questions list | article stringlengths 9 6.44k | id stringlengths 9 14 |
|---|---|---|
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "war must be stopped if man wants to survive"
},
"options": [
"it is impossible to live without war",
"war will be stopped by modern skill",
"war must be stopped if man wants to survive",
"the difference between East and... | Is it possible to persuade mankind to live without war? War is an ancient custom which has existed for at least six thousand years. It was always evil and usually foolish, but in the past the human race managed to live with it. Modern skill has changed this. Either man will stop war, or war will stop man. For the present, it is nuclear weapons that cause the greatest danger, but bacteriological( ) or chemical weapons may, before long, offer an even greater threat. If we succeeded in stopping war, there would be no danger for us. To do this, we need to persuade mankind to look upon international questions in a new way, not by contests of force, in which the victory goes to the side which is most skillful in massacre ( ),but by judging in accordance with agreed rules of law. It is not easy to change old mental habits, but this is what must be attempted.
There are those who say that the adoption of this or that ideology would prevent war. I believe this to be a complete error. All ideologies are based upon beliefs without proof which are, at best, doubtful, and at worst, totally false. Those people who believe them are willing to go to war in support of them.
The movement of world opinion during the past two years has changed very largely such as we can welcome. It has become a common belief that nuclear war must be avoided. Of course, very difficult problems remain in the international world, but the spirit in which they are being approached is a better one than it was some years ago. It has begun to be thought, even by the powerful men who decide whether we shall live or die, that agreements should be reached even if both sides do not find these agreements wholly satisfactory. It has begun to be understood that the important conflict nowadays is not between East and West, but between Man and the bomb. | high13626.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "both A and C"
},
"options": [
"it was cheap",
"it was safe",
"it could make people happy",
"both A and C"
],
"question": "Cinema became the most popular in people's free time because _ .",
"question_type":... | In 1918, after four years of war which had left millions of people dead, the people alive began to look for a better and happier world. The cinema supplied an answer. For little money, people could forget their unhappy lives and dream of better ones. In the years between 1918 and 1939, going to the cinema became the most popular family free-time activity.
Hollywood in America, made more films than any other film center in the world. The warm climate and long hours of sunlight meant that film-making was easy and quite cheap. This was also a rich part of America and there were many businessmen who wanted to make money from the film industry. At first short cowboy films were popular because they added excitement and adventure to people's lives. Later comedy films were made so that people could laugh and forget their troubles.
Charlie Chaplin was probably the most liked of all comedy actors. | high1361.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "were taken a photo by him without knowing it"
},
"options": [
"held the wedding party in Bali",
"were looking for their wedding pictures",
"were taken a photo by him without knowing it",
"became famous for their honeymo... | Saber Miresmailli was on vacation in London when, caught in a bit of traffic on London Bridge, he decided to take a photo of Tower Bridge.
"I noticed the couple," he said. "At that moment, I did not see anyone from the wedding party or a photographer with the couple, so I took several pictures. Usually, my pictures are not very good given the fact that I don't use flash and I don't stop to compose --so when we get back after two weeks, I was very surprised to find this one turned out so well."
Miresmailli said, "I thought to myself, if it was me getting married, I would have wanted the picture."
So he posted the photo on Facebook and attached a few friends with the hope of finding the couple and passing them the picture. What happened next, he said, "was crazy."
"I received more than 2,000 requests from perfect strangers and lots of positive and negative emails." Until this afternoon, almost 230,000 people had shared his Facebook post on the photo.
There's also been an uncertain identification of the couple. It's likely that their names are Laura and James. "If it's the right couple," Miresmailli said, "they are on their honeymoon in Bali and have no idea about the photo. I believe they will be shocked to find out about their fame".
Miresmailli said he's been drowned by the interest in the photo.
"I just want to give them their picture and go back to work and tend my tomatoes," he said. | high14149.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "the flights to the Northeast were canceled"
},
"options": [
"they were ready to board on the planes",
"something was wrong with the terminal",
"the flights to the Northeast were canceled",
"the gate agent wouldn't help ... | When I stepped out the plane from Miami into Charlotte, North Carolina, airport for a connecting flight home, I immediately knew something was wrong. Lots of desperate people crowded the terminal. I quickly learned that flights headed to the Northeast were called off because of a storm. The earliest they could get us out of Charlotte was Tuesday. It was Friday. A gate agent stood on the counter and shouted, "Don't ask us for help! We cannot help you!"
I joined a crowd that ran from terminal to terminal in search of a flight out. Eventually, I found six strangers willing to rent a van with me. We drove through the night to Washington, where I took a train the rest of the way to Providence.
The real problem, of course, is that incidents like this happen every day, to everyone who flies, more and more often. It really gets to me, though, because for eight years I was on the other side, as a flight attendant for Trans-World Airlines (TWA).
I know the days are gone when attendants could be written up if we did not put the lines napkins with the TWA logo in the lower right-hand corner of the first-class diners' trays. As are the days when there were three dinner options on flights from Boston to Los Angeles in economy class. When, once, stuck on a tarmac in Newark for four hours, a planeload of passengers got McDonald's hamburgers and fries by thoughtfulness of the airline. I have experienced the decline of service along with the rest of the flying public. But I believe everything will change little by little, because I remember the days when to fly was to soar . The airlines, and their employees, took pride in how their passengers were treated. And I think the days are sure to come back one day in the near future. | high15257.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "To take a taxi driving on the road."
},
"options": [
"To take a taxi driving on the road.",
"To take a taxi parked outside hotels.",
"To make sure there is a meter in it.",
"To bargain with the driver over the price."
... | When you are traveling in Thailand,which means of transport is the best choice?
You can rent a variety of motorbikes or bikes in Thailand.It seems to be very popular in most of the beaches and islands along the places in the north.The most popular bikes are the little 125 cc Honda Dream which you can get for about 150 baht a day or as little as 3,000 baht per month,making it the cheapest way to tour Thailand for the people from other countries.
Sometimes you will have to go somewhere by taxi.When you are in cities in Thailand,especially in Bangkok,always remember to get a taxi that is going on the roads.Some drivers outside hotels refuse to use the milometer .They will ask a price which is several times the price when they use the meter!
The quality of the roads in Thailand is generally pretty good,so renting cars is another way to get around.The big car rental companies may offer you slightly older cars at a very reasonable price.It is a little surprising considering that the cost of buying a car in Thailand is more than that in the West.Petrol is also reasonably priced in Thailand,more expensive than American prices,but much cheaper than what is paid in Europe.In the past,Bangkok could be a difficult place to drive in--signs were generally in Thai only,making it a hard job to find exactly where you were by looking around.But now,the situation is improved.In a lot of places,even the farthest corners of the country,street signs are in both Thai and English. | high8423.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "carbon dioxide"
},
"options": [
"BPA",
"the glass",
"the microorganism",
"carbon dioxide"
],
"question": "Tap water begin to acquire an off taste because of _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
... | Do you drink water that's been left sitting out overnight or even for another day? Have you noticed it tastes different?
Tap water that has been left to sit out slowly begins to acquire an off taste. Many people think that this is because of microorganisms . But that's not what makes old water taste not fresh. For that we can thank carbon dioxide. After about 12 hours, tap water starts to go flat as carbon dioxide in the air starts to mix with the water in the glass, lowering its pH and giving it an off taste. But it's most likely safe to drink.
However, back to those microorganisms. If you use a dirty glass day after day, there is more of a chance of bacteria making themselves known; a risk that increases if you share the glass with another mouth as well. But assuming you use a fresh glass every few days, you probably won't have a problem unless the glass has been touched by dirty fingers, and especially if those dirty fingers went unwashed after using the bathroom.
As for plastic water bottles that have been left out in the sun or in the car, step away from the bottle, warns Dr. Kellogg Schwab, director of the Johns Hopkins University Water Institute. "A chemical called bisphenol-A, or BPA, along with other things used to make plastic can leach into your water if the bottle heats up or sits in the sun," he explains. BPA, as you probably know, has been linked to everything from heart disease to cancer. Schwab also adds that plastic used for commercial bottled water isn't meant to be washed or refilled, so use only one time and recycle. Or don't buy them at all; use refillable water bottles instead. | high12538.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "got to know her second husband at church"
},
"options": [
"gave birth to three children in Foxboro",
"planted forsythia bushes around her house",
"got to know her second husband at church",
"worked as a middle school te... | Flowers only bloom when they are planted in the right soil. That is also true for me.
I first moved to Foxboro, Massachusetts, as a single mother with my baby daughter, Darcy. I was drawn to its New England beauty, friendly people and rich history. It happened that there were a lot of forsythia bushes around the house in which I lived just like my childhood home. I joined St. Mark's Episcopal Church where I taught the Sunday school. At church, I met my second husband, Dean. For more than 25 years, I bloomed in Foxboro, and I had another two children.
Then, when Darcy was a few years out of college, she moved to Alameda, California, to be near friends. I missed her badly. A year later my beloved husband Dean had deadly cancer. He only made it eight months. My heart was broken. Later I moved to Alameda with my children. It was a beautiful Victorian island, and I was grateful to spend more time with Darcy. I even attended a church and made a few friends there. Still, I couldn't help but miss Foxboro. It had everything and everyone I loved.
One spring day, when I was walking by a school, something yellow caught my eyes. Forsythia bushes! They made me homesick and I kept back my tears. "I miss you, Foxboro," I whispered. Then I went into a shop and looked at some ceramic pots lined up on a shelf. A large white one seemed to catch my attention. "That'll be perfect in my living room," I thought.
I turned it over to look at the price. Instead I found these words: "New England Pottery, Foxboro, Massachusetts." A piece of artwork, from my second hometown, was right here. It was able to spread across the country and so were forsythia bushes. I took it as a sign that I can bloom, right where I am. | high3576.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "it makes people have no privacy at all"
},
"options": [
"no wonder mobile phones are used in the bathroom",
"the bathroom is a private place for people",
"it makes people have no privacy at all",
"more men have used the... | If you hear the sound of running water the next time you call a co-worker on his or her mobile phone, don't be surprised. Three-fourths of Americans with mobile phones say they use them in the bathroom, a new study shows.
Approximately the same number of men and women have used the phone in the bathroom, according to a survey of 1,000 Americans by 11mark, an integrated marketing agency, although men seem more attached to IT in the toilet: 30 percent of men versus 20 percent of women agreed with the statement, "I don't go to the bathroom without my mobile phone."
More than half the surveyed users (63 percent) said they have answered a phone call in the bathroom, and almost half (41 percent) reported _ a phone call. That's not all, however. What goes on behind the walls of the stalls is anything a mobile phone is capable of. Sixty-seven percent said they have read a text, and 39 percent have surfed the Web. Men work more from the bathroom -- 20 percent said they have participated in work-related calls, versus 13 percent of their female colleagues.
As expected, Gen Y respondents are the pacesetters in the "mobile everywhere" movement, with 91 percent using their phone in the bathroom. Still, older generations are not far behind. Eighty percent of Gen X(1961-1981) reported using the phone in the bathroom, as did 65 percent of Baby Boomers and 47 percent of the Silent Generation.
While online, they are doing more than just surfing; 16 percent of Gen Y report they have made an online purchase while in the bathroom. Users of iPhones are particularly likely to browse and buy in the bathroom - 22 percent have made a purchase, versus 10 percent of Americans with mobile phones overall.
"The writing is on the stall," said 11mark principal Nicole Burdette. "This study confirms what we all know: that the last private place is no longer private."
In the process, high-tech hygiene is taking a hit, the survey found. While 92 percent of mobile phone users said they wash their hands after using the bathroom, only 14 percent said they wash their phones. | high4219.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "He was sad for fear of not being with his mother when she died."
},
"options": [
"He was too tired and wanted to have a rest.",
"He was a shy man and didn't want to chat with strangers.",
"He was sad for fear of not being wit... | "Look, my mum's in hospital, dying, she won't survive the night, I'm going to miss the connection to Leeds at Peterborough, I'd be grateful if you'd leave me alone.Okay?"
"Okay," he said, finally getting up."Sorry to hear that, son.Hope you make it home in time." Then he left.
Ten minutes later, he was back.Oh no, I thought, "here we go again".This time I really want to rag him down the train.
He touched my arm."Listen, when we get to Peterborough, shoot straight over to Platform One as quick as you like.The Leeds train'll be there."
I said, stupidly, "What do you mean? Is it late, or something?"
"No, it isn't late," he said."No, I've just radioed Peterborough.They're going to hold the train up for you.As soon as you get on, it goes."
" Everyone will be complaining about how late it is, but let' s not worry about that on this occasion.You'll get home and that's the main thing.Good luck and God bless.
Then he was off down the train again.
I chased him down the train.I wanted to give him all the things I had, but I knew he would be offended.
I caught him up and grabbed his arm."Oh, er, I just wanted to..." I was suddenly speechless."I, if erm...
"It's okay," he said."Not a problem.
" I wish I had some way to thank you," I said." I appreciate what you've done."
"Not a problem," he said again."If you feel the need to thank me, the next time you see someone in trouble, you help them out.That will pay me back enough.Tell them to pay you back the same way and soon the world will be a better place."
I was at my mother's side when she died in the early hours of the morning. | high17440.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "they are in greater danger of tumor growth"
},
"options": [
"it is believed to contribute to a long life",
"it is part of their health care package",
"they are more sensitive about the health",
"they are in greater dang... | Our risk of cancer rises rapidly as we age. So it makes sense that the elderly should be routinely screened for new tumors or doesn't it?
While such tracking of cancer is a good thing in general, researchers are increasingly questioning whether all of this testing is necessary for the elderly. With the percentage of people over age 65 expected to nearly double by 2050, it s important to weigh the health benefits of screening against the risks and costs of routine testing.
In many cases, screening can lead to additional examinations and operations to remove cancer, which can cause side effects, while the cancers themselves may be slow-growing and may not cause serious health problems in patients' remaining years. But the message that everyone must screen for cancer has become so ingrained that when health care experts recommended that women under 50 and over 74 stop screening for breast cancer, it caused a noisy reaction among doctors, patients and social groups.
It's hard to uproot deeply-held beliefs about cancer screening with scientific data. Certainly, there are people over age 75 who have had cancers detected by routine screening, and gained several extra years of life because of treatment. And clearly, people over age 75 who have other risk factors for cancer, such as a family history or previous personal experience with the disease, should continue to get screened regularly. But for the rest, the risk of cancer, while increased at the end of life, must be balanced with other factors like remaining life expectancy.
A recent study suggests that doctors start to make more objective decisions about who will truly benefit from screening--especially considering the explosion of the elderly.
It's not an easy calculation to make, but one that makes sense for patients. Dr. Otis Brawley said, "Many doctors are ordering these tests purely to cover themselves from medical disputes. We need to think about the wise use of health care, which means making some difficult decisions with elderly patients, and going against the misguided belief that when it comes to health care, more is always better." | high5107.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The 4th wife."
},
"options": [
"The 1st wife.",
"The 2nd wife.",
"The 3rd wife.",
"The 4th wife."
],
"question": "Which wife did the merchant love most?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"a... | There was a rich merchant who had 4 wives. He loved the 4th wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to delicacies. He took great care of her and gave her nothing but the best.
He also loved the 3rd wife very much. He's very proud of her and always wanted to show her off to his friends. However, the merchant is always in great fear that she might run away with some other men.
He too, loved his 2nd wife. She is a very considerate person, always patient and in fact is the merchant's confidante. When the merchant faced some problems, he always turned to his 2nd wife and she would always help him out and tide him through difficult times.
Now, the merchant's 1st wife is a very loyal partner and has made great contributions in maintaining his wealth and business as well as taking care of the household. However, the merchant did not love the first wife and although she loved him deeply, he hardly took notice of her.
One day, the merchant fell ill. Before long, he knew that he was going to die soon. He thought of his luxurious life and told himself, "Now I have 4 wives with me. But when I die, I'll be alone. How lonely I'll be!"
Thus, he asked the 4th wife, "I loved you most, endowed you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?"
"No way!" replied the 4th wife and she turned away without another word.
The answer cut like a sharp knife right into the merchant's heart. The sad merchant then asked the 3rd wife, "I have loved you so much for all my life. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?"
"No!" replied the 3rd wife. "Life is so good over here! I'm going to remarry when you die!" The merchant's heart sank and turned cold.
He then asked the 2nd wife, "I've always turned to you for help and you've always helped me out. Now I need your help again. When I die, will you follow me and keep me company?"
"I'm sorry, I can't help you out this time!" replied the 2nd wife. "At the very most, I can only send you to your grave." The answer came like a bolt of thunder and the merchant was devastated.
Then a voice called out: "I'll leave with you. I'll follow you no matter where you go." The merchant looked up and there was his first wife. She was so skinny, almost like she suffered from malnutrition. Greatly grieved, the merchant said, "I should have taken much better care of you while I could have!"
Actually, we all have 4 wives in our lives.
The 4th wife is our body. No matter how much time and effort we lavish in making it look good, it'll leave us when we die.
Our 3rd wife is our possessions, status and wealth. When we die, they all go to others.
The 2nd wife is our family and friends. No matter how close they had been there for us when we're alive, the furthest they can stay by us is up to the grave.
The 1st wife is in fact our soul, often neglected in our pursuit of material, wealth and sensual pleasure.
Guess what? It is actually the only thing that follows us wherever we go. Perhaps it's a good idea to cultivate and strengthen it now rather than to wait until we're on our deathbed to lament. | high18773.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the managing editor"
},
"options": [
"the news editor",
"the national editor",
"the state editor",
"the managing editor"
],
"question": "If you want to apply for a job in a newspaper newsroom, you are likely to ... | The managing editor is usually the person in charge of the day-to-day editorial process of a newspaper. He or she makes sure that the newspaper comes out on time each day and that costs are kept within a budget. He or she is usually responsible for hiring and firing newsroom staff, and serves as the spokesperson for the newspaper. The managing editor may also be involved in story, photo and graphics selection, assignments, laying out pages, and editing copy and writing headlines.
The news editor is in charge of the news pages of the newspaper. He or she makes decisions on which stories are used and which are not. The news editor and his or her assistants also lay out pages of the paper.
The copy editor edits wire and local stories and writes headlines. The copy editor is often the last person to see a story before it actually appears in print.
The city editor makes sure that the news in the city is covered and that as many local stories as possible get into each edition. The city editor monitors the local general assignment, beat and specialty reporters.
The state editor supervises reporters who cover communities and areas outside the city but still within the circulation area of the newspaper.
The national editor _ reporters in bureaus in cities outside the circulation area of the newspaper. Most newspapers rely on the wire services for national news, but some have correspondents who work in other cities and report to the national editor. | high2668.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "they are required to turn to green living completely at once"
},
"options": [
"they are asked to do something to save the environment",
"they can't drive to work any more",
"they are required to turn to green living completel... | As global warming continues to be a major concern for the future of our planet,people are starting to turn to green living practices to help save it for future generations.Green living involves every aspect of our daily life from driving to work to mowing our lawns.
Making the switch to green living all at once might scare most people away from carrying out those earth-friendly changes.There are many ways to ease into this practice and still help save the earth's environment.
Air pollution is a major problem for some cities.A lot of it comes from the factories, but that's not the only way contributing to global warming.Automobiles give off a fair amount of pollutant into the air.When you have a lot of cars driving around on the city streets, you're multiplying the amounts of pollutant being emitted by each car that's destroying our ozone .If you want to save the environment,you can start by either car pooling,walking more instead of driving or even purchasing hybrid models that don't do as much damage.
Then let's take a look at your home.What kinds of bulbs are you using? The standard bulbs we use only contribute to higher electricity bills and more carbon dioxide.If you switch at least some of your standard bulbs with the compact fluorescent bulbs,you can save the environment while saving on your electric bill.
Recycling is also an excellent way to save our environment.Try to buy as many products as you can that can be recycled.The less trash that has to be burned or buried into our soil,the better off our planet will be.
These small changes may seem that they couldn't help much for the environment,but they can help tremendously.Every little bit we do is a much-needed step toward reserving natural resources for our future generations. | high17326.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the participants kept readjusting their direction of walking"
},
"options": [
"the participants kept readjusting their direction of walking",
"all the participants had a good sense of direction",
"the experiment was done in d... | A recent experiment held in Japan shows that it is almost impossible for people to walk exactly straight for 60 metres. Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology found 20 healthy men and asked them to walk as straight as possible to a target 60 metres away at normal speed. Each man had to walk on white paper fixed flat to the floor wearing wet colored socks. The footprints revealed that all walked in a winding rather than a straight line. Researchers found that people readjust the direction of walking every few seconds. The amount of the winding differed from _ to subject. This suggests that none of us can walk in a strictly straight line. We walk in a winding way mainly because of a slight structural or functional imbalance of our limbs . Although we may start walking in a straight line, several steps afterwards we have changed direction.
Eyesight helps us to correct the direction of walking and leads us to the target. Your ears also help you walk. After turning around a lot with your eyes closed, you can hardly stand still, let alone walk straight.
It's all because your ears help you balance. Inside your inner ear there is a structure which contains liquids. On the sides of the organ are many tiny hair-like structures that move around as the liquid flows. When you spin the liquid inside also spins. The difference is that when you stop, the liquid continues to spin for a while. Dizziness is the result of these nerves in your ear. When you open your eyes, although your eyesight tells you to walk in a straight line, your brain will trust your ears more, thus you walk in a curved line. | high5661.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "New technology causes trouble for recyclers."
},
"options": [
"New technology causes trouble for recyclers.",
"Experts are trying to solve the tech-trash problem.",
"New technology has both advantages and disadvantages.",
... | Picture a wasteland of old computer monitors and TVs, stretching as far as the eye can see. Imagine towers of boxes, all of them filled with broken glass and discarded electronic devices. Technology graveyards like this can be found in communities across the country.
Experts say that landfills and warehouses will overflow unless a plan for the disposal and reuse of electronics is put into place . "We can't put electronics and glass aside and tell ourselves we'll deal with them later ," Lauren Roman , managing director of Transparent Planet said. Roman's group works to improve the disposal of electronic waste. She says about 660 million pounds of tech-trash is produced each year in the U.S.
What's behind the tech trash pile-up ?About ten years ago ,major advances were made in computer and television technology . Manufacturers began producing devices like flat -paneled LCDs and plasma screen monitors. These new products provide a clearer image and take up less space than older models. It goes without saying that consumers choose them rather than heavy glass-based technologies.
The new electronics are built with materials that are difficult to recycle. In addition, the new products have decreased the demand for recycled parts from the older monitors and screens. Older, heavier computer monitors and TVs used glass-based components called CRTs.
CRTs have a high lead content and can be environmentally hazardous if not recycled properly . If crushed and put in landfills, the lead from CUTs could seep into groundwater and rivers, harming the water supply. For many years, plants and recycling programs safely processed CRTs. The recycled CRTs were reused in the construction of new monitors.
Monitors being made today do not use glass tubes . "People are returning old -style TVs with CRTs , but no new ones are being made ," said Linnell. This is creating an imbalance in the amount of glass being disposed of and recycled properly. Many recycling companies have shut down. Others no longer have the resources or space to process these materials. This results in stockpiling.
However , experts say there are ways to safely and responsibly address the tech-trash problem. | high18015.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Three"
},
"options": [
"Three",
"Two",
"One",
"Four"
],
"question": "How many reasons for reading a book does the author mention in the passage?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
"answer... | The holiday is upon us. Finally, after months of study, you have some time to yourself. So, why not read a book? Well, some people will say, "Why bother with books? We have the Internet and other media that offer a lot of more colorful entertainment. Books are history!" But don't be fooled. I'm sure there's still a lot to be said for reading.
One clear reason is that a well-chosen book is a wonderful source of vocabulary, so long as you have a good dictionary, of course. Believe me, it's far easier to get new English words and phrases from a book or an article than it is from the TV or the Internet.
But another more important point is that books give you something that modern media simply can not. The average webpage is picture-heavy and the text is often designed to make it as easy to read as possible. While "easy" may be attractive, unfortunately it's of little use for any long-term development of reading skills and the general language level. Because of that, there's still no substitute of a book.
But perhaps the best single reason is that simply choosing what you read and doing it independently means that it's something you do by and for yourself. You can choose what you want to read. It's hard work, but somewhere down the line, you'll find that what once seemed like a duty is now a pleasure. | high16038.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "How to teach a child about money."
},
"options": [
"How to develop a child's early habits.",
"How to work up an amount of pocket money.",
"How to teach a child about money.",
"How to teach a child to save money."
],... | An allowance is an important tool for teaching kids how to make plans for the use of money, save and make their own decisions. Children remember and learn from mistakes when their own dollars are lost or spent foolishly.
How large an allowance is suitable? Experts say there is not right amount. Actual amounts differ from region to region, and from family to family.
To set an suitable allowance for your child, work up a weekly plan. Allow for entertainment costs such as movies and snacks. Next, include everyday expenses such as lunch money, bus fare, school supplies. "If you make the child responsible for these bills'," says Josephine Swanson, a consumer specialist, " he or she will learn to plan for necessary costs."
Finally, add some extra money to make saving possible. If you can keep your child's allowance in line with that of his friends. A child whose buying power falls away below his peers' can feel left out.
It can be tough, but don't excuse your children when they make a mistake with their allowance. When Brooke Stephens was ten and growing up in Jacksonville, her mother gave her $5 a week, $1.75 of which was for bus fare and lunch." If you lose your money," Brooke's mother told her, "you walk home."
One week the girl spent all her allowance in a candy store, then she called home for a ride. " Mom made me walk home," recalls Stephens, now a financial planner in Brooklyn. " At first I was angry. But I finally realized that she was trying to teach me an important lesson. "
Experts advise that an allowance should not be tied directly to a child's daily housework at home. Kids should help around the house not because they get paid for it but because they share responsibilities as members of a family. You might, however, pay a child for doing extra jobs at home, which can develop his or her early habits. | high3210.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "couples share the burdens"
},
"options": [
"men begin to depend on women",
"couples share the burdens",
"men are responsible for housework",
"couples can't get along together"
],
"question": "Nowadays, in a fami... | One of the most striking findings of a recent questionnaire in the UK is that of the people interviewed, one in two believes that it is becoming more difficult to meet someone to start a family with.
Why are many people finding it increasingly difficult to start and keep close relationships? Does modern life really make it harder to fall in love? Or are we making it harder for ourselves?
It is certainly the case today that nowadays couples benefit in different ways from relationships. Women no longer rely upon partners for economic security or status. A man doesn't expect his wife to be in sole charge of running his household and raising his children.
But perhaps the knowledge that we can live perfectly well without a partnership means that it takes much more to persuade people to abandon their independence.
In theory, finding a partner should be much simpler these days. Only a few generations ago,your choice of soul mate was limited by geography, social convention and family tradition. Although it was never clear, many marriages were essentially arranged. Now those barriers have been broken down. You can approach a builder or a brain surgeon in any bar in any city on any given evening. When the world is your oyster , you surely have a better chance of finding a pearl.
But it seems that the traditions have been replaced by an even tighter restriction:the limitation of choice. The expectations of partners are made greater to an unmanageable degree:good looks, impressive salary, kind to grandmother, and so on. There is no room for error in the first impression.
We think that a relationship can be perfect. If it isn't,it is intended to be thrown away. We work to protect ourselves against future heartache and don't put in the hard emotional labor needed to build a strong relationship. Twelve-hour work at the office makes relaxed after-hours dating difficult. The cost of housing and child-raising creates pressure to have a stable income and career before a life partnership. | high7076.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "the Booker Prize Foundation"
},
"options": [
"the disagreement between two groups",
"the Booker Prize Foundation",
"the Big Food Group",
"The new development of Booker Prize"
],
"question": "The article is mainl... | London, April 28---The Man Group, a British hedge fund, is betting that investors will want to read more than the latest how-to- get -rich-quick business book.
In a five-year deal worth roughly $3.6 million announced last week, Man has agreed to sponsor the Booker Prize for Fiction, which will be renamed the Man Booker Prize. Since creating the award in 1969, Booker P.L.G., a British food group, in June 2000, executives began considering attracting outside sponsors. Man will be the first of these. Bill Grimsey, the chief of the Big Food Group, saw little business sense in a link between a food supplier and a literary prize, explained Dotti Irving, a spokeswoman for the Booker Prize foundation.
Such dissimilarities have not reduced Man's enthusiasm for the prize which is expected to be open for the first time to American authors. David Browne, a spokesman for Man, said most of the firm's investors are high-net-worth individuals who appreciate literature. "The people who buy hedge funds," Mr. Browne said, "also read."
Under the new agreement, authors will get more money. The winner of the annual prize, to be awarded in October, will receive $73,000 , up from $30,000 the Australian writer Peter Carey won last year for his novel "True History of the Kelley Gang."
The six short-listed authors will each receive $3,600, up from $1,500. Having a hedge fund as a backer apparently has its perks. . | high15531.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "try to keep a distance from other people"
},
"options": [
"turn around and greet one another",
"look around or examine their phone",
"try to keep a distance from other people",
"make eye contact with those in the elevat... | You may not pay much attention to your daily elevator ride. Many of us use a lift several times during the day without really thinking about it. But Lee Gray, PhD of the University of North Carolina, US, has made it his business to examine this overlooked form of public transport. He is known as the "Elevator Guy".
"The lift becomes this interesting social space where etiquette is sort of odd ," Gray told the BBC. "Elevators are socially very interesting but often very awkward places."
We walk in and usually turn around to face the door. If someone else comes in, we may have to move. And here, according to Gray, lift users unthinkingly go through a set pattern of movements. He told the BBC what he had observed.
He explained that when you are the only one inside a lift, you can do whatever you want - it's your own little box.
If there are two of you, you go into different corners, standing diagonally across from each other to create distance.
When a third person enters, you will unconsciously form a triangle . And when there is a fourth person it becomes a square, with someone in every corner. A fifth person is probably going to have to stand in the middle.
New entrants to the lift will need to _ the situation when the doors slide open and then act according to their decisions. Once in, for most people the rule is simple - look down, or look at your phone.
Why are we so awkward in lifts?
"You don't have enough space," Professor Babette Renneberg, a clinical psychologist at the Free University of Berlin, told the BBC. "Usually when we meet other people, we have about an arm's length of distance between us. And that's not possible in most elevators."
In such a small, enclosed space it becomes very important to act in a way that cannot be understood as threatening or odd. "The easiest way to do this is to avoid eye contact ," she said. | high6368.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "she had been cut off from the rest of the world for many years"
},
"options": [
"she had worked for a religious community for a long time",
"she had been cut off from the rest of the world for many years",
"the community wher... | The Linguistic Habits of a New Generation
In the year of 1914 a young girl named Monica Baldwin entered a convent ,remaining there until 1941 when she returned to the outer world. During these twenty-eight years wars and revolutions had come and gone in Europe. Her uncle, Stanley Baldwin, had led his country for some time. Technical developments had changed the conditions of everyday life almost beyond recognitions, but all these events had left as a matter of fact untouched the small religious community to which she had belonged. In 1949 Miss Baldwin published her impressions of those bewildering years of her return to a world in which the motorcar had replaced the horse and carriage and where respectable women showed their legs and painted their faces.
Yet it was not only these odd sights that surprised her, for she was more puzzled by what she heard. During a railway journey the term "luggage in advance" meant nothing to her, so in desperation she asked the porter to do as he thought best. Reading the newspapers made her feel very stupid, because the writers of reviews and leading articles used words and phrases such as Jazz,prefix = st1 /Hollywood, Cocktail and Isolationism. These and many others were quite incomprehensible to Miss Baldwin, who was really bewildered when friends said: "It's your funeral or Believe it or not." This is a rare and valuable reminder to the rest of us that the English language does not stand still. All language changes over a period of time for reasons which are imperfectly understood. Or rather since speech is really a form of human activity, it is more exact to say that each successive generation behaves linguistically in a slightly different manner from its predecessors(,). In his teens the young man likes to show how up-to-date he is by the use of the latest slang , but as the years go by some of his slang becomes standard usage and in any case he slowly grows less receptive to linguistic novelties(,),so that by the time he reaches his forties he will probably be unware that some of the expressions and pronunciations now being used were frowned upon by his own parents. In this respect language is a little like fashions in people's dress. The informal clothes of one generation become the everyday wear of the next, and just as young doctors and bank clerks nowadays go about their business in sports jackets, they are allowed into their normal vocabulary expressions which were once limited to slang and familiar conversation. | high23083.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "one of the highest international honors"
},
"options": [
"the highest honor in the world",
"one of the highest international honors",
"a higher honor than others",
"as high as any other honor"
],
"question": "Mo... | A Nobel Prize is considered by most people one of the highest international honors a person can receive. As you know, the prizes were started by a Sweden called Sweden Alfred Nobel. Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, and lived from 1833 to 1896.
Alfred Nobel was a chemist and inventor. He made two important inventions, so he became very rich. Although he was rich, Nobel was not a happy man. He never married or had children. Also, he was a sick man in large part of his life. Nobel died at the age of sixty-three. When he died, he left a fund of $9,000,000. The money was to be used in giving prizes to those who made outstanding achievement in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and the promotion of the world peace.
The first Nobel Prize were given on December 10th,1901, five years after Nobel's death. Many famous people all over the world have been given Nobel Prizes for their achievements. Albert Einstein was one of them.
Each prize has three parts. The first part is a gold medal. Second, a winner of a Nobel Prize is given a diploma saying that he has been given the prize. The third part of the prize is a large amount of money---about $40,000.
Often a prize is given to just one person, but not always. Sometimes a prize is shared. It might be given to two or more people who have worked together. It is also sometimes true that a prize is not given at all if there is no outstanding achievement. In 1972, for example, not a Nobel Prize was given. It is the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm that decides whether to give the prize or not. | high193.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "They have been proven to cause better health in the general population."
},
"options": [
"They are the tips on the ends of chromosomes.",
"The older a man gets, the shorter they become.",
"Some researchers have connected them... | Finally, there is some good news for older dads. A new study shows that their children and even grandchildren may get a health benefit because of their older age. It's based on research into something called telomeres--tips on the ends of chromosomes
Some previous studies have connected having longer telomeres with better health and longer lives. Telomeres haven't been proven to cause those benefits in the general population, but a number of researchers think they may hold secrets for things like longevity and cancer.
As you age, telomeres shorten. However, previous studies have shown that the older a man is when he becomes a father, the longer the telomeres his children tend to have. The new research confirms that and finds it's extended to the grandchildren. That's a cheerier result for older dads than some other studies in recent years that indicate their kids are at higher risk for things like autism
Carol Greider of Johns Hopkins University, who shared a Nobel Prize in 2009 for telomere research but didn't participate in the new study, said it's no surprise that the telomere effect would extend beyond children to grandchildren. She also said that since older fathers also tend to pass more potentially harmful genetic mutations , it's "not at all clear" whether advanced paternal age gives an overall health benefit to children. In a statement, the researchers who conducted the study said their study shouldn't be taken as a recommendation that men reproduce at older ages because there's a risk of genetic mutations.
Some previous studies of the impact of older fatherhood have been less encouraging. In 2010, for example, at least two big studies confirmed a link to having children with autism. In 2008, a big Swedish study strengthened evidence linking bipolar disorder to older paternal ages. | high23068.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "some expert has given a warning."
},
"options": [
"they have evidence the use of cellphone can lead to cancer.",
"they make a fuss over cellphone use.",
"some expert has given a warning.",
"cellphones are responsible fo... | Cellphones: is there a cancer link?
Could your cellphone give you cancer? Whether it could or not, some people are worrying about the possibility that phones, power lines and wi-fi could be responsible for a range of illnesses, from rashes to brain tumors.
Some say there is evidence to support the growing anxieties. David Carpenter, a professor of environmental health sciences at the university at Albany, in New York, thinks there's a greater than 95 percent chance that power lines can cause childhood leukemia . Also there's a greater than 90 percent chance that cellphones can cause brain tumors. "It's apparent now that there's a real risk," said Carpenter.
But others believe these concerns are unjustified. Dr Martha Linet, the head of radiation epidemiology at the US National Cancer Institute, has looked at the same research as Carpenter but has reached a different conclusion. "I don't support warning labels for cellphones," said Linet. "We don't have the evidence that there's much danger."
Studies so far suggest a weak connection between EMFs and illness -- so weak that it might not exist at all. A multinational investigation of cellphones and brain cancer, in 13 countries outside the US, has been _ for several years. It's funded in part by the European Union, in part by a cellphone industry group. The final report should come out later this year, but data so far don't suggest a strong link between cellphone use and cancer risk. | high178.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "An Unexpected Meeting at the Supermarket"
},
"options": [
"An Unexpected Meeting at the Supermarket",
"A Foolish Mother",
"A Total of $ 127.5 at the Supermarket",
"A Mother and Her Son"
],
"question": "Which of ... | A young man was walking through a supermarket to pick up a few things when he noticed an old lady following him around. Thinking nothing of it,he ignored her and continued on. Finally, he went to the checkout line, but she got in front of him. "Pardon me," she said, " I'm sorry if my staring at you has made you feel uncomfortable. It's just that you look just like my son who just died recently."
"I'm very sorry," replied the young man, "Is there anything I can do for you?" "Yes," she said, "As I'm leaving, can you say 'Goodbye mother'? It would make me feel much better". "Sure," answered the young man.
As the old lady was leaving the counter, he called out from behind her, "Goodbye mother!" As he stepped up to the checkout counter and put what he bought on the counter, he saw that his total was $127.5. "How can that be?" he asked, "I only bought a few things!" " Your mother said that you would pay for her." said the clerk. | high22376.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "By doing some housework for the family."
},
"options": [
"By mowing lawn in summer.",
"By clearing snow from sidewalks and driveways in winter.",
"By working two to three hours after school and all day on Saturday or Sunday."... | Many American youngsters earn their own allowance by doing temporary jobs for their neighbors. Babysitting is one of the common of these jobs. Most couples do not have maids or relatives living with them, and they need to have someone watch the children if they want to go out.
Another way is by mowing lawn in summer and clearing snow from sidewalks and driveways in winter. Many people mow their own lawns,but often people prefer to give the job to a neighbor's child. In winter, snow clearing from streets and highways is the government's responsibility. Homeowners or tenants, however, must clear sidewalks and driveways. Since clearing snow is very tiring, many people prefer to hire teenagers for this job rather than do it themselves.
Besides, many American teenagers usually work two to three hours after school and all day on Saturday or Sunday at the local supermarket. They work as cashiers or stockroom clerks. Or they help customers carry things to their cars. Other favorite jobs are waiting on tables in restaurants or working part-time at stores or gas stations.
By earning their own allowance,teenagers acquire a feeling of independence and a sense of responsibility which prepares them for a productive life in society. | high4594.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Thin and worn out."
},
"options": [
"Too weak to walk.",
"Thin and worn out.",
"Unable to eat food.",
"Homeless but gentle."
],
"question": "How was the dog when found?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"... | My wife Julie and I were out on the road that runs around where we live, when we saw an old worn-out dog stumbling painfully up the road. We stopped, bent down, talked gently to the dog and patted it. I checked and there was a collar with a phone number. I called but no one answered.
The dog was painfully thin. So Julie ran home to get some of our dog's food while I tried to encourage the dog. After Julie came back, we sat down on the sidewalk while our new friend made short work of the food. Eventually we got her home.
After trying for many times we got a response from the number. A lady came around with a bunch of flowers for us. She explained that Tara had been her father's dog. She was very old and got lost that morning. So, Tara was safely returned home.
Here is the truth of the story:
Actually Julie and I were out that morning because I was leaving. She was trying to persuade me to come back, but I wasn't hearing anything that made that sound likely.
I was about to turn and go when an old black dog walked between us and almost fell down. Suddenly we had something more important than _ to worry about. There was a creature in need right before us and we had to work together to help it.
We did help it. And here I am writing the story in my own home, in my own family.
In the song "Love Is Not a Fight" Warren Barfield talks about marriage. At one point he sings, "And if we try to leave, may God send angels to guard the door."
Sometimes angels come disguised as dogs. | high5852.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The length of time."
},
"options": [
"The survival instinct.",
"The civilized behavior.",
"The leadership of the captain.",
"The length of time."
],
"question": "According to Benno Torgler, what led to the diffe... | Whether it is "women and children first" or "every man for himself" in a shipwreck may depend on how long it takes the ship to sink, researchers said recently.
When the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German ship in 1915, it sank in 18 minutes and the majority of the survivors were young men and women who responded immediately to their powerful survival instincts .
But when the Titanic struck an iceberg in 1912, it took "three hours to go down, allowing time for more civilize behavior to take control--and the majority of the survivors were women, children and people with young children.
Economist Benno Torgler of the Queensland University of Technology in Australia and his colleagues studied the two sinkings in order to explore the economic theory that people generally behave in a "rational" and selfish manner. The two tragedies provided a "natural experiment" for testing the idea, because the passengers on the two ships were quite similar in terms of gender and wealth.
The major difference was how long it took the ships to sink. They suggested that when people have little time to react, instincts may rule. When more time is available, social influences play a bigger role. But psychologists noted that many factors other than following social norms could come into play in a disaster, including an evolutionary urge to save the species, attachments that are formed between individuals during the event and the leadership of authority figures.
The extent of altruism and how it occurs "is a very controversial issue," said Anthony R. Mawson, a professor of preventive medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.He thinks the dominant response was attachment behavior.
Psychologist Daniel Kruger of the University of Michigan, US thinks that the answer lies less in social norms and more in our evolutionary heritage. Human beings have a deep instinct to preserve our kind, he said, and that means "people are more likely to save those who have higher reproductive value, namely the young and women in child-bearing years".
Kruger also stressed the importance of leadership during a disaster, noting that the Titanic's captain appeared to have greater control than the Lusitania's. | high20561.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Chinese manners"
},
"options": [
"Chinese proverbs",
"Chinese humour",
"Chinese manners",
"Chinese languages"
],
"question": "The passage is mainly about _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
}
] | China is known as a state of manners and ceremony . Many proverbs have been passed down from generation to generation such as "Polite behavior costs nothing" or "Showing respect demands reciprocity " and so on. For instance, there is an interesting short story. Once upon a time, a man went on a long tour to visit his friend with a swan as a gift. But it escaped from the cage on the way. Though he tried hard, he got hold of nothing but a feather . Instead of returning home, he continued his journey with the swan feather. When his friend received this unexpected gift, he was deeply moved. And the saying "The gift is nothing much, but it's the thought that counts." was spread far and wide.
Chinese used to cup one hand in the other before the chest as a greeting. This tradition has a history of more than 2, 000 years and nowadays it is seldom used except in the Spring Festival. And shaking hands is more popular on some formal occasions. Bowing, as to show respect to the higher level, is often used by the lower like subordinates , students, and attendants . But at present Chinese youngsters prefer to simply nod as a greeting. In a way, this development shows the ever-increasing pace of modern life.
It is common social practice to introduce the junior to the senior, or the familiar to the unfamiliar. When you start a talk with a stranger, the topics such as weather, food, or hobbies may be good choices to break the ice. For a man, a chat about current affairs , sports, stock market or his job can usually go on smoothly. Similar to Western customs, you should be careful to ask a woman private questions. However, relaxing talks about her job or family life will never put you into danger. She is usually glad to offer you some advice on how to cook Chinese food or get used to local life. Things will be quite different when you've gotten to know them. Though Chinese are said to be implicit , they are actually humorous enough to be pleased about the jokes of Americans. | high20207.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Love Is Sacrificial Action!"
},
"options": [
"A Petting Zoo.",
"Try Your Best to Help Others.",
"An Attractive Shopping Centre.",
"Love Is Sacrificial Action!"
],
"question": "What is the best title for this pas... | I took my 9-year-old daughter,Suzan and 5-year-old son,Robbie to the shopping centre.As we got there,we saw a big sign that said,"Petting Zoo".The kids jumped up and asked,"Daddy,can we go?"
Both my wife and I were out of work.However,I said,"Sure",giving them a quarter each. They went away, leaving only fifty cents left in my pocket.
A petting zoo is made up of a hundred of little baby animals of all kinds.Kids pay their money and stay in the enclosure pleased with the little animals while their parents shop.
A few minutes later,I saw Suzan walking along behind me.I was surprised and asked what was wrong.
She said sadly,"Well,Daddy,a ticket for Petting Zoo costs fifty cents.So I gave Robbie my quarter." Then she said _ I ever heard.She repeated the family motto ,which is "Love is Action!"
I knew clearly no one loves little animals more than Suzan. She had watched both my wife and me do and say "Love is Action!" for years,and now she had put it into her lifestyle.It had become part of her,because she knew the whole family motto.It's not only "Love is Action";it's "Love is SACRIFICAL Action!" Love always pays a price.
I was moved.We went back to the Petting Zoo.Suzan stood with her hands and chin resting on the fence and just watched Robbie go crazy petting and feeding the animals.I had fifty cents burning a hole in my pocket. I put my hand into my pocket and took out the money.Sure,I must do that ! | high2683.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Because all their attention was focused on the offering."
},
"options": [
"Because there was no other sound at that time.",
"Because all their attention was focused on the offering.",
"Because the sound was too loud at that t... | Just as they were getting ready to leave the street corner, they noticed a man walking toward them. He was obviously a wealthy man ---- they could tell that from the finely tailored business suit he was wearing and the gold watch chain that decorated his left pocket.
The first beggar whispered to the second with excitement, "He's coming our way!"
The two tried not to look directly at the man as he stepped closer to them, but they couldn't help glaring at him with expectation as he reached into his pocket and took something out.
"Thunk" was the only sound they heard as what looked like a piece of hard candy, wrapped doubly in tissue paper, hit each of their waiting hats. The rich man turned and continued on his way, not making a backward glance.
"How disgusting !" said the first beggar, as soon as the rich man was out of sound range. "He could have easily left us a few coins or a spare bill, but he tricks us with a piece of rock candy."
He looked at the wrapped offering with disgust. "Who does he think we are ---- children? There's no way we can even eat this ---- we have no teeth."
The beggar picked up the object with the very tips of his fingers and threw it into the gutter . He watched as it floated a few yards in the stream of smelly water and disappeared at the end of the street. Then, he gathered up his things and walked away.
The second beggar looked down at the candy in his hat, then at his departing friend. His first impulse was to throw the donation in the trashcan under the street light. But his second thought made him change his mind.
"I haven't had anything like this for ages," he thought. "I can't chew it, but I can suck on it for a while, and the sugary juices will stay in my mouth for a long time. How nice of that man to offer me something so sweet."
He eagerly opened the paper outside, then paused as his hands touched the white tissue paper inside. "Maybe I should save it for another time," he thought. "It won't spoil, and I could eat it later when I'm really hungry."
The beggar hesitated for a moment, then declared aloud, "Who cares? He wanted me to have it anyway. I might as well enjoy it now."
With that, he unwrapped the white tissue paper, but to his surprise, there was no hard rock candy inside. Instead, into his fingers fell a shiny white pearl worth thousands of dollars. | high18940.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Because she expected that the pain would gradually disappear."
},
"options": [
"Because she was afraid that her brother would laugh at her.",
"Because she thought it was too cold to step out of her room.",
"Because she expect... | One morning, I stepped out of bed and put my feet on the floor. Suddenly, a mean little man jumped out from under the bed and stabbed (,) an ice pick through my left foot.
Figuratively speaking, yes.
I took another step and he stabbed it again. This went on all day. Step, stab, scream. Over the next few days, I started limping . My whole body hurt. Even my hair. I kept thinking that the little man would get tired of stabbing me and go pick on somebody else.We often take things for granted until we lose them or they start to hurt.
My brother deals with pain every day. He's also blind and suffers from cerebral palsy , needs a walker to walk, doesn't take much for granted. I had to wonder: What would he think about my foot?
Finally, after a week of pain, I went to see a very nice foot doctor. The doctor studied my foot, took X-rays, shook his head, and said the little man's name: Arthur Itis, or Arthritis .
I knew it well. I'd often heard it hissed angrily by my grandparents and parents, all attacked by Arthur's ice pick when they got older.
"Wait," I said. "Doesn't Arthur usually just pick on old people?"
The doctor smiled, looking at my chart. "How old are you?"
I gave him a look. "Never mind," I said. "Can you fix it?"
"Well," he said, "we can try."
He listed several options and I chose the injection . It didn't hurt much. Not half as much as the ice pick.
That was yesterday. This morning, I awoke, took a few careful steps and ... hallelujah!It hurt just a bit, but no ice pick. I looked under the bed. No sign of Arthur. Maybe he was hiding in the closet, waiting for another day.But for now, he was gone, and I was grateful.My mind began to race with plans to do all the things I'd been putting off for days:unpack, clean the house, wash my hair ...
Then it hit me. Another stab. Not in my foot. In my heart. I remembered that I hadn't called my brother in a long time.
It's easy to take some things for granted. But it should never be the people we love. | high19486.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "2 ."
},
"options": [
"2 .",
"3.",
"4 .",
"5."
],
"question": "How many different angles can Gaia focus at each time?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
... | A telescope , called Gaia, is being designed by astronomers in Europe, and it couldn't be more different from Pan-STARRS, which is another telescope being designed. While Pan-STARRS will be looking for asteroids and comets headed for Earth, Gaia will be looking at our entire galaxy .
Gaia is designed to draw a map of the Milky Way, our home galaxy. Just as a map of your town gives you a picture of where things are located, Gaia's map of the galaxy will tell astronomers where the stars are. Over five years, Gaia will observe about a billion stars and other objects in our galaxy. Each object will be observed about 70 times.
Gaia will be sent into space connected to a rocket. It contains two telescopes, each focused at a different angle . These two telescopes act like Gaia's "eyes". The reason why humans can see things in 3D is that we have two eyes focused on the same object, at slightly different angles. By using two telescopes like eyes, Gaia can produce the first 3D map of the positions of the stars it views.
Gaia, which is to be sent into space in 2011, will be a powerful telescope. If you were to use it on Earth, for example, you could stand 600 miles away from your best friends and still get a clear picture of their hair.
Gaia is one of more than a dozen telescopes being designed by scientists right now. The next generation of telescopes will reveal new parts of our universe that will seem surprising. The universe, with all its planets, stars and other strange objects, is a puzzle with pieces that we can see by using powerful telescopes. | high13815.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "a few of the smokers"
},
"options": [
"most of the smokers",
"None of the smokers",
"a few of the smokers",
"a quarter of the smokers"
],
"question": "According to the passage, _ succeeded in giving up smoki... | Promised yourself to quit smoking in the new year, but just can't stop lighting up? You're not alone, with an Australian survey showing that only 3 percent of smokers who made such resolutions stuck with them.
An online poll of just over 1,000 people, conducted ahead of the launch of a video game designed to help smokers quit, showed one in four Australians made New Year's resolutions to quit ---- but more than half went back on their word within a week.Some 15 percent lit up within hours of making the pledge, the survey showed,
The research revealed that seven out of ten smokers have tried to kick the habit at some point.
"Our research shows that the majority of smokers in Australia want to quit but are struggling to stick to their resolution.For most people, the desire to stop smoking is not enough, "Edward Fong, general manager of Ubisoft, the videogame manufacturer selling the anti-- smoking software, said in a statement.
According to the survey, Australian smokers light up an average of 13.8 cigarettes every day or 5,037 cigarettes a year.There are currently 2.63 million smokers in Australia, which equates to 16 percent of the population over the age of 18, with women on average making more attempts to quit than men.The World Health Organization says smoking kills about 4 million people each year, causing a quarter of deaths related to heart disease.The organization estimates that by 2030, more than 8 million people will die from tobacco - related causes each year, mainly in developing countries. | high7923.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "More interesting."
},
"options": [
"A bit unusual",
"Full of tricks.",
"Less costly.",
"More interesting."
],
"question": "What does the author think of the parties in London?",
"question_type": null
},
... | I hated dinner parties. But I decided to give them another shot because I'm in London. And my friend Mallery invited me. And because dinner parties in London are very different from those back in New York. There, 'I'm having a dinner party' means: 'I'm booking a table for 12 at a restaurant you can't afford and we'll be sharing the checque evenly, no matter what you eat.' Worse, in Manhattan there is always someone who leaves before the bill arrives. They'll throw down cash, half of what they owe, and then people like me, who don't drink, end up paying even more. But if I try to use the same trick, the hostess will shout: "Where are you going?" And it's not like I can say I have somewhere to go: everyone knows I have nowhere to go.
But in London, dinner parties are in people's homes. Not only that, the guests are an interesting mix. The last time I went to one, the guests were from France, India, Denmark and Nigeria; it was like a gathering at the United Nations in New York. The mix is less striking. It's like a gathering at Bloomingdale's, a well-known department store.
For New Yorkers, talking about other parts of the world means Brooklyn and Queens in New York. But at Mallery's, when I said that I had been to Myanmar recently, people knew where it was. In New York people would think it was a usual new club | high24061.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Late risers."
},
"options": [
"Late risers.",
"Businessmen.",
"Animal lovers.",
"Sleep experts."
],
"question": "According to the text, who belong to the B-Society?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
}... | A group of people from Denmark have formed the B-Society. According to them, human beings are divided into types: A-People, and B-People. A-People have no problem getting up in the morning, and operate much better earlier in the day. However, B-people are better later in the day. "I'm useless early in the morning," says one of the members of the B-Society."All I can do is drink coffee, and stare into space. People used to get up early because they had to feed the animals. But I haven't got any cows or chickens, so I can sleep late," She adds. Since the society was set up, the B-Society has welcomed several thousand members.
Right now, the B-Society is fighting hard for businesses to join its B-certification list. Companies that are "B-certified" basically give their employees the opportunity to come in when they want. In some companies, employees arrive at any time up to 3:30 pm --- each to their own rhythm .
And it is not just businesses that are benefiting from this. Teenagers who can't get out of bed in the morning, and parents who never quite get the kids to school on time, can now benefit from B-classes. From next year, a school in Copenhagen will offer classes which start later in the day (at 10 instead of eight). And even the government seems to like the idea.
The B-Society was founded by Camilla Kring, a professor from the University of Copenhagen. On her website, she says, "When B-people's work rhythms are considered at the work place, their productivity and quality of life is increased, which can increase productivity for the entire organization."
She adds that, "B-Society will create a new daily rhythm in schools and other institutions as an alternative to the current rhythm of 'early at work and early at home'. We are working for the establishment of kindergartens, primary and secondary schools as well as universities that open between 10 am and 8 pm."
Would you like to work for a B-certified company? | high13801.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "introducing a new car"
},
"options": [
"how to charge the handheld video game up",
"explaining a newly-developed battery",
"introducing a new car",
"telling us how to make the new battery cheaper"
],
"question":... | When a handheld video game runs out of power, all you have to do is plug it in and charge it up. Within a few years, some of you might do the same thing with mom's car.
Automobile companies are developing vehiclesthat will plug into electricsockets , just like many laptops, digitalcameras, cell phones and small video game players do. Called "plug-inhybrids ," these cars will get most of their power from electricity. Their drivers will rarely haveto stop at gas stations.
The technology is more than just cool. In our automobile-filled world, plug-in vehicles could reduce the amount of gasoline we use. That gas is made from crude oil, which has been kept rising in cost. Plus, driving around in these hybrids may even help the environment. Gas-burning cars produce a lot of carbon dioxide, a type of greenhouse gas. These gases stay in the atmosphere, where theytrapheat and cause global warming.
The first company-produced plug-in hybrids could hitthe roads by 20l0. But engineers still have a lot of work to do to make the technology practical and inexpensive.
Batteries are the biggest challenge. In the plug-in-hybrid world, Li-ion batteries are getting the most attention. These batteries can store a large amount of energy in a small package, and they last a ly long time between charges. Li-ion batteries are standard in laptops, cell phones, heart devicesand similarportabledevices.
But because cars are so big and heavy, it would still require a suitcase-sized Li-ion battery to power about l2km of driving. What's more, the batteries are extremely expensive.
"A car filled with batteries could go a long distance," says Ted Bohn, an electrical engineer in prefix = st1 /Chicago. "But it couldn'thaul any people, and it would cost $l00,000."
So researchers need to figure out how to make batteries smaller and cheaper, among other questions.
"The answers don't exist yet," Bohn says. "As a kid I thought someone someplace knows the answer to everything. All of these questions haven't been decided. That's what engineering is about -- making a guess, running tests and fine-tuningresults." | high24075.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "starting his car again"
},
"options": [
"seeing her off at the bus station",
"starting his car again",
"she got off the car",
"she got on the bus"
],
"question": "The writer saw his daughter's purse right after_... | Our daughter Kerrin, a student at Boston University, had been home for a week-end visit, and I dropped her off at the bus station just in time for her back to college. After Kerrin's bus had gone and I was driving away, I noticed that she had left her purse on the passenger seat. Worried that she would arrive in Boston without money or keys to her room, I called my wife, Bette Jean, on the car phone, explaining why I would be late. As I was following the bus, Bette Jean phoned me back to say she had phoned the bus dispatcher on the other line and he, in return, had phoned the bus driver on yet another phone. The driver asked me to wave out of my window to show where I was. Then he pulled over at a rest stop, and I did the same. Kerrin jumped off the bus, and I handed her the purse and went on my way. | high92.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "All of the above."
},
"options": [
"It would be able to keep our history.",
"It would be possible to take care of important historic places.",
"They would have money to do some repairs if a monument needed help.",
"All ... | Our children and grandchildren may not have a chance to visit many of the most famous places around the world. War, weather, age, traffic and pollution damage these famous places. Looking after these places often costs more than one country can afford.
In the early 1970s, world governments decided that if they joined together, they would be able to preserve our history. If every country paid some money, they said, it would be possible to look after important historic places. Also, if they discovered that a monument needed urgent help, they would have money for repairs. For these reasons, countries around the world united to form the World Heritage Organization in 1972. Today, the organization helps to maintain and restore the most important places from our history.
However, one of the biggest problems for historic places is vandalism. People sometimes enter the sites and destroy or damage the buildings. At some sites, such as Stonehenge in England, governments have built high fences to protect the site from vandals.
There are many different ideas about how to solve the problem of vandalism. Some experts say that if guards patrolled the sites, vandals would not be able to get in. Some experts say that if they fixed more television cameras, they would not need so many guards. Other experts say that the best solution is education. If people learned to respect history, they would not destroy or damage it. They would also want to spend money looking after old places. For this reason, the World Heritage Organization helps to spread information about the value of historic sites. | high16979.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "He felt the Christmas spirit was lost in commercialized gift buying."
},
"options": [
"He found each Christmas was just the same as another.",
"He felt Christmas was ruined by constantly having to rush around.",
"He couldn't ... | A small, white envelope has peeked through the branches of our Christmas tree for the past 10 years. It has no name, no identification, no inscription .
My husband Mike hated Christmas. He hated the overspending and the crazy running around at the last minute for the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else.
So one year I searched for something special to give Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.
Our son Kevin was 12 and was on the school wrestling team. Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team of poor kids. They were dressed in ragged sneakers, and presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their golden uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes.
As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without helmets . Their team obviously could not afford them.
We beat them hands down . Mike shook his head sadly. "I wish just one of them could have won," he said. Mike loved kids and enjoyed coaching football and baseball. That's when the idea for his present came.
That afternoon, I went to a sports store and bought a load of wrestling headgear and shoes. I sent them anonymously to the poor team. On Christmas Eve, I placed a small, white envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me.
Mike's smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year. In the years that followed, I sent a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, and a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas. The white envelope became the highlight of Christmas.
Mike died last year, but on Christmas Eve I still placed an envelope on the tree. The next morning it was joined by three more. Each of our three children had placed a white envelope on the tree for their dad. Mike's spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.
By Nancy W. Gavin | high18954.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "they were brought up just in the same way"
},
"options": [
"they are disappointed with their children",
"they were brought up just in the same way",
"they don't want to hurt their children badly",
"they don't know what ... | There have been big changes in the attitudes of most parents over the last few years. Physical punishment is banned in schools in most countries, and in many countries, there are moves to ban all physical punishment of children even at home. However, many parents still believe that they have the right to use some physical punishments to deal with certain misbehavior at certain ages.
It's easy to find reasons to allow some physical punishments. One issue is that many parents find it very difficult to abandon physical punishment completely. Parents argue that this was the way they were brought up and that it didn't do any harm to them. They believe that for the child's sake they have the right to discipline the child in any way they consider fit, including using some physical punishments. The other one is that physical punishment can be quick and effective. There is not much point reasoning with a screaming child in the supermarket.
However, there are several reasons why we should stop using physical punishment. One point is that most parents are not trained to deal with misbehaving children. They don't have enough resources or choices to handle the situation. As a result, they immediately react by hitting the child even if there are other solutions to the problem. Another point is that unless people are challenged or forced to change their belief, they may keep following negative habits. An example is seat belt use --now most people wear seat belts without thinking, while years ago the idea of using seat belts was strange to most people. In the same way, banning physical punishment will force people to change their habits.
In conclusion, parents have to change some of their belief and ideas about how children should be raised. It is possible to avoid the use of physical force, and doing so will help us move closer to the dream of removing violence from our society. | high3589.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Because the wall was too high for him to climb up."
},
"options": [
"Because its door was locked.",
"Because the window was shut.",
"Because it was quite dark.",
"Because the wall was too high for him to climb up."
... | At Harton College--an English boarding school for boys--there are many rules. 15-year-old Bob Sanders often breaks them.
The boys can go into the town in the afternoon after class. But they must return to the school at six o'clock. One afternoon Bob walked to the town. He looked at the shops and then went to the cinema. When the film was over, it was after eight o'clock. He was a little worried. He walked back to prefix = st1 /HartonCollegeas fast as possible.
When he arrived, he ran quickly to the main entrance. It was locked. He went round the school . uilding to another door, which was locked, too. He looked up at the window of his dormitory on the third floor. The window was open, but it was quite dark and he could not climb up the wall easily. Then he saw another open window on the ground floor. It was the window of the headmaster's study.
He looked into the room--no one was there. Bob quickly climbed onto the window sill and jumped into the room. Just then he heard a noise. Then someone turned on a light in the corridor. Bob looked around and then hid under the sofa. One minute later, Mr. Mannering, the headmaster, came in. He turned on the light on his desk, and sat down on the sofa. Then he opened a book and began to read.
Bob lay under the sofa as quietly as possible. He couldn't move. The floor was cold and uncomfortable. He looked at the headmaster's shoes and socks for an hour.
"Why doesn't he get up and go to bed?" Bob thought.
Mr. Mannering read his book for another hour. Finally, the headmaster closed his book and stood up. He put the book on a shelf and walked towards the door.
"Thank heavens he didn't find me under the sofa," thought Bob.
Then Mr. Mannering stopped and spoke towards the sofa. "Would you turn off the light when you leave?" He said, and left the study. | high19492.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "guessing what kids are going to have"
},
"options": [
"guessing what kids are going to have",
"finding what kids like and dislike",
"introducing new food to kids",
"reconnecting with kids"
],
"question": "Family... | Good nutrition and a balanced diet will help your children grow up healthily .No matter how old your kids are , you can take steps to improve nutrition and to encourage smart eating habits .Here are some suggestions.
Family Meals
Family meals are comforting for both parents and kids. Children like to guess what they are going to have and parents get the chance to introduce new food to children and to find out which food they like and which ones they don't.
Teens may turn up their noses at your plan of a family meal. It is not surprising because they're trying to establish independence. Yet studies find that teens still want their parents' advice, so use the mealtime as a chance to reconnect.
Stocking up on healthy food
Kids, especially younger ones, will eat mostly what they can get at home. That's why it's important to control the supply lines -- the food which you serve for meals and have on hand for snacks. You should have enough fruits, vegetables, lean meat and other good sources of protein, such as eggs and nuts, and healthy snacks, such as yogurt, peanut butter and whole-grain biscuits.
Being a good example
The best way for you to encourage healthy eating is to eat well yourself. Kids will follow the lead of the adults they see every day. By eating fruits and vegetables and avoiding fast food and sugary drinks, you'll be sending the right message.
No conflicts over food
Parents might find themselves shouting at children to get them to have healthy food in front of them. This in fact can make children dislike what they are aske d to eat.
Get kids included
Most kids will enjoy making the decision about what to make for dinner. Talk to them about making choices and planning a balanced meal. It can help them make good decisions on their own about the food they want to eat. | high4580.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Chinese scientists succeeded in making NPCs from human urine."
},
"options": [
"NPCs are beneficial in treating human diseases.",
"Chinese scientists succeeded in making NPCs from human urine.",
"Chinese scientists have found... | Chinese scientists have found a new way to use cells found in human urine that could aid in the treatment of a range of nerve disorders.That is a new technique for reprogramming cells in human urine into nerve progenitor cells that can grow into multi-functional nerve and brain cells.
The technique is expected to be used in the study and treatment of nerve disorders such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and other nerve disorders.
Pei Duanqing, a professor at Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said his research team has combined an episomal system to deliver reprogramming factors with a chemically defined culture medium to reprogram kidney epithelial cells in urine into NPCs.
These NPCs, normally only found in the human brain, were later proven to be transgene-free and self-renewing, he said.
"These nerve and brain cells can survive for up to one month when transplanted into the brain of a newborn rat," said Pei. "My team is working hard to understand why our experimental condition allowed the urine cells to become NPCs, because we want to improve the technique and make it more efficient".
Scientists have long searched to treat and study neural disorders by obtaining and transplanting neural stem cells. However, the previous method of getting and using cells from either fetal or adult human tissue remains challenging due to ethical concerns and immune system rejections, he said.
Pei hopes the discovery will be used to generate NPCs from patients with nerve disorders such as Parkinson's disease. "These NPCs from patients may help us discover new drugs for these diseases."
"It is a remarkable advance in the stem cell field. The results and methods obtained from this study will be of great value and significance to the field, " said Fred Gage,a professor with the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. | high5846.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "created works of art using rubbish from Qomolangma"
},
"options": [
"created works of art using rubbish from Qomolangma",
"were employed by the Everest Peakeers Association",
"climbed Qomolangma and collected 1.5 tons of tras... | Since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed Mount Everest, Mount Qomolangma's peak is no longer a lonely place and is turning into a trash heap.
So far, more than 350 climbers have successfully reached the peak. And they have complained about waiting for hours in the bottlenecks on the way to the peak, a situation that isn't just uncomfortable -- it's cold and windy up there -- but downright dangerous. If bad weather strikes, climbers can and do die.
As a matter of fact, the dangerous crowds aren't the only problem on Qomolangma. All those climbers need to bring a lot of _ --and much of them ends up being left on the mountain, sometimes even the peak itself. Mount Qomolangma is becoming the world's largest dump. Here's mountaineer Mark Jenkins writing in National Geographic about the state of Qomolangma: "The two standard routes, the Northeast Ridge and the Southeast Ridge, are disgustingly polluted with oxygen cans and torn tents everywhere."
But the good news is that some mountaineers are taking it upon themselves to clean up Qomolangma. Mountianeer Paul Thelen and his friend Eberhard Schaaf are part of the annual Eco Everest Expedition, which has been cleaning up rubbish from base camps to the peak since 2008. So far they've collected over 13 tons of garbage.
Some of that rubbish is even being used for a higher purpose. As part of the Mount Everest 8844 Art Project, a group of 15 artists from Nepal collected 1.5 tons of garbage brought down the mountain by climbers. They've transformed the cans and oxygen tanks--and in one case, part of the remains of a helicopter--into 74 pieces of art that have already gone on exhibition in Nepal's capital. Part of the profit from sales will go to the Everest Peakers Association, which has helped collect tons of rubbish on the slopes of the mountain. | high11970.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "To mow 100 yards for free."
},
"options": [
"To mow 100 yards for free.",
"To start a non-profit service group.",
"To set a good example to his kids.",
"To make use of time between classes."
],
"question": "What... | Rodney Smith, Jr. started mowing the lawns in Huntsville, Alabama last fall. He used his time between classes at Alabama A&M to reach a goal of mowing 100 yards before winter. Smith has been cutting grass for free to help single moms, the elderly, and the disabled, while teaching the local youth the values that can turn boys into men. "I'm doing something positive. I want boys to follow me and be better than me," he wrote on his Facebook page.
Rodney is from Bermuda. He says people there help each other and are always friendly. "That's what drives me to help people."
In May this year, he was getting ready to _ his mowing service for the summer when he heard about a 93-year-old woman trying to cut grass by herself. Smith and a friend showed up to do the job for her.
In November, a local TV station gave him $300, calling it a special gift for his good work. After he received the money, he used it to create the non-profit service group, Raising Men Lawn Care Service. He also started a page to collect money to buy lawn equipment and other things--including T-shirts with special logos.
After I read about Rodney's story, I told my friends about him. We also planned to mow lawns for single moms, the elderly and disabled in our neighborhood. And I hope more and more young people will join Rodney's service group--Raising Men Lawn Care Service. | high14808.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "the long drive was too much for her"
},
"options": [
"the weather was cold and rainy",
"the long drive was too much for her",
"she didn't take interest in them",
"she was afraid to climb up the mountain"
],
"que... | Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead, "I will come next Tuesday, I promised a little unwillingly on her third call
The next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy.Still, I had promised, and I drove there.When I finally walked into Carolyn^ house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children.I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.
"Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!"
My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time,Mum." "You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."
After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church.On the far side of the churchtI saw a hand-lettered sign that read, "Daffodil Garden." We got out of the car* each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path.Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped Before me lay the most beautiful sight There were five acres of flowers!
But "Who has done this?" I asked Carolyn."Just one woman," Carolyn answered "That's her home." Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house.-We walked up to the house.
On the patio ,we saw a poster."Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking", was the headline.The first answer was a simple one."50, 000 bulbs ," it read.The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."
For me, that moment was a life-changing experience.I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun _ one bulb at a time -- to bring her vision of beauty and joy to the mountain top. | high21643.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "actors"
},
"options": [
"teachers",
"actors",
"speechmakers",
"spokesmen"
],
"question": "The advice benefits _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
... | Prepare: Plan ahead and think about what you are going to say. In the words of Mark Twain, it usually takes you more than three weeks to prepare for it.
Know your subject: Always make sure that you know the subject and have background information at hand for question time.
Know you audience: Find out who you will be addressing so that you can tailor your comments accordingly.
Make a point: Keep your speech short and brief and have a few clear points that you need to convey .
Practice: Never learn your speech by heart as your speech will become stilted, but do practice it a few times in front of the mirror, your parents or your dog.
Eye contact: If the thought of looking into a sea of faces scares you, adjust your gaze regularly at different points in the room to create the same effect.
First impressions: Your first impression is important when making a public presentation. Find out about dress codes at the place so that you look your best and, if possible, check the microphone beforehand to ensure you know how to use it.
Get help: If public presentations are a major part of your life, read up on the art of speech---writing and delivery to improve your skills. | high11780.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "NASA's new expandable space habitat."
},
"options": [
"NASA's space habitats flown to the station.",
"NASA's space habitat it the station.",
"NASA's new expandable space habitat.",
"NASA's newest inflatable globe."
... | The Washington post - NASA's newest space habitat looks sort of like a kids' moon bonce, a big, bright, inflatable globe that could be lots of fun to play in. Soon astronauts on the International Space Station could get the chance to try . The expandable habitat made by Bigelow Aerospace recently passed NASA's strict certification requirements and is scheduled to be flown to the station in September.
Called the BEAM ( Bigelow Expandable Activity Module), the habitat would be attached to the space station, where it would stay for two years. While there, it would be tested to see how it handles the _ of space - the radiation, the station's movement and even how it stands up to the debris flying around in orbit.
The private Las Vegas company, founded by millionaire real estate mogul Robert Bigelow, won a $17.8 million contract from NASA to provide the module to the space station.
"Today is the first step, but it's a big step," said Bigelow's George Zamka. Replace the space station or make it larger. It also hopes to build the habitats on the moon. Its B330 module would be even bigger, with 330 cubic meters of internal ( ) space. The modules could be connected. Creating research facilities, the company says, or even space hotels.
In an interview ,NASA's William Gerstenmaier, said he was eager to see how the module performs , and said he was especially pleased " to see how the private sector can step up and help us meet our requirements." The module will be flown to the space station by SpaceX, the first commercial company to resupply the space station. | high11958.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "is just a pupil at primary school"
},
"options": [
"asks for fees for her advice",
"is just a pupil at primary school",
"is an expert in work-life balance",
"answers questions on the Internet."
],
"question": "E... | Have you ever had a troubling problem that has left you wondering where to turn for help?
Eve Hobsbawm is a life adviser.She offers advice to people struggling with all kinds of problems, from relationship difficulties to what to cook for dinner.
She does this through a website inviting people to email her with their problems.There ' s nothing unusual about that, except for the fact that Eve is only eight years old.
This junior trouble-shooter, who also goes by the name 'Miss Evie Mouse' , lives in London with her parents.Not only is Miss Mouse willing to lend an ear to her clients, she will also offer them a helping hand, for a fee of course.She charges between 10p for advice on little, everyday worries and PS for more complicated problems.Her areas of expert knowledge, if not of experience, are problems about love, life and work-life balance.
A problem shared is a problem halved, but Eve can' t always help.A note on the site states that she can't answer questions like "Does space ever end?" and she won't solve schoolwork-related problems, especially not maths.
She explained to the Guardian newspaper that she was inspired to set up the company by her father who runs a tech start-up.Eve said, "As soon as I saw his business and understood the kinds of things businesses do, I thought that' s what I' m going to do."
But since setting up her company in December she has been so overwhelmed with messages that she has had to take a step back."There has been a lot of sudden interest in my site, which is nice," she says, " but I need to do my homework too, so I won' t be solving any more problems for a bit." | high23054.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the boy's cooking show"
},
"options": [
"the boy",
"the boy's illness",
"a newspaper",
"the boy's cooking show"
],
"question": "Arthur Gourmand is a name of _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
... | An eight-year-old Arthur Gonzaga from Minas Gerais, Brazil has taken the Internet by a storm, as first reported by TheHuffingtonPost, with his online YouTube series videos "Arthur Gourmand". And while it would not be a far stretch of the imagination to assume an 8-year-old's cooking show would be filled with dishes like pizza and burgers, Arthur's show actually features recipes like fruit salad a la creme de passion fruit and filet mignon .
The idea to record Arthur's cooking adventures on YouTube was rooted in the young chef's leukemia diagnosis in August 2013.Treatment and recovery for the cancer left the young boy in the hospital for the second half of the year and Aruthur was even forced to spend Christmas Eve in the emergency room of So Paulo's A.C. Camargo Cancer Center. That's when his family--father Renato Gonzaga and stepmother Priscila Inserra--decided that Arthur should create something positive that would distract him from his health.
The videos, which are filmed in the kitchen of a friend of the family, are in Portuguese. They show Arthur walking the viewers through a step-by-step process of the entire recipe--from preparation to cooking. Occasionally, viewers can see Arthur's father serving as his son's _ , passing ingredients and following his lead.
Fluent in Portuguese or not, viewers can immediately notice Arthur's optimistic and friendly personality. It is perhaps these qualities that have given the young rising Internet star almost 5,000 likes on his Facebook Fan Page. There are currently three videos on YouTube and according to his most recent Facebook post, the young boy will be taking suggestions for his next video.
Fortunately, according to what Inserra told TheHuffingtonPost, Arthur is responding well to his treatments and is on his path to recovery. "The secret of life is to let it take you, to have fun and to know how to turn lemons into lemonade ," wrote her family, fittingly, on their most recent Facebook post. Hats off to Arthur, who truly serves as a shining example of how to turn lemons into lemonade. | high12289.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "In a science magazine"
},
"options": [
"In a personal diary",
"In a science magazine",
"In a science fiction",
"In a travel guide"
],
"question": "Where can we most probably read this text?",
"question_type"... | Go, known as Weiqi in China and Baduk in South Korea, was viewed as the last game where humans can defeat machines. Lee Se-dol, one of the greatest Go players, has won 18 world championships for 21 years of his professional career. AlphaGo, a computer program developed by Google's DeepMind, beat the European Go champion, an achievement that was not expected for years in October, 2015.
The match between Lee and AlphaGo was seen as a representative game between humans and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The match of the century drew great attention from news organizations, Go fans and the general public across the world as well as in South Korea.
Go originated from China more than 2,500 years ago. It involves two players who take turns putting markers on a net-shaped board to gain more areas on it. One can occupy the markers of the rival by surrounding the pieces of the other. Go is considered to be a lot more complex than chess where artificial intelligence scored its most famous victory to date when IBM's Deep Blue beat grandmaster Gary Kasparov in 1997.
But experts say Go presents an entirely different challenge because of the game's incomputable number of move options. In other words, the computer must be capable of human-like "intuition" to win.
"I was very surprised because I did not think that I would lose the game," said Mr. Lee.He said AlphaGo's early strategy was "excellent" and that he was shocked by one unconventional move it had made that a human never would have played, which he believed directly resulted in his loss.
AlphaGo is proud of a deep learning capability to learn for itself and discover new strategies by playing games against itself and adjusting neural networks based on a trial-and-error process known as reinforcement learning.
In spite of his loss, he did not regret accepting the challenge. "I had a lot of fun playing Go and I'm looking forward to the future games," he said after AlphaGo won 3-0 in a five-game match.
"Playing against a machine is very different from an actual human player. Normally, you can sense your rival's breathing, their energy. And lots of times you make decisions which depend on the physical reactions of the person you're playing against. With a machine, you can't do that", Lee said. | high14820.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "in 1889"
},
"options": [
"in 1990",
"in Switzerland",
"in 1889",
"in America"
],
"question": "Chaplin was born _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
... | About the year 1900, a dark-haired boy named Charlie Chaplin was often seen waiting outside the back entrances of London theatres. He looked thin and hurry. He was hoping to get work in show business. He could sing and dance, and above all, he knew how to make people laugh. But he couldn't get work and therefore wandered about the city streets. Sometimes he was sent away to a home for children who had no parents.
But twenty years later, this same Chaplin became the greatest, best-known, and best-loved comedian in the world. Any regular visitor to the cinema, must have seen some of Charlie Chaplin's films. People everywhere have sat and laughed at them until the tears ran down their faces. Even people who don't understand English can enjoy his films, because they are mostly silent. It isn't what he says that makes us laugh. His comedy doesn't depend upon words or language. It depends upon little actions which mean the thing to people all over the word. Acting out without words, of common human situations plays an important part in the dances and plays in many countries. It's a kind of the world language.
Chaplin lived most of his life in America and died in Switzerland on Christmas Day 1977, at the age of eighty-eight. There was sadness all over the world at the news of his death. | high8392.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "didn't feel afraid"
},
"options": [
"was hurt too badly to move",
"missed her home very much",
"didn't feel afraid",
"felt very hungry"
],
"question": "When Michelle Riotton was in the valley, she _ .",
"... | A GRANDMOTHER, Michelle Riotton, 78, survived after falling down a mountain valley. She set off for a walk alone dressed only in a light jacket and trousers. "I slipped into a valley!" said Mrs Riotton, who said the fall happened in a deep forest close to her home village.
It was warm and sunny when the accident happened, but temperatures dropped to very low when night fell, and it rained. "I wasn't afraid," said Mrs Riotton. "But I was worried that my children and grandchildren would become too worried about me." Mrs Riotton said she covered herself in leaves when feeling cold, taking very small bites of two biscuits which she had in her pocket and drinking rainwater which fell down her face.
She spent six nights before she was found on Saturday. She was lying at the bottom of the valley, which was less than a mile from her home. The search had once been stopped, but Patrice Fossard, one of her neighbors, insisted that the search continue. "There was no way we could give up her, even if deep inside we felt we had little hope of finding her alive," said Mr Fossard. "It was a miracle that Michelle was finally found."
Mrs Riotton said she would be taking life easier from now on. "Enough is enough!" she said. "No more forests -- don't want to visit one again."
A mountain policeman said walking alone in the mountain was not recommended and that Mrs Riotton should have carried a mobile phone with her. "The mountains are particularly dangerous at this time of year as sunny afternoons can quickly change into cold, wet and stormy evenings." he said. "Anybody walking into the mountains should carry safety equipment and be prepared for any kind of emergency." | high13829.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "discover the truth with action"
},
"options": [
"travel round the world",
"bring words into action",
"discover the truth with action",
"bring the argument to an end"
],
"question": "Christopher Columbus decided ... | Scientific Progress
Most scientific progress is the result of careful consideration of work that has already been done. The wonderful world which lies before us today has been put up by hardworking men with clear heads and inventive mind, and these who follow them along life's road will improve on their efforts. It is sometimes necessary to question and even to disbelieve some of the statements made by experts. Action or experiment can often end an argument or achieve a breakthrough.
When men were wondering whether it was possible to reach India by sailing westwards from Europe, and whether there was any land on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Christopher Columbus decides to act. He gathered some men, invited them to go on board his three ships, and set out across the dangerous waters of the Atlantic Ocean. He was successful in finding land, but it was not India. The result of his action was that the arguments came to the end.
Any young man who wishes to do research must be courageous enough to question old beliefs and do some original thinking about them. Although we seem to know so much, there are many things we don't know. Even when we pull an atom to pieces, we do not really know what the pieces are, we often do not reach the reality behind what we discover, and the more we learn, the better we realize our ignorance. | high15280.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "She is fed up with the issue of gender discrimination ."
},
"options": [
"She is fed up with the issue of gender discrimination .",
"She feels unhappy working in male-dominated fields.",
"She is not good at telling stories ... | I don't want to talk about being a woman scientist again. There was a time in my life when people asked constantly for stories about what it's like to work in a field dominated (controlled) by men. I was never very good at telling those stories because truthfully I never found them interesting. What I do find interesting is the origin of the universe, the shape of space, time and the nature of black holes.
At 19, when I began studying astrophysics , it did not bother me in the least to be the only woman in the classroom. But while earning my Ph.D. at MIT and then as a post-doctor doing space research, the issue started to bother me. My every achievement--jobs, research papers, awards--was viewed through the lens of gender politics. So were my failures. Sometimes, when I was pushed into an argument on left brain versus right brain, or nature versus nurture , I would instantly fight fiercely on my behalf and all womankind.
Then one day a few years ago, out of my mouth came a sentence that would eventually become my reply to any and all provocations : I don't talk about that anymore. It took me 10 years to get back the confidence I had at 19 and to realize that I didn't want to deal with gender issues. Why should curing sexism be yet another terrible burden on every female scientist? After all, I don't study sociology or political theory.
Today I research and teach at Barnard, a women's college in New York City. Recently, someone asked me how many of the 45 students in my class were women. You cannot imagine my satisfaction at being able to answer, 45. I know some of my students worry how they will manage their scientific research and a desire for children. And I don't dismiss those concerns. Still, I don't tell them "war" stories. Instead, I have given them this: the visual of their physics professor heavily pregnant doing physics experiments. And in turn they have given me the image of 45 women driven by a love of science. And that's a sight worth talking about. | high622.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "taking different measures to cooperate with its member countries"
},
"options": [
"increasing export taxes",
"placing restrictions on export",
"global food markets shouldn't be kept open",
"taking different measures to ... | surging commodity prices could worsen poverty in many poor countries, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday.
A new IMF study, seeing the effect of soaring oil and food costs, said many poor and developing countries would likely have to change their economic policies in response to soaring commodity prices. "Some countries are at a dangerous point," warned IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
"If food prices rise further and oil prices stay the same, some governments will no longer be able to feed their people and at the same time keep stability in their economies," Strauss-Kahn said. The IMF chief called for a "broad cooperative approach" to help handle higher oil and food prices, and said the IMF stood ready to assist countries in need. Strauss-Kahn said the international community would also have to play a role in helping to reduce the effect of commodity price shocks which have caused protests in some countries. European truckers have blockaded major roads to protest fuel prices in recent weeks and food riots have occurred in Cameroon, Bangladesh, and Somalia among other countries in recent months. "Poor countries that are highly dependent on food imports are particularly vulnerable to rising food prices," the IMF report said.
Anti-poverty campaigners are concerned that rising commodity costs could roll back advances made through anti-poverty campaigns in recent years, particularly because poorer families tend to spend much more of their household income on food. The IMF report found that poor households are most affected by food price inflation and "warned that the share of undernourished people in developing countries could rise rapidly above the current 40 percent of total population".
Energy and food values are still rising and the IMF said its research suggests "the problem is worsening". The Washington-based fund said it is working closely with its member countries to help reduce inflationary pressures taking into account countries' specific needs. The report said that global food markets "need to be kept open" and that "restrictive policies", such as export taxes and bans, should be removed. | high23732.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Weihenmayer is the first man to climb Everest."
},
"options": [
"Weihenmayer has been blind for almost 19 years.",
"Weihenmayer is the first man to climb Everest.",
"Mountain climbers think it great to conquer the Himalayan p... | Erik Weihenmayer wants to climb Mount Everest. He loves to climb, and there is no place greater for climbers than the Himalayan peak of 29,035 feet, the world's highest mountain.
Weihenmayer is blind. He has been blind since age 13, when an eye disease robbed him of his sight. His new book, Touch the Top of the World, A blind Man's Journey to Climb Farther than the Eye Can See, describes his blindness and climbing. He is the first blind man to attempt Everest. The team reached base camp at 17,800 feet last Wednesday and begins its climb Saturday. If all goes well, Weihenmayer will reach the top on or about May 15.
"I'm not just some token blind guy, " Weihrnmayer, aged 32, said hours before he left Los Angeles on Friday for prefix = st1 /Katmandu,Nepal. "I put my life in my fellow climbers' hands, and they put their lives in my hands. It's an honour to reach that state."
"I want to experience the sense of adventure. Blindness has nothing to do with that. But a message of the climb is that a blind person can join a team and climb the highest mountain in the world."
Weihenmayer has climbed the highest peaks on four continents: North America's Mount McKinley, South America's Aconcagua, Africa's Kilimanjaro and Antarctica's Vinson Massif. He is an expert rock and ice climber, having scaled EL Capitan in YosemiteNational Park. When he was 16, he attended a school that taught blind people to be independent. One day, a group went rock climbing. "I really liked it," Weihenmayer said. "You can problem - solve. It is pretty sense in your inner mind. People didn't think blind people could go out and become expert rock climbers." | high16951.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Shenzhen Poly Theater"
},
"options": [
"Shenzhen Grand Theater",
"Shenzhen Sports Center",
"Shenzhen Poly Theater",
"Shenzhen Children's Palace"
],
"question": "If you want to go to a musical, you should go to ... | Xiao Shenyang will present a comedy in mid-May. You'll enjoy Errenzhuan ,a local folk dance from Northeast China.
Time: 8 p. m. May 10 Tickets: 280-800 Yuan
Venue:Shenzhen Sports Center Booking: 11185
Rubina Ali,the young actress who played Lakita in "Slumdog Millionaire" ,is performing in a musical named "Sleeping Beauty".
Time: 7:30 p. m. June 1 Tickets: 280 Yuan
Venue:Shenzhen Poly Theater Booking: 86371698
LiuQian, a well-known magician from Taiwan, is performing wonderful magic, tricks.
Time:3 p. m. June 20 Tickets:500 Yuan (5% off if you buy on-line)
Venue:Shenzhen Children's Palace Booking:89812344
Britain's singing sensation Susan Boyle is coming! You may enjoy her angelic voice in her concert.
Time:8 p. m. July 25 Tickets:380-700 Yuan
Venue:Shenzhen Grand Theater Booking:82337625 | high16789.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "She ended up joining the magazine."
},
"options": [
"She was causing trouble on purpose.",
"She liked pointing out the errors of others.",
"She contributed a lot to the success of the premiere issue.",
"She ended up joi... | In March 1987, I started a new magazine called Creating Excellence. It was a very proud moment for me. I'd worked hard for over a year to create it, and the premiere issue was a real success.
Shortly after we mailed 25,000 copies, I received one in the mail. But this one wasn't as beautiful as the ones we'd sent out. It was marked in red ink correcting the grammatical errors in it. A talented editor had read the issue carefully and found more errors than I could have imagined.
I felt _ A magazine called Creating Excellence should be perfect in its content . The stories were good, but the errors this woman had found showed that we were far from being excellent.
At first, I was upset with my editor for not having caught more mistakes, and also upset with the woman who seemed to have taken pleasure in pointing them out. Later, I was upset with myself for not having employed a better editor.
Then I realized that I had to face up to my mistakes. I called the woman who had shown me that we were not so excellent. I thanked her for taking the time to read our magazine so carefully. As painful as it was, I accepted responsibility for it.
Then I offered her the job of editing our publication. The result was a great improvement in it; we could now be very proud of our magazine.
From this I learnt that an upsetting moment could be an opportunity to see the truth, and accepting responsibility could help to prevent one making the same mistakes for a second time, and to make "excellence" a reality. | high2867.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "They got most of their money lost in the stock market."
},
"options": [
"Her husband invested all their money in the stock market.",
"They had to live on pensions.",
"They had to sell their house.",
"They got most of th... | My parents lived through the Great Depression of the 1930s and I heard stories from both of them about how their lives changed because of it. The same was true of my in-laws whose lives were also affected negatively. For example, my husband's grandfather owned a factory. Owing to the stock market crash, he lost the factory and went back to work in the very factory he'd once owned. He could no longer afford to send my father-in-law to college. My father-in-law worked full time as a pipe fitter and went to school part-time to earn his degree, which took seven years.
Somehow, my husband and I never dreamed that we would live through anything similar. However, as they say, history often repeats itself. In 1929, the stock market crashed in the month of October. The same thing happened in 2008. My husband, who had invested all our money in the market, was in a state of shock. Each day the news was more terrible.
"We've lost more than half of our wealth," he told me.
I just stared at him. "How can that be?"
"I thought we had good, solid investments, but it seems I was wrong."
"Well, we do have pensions ," I said. "Hopefully, they won't be affected. Since we have never lived a high lifestyle to begin with, I don't think we have to worry."
"I did hope to leave our children and grandchildren a generous inheritance ," my husband said. He shook his head in disbelief.
"We'll still be able to give gifts. Love is the most important gift anyway." Our children are grown and we always try to be generous to them and our grandchildren.
"It just won't be the same."
"The world is always changing," I said. "You never know what will happen. The main thing is not to get discouraged. As long as we have our health and can afford the necessities of life, there's no reason to be upset. When you have your health, you can always earn more money."
I hugged my husband and he kissed me in return.
"I guess you're right," he agreed. "We love each other. We have our health and enough money to live on comfortably. That's all that matters."
We had to move out of our house into an apartment. Since few people could afford a house in those hard days, we decided to offer it for considerably less than it would normally be worth. Even so, several buyers changed their mind days before closing. But finally, our home was sold.
As we shook hands with the new owners, I told them how fortunate they were.
"Not only are you getting a bargain in the price, but this house has good luck. We bought the house from a family who lived in it for nine years. They were a happy family, a husband, wife and five children. It was a cheerful house and we had a good feeling about it. We raised our children here as well."
"That's good to hear," the young woman said with a smile. "We have two young children ourselves. And I believe in luck too."
We nodded our heads in agreement, understanding each other.
"You'll live only six houses from the best primary school in the town and your children won't even have to cross a street," I said. "Our children used to come home each day and have lunch with me."
"We like the woods in the back," the young man told us. "We're going to plant a large garden in the backyard."
They seemed so young and happy and full of plans. My husband and I had to smile. At least some good was coming out of the economic difficulty. We no longer needed a house. It was good to know that another young family would now be living in what had been a happy, loving home for us. Also, the house needed work that we no longer had the energy to perform.
These may be tough times economically, but as for me, I intend to look forward, not back. As Shakespeare said in Macbeth, "what's done is done and cannot be undone." It's the present and future that matter. We can learn from our mistakes and make our lives better. | high17483.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "It looks like we should do something."
},
"options": [
"I'm not the very person capable of setting the problem.",
"It looks like we should do something.",
"It must not be a problem as no one else is concerned.",
"He doe... | You're rushing to work and a man ahead of you collapses on the sidewalk. Do you stop to help? In a study of by-standers, it was found that some people avert their gaze and keep on walking rather than stop and get involved.
"There is a tendency to decide that no action is needed." says a psychologist. "The first thoughts that pop into your mind often keep you from offering help. In order to take action, you have to work against them." Here are some common thoughts that might prevent you from helping.
* Why should I be the one? I'm probably not the most competent person in this crowd. You might think someone older or with more medical knowledge should offer assistance.
* What if he doesn't really need my help? The fear of embarrassment is powerful; no one wants to risk looking foolish in front of others.
* No one else looks concerned- this must not be a problem. We can follow the people around us, but most people tend to hold back their emotions in public.
"If you spot trouble and find yourself explaining inaction, force yourself to stop and evaluate the situation instead of walking on," says the psychologist. "Then retry to involve other people; you don't have to take on the entire responsibility of being helpful. Sometimes it's just a matter of turning to the person next to you and saying, 'It looks like we should do something.' Or asking someone if an ambulance has been called and, if not, to call for one. Once you take action, most people will follow you." | high2873.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "they possessed bigger ivory"
},
"options": [
"they were the leaders of the herds",
"they possessed bigger ivory",
"they were of smaller size",
"they ran slowly"
],
"question": "Bull elephants were at higher risk... | Elephants and people are in competition for space. In much of Africa, elephants are now put in national parks. Elephants suffered a serious and steady decrease in numbers in the 1970s. This was the same time when scientists were beginning to learn a great deal about elephants and their behavior. Studies through the 1980s and into the 1990s showed a lot about their sounds and methods of communication.
In Kenya alone, in the 1970s and 1980s, the elephant population decreased from 170,000 to 25,000. The sharp drop in numbers was the result of poachers illegally killing elephants for their ivory. The price of ivory went from $3 a pound to $50 to $100 a pound. Africa became very attractive to poachers. Bull elephants carried the largest tusks , so they were more often killed. With males gone and older females killed by poachers as well, there were many young elephants unable to benefit from the wisdom of the older females and matriarchs, who lead the herds.
Kenya took a stand, international trade in ivory was officially forbidden, and $3,000,000 worth of confiscated ivory was burned in Kenya. The following year, only 50 elephants were lost to poachers in Kenya instead of 3,000. But Kenya has the fastest growing human population in the world. People throughout Africa won't tolerate elephants eating their crops and destroying their livelihoods.
In South Africa, elephants live behind the fences of national parks. In some parts of Africa, big-game hunters pay a lot of money to hunt elephants. This keeps their numbers down, and the money goes toward conservation. In Kenya, there were some attempts at birth control to keep the elephant population at manageable numbers to reduce conflicts with people.
Faced with a growing human population, elephants are losing the battle for space. It's unlikely, though, that they will become extinct. They will live in natural parks that bring tourists to Africa as well as India and other parts of Asia. The money from tourism will help elephants to survive. | high21131.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "An officer ."
},
"options": [
"An officer .",
"An editor.",
"A writer.",
"A teacher."
],
"question": "Who is Tim Cook according to the passage?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_... | On Tuesday, Apple' CEO, Tim Cook, announced the Apple Watch. It is like a normal watch, but it can do all the things a mobile phone does -- and more.
At US $349, the Apple Watch is expensive. _ However, it seems that it will open another door for the use of computers. The watch taps you whenever a new message comes in. It prepares answers to questions you receive from friends. It checks your health. "It's the most personal product we've ever made," Cook said.
If the Apple Watch becomes popular, it will change the way the world communicates with computers. "It might not only be a change for Apple, but for the whole industry," says technology expert, Daniel Ives.
How does it work?
The Apple Watch has a speaker that users can both hear and feel. You can press the side button to communicate with people quickly and easily. The Apple Watch also introduces health and fitness apps that can help people lead healthier lives.
You can try it.
According to Matt Vella, a writer for TIME magazine, the watch is "the most thrilling product since the iPad."
After actually trying the watch, he says: " There's a lot we don't know about the Apple Watch. How long will its battery last? How exactly will it connect with the iPhone? But wearing the watch answers some other questions. It is very comfortable. You can easily forget you are wearing the Apple Watch." | high9926.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "make planning, preparation and correction"
},
"options": [
"come into contact with students",
"teach students a variety of subjects",
"deal with the demands of children",
"make planning, preparation and correction"
... | Primary teachers are responsible for guiding children through the formation of many important life skills, and also watching over their students' social development. Primary teachers come into contact with about 30 students every day, and teach them a variety of subjects. Many hours are spent before and after class on planning, preparation and correction. One should be a very patient, caring, yet firm person to be able to deal with the demands of children in the four to twelve-year-old age group.
Secondary teachers teach specific subjects to various groups of students. Just like primary teachers, they spend an amount of time planning and preparing lessons and correcting homework--their duties are not restricted to face-to-face teaching. Dealing with twelve to eighteen-year-olds requires a wide range of skills.
If you become a primary teacher, you will need to decided whether to be a "generalist ", teaching a wide range of subjects, or a "specialist", teaching only one or two. Most primary teachers are specialists. Generalist teachers spend the greatest part of their day with one class, which means that they spend more time with the same children. Specialist teachers have more time away from their students. It is therefore very important for generalist teachers to develop a strong working relationship with their students.
The unique rapport you can develop with a particular set of students is one of teaching's greatest pleasures. However, the disadvantage of primary teaching is that if you have a difficult student, you will be forced to deal with him or her, all day, every day, throughout the school year. Teachers need to work ot strategies to get themselves and their students through such difficulties.
Primary teachers today are generally four-year trained. They usually do a three or four-year under-graduate degree, and if this degree does not include teacher training, they will have to undertake postgraduate study in education as well. | high24049.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the way they rest"
},
"options": [
"their size",
"their appearance",
"the kind of food they eat",
"the way they rest"
],
"question": "The passage tells us that there is no difference between the flying fox and t... | The flying fox is not a fox at all. It is an extra large bat that has got a fox's head, and that feeds on fruit. Like all bats, flying foxes hang themselves by their toes when at rest, and travel in great crowds when out flying. A group will live in one place for years. Sometimes several hundreds of them occupy a single tree. As they return to the tree towards sunrise, they quarrel among themselves and fight for the best places until long after daylight.
Flying foxes have babies once a year, giving birth to only one at a time. At first the mother has to carry the baby on her chest wherever she goes. Later she leaves it hanging up, and brings back food for it to eat. Sometimes a baby bat falls to the ground. Then the older ones fly down and try to pick it up. If they fail to do so, it will die. Often hundreds of baby bats can be found lying on the ground at the foot of the tree. | high636.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the light from it cannot get into your eyes"
},
"options": [
"your eyes are too close to it",
"closed eyes are out of sight",
"your eyesight cannot get to it",
"the light from it cannot get into your eyes"
],
"q... | Suppose you are reading a book. Suppose, too, you suddenly close your eyes. Can you still see the book? "Of course not," you will say. But can you tell why? You would probably say, "When I close my eyes my eyesight cannot get out of my eyes to get to the book. " But this explanation is wrong.
You cannot see any object unless light from that object gets into your eyes. Some of the things you see give off light of their own. The sun, the stars, a lighted lamp are examples of that can be seen by their own light. Such things are luminous. Most of the things you see are not giving off light of their own. They are simply reflecting light that falls on them from the sun or some other luminous body. The moon, for example, does not give off any light of its own. It is non-luminous. You see it because sunlight falls on it and some of it reflects in your direction. So moonlight is only second-hand sunlight.
When you look at a book, it sends to your eyes some of the light which falls on it, and you see the book. If light could be kept out from where you are so that there would be no light for the book to reflect, then you could not see the book even with your eyes wide open.
Light travels so fast that the time in which it travels from the book you are reading to your eyes is so short as if there were no time at all. Light reaches us from the moon, which is about 380,000 kilometres away, in only a little more than a second. | high23726.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "more than four hours"
},
"options": [
"two hours",
"four hours",
"more than four hours",
"almost a whole day"
],
"question": "Mathilda has to spend _ fetching water every school day.",
"question_type": "c... | Mathilda,15, is Turkana, a native people that has survived by raising cattle in a semiarid region. Mathilda's school, like most schools in the area, doesn't have access to clean water and sanitation facilities for its students. So instead of spending their whole school day learning, Mathilda and her classmates start their day by spending two hours to the closest river fetching water ---water that is anyway most likely not safe to drink. They do the same thing again in the afternoon, so they often lose around half of their school day fetching water.
Mathilda has to do the same thing outside of school hours to get the water her family needs at home, leaving her little time for studying. Because of rising temperatures, water has become harder and harder to find here, and people have to spend more and more time trying to find it.
This is just one small example of how climate change is making it harder to realize people's rights to water, education and security. Unfortunately, most higher-income countries remained silent on the issue.
This is despite studies showing that communities already facing marginalization ,such as women and children, mostly suffer from climate change. This is especially the case for those in countries with limited resources and fragile ecosystems.
Meanwhile, women consist of the majority of the world 's poor,and so are more dependent for their livelihood on natural resources that are threatened by climate change. And around the world, women and girls are the most likely to be responsible for fetching water for their families.
This exposes them to danger and leaves them with less time to attend school, earn money, or simply to rest. But the fact is that the effects of climate change will be felt globally.
Despite the difficulties she is facing, trying to get an education, Mathilda says she hopes to serve her community in a leadership role when she grows up.
"All of the world's leaders need to work together to solve this problem that we are all facing," she said. | high13183.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "A teacher"
},
"options": [
"A washer",
"A student",
"A headmaster",
"A teacher"
],
"question": "What was the writer ?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
... | My husband had just bought a new washing machine for me . I decided to use it the very day and I washed a lot of things .
Everything worked well , but I found one of my husband's socks missing . I looked everywhere for it , but I couldn't find it anywhere .
The next morning , I got ready for school as usual . When the bell rang , the students came in . I greeted them and told them what we were going to do that day .
When I turned around to write on the blackboard , the class bursted out a roar ! They laughed and laughed . They laughed so much , in fact ,that I was afraid the headmaster would be in to see all this .
I asked the class to stop , but the more I talked , the more they laughed . I decided to pay no attention to them and I continued to write on the blackboard . when I did this , they roared even more .
Finally , the teacher who had the room next to mine came in to see what all the laughter was about .
"Good heavens ," I said , "Will someone please tell me what is so funny?"
"Oh , God," said the teacher , "You have a brown sock to the back of your skirt !"
So that's how I found my husband's missing sock .
"Oh , well ," I said to the class , "Let's just say you have had an unforgettable lesson on static electricity . " | high150.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Her son's physical problems get worse."
},
"options": [
"Her son has no table manners.",
"Her son's physical problems get worse.",
"Her son doesn't work hard at school.",
"Her son spends much money on games."
],
... | Most children have ever heard their parents yell "sit up straight!" or "don't hang your head !" when they eat dinner. Nowadays, it is also heard around another activity -- video games. Ten-year-old Owaish admits it takes him three to four hours a day to play games on his tablet computer. In addition, he plays for about two hours on the smart phone every day. As a result, he started suffering a serious pain in the neck around June or July. What's worse the pain has spread to the hand and back gradually, which makes his mother Mehzabin become concerned.
The doctors note the number of young children with the chronic pain in their necks, arms and shoulders is on the increase sharp in recent years . They are not aging, they haven't had an accident, the blood reports are fine, their X-rays are fine, and their MRIs are fine. Facts have proved that the pain is from the poor posture while they are playing video games on smart phones or other electronic devices. 19-year -old student Nida feels pain in the finger which holds the weight of her smart phone most of the day. Nida almost uses her smart phone 24/7, which means 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or all the time.
Health experts predict there will be not only physical but mental problems resulting from the overuse of electronic devices. They encourage people to often take breaks and exercise from using computers, smart phones or other devices. Stand up! Stretch the legs, back, shoulders and arms in all the possible directions. That's the most effective way and maybe the key to solving the problem completely. After all, the medication doesn't help sometimes. | high14834.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "how to lighten students' backpacks"
},
"options": [
"the problems made by rolling backpacks",
"the advantage of backpacks",
"the best backpacks for students",
"how to lighten students' backpacks"
],
"question": ... | Are you carrying too much on your back at school? You're not alone. Back experts in the USA were worried that young students are having back and neck problems because they are carrying too much in their backpacks (schoolbags).
"It hurts my back when I run," said Eglin Reyes, a student in Virginia. "It's hard to get up the stairs with my backpack because it's too heavy."
Students have to carry heavy backpacks on their backs for a whole week's study. Beeline is one of them. They have regular backpacks with two straps to carry them, but a number of students with heavy loads have switched to rolling backpacks. The backpacks have wheels and can roll on the ground.
Shirley Park's backpack weighs 10 kilos, and she said, "I'll change to a rolling backpack because I am starting to have back pain."
How much is too much? Experts say that students should carry no more than 10 to 15 percent of their own body weight. A few students have had a good idea to lighten the load: Less homework.
Doctor's suggestions:
*Lighten the load. Take home only the books the students need that night.
*Wide straps are better. They can send out weight over your shoulders and be sure to wear backpacks with two straps.
*The heaviest things should be packed closest to the back.
*Bend both knees when you pick up the pack, don't just bend the waist . | high8386.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "helped the trapped partners and shared the chocolate with them"
},
"options": [
"freed their trapped partners before they ate the chocolate alone",
"ate the chocolate first and then freed their trapped partners",
"helped the ... | New experiments discover rats showing sympathy and helping other rodents .It is a characteristic some scientists thought was reserved only for humans and higher animals.
In repeated tests, rats freed another trapped rat in their cage, even when yummy chocolate served as an attraction.24 of the 30 rats opened the trap by pushing in a door.The rats could have eaten the chocolate before freeing their partners, but often didn't, choosing to help and share the goodies.
"Basically they told us freeing another rat is as important as eating chocolate," said study author Peggy Mason of the University of Chicago."That's a very striking thing."
In some cases, the rats first took the chocolate chips out of a container, but didn't eat them, then freed the other rat and shared "almost as if they were serving them chocolate," Mason said.The research is reported in Thursday's journal Science.
Also, females showed more consistent care and help than males, Mason said.All six females freed their trapped partner while three quarters of the 24 males did so.This confirms other studies that show females showing more pro-social behavior than males.There were time when the male rats took the day off from helping their trapped partner, but the females never did, she said.
Jeff Mogil at McGill University in Canada, who wasn't part of the study, said it was a little surprising but even more convincing.
Both scientists said social understanding is probably a characteristic that is important in the evolution of animals.
Mason joked that if rats can be so caring and helpful, "there's a sense of optimism.It's something we could be." | high21657.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "might have been put into prison"
},
"options": [
"might have been put into prison",
"might not have won the prize",
"might have joined a women's club",
"might not have moved to Atlanta"
],
"question": "Without M... | When I met him, I had a lot of anger inside me. I've lived my whole life in Spanish Harlem, but in my neighborhood, there are shoot-ups all the time. I know kids who have been shot or beaten up. I have friends who ended up in prison. I could have ended up that way, too, but Mr. Clark wouldn't let that happen.
Mr. Clark worked long hours, making sure I did my work. My grades rose. In fact, the scores of our whole class rose. One day, he took our class to see The Phantom of the Opera, and it was the first time some kids had ever been out of Harlem. Before the show, he treated us to dinner at a restaurant and taught us not to talk with our mouths full. We did not want to let him down.
Mr. Clark was selected as Disney's 2000 Teacher of the Year. He said he would draw three names out of a hat ; those students would go with him to Los Angles to get the award. But when the time came to draw names, Mr. Clark said, "You're all going."
On graduation day, there were a lot of tears. We didn't want his class to end. In 2001, he moved to Atlanta, but he always kept in touch. He started giving lectures about education, and wrote a best-selling book based on his classroom rules, The Essential 55. In 2003, Mr. Clark took some of us on a trip to South Africa to deliver school supplies and visit orphanages . It was the most amazing experience of my life. It's now my dream to start a group of women's clubs one day, helping people from all backgrounds. | high11794.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Traveline"
},
"options": [
"National Rail",
"Northlink Ferries",
"Traveline",
"Ferry Information"
],
"question": "If you are planning to visit Britain, you'd better first visit _ .",
"question_type": "clo... | However you decide to travel in Britain, a great starting point is Traveline-a very useful site that will help you plan your journey and get loads of information for national, regional and local travel.
By Air
Though Britain is a small country, flying can be a competitive choice, especially if you book ahead and travel early in the morning or late in the evening, you can get some great deals which can be cheaper than going by train. Airlines with good regional coverage are listed below...
By Train
Trains can be a rewarding , relaxing and, if you book in advance, good value way to travel round Britain. Lots of different companies run services in Britain. So start by contacting National Rail (Tel: 08705484950; outside UK + 44 1332 387601). It's a helpful, centralized service that provides timetable and fare information. To buy tickets, you have to contact individual train operating companies or use a website such as Traveline. Some of the major companies are listed below ...
By Coach
It is the cheapest way to travel long distances, and you can see a lot more of the country while you're traveling than by train.
National Express-Largest national coach network with excellent value BritXplorer passes that you can use on the whole network for 7, 14 and 28 days. Tel: 08705808080 UK only.
Meag Bus-Mega value, no-frills intercity travel.
City Link-Scotland's leading coach company.
Tel: 08705 505050 UK only.
Traveling-Provide information about bus travel all over the country. Tel: 08706 082608 UK only.
By Car
Rental rates can be fairly high in the UK, but if there are several of you, hiring a car can be a good value way to travel. Try and book in advance for better deals. If you are planning on traveling extensively in Britain it might be worth buying a car to travel round and then selling it afterwards. Major rental companies include ...
By Ferry
The main ferries in Britain serve the islands west and north of Scotland. Caledonian Mac (Tel: 08705650000) is the main operator off the west coast. North-link Ferries (Tel: 08456 000449) is the main operator to Orkney and the only sea-going choice to the Shetlands. Check out the Ferry Information for more information. | high20549.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The great impact of the Internet."
},
"options": [
"The popularity of mobile phones.",
"The great impact of the Internet.",
"The importance of the Internet.",
"The function of the global network."
],
"question":... | The Internet has revolutionized our lives to such an extent that for most people, the global network has become more than just a tool but rather an indispensable aid in everyday life. More and more people go online as wireless networks have brought the Internet closer and closer: it's on our mobile phones, in our cars and TV sets, in hospital surgery rooms and in fishing boats that battle the waves of the Atlantic.
And this revolution has brought along with it a new way of shopping. Both big and small, e-commerce websites have literally flooded the Internet by the hundreds of thousands. Anything you can buy from a brick and mortar store you can also buy online: from food and clothes to guns and bombs, no matter what you're looking for, you're bound to find the right online store with just a few clicks of the mouse.
This revolution has sent cold trembles down the backbones of brick and mortar business owners. And what was their reaction? They've opened online stores to go hand in hand with their conventional businesses. Nowadays, every "Mom and Pop's" cheesecake store also has a website. In a recent survey, 68% of small business owners have stated that they are scared of being put out of business by the powerful flood that e-commerce has become. So it's no wonder many of them have decided to join the revolution and establish some kind of an online presence even though most of them have stated that they dislike the Internet.
But do the big players have reasons to be afraid? Are we going to start seeing ghostly, deserted Wal-Marts across the country? Probably not in the near future but the day will come when most people will just stop shopping offline anymore. A trip to Wal-Marts wastes time, burns gas and sometimes adds a few extra dots on the stress counter.
The recent advancements in mobile technology and the introduction of mobile phones with improved web capabilities has even made some people order their groceries when they get out from work and have them delivered at their doorstep by the time they get home. And as "Time is money", this practice is lifesaving for people who work two jobs.
Technology will continue to advance and e-commerce will follow closely in its footsteps. Everything will become easier and less time consuming, leaving us more time to enjoy the things that really matter in life: the ones we love, our friends and hobbies. | high10105.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "can trap and feed on some form of insects"
},
"options": [
"is a small plant which grows in a container",
"is a kind of plant which gets hungry easily",
"can trap and feed on some form of insects",
"can only grow 6-8 in... | Some plants get so hungry they eat flies, and even small frogs. What's more amazing is that these plants occur naturally (in special environments) in every state. In fact, they're found on every continent except Antarctica.
You've probably seen a Venus' flytrap -- a small plant, which grows 6 to 8 inches tall in a container. At the end of its stalks are leaves that act like traps . Inside each trap is a lining of tiny hairs. When an insect lands on them, the traps suddenly shut. Over the course of a week or so, the plant feeds on its catch.
The Venus' flytrap is just one of more than 500 species of meat-eating plants, says Barry Meyers-Rice, the editor of the International Carnivorous Plant Society's Newsletter. He states although you might have read some science-fiction stories, no meat-eating plant does any danger to humans.
Barry says a plant is meat-eating, only if it does all four of the following: "attract, kill, digest, and absorb" some form of insects. Meat-eating plants look and act like other green plants -- well, most of the time.
All green plants make sugar to produce food. What makes meat-eating plants different is their special leaves, which need insects for one reason: nitrogen . Nitrogen is a nutrient that they can't obtain any other way. Why?
Almost all green plants on our planet get nitrogen from the soil. Meat-eating plants can't. They live in places where nutrients are hard to get from the soil because of its acidity. So they've come to rely on getting nitrogen from insects and small animals. In fact, nutrient-rich soft is poisonous to meat-eating plants. Never fertilize them! But don't worry, either, if they never seem to catch any insects. They can survive, but they'll grow very slowly. | high3984.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "To have your car serviced at service station."
},
"options": [
".To service your car by yourself.",
"To turn to other car owers for help.",
"To send your car back to the car maker.",
"To have your car serviced at servic... | Car are necessary in our daily life. In moden society we even can't go without cars. Therefore,car servicing becomes something that every car owner has to experience at least some have the servicing done methtxJically according to your car maker. Considerthis: Your car is uo and running smoothly but the mileage figures indicate that you need to have it serviced. Certainly, this is the right thing to do, but have you wondered what actually goes in to make you pay that servicing bill every 6 months?
Servicing your car is a simple DIT( Do It Yourself) job that you can learn quickly and easily save some good money.
If you have never serviced your car before personally, here're the servicing basics:
Car servicing essentially means inspecting the car thoroughly for any damaged components, and replacing some parts regulariy that wear out over time. If you review carefully it is certainly possible to do all this by yourself, as below:
You will need a complete set of tools as provided by your car maker when you purchased the vehice. This will usually consist of all the spanners that you might need.
Completely servicing your car will need a few hours but you will end up saving a lot of money. Besides, it's fun too and a lot of learning. | high18559.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "what life in the US is like and an image of contemporary US society"
},
"options": [
"the way that friendship develops in different families",
"the idea that people need to be appreciated one way or another",
"what life in th... | Teenagers in the UK and the US get to watch some wonderful TV shows. Why not have a look at a few of them yourself and take the chance to practice your English at the same time?
Modern Family
Network: ABC
Number of seasons: 3
The TV drama features two families, modern and traditional. The first is a typical American family with 3 adolescent children. Claire is a traditional mom, while Phil, the father, wants to be friends with his three children; he can name all the songs in the hit film High School Musical.
The second family is made up of a 60- year-old man, Jay, his attractive young Latin American wife, Gloria , and her 11-year-old son, Alex. Jay is 30 years older than Gloria and everyone thinks they are father and daughter.
2 Broke Girls
Network: CBS
Number of seasons: 1
Max Black is a cafe waitress and babysitter in Brooklyn, New York; Caroline Channing is the daughter of a Manhattan millionaire.
Neither of them ever imagined making friends with the other. But when Caroline loses all of her fortune after her father goes to prison, she applies for a job as a waitress in the same cafe and has to learn from Max.
Problems are unavoidable, but luckily, kind-hearted girls can always make things work out. They turn out to be great at helping each other out in their endless struggle against strange customers and picky bosses. Gradually a friendship develops.
True Blood
Network: HBO
Number of seasons: 4
Vampires live on in countless books, movies and television shows. If the Twilight series got you interested in vampire myths, then look no further than True Blood for another exciting adventure. Sookie Statckhouse is a small-town waitress. She is also telepathic . A meet with Bill Compton in a bar turns her life upside down. Bill is a vampire and that night Sookie saves him from a murder attempt. Sookie then becomes involved in a series of murder cases. The love between Sookie and Bill adds a touch of romance to a thrilling story.
Merlin
Network: BBC
Number of seasons:4
King Arthur is one of the most important mythical figures in England. But the BBC tells a slightly different story from the legend. Instead of focusing on Arthur, it is Merlin, the wizard who helps Arthur all the way through his adventures, who takes the lead role. Rather than the wise old wizard who instructs Arthur in the legend, the TV dram turns him into a handsome young man. Merlin meets Arthur in the kingdom of Camelot and believes that he is an arrogant bully . Arthur, likewise, has a less than great opinion of Merlin. The series focuses on how a friendship grows between the two. | high16574.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "American football"
},
"options": [
"football",
"how to play football",
"American sports",
"American football"
],
"question": "The passage talks about _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
... | Do you like football? If so, you can read the following passage and find that it is interesting. In almost every big university in the United States, football is a favorite sport. American football is different. Players sometimes kick the ball, but they also throw the ball and run with it. They try to take it to the other end of the field. They have four chances to move the ball ten yards .
They can carry it or they can throw it. If they move the ball ten yards, they can try to move it another ten yards. If they move it to the end of the field, they receive six points.
It is difficult to move the ball. Eleven men on the other team try to stop the man with the ball. If he does not move the ball ten yards, his team kicks the ball the other team.
Each university wants its own team to win. Many thousands of people come to watch. They all shout for their favorite team. Young men and women come on the field to help the people shout more. They dance and jump while they shout.
Each team plays ten or eleven games each season. The season begins in September and ends in November. If a team is very good, it may play another game after the season ends. The best teams play again on January 1, the first day of the New Year. Many people go to see these games and many others watch them on TV. | high4033.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "new study results on coffee"
},
"options": [
"medical benefits of coffee",
"the importance of drinking coffee",
"coffee's negative effects on health",
"new study results on coffee"
],
"question": "The passage is... | After numerous warnings over the years, you thought coffee probably had a negative effect on your health. Perhaps the drink is not so bad after all.
The new study, conducted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), has been published and suggests that coffee does not have a harmful effect on your health. Researchers suggest, based on data examined, older adults who drink a lot of coffee, have a lower risk of death when compared to their non-drinking coffee peers.
The team of researchers conducting the study analyzed data on 400,000 U. S. men and women,aged 50 to 71 years; the individuals had participated in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. This study started in 1995-1996 and was tracked until the day a participant passed away, or Dec. 31, 2008.
According to a press release on the report, researchers shared that coffee drinkers are "less likely to die from heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries and accidents, diabetes, and infections, although the relationship was not seen for cancer."
Results indicated participants that drank three or more cups of coffee a day reduced their risk of death by 10 percent. Based on the findings that both caffeinated and non-caffeinated coffee found similar results, researchers are thinking caffeine is not the protective ingredient , although which ingredient in coffee might be, they are not sure.
Researchers indicate that despite these observational findings, they caution it is not clear whether or not drinking coffee actually extends life expectancy.
"Coffee is one of the most widely drunk drinks in America, but the relationship between coffee consumption and risk of death has been unclear. We found coffee consumption to be associated with lower risk of death overall, and of death from a number of different causes," said Neal Freedman, Ph. D., Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI.
"Although we cannot infer a relationship between coffee drinking and lower risk of death, we believe these results do provide some comfort that coffee drinking does not adversely affect health," Freedman said.
Dr. Cheryl Williams, a registered dietician, told ABC News, "Overall, more research needs to be done to truly understand the ingredients in coffee and their biological activity and effect on health," said Williams. | high19647.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "At 11:30 pm"
},
"options": [
"At 11:30 am",
"At 11:30 pm",
"At 5:30 pm",
"At 5:30 am"
],
"question": "When did the fire break out by Beijing time?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer"... | Some people were killed when a huge explosion hit an industrial area of China, injuring hundreds of people. The explosion is believed to have come from a shipment of explosive inside a warehouse at about 11:30 pm local time (5:30pm in Britain) in the north-eastern city of Tianjin.
Videos of the accident showed fires lighting up the night sky, raising dust dozens of feet into the air, and people nearby said the explosion had broken windows. Tianjin resident Zhang Siyu, who lives several miles away from the accident site, said, "I thought it was an earthquake, so I rushed downstairs without my shoes on. Only once I was outside did I realize it was an explosion. There was the huge fireball in the sky with thick clouds. Everybody could see it."
Post on Chinese social network Weibo showed a fireball shooting into the air and as least two separate explosions, while photos showed people in the street apparently covered in blood. Others image showed children being carried in blankets to safety.
It was reported that the two explosions happened within 30 seconds of each other and about 100 fire trucks were sent to the scene, with most of the injuries caused by broken glass and stones. The firm running the warehouse was named by local media as Ruihai Logistics. The company says on its website that it was set up in 2011. It says it handles one million tons of cargos per year.
The National Earthquake Bureau reported two major explosion before midnight local time---the first with an amount of 3 tons of TNT , and the second with an amount of 21 tons. Six thousand firefighters brought the terrible fire under control, although it was still buring . It was reported that the firefighters were combing the neighborhood for the possible injured. | high12712.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "children behave worse than they did in the past"
},
"options": [
"children used to be mischievous",
"children behave worse than they did in the past",
"children are often reminded of what to do",
"children are very badl... | I am beginning to wonder whether my grandmother isn't right when she complains, as she frequently does, that children nowadays aren't as well-behaved as they used to be. Whenever she gets the opportunity, she recounts in detail how she used to be told to respect the elders and betters. She was taught to speak only when she was spoken to, and when she went out on her own, she was reminded to say 'please' and 'thank you'. Children in her day, she continues, were expected to be seen and not heard, but these days you are lucky if you ever hear parents telling their children to mind their p's and q's.
If you give her the chance, she then takes out of her drawer the old photograph album which she keeps there, and which she never tires of displaying. Of course when you look at pictures of her parents, you feel sure that, with a father as stern-looking as that, you too would have been "seen and not heard". He had a lot of neatly cut hair, long side-whiskers and a big moustache. In the photographs, he is always clutching his coat with one hand, while in the other he holds a thin walking stick. Beside him sits his wife, with their children around her: Granny and her elder brothers. It always occurs to me that perhaps those long, stiff, black clothes were so clumsy to a little girl, that she hadn't enough breath left to be talkative, let alone mischievous . It must have been a dull and lonely life too, for she stayed mainly at home during her childhood, while her brothers were sent away to school from an early age. Despite their long black shorts and their serious expressions in the photographs, I always suspect that their lives were considerably more enjoyable than hers. One can imagine them telling each other to shut up or mind their own business, as soon as their parents were out of sight.
Going to see Granny on Sundays used to be a terrible experience. We would always be warned in advance to be on our best behavior, since my mother made a great effort to show how well brought up we were, in spite of our old, comfortable clothes, our incomprehensible (to Granny) slang, and our noisy games in the garden. We had to change into what Granny described as our "Sundays best" for lunch, when we would sit uncomfortably, kicking each other under the table. We were continually being ordered to sit up straight, to take our elbows off the table, to wait till everybody had been served, not to wolf down our food, nor to talk with our mouths full. At length we would be told to ask to be excused from the table and ordered to find quiet occupations for the rest of the day. We were always very bad-tempered by the evening, and would complain angrily all the way home.
Yet though we hated the Sunday visit, we never questioned the rules of good manners themselves. I remember being greatly shocked as a child to hear one of my friends telling her father to shut up. I knew I could never have spoken like that to my father and it would never have occurred to me to do so.
However, my childhood was much freer than Granny's. I went to school with my brother and I played football with him and his friends. We all spoke a common language, and we got up to the same mischief. I would have died if I had had to stay indoors, wear a tight dress, and sew.
But I do sometimes look wistfully at an old sampler which hangs in the hall, which was embroidered by an even more distant relative--my great-great-aunt, of whom, regrettably, no photograph remains. It was done as an example of her progress in learning. The alphabet is carefully sewn in large colored childish letters from A to Z, and below it a small verse reads:
Mary Saunders is my name,
And with my needle I worked the same,
That by it you may plainly see
What care my parents have for me.
It must have taken that little five-year-old months and months of laborious sewing, but, in a circle in a bottom corner of the sampler, there is a line: "Be Ever Happy". | high8609.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "been in great danger"
},
"options": [
"been shot by a gun",
"become confused",
"been attacked by wild animals",
"been in great danger"
],
"question": "The author suggested that if the man had not been found, he ... | The Pathfinder
When we found him, he was a sorry sight. His clothes were torn, his hands bleeding. Before we reached him, we saw him fall. He lay a moment. Then he pulled himself to his feet, walked unsteadily a few yards through the woods and fell again.
After we got him out, we went back to find the gun that he had thrown down. His tracks showed that for two days he had circled in the forest, within 200 yards of the road. His senses were so dulled by fear and tiredness that he did not hear the cars going by or see the lights at night.
We found him just in time.
This man, like others before him, had simply been frightened when he knew he was lost. What had been a near disaster might have turned out as only a pleasant walk, had he made a few preparations before he stepped from the highway or off a known path.
Whatever sense of direction that a man may have, it's still largely a question of observation. A skilled woodsman always keeps an eye on his surroundings. He notes that the shape of a mountain, the direction water flows through a swamp, and the way a tree leans across a path. With these in mind, he may be turned around many times, but he is seldom lost.
There are exceptions, of course, and once in a while a man does come across some strange problem that puts him into the "lost" situation. A rainstorm or sudden blizzard may catch him without a compass in his pocket. Darkness may find him in a rough area, where travel is dangerous without a light.
When this happens, the normal first reaction is the fear of being laughed at as a result of his poor knowledge in the woods. He may also be concerned about the inconvenience that he will cause his friends when he doesn't show up. This false pride may lead him to keep on the move in a false effort to find his way against all difficulties.
The person who thinks ahead is seldom in great danger. He'll be safe if he observes carefully, thinks ahead, and remains calm. | high14363.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "knew little about the neighboring country"
},
"options": [
"had known a lot about the neighboring country",
"knew little about the neighboring country",
"had thought he would have a chance to visit the country",
"though... | Traveling in Viet Nam was like visiting a mysterious neighbor. You have lived next door to each other for years but knew very little about what happened on the other side of the fence.
I traveled there last August. A simple 180-kilometre trip from a Chinese border town to Hanoi, capital of Viet Nam, took an adventurous eight hours. That's because the country still doesn't have a modern expressway system. The major passage going through the peninsula is only a two-way road. Also, many areas are mountainous.
Vietnamese drivers are impatient and fearless. They compete with each other at full speed no matter how scared the passengers feel. When the bus shook us violently many times, the driver made a joke to make us feel better. "See, this is just a gift Vietnamese people give you, a free passage service."
It was midnight when I reached the hotel. Turning on the television, I was surprised by something : All the characters in the TV dramas spoke in the same voice. At present, modern Korean dramas and historical Chinese dramas are popular with the Vietnamese. But it seemed they didn't have enough money to dub all these programmes. So, the same boring woman would appear behind every drama to speak for the roles.
The next morning when I opened the window, I found myself in a huge "garden". The buildings in the streets were dressed in all kinds of colors you can imagine. Vietnamese residents are allowed to paint their houses as they like. Each one is different and the colors bring the city alive. | high9517.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Philips 585"
},
"options": [
"Pearlcorder S702",
"Sony M400",
"Imperial OEM MC7",
"Philips 585"
],
"question": "Which machine is unsuitable for general use?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
... | Pocket Tape-Recorders "Family and Home Magazine" test what's on the market now.
Pearl corder S702 $64
This simple model at the bottom of the Olympus range scored the most points for its excellent quality of recording. Background noise hardly affects the sound and recording from a pocket is perfectly possible, but it doesn't turn off automatically.
Tape length: 30 minutes per side. Weight : 240 g
Sony M9 $49.95
Small and very good looking, Sony's latest offering scored most for appearance.
Sounds clear, but there is slight machine noise. The big control buttons are a great improvement on some of the complicated little controls on other tape-recorders.
Doesn't switch off automatically but a red light shows if the machine is still running.
Tape length : 60 minutes per side. Weight : 195g.
Sony M400 $115
Lots of little control buttons that make a noise and are difficult to use. Rcording is good but machine noise loses points. Tape counter and automatic switch-off when tape has finished recording or rewinding are useful.
Tape length : 60 minutes per side. Weight : 230g
Imperial OEM MC7 $29.95
Cheap and simple compared with the rest, but recording is good as long as there is no background noise. Use only its own make of cassette. No light to show it is on; no fast forward button and the record button makes a loud noise.
Tape length: 30 minutes per side. Weight: 285g.
Philips 585$ 80
Handsome and simple to use, but recording is very poor at more than the recommended distance of 5 cm designed for dictation. No recording light.
Tape length : 15 minutes per side. Weight : 220g. | high22809.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "accepted his request"
},
"options": [
"got a big shock",
"accepted his request",
"looked down upon Jill",
"spread the news to 20 people"
],
"question": "The first time the author was asked to do something for Ji... | Day 1
I first heard of "Show Racism the Red Card" when my friend Jill asked me to support their work. Basically, it's an organization which uses professional footballers to help fight racism in sport and society. A few weeks later, he asked me if I wanted to do a bit more for them. I thought he probably meant for me to give money or do some voluntary work. But then he told me that a group of about 20 people were getting sponsored to play the highest ever game of rugby at 5,140 meters on Mount Everest.
Day 4
We're making our way up to the base camp -- that's where most climbers start their final climb to the top -- and then, we'll play our game. Today we started out at 8 am. We had to cross three suspension bridges . One of them was so high that you couldn't see the bottom. Then we walked through some beautiful forest areas before we started a two-hour uphill hike to Namche Bazaar.
Day 10
Base camp is basically just a lot of stones and tents. The walk up was really exhausting. Maybe if I was fitter, I wouldn't find this so hard, but then it was not just me -- all of us got very short of breath.
Day 11
Today we played our game. It was supposed to be a "friendly" game, and last night, we had agreed we'd just walk and not run. However, it was a really heated game and two players were even sent off. We only played for 14 minutes. I think someone would have got hurt if we'd played any longer! My team won and I scored the last try! Of course, none of this matters. What's really important is that we did it and we've raised a load of money. | high14405.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the creativity of engineers"
},
"options": [
"the creativity of engineers",
"the power of editor-in-chief",
"engineering in general",
"a way of thinking"
],
"question": "This passage mainly deals with _ .",
... | The day before the deadline for this article,I had no clue what I was going to write about. I took my problem to the editor-in-chief, and.he said to me:"Don't worry; you're creative. "
I'm not sure where the editor-in-chief reached the conclusion that I was "creative". Maybe it was through the poems I wrote. Personally, I simply enjoy writing because it's fun. There's also the fact that I can't draw or do anything else creatively, I'm equally sure that there are people in the boat on the other side who can make things look excellent, but can't write a poem.
At this point you probably want to ask me what poetry and art have to do with engineering. For one, it makes you a more rounded person, making you a better engineer. More importantly, as an engineer, you will be faced with many problems every day. There are some that can be solved by consulting a textbook, but more often than not, you will need that thing in your brain to put together things in a completely original combination to solve the problem at hand.
Think of the wonderful things that creative engineers have done. Civil engineers have made the road more long-lasting so we don't have to close them for repairs as often. Coming up with a new innovation is similar to writing a good poem. It's not some-thing you plan to do. The critical moment comes unexpectedly in the middle of nowhere. You don't think about what you're doing, you simply do. After some mad struggling you take a look at the end product and say to yourself, "This is a masterpiece. " This is perhaps the greatest personal satisfaction one can
experience.
So all you engineers out there get out and do something creative. I don't care if it's writing a poem or a computer program, just be natural and do something creative. | high9271.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Iran."
},
"options": [
"German.",
"Iran.",
"India.",
"China."
],
"question": ".",
"question_type": null
}
] | The crisis at Japan's Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear energy center caused by the terrible earthquake has raised questions about the future of the nuclear energy industry. Arjun Makhijani is president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in the United States. He says the disaster in Japan is historic.
This week, the chairman of America's nuclear agency said there is little chance that harmful radiation from Japan could reach the United States. Gregory also said America has a strong program in place to deal with earthquake threats. No new nuclear power centers have been built in the United States since nineteen seventy-nine. That was when America's worst nuclear accident happened at the Three Mile Island center in Pennsylvania. The accident began to turn public opinion against nuclear energy. At present, about twenty percent of electricity in the United States comes from nuclear energy.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany would close seven nuclear power centers while energy policy is reconsidered. The European Union is planning to test all centers in its twenty-seven member nations.
Developing nations are less willing to slow nuclear expansion. China said it will continue with plans to build about twenty-five new nuclear reactors . And India, under a cooperation agreement with the United States, plans to spend billions on new centers in the coming years.
Nuclear reactors supply fourteen percent of global electricity. Nuclear energy is a clean resource, producing no carbon gases. But radioactive waste is a serious unresolved issue. So is the presence of nuclear power centers in earthquake areas like the one near Bushehr, Iran.
The best title of the text is _ .
A. Various Opinions on Japan's Nuclear Disaster
B. Japan's Disaster is Likely to Run out of Control
C. America Feels Great Concern for Japan's Nuclear Crisis
D. Japan's Disaster Throws Doubt on Nuclear Energy Industry | high12074.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "wanted very much to fulfill her dream"
},
"options": [
"wouldn't swim against the current",
"wanted to prove she was stronger than before",
"had David Marchant as her navigator",
"wanted very much to fulfill her dream"
... | It was August 10, 2011. Diana Nyad was dozens of miles into her dream to complete a 103-mile swim from Cuba to Key West. Because of the currents in the Florida Straits, Nyad would have to last 60 hours-if everything went perfectly.
For two years, this dream of swimming from Cuba to Florida had been part of her every waking hour. She was about to turn 60. "I wanted to be filled with commitment to the best of myself so that 1 wasn't looking back later saying, 'What have I done with my life?''' says Nyad.
Those extreme physical struggles are not new to her. In 1974, 25-year-old Nyad became the first person to swim across Lake Ontario against the current. A year later, Nyad's 28-mile swim around the island of Manhattan made the front page of the New York Times.
"Physically, I'm stronger. I weigh a lot more," Nyad said after a training swim in Key West in June. "There are also mental advantages to being older," says Steven Munatones, an expert in swimming.
Feeling a sharp pain in her right shoulder, she changed the angle of stroke , telling herself to go gently until her hand caught the water. In the 17thhour, she swam over to the boat, and the crew located a pain reliever. Nyad took it. She lay on her back, rolled onto her belly and continued swimming, and then she'd turn on her back again, gasping, unable to fill her lungs. "I'm trying to make it. I'm barely going forward. I feel so sick. This has been my dream forever, but I can hardly make it another hour," Nyad told David Marchant, the boat's navigator . Between the 23rd and 27th hours, Nyad had gone just five miles. "OK, Diana, I'm going to touch you, and it's going to be over," Stoll said. Nyad agreed. And with that, 29 hours and 43 minutes after she'd leaped into the water, the swim came to an end.
"She just wouldn't quit. It was more amazing to see her not make it the way she fought than if everything had gone exactly right and she'd made it the whole way," says Mark Sollinger, who piloted Nyad's lead boat.
At a press .conference in Key West after being pulled onto the support boat, Nyad choked back tears and said, "Sometimes the will is so strong. But I was shaking and freezing, and I thought, 'There's no mind over matter anymore.' I think I'm going to have to go to my grave without swimming from Cuba to Florida."
But when Nyad returned home to Los Angeles, the pain began to fade. "Something says to me the goal is still there," says Nyad. | high20978.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "there was something else in the lock"
},
"options": [
"she didn't have the right key",
"there was something else in the lock",
"someone had changed the lock",
"the owner of the house refused her living there"
],
... | Many years ago, I went through a tough time. One afternoon, I picked my girls up. It was late when we returned home. I went to unlock the door and found my key wouldn't go in. I kept trying while my daughter went to get a flashlight. When she returned with it we found somehow the lock had been "stuffed" with sunflower seed shells. Thinking that one of the neighborhood children had been up to no good, I really didn't give it much consideration.
I found all windows were locked up tight. So I returned to the back door. Oh my God, I will never forget the shock of that moment. The house was empty! Other than a few things remaining on the back porch, everything was gone! Then I heard a car pull into the driveway and found two policemen walking up. They inquired why I had broken into the house. They then asked me for proof that I lived at that address, so I asked them to wait a minute while I went to get my rent receipt and identification from inside the house. I explained the matter to them and showed them the door lock.
I could tell from their actions and tone of voice that they thought I was breaking into an empty house for somewhere to sleep.
I asked a neighbor for the phone number of house owner and the officer made a call. The owner was quite shocked to hear my story. She said that my roommate had been going through an eviction process with the court when I moved in with her and had lost the case. She had been ordered to move by 10 am on that date. The court order had been issued the same day I had paid her 1/2 of the rent and a deposit of $300,000.
The owner was very kind and understanding but there was nothing she could do. The house had been rented already and the people were to move in the following weekend.
The officers let me go and I went to gather my girls into the car. They were both exhausted and old. Also very frightened, because they thought their mamma was going to jail. I had to pull over because the tears took control. I couldn't believe it! Everything we owned was gone, I had used up all our money moving in and paying my "friend" our share of costs. I knew very few people in town, as we had just moved there recently.
I went to sit back in the car with the girls, I talked to the girls, explaining our situation to them so that they wouldn't be afraid. During this time there was a "street person" with a bag, looking in the garbage for cans, bottles, and anything that might bring him some cash. But I didn't pay much attention to him. I decided to get the girls something to eat for breakfast. We grabbed some bread, and chips and returned for a "picnic". When we got there, I noticed that the man was not alone. He was with a small group of others like him and they were passing a hat amongst themselves.
I was busy setting up our little "picnic" when I heard a voice saying, "MaAm, please excuse... but...well...I overheard the situation you are in, and well... I and the fellows took up a collection for you and your little girls. It's not very much, but maybe it'll help a little." I looked up at this man---dirty, needing a shave ----and saw the face of an angel. I started crying. The man tried to hand me $30. I folded his hand back over the money and just hugged him as tight as I could. I told him, "Thank you for your more than generous offer, but we are going to be just fine." He didn't believe me at first, but I convinced him that it was okay.
Later that afternoon I went to the market and bought the making for a barbecue and off to that little park. It didn't take us very long to find those gentlemen and invite them to join us for lunch. I had a wonderful afternoon that day, sitting there with those old guys, singing songs. They had some of the most entertaining stories and they shared the dreams they once had. They shared themselves... from the heart. | high16212.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The hunter."
},
"options": [
"A villager.",
"The hunter.",
"The pigeon.",
"The writer."
],
"question": "Who strewed the grains over the ground?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {... | A flock of hungry pigeons were flying across the sky in search of food. Having traveled a long distance, they felt tired and settled down on a tree. Just below the tree, they saw grains strewn all over the ground. The pigeons were happy to have found enough food to eat. All the pigeons came down from the tree and started eating the grains. As they were doing so, a huge net fell on them and trapped them all.
The pigeons were taken aback. They noticed a hunter sitting at a distance from the tree, a bow and arrow in hand. The pigeons realized it was the hunter who had trapped them in the net. The hunter got up and began to move towards the pigeons.
The leader of the pigeons spoke, "Friends, we are in great trouble. The hunter will catch us if we do not act swiftly in a few seconds. There is only one _ available at this moment. Let all of us use our force together and fly up along with the net. If all of us use our force and fly together, we can fly carrying the net along with us. Let us start now."
All the pigeons agreed with him and flew high carrying the net along with them. After traveling enough distance away from the hunter, the pigeons settled on a tree and carefully came out of the net one by one and thus escaped the evil design of the hunter. | high4755.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "To attract people to the camps."
},
"options": [
"To attract people to the camps.",
"To talk about camping experiences.",
"To describe the programs of the camps.",
"To explain the aims of the camps."
],
"questio... | Camp memories last forever! We make sure they are unforgettable!
Shadow Ridge Summer Camps offer so many exciting things for campers to do. Unlike other camp programs that include horses as a small part of their program, at Shadow Ridge horses are the program! We are 100% horse from stable management, nature walks, and track rides to bedroom furnishings.
Horses help us achieve many of our aims. Girls can learn to develop responsibility, self-confidence and personal connections in their lives while having fun. Using horses as a wonderful tool for education, our camps offer an interesting place for growth and learning.
Imagine each girl having her own horse to spend time with and a best friend to love and take care of. Each camper is responsible for a horse for a week. Our riding program provides a lot of riding and lesson time. Campers will learn how to take care of the horse and the track , as well as how to ride. Days are filled with horse-related activities to strengthen the connection between each girl and horse, as the girls learn to work safely around the horses.
At Shadow Ridge we try to create a loving, caring family atmosphere for our campers. We have "The Bunkhouse" (4 girls), "the Wrangle Roost" (4 girls), and "The Hideout" (2 girls) in our comfortable 177-year-old farm house. All meals are home cooked, offering delicious and healthy food for the hungry rider.
Our excellent activities create personalized memories of your child's vacation. Each child will receive a camp T-shirt and a photo album (usually 300 - 500 pictures) of their stay at camp.
Our camps are offered during June, July and August 2007, for small groups of girls aged 13 -16 years, not only from Canada but also other parts of the world.
We will send you full program description at your request. | high19121.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Miller's unusual path to fame and fortune."
},
"options": [
"Michael Scofield in \nPrison Break.",
"Hollywood's recent big hit--\nPrison Break.",
"Miller's unusual path to fame and fortune.",
"The man who will take over... | Prison Breakis a huge hit thanks to its handsome star, Wentworth Miller. His character, Michael Scofield, is the engine that drives the show.
Having committed a crime to get into prison and break out with his innocent brother, Michael Scofield is one of the most interesting personalities on TV today. But what about the man behind the character?
Miller,35, is a hard guy to figure out. He does not come from a normal background and has never lived his life in a typical way.
Miller didn't take direct path to fame and fortune. He graduated from Princeton University in 1995, not with a degree in theatre of film, but in English. He didn't even act when he was in college. His only performance experience was in his university's singing group. Yet , at graduation Miller still decided to make the move to Hollywood.
Miller has always been different. Although he is American, he was in Britain when his father was studying there. His family background is also a special mix of cultures. "My father is black and my mother is white. That means I have always been caught in the middle. I could be either one, which can make you feel out of place," Miller says.
Following his unusual path, Miller did not start trying out for films and TV shows when he
first went to Hollywood. Instead, he worked as a lowly production assistant. Not what you would expect from a Princeton graduate. However, _
In 2002, Miller played a role in the drama Dinotopia(<<>> ). He starred as a thoughtful and shy man. Producers remembered his performance when they were castingPrison Breaktwo years later. With a golden globe nomination and another season ofPrison Breakon his resume, Miller seems ready to take over all of Hollywood. | high2324.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Finland"
},
"options": [
"Japan",
"America",
"South Korea",
"Finland"
],
"question": "The cellphone company with the largest global market share is located in _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
... | TOKYO-- At first glance, Japanese cellphones are young people's favorites, with elegant design and quick access to the Internet. However, despite years of competition in overseas markets, Japan's cellphone makers have little presence beyond the country's shores.
The only Japanese cellphone maker with any meaningful global share is Sony Ericsson, and that company is a London-based joint venture between a Japanese electronics maker and a Swedish telecommunications firm.
And Sony Ericsson has been hit by big losses. Its market share was just 6.3 percent in the first quarter of 2009, behind Nokia of Finland, Samsung Electronics and LG of South Korea, and Motorola of Illinois.
This year, Mr Natsuno, who developed a popular wireless Internet service called i-Mode, invited some of the best minds in the field to debate how Japanese cellphones could go global.
"The most amazing thing about Japan is that even the average person out there will have a very advanced phone, "said Mr Natsuno. Japan has 100 million users of advanced third-generation smart phones, twice the number of the United States, a much larger market. Many Japanese rely on their phones, not a PC, for Internet access.
Indeed, Japanese cellphone makers thought they had positioned themselves to dominate the age of digital data. But they were a little too clever. In the 1990s, they set a standard for the second-generation network that was refused everywhere else. Then Japan quickly adopted a third-generation standard in 2001. However, it made Japanese phones too advanced for most markets.
Several Japanese companies are now considering a push into overseas markets, including NEC. Panasonic, Sharp, Toshiba and Fujitsu are said to be planning similar moves.
"Japanese cellphone makers need to either look overseas, or exit the business", said Kenshi Tazaki, a managing vice president at the consulting firm Gartner Japan. | high10663.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "By road."
},
"options": [
"By plane.",
"By road.",
"By water.",
"By hitch hiking."
],
"question": "What way would Walker like to choose for his travel this time?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
... | By Road Around the World
Nickname: Walker
Email: ragwani@hotmail.com
When to travel: May 2011-Aug 2011
Who am I: I am 55. From my childhood, have this dream to go around the world by hitch hiking. However this is now changed and I want to go by road.
My travel plans: Going throughout the world and study various people, culture, habits.
Who am I looking for: A female companion, and she must have similar interest as me.
Just for fun
Nickname: Stream
Email: qrutta@yahoo.co.uk
When to travel: Jan 2011-Dec 2011
Who am I: Young slim girl, looking to see Asia with anyone who wants to travel.
My travel plans: I most prefer a white man in his late30's to have fun with me as he travels either on business or leisure trips
Whom am I looking for: Someone who is honest, friendly; good sense of humor, adventurous.
22yr old Australian looking for travel companion
Nickname: Angela
Email: alyssia _ europe@hotmail.com
When to travel: March 2011
Who am I: a lovely girl, with fun, honest, caring.
My travel plans: I will be traveling to Europe cities, then the world!
Who am I looking for: An extremely fun and entertaining male/female, middle-aged, someone that I can enjoy every travel moment with.
Fun and maybe more
Nickname: Sunnygirl
Email: sunnygirl2008@yahoo.com
When to travel: Jun2011-Aug2011
Who am I: Slender African girl in her late 20's. Quite charming, loving, pretty,fun to be with.
My travel plans: Nothing in mind for sure, just looking to come with you.
Whom am I looking for: Looking for a white male between 40-50 years, someone who is full of energy and lively. | high11569.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "videos of dancing birds"
},
"options": [
"bird lovers' discovery",
"humans musical sense",
"the same abilities in children",
"videos of dancing birds"
],
"question": "The idea of studying animals' ability to kee... | The idea for a science experiment can come from an unusual place. After watching a YouTube video of a dancing bird named Snowball, a scientist in Californina decided to study the ability of animals to keep the beat.
Bird lovers have long claimed that their pets have rhyhm, and there are many videos of dancing birds online. Until now, scientists have suspected that humans are the only animals that can accurately keep rhythm with music.
Thanks to Snowball,
is changing. Snowball is a cockatoo, a kind of parrot, and his favorite song is "Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys. When he hears the song, he moves his feet and rocks his body with the tempo, or pace of the music, as though he is the only bird member of the boy band.
Aniruddh Patel is a neuroscientist, or a scientist who studies how the brain and the nervous system contribute to learning, seeing and other mental abilities. He works at the Neurosciences Instiute in San Diego. After seeing Snowbaill's dance online, Patel visited the cockatoo at the bird rescue facility he's called home for two years. The scientist played "Everybody" for Snowball and also played versions of the song that were sped up or slowed down. Sometimes, Snowball danced too fast or too slowly. Often, when there was a change in tempo, Snowball adjusted his dancing to match the rhythm. In other experiments, scientists have observed the same abilities in preschool children.
Patel isn't the only scientist who has studied Snowball's moves. Adena Schachner, who studies psychology at Harvard University, also wanted to know more about the dancing bird. Schachner's team played different musical pieces for Snowball and a parrot named Alex, as well as eight human volunteers. The scientists observed that the birds and the humans kept time to the music with about the same accuracy.
Schachner and her team watched thousands of YouTube videos of different animals moving to music. Not all the animals could dance, however. From watching the videos, the scientists observed that only animals that imitate sounds, including 14 parrot species and Asian elephants, accurately moved in time to music. | high16206.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Expensive"
},
"options": [
"Interesting",
"Expensive",
"Convenient",
"Environment-friendly"
],
"question": "What does Editor Henry Slocum think about e-books?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
... | Editor Henry Slocum,
I read your May 10th article in the local newspaper Honesdale Times about electronic books, or e-books, with great interest. You made several good points about the disadvantage of e-books. You may have overlooked, however, some of the ways in which they are superior to traditional books. Yes, e-books are expensive, but they are also convenient. In addition, due to their environment-friendly nature, e-books have the potential to change our planets for the better.
E-books, for anyone who is unfamiliar with the term, are about the same size and shape as regular books. They have a large screen in the middle, however, this screen shows the reader a page of the text that has been downloaded from a computer. Once the reader has finished reading the page on the e-book screen, he or she scrolls down to see a new page. The process continues until the entire book has been read.
As you pointed out, Mr. Slocum, it's great to lie on a warm, sandy beach with a book. You can do that just as easily with an e-book as you can with a traditional paper book. In fact, because e-books are so light, you can carry themselves. Say, for example, that you like to read on the bus. Which would you rather carry with you---a heavy 800-page novel, or an e-book that weighs only a few ounces?
Another important advantage is offered by e-books as well. They are more environment-friendly than traditional books. At present, thousands of trees cut down each year to meet the publishing industry's demand for paper. Books that don't sell are eventually returned to the publisher and destroyed, This terrible waste could be avoided if everyone used e-books, which require no paper.
Sincerely,
David Eng | high19135.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "China are taking actions to bring its citizens back from Libya."
},
"options": [
"There are many Chinese workers in the most unrest and dangerous parts of the world.",
"China should protect workers in the foreign countries.",
... | Like many other nations, China has been busy putting together evacuation plans for its citizens stuck in crisis-torn Libya.The real surprise has been just how many Chinese are living there.The foreign ministry does not know for sure but puts the figure at 30-40,000.
The huge contingent in Libya, who work for at least 27 Chinese companies, has brought to light one of the new dilemmas facing China as its economic interests expand.For a mixture of reasons that are partly political, partly business, Chinese workers are now present in many of the most unrest and dangerous parts of the world, including places where anti-Chinese sentiment over jobs and working conditions is on the rise.One of the first wake-up calls was in 2007, when a group of Chinese women were kidnapped in Pakistan, an event which led to the siege of the Red Mosque in Lahore.In the same year, nine Chinese oil workers were killed in Ethiopia.In recent years, Chinese workers have been kidnapped in Cameroon, Congo and Afghanistan.
Publicly, Chinese diplomats admit that the country needs better contingency plans to deal with this sort of situation.Privately, they worry about a different issue: that such incidents will force them to get much more involved in domestic political disputes in far-off lands, pulling the government away from its commitment to a policy of non-interference.The nightmare, a few diplomats and academics admit, would be a large, violent attack on a group of Chinese which then prompted an intense nationalist reaction at home, forcing the government to take the sort of interventionist actions it tries to _ .
Beijing gave some indication of how it will respond in the future with the decision on Thursday to send the frigate Xuzhou, currently conducting anti-piracy tasks off the coast of Somalia, to Libya.Its mission will be to help the evacuation effort, but it is also a warning to any in Libya who might attack Chinese interests, as well as the latest indication of the growing global reach of China's navy.As Andrew Erickson, a China expert at the US Naval War College says: "This latest initiative is part of a larger ongoing increase in Chinese power, presence, and influence around the world, and should come as no surprise.China has global interests, cannot free ride forever, and requires a presence in critical areas and situations in order to have a voice." | high2330.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "The soft cover enables it to be read and kept long."
},
"options": [
"The soft cover enables it to be read and kept long.",
"It can be purchased as an award for your children.",
"It offers the biggest discount among all the m... | Apple Seeds
Circulation : 1 Year, 9 Issues
Cover Price: $44.55
Price For You: $33.95
Product Description: Apple Seeds is an award winning magazine filled with stories for kids aged from 7 to 9. The cover is very soft, providing durability that allows each issue to be enjoyed for many years to come. Besides, there is a big surprise for you --- it's being sold at a more favorable discount than usual.
Better Life
Circulation: 1 Year, 12 Issues
Cover Price: $44.55
Price For You: $15.00
Product Description: Designed for those who have a strong interest in personal lifestyle, Better Life is America's complete home and family service magazine. It offers help with food, recipes, decorating, building, gardening, family health, money management, and education.
Humor Times
Circulation: 1 Year, 12 Issues
Cover Price: $36.00
Price For You: $11.95
Product Description: Humor Times Magazine is for those who love to laugh! Full of cartoons and humor columns, it shows up in your mailbox once a month and keeps you smiling all year round! In today's world, you need a reason to laugh. So let's find it in Humor Times.
News China
Circulation: 1 Year, 12 Issues
Cover Price: $47.88
Price For You: $19.99
Product Description: News China Magazine is the English edition of China Newsweek. The magazine covers the latest Chinese domestic news in politics, business, society, environment, culture, sports and travels, etc. It is the first comprehensive news magazine for readers interested in China. | high1639.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "AIDS"
},
"options": [
"malaria",
"tuberculosis",
"AIDS",
"influenza"
],
"question": "According to the report _ is the disease most difficult to fight.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"ans... | The World Health Organization and several other United Nations agencies are calling for a major new effort to fight malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS. These three infectious diseases killed almost 6 million people last year. That is about 10 percent of the total number of deaths around the world last year.
The WHO and UN agencies released a new report at the World Economic Forum in New York City earlier this month. The document says that deaths around the world from malaria and tuberculosis could be cut in half by the year 2010. It also says the number of deaths from AIDS could be reduced 25 percent within that same time period.
The report is called "Calling Up the Response to Infectious Diseases." It calls for huge new investments in methods to prevent and treat infectious diseases. Officials say money is needed for research and to purchase drugs. Money is also needed to devices to prevent diseases, such as bed nets. Bed nets prevent mosquitoes that carry malaria from biting people while they sleep.
David Heymann, director of the infectious disease program at the World Health Organization, says that providing effective drug treatments is important for improving peoples' health and economic well - being. Reducing disease can also help improve economic growth in developing countries.
The WHO report also describes successful health programs in developing countries. In Peru, for example, the number of tuberculosis cases was cut in half by increasing the treatment to control the disease. In Vietnam, malaria was reduced 97 percent through the use of bed nets. And in Uganda, cases of the virus that causes AIDS were cut in half among pregnant women and children through the use of anti - AIDS drugs.
This new international health campaign is estimated to cost about 12,000 million dollars a year. So far, officials say the campaign has about 2,000 million dollars. The WHO says the campaign will need stronger relationships among government, private aid agencies, and drug companies to succeed. | high6156.txt |
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