanese robot _ .",
"questi... | What if you arrived home to find a delicious hot meal waiting for you, prepared by your own kitchen robot? It might sound like science fiction, but professors at the University of Tokyo have taken the first steps toward making that a reality. The team recently introduced a human-shaped kitchen robot that can pour tea and other drinks into cups and serve them to guests. When teatime is over, the robot can also wash the dishes and put them away.
In California, another interesting kitchen robot has been developed, called Readybot. It can pick up objects and either store them in cabinets or put them in the trash. It also carries a separate floor-cleaning robot that can operate by itself. Unlike the Japanese robot, Readybot just looks more like a large box with arms and wheels.
Readybot was created by engineers and designers who established a club called the Readybot Challenge. They believe that in the future millions of robots will be needed in homes to perform ordinary household tasks. Readybot is just the first step in their plan to create a robot that can do jobs not only in kitchens but in other rooms of homes and in offices as well.
Clearly there are technological difficulties to solve before robots can cook a complete dinner, and there are also many safety concerns . Not everyone (especially parents) would be comfortable with the idea of robots in their house, _ hot pans and sharp knives. The European Commission recently funded a project to study these concerns. According to lead researcher Professor Chris Melhuish, "Enabling robots to work safely with humans is a key need for the future development of robotics." | high14787.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "a place where students were taught"
},
"options": [
"a teacher who was respected by people",
"a person who worked for the government",
"a place where students were taught",
"a place where tradition and culture developed... | India is a developing country. It has thousands of years of tradition and culture. Different types of people live in India. In the old days the educational institutions were called "ashramam" and teachers were "gurus". A guru was a respected person in society.
Now we are living in the technological world. Big changes are occurring in people's living. The influence of television, telephone, radio, computer, Internet and mobile phones is very strong in everyday life. But even today, teachers are role models for students. Teaching is still a respectable job. But there are great changes in the education system.
One of the most obvious changes is that the influence of Western culture has increased. We are paying too much attention to doing business, just like the Western world. Teachers are likely to to be influenced by this too, but it is not good. Teachers are nation builders. The development of any country depends upon its education system. All types of development are possible through education.
Another change has happened in the curriculum . The curriculum connects the teacher and the student. While education is about learning, curriculum means the situations in which one learns. When we say that education deals with "what", then curriculum deals with "how" and "when". But at the moment, it is hard to say whether the curriculum is playing such a role. | high22235.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "lose enjoyment"
},
"options": [
"fail to succeed",
"be successful",
"lose enjoyment",
"be unreasonable"
],
"question": "According to the passage, if a sportsman only thinks about winning, he will _ . .",
... | Nowadays, people have a heated discussion on whether the pressure on international sports players kills the essence of sport --the pursuit of personal excellence. Children kick a football around for fun. When they get older and play for local school teams, they become competitive but they still enjoy playing. The individual representing his country cannot afford to think about enjoying himself; he has to think only about winning. He is responsible for the entire nation's hopes, dreams and reputation.
A good example is the football Word Cup. Football is the world's most important sport. Winning the World Cup is perhaps the summit of international sporting success. Mention Argentina to someone and the chances are that he'll think of football. In a sense, winning the World Cup put Argentina on the map.
Sports fans and supporters get quite _ about the World Cup. People in England felt that their country was somehow important after they won in 1966. Last year thousands of Scots sold their cars, and even their houses, and spent all their money traveling to Argentina, where the finals were played.
So, am I arguing that international competition kills the idea of sport? Certainly not! Do the Argentineans really believe that because eleven of their men proved the most skillful at football, their nation is in every way better than all others? Not really, But it's nice to know that you won and that in one way at least your country is the best. | high22553.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Separate work hours from family time."
},
"options": [
"Separate work hours from family time.",
"Refuse to use cell phones.",
"Ignore coming calls during family time.",
"Encourage women to stay at home."
],
"que... | A new study suggests that the roundtheclock availability that cell phones have brought to people's lives may _ family life. The study,which followed more than 1,300 adults over 2 years, found that those who consistently used a mobile phone throughout the study period were more likely to report negative "spillover" between work and home life--and,in turn,less satisfaction with their family life.
Spillover essentially means that the line between work and home begins to become unclear. Work life may invade home life when a parent is taking jobrelated calls at home,for instance--or family issues may start to take up work time. For example,a child may call mum at work,telling her "microwave exploded",explained Noelle Chesley,an assistant professor of sociology at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee and the author of the study. The problem with cell phones seems to be that they are allowing for even more spillover between work and home.
This may be especially true for working women,the study found. Among men,consistent use of mobile phones seemed to allow more work issues to creep into family time. But for women,the spillover tended to go in both directions. Being "connected" meant that work cut into home time,and family issues came into work life.
Cell phones seem to be opening more lines for stressful exchanges among family members. But there may be ways to control the spillover,according to Chesley. Employers, she said,could look at their policies on contacting employees after hours to make sure their expectations are "reasonable".For their part,employees could decide that cell phones go off during family time, Chesley said. | high985.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "He wanted to return it to the right person."
},
"options": [
"He didn't know what to do with it.",
"He felt lucky to get it.",
"He thought of keeping it for himself.",
"He wanted to return it to the right person."
]... | I went on line to check if my pay was in my bank account . To my amazement I discovered that not only had I been paid, but a company I'd never worked for had also paid me! I know I would have been beside myself if my own salary was not in my account, so I tried to get the money back to the right person. Easier said than done.
The bank couldn't help as it "wasn't a bank problem." The human-resource department at the company that paid me was unable to help as I didn't have enough details. I rang the bank again. Thankfully I had a sympathetic call operator who gave me a name, so I again rang the company "Daniel" worked for.
I expected the bank would contact me to arrange to take the money from my account and repay Daniel. I heard nothing for a month and the money remained in my account when Daniel called, explaining he'd tried to get back his money but had been unsuccessful as neither the bank nor his company felt it was their error. He had rung to ask if I could speak to the bank, but after chatting for a few minutes we realized we could probably fix this problem ourselves.
We decided I would take the money from my account and he would pick it up from me. Due to my busy job I was unable to meet Daniel personally but he left me a lovely bottle of wine in exchange for what was rightfully his. I never had any intention of keeping Daniel's pay but red tape made it difficult to do the right thing. It all came down to two people being able to do what a huge bank and a large company couldn't do -- admit a mistake has occurred and fix it. | high12490.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "in order to cure his disease"
},
"options": [
"in order to be happy",
"in order to cure his disease",
"because he could not live for long",
"because his disease couldn't be cured"
],
"question": "Cousins decided... | Many years ago, Norman Cousins was seriously ill. He was given six months to live. His chance for recovery was 1 in 500.
He could see the worry, depression and anger in his life contributed to his disease. He wondered, "If illness can be caused by negativity , can health be created by positivity ?" He decided to make an experiment of himself.
Laughing was one of the most positive activities he knew. He watched all the funny movies he could find. He read funny stories. He asked his friends to call him whenever they said, heard or did something interesting.
His pain was so great that he could not sleep. Laughing for 10 solid minutes, he found, relieved the pain for several hours so he could sleep. He fully recovered from his illness and lived another 20 happy and healthy years.
Laughing is necessary to our health. If we're not well, laughing helps us get well; if we are well, laughing helps us stay that way. So, if you like laughing, do it as often as you can.
Use whatever makes you laugh--movies, books, jokes or friends. The people around you may think you're strange, but sooner or later they'll join in even if they don't know what you're laughing about. | high24122.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "All the above."
},
"options": [
"The sea water which goes into the volcano",
"The lava.",
"The pressure which is bigger and bigger.",
"All the above."
],
"question": "What makes volcanoes erupt?",
"question_... | Krakatau volcano is in a small island in Indonesia. It had been peaceful for about 200 years before it erupted in 1883.
The first signs of the activity of the volcano appeared in May 1883, when fire and smoke could be seen at the top of the mountain. Great noise could be heard even in Jakarta a hundred miles away. Later the activity grew much greater. The peak was covered with smoke and fire; the smoke at one time was seventeen miles high in the air. The lava--soft and hot rock--shot up into the air and rolled down the sides of the mountain.
The mouth of the volcano was not at the peak of the mountain but on its side, close to the sea. As it grew bigger and bigger with the eruption, the sea water got into it. When the sea water reached the lava inside the volcano, it made the upper part of the lava colder and harder. And this sealed off the rest of the lava below. As the inside of the lava could not break through the seal, the pressure built up until the mountain blew up.
The eruption of the volcano was followed by several earthquakes which brought about bad result. About 36000 people were killed and many towns and villages near the sea were completely destroyed by the great waves which the earthquake caused. | high7860.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "by time"
},
"options": [
"by time",
"by space",
"by comparison",
"by importance"
],
"question": "The passage is developed _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_in... | CANYOUIMAGINEHOWHARDITWOULDBETOREADSENTENCESLIKETHIS? Every one of us gets so used to punctuation marks that not many of us give them a second thought. Actually, the ancient Greeks wrote this way. The lack of punctuation marks probably didn't bother good readers, though. As they read, they just put pauses where they fit best. Also at this time, sentences switched directions. A sentence read from left to right. The next one read right to left, and then left to right again, etc. The ancient Romans sometimes punctuated like this: They * put * something * that * can * separate * words * in * a * sentence. The word punctuation actually comes from this idea and the Latin word punctum, which means a dot.
When the 5thcentury arrived, there were just two punctuation marks: spaces and points. The spaces separated words while the points showed pauses in reading. Then in the 13thcentury, a printer named Aldus Manutius tried to standardize punctuation. He always used a period for a complete stop at the end of a sentence. He used a slash (/) to indicate a short pause. Over time, that slash was shortened and curled, and it became the modern comma .
Since that time, other marks have enlarged the punctuation family. The exclamation mark comes from the Latin word io. It means "exclamation of joy." The question mark originally started out as the Latin word questio, meaning question. Eventually, scholars put it at the end of a sentence to show a question.
Punctuation even keeps changing nowadays. New marks are coming into existence, and old punctuation marks are used in new ways. Take for example the "interrobang". This 1962 invention combines the question mark and exclamation mark for times when writers want both. For example, "She did what?" or "How much did you pay for that dress?" Obviously, the interrobang is not widely used or recognized yet, but its invention shows that English is not yet finished with its punctuation. | high9695.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "get rid of his uneasy feelings"
},
"options": [
"find a way to get out",
"dig a lifeline to the ground",
"keep himself from coldness",
"get rid of his uneasy feelings"
],
"question": "When trapped underground, P... | Chilean rescued miner Edison Pena ran the New York City Marathon on November 7th , less than a month after he was rescued from a collapsed mine that trapped him and the other 32 miners for 69 days. Pena ran 10 km daily through the mine's tunnels to beat the anxiety, wearing cut-down boots until rescuers sent him a pair of sports shoes through a narrow hole that served as the miners' "lifeline" to the surface.
"When I ran in the darkness, I was running for life," Pena told a news conference in New York. "I was running to show that I wasn't just waiting around. I also wanted God to see that I really wanted to live." The miners were discovered alive on August 22---17 days after the mine collapsed, but it took many more days for rescuers to dig a hole big enough to bring them out.
The New York Road Runners, which organizes the marathon, had invited Edison Pena to the event after hearing his story. They thought he could ride in the lead vehicle or hold the finish line tape, but Pena said last week he did not want to watch, he wanted to run. "I was very eager to take on this big challenge," he said. "I wanted to show the world I could run." He hoped to run the 26.2-mile race in about six hours. "I have a knee injury, but I am eager to cross the finish line," he said.
An Elvis Presley fan who asked rescuers to send the singer's music down into the mine, Pena broke into song at the news conference with the Presley hit Return to Sender.
On the morning of November 7th, Pena, known as "the runner" by fellow miners trapped with him, set out to cover the course along with thousands of other runners and completed the race in five hours and 40 minutes. | high20344.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "It will last two days, from 5:15 pm to 7:15 pm each day."
},
"options": [
"Only old people would like to watch it.",
"It will include the bicycling show and a peacock.",
"It will be performed by the best acrobatic group.",
... | Beijing Acrobatic Show in Chaoyang Theatre
Introduction of Acrobatic Show:
This is the entertainment that should not be missed by the young and old on a visit to Beijing. You can see breath-holding acrobatics, some of which can be so demanding in the balance skill as to be close to the impossible.
This time you can see the bicycling show-- ten cycling girls all ending up on a bicycle with their fans spread out like a peacock. There are also girls bending and folding their bodies to a position where the feet hold the face and the head and hands are still balancing some glasses. Other exciting acts are the martial arts , balancing of bowls, rope walking, pole climbing, roller skating and plate swirling , etc.
Ticket Prices
Two daily acrobatic shows from 5:15 pm to 7:15 pm. The detailed price is as follows
(including 5-65 years old):
Yellow Zone: (Mid Rows 14-23) RMB 120
Blue Zone: (Mid Rows 1-4) RMB 160
Green Zone: (Mid Rows 8-13) RMB 220
Red VIP Zone: (Mid Rows 5-7) RMB 400
Booking
Book at beijing-travels.com or call 13801067568
Booking information: Your Name, Shows, Date, Time, Tickets, Telephone Number
We will explain your enquiry or confirm booking within one working day. When your booking is confirmed, you will receive a confirmation letter by e-mail, which includes the detailed tickets with prices.
Payment
Please pay cash to our clerks when you get to the theater. Both RMB and US dollar are acceptable. | high18803.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "there's no warn in his home"
},
"options": [
"his family is poor",
"he wants to find a friend live with",
"there's no warn in his home",
"he loves nature and likes to adventure"
],
"question": "The reason why Hu... | Many of the stories written by Mark Twain take place in Hannibal, Missouri. The small wooden house where he lived as a boy still stands there. Next to the house is a wooden fence. It is the kind described in Twain's book, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," published in1876.
In that story, Tom has been told to paint the fence. He does not want to do it. But he acts as if the job is great fun. He tricks other boys into believing this. His trick is so successful that they agree to pay him money to let them finish his work. "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is considered one of the best books about an American boy's life in THE the1800s.
Tom Sawyer's good friend is Huckleberry, or "Huck," Finn. Mark Twain tells this boy's story in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Huck is a poor child, without a mother or home. His father drinks too much alcohol and beats him.
Huck's situation has freed him from the restrictions of society. He explores in the woods and goes fishing. He stays out all night and does not go to school. He smokes tobacco.
Huck runs away from home. He meets Jim, a black man who has escaped from slavery. They travel together on a raft made of wood down the Mississippi River. Huck describes the trip: "It was lovely to live on the raft. Other places seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft... Sometimes we'd have that whole river to ourselves for the longest time... We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them---. " | high11199.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Mount Hollywood Trail and Bronx River"
},
"options": [
"Mount Hollywood Trail and Bronx River",
"Mount Hollywood Trail and Southern Islands",
"Lee Valley and Southern Islands",
"Bronx River and Lee Valley"
],
"q... | From the outer of New York to the heart of Singapore, nature is everywhere you're not looking in some of Earth's most crowded big cities. Outdoor adventure is often just a few stops on the train - or a short drive- away from the annoying crowds. Here are a few favorites to get you going:
Mount Hollywood Trail, Los Angeles
It's not a skyscraper or a Ferris wheel, and there's no expensive restaurant up top. But if you want an absolutely unforgettable, no-admission-charged, 360-degree view of the entire Los Angeles region , it's yours. All you have to do is walk a little. One of the preferred exercise routes, the Mount Hollywood Trail, is easily accessed from the parking lot of the famous Griffith Observatory; you see what you get at the end of this steep 1.5-mile trail, which winds its way through the Griffith Park wilds up to the mountain's 1,640-foot peak.
Bronx River, New York
It may not be on your Top 10 list of things to do when you finally get to the Big Apple, but exploring the almost-secret river that flows through one of New York's most mysterious boroughs is an unforgettable experience. The Bronx River Alliance, a non-profit group that has worked tirelessly to bring the much-abused river back to life , operates cycling and canoeing trips along the river, from the rugged Hunts Point section down near the harbor on up through the borough.
Southern Islands, Singapore
Believe it or not, tightly packed Singapore does have plenty of open space left . There are actual trails right in the middle of everything, if you know where to look . But to really get away from it all, the Southern Islands, a small group of little green dots just off the city-state's southern shoreline, are just the thing.
Lee Valley, London
This East London river valley changed last summer, when anyone near a television got an eyeful of Olympic Park, built directly in the middle of the valley. Inside the park, beautifully landscaped sections quickly became a favorite relaxation spot for games goers. At present, you'll find miles of walking paths worth exploring. Start at the Waltham Cross train and follow the signposted walking route southbound, guiding you past important historic industrial areas, through interesting city neighborhoods, past the western side of Olympic Park and on to the Thames. | high2918.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Students."
},
"options": [
"Education experts.",
"School teachers.",
"Parents.",
"Students."
],
"question": "Who are the intended readers of the passage?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
... | Moving to a new neighborhood,town,state,or even country can be a pretty scary experience. All you know is that things will be different and chances are you won't know the kids at your new school.
The experiences that go with moving make many kids feel nervous and worried. This is perfectly normal but don't let these emotions overrun your thoughts! You will soon get used to your surroundings and find new friends at your new school.
Leaving old friends and familiar places behind can be difficult. However,as you begin the moving process,keep in mind that saying goodbye to your old house,school,and friends does not mean that you have to forget them or that your farewell is permanent!If you're moving to a new state or even a different country and won't see your friends for a long time,don't despair.
Make sure to ask everyone for their address so you can write them letters. Also,thanks to the Internet,it is very easy to stay in touch through email or instant messaging technologies. With your parent's permission,you can even create a blog or web page to chronicle all of your new experiences. Include your thoughts,tales of your new adventures,even pictures of new friends,your new house,and new town. Your old friends will love seeing what you are busy with.
Many schools have an orientation program where a student already established at the school shows a new student around for their first week. This can help you to find your way around the school and to make new friends faster.
While moving is tough on kids of any age,high school counselor Karen Turner says moves can be particularly difficult for teens ."I think moving during adolescents is an extremely stressful experience,especially if you are into your junior high or senior year. Students tend to have established a very strong peer network during that period in their lives. Often this has more influence on them even than their families in some cases,and when they are torn from that there's often resentment ."However,Turner adds that while moving isn't easy,there are things that your parents and the school can do to help you deal with the change. | high11172.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "A breakthrough in monsoon prediction."
},
"options": [
"The effects of Asian monsoons.",
"The necessity of weather forecast.",
"The achievements of Edward cook.",
"A breakthrough in monsoon prediction."
],
"ques... | Half of the world's population is affected by Asian monsoons , but monsoons are difficult to predict. American researchers have put together a 700-year record of the rainy seasons, which is expected to provide guidance for experts making weather predictions.
Every year, damp air masses,known as monsoon,produce large amounts of rainfall in India, East Asia, Northern Australia and East Africa. All this wet air is pulled in by a high pressure area over the Indian Ocean and a low pressure area to the south.
According to Edward Cook , a weather expert at Columbia University in New York., the complex nature of the climate systems across Asia makes monsoons hard to predict. In addition, climate records for the area are too recent and not detailed enough to be of much use. Therefore, he and a team of researchers spent more than fifteen years traveling across Asia, looking for trees old enough to provide long-term records. They measured the rings, or circles, inside thousands of ancient trees in more than 300 places.
Rainfall has a direct link to the growth and width of rings on some kinds of trees. The researchers developed a document they are calling a Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas. It shows the effect of monsoons over seven centuries, beginning in the 1300s.
Professor Cook says the tree-ring records show periods of wet and dry weather. "If the monsoon basically fails or is a very weak one, the trees affected by monsoons at that location might put on a very narrow ring. But if the monsoon is very strong, the trees affected by that monsoon might put on a wide ring for that year. So, the wide and narrow ring widths of the chronology that we developed in Asia provide us with a measure of monsoon variability." With all this information, researchers say they can begin to improve computer climate models for predicting the behavior of monsoons.
"There has been widespread famine and starvation and human dying in the past in large droughts. And on the other hand, if the monsoon is particularly heavy, it can cause extensive flooding." said Eugene Wahl, a scientist with America's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "So, to get a sense of what the regional moisture patterns have been, dryness and wetness over such a long period of time in great detail, I would call it a kind of victory for climate science." | high5044.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "beat for females"
},
"options": [
"fight for their land",
"beat for females",
"hunt for food",
"frighten their enemies"
],
"question": "Male deer use fangs in mating season to _ .",
"question_type": "cloz... | An endangered deer with vampire-like fangs was spotted for the first time in nearly 60 years, in a remote forest in northeastern Afghanistan. The fanged creature is known as the Kashmir musk deer, and it is native to the Himalayas of northern India, Pakistan's Kashmir region and northern Afghanistan.
Only the male deer have fangs, and they use them during mating season to compete for females. A team of researchers scoured Afghanistan's Nuristan province during 2008 and 2009, and recorded five sightings of the animal. This was the first time the species had been spotted since 1948. During the survey, the researchers spotted a single male Kashmir musk deer near the same area three separate times. The researchers also recorded one female and her baby, and saw a second single female that they think may have been the same deer, without her baby. These musk deer are classified as an endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List. Musk-deer meat is a local delicacy, but the species is mostly hunted for its scent glands that are more valuable by weight than gold -- some believe the glands have pharmaceutical properties, and they sell for nearly $20,455 per pound ($45,000 per kilogram) on the black market, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Three decades of war have ravaged Nuristan province, and the continued violence and political instability make the black-market trade of scent glands uncontrollable. Furthermore, the species is quickly losing suitable habitat. All of the musk deer were spotted on sheltered rocky outcrops around 9,843 feet (3,000 meters) high. In the summer, they regularly trek along steep slopes that make them almost impossible to approach and keep them ly safe from hunters. However, heavy snowfall in the winter drives the species farther down, to more human-accessible slopes, and hunters come from all over the country to stalk the deer for their valuable scent glands.
Due to violence and unrest, nongovernmental organizations like the Wildlife Conservation Society have not been able to operate in the Nuristan province since 2010. The WCS maintains contact with locals they have trained to survey and search for the musk deer. Once the situation in Nuristan improves, the WCS intends to return to the area to continue research and to formulate a conservation plan. | high18630.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "It's cheap."
},
"options": [
"It's easy to make.",
"It's easy to cook.",
"It's good for health.",
"It's cheap."
],
"question": "Why was beancurd considered to be liked by the poor?",
"question_type": "factio... | If there is something that appears most frequently on Chinese dining tables, it is doufu--beancurd.Beancurd looks like soft cakes and it's made from dried soybeans.Beancurd used to be considered a favourite of the poor because of its low cost.Beans have high yields every year with their short growing period and suitability for various soil both dry and wet.
Historical records show beancurd was invented by Liu An, Prince of Huainan and uncle of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty(206BC--220AD).He had a dream of finding the pill for longevity .He traveled all over the country and found soybeans, which looked much the same as gold in terms of colour.He collected soybeans, put them in the water and crushed them into pulp .It got solidified and became known as doufu.Although it's not able to keep longevity, it's really good for one's health with high protein and low fat.
With a long history, beancurd is rooted deep in Chinese culture.People eat more meat and fish than beancurd.But they are encouraged to have beancurd every once in a while for it's really good for health.Most Chinese people still keep beancurd as one of their favourite dishes. | high13765.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "tell the audience that one should never lose one's own value"
},
"options": [
"tell the audience that one should never lose one's own value",
"tell the audience that God values money most",
"test if some of the audience were ... | At a meeting, a well-known speaker lifted up a bill of 20 dollars before starting his speech.
Facing 200 people, he asked, "Who wants this 20-dollar bill?" A great many hands were put up. Then he continued to say, "I intended to give it to any one of you, but allow me to do a thing before giving it to you." Suddenly he crumpled it into a round mass. Then he asked, "Who wants it? " Still some hands were lifted up.
He asked again, "Well, how could it be if I do it like this?" he threw the bill onto the ground, stepped on it and twisted it. As he picked it up, the bill had become not only dirty but _
"Who still wants it?" Still a few people put up their hands.
"My dear friends, you have had a meaningful class. No matter how I treated this bill, you still want it, because it is worth 20 dollars. On your life road, you may be knocked down or even broken into pieces by your determination or unfavorable situations. We may feel ourselves worth nothing, but, my darling, remember that whatever happens in the future, you should never lose your value in the God's heart. You're particular ---- never forget it." | high1222.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": ".Because children have more money to buy them."
},
"options": [
"Because companies are creating better products and services.",
"Because children education is becoming more important.",
"Because it is better to study music fr... | "Teenager" is the new term being used in the UK to describe kids at either 8--12 or 10--13 years old.
More and more companies are beginning to create products and services for teenagers. The Disney Company sells music and film to teenagers and their parents. You can get everything from lunchboxes and mobile phone covers, to monthly fan magazines and clothing. It's all about sales, which suggests that teenagers must have more money, freedom and influence upon their parents than they've ever had before.
Most kids in the UK today get more pocket money than kids did ten years ago. Parents have more money to give their kids than before, since parents are having fewer children. In addition, the divorce rate in the UK is continually rising and parents spend less time with their children than they used to, so many parents try to please their children by buying them presents. It's a bad habit for both parents and kids to get into, but parents are under pressure from commercial marketing and the pleas of their children.
UK kids today are very media and computer-literate. A lot of kids have a TV, if not a computer, in their bedrooms. They have easy access to much more information about life and the world. They may have experienced a lot in life as well, since 24% of UK kids live in single-parent families, so people now say that "kids are getting older younger". With such maturity at such a young age, it's no wonder teenagers are able to influence their parents and have more freedom than previous generations.
UK teenagers never used to be worried about spending money on clothes. That's changed. Now, they are much more fashion conscious and concerned about their image . Many of them outgrow the bright colors and fashions of kids years ago and go for something darker and more rebellious .
Surely none of the above is a good thing. The UK government is certainly concerned, and for that reason has strict laws preventing companies from marketing their products and services at children. | high7653.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "children"
},
"options": [
"women",
"children",
"the old",
"the disabled"
],
"question": "According to Hilde Johnson, the most easily affected peens suffering from conflicts and disasters are _ .",
"questio... | UNICEF is appealing for more than one billion dollars in aid for women and children around the world. The United Nations Children's Fund has released its "Humanitarian Action Report" for two thousand ten. The report lists twenty - eight countries and territories with some of the world's most pester affecting women and children.
Haiti was considered to be in crisis long before the earthquake in January. The deputy executive director of UNICEF, Hilde Johnson, says the quake has only made the need for aid more immediate. But she says children all over the world have the right to the same assistance as children everywhere else.
The "Humanitarian Action Report" discusses several issues that UNICEF says increasingly threaten the basic rights of women and children. It says climate change has caused droughts and food insecurity in many areas. High food prices and the global financial crisis of two thousand eight-two thousand nine have only added to poverty and malnutrition . And armed conflict continues to threaten the lives of millions.
Hilde Johnson says children are always the most affected by conflicts and disasters. They face an increased risk of abuse, including sexual violence and other serious rights violations .
UNICEF deals with about two hundred emergencies around the world every year. The greatest need last year was in sub-Saharan Africa. The report says drought, food insecurity and civil unrest affected about twenty-four million people.
Violence and displacements of people were especially bad in Sudan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
In Asia, UNICEF expects its financial assistance needs to more than double this year. This is partly the result of adding Pakistan and the Philippines to the latest report. In Pakistan, it says, more than two million people have been forced from their homes by the conflict in the Swat Valley and other areas of the northwest. And in the Philippines, more than two hundred thousand people are still living in shelters after severe storms last year.
This year's UNICEF report talks about the value of public and private partnerships in helping children and families in emergencies.
And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms. For a link to the UNICEF report listing the twenty-eight countries and territories in crisis, go to www.unsv.com. I'm Steve Ember. | high8560.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "It determined the exact amount of time needed."
},
"options": [
"It determined the exact amount of time needed.",
"It took longer to finish the research.",
"It involved more people.",
"It was led by just two researchers... | Just five minutes of exercise a day outdoors can improve mental health, according to a study.
Researchers from the University of Essex, UK have found that as little as five minutes of a "green activity" such as walking, gardening, cycling or farming could help to improve mood and increase self-esteem .
Many studies have shown that outdoor exercise can reduce the risk of mental illness and improve a sense of well-being, but the new study, led by Jules Pretty and Jo Barton, was the first to determine how much time needed to be spent on green exercise for the benefits to show.
Barton and Pretty looked at data from 1,252 people of different ages, genders and mental health status taken from 10 studies in Britain.
They analyzed their different outdoor activities including walking, gardening, cycling, fishing, boating, horse-riding and farming in locations such as a park, garden or nature trail .
They found that the mental health changes were seen after just five minutes. With longer periods of time exercising in a green environment, the positive effects were more apparent.
Looking at men and women of different ages, the researchers found the health changes were particularly strong in the young and the mentally ill.
Green and blue
A bigger effect was seen with exercise in an area that also contained water - such as a lake or river.
"This is because historically we are drawn to water to survive and it is in our genetic make-up to be at one with nature," the researchers wrote in their report.
Pretty said those who were generally inactive, or stressed, or with mental illness would probably benefit the most from "green exercise".
"Employers, for example, could encourage staff in stressful workplaces to take a short walk at lunchtime in the nearest park to improve mental health."
He also said exercise programs outdoors could benefit youth offenders. | high8206.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "To protect her baby"
},
"options": [
"To protect herself from the earthquake",
"To show respect for God",
"To ask God for help",
"To protect her baby"
],
"question": "Why did the young woman kneel on the ground?... | Thid is a true story of a mother's sacrifice in an earthquake.
When the rescuer reached the ruins of a young man's house, they saw her dead body through the cracks. Her pose was somehow strange--she knelt on the ground like a person who was worshiping ;her body was leaning forward, and her two hands were supported by an object. However, the cold and stiff body told them that she had passed away for sure.
The rescuers left this house and were going to search the next collapsed building. For some reason, the team leader was driven by a strong force to go back to the ruined house. Again, he knelt down to search the little space under the dead body. Suddenly, he screamed with excitement, "A child! There is a child1"
The whole team worked together; carefully they removed the piles of ruined objects around the dead woman. There was a 3-month-old little boy wrapped in a blanket under his mother's dead body. Obviously, the woman had made great sacrifice in order to save her son. When her house was falling, she used her body to make a cover to protect her son. The little boy was still sleeping peacefully when the team leader picked him up.
A doctor came quickly to examine the little boy. After he opened the blanket, he saw a cellphone inside the blanket.There was a text massage on the screen. It said, "If you can survive, you must remember that I love you." Everybody that read the massage cried | high1544.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "had a stronger faith in God and the human race"
},
"options": [
"felt angry because what he was really hungry",
"regretted that he didn't ask for any food",
"felt more hungry than ever before",
"had a stronger faith in ... | One day, a poor boy who was trying to pay his way through school by selling goods from door to door found that he had only one dime left. He was hungry so he decided to beg for a meal at the next house.
However, he became nervous when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal, he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, "How much do I owe you?"
"You don't owe me anything," she replied, "Mother has taught me never to accept pay for a kindness." He said, "Then I thank you from the bottom of my heart." As Haward Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but it also increased his faith in God and the human race. He was about to give up and quit before this point.
Years later, the young woman became seriously ill. The local doctors were _ . They finally sent her to the big city, where specialists could be called in to study her rare disease. Dr. Haward Kelly, now famous was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately, he rose and went down through the hospital hall into her room.
Dressed in his doctor's gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room and determined to do his best to save her life. From that day, he gave special attention to her case.
After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the bill to him for approval. He looked at it and then wrote something on the side. The bill was sent to her room. She was afraid to open it because she was positive that it would take the rest of her life to pay it off. Finally she looked, and the note on the side of the bill caught her attention. She read these words,
"Paid in full with one glass of milk."
(Signed) Dr. Haward Kelly
Tears of joy flooded her eyes as she prayed silently, "Thank You, God. Your love has spread through human hearts and hands." | high5722.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Concerning."
},
"options": [
"Supporting.",
"Surprising .",
"Relaxing.",
"Concerning."
],
"question": "What did the author think of looking at a smartphone?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
... | A recent report says we spend an average of two hours and 40 minutes each day looking at a smartphone. That doesn't mean making calls, but using apps and browsing the Web.
Spend that amount of time staring at anything. Checked our email in a restaurant, shared a picture of the food when it arrived, or checked a fact during a conversation only to be drawn into reading more instead of contributing verbally. It's no secret our lives are being affected by our obsession with smartphones.
However, never before has this phenomenon been displayed so vividly as in the short YouTube film I Forgot My Phone. Despite only being online for a few days, it's already been viewed more than 10. 5 million times.
Ironically, YouTube's statistics show that the site gets a billion views per day from mobile devices, so a lot of those people watched it on their phone.
The short film, written by and starring actress Charlene deGuzrnan, shows groups of people in various social situations, the majority of which are completely attracted by their phones instead of the world around them. It's depressing because we' ve all seen it, and sad because to a certain extent, we all do it. | high19248.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "anything and everything"
},
"options": [
"anything and everything",
"only what was given to him",
"only serious novels",
"nothing in the summer"
],
"question": "Before his encounter with Mr. Ballou, the author u... | When I was fourteen, I earned money in the summer by cutting lawns , and within a few weeks I had built up a body of customers. I got to know people by the flowers they planted that I had to remember not to cut down, by the things they lost in the grass or struck in the ground on purpose. I reached the point with most of them when I knew in advance what complaint was about to be spoken, which request was most important. And I learned something about the measure of my neighbors by their preferred method of payment: by the job, by the month--or not at all.
Mr. Ballou fell into the last category, and he always had a reason why. On one day, he had no change for a fifty, on another he was flat out of checks, on another, he was simply out when I knocked on his door. Still, except for the money apart, he was a nice enough guy, always waving or tipping his hat when he'd seen me from a distance. I figured him for a thin retirement check, maybe a work-related injury that kept him from doing his own yard work. Sure, I kept track of the total, but I didn't worry about the amount too much. Grass was grass, and the little that Mr. Ballou's property comprised didn't take long to trim .
Then, one late afternoon in mid-July, the hottest time of the year, I was walking by his house and he opened the door, mentioned me to come inside. The hall was cool, shaded, and it took my eyes a minute to adjust to the dim light.
"I owe you," Mr Ballou said, "but..."
I thought I'd save him the trouble of thinking of a new excuse. "No problem. Don't worry about it."
"The bank made a mistake in my account," he continued, ignoring my words. "It will be cleared up in a day or two. But in the meantime I thought perhaps you could choose one or two volumes for a down payment.
He gestured toward the walls and I saw that books were stacked everywhere. It was like a library, except with no order to the arrangement.
"Take your time," Mr. Ballou encouraged. "Read, borrow, keep, or find something you like. What do you read?"
"I don't know." And I didn't. I generally read what was in front of me, what I could get from the paperback stack at the drugstore, what I found at the library, magazines, the back of cereal boxes, comics. The idea of consciously seeking out a special title was new to me, but, I realized, not without appeal--- so I started to look through the piles of books.
"You actually read all of these?"
"This isn't much," Mr. Ballou said. "This is nothing, just what I've kept, the ones worth looking at a second time."
"Pick for me, then."
He raised his eyebrows, cocked his head, and regarded me as though measuring me for a suit. After a moment, he nodded, searched through a stack, and handed me a dark red hardbound book, fairly thick.
"The Last of the Just," I read. "By Andre Schwarz-Bart. What's it about?"
"You tell me," he said. "Next week."
I started after supper, sitting outdoors on an uncomfortable kitchen chair. Within a few pages, the yard, the summer, disappeared, and I was plunged into the aching tragedy of the Holocaust, the extraordinary clash of good, represented by one decent man, and evil. Translated from French, the language was elegant, simple, impossible to resist. When the evening light finally failed I moved inside, read all through the night.
To this day, thirty years later, I vividly remember the experience. It was my first voluntary encounter with world literature, and I was amazed by the concentrated power a novel could contain. I lacked the vocabulary, however, to translate my feelings into words, so the next week. When Mr. Ballou asked, "Well?" I only replied, "It was good?"
"Keep it, then," he said. "Shall I suggest another?"
I nodded, and was presented with the paperback edition of Margaret Mead'sComing of Age in Samoa(a very important book on the study of the social and cultural development of peoples--anthropology ).
To make two long stories short, Mr. Ballou never paid me a cent for cutting his grass that year or the next, but for fifteen years I taught anthropology at Dartmouth College. Summer reading was not the innocent entertainment I had assumed it to be, not a light-hearted, instantly forgettable escape in a hammock (though I have since enjoyed many of those, too). A book, if it arrives before you at the right moment, in the proper season, at an internal in the daily business of things, will change the course of all that follows. | high3353.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Because they are cheap."
},
"options": [
"Because they are expensive.",
"Because they are cheap.",
"Because they are hard to write.",
"Because they are not important."
],
"question": "Why are text messages popul... | Talking on a mobile phone is expensive, so a lot of people send text messages. Text messages are much cheaper than talking on a mobile phone, and you can make it cheaper by making the words shorter. You can do this by taking out "unimportant" letters in the words and using numbers instead of words (2 =" to," 3 =" free," 4 =" for," 8 =" ate," so h8 =" hate," etc.). You can also keep away from using punctuation . Here is an example: Do U wnt 2 g 2 th cnma tnite (Do you want to go to the cinema tonight?)
What do you think these text messages mean?
Whr hv U bn? Iv bn wtng hrs fr a cll.
Im hm nw, why nt gv me a cll.
I gt a txt mssge frm my frnd. Shes hvng a prty on Strdy.
Mobile phone users have developed a group of symbols to show how they feel. They are called emoticons, and there are some examples below. To read an emoticon, you have to look at it sideways. For example, if you say something in a text message that is a joke, you can follow it with a smiling face. Like this: Why didt u call me? I'm so sad. (
Here are some others. Can you think of text messages where you could use them?
) laughing ( sad < really sad
V shouting |*| asleep :0 shocked
8*| surprised \*o bored | high11614.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "It can be washed in a washing machine."
},
"options": [
"It can be washed in a washing machine.",
"It is much heavier than a leather purse.",
"It can download songs from the Internet.",
"It is made of clothes conducting... | Gauri Nanda sees a wearable computer as a handbag -- one that's built out of four-inch squares and triangles of fiber, with tiny computer chips embedded in it. It looks, feels and weighs like your typical leather purse.
That's where similarities end: This bag can wirelessly keep track of your belongings and remind you, just as you're about to leave the house, to take your wallet. It can review the weather report and suggest that you grab an umbrella. This purse can even upload your favorite songs onto your scarf.
Sure, a computing purse and scarf set may seem like the stuff of science fiction. But these devices, part of next generation of wearable computers, could become commonplace within a few years. DuPont created new super strong fibers that can conduct electricity and can be woven into ordinary-looking clothes. And the chipmaker developed chip packaging allowing wearable computers to be washed, even in the heavy-duty cycle.
As a result, these new wearable devices are different from the heavy and downright silly versions of the recent past, which often required users to be wrapped in wires and type on their stomachs. Unlike their predecessors, these new wearable computers also make economic sense. When her bag becomes commercially available in two to three years, Nanda expects it will cost around $150, which is the price of an average leather purse.
Here's how the bag works: You place a special radio-signal-transmitting chip on to your wallet. A similar radio in your purse picks up the signal and notifies you that you've forgotten to take your wallet. In turn, sensors on your purse's handles will notify the computer that you've picked up the purse and are ready to go.
_ Indeed, more people will want to cross that bridge in the coming years -- making for a booming market for wearable computers that don't like something out of science fiction. | high2059.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "eat as much candy as they want"
},
"options": [
"eat as much candy as they want",
"learn to cook",
"be honest about what kind of friends they make",
"go to bed and get up at fixed time"
],
"question": "According... | I had the meanest mother in the world. While other kids ate candy for breakfast, I had to have cereal , eggs or toasts. While others had Cokes and candy for lunch, I had to eat a sandwich. As you can guess, my supper was different from other kids' too. But at least I wasn't alone in my sufferings. My sister and two brothers had the same mother as I did.
My mother insisted upon knowing where we were at all times. She had to know who our friends were and where we were going. She insisted if we said we'd be gone an hour, then we be gone one hour or less---not one hour and one minute. And she always insisted upon us telling the truth. Now you can see how mean she was.
The worst is yet to come. We had to be in bed by nine each night and up at eight the next morning. We had to wash the dishes, make beds, and learn to cook. We had to wear clean clothes and take a bath, while the other kids always wore their clothes for days. I believe she laid awake at night thinking up mean things to do to us.
Through the years, things didn't improve a bit. We could not lie in bed, "sick" like our friends did, and miss school. Our marks in school had to be up to par. Our friends' report cards had beautiful color1s on them, black for passing, red for failing. My mother, being as different as she was, would settle for nothing less than ugly black marks.
As the years rolled by, we were one by one put to shame. We were graduated from high school. With our mother behind us, talking, hitting and demanding respect, none of us was allowed the pleasure of being a drop-out.
My mother was a complete failure as a mother. Out of four children, a couple of us attained some higher education. And whom do we have to blame for the terrible way we turned out? You're right, our mean mother. She forced us to grow up into educated and honest adults.
Now I am trying to raise my three children. I am filled with pride when my children call me mean. Because, you see, I had the meanest mother in the whole world. | high17271.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "the family could enjoy a day together"
},
"options": [
"they were good at swimming",
"they could ask for their father's help",
"the family could enjoy a day together",
"the family had never gone climbing before"
],
... | In our life, there are always some days that will never be forgotten. This was one of those days, a day when we were on a hike, I became my children's hero. This event happened the first summer after we moved to the mountains of Colorado.
Wanting to enjoy the beauty of the mountains, my wife and I planned a day hike to the Brown's Creek waterfall. The kids were excited--a day hike, a chance to experience a waterfall, and a day spent with Dad and Mom.
Our hike would take us up the Brown's Creek trail and after about 3 miles the waterfall would be on our left. After slowly climbing the first mile, the trail took us through a beautiful grassland and across the creek a couple of times. We decided to turn back before reaching the waterfall, mostly because we were tired and still didn't know how much farther _ was. While crossing the creek by walking on a downed tree trunk, our little Izzie fell into the creek and immediately started moving up and down in the current .
Immediately, I jumped into the creek after her. I managed to grab her and push her to the bank. But now, I was the one in need of being rescued. I thought this might be the end and I wasn't sure if I could hold on. Then, I heard the voice of the love of my life, my wife's voice. She shouted loudly--Stand up! Stand up! With the last bit of strength I had, I stood, and walked out of the creek. The kids showed little concern for my health; they were looking after Izzie, now safe in their arms. But I did hear one of the kids say: Thanks Dad, for saving Izzie. You're our HERO!
As we walked back down the trail, I enjoyed a rare, but one of those sweet moments in life, that I wouldn't trade for anything on earth. I didn't care about my wet clothes, the squish of water in my boots, or the embarrassment of nearly drowning in water; none of that mattered. I just walked along following my family, with my head held up, my shoulders back and my chest pushed out proudly enjoying the fact that, at that moment in time, on that particular day in life, I was my children's hero. | high18142.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "birth rate"
},
"options": [
"behavior",
"birth rate",
"hormone levels",
"heart rates"
],
"question": "Which is not discovered to have changed in animals disturbed by tourists?",
"question_type": "factiod_que... | LONDON (Reuters) Ecotourism is causing a lot of damage to wildlife and may be endangering the survival of the very animals people are flocking to see, according to researchers.
Biologists and conservationists are worried because polar bears, dolphins, penguins and other creatures are getting stressed and losing weight and some are dying.
"Evidence is growing that many animals do not react well to tourists in their backyard," New Scientist magazine said.
The immediate effects "researchers have noticed are changes in behavior, heart rates. or stress hormone levels but they fear it could get much worse and over the long term " could endanger the survival of the very wildlife they want to see. "
Although money produced through ecotourism, which has been growing at about 10-30 percent a year, has major benefits for poor countries and people living in rural areas, the Swiss-based World Conservation Union (IUCN) and some governments fear not all projects are audited and based on environmentally friendly policies,according to the magazine.
Transmission of disease to wildlife,or small changes to wildlife health through disturbance of daily life or increased stress levels, while not obvious to the casual observer, may translate to lower survival and breeding," said Philip Seddon , of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Scientists have noticed that bottleneck dolphins along the northeastern coast of New Zealand become nervously excited when tourist boats arrive. Similar changes in behavior have been observed in polar bears and yellow-eyed penguins in areas visited by colorists are producing smaller babies.
Conservationists are now calling for more research into the effect of ecotourism on animals and say the industry must be developed carefully. They also want studies done before new ecotourism projects are started.
_ said Rochelle Constantine of the University of Auckland in New Zealand | high5736.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "an advertisement from a newspaper"
},
"options": [
"an article from a student text book",
"a direction from a bottle of medicine",
"a suggestion from a chemist",
"an advertisement from a newspaper"
],
"question"... | *Put sunscreen on before going out in the sun.
*Take it with you.
*Use it
-- after a swim.
-- every hour or so while playing outdoors.
-- if you get sweaty.
*Cover up when the sun is overhead
-- 10 a.m.--2 p.m..
-- especially at lunch time.
*Get your suntan gradually and not too much.
*Controlled exposure to sunshine helps avoid skin cancer.
Ask your chemist to recommend a suitable sunscreen.
Queensland Cancer Fund
P. O. Box
Spring Hill, QLD.4000
Phone (07) 8397077
Provided for community awareness by the Queensland Cancer | high4428.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "give us some tips on learning foreign languages"
},
"options": [
"explain why learning a foreign language is challenging",
"tell us the importance of learning foreign languages",
"tell us some ways of earning a top grade",
... | If you're like most students, you may find it challenging to learn a foreign language. However, there are a few tips you can use in order to earn a top grade ---- as well as actually use the skills you've learned.
One of the most important and basic lessons in dealing with a foreign language is to learn and understand each concept and lesson before moving on to the next one. If you don't understand one concept but move on to the next chapter anyway, you're less likely to understand the new material.
Learning a new language is not only an academic tool, but can help you in your everyday life as well. Being good at another language can help you communicate with other people, and help you when traveling to foreign countries, and even make your resume look better.
And it is important to learn correct pronunciation as soon as possible for poor pronunciation can be hard to break. Native speakers of the language as well as others fluent in the language you are learning will appreciate your efforts to learn correct pronunciation.
Gather outside materials such as books, study guides, books on tape, and travel books to aid you in learning the language. Your textbooks can't possibly teach you everything you need to know, so seeking outside sources is generally a good rule of thumb to keep in mind.
A significant motivator in learning a foreign language is traveling to the country where the language is spoken. That way, you can see firsthand how the language is used, learn the culture, and meet native speakers of the language. Native speakers appreciate sincere attempts of others who take the time to learn their language.
Seek out native speakers of your new language in your school or neighborhood. They can help you with many skills, including pronunciation, and they can provide immediate feedback on your progress. | high3347.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "shorten the duration of the illness"
},
"options": [
"shorten the duration of the illness",
"the patient buy medicine over the counter",
"the patient obtain cheaper prescription drugs",
"prevent people from catching col... | Scratchy throats, stuffy noses and body aches all spell misery, but being able to tell if the cause is a cold or flu may make a difference in how long the misery lasts.
The American Lung Association (ALA) has issued new guidelines on combating colds and the flu , and one of the keys is being able to quickly tell the two apart. That's because the prescription drugs available for the flu need to be taken soon after the illness sets in. As for colds, the sooner a person starts taking over-the-counter remedy, the sooner relief will come.
The common cold and the flu are both caused by viruses. More than 200 viruses can cause cold symptoms, while the flu is caused by three viruses - flu A, B and C. There is no cure for either illness , but the flu can be prevented by the flu vaccine, which is, for most people, the best way to fight the flu, according to the ALA. But if the flu does strike, quick action can help. Although the flu and common cold have many similarities , there are some obvious signs to look for.
Cold symptoms such as stuffy nose, runny nose and scratchy throat typically develop gradually, and adults and teens often do not get a fever. On the other hand, fever is one of the characteristic features of the flu for all ages. And in general, flu symptoms including fever and chills, sore throat and body aches come on suddenly and are more severe than cold symptoms.
The ALA notes that it may be particularly difficult to tell when infants and preschool age children have the flu. It advises parents to call the doctor if their small children have flu-like symptoms.
Both cold and flu symptoms can be eased with over-the-counter medications as well. However, children and teens with a cold or flu should not take aspirin for pain relief because of the risk of Reye syndrome ,a rare but serious condition of the liver and central nervous system.
There is, of course, no vaccine for the common cold. But frequent hand washing and avoiding close contact with people who have colds can reduce the likelihood of catching one. | high11600.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Reading."
},
"options": [
"Watching cartoons.",
"Reading.",
"Playing basketball.",
"Riding her bike."
],
"question": "What used to make the author bored?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
... | In ninth grade, I thought Jennifer Fever, the dark-haired girl who sat behind me in classroom, was an alien . Our class organized an activity to raise money for the library, and in one month, Jennifer read 34 books. I couldn't believe it. Surely, she was from some faraway planet where creature lived and they didn't own television sets. How could a human being, a 13-year-old girl, read 34 books in one month?
I had read three books. And by "read", I mean skimmed. I mean opened and placed them on my lap while watching cartoons.
Who had time to read? In addition to my favorite cartoons, I had a basketball that required playing, a baseball that required throwing, and a volleyball that required volleying. And it wasn't as if my bike could ride itself.
Besides, reading was boring. And if I wanted to be bored, it would be much easier just to pay attention during Mr. Kearly's social studies class.
After senior high school, my education had become very narrow: computer engineering, mathematics, physics, and not much else.
Years later, I realized something: I had not memory of ever reading a book for pleasure. But there was a world of knowledge outside science and engineering, and I was tired of being ignorant of it, so I decided I would become a reader. I dived into book after book. In short, the bookworm within me had awakened.
Today, I carry a book(if not two or three) with me wherever I go. An hour-long waiting for the bus is not trouble; rather, it's a chance to enjoy a few chapters of Malcolm Gladwell's latest works. Sometimes, I wish my waiting was longer. | high7121.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Europeans' fears for tomatoes"
},
"options": [
"Europeans' fears for tomatoes",
"History of tomato planting",
"Why do people eat so many tomatoes",
"How did the tomato prove its value"
],
"question": "Which of t... | Can you imagine that several hundred years ago, tomatoes were seen as _ food in Europe?
What made Europeans believe this was John Gerard's publication of Herbal in 1597. Gerard wrote: "The leaves and stalks of the tomato plant are toxic." Undoubtedly, Gerard's opinion was based on a misunderstanding of tomatoes. But his opinion was widely spread in Britain and North America for over two hundred years.
In the late 1700s, a lot of Europeans held more fears for tomatoes. A nick name for the fruit was "poison apple" because it was believed that aristocrats got sick and died after eating them. But the actual reason was the pewter plates they used. Since tomatoes are high in acidity, when placed on the plates, the lead in the plates would dissolve . This caused many deaths. Unluckily, no one knew this at that time. So the innocent tomatoes were picked as the killer.
Today, more than one and a half billion tons of tomatoes are produced every year around the world. Tomatoes are cooked in various ways. This healthy and tasty food finally wins its innocence back. | high8212.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Plays that are not connected with thechurch."
},
"options": [
"Plays that deal with the lives of the great.",
"Plays that taught a lesson.",
"Plays based on biblical stories.",
"Plays that are not connected with thechur... | In the Middle Ages in Europe, theater was an important part of civic, economic and religious life. During this period after the fall of Roman civilization, many cities were destroyed. Southern and Western Europe, famous for its agriculture, became increasingly more agricultural. After several hundred years, many towns appeared again. The Roman Catholic Church took over religion, education and politics. What remained of theater was mostly on the Greek and Roman performing arts.
Theater was reborn as liturgical dramas. It was written in Latin and dealing with biblical stories which would be performed by church members. Then there came local dramas spoken in common language not Latin. They were more wonderful one-act dramas taking place in town squares or other parts of the city. There were three types of local dramas. Mystery or cycle plays were short dramas based on biblical stories organized into historical cycles. Miracle plays dealt with the lives of the great. Morality plays taught a lesson through characters standing for good or bad qualities. Secular plays in this period existed, but religious drama in the Middle Ages is mostly remembered today. As the Middle Ages ended, the number of religious theatres became small as the church weakened and more secular qualities won over religious theaters. | high15466.txt |
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