questions list | article stringlengths 9 6.44k | id stringlengths 9 14 |
|---|---|---|
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "they believed disease could be spread in public baths"
},
"options": [
"they lived healthily in a dirty environment.",
"they thought bath houses were too dirty to stay in",
"they believed disease could be spread in public bat... | Getting rid of dirt, in the opinion of most people, is a good thing. However, there is nothing fixed about attitudes to dirt.
In the early 16th century, people thought that dirt on the skin was a means to block out disease, as medical opinion had it that washing off dirt with hot water could open up the skin and let ills in. A particular danger was thought to lie in public baths. By 1538, the French king had closed the bath houses in his kingdom. So did the king of England in 1546. Thus began a long time when the rich and the poor in Europe lived with dirt in a friendly way. Henry IV, King of France, was famously dirty. Upon learning that a nobleman had taken a bath, the king ordered that, to avoid the attack of disease, the nobleman should not go out.
Though the belief in the merit of dirt was long-lived, dirt has no longer been regarded as a nice neighbor ever since the 18th century. Scientifically speaking, cleaning away dirt is good to health. Clean water supply and hand washing are practical means of preventing disease. Yet, it seems that standards of cleanliness have moved beyond science since World War II. Advertisements repeatedly sell the idea: clothes need to be whiter than white, cloths ever softer, surfaces to shine. Has the hate for dirt, however, gone too far?
Attitudes to dirt still differ hugely nowadays. Many first-time parents nervously try to warn their children off touching dirt, which might be responsible for the spread of disease. On the contrary, Mary Ruebush, an American immunologist , encourages children to play in the dirt to build up a strong immune system. And the latter position is gaining some ground. | high1389.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "some of his wheat had fallen onto the ground."
},
"options": [
"some of his wheat had been damaged",
"his grain was growing up in circles.",
"his grain was moved into several circles",
"some of his wheat had fallen onto... | In the summer of 1978 an English farmer was driving his tractor through a field of wheat when he discovered that some of his wheat was lying flat on the ground. The fattened wheat formed a circle about six meters across. Around this circle were four smaller circles of flattened wheat. The five circles were in a formation like five dots. During the following years, farmers in England found the strange circles in their fields more and more often.
The circles are called "crop circles" because they appear in the fields of grain - usually wheat or corn. The grain in the circles lies flat on the ground but never broken; it continues to grow, and farmers can later harvest it. Farmers always discover the crop circles in the morning, so the circles probably form at night. They appear only in the months from May to September.
At first, people thought that the circles were a _ . Probably young people were making them as a joke, or farmers were making them to attract tourists. To prove that the circles were a hoax, people tried to make circles exactly like the ones that farmer had found. They couldn't do it. They couldn't enter a field of grain without leaving tracks , and they couldn't flatten the grain without breaking it.
Many people believe that beings from outer space are making the circle to communicate with us from far away and that the crop circles are messages from them.
Scientists who have studied the crop circles suggested several possibilities. Some scientists say that a downward rush of wind leads to the formation of the circles - the same downward rush of air that sometimes causes an airplane to crash. Other scientists say that forces within the earth cause the circles to appear. There is one problem with all these scientific explanations: crop circles often appear in formations, like the five-dot formation. It is hard to believe that any natural force could form those. | high85.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "a lack of herring"
},
"options": [
"a lack of herring",
"environmental pollution",
"the increase of birds",
"the huge size of butterfish"
],
"question": "In the scientists' opinion, _ is contributing to the ... | Thousands of puffins live in Maine and on islands in the Gulf of Maine. But the puffins may be in danger. Last summer, the percentage of laid eggs that successfully produced baby puffins took a dive. Scientists also found a decline in the average body weight of the adult and baby puffins on Machias Seal Island, home to the area's largest colony. Over the winter, dozens of the seabirds from the region were found dead, likely from starvation.
What's causing the puffin trouble? Scientists think it may be a shortage of food. With ocean temperatures rising, fish populations have moved around. Normally, puffins' primary food source is herring, a type of fish. A lack of herring in the area could be causing the problem.
Butterfish from the south have become more abundant in the Gulf of Maine and could be a new food source for birds. But Steve Kress says butterfish may be too big and round for baby puffins to swallow.
Puffins spend most of their lives at sea. They come ashore to breed each spring and return to the ocean in August. The chicks swim to sea about 40 days after hatching. Puffin populations stretch across the North Atlantic, from Maine to northern Russia.
Maine's puffin population has been at risk in the past. In the 1800s, they were hunted for their food, eggs and feathers. By 1901, only one pair of puffins remained in the state. Thanks to the help of local lighthouse keepers and seabird restoration programs, the state's puffin population has been restored to more than 2,000 birds.
Scientists aren't sure what will happen to the Gulf of Maine's puffins. The birds may move further north. Kress says he hopes the Gulf population will sustain itself and then he continued. "You never know what climate change will bring," Kress said. "Historically fish could move out and more southerly fish could move in, and puffins may adapt to the new fish. Only they will know how the story will unfold." | high6380.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "their importance to man's health has not been completely known"
},
"options": [
"their importance to man's health has not been completely known",
"they may cause groundwater pollution",
"they can find their way into water sup... | Water Pollution and Man
Water pollution affects man's health, recreational use of water and sense of beauty.
The spread of water-carried disease is of great concern. In highly developed countries in particular, emphasis has changed from concern over bacterial disease to concern over water-carried viral disease. Viral hepatitis , for example, has been found to occur more frequently in cities whose water supplies have comparatively high levels of water impurity. Poisonous chemicals found in streams that are ultimately used for water supplies also create an important public health problem.
It is clear that poisonous chemicals must be excluded from water, but more and more chemicals from new pesticides , fertilizers, and other new products have been found in water. Since the public health importance of these chemicals is not yet fully known, they are of increasing concern. The chemicals from fertilizers are also finding their way into water supplies from pollution.
As man's desire for water-based recreation increases, greater demands are placed on the quality of the water. The water must not only but be attractive in appearance but also meet certain other conditions. Sports such as swimming involve direct contact with water, and so water standards are raised higher.
The range of water quality necessary for industrial processes varies greatly with the intended use of the water. The water used in steel mills, foe example, must have a lower chloride level than that accepted for drinking water. Cooling water can often be of comparatively low sanitary quality. A large part of the water used in the paper-making industry an be of ly low quality in some aspects, but must contain little iron and carbon dioxide. | high22375.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "They usually ignore the effect of exercise on losing weight."
},
"options": [
"They tend to hate \"light\" beer and low-calorie bread.",
"They usually ignore the effect of exercise on losing weight.",
"Most of them were combi... | Exercise is one of the few factors with a positive role in long-term control of body weight. Unfortunately, that message has not gotten through to the average American, who would rather try switching to "light" beer and low-calorie bread than increase physical efforts. The Centers for Disease Control, for example, found that fewer than one-fourth of overweight adults who were trying to lose weight said they were combining exercise with their diet.
In rejecting exercise, some people may be discouraged too much by caloric-expenditure charts; for example, one would have to quickly walk hard three miles just to work off the 275 calories in one delicious Danish pastry . Even exercise professionals accept half a point here. "Exercise by itself is a very tough way to lose weight," says York Onnen, program director of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
Still, exercise's supporting role in weight reduction is vital. A study at the Boston University Medical Center of overweight police officers and other public employees confirmed that those who dieted without exercise regained almost all their old weight, while those who worked exercise into their daily routine maintained their new weight.
If you have been sedentary and decide to start walking one mile a day, the added exercise could burn an extra 100 calories daily. In a year's time, assuming no increase in food intake, you could lose ten pounds. By increasing the distance of your walks gradually and making other dietary adjustments, you may lose even more weight. | high4597.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "To tell the neighbor how bad his behavior is"
},
"options": [
"To buy a good pair of earplugs",
"To offer suggestions to the neighbor",
"To ask the neighborhood committee for help",
"To tell the neighbor how bad his beh... | Living in a modern society has its advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage is that you often have to live closer to other people than you would like to. Sometimes, your neighbors make a noise that you are not comfortable with.
The best way to solve this problem is to talk with your neighbor first. You should be very polite and ask your neighbor if he knows how thin the walls of your homes are. This way doesn't criticize his behavior ; it simply points out that he may not realize how far his sound travels. Tell him that you know that sometimes you make noise as well, but that you do your best to keep it down. Often this will solve the problem right away, but sometimes the neighbor may become angry.
If your neighbor becomes angry with you, there are some more steps you can take. You might write a letter to the neighborhood committee. Make sure you write down the source of the noise and the time in the letter. They will review the situation and decide whether your neighbor is out of line. Some noise is considered to be _ , even if it bothers you. So you may prepare a good pair of earplugs .
Even if your neighbor makes too much noise, you don't have to live your life in discomfort. It's always a good idea to be friendly with your neighbors. You may clean the rubbish in front of his door. He's sure to appreciate behavior like this and be more open to your suggestions about noise level. | high5851.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Do we need to rescue our kids from the digital world?"
},
"options": [
"Do we need to rescue our kids from the digital world?",
"Should children learn to use digital technology?",
"Are there changes in children's school life?... | Nowadays, more and more teenagers use smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices more than ever before. And the amount of time they spend on these devices is only likely to increase in the future. But are all these changes good?
We sometimes call children who are able to use mobile devices and technology easily digital natives. They can text, email, get Wi-Fi, and download. Some experts say that long periods of time spent chatting to friends online, playing video games and listening to mp3s, for example, may possibly change how their brains work.
Then there is the question of privacy. All this online activity creates a digital footprint. Every time we share a photo or a post on social media, and every time we search for something on the Internet, information about our activity is stored somewhere.
Our inability to control what happens to our children's digital footprint and their personal privacy has big possibilities. It might become normal for companies to ask their employees for their social media qualifications. We are also becoming more aware that companies and governments may be able to 'listen in' on our communications. So it is important to make our children aware of the possible results of over sharing.
Another area where the digital world may have a big effect is in education. One worry is that kids who spend a lot of time online at home are sometimes unable to socialize properly with other children when they are at school. Other experts point out that, when it comes to children and technology, the children are the experts, not the teachers. They say that we should stop seeing online as 'bad' and offline as 'good' and there is evidence of innovative work in some schools.
So, do we really need to rescue our children from the dangers of the digital world? | high11967.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "people do need a break to restore their willpower"
},
"options": [
"people must eat snacks when they feel tired",
"people do need a break to restore their willpower",
"there's no way to strengthen people's willpower",
"... | There is some unwelcome news for students preparing for exams and officers putting in long hours-----you don't need the break as much as you may think that makes you feel less tired.
Scientists have long assumed that willpower is a limited resource, which is why you feel the need to have a rest, have a snack and come back to a task when you're feeling better. They argued that the only way to restore willpower was by rest, food or entertainment.
But psychologists have challenged this theory, saying weak willpower is all in your head. They found that people's beliefs in willpower determine how long and how well they'll be able to work on a tough mental exercise. "If you think of willpower as something that's limited, you're more likely to be tired when you perform a difficult task," said Prof.Veronika Job. "'But if you think of willpower as something that is not easily used up, you can go on and on."
The researchers designed four experiments to test students'-beliefs in willpower. After a tiring task, those, who believed or were led to believe that willpower is a limited resource, performed worse on standard concentration tests than those who thought of willpower as something they had more control over. They also found that leading up to final exam week, students who believed the limited resource theory ate junk food 24 percent more often than those who believed they had more control in resisting temptation .
Mr. Job said. "The theory that willpower is a limited resource is interesting, but it has had unintended consequences. Students who may already have trouble studying are being told that their power of concentration is limited, and they need to take frequent breaks. But a belief in willpower as a non-limited resource makes people stronger in their ability to work through challenges.'"
The findings could help people who are" battling temptation. Willpower isn't driven by a biologically based process as much as we used to think. The belief in it is what influences your behavior. | high5689.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Take Action to Prevent Global Warming"
},
"options": [
"How to Reduce Emissions",
"What Global Warming Brings",
"Take Action to Prevent Global Warming",
"No Emissions, No Warming"
],
"question": "What is the bes... | Researchers and many scientists are concerned that the earth's climate and atmosphere are becoming warmer than they should be. What scientists do agree on is that the temperature will continue to increase if measures are not taken to reduce pollution and emission from cars and factories.
It is widely agreed that oil and coal create greenhouse gases when they are burned to produce heat or power. These emissions include carbon dioxide, which is the cause of most of the global warming problem. The loss of the trees in many areas is making the problem worse, because trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. The fewer trees that are left standing, the less carbon dioxide can be absorbed.
Scientists predict that the sea level will rise, ice caps will melt, and some animals and plants will fail to survive because their habitat will disappear. There may be more deserts and less available farmland because of the dry ground, and there may be more storms and floods in many countries.
Some countries, including the UK and the US, are taking steps to prevent the situation from becoming worse. There are programmes to educate citizens and students about the situation and recycling waste is becoming more common. New guidelines are being introduced to try to limit greenhouse gases from being produced by factories and businesses. Using more alternative energy sources is also a good way to prevent global warming.
One thing that everyone can do is limit their use of energy every day, and you can do this no matter how old or young you are. Try to limit the unnecessary use of electricity and work to conserve energy every day. | high23043.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "it was early yet and he could find a place to sit"
},
"options": [
"John asked him to have a cup of tea",
"he wanted a drink there",
"he would meet a friend of his",
"it was early yet and he could find a place to sit"
... | Tom arrived at the bus station quite early for the London bus. The bus for London would not leave until five to twelve. He saw a lot of people waiting in the station. Some were standing in lines, others were walking about. There was a group of school-girls. Their teacher was trying to keep them in order. Tom looked around but there was nowhere for him to sit.
He walked into the station cafe. He looked up at the clock there. It was only twenty to twelve. He found a seat and sat down, facing a large mirror on the wall. Just then, John, one of Tom's friends, came in and sat with Tom.
"What time is your bus?" asked John.
"Oh, there is plenty of time yet," answered Tom.
"Oh, I'll get you some more tea then," said John.
They talked while drinking. Then Tom looked at the clock again.
"Good heavens! It's going back-ward!" he cried. "A few minutes ago it was twenty to twelve and now it's half past eleven." "You are looking at the clock in the mirror," said John.
Tom wanted to kick himself for being so foolish. The next bus was not to leave for another hour. He has never liked mirror since then. | high153.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "By analyzing fossilized pollen in lake mud."
},
"options": [
"By predicting the climate change in the future.",
"By drilling down deep into land sediments.",
"By analyzing fossilized pollen in lake mud.",
"By taking sam... | Walk through the Amazon rainforest today and you will find it steamy, warm, damp and thick. But if you had been there around 15,000 years ago, during the last ice age, would it have been the same? For more than 30 years, scientists have been arguing about how rainforests might have reacted to the cold, dry climate of the ice ages, but till now, no one has reached a satisfying answer.
Rainforests like the Amazon are important for mopping up CO2 from the atmosphere and helping to solve global warming. Currently the trees in the Amazon take in around 500 million tons of CO2 each year: equal to the total amount of CO2 given off in the UK each year. But how will the Amazon react to the future climate change? If it gets drier, will it survive and continue to draw down CO2? Scientists hope that they will be able to learn in advance how the rainforest will manage in the future by understanding how rainforests reacted to climate change in the past.
Unfortunately, collecting information is incredibly difficult. To study the past climate, scientists need to look at fossilized pollen kept in lake mud, Going back to the last ice age means drilling down into lake sediments , which requires specialized equipment and heavy machinery. There are very few roads and paths, or places to land helicopters and aeroplanes. Rivers tend to be the easiest way to enter the forest, but this still leaves vast areas between the rivers completely unsampled . So far, only a handful of cores have been drilled that go back to the last ice age and none of them provide enough information to prove how the Amazon forest reacts to climate change. | high13180.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "how exercise contributes to reducing someone's risk for depression"
},
"options": [
"if exercise cushions against depression",
"what can lead to depression in animals and people",
"if stress can contribute to the development ... | Exercise may help to safeguard the mind against depression through previously unknown effects on working muscles, according to a new study involving mice.
Mental health experts have long been aware that even mild, repeated stress can contribute to the development of depression and other mood disorders in animals and people. Scientists have also known that exercise seems to cushion against depression. But precisely how exercise, a physical activity can reduce someone's risk for depression, a mood state, has been mysterious. So for the new study, researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm studied the brains and behavior of mice in a complicated and novel fashion.
We can't ask mice if they are feeling cheerful or in low spirits. Instead, researchers have pictured certain behaviors that indicate depression in mice. If animals lose weight, stop seeking out a sugar solution when it's available -- because, probably, they no longer experience normal pleasures -- or give up trying to escape from the cold-water zone just freeze in place, they are categorized as depressed. And in the new experiment, after five weeks of frequent but low-level stress, such as being lightly shocked, mice displayed exactly those behaviors. They became depressed.
The scientists could then have tested whether exercise blunts the risk of developing depression after stress by having mice run first. But, frankly, from earlier research, they wanted to know how, so they bred pre-exercised mice. A wealth of earlier research by these scientists and others had shown that aerobic exercise, in both mice and people, increases the production within muscles of an enzyme called PGC-1alpha. The Karolinska scientists suspected that this enzyme somehow creates conditions within the body that protect the brain against depression. Then, the scientists exposed the animals, which without exercising, were in high levels of PGC-1alpha to five weeks of mild stress. The mice responded with slight symptoms of worry. But they did not develop depression. They continued to seek out sugar and fought to get out of the cold-water zone. Their high levels of PGC-1alpha appeared to make them depression-resistant . Finally, to ensure that these findings are relevant to people, the researchers had a group of adult volunteers complete three weeks of frequent endurance training, consisting of 40 to 50 minutes of moderate cycling or jogging. The scientists conducted muscle biopsies before and after the program and found that by the end of the three weeks, the volunteers' muscle cells contained substantially more PGC-1alpha than at the study's start.
The finding of these results, in the simplest terms, is that "you reduce the risk of getting depression when you exercise," said Maria Lindskog, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute. | high14837.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "He went to visit a few foreign countries last year."
},
"options": [
"He went to visit a few foreign countries last year.",
"He is not afraid of death in face of his enemy.",
"His office used to be in Tunis.",
"He remai... | He has lived through various dangers but time may be running out for the Palestinian leader , Yasser Arafat .
On September 11, Israel announced its decision to remove him , following several Palestinian suicide bomb attacks on Israel . "He should be punished for the killings ," an Israeli official said , "He has done nothing to stop the terrorist groups ."
But the decision has angered many other countries . China said that Arafat is the true leader , elected by the Palestinian people , and removing him would harm the peace in the Middle East . This idea is shared by other governments .
Arafat himself said : "They can kill me , but never get me out of my country ." He has spent most of his life in danger as the most important aim of Israel .But , just like a cat with nine lives , Arafat escaped every time .
For years he has made a practice of sleeping in a different bed each night , thinking a moving person is harder to hit . In 1985 , Israel sent fighter planes to kill Arafat . The wild bombing destroyed his office in Tunis but Arafat himself was unhurt . In 1992 , the aircraft in which he was flying over north Africa broke in two during a crash landing . The pilot was killed but he managed to remain alive .
What is so unbelievable is that he always remains calm in great danger .
Israeli tanks and planes attacked his office building in Ramallah in December , 2001 . When they saw the attackers coming , Arafat's bodyguards ignored his orders to stay still and carried him to safety underground . Seconds later , several bombs were dropped nearby . Though safe , his bodyguards were so frightened that they were wet in sweat .
But , Arafat , with Israeli tanks only 200 meters away , showed no fear at all . He stayed in the damaged office , talking by phone with foreign leaders in hope of preventing further attacks from Israel .
All these experiences have made him a beloved leader to his people and an enemy to some others .
But has he used up the last of his nine lives ? Only time will tell . | high21654.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "found a shaft leading to the top"
},
"options": [
"noticed a man on the elevator",
"opened the chained sliding door",
"saw many dead mice in the dark",
"found a shaft leading to the top"
],
"question": "When the... | The Great Barn Adventure
One morning when I was 11, I explored the town's abandoned round grain barn . I found a chained sliding door that was wide enough for me to pass through.
Inside, there was a heavy smell of dead mice in the dark. After my eyes adjusted, I noticed a shaft that rose all the way to the top of the barn. On one side was a one-man elevator with a long rope and roller.
I stepped onto the platform and gave the rope a drag and the elevator began sliding up the shaft, but stopped halfway. After a brief panic attack, I noticed holes in the wall at regular intervals, forming a ladder. For reasons known only to an 11-year-old, I decided it would be better to go up than down. So, with shaking hands, I began climbing the wall.
After what seemed like forever, I reached the top of the shaft. I stood up, dusted myself off and found absolutely nothing of interest. It was just an empty room with a ladder leading up to the roof. I climbed all the way up here for this? Then I noticed a fire extinguisher ,which I'd always wanted to shoot off. So this was the chance of a lifetime. I tried it, and, much to my surprise, the thing worked! It shot out a thick cloud of powder that instantly filled the room. I couldn't breathe. I was going to choke to death, and they'd probably never even find my body.
Luckily, I remembered the ladder to the roof. I climbed up, popped the straw roof and saw a bright blue sky.
I suddenly realized the dust and powder pouring out of the top could draw attention. So when the dust had settled, I climbed down and slipped out of the chained door. I'm not sure if I was more excited about being alive or about not being caught, but I ran all the way back home. | high5879.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "use available low-cost technology"
},
"options": [
"use available low-cost technology",
"depend on GPS to understand the location",
"can choose the places for their owners to visit",
"can develop a good relationship wit... | A team of researchers from Oxford University has demonstrated a self-driving car that is different from such cars being tested by Audi, Ford, etc. It' s much cheaper because it's based on off-the-shelf technology and controlled by an ordinary iPad. Instead of using GPS to understand the location, the car learns routes when a person is driving, and then asks after it's got it down, if the driver would like the computer to take over.
As time passes, it's becoming very clear that people believe computers would be better drivers than humans. This has been proven by extensive research that indicates that computers are able to react more quickly to driving conditions, make smarter decisions, don't take risks, and don't make mistakes in concentration. They don't drink either, of course, which means accidents due to drunk driving could be reduced dramatically if the computer could take over when someone needs to get home from the bar. And the team says drivers don't need their cars to know everything about every road, condition or possible danger. Instead, they just need to know how to get from one point to another, and to do a good job of it when asked.
To that end, the researchers have added cameras, lasers, a central computer to process information and a regular iPad. In practice, the car would learn how to get to and from places that the driver frequents, such as their work place, the local pub or grocery store. Once it has it down, the computer asks the driver if they' d like a rest. If so, they simply tap the iPad, and the car takes over.
It' s very simple and doesn't require nearly the same number of devices as those being tested by other car companies. The researchers say people might be able to get the total price of the system below a hundred dollars. And of course, the iPad can be lifted out and carried away for other purposes when not being used as a driver assistant. | high10489.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The Dead Sea is slowly becoming smaller."
},
"options": [
"The Dead Sea is a miracle of the world.",
"How to save the environment of the Dead Sea.",
"The Dead Sea is slowly becoming smaller.",
"Why the Dead Sea is so sa... | As a little boy I read a book with a picture showing a man reading while floating in the Dead Sea. What a miracle! How would it feel to lie back in water so thick with salt that it was impossible to sink?
Fed by the Jordan River and smaller streams, the Dead Sea is the lowest point on the earth's surface, and its water is ten times saltier than the Mediterranean. As evaporation is its only outlet, salt and other minerals become super-concentrated.
Earlier this year, I drove down the long, steep hill to realize my dream. The shoreline was a broad area of bare salt-mud, but the water edge was out of sight. It seemed as if somebody had pulled the Dead Sea's plug . Eli Dior, an Israeli official, explained the problem "The Dead Sea is drying up. Every year, the surface falls about one meter, and as the water level falls, shallow areas are left high and dry."
Over the last half-century, the five neighboring countries have used up almost all the water flowing into the Dead Sea to meet human and agriculture needs. Result the Dead Sea is being emptied.
With population in the neighbouring countries to double at least in the next 50 years, there is little hope of restoring the water being used in this area. No country has a drop to spare for the Dead Sea, where they know it will just evaporate. To dream of opening the dams and restoring natural balance is unrealistic.
Yet one ambitious high-tech dream may turn out to be not only the solution to the Dead Sea but also a ticket to peace around its shores. The "Red-Dead" is a proposed $5 billion project to bring sea water some 240 kilometers by pipeline and canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. The Red-Dead may be the only solution, but even if the project is carried out successfully, the Dead Sea will be 10 to 20 meters lower than now and two thirds of its current size.
Whatever the future holds, the Dead Sea's magical mix of sun, mud, sea and salt will surely survive. Many might complain that the Dead Sea is half empty--but for me the Dead sea will always be half full. | high17480.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Study Says Students Shouldn't Watch TV on a School Night"
},
"options": [
"Study Says Students Shouldn't Watch TV on a School Night",
"Watching TV Has an Effect on Children",
"Students Shouldn't Watch TV",
"There Is a C... | Do you sometimes put off doing your homework on a school night to watch TV?A new study says that middle school students who watch TV or play video games during the week do worse in school. The study also says that watching TV and playing video games on weekends don't affect school performance that much.
"They could watch a lot on weekends and it didn't seem to connect with doing worse in school,"said Dr. Iman Sharif of Children's Hospital at Montefiore inprefix = st1 /New York. The study appears in the October issue of Pediatrics. Researchers drew their conclusions after surveying 4,500 students in New Hampshire and Vermont middle schools.
To reach their findings,researchers didn't look at grades or test scores. Instead,they asked students to rate their own performance on a scale ranging from "excellent'' to "below".
Other studies have found a connection between kids' ability to learn and the amount of TV they watch. One study even found that kids with televisions in their bedrooms scored about eight points lower on math and language arts tests than kids without them.
What should fl kid do?The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids watch TV no more than two hours and that televisions be kept out of children's rooms. Weekend viewing should be kept to four hours at most each day. | high16946.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The history of Mother's Day."
},
"options": [
"The reason why people celebrate Mother's Day.",
"How people honor mothers.",
"The history of Mother's Day.",
"Mother's Day in different countries."
],
"question": "... | You may know your mother, but how well do you really know Mother's Day? Cards, flowers, sales, TV specials, and a day off for someone who really deserves it --those are what probably come to mind for many people when they think of Mother's Day. But there's more about the story.
The earliest Mother's Day celebrations were held during spring in Ancient Greece. The celebrations honored Rhea, the Mother of the gods. During the 1600s, England celebrated a day called Mothering Sunday. On this day even servants were given the day off to spend with their families. A mothering cake was even served with the family meal.
In the U.S., Mother's Day began in 1872 when Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the words of the famous song The Battle Hymn of the Republic, suggested it as a day devoted to peace. But it didn't really become popular until 1907 when Anna Jarvis started a campaign to honor her own mother. She believed that mothers could help people get over the pain they experienced during the Civil War. The U.S. isn't alone in devoting a day to its mothers. Many other countries including Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, Japan, and Belgium also celebrate their Mother's Day in May. Other countries honor their mothers at different times of the year.
Learning more about Mother's Day and celebrating Mother's Day is important, but probably not as important as understanding what your own mother, or grandmother, or aunt has really done for you. And that should certainly be appreciated more than one day in a year. | high2870.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "text messaging is bad for children's spelling"
},
"options": [
"voice calls produce less radiation than texting",
"text messaging is bad for children's spelling",
"mobile phone use encourages children's language skills",
... | Researchers believe the mobile phone system makes young people less thoughtful and more likely to make mistakes elsewhere in life.
Hitting a few keys and then seeing the desired word appear in full trains children to be fast but inaccurate when doing other things, according to Australian scientists.
They warn that this could have _ throughout the country, especially as more than 9 out of 10 16-year-olds now own a mobile phone as well as 40 percent of primary schoolchildren.
In a new study, Professor Michael Abramson, a researcher at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, analyzed the mobile phone use of children aged between 11 and 14 and their ability to carry out a number of computer tests.
A quarter of the children made more than 15 voice calls a week and a quarter of them wrote more than 20 text messages a week.
When researchers studied the way in which the children handled IQ-type tests they found that increased mobile phone use appears to change the way their brains work.
Prof Abramson said, "The kids who used their phones a lot were faster on some of the tests, but were less accurate.
"We suspect that using mobile phones a lot, particularly tools like predictive texts for SMS (Short Message Service), is training them to be fast but inaccurate.
"Their brains are still developing, so if there are effects then potentially it could have effects in the future.
"The use of mobile phones is changing the way children learn and pushing them to become more impulsive in the way they behave."
Experts concerned about the possible impact of mobile phone radiation on developing brains have given a warning over children's use of them.
But Prof Abramson says the amount of radiation given off when texting is a mere 0.03 percent of that given off during voice calls - suggesting radiation is not to blame for the brain effects. Instead, he thinks predictive texting could be doing the damage.
The study was published in the journal Bioelectromagnetics and disagreed with previous studies which suggested that text messaging encourages children's language skills and did not damage their ability to spell. | high21132.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Nilda"
},
"options": [
"Chatita",
"Mama",
"Nilda",
"Papa"
],
"question": "This story is told from the point of view of _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index"... | A gust of wind blew a canvas chair across the yard. My eyes followed the circling dirt out to the road and down toward the school bus stop. I was going to miss walking down the road to catch the big school bus that took us into town to school. I enjoyed being with the teachers and the other students. Now that I was finished with school I seemed to have lost some of the excitement from my life.
As I was folding the canvas chair, Chatita Chavez drove into our yard in her father's old truck. It made short loud sounds and sent out a trail of black smoke out of its tailpipe. She got out smiling as usual and excitedly pointed toward the storm that seemed to be moving toward us.
"I can't stay long, Nilda. There's a storm coming and I need to beat it home." I was glad to see her. "Yes, I think we're in for some bad weather. Come on in and have a cup of coffee at least," I said as I took her into our kitchen.
"I'm so excited, Nilda! You'll never guess what I just did!" I stopped pouring the coffee and turned and looked at her.
"I just went over to Edinburg and registered for junior college," she said and looked at me and smiled. "Don't you want to go take classes with me?"
I was astonished. I didn't know what to say. How could I go to college? I didn't have any money. I gave Chatita a cup of coffee. "I don't know. I don't think I can. Isn't college expensive?"
Chatita sat down at the table and began adding sugar to her coffee. "Not really, and I'm working part-time at the packing shed on Canal Road. You could work there, too."
The wind began to gust causing the house to occasionally make sounds and shake. The lightbulb hanging over the table flashed off and on and I heard a low roll of thunder in the distance.
I hesitantly asked, "Do you think I could get a job at the packing shed?"
"Sure. My cousin is the boss. He'll give you a job." Mama came into the kitchen and exchanged greetings with Chatita. She must have heard our conversation.
"I think it's nice that you're going to go to college, Chatita. What will you study?" my
mother asked as she joined us at the table.
"I want to be a teacher."
"A teacher! How nice!" Mama said as she patted Chatita's arm.
"A teacher?" I asked. "Don't you need a degree?"
"You can start teaching before you get your degree. Clarence Duncan has been teaching in Brownsville since last year and I think Zulema will start this year."
The lightbulb blinked again and went out. Mama quickly arose from the table. "I'm going to have to bring in the lanterns. I knew I shouldn't have packed them away."
"Well, Nilda, do you want to go? Because, if you do, you can go over to Edinburg with me tomorrow."
I hesitated, then said, "Yes. I want to go." My heart was beating fast. I couldn't believe how happy I was feeling.
"But I have to talk to Mama and Papa. What if they won't let me?"
"You can at least go with me tomorrow and find out what it's all about. I'll come by for you around eight."
Chatita left me sitting at the table staring at my cup of coffee. It seemed so unreal, this idea of me going to college. My parents had never had the opportunity for much education. Juana had quit school to get married and Roberto and Zeke had graduated from high school as I had. But college? I would be the first one in my family to go to college. Yes, college was exactly what I wanted.
The day had turned dark and the rain had started. My mother came back into the kitchen with two lanterns.
"Mama, I need to ask you something."
She picked up a cloth and began to clean the dust from the lanterns. She looked at me and smiled.
"Mama, if I could find a way to pay, could I take classes at the junior college?" I asked, trying to control my excitement.
She stopped cleaning and raised her eyebrows. "What would you study, my daughter?"
"I think I want to be a teacher," I quietly replied.
Mama sat down at the table across from me. "Then, I would like for you to go to college," she said in a serious tone.
"What about Papa? Do you think he will allow me to go?"
"Your father wants you to be happy. If going to college and being a teacher makes you happy, then he will probably allow it," she answered.
I didn't say anything. I was enjoying the feeling of happiness and sense of wonder that had come over me. The two of us sat in the darkened room without speaking until I saw my mama rubbing her eyes with the edge of her apron.
"What's wrong, Mama."
"Nothing," she replied. "I probably got some dust in my eyes. That's all." | high9925.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "smart in operation"
},
"options": [
"easy to find",
"easy to test",
"relatively cheap",
"smart in operation"
],
"question": "We can learn that the adjustable- height desk is _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_q... | It took courage to stand up at work. Now more and more people like to have a change and stand up when they are on something important. Standing up is popular. Medical researchers have found that people who stand at work tend to be much healthier than those who sit.
In the last few years, many office supply companies have begun to sell the adjustable- height desk. These so- called " sit/ stand" models are equipped with an electric motor that lets them shift from chair height to person height at the push of a button. Unfortunately, they're regarded as specially furniture. Sit/ stand desks tend to be expensive, hard to find and not easy to test it in person.
When you worked standing up, your mind was more excited and new ideas kept coming out. This is because when you're standing, you feel a bit _ from your desk. If you got stuck on a word or sentence as you wrote, you found yourself shaking your arms, bouncing on your feet or stepping away from the desk for a bit------ things you couldn't do in a chair. Often, standing up seemed to relax your mind enough for you to get over creative barriers.
There's one other thing about standing for a long time; you tended to get hungrier than you do when you sit on a chair. That felt like confirmation of the stand-up advocates' belief that you burn more calories when you stand than when you sit. For this reason alone, I'm hoping that sit/ stand desks one day hit the mainstream, with mass- market furniture companies making many low- priced versions. We could all do with a bit more standing up. | high635.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "telephone or letter"
},
"options": [
"telephone or letter",
"email",
"letter or email",
"telephone or email"
],
"question": "If you are interested in teaching preschool children,you may contact by _",
"ques... | Early childhood Teacher
Children's Preschool is a non-profit,parcot cooperative child care center located in the East Rock neighborhood of new Haven.We are looking to hire an experienced teacher fo 25-30 hours per week.As a teacher,you will have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children by providing them with a safe and nurturing environment that encourages their social,emotional,physical,and intellectual development.
Requirements:
Bachelor's degree in early childhood education required.
Experience working with children ages 3 to 5 years old.
Knowledge of NAEYC and CT Benchmarks.
Can bring to this position maturity, responsibility, and a sincere interest in working with children.
Strong interpersonal and organaizational skills.
Knowledge of various resources for curriculum ideas and the skills to apply that information in directing daily activiities.
Send cover letter, resume and educational philosoghy.
Contact: Kathy
Phone: (203)777-2491
City: New Haven
Zip: 06511
English Teacher---Private Middle School
SUMMARY
IECC(Islamic Education Guidance Center) is located in Toronto, ON, Canada. We are looking for an instructor is preferably female who is comfortable working in an Islamic environment as the school is situated within a Mosque. This individual must provide high-quality instruction to students and work collaboratively with the school leader, colleages, students, parents and the board to accompish or surpass the a cademy's educational goals. Work as a collaborative team member to carry out the academy curriculum and accompish short and long term academy goals.
Requirements
State teacher license/certification.
Bachelor's degree with subject area emphasis and/or courswork and/or experience necessary to be considered high qualified for the grade/subjects to be taught.
Demonstrated commitment to young people's learning success and achievenment.
Demonstrated proficiency in a teaching/tutoring capacity as acquired through past experience in tutoring, teaching or other education-related experience, evidence of successful experience in student and parent relations.
Contact: Sherikh Bashir M. Nur
mohbashiir@gmail.com or mrsbashiir@gmail.com with resume, references, and acquired certifications. | high7908.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "A special Soup."
},
"options": [
"A Good Son.",
"A special Soup.",
"How to Make Brains.",
"How to Live a Long Life."
],
"question": "The best title for this newspaper article is _ .",
"question_type": "cl... | In Shanxi Province you may be offered brains to eat. Frightened? You shouldn't be because these brains are only a food, which is famous for its unusual name and rich nutrition .
Brains as a food were invented more than 300 years ago by Fu Shan, an artist whose mother had been ill for a long time. To help her become well, he studied medicine and invented a kind of soup made of meat, vegetables and a number of Chinese medicines. Rice Wine was also used in the soup to cure illnesses caused by old age. After taking the soup his mother got better little by little and lived a long life.
Fu's soup became the talk of the town. Many people came to see him. One day a restaurant owner asked him what was in the soup. "I'll tell you, " Fu said, "but if your restaurant is going to sell the soup, you must call it brains because of its shape and colour. And your restaurant should be renamed after my mother. " | high23725.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Antonio"
},
"options": [
"Kinzey",
"Ashleigh",
"Antonio",
"Usman"
],
"question": "Food is very important for _ when he has a bad day.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"... | Jason
What I like best is seeing Arsenal win and playing football. If I am feeling sad I will play a football game on my Play Station 2. The best day I have ever had was when I finished first in the 800-metre race at my secondary school. It was a school record, although I didn't know that at the time. My family makes me happy, too.
Antonio
My little sister makes me sad because she always tells tales on me to my mum. If I am having a bad day, food cheers me up. I like chili con carne and sweet chili crisps. It makes me happy because I want to be big and have lots of energy.
Usman
I haven't done anything very exciting in my life but one of my best achievements is that I got a good report from my school this year, because last year I got a bad one. People on TV make me laugh, particularly Eddie Murphy. If I am having a bad day I watch Basil Brush. I am good at making other people happy. I just talk and my friends start laughing -- they think I am silly.
Ashleigh
If I'm having a bad day, knowing that someone is there for me can make me happy. I wouldn't say I'm the best at making other people happy, but I know that just being a good friend to other people is important. The things I like doing are singing, dancing, hanging out with my friends and just being lively and funny.
Kinzey
The most exciting thing I have ever done in my life was when I went abseiling in Wales. But that was a one-off. The things I do all the time are playing football, watching movies and going places with my friends. I know it sounds bad, but what I find funny is when people hurt themselves. If I am having a bad day and I see someone having a worse day than me, that makes me feel better. | high15283.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "listing numbers"
},
"options": [
"giving examples",
"listing numbers",
"making comparisons",
"offering quotations"
],
"question": "How does the writer try to prove that Duang has already spread like wildfire onl... | The character "duang" is so new that it does not even exist in the Chinese dictionary. But it has already spread like wildfire online in China, appearing more than 8 million times on China's micro-blogging site Weibo, where it spawned a top-trending hashtag that drew 312,000 discussions among 15,000 users. On China's biggest online search engine Baidu, it has been looked up almost 600,000 times. It's been noticed in the West too, with Foreign Policy seeing it as a "break the internet" viral meme - like a certain Kirn Kardashian image, or a certain multicoloured dress.
But what does it mean? "Everyone's duang-ing and I still don't know what it means! As if it's back to school for me," said Weibo user Weileiweito. Another user asked: "Have you duang-ed today? My mind is full of duang duang duang." "To duang or not to duang, that is the question," wrote user BaiKut automan.
"Duang" seems to be an example of onomatopoeia , a word that phonetically imitates a sound. It all seems to have started with Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan, who in 2004 was featured in a shampoo commercial where he said famously defended his sleek, black hair using the rhythmical-sounding "duang". The word resurfaced again recently after Chan posted it on his Weibo page. Thousands of users then began to flood Chan's Weibo page with comments, coining the word in reference to his infamous shampoo appearance.
The word appears to have many different meanings, and there's no perfect translation, but you could use it as an adjective to give emphasis to the word that follows it. A kitten might be "duang cute", for example. Or you might be "very duang confused" by this blog.
For readers of Chinese characters, the Jackie Chan theme is also apparent from the quirky way in which the word is written: a combination of Chan's Mandarin names. | high9931.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The author doesn't think online shopping is satisfactory in every way."
},
"options": [
"The author thinks online shopping saves time and is a convenient way to buy products.",
"The author worries about sending personal information... | My daughter recently asked me what a Travel Agency does. There is one located on our street and it has just been completely rebuilt. I told her that they helped people book their trips and vacations. "Why haven't we ever been in there?" she wanted to know. "Because we do everything ourselves online these days" I explained. "But why do it yourself if other people want to do it for you?" she wondered out loud.
The answer is that the travel agency makes a little bit of money on each ticket you book through them. If you book your ticket yourself, online, you save that money. Saving money sounds great except that when you think about it you typically spend three evenings comparing prices to end up saving $30 on a $300 trip. All those $30 discounts add up of course so I guess we should be happy with that.
Still, how bad is it really to pay someone $30 and trust them to buy you something decent? Wouldn't you say your free evenings are worth more than $10 a piece?
Consider books for a moment. Buying your book at Amazon saves you maybe 30% to 40% on each book. Add to that the convenience of shopping from home and getting the package delivered to your home address. So far so good.
Unfortunately that does mean you spend way too much time browsing Amazon. com while you could do something fun instead. Like maybe reading an actual book?
Then the package arrives and you aren't home and end up having to pick it up at the local post- office. All in all I wonder how much time I end up investing in the whole process.
Time sounds free, but to most of us, it is more valuable than money.
The Internet Economy promised to get rid of the middle-men and we loved it. Somehow, I'm starting to get the feeling that we ourselves ended up doing the work of that middle-men we were so eager to get rid of.
In any project you can always pick two of these: fast, cheap or good. We seem to have focused a lot on 'cheap' and 'good' but the extra time we need to invest to keep it 'fast' comes out of our own pockets.
You can always make more money but you can never make more time. | high621.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "the locations of distant sounds"
},
"options": [
"the sources of loud sounds",
"the locations of distant sounds",
"the direction of sharp sounds",
"the distance of a sound in front of them"
],
"question": "The r... | Where is that noise coming from? Not sure? Try living with your eyes closed for a few years.
Blind people are better at locating sounds than people who can see, a new study says, Without the benefits of vision the ears seem to work much better.
Previous studies have shown that blind people are better than others at reaching out and touching the sources of sounds that are close by. Researchers from the University of Montreal wanted to see if blind people were also better at locating sounds that are far away.
Twenty-three blind people participated in the study. All had been sightless for at least 20 years. Fourteen of them had lost their vision before age 11. The rest went blind after age 16. The experiment also included 10 people who could see but were wearing blindfolds.
In one task, volunteers had to pick the direction of a sound coming from about 3 meters away. When the sound was in front of them or slightly off center in front, both groups performed equally well.
When sounds came from the side or the back, however, the blind group performed much better than the blindfolded group. The participants who had been blind since childhood did slightly better than those who lost their sight later.
Recognizing the locations of distant sounds can be a matter of life-or-death for blind people, say the researchers. Crossing the street, for instance, is much harder when you can't see the cars coming.
Still, the researchers were surprised by how well the blind participants did, especially those who went blind after age 16. In another experiment, the scientists also found that parts of the brain that normally deal with visual information became active in locating sound in the people who were blind by age 11. These brain parts didn't show sound-location activity in the other group of blind people or in the sighted people. The scientists now want to learn more about the workings of brains of "late-onset" blind people. | high23731.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Physical chemistry."
},
"options": [
"The \"behavior\" of molecules.",
"Physical chemistry.",
"Biological chemistry.",
"The human body."
],
"question": "Which of the following things did Pauling pay much attenti... | Linus Pauling, the only person who has won two undivided Nobel Prizes, was born in Portland, Oregon. He attended Washington High School but because of an unimportant detail he did not receive his diploma until 1962, long after he had received his Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Oregon State College in 1922. He had chosen to study this major because he could get a good job with it.
He won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1954 "for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the explanation of the structure of complex substances". His interest in the "behavior" of molecules led him from physical chemistry to biological chemistry, especially of the human body. He began with proteins and their main parts, the amino acids , which are called the "building blocks of life". In 1950, he constructed the first satisfactory model of a protein molecule, a discovery very important to the understanding of the living cell.
During World War II, Pauling was a member of the Research Board for National Security, for which he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Merit in 1948. However, the use of the atomic bomb near the end of the war turned Pauling in a new direction. Having long worked on the structure of molecules, he took an immediate interest in the deadly effects of nuclear fallout on human molecular structures.
From then on, Pauling protested the production of the hydrogen bomb and supported the prevention of the spread of nuclear weapons. Through his efforts, The Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, declaring all nuclear tests to be illegal except underground ones, came into effect on October 10, 1963, the same day Linus Pauling was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. | high17494.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "How to use an online-auction system."
},
"options": [
"How to make payment online.",
"Ways of making delivery online",
"Advantages of an online-auction system.",
"How to use an online-auction system."
],
"questi... | Everyone's at it,even my neighbors. I thought I might be the only person left in the world who hadn't done an eBay deal. So,I decided to try my hand at online auction .
Buying for beginners:Sign up on _ . Most items(e.g. tables, computers, and books) ready for auction will come with a picture and a short description;others may be marked with "Buy It Now" and have a fixed price. You can buy these right away.
If the item is being auctioned,you offer the highest price you are prepared to pay and eBay bids for you. The bid will be increased little by little until it goes beyond your highest bid,then you are emailed and asked if you would like to bid again. Auctions last up to 10 days and when they finish you get an email telling you whether you have won the item.
How to pay: Sellers decide how they would like to be paid and you need to check this before placing a bid as you might not want to post a cheque or postal orders. The easiest way is through PayPal,an online payment system that takes the money away from your credit card .
Selling made simple:If you plan to sell on eBay,it helps to include a picture of the item. I followed my friends' advice and put up the items I wanted to sell for a 10-day auction,starting on a Thursday. This way, buyers had two weekends to bid.
The big things in life:It' s easy to post a small item,but furniture is a big part of eBay and this has to be collected or sent by deliverymen . Check the ways of delivery before you bid. | high20238.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "must go through Passport Control and Customs"
},
"options": [
"must go through either Passport Control or Custom",
"must go through Customs, but not Passport Control",
"must go through Passport Control and Customs",
"do... | Passport Control
If you are arriving at London Heathrow Airport and are not _ to another flight outsideprefix = st1 /BritainorNorthern Ireland, you must pass through Passport Control and Customs immediately after leaving your plane. If you are not Britain or a citizen of the European Community ,you must fill out a special form before your passport is examined. This form is called a landing card and should be given to you during the flight to London.
After landing, follow the ARRIVALS signs. Make sure you are in the right channel when you reach Passport Control. There is one channel for holders of European Community Passports, and a second channel marked "Other Passports".
Baggage Reclaim Area
After passing through the Passport Control, follow the signs to the Baggage Reclaim Area. If you have luggage which is carried in the aircraft hold, it will be delivered to you in the Baggage Reclaim Area. Look for the sign with your flight number. If you have only hand luggage, go directly through the Baggage Reclaim Area to the Customs.Customs
All passengers must pass Customs after Passport Control. There is a choice of two channels: Green and Red. If you have nothing to declare, go through the Green Channel. If you are not sure about your Duty Free allowance or if you have something to declare, go through the Red Channel. Information about Duty Free allowance can found on special notice - boards in the Baggage Reclaim Area. You should study this information carefully whether you are going through the Red Channel or not. Please note that if you go through the Green Channel, you may be stopped and asked to open your luggage for inspection. | high16952.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "people didn't know radio or crossword puzzle"
},
"options": [
"her parents died",
"her family lived in New York for a long time",
"people didn't know radio or crossword puzzle",
"the First World War broke out"
],
... | 109-year-old Anna Ferris of Washingtonville kicks a soccer ball Saturday with the help of her grandson Joe Begendorf at the Orange County Senior Games. Ferris has been _ at the event.
She was born on Feb. 11, 1900, in New York City, before the radio or crossword puzzle was invented.
Anna carries the seasons lightly for her age. Family and friends say she walks around the house and sometimes does laps with her walker around the driveway to keep her legs strong.
"She's doing this well because we try to keep her out of the wheelchair as much as possible," said Begendorf, who helped steady his grandmother Saturday during each athletic event.
Last New Year's Eve, she toasted 2010 by holding a glass of white wine high above her head at 1 am.
But the public legend of Anna Ferris began at last year's Senior Games when she finished the 100-meter dash with support only from her walker.
"When they said she was going to race last year, we thought it was a joke," said Anne Coon, co-chairman of the games. "She walked away with a whole chest full of medals by the end of the day."
On Saturday, Anna threw a softball 16 feet and used a metal bat to hit a softball 15 feet off a tee . She threw a football more than 9 feet. She scored 10 points in "crazy water bocce ".
She even tried soccer. Her first two kicks landed short of the goal and Anna shook her head in disappointment. But her third try rolled gently into the back of the net. That's when Anna Ferris smiled with the excitement of a little girl. | high21126.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "What happens after the age of 16?"
},
"options": [
"What education is waiting for you after the age of 16?",
"What should you choose for your future after the age of16?",
"Who can you turn to when in difficulty after the age ... | Is education compulsory after age 16?
Under the present law, the school leaving age is 16. After 2013 the education leaving age will rise to 17. And from 2015 it will rise again, to 18.
The government is raising the leaving age because research shows that young people who carry on learning or training until the age of 18 earn more money, are likely to be healthier and less likely to be in trouble with the police.
So although at the moment your child can leave education once they're 16, it's worth thinking carefully about the benefits of carrying on.
What options are available after 16?
Education after16 doesn't just mean staying at school full-time: your child can stay at school, go to college, or take up an apprenticeship or a part-time training course. They can earn money and learn new skills at the same time if they want to.
The main qualifications available are:
Diplomas: providing the background for a range of careers
Vocational qualifications: for young people who already know what career they want to follow and need training for specific jobs
A levels: offered as specific mainly academic subjects
International Baccalaureate: offering a wider range of subjects than A levels
What financial help is available?
If your child continues in education after 16 and your household income is less than PS30,810 a year, your child should be eligible for up to PS30 a week to help with their costs. It won't affect any benefits you get as an individual or as a family, and the money will be paid directly into your child's bank account. This money is known as Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA). | high21640.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "angry"
},
"options": [
"angry",
"pleasant",
"polite",
"ambitious"
],
"question": "The tone of the letter as a whole is best described as _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | On June 17, 1774, the officials from Maryland and Virginia held a talk with the Indians of the Six Nations. The Indians were invited to send boys to William and Mary College. In a letter the next day they refused the offer as follows:
We know that you have a high opinion of the kind of learning taught in your colleges, and that the costs of living of our young men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are sure that you mean to do us good by your proposal ; and we thank you heartily. But you must know that different nations have different ways of looking at things, and you will therefore not be offended if our ideas of this kind of education happen not to be the same as yours. We have had some experience of it. Several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the northern provinces: they were taught all your sciences; but when they came back to us, they were bad manners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods-they were totally good for nothing.
We are, however, not the less thankful by your kind offer, though we refuse to accept it; and, to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take care of their education, teach them in all we know, and make men of them. | high11783.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "a figure in a film"
},
"options": [
"a figure in a film",
"a dancer in a show",
"a country singer",
"a prize winner"
],
"question": "We can learn from the text that Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is _",
"questi... | Cannes will rock to the sound of a cancan dance this year when Moulin Rougeby the Australian director Baz Luhrmann opens the French film festival in May. The musical stars Nicole Kidman as a singer, and John Leguizamo as the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It will be competing for the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize. The festival runs to May 21.
The American actor Tommy Lee Jones, 54, has married his longtime girlfriend, Dawn Maria Laurel, 36, in a private wedding in prefix = st1 /San Antonio. "It wash' t a big to-do, ' said Fred Biery, a U. S. District Judge who performed the service. He refused to discuss things further. "These are very private people," he said.
Loretta Lynn is being treated for a very bed cold in Tennesseeand will miss several appearances. The country singer, 65, was admitted to a hospital near her home in Hurricane Mills. "She is in good condition, but the doctors are watching her closely," a spokeswoman said.
The French-Algerian singer Enrico Macias was named a United Nations peace messenger. Enrico joins eight other people who act as goodwill envoys for the United Nations, among them are the writer Elie Wiesel and the basketball player Magic Johnson. | high21898.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "American Museum of Natural History"
},
"options": [
"American Museum of Natural History",
"Empire State Building",
"Metropolitan Museum of Art",
"Statue of liberty"
],
"question": "Varieties of ocean life are ex... | The following are some important sights in New York.
American Museum of Natural History
Four floors of exhibition halls here include the world-famous fossil halls with their skeletons of enormous dinosaurs and other creatures; the culture halls, representing a variety of indigenous peoples; and mammal, bird and reptile halls. The renovated Milstein hall of Ocean Life showcases the profusion of life in Earth's "last frontier". Also here: Rose Center for Earth and space, with Hayden Planetarium and exhibits on Earth and our universe.
Open: Sunday-Thursday, 10:00-17:45; Friday-Saturday: 10:00-20:45
Empire State Building
At 102 stories tall, the Empire State Building commands an inspiring view of Manhattan. Each year, over 3.5 million people come here for the view from the 86th-floor observatory, where they can take in the sights of the city from a glass-enclosed pavilion or the encircling open-air promenade.
Observatory Hours: 8:00am to midnight daily. Last elevators go up at 11:15pm. Open daily 365 days a year.
Metropolitan Museum of Art (One of the greatest museums in the world)
It is impossible to "do" the entire museum in one day or describe everything you can see here. Go to the museum & spend some time in the Great Hall where you will find all types of help in many languages for planning your visit. If you can, get a guide before your visit or look at their website where you can plan well & learn about their many special exhibitions & programs.
Fee: $12 adults, $7 students & seniors, under 12 with adult free.
Open: Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday. 9:30-17:15; Friday-Saturday, 9:30-20:45.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
MoMA houses an outstanding collection of American & European paintings & sculptures from late 19th C. to present. Innovative in its definition of "art", it was a pioneer in exhibiting film, photography, and industrial design. Its retrospectives can draw record-breaking attendance. A happy place to take small children, as strollers are allowed.
Open: Sunday-Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 10:30-17:45; Friday, 10:30-20:15. | high23057.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "did well in his naval training class"
},
"options": [
"was born in a poor family",
"did well in his naval training class",
"stayed in the Navy for nearly 8 years",
"joined the army immediately after graduating from univ... | Henry Loomis served as director of the Voice of America for seven years starting in 1958.Mr Loomis played an important role in creating the Special English service .
Henry Loomis was born in 1919 Tuxedo Park , New York. His father was Alfred Lee Loomis , a rich New York City businessman .In 1940, Henry Loomis dropped out of Harvard University to join the United States Navy .He was able to put to good use his knowledge of radar technology that he had learned about because of his father's work .After graduating at the top in his naval training class, Henry Loomis became a teacher at the Navy's radar training school in Hawaii. By the end of World War Two, Henry Loomis had received many honors for his service, including a Bronze Star and an Air Medal. He left the Navy in 1946 to begin graduate studies.
Henry Loomis later moved to Washington, D.C. to begin another part of his career in public service. He held positions in the Department of Defense and other agencies: In 1958, he became director of the Voice of America.
During his travels around the world, Mr. Loomis saw that English was becoming an
important international language. He believed that it was important to make English easier to
understand by listeners of VOA broadcasts whose native language was not English. So Mr. Loomis asked VOA program manager Barry Zorthian to develop a way to broadcast to listeners
with a limited knowledge of English:
The result of this effort was Special English: The first Voice of America broadcast in Special English took place on October 19th, 1959. Those against his ideas at the time said the Special English method of broadcasting at a slower rate with a limited vocabulary would never work, it was not practical. American embassies demanded that the program be called off. But Mr. Loomis supported the program.
Soon, VOA began to receive hundreds of letters from listeners praising the program. Special English programs became some of the most popular on VOA. We are pleased to say that our programs still are. | high147.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Eye contact is very important in communications."
},
"options": [
"The stronger you shake hands with others the better.",
"Leaning your head when listening expresses interest.",
"Leaning back and forward shows you are thought... | Body language is the quietest, most secret and most powerful language of all. It is said that our body movements communicate about 50% of what we really mean while words themselves only do 7%. So while your mouth is closed, just it is your body language that is saying.
When it comes to body language at the office, you may be making some big mistakes that could cause you trouble. The following are some tips on what you should not do when using body language at your office.
Don't touch your co-workers, even if it's on the back of the arm or shoulder. Many of your co-workers are not comfortable with any body contact with others. Be careful not to touch everyone at your office.
Don't avoid eye contact. Eyes can speak. Lack of eye contact means cheat, and it can also point to no safety or lack of confidence. Trust and confidence are things you will communicate to the other person if you hold eye contact 50% of the time.
Don't have a bad handshake. You're going to show your kindness at once with a firm palm to palm handshake. Showing the palms of your hands is an _ gesture as it shows that you have a peaceful purpose. It means acceptance, and that you're open to new ideas. Be careful of the dead fish handshake.
Don't lean your head while listening to others. When listening to others, you should listen to him or her carefully with your head straight. For women especially, you think you are expressing interest by leaning your head when you are listening to others, but you actually come across as if you don't understand what's going on. | high13194.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "he was quite an old man"
},
"options": [
"he needed the money.",
"he decided to take things easy",
"he was quite an old man",
"he gave up clock-repairing"
],
"question": "Bill Javis became a news-agent when _ ... | Bill Javis took over our village news-agency at a time of life when most of us only want to relax. He just thought he would like something but not too much to do, and the news-agency was ready-made. The business produced little enough for him, but Bill was a man who only wanted the simplicity and order and regularity of the job. He had been a long-serving sailor, and all his life had done everything by the clock.
Every day he opened his shop at six a.m. to catch the early trade; the papers arrived on his door-step before that. Many of Bill's customers were city workers, and the shop was convenient for the station. Business was _ by 10 o'clock, so at eleven sharp Bill closed for lunch. It was hard luck on anybody who wanted a paper or magazine in the afternoon, for most likely Bill would be down on the river bank, fishing, and his nearest competitor was five kilometers away. Sometime in the afternoon, the evening paper landed on the doormat, and at 4 o'clock Bill reopened. The evening rush lasted till seven, and it was worthwhile.
He lived in a flat above the shop, alone. Except in the very bad weather, you always knew where to find him in the afternoon, as I have said. Once, on a sunny afternoon, I walked home along the river bank from a shopping trip to the village. By my watch it was three minutes past four, so I was astonished to see Bill sitting there on his little chair with a line in the water. He had had no luck, I could see, but he was making no effort to move.
"What's wrong, Bill?" I called out from the path.
For answer, he put a hand in his jacket and took out a big, golden object. For a moment I had no idea what it could be, and then it suddenly went off with a noise like a fire engine. Stopping the bell, Bill held the thing up and called back, "Ten to four, you see, and this is dead right."
I had never known anyone carrying a brass alarm clock round with him before. | high14823.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "looked down upon them"
},
"options": [
"looked down upon them",
"couldn't win",
"didn't like the city boy",
"were afraid of them"
],
"question": "The team from the country were in old clothes so the writer's tea... | We were going to play against a team from a country school.
They didn't come until the last minute. They looked worse than we had thought. They were wearing dirty blue trousers and looked like farm boys.
We sat down for a rest. We felt that we didn't need any practice against a team like that.
The game began. One of us got the ball and he shot a long pass to our forward . From out of nowhere a boy in an old T-shirt stopped the ball and with beautiful style he shot and got two points. Then another two points in a minute. Soon the game was all over. We were beaten by the country team.
After that, we thought a lot. We certainly learned that even though your team is very good, you can't look down upon the others and still need to do you best. And the most important lesson we learned was: One can't judge a person or a team only by their clothes. | high8391.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "They rushed back and shut the door."
},
"options": [
"They called their families.",
"They waited where they were.",
"They rushed back and shut the door.",
"They tried to run down the stairs."
],
"question": "Wha... | Trapped on the 37thFloor
Melinda Skaar wasn't expecting any phone calls.Skaar was working late in her office at the First Interstate bank of California.By 10:45 that night she was almost ready to go home when the phone rang.
Picking it up,she heard a guard shouting."There is a fire! Get out of there!"
Skaar didn't panic.She figured that it was just a small fire.Her office building was huge.There were 62 floors and her desk was on the 37th floor.
Skaar called out to office mate Stephen Oksas.who also stayed late to work.But when they got to the hallway, they were met by a cloud of black smoke.Rushing back,Skaar shut the door and filled the space at the bottom of the door with her jacket to keep the smoke out.
Then they called 911.Before they could call their families,however, the line went dead.That meant that they were completely cut off from the outside world.All they could do was wait and hope someone would come to rescue them.
Minutes ticked by.Smoke began to float into the office.Soon it became hard for them to breathe.
Looking around,Skaar noticed a small workroom.It seemed to have cleaner air.So they crowded there.That helped for a while,but in time even the workroom was filled with deadly smoke.
Hopeless,they tried to break the windows,but the glass was not breakable.Everything they threw at just bounced back.
Defeated,they struggled back to the workroom.They felt weak and dizzy.Soon Skaar found Oksas had passed out.
As Skaar and Oksas lay near death,rescuers were rushing to find them.At last,at about 4 a.m.,firefighters found them.
Skaar and Oksas knew they were lucky to be alive."Sunday is my birthday,"Skaar told a reporter. She would be turning 29.But she knew she had already got the best present possible--the gift of life. | high12705.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Only young people accept the new \" Future Mail \" service ."
},
"options": [
"People can express their thoughts and feelings to themselves or others through a \" Future Mail \" .",
"The \" Future Mail \" business is not perfect ."... | Have you ever dreamed about sending a letter to yourself or your friends in the future ? While express mail representing efficiency and speed is prevalent in China , there is another type of mail appearing as a new business : " Future Mail " . " Future Mail " service can make people slow down and let them understand the meaning of " time " in another way . And " Future Mail " letters are " reminders of affection , friendship and love ".
Lin Xiaofan , a senior high school student in Hefei , wrote a letter to her mother in advance to express her love to her mother for next Mother's Day . Feng Xiao , a youth who feels pressure despite of some achievements in her career decided to write a letter to herself on her 25th birthday and have it delivered five years later on her 30th birthday through a " Future Mail " . She expressed her thoughts about her present life and her expectations for the future to encourage herself to face up to the challenges of her life with courage .
While " Future Mail " is gaining popularity , some people are concerned about what happens if the postal address of the receiver changes or if the company goes broken before letters are delivered . Actually , customers required to complete an acceptance form and make an assessment so they can be _ if their letters or goods are lost or damaged .
Most of the business's customers are college students and young white-collar workers . Psychologists said young Chinese might be given a vent to their negative feelings through the service . Most people put their hopes and wishes in the letters so they can experience the connection between " past " and " present " while they receive the letters . It can help people reunderstand the meaning of " time " . | high9500.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "they believe that eating there will show their wealth and social status"
},
"options": [
"the restaurants give customers a taste of foreign culture",
"the restaurants offer different food and drinks from other restaurants",
"... | In China, chain restaurants -- especially the big multinational ones -- are cool. Going to Starbucks, for example, is a status symbol. It not only says, "I'm rich enough to buy this overpriced coffee," but also, "I'm cosmopolitan enough to be part of globalization."
Where I come from in the UK, however, chains are neither fashionable nor gourmet . Chains are where you go on New Year's Day when nowhere else is open, or when you are 5 years old and your parents can't stand hearing, "I'm huuuuuungry!" any longer. In my own case (with regards to McDonald's), a chain is where you are taken on your first "date". Even at the age of 13, I knew to give the guy the "let's just be friends" phone call the next day.
In the UK, independent cafes and restaurants are making a comeback on the fashion scene. Nowadays, a Londoner who says "let's meet for a coffee at Monmouth" (an independent cafe) is much cooler than one who says "let's go to Starbucks". Even if Monmouth's coffee is a little more expensive, there's a satisfaction in knowing your pounds aren't going straight to the big corporations.
Of course, there are chain stores all over the UK; you can't go five minutes without spotting a Costa Coffee. But numbers do not add up to good taste.
I do, however, have a confession . After moving to China I had moments when all the rice and Kung Pao Chicken became too much. I, too, have _ to McDonald's. | high14374.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "since there were mail-order catalogues"
},
"options": [
"before long",
"after the Internet",
"since there were mail-order catalogues",
"since he worked as a businessman"
],
"question": "Larry Pollock has been fa... | Local businessmen are increasingly facing competition from online retailers. Larry Pollock, owner of Camera Co/Op on South Congress, said he has been dealing with this kind of problem for years, even before the Internet. The struggle began with mail-order catalogues , which are similar to online retailers in that they have few employees to pay, no sales tax fees and no business venue to lease and manage.
"Their overhead is lower, but they don't offer a service like we do," Pollock said.
Pollock, however, said providing a valuable service to customers does not always guarantee continued sales.
"We spend 30 minutes to an hour with somebody and they go home and buy it on line," he said.
According to the state comptroller's office, online shopping is developing at a more rapid rate than traditional businesses.
In spite of how fair or unfair online shopping may be to the local businessmen, consumers will continue to turn to the Internet for its variety and accessibility, said Mitch Wilson, an online shopper. "You have a larger selection and it's easier to compare prices."
Wilson said he built his personal computer and paid a third of the price by shopping on line.
"Before the Internet, I would have had to go and buy an assembled computer from somebody like Dell," he said. "Before I started shopping on line I could never find all the pieces I wanted. No single store had everything needed, so shopping on line saved me from having to buy from Dell."
Janny Brazeal, a psychology freshman, said online shopping is too impersonal.
"'d rather see it in person, touch it, know that I'm getting it," she said.
Brazeal also said she would not give out her credit card number or other personal information on line no matter how safe the site claims it is. | high6633.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "His recalling the talk with the businessman earlier that day."
},
"options": [
"The request from the homeless-looking man.",
"His sympathy for the homeless-looking man.",
"His recalling the talk with the businessman earlier t... | At a talk to some businessmen earlier today, one fellow asked me, "Would you give money to a homeless person, even when you know he's going to use it to buy alcohol?" I replied, "If all I was giving was money, it'll be one thing.But for me, whenever I do give money, that's just the wrapping .The real gift is hidden inside - it's love.And l haven't ever found any reason to limit gifts of love "
By the end of the night, I decided to get some pizza.In front of me in line was a homeless-looking man.He was counting the few dollars bills in his hand, over and over again, until it was his turn to order.Just then, he told the young woman behind the counter, "I'II have the full cheese pizza." "Full?" she countered."It's really big." she added, although what she really meant to say is that it'll be too expensive for him."Yeah, the full " "$18.65," she submitted.The bills he was counting weren't going to make it.I wasn't intending to get the whole pizza for him.But thinking back to my conversation with the business man, l realized that money was really just the wrapping.
I made my move."Can you charge that pizza with my order" I said to the cashier."Really?'' the homeless-looking man said."Really?" the young woman behind the counter repeated."Yes, really." That confused man and I had a sweet silent moment.To his silent question of why I was doing it, I added, "Just pay it forward for someone else." And he said, "Well, you know what? I was actually treating those five homeless guys out there." He was actually paying it forward, in the first place! What an unexpected fortune to get a chance to be a part of a man's act of kindness. | high19650.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "websites can provide people with different kinds of information"
},
"options": [
"students who visit the website \"revise. it\" are all lazy",
"students in Oxford University are all lazy",
"websites in Oxford University are a... | London-Lazy students can now give up on work altogether as two Oxford University students have made scores of A-grade essays on the website for students to copy.
The essays are on the new website, "revise.it"
The website includes an "EssayLab" designed to make cheating as effective and effortless as possible.
Its homepage announces to surfers : "The revise.it EssayLab is a bank of hundreds of A-Level essays covering popular topics."
"Next time you are asked to write an essay, why not see what we have on the subject-if you are in a lazy state of mind you can even use our guide to writing the essays and then just hand them in."
Nick Rose and Jordan Mayo, both 19 and first from Manchester, spent much of their first year as students at the university setting up the website. There is no charge for downloading the essays.
"I have never been very good at essay writing," Rose admitted. "We don't see essay bank as a cheating way. It's a surprising valuable resource. You can learn a lot by reading other people's work on the subject."
Among other tips, the website suggests inventing important speeches to give essays extra weight: "Popular people to quote are Douglass Hurd or Disraeli."
Hurd was a foreign secretary in the 1980s and Disraeli was a 19
century prime minister.
Teachers are expressing their opinions by e-mail that they are angry about the website that "encourages students to cheat", but students disagree.
According to Rose: "Exams are a fight. It's us against them." | high16563.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "are not satisfied with their body image"
},
"options": [
"lack opportunity to prove themselves",
"are not satisfied with their body image",
"want to have a muscle-enforcing shirt",
"make complaints about the working con... | Are you concerned about your body image? These days, both women and men are surrounded by magazines and websites full of tips about dieting, exercise and fashion. Not to mention hairstyles! Gone are the days when all men had to think about was wearing a nice suit to be smart and handsome. Things have changed.
Now, a survey by the University of the West of England(UWE) has suggested that 80% of men confess to being unhappy about their body. The biggest body issues for them were beer bellies and lack of muscles.
Some think this sudden vanity is due to the pressure or influence of role models we see on TV and in magazines. People end up with a perception of what the perfect body should look like. But not everybody wants to put in the effort to have perfect pecs and dazzling white teeth like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
An opportunistic entrepreneur has even invented a muscle-enhancing shirt to be worn under a man's clothes to make him look more of a hunk.
But Joe Warner, the former editor of Men's Fitness magazine in the UK, thinks the padded shirt is just a gimmick. He thinks many people in the country are obese, or overweight, and should accept they need to do more exercise.
Warner says: "I think it's a real shame people still want shortcuts when it doesn't take an awful lot of effort to get to the gym or go for a walk."
Exercise is always a good thing. But we mustn't forget that beauty is only skin deep. Character is more important than appearance.
So before I head off to the pub, it might be worth spending an hour at the gym. I'm not looking to get a six-pack , but looking healthier would certainly improve my confidence and self-esteem.
What about you: how much do you worry about your physique? | high19136.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "want to relax themselves"
},
"options": [
"live a happy life",
"always feel happy",
"just can't help it",
"want to relax themselves"
],
"question": "The people in Laughing Club laugh because they _ .",
"q... | Nearly a thousand people laugh heartily together for half an hour every morning in a park in Shenzhen. Guangzhou Daily took a closer look at those happy people.
They are members of a group named Laughing Club, and when they get together, all they do is laugh.
Zhang Lixin, the founder of the club and regarded as the 'laugh leader', told the paper that laughing does him a lot of good. He started after he read some advice in a book and tried giggling after quarrelling with his wife to relax.
After laughing for a few days, Zhang found himself more outgoing and relaxed. Soon his wife joined him, bringing the family more laughter and less bickering.
When he got to know a kind of "laughing yoga" is good for the health, Zhang went to Bombay to learn from the locals and developed what he learned into more than 30 ways of laughing.
The "lion bellow "is to shout with the fingers outstretched near the ears. There is the "open mouth laugh", the "bow-pulling laugh", the "welcoming laugh" and even the "quarrelling laugh", with different arm movements of laugh style.
The "laugh movement" swept over Shenzhen in a few of months, attracting tens of thousands of people to join, and has been followed in nearby cities such as Guangzhou.
Every morning at the lake front and at 8 pm on every Monday, Wednesday, Friday at the mountain peak square in Lianhua Mountain Park, club members gather to laugh and shout loudly. | high4742.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "soldiers did not all go home for Christmas during the war"
},
"options": [
"the writer spent his Christmas during the war",
"soldiers did not all go home for Christmas during the war",
"all the soldiers had three-day passes",... | When my first wartime Christmas came, I was in basic training in New Jersey and not sure if I could make it home for the holidays. Only on the afternoon of December 23 was the list of men who would have three-day passes posted. I was one of the lucky soldiers.
It was Christmas Eve when I arrived, and a light snow had fallen. Mother opened the front door. I could see beyond her, into the corner of the living room where the tree had always stood. There were lights, all colors, and ornaments shining against the green of a pine.
"Where did it come from?" I asked.
"I asked the Gates boy to cut it," my mother said. "I wouldn't have had one just for myself, but when you called--- oh, such a rush! He just brought it in this afternoon..."
The pine reached to the proper height, almost to the ceiling, and the Tree Top Krystal Star was in its place. A few green branches reached about a little awkwardly at the side, I thought, and there was a bit of bare trunk showing in the middle. But the tree filled the room with warm light and the whole house with pleasant smell of Christmas.
"It's not like the ones you used to find," my mother went on. "Yours were always in good shape. I suppose the Gates boy didn't know where to look. But I couldn't be picky."
"Don't worry, " I told her. "It's perfect."
It wasn't, of course, but at the moment I realized something for the first time: all Christmas trees are perfect. | high16205.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "life coach"
},
"options": [
"clothes maker",
"money maker",
"shopkeeper",
"life coach"
],
"question": "The passage may be written by an experienced _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"a... | There comes a time in a person's life when they may realize that their laundry is just not coming out the way that they had hoped for. The whites may not be getting white enough or the color1s might be fading. This can cause you more money if you don't know how to properly do your laundry. These tips are lifesaving tips when it comes to washing your dirty clothes.
If you have a habit of throwing all your clothes into the washing machine together, you need to stop now. Washing your clothes in the same load will only cause them to fade onto each other or not become as clean as they could.
To save you lots of time, try buying a laundry sorter so that your clothes are already sorted and ready to be throne into the washing machine.
Another great advice would be to read the labels on the back of the clothing. The labels are there for a reason and this could help to save you a lot of money in the long run. It makes sense not to wash something in warm water when it specifically says to wash in cold water, if you did you could end up with a shrunken sweater.
There are basically five groups that your laundry should be sorted into; whites, lights, darks, bright color1ed clothes, and delicates.
The whites are basically anything white like your undergarments and t-shirts. Try not to get the whites and the lights confused.
The light color1ed clothes are those that can be white, striped, off-whites, pastels, cream color1ed, etc.
Dark clothes are those including blacks, blues, and browns. The reason that this is important is because dark clothes tend to fade onto other clothes and there are also special products like Woolite Dark that you can buy to keep them from fading. It just makes sense to wash these separately.
The bright clothes are those that are red, yellow, orange, green, florescent, etc. These clothes can make your other clothes turn color1s. | high18228.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Off ramp to on ramp:it can be a hard Journey"
},
"options": [
"Off ramp:it is common",
"On ramp:it is easy",
"Off ramp or on ramp:it depends on confidence",
"Off ramp to on ramp:it can be a hard Journey"
],
"que... | Hoffman,40,a former senior vice president of a financial company,had what she describes as "one of those extreme jobs." "I loved working," she says. But her career path reached a crossroad when her second child was born,and she left her job in February 2007. Hoffman is one of many people who have left the work force to take a break,but she has a position as a consultant.She has described this type of career detour ----- which is more common for women than for men--as "off- ramping." Typically it occurs when the balancing act of parenting and work becomes too tough.
A study by the center found that more than 90 percent of women who off-ramp want to on-ramp back into the work force eventually.But making the transition back to work is rarely easy,and it is even harder in this economic climate of layoffs and hiring freezes.
Considering some of the obstacles faced by on- rampers , a three-day program called "Greater Returns:Restarting Your Career" was held at Columbia University. The goal of the three days was to have them walk away with a big shot of confidence.
According to one school of thought, women looking to make a comeback might even have an advantage in the current economy,especially if they are looking for part-time or consultant positions that do not offer benefits. And a majority of on-rampers are women with extensive working experiences that could give them a slight advantage over less-experienced competition.
"You absolutely cannot be defensive about why you off-ramped," Ms Hoffman says, " defensive" would have put her into a hard situation if the Greater Returns program had had not taught her how to describe the years she spent at home."I now feel confident talking to an employer and saying,' Yes,I have been out of the work force,but here is where I can make significant contributions.'" | high2333.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "show why the products have sold well"
},
"options": [
"show more technologically advanced products",
"help increase the sales of products",
"show why the products have sold well",
"attract more people than store windows... | Art museums are places where people can learn about various cultures. The increasingly popular "design museums" that are opening today, however, perform quite a different role. Unlike most art museums, the design museum shows objects that are easily found by the general public These museums sometimes even place things like fridges and washing machines in the center of the hall
Pele have argued that design museums are often made use of as advertisements for new industrial technology. But their role is not simply a matter of sales-it is the honoring of excellently invented products. The difference between the window of a department store and the showcase in a design museum is that the first tries to sell you something, while the second tells you the success of a sale.
One advantage of design museums is that they are places where people feel familiar with the exhihits. Unlike the average art museum visitors, design museum visitors seldom feel frightened or puzzled. This is partly because design museums clearly show how and why mass-produced products work and look as they do, and how design has improved the quality of our lives. Art museum exhibits, on the other hand, would most probably fill visitors with a feeling that there is something between their understanding.
In recent years, several new design museums have opened their door. Each of these museums has tried to satisfy the public's growing interest in the field with new ideas. London's Design Museum, for example, shows a collection of mass-produced objects from Zippo lighters to electric typewriters to a group of Italian fish-tins. The choices open to design museums seem far less strict than those to art museums, and visitors may also sense the humorous part of our society while walking around such exhibits as interesting and unusually attractive toys collected in our everyday life. | high6155.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "It is quite easy to get to local attractions."
},
"options": [
"It's designed specially for businessmen.",
"It has well-developed traffic to other cities.",
"It is quite easy to get to local attractions.",
"It is the ch... | Residence Inn Milford
Within 15 minutes from historic Yale University and New Haven, the Residence Inn Milford offers great facilities and first-class service for business or leisure travel. Our all-suites hotel near New Haven is 1 hour from Bradley International Airport and 10 minutes from a Metro North train station that can get you to NYC in under an hour and a half. At our Milford, CT hotel, enjoy spacious studio, suites that are 50 percent larger than traditional hotel rooms.
Our suites offer hot breakfast buffet and a nightly social hour (Monday - Wednesday), on-site exercise room and outdoor swimming pool.
Price: $ 119 per night Pet Policy: Pets allowed Check in time: 3 pm
Marriott Detroit Southfield
Newly renovated , the Marriott Detroit Southfield Hotel is one of Detroit's most desirable hotel destinations. With excellent public areas, enhanced meeting spaces and carefully redesigned guest rooms, the Marriott Detroit Southfield Hotel meets the needs of business, leisure and group guests travelling to the Detroit area. This suburban Detroit hotel has a prime location that allows for easy access to the Detroit Zoo, Henry Ford Museum, Comerica Park, Ford Field and many of the other local activities in the area. It is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Price :$ 75 per nightCheck in time : 4 pm
Comfort Suites Kodak
100 percent smoke free and pet free hotel conveniently located at the main gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains off Interstate 40 at exit 407, close to all the fun and excitement in Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, and Knoxville, including Dollywood, Dixie Stampede, Smokies Park, Sevierville Events Center, Tanger Outlet Mall, University of Tennessee and more. Guests enjoy waking up in our well-appointed guest suites featuring contemporary furnishings and LCD flat screen televisions, starting their day with our free breakfast, and relaxing in our indoor pool and exercise room.
Price: $55 per night Check in time: 3 pm
The Swinton Hotel
Located in the very heart of the centre of London, the Swinton Hotel is one of the leading Kings Cross hotels offering free breakfast. It allows easy access to all tourist attractions, shopping areas and transport connections; you have come to the right place if you are looking for brilliant Kings Cross Hotels. Whatever reason you are looking for cheap hotels in London and whether you are visiting on business, as a tourist or to enjoy the vast varieties of entertainment and nightlife, we will be more than happy to provide you with a safe and comfortable environment. The Swinton Hotel is situated in an ideal location for those travelling to or from London by rail.
Price :$45 per night Check in time: 3 pm | high12063.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Eco City Farms are gaining popularity."
},
"options": [
"Eco City Farms save a lot of energy.",
"Eco City Farms helps the working-class live better.",
"Eco City Farms are influencing community life.",
"Eco City Farms ar... | Eco City Farms are becoming more popular in cities and towns around the United states.
Eco City Farms in Edmonton, Maryland, is located near shopping centers, car repair shops and homes. The neighborhood is a working-class community . People do not have very much money. And they have limited access to fresh food in markets.
Over the past two years, the farm has attracted volunteers from the community like Marcy Clark. She schools her four children at home. On a recent day she brought them to Eco City Farms for a lesson. Her son Alston Clark thinks his experience is very valuable."I like coming out here," he says," You know, you connect with the earth, where your food comes from. You appreciate the food a little bit more."
Margaret Morgan started Eco City Farms. She thinks of it as a place where people can learn to live healthier lives. "Growing food in a community brings people together," she continues, "Every piece of what we do here is a demonstration to show people everything about how to have an eco-friendly community." she says. From the Eco City Farms people come to know that they are not only growing food and raising chickens and bees, but improving the soil with compost made from food waste.
Eco City Farms is an experimental operation. The farm gets its power not from the local electricity networks, but from the sun with solar panels. In winter, the green house use a geothermal system.
Vegetables can be grown all year. So once a week, all winter long, neighbors like Chris Moss and her three children bike to the farm to pick up a share of the harvest.
"I like eating the vegetables "says five-year-old Owen Moss. | high13369.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "children"
},
"options": [
"children",
"passengers",
"advertisers",
"drivers"
],
"question": "Jolly Joe was liked mostly by _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_i... | Jolly Joe always arrived at my neighborhood at exactly half past noon. The clang of the bell on his red and black truck was then the sweetest sound in the world. Brightly colored stickers advertising his amazing kinds of treats could be found on all sides of his truck. The whole neighborhood would magically come to life.
Holding a nickel , I'd run to the back of the vehicle, where children were already gathering. Jolly Joe would jump out of his truck, the sun shining on his hair. He was an older man, short and round, with a pleasant face and a welcoming smile.
I don't know how, but he knew us all by name, as well as which treats we preferred. My favorite was the Buried Treasure. By eating all the ice cream, you'd discover the treasure inside: a lion, a dog or even a funny clown -- printed onto a plastic stick.
When it was finally my turn, he'd put his arm deep inside one of the boxes, and pause for a moment, a puzzled look crossing his face. Then, suddenly, he'd pull it out: the Buried Treasure! I couldn't wait to enjoy the cool, sweet ice cream.
As quickly as he arrived, it was time for Jolly Joe to go, leaving behind laughing, excited children with sticky hands and faces. Soon the sound of his clanging bell would slowly disappear in the distance.
I always hated to see Jolly Joe go, because I knew the rest of the day would be as hot and boring as before. But I took some comfort in knowing that the next day he'd come round the corner at half past noon and once again spread his magic. | high14406.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "To purchase what they like."
},
"options": [
"To keep a DIY way.",
"To put them away themselves.",
"To purchase what they like.",
"To donate them to charities."
],
"question": "When there is something wrong with... | These days it's cheaper to throw that broken DVD player, cell-phone or TV out and buy a new one. This " replace-rather-than-repair" mentality is polluting the planet with electronic waste. According to the UN Environment Program, we are throwing away an estimated 50 million metric tonnes of electronics waste (e-waste) per year. But this is not ordinary garbage. Our electronics leak harmful heavy metals -- such as mercury and arsenic -- along with equally poisonous chemicals that end up in our soil and eventually our water.
You've probably participated in a community recycling event and left feeling good about shipping off that old computer to be recycled. Chances are it was shipped overseas where it's polluting someone else'community.
Guiyu city in Southeastern China has become known as the e-waste city where low-paid workers use whatever means available to remove electronics in hopes of recovering the copper, microchips, aluminum, gold and silver and plastic that can be resold. Any leftover waste is simply thrown into the nearby river or piled up high in the streets, poisoning the children growing up here.
So what can you do with your e-waste? Robert Houghton, President and founder of Redemtech, an asset management and recovery firm, recommends you vote with your dollar. Buy from companies who have a take-back program that guarantees your discarde electronics are handled proper.
" Consumers want to do business with companies who are demonstrably good with corporate responsibility and dealing with e-waste, " said Houghton.
There are plenty of charitable organizations that will take your used electronics and donate them for charitable causes:
* Electronic Recycling Association (Canada) (ERA) collects old computers for donation to libraries and other organizations across Canada.
* eBay's Rethink Initiative pairs up consumers with businesses that refurbish old computers for donation.
* TechSoup has a thorough listing of resources for those who would like to donate or recycle hardware,buy recycled hardware or find a refurbisher.
* The Charitable Recycling Program accepts all cell-phones and has a listing of charities it helps with its program.
* Call2 Recycle has set up drop off points across Canada in a number of stores. You can drop off your cell-phone and also your rechargeable batteries from handheld electronic products. | high6141.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "by calling"
},
"options": [
"in about one week",
"at reduced prices",
"through the Internet",
"by calling"
],
"question": "You can get the tickets for the two concerts _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_ques... | The Weekly Radio Concert
Date / Time: Sept. 5th, 2010 10:30 (Sun.)
Venue : Shanghai Concert Hall
Ticket Price (RMB): 50, 40, 30
Ticket State: On Sale Now
Booking Office: No. 272 Fengxian Road
Booking Hotline: 62172426, 62173055
Conductor: Chen Shouchang
Programme
1. Jasmine (Jiangsu folk song) Arranged by Chen Dan
2. Under the Silver Light (Xinjiang folk song) Arranged by Yang Hua
3. Wish good luck (Tibetan folk song) Arranged by Shu Yong Gang
4. Arirang Theme and Variations (North Korean folk song) Arranged by John Barnes Jones
5. No.5 Wind Suite (Various countries Dance) Arranged by Alfred Reed
I. Square dance (USA)
II. Sarabande (France)
III. Yamabushi Kagura (Japan)
IV. Hora (Israel / Romania)
6. Red River Valley (American / Canadian folk song) Arranged by J. D. Proyhal
JAZZ STARS -- Cantaloup Island
Date / Time: Sept. 8th, 2010 19:30 (Wed.)
Venue: Shanghai Concert Hall
Ticket Price (RMB): 80, 50
Ticket State: On Sale Now
Booking Office: No. 272 Fengxian Road
Booking Hotline: 62172426, 62173055
Performance: Shanghai Jazz Orchestra | high15718.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "To comment on the significance of the royal wedding."
},
"options": [
"To introduce Prince William's wedding arrangements in detail.",
"To comment on the significance of the royal wedding.",
"To question the relevance of the ... | The wedding between Prince Wiliam and Kate Middleton on April 29 has focused the world's camera lenses on the UK.
In Britain, there is a constant debate about the relevance of the royal family to modern British society. However, Windsor (the family name of the British Royal Family) and Middleton have been seen to represent a more modern, forward-looking nation.
Nigel Baker, the British ambassador to Bolivia, believes that the royal wedding is "about modern Britain". "The estimated 2 billion spectators across the world will see that Britain is one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse nations in the world, home to 270 nationalities speaking 300 different languages, founded on tolerance and respect for difference," wrote Baker on his blog.
According to Baker, the wedding could help viewers to see "why Britain is one of the most dynamic and creative countries in the world": The television on which most people watched the event was invented by John Logie Baird, a Briton, and the World Wide Web that broadcast the event to millions more was invented by another Briton, Tim Berners-Lee.
The guests who attended the wedding ceremony gave more than a few clues as to the nature of modern Britain. David and Victoria Beckham represent Britain's obsession with football and celebrity.
Leaders from different religious backgrounds supported Baker's comments on the multicultural nature of modern British society.
Before the wedding, David Elliott, arts director of the British Council China, agreed that the wedding would be a showcase for modern Britain: "I think, and hope, that it (modern British influence) would be values like openness, multiculturalism, creativity, sense of humor and the traditional British sense of fair play," he said.
Furthermore, events such as the Olympics in London in 2012 may also increase people's sense of Britishness.
According to a poll published in Daily Telegraph, more than a third of people in the UK admitted they felt "very British" when watching the Olympics. | high12077.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Success of illiterate newsboy"
},
"options": [
"Success of illiterate newsboy",
"Local blacksmith becomes famous",
"The thriving trade of the blacksmith",
"Reading and writing-the road to success"
],
"question":... | Edward Sims was born in 1892. He was the fifth child and only son of Herbert and Dora Sims. Herbert was a blacksmith , and had a thriving trade making horseshoes. He was determined that his first-born son would follow him into the blacksmith. For this reason, Edward had to leave school at the age of 12,and worked with his father.
However, Edward was _ a blacksmith. Although he has an athletic body, he didn't have strong arms like his father, and he felt dizzy in the heat of the smithy. When he tried to find alternative employment, he found it difficult because he had never learnt to read or write.
One day, he went for an interview at a solictior's office. The job was a runner, taking documents from the office to other offices in the city. The solicitor was pleased to see that Edward was physically fit, but when he discovered that the young man couldn't read or write, he decided against employing him. "How can you deliver documents to other offices," he asked, "if you can't read the addresses on them?"
Bitterly disappointed, Edward left the building and went to wait for a tram to take him back to the suburb where his father's smithy was. Next to the bus stop, a man was selling newspapers from a stand .
"Excuse me, son?" he said. "Would you look after my stand for a moment?"
For the next 20 minutes, Edward sold newspapers, lots of them. When the man came back, he was so delighted with his new assistant's honesty, that he offered him a job. Edward took it immediately.
In the next few months, the two men progressed from working on newspaper stands to selling newspapers, tobacco,confectionery and other goods in a shop. Then they opened a second shop, and a third. Eventually, they had a chain of 25 shops in three cities.
Edward became very rich, so he employed a tutor to teach him to read and write. The tutor was amazed at what Edward had achieved. "Imagine what you could do if you'd been able to read and write when you were younger!" he said.
"Yes!" said Edward. "I could have run myself to exhaustion delivering documents for a solicitor!" | high3039.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "sign documents"
},
"options": [
"sign documents",
"capture criminals",
"show respect",
"prove identity"
],
"question": "Fingerprints were first used in China to _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
... | Years ago, I was watching a detective show on TV where the fingerprints of a criminal are required. The hero invites the bad guy to his home and offers him a glass of water. The man takes the glass and drinks the water. After he leaves the hero dramatically brings out a handkerchief and picks up the glass. His expressions show the satisfaction at a job well done. The bad guy will soon be arrested.
At that time, I found it amazing - how can prints on a glass identify people? My dad explained that if you were to press your thumb on an inkpad and then on a sheet of white paper you will leave a smudge or print, which no one else in the world can make. The same would be true for each of your fingers. The Chinese were the first to use a fingerprint as a type of identification - it was used as a signature on important documents, although they had no way of independently matching it with the owner.
Each print is one-of-a-kind and no two people have the same characteristic. Scientists and criminologists (those who study criminal characteristics) determine the differences between fingerprints by a careful study of their curves and not by their general shape or pattern.
In 1892, an English scientist, Sir Francis Galton, published a book on using fingerprints to solve crimes. At the same time in Argentina, a police researcher Juan Vucetich was also working towards a fingerprint classification system. However, it was in 1896 that Sir Edward Henry, then serving as Inspector General of Police in India, developed the print classification system that would eventually be used globally.
Sir Edward Henry and his assistant Khan Haque discovered that all fingerprints could be systematically classified according to their general curve patterns. He divided them into three classes on the basis of their general pattern: loops , whorls , and arches . By counting the curve between any two points in the pattern, each of the ten fingers could be classified into a particular group. Taking the group together as a unit you have a complete system of classifying fingerprints.
In June 1897, the world's first fingerprint bureau was set up in Calcutta and in 1901, Sir Edward Henry was appointed head of Scotland Yard in London, where he applied the system. This system, called the science of fingerprint identification, is still used by police departments all over the world today with few changes. | high19122.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "It can threaten a person's life."
},
"options": [
"It means the body temperature falls rapidly.",
"Most heart attacks are caused by it.",
"It is not as scary as people think.",
"It can threaten a person's life."
],
... | People who are outdoors in cold weather should avoid actions like suddenly lifting a heavy basket full of snow. Even walking through heavy, wet snow can
a person's heart.
Many people aren't conditioned to the physical stress of outdoor activities and don't know the dangers of being outdoors in cold weather. Those who like winter sports can suffer accidental hypothermia if they don't make certain preparations.
Hypothermia means the body temperature has fallen below normal. It occurs when your body can't produce enough energy to keep the internal body temperature warm enough. It can kill you. Heart failure causes most deaths in hypothermia.
Children, the elderly and those with heart disease are at special risk. As people age, their ability to keep a normal internal body temperature often decreases. Elderly people can suffer hypothermia without knowing they're in danger because they can't notice the cold conditions as quickly as the young.
Besides cold temperatures, high winds, snow and rain can also steal body heat. Wind is especially dangerous because it removes the layer of heated air from around your body. At 30 degrees Fahrenheit in a 20-mile-per-hour wind, the cooling effect is equal to calm air at four degrees. Similarly dampness causes the body to lose heat faster than it would at the same temperature in drier conditions.
To keep warm, wear more clothes. This traps air between layers. Also, wear a hat or head scarf. Much of your body's heat can be lost through your head. Keep your hands and feet warm, too, as they tend to lose heat rapidly.
Don't drink alcohol before going outdoors or when outside. Alcohol makes you feel warm at first because blood vessels in the skin expand. But heat is then drawn away from the body's important organs. | high16211.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "are not yet certain"
},
"options": [
"are not yet certain",
"have proved to be wrong",
"have caused a serious trouble",
"are not important"
],
"question": "The results of the South American experiment _ .",
... | Scientific experiments can sometimes go wrong and when they do the results may range from the disastrous to the troubling. One such experiment took place in South America about fifty years ago. Whether its final consequences will cause serious damage or nothing more than a small trouble still remains to be seen.
The story began in 1956 when an American scientist working in Brazil decided to solve the problem of increasing the productivity of that country's bees. He imported a very active type of African bee from Tanzania and mated it with the more easy-going native variety to produce a new kind of bees. The new bees worked harder and produced twice as much honey. It seemed that Professor Kerr, for that was the scientist's name, had a total success on his hands.www.zxxk.com
Then things began to go wrong. For some reason as yet unseen, but perhaps as a result of something in their environment, the new bees began to develop extremely attacking personalities. They became bad-tempered and easy to be angry, attacked the native bees and drove them from their living places.
But worse was to follow. Having taken over the countryside, the new bees, with their dangerous stings , began to attack its neighbors -- cats, dogs, horses, chickens and finally man himself. A long period of terror began that has so far killed a great number of animals and about 150 human beings.
This would have been bad enough if the bees had stayed in Brazil. But now they are on the move, heading northwards in countless millions towards Central and North America, and moving at the alarming speed of 200 miles a year. The countries that lie in their path are naturally worried because it looks as if nothing can be done to stop them. | high5448.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the Chinese soccer team is not capable to go as far as the final part of the World Cup."
},
"options": [
"China is ranked 84th in soccer 's world standing.",
"they are angry about why China cannot produce a winning soccer team.",
... | China may be the world's most populous country ,and it won the most gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. But its prowess at soccer is lamentable. China is ranked 84th in the sport's world standing.
Chinese are huge soccer fans, and hundreds of millions are expected to tune in to the World Cup, with all the matches broadcast live on public TV. But this time the Chinese don't have their own team to root for.
"Chinese have a reputation of being good at math, but they have trouble explaining why a population of 1.3 billion cannot produce a winning 11-member soccer team," said Xu Guoqi, a history professor at the University of Hong Kong. Journalists and soccer fans offer a number of reasons, most often money issues, politics, corruption and culture, and sometimes a combination of the four.
Even though China now boasts wealthy companies and individuals who could sponsor teams, there is little support as long as Chinese teams are perceived as perennial losers. "This is a very bad circle," Ma said. "No results, no money. No money, no results."
Few Chinese children are playing soccer. Some sports journalists and fans attribute the lack of interest partly to schools de-emphasizing sports in general and the lack of playing venues in the country's dense urban areas. "What can Chinese kids do?" said Fan Huiming, 61, a Chinese soccer fan who grew up watching matches at Beijing's Workers' Stadium, which was built in 1958 near his childhood home. "If they play soccer, the ball may fly directly into the glass of someone's home."
For young people, soccer has largely been _ by basketball, thanks in part to Chinese NBA players who are treated like rock stars. Journalists and fans say NBA's aggressive campaign of marketing and merchandise in China has helped swell the popularity of basketball. By comparison, they noted that international soccer does not even have an office in China.
Rowan Simons, a Briton who came to China more than two decades ago and discovered he wasn't able to play weekend soccer, has been on a campaign to popularize the sport here. Simons said the main problem is that soccer elsewhere has traditionally started as a series of neighborhood clubs, but in China, "there's virtually no football at community level".
"Football in China can only succeed if it's a grass-roots activity organized by the people," he said. | high10660.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "he tried to teach his son a moral lesson but the son had totally different opinion"
},
"options": [
"he liked tortoises while his son liked hares",
"they disagreed about whether the tortoise was foolish",
"he tried to teach... | I was telling my boy Sonny the story of the hare and the tortoise . At the end I said, " Son, remember: Be slow and steady , and that will win the race. Don't you think there's something to learn from the tortoise?"
Sonny opened his eyes wide, "Do you mean next time when I'm entering for the 60-metre race I should wish that Billy, Tony and Sandy would all fall asleep halfway?"
I was shocked, "But the tortoise didn't wish that the hare would fall asleep!"
"He must have wished that," Sonny said, "Otherwise how could he be so foolish as to race with the hare? He knew very well the hare ran a hundred times faster than he himself did."
"He didn't have such a wish," I insisted. "He won the race by perseverance , by pushing on steadily."
Sonny thought a while. "That's a lie," he said. "He won it because he was lucky. If the hare hadn't happened to fall asleep, the tortoise would never have won the race. He could be as steady as you like, or a hundred times steadier, but he'd never have won the race. That's for sure."
I gave up. Today's children are not like what we used to be. They're just hopeless. | high2327.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "It is fuelled by woodchip and wood waste ."
},
"options": [
"It is surrounded by pine trees.",
"It produces lots of hot water.",
"It is fuelled by woodchip and wood waste .",
"It sends out the smoke from the chimneys."
... | It doesn't look like the heart of a green revolution. The huge chimneys stick up above the line of pine trees and don't make for the most scenic view as you wander around the clear blue waters of the nearby lake.
But it is this power plant that has helped the small Swedish city of Vaxjo become arguably the greenest place in Europe. On closer observation, the only thing emerging from the chimneys is the faintest mists of steam. And inside it smells more like a sauna than a furnace . That's because it is not oil fuelling the plant, but woodchip and other wood waste from the area's sawmills. And as well as generating electricity, it also supplies 90 per cent of this southern Swedish town with heating and hot water.[:Zxxk.Com]
The gases produced as the wood burns are changed into liquid form, and are purified before they reach the chimney. And instead of wasting this liquid, the power plant pumps it around town. Some runs out of the town's public taps; the rest is directed through pipes that run through individual heaters, warming homes and offices.
The pile of wood chippings in the yard towers above head height and takes almost five minutes to walk around. That's enough to keep Vaxjo warm on the snowiest day in winter, or supply it with hot water for a fortnight in summer, and it's good way of using the paper industry's waste. As well as the centuries-- old Swedish policy of planting a new tree for every one felled, the ashes swept out of the furnace each day find their way back to the forest as fertilizer .
It was this green plant that netted Vaxjo the European Union's award for sustainable development, making it the greenest city on the continent.
However, it is not just the citizen's consciences and moral histories to which the town's current day authorities are appealing. They know how to talk to their wallets too. Oil-generated electricity costs about 16,000 kronor a year(PS1,170) per person, while the new power plant's electricity comes in at two thirds of the price.
They've been planning for over ten years to become a "Fossil Fuel Free City". But according to Anders Franzen, the head of planning and development department at the city council: "The battle in the energy sector has been won, yes, but the next battleground is transport." | high10106.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "The benefits from playing sports."
},
"options": [
"The benefits from playing sports.",
"News about some poor children.",
"His reflection to school life.",
"The medical treatment he received."
],
"question": "Wh... | Greg Woodburn, a student at the University of Southern California, spends a lot of time cleaning sneakers he collected.But soon the shoes will be sent to poor children in the United States and 20 other countries, thanks to Woodburn's Share Our Soles (S.O.S.) charity.
A high school track star in the town of Ventura, California, Woodburn was treated in hospital for months with knee and hip injuries.
"I started thinking about the health benefits, the friendship and the confidence I got from running," he says, "And I realized there are children who don't even have shoes."
Woodburn gathered up his old sneakers, then asked his friends to donate.His goal was to have 100 pairs by Christmas this year.When he collected more than 500 pairs, he decided to turn the shoe drive into a year-round endeavor.
Back then, the sneakers came from donation boxes at the YMCA and the local sporting goods store and from door-to-door pickups.Woodburn has now set up collection boxes at two high schools, city gym and recreation center.He has started accepting adult sizes and sandals.So far, S.O.S has collected and donated more than 3,000 pairs.
Woodburn has cleaned all the shoes.After sorting the shoes by size, Woodburn selects the good shoes for the washing machine and the worn-out ones for recycling.
To ship the footwear, Woodburn teamed with Sports Gift, a nonprofit organization that provides soccer and baseball equipment to children around the world.Keven Baxter, founder and president, says, "We'd send kids balls and shoes.I've heard that for many of these kids, these old sneakers are the only shoes they had.They wear them to school and to do sports.So Greg's running shoes were a nice addition for us."
For many recipients, the shoes represent opportunity.Two young boys in Southern California attended school on alternate days because they shared a pair of shoes.They were too big for one boy and too small for the other.Thanks to S.O.S., each brother received his own pair of shoes.The boys now attend school daily and enjoy their learning.When they graduate, they say, they will help a stranger, just as Woodburn helped them. | high2441.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "a tourism destination located in AltayPrefecture"
},
"options": [
"a lake",
"a town in Europe",
"a Kazakhstancity next to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region",
"a tourism destination located in AltayPrefecture"
],
... | Environmental protection was stressed at Kanas, a growing tourism destination in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, famous for its attractive scenery and its "lake monster".
"All of the hotels and restaurants will _ from the scenic site to 30 kilometers away," said Jim Liquan, an official with the Kanas Environment and Tourism Bureau. The move aims to protect environment of Kanas, a scenic site that is part of the European ecosystem and bordersprefix = st1 /Kazakhstan,RussiaandMongolia. Meanwhile, construction of environmental facilities including sewage and rubbish treatment plants will be completed soon.
According to Mao Ken, chief of AltayPrefecturewhere Kanas is located, the government invested 1 billion yuan (US $ 120 million) on environmental facilities. "Education for tourists is also important," he said. An education center is being created to provide information on how to protect the environment in Kanas. But he vowed that the government would not interfere with the lives of traditional residents in Kanas.
It is expected that Kanas will receive more than 500,000 tourists this year, 4,000 more than last year, according to the official. "However, there are still few overseas visitors," he said. Statistics showed that only 2 percent of the total number of tourists is foreigners. "This is partly because the transportation facilities connecting Kanas are still not convenient enough," Mao said. At present, there is only one highway connecting Kanas.
"Upon request from tourists, construction of an airport will start this month and will be completed by the end of next year," the official said. A railway line connecting Kuitun and Altay will also open to traffic in 2008 to make it possible to travel to Kanas by train, probably bringing in more tourists. | high17669.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "let her enjoy Christmas early before her death"
},
"options": [
"let her enjoy the great time with visitors",
"let her understand her parents' love",
"let her enjoy Christmas early before her death",
"let her receive mo... | For Rachael and Leigh Badman, there is only one wish on their Christmas list this year _ that their sick daughter survives until December 25.
Fifteen -year-old Paige suffers from a rare brain condition. The disease affects as few as 12 people in the world, and can kill her any day without warning. And her condition has _ in recent months. Each time she closes her eyes, she may never wake up. Rachael and Leigh Badman are worried that she couldn't live through Christmas. They filled their house with Christmas decorations on November1, so she could enjoy her favorite day of the year in advance.
Paige was diagnosed with the condition four years ago. Mrs. Badman described the condition as "being on death row" as she never knows if she will wake up and still have a daughter. She said, " Paige always loves Christmas and it's heartbreaking to see her suffering like this."
In the last months, Paige has been unable to eat and has never walked or spoken. But she loves music, and enjoys watching pop stars' DVDs. And in May she also went on holiday to Florida with her parents and little brother, Kefton. The family , who have already organized parts of Paige's funeral, also saw the teenager swimming with dolphins during the trip. Since then, however, her condition has worsened.
Mrs Badman, who is separated from her husband and works as Paige's full-time carer, said, "Now she can't eat or drink anymore, and her brain is shrinking. With all her problems, we just thought, 'Let's get the Christmas tree up as soon as possible.' We're praying she lives to see Christmas Day." | high3987.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "to discuss Scola's in-class performance"
},
"options": [
"to work out a study plan for Scola",
"to get Scola enrolled in kindergarten",
"to discuss Scola's in-class performance",
"to find a language partner for Scola"
... | About 30 years ago, I left Cuba for the United States with my son. After getting settled finally in Brunswick, New Jersey, I enrolled my son in kindergarten. Several weeks later, my son's teacher asked me to meet him at his office.
In the teacher's office, and exchange of greetings was followed by his questions: " Is your son mentally retarded ? Does he suffer from any kind of mental disability?"
Was he talking about my wonderful Scola? No, no, it can't be. What a helpless, lonely moment! I told him that Scola was a quiet, sweet little boy, instead. I asked him why he was asking me all these questions.
My son could not follow the teacher's directions, he told me, and thus, Scola was _ the class. Didn't he know my son did not speak English yet?
He was angry: " Why hasn't your son been taught to speak English? Don't you speak English at home?"
No, I didn't speak English at home, I replied. I was sure my son would learn English in a couple of months, and I didn't want him to forget his native language. Well, wrong answer! What kind of person would not speak in English to her son at home and at all times? " Are you one of those people who come to this country to save dollars and sent them back to their country, never wanting to be a part of this society?"
Needless to say, I tried to tell him I was not one of " those people." Then he told me the meeting was over, and I left.
As I had expected, my son learned to speak English fluently before the school year was over. He went on to graduate from college and got a job, earning close to six figures. He travels widely and leads a well-adjusted, contented life. And he has benefited from being bilingual .
Speaking more than one language allows people to communicate with others; it teaches people about other cultures and other places- something very basic and obviously lacking in the "educator" I met in New Jersey. | high4030.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "British people are more used to rainy weather than Chinese people"
},
"options": [
"many foreigners have embarrassing moments living in Beijing",
"British people are more used to rainy weather than Chinese people",
"the rain ... | In rainy London, always carry your "brolly"
BIG Ben, the Queen, a plate of ham and eggs-no, no, no. If you're looking for a symbol of Britain, only one thing passes the test-the umbrella.
Now, I know what you're thinking--we have rain in China and we have umbrellas too. Certainly, I will never forget the way it rained when I lived in Beijing:the sweets became instant rivers and the sky flashed with lightning for hours on end. People dove for cover under bin bags, the shops were emptied of their plastic ponchos within seconds,and I found myself soaked from head to foot, my poorly-chosen skirt and T-shirt now totally see-through. This would never have happened in Britain.
For one thing, during my year in Beijing, it only really rained at about 10 times.
But although we never get a Beijing-style washout in London, the drizzle that does fall is all but constant. Even when the sky is perfectly blue, you can be sure it's going to cloud over and start drizzling again within the hour.
And when it does, there is chaos. Trains stop, drains block, and buses break down as if this was the first time the local authorities had seen this wet stuff coming out of the clouds.
So--as with so many things in the UK-it's up to ordinary people to sort themselves out. No self-respecting Briton will ever leave home without his "brolly" ---as the umbrella is affectionately known.
A brolly has hundreds of uses, even on rare rain-free days. A real gentleman of London will use his umbrella as a walking stick. A traditional game of cricket can be played using an umbrella as a hat. Nor do you ever have to be afraid of robbers-your umbrella doubles as a defensive weapon.
There is no brolly more British than my own. But it's not from London or Manchester or any where in the UK. It was a gift from my Chinese teacher--in Beijing.
How fitting that my No. l symbol of Brutishness-like almost everything in Britain-was made in China. | high19644.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "How To Get Along With Your Teacher"
},
"options": [
"Advice Before You Go To School",
"What You Should Do At School",
"How To Get Along With Your Teacher",
"How To Plan Your Time At School"
],
"question": "Which... | Respect your teachers.
First of all,students should respect the teachers.They should pay attention in the classes.That means to salute him,to stand from his chair when the teacher enters the classroom etc.Attend any lesson attentively.In class of a certain subject or teacher you don't like very much,if it's total anarchy,how can we talk about respect?
Play by the rules.
If your teacher wants you to use wide-lined paper--do it ! If she tells you to sharpen your pencils only before class starts,listen to her.If she doesn't accept late homework,do yours on time.Sometimes classroom rules seem strict or even silly,but most teachers know what's necessary to make things run smoothly,what it takes to let the learning begin.And the better the learning environment,the smarter you'll be!
Expect her/him to like you.
Teachers are teachers because they like kids.Given the chance,most teachers want to be your friends too.Respect your teacher,but don't be afraid of her/him.She/He wants you to have a great school year just as much as you want to have!
Put first things first.
Friends are a fun part of school.But they're not the most important part.When your teacher is teaching,give her/him your full attention.Even when it's hard to do.-- _ will come soon enough,and that's the time for playing with your friends. | high11218.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "ugly"
},
"options": [
"Comfortable",
"interesting",
"useless",
"ugly"
],
"question": "In general, US teens consider braces _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_i... | Most American teenagers can't wait to get rid of their "mental mouth" nickname . They count down the days they can finally take their braces off. However, trendy teenagers in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand can't wait to get them on, even if they don't need them.
Braces are the latest teenage fashion trend in Southeast Asia. Having a mouthful of metal has become so popular with Asian teens that there have been reports of many teens wearing fake braces. Many Asian beauty shops are now offering to put in cheap fake braces. There are even cheaper do-it-yourself braces such as " Hello Kitty," Mickey Mouse" or others for a price of around $100.
Braces are considered a sign of wealth in Southeast Asia. A real set of braces in Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, for example, will cost around $ 1,200, which is a large amount for the country with a GDP of $345 billion ( a billion is 1,000 million), compared to the US which had a GDP of $1,506 Trillion ( a Trillion is 1,000 billion) last year.
While Asian teens may think that their colorful fake braces are cool, experts say that these trendy fashion braces can cause illness and can even lead to death. According to the New York Daily News, fake fashion braces have already been linked to the deaths of two teens in Thailand.A 17-year-old in the northeast city of Khon Kaen died from heart failure caused by a thyroid infection from a pair of fake fashion braces. Police also linked the death of another 14-year-old girl in Chonburi to a pair of fashion braces she had brought from an illegal shop.
Although the government is giving warnings about fake braces, the trend has been going strong for at least four years. What's worse, the trend for fake braces shows no sign of slowing down. | high12711.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "We find it impossible to count whales in the sea."
},
"options": [
"We know the exact number of whales in the sea.",
"It's easy for us to count whales in the sea.",
"We find it impossible to count whales in the sea.",
"... | We do not know exactly how many whales there are in the sea because we can't count them. But we believe at the beginning of the eighteenth century there were 105,000 humpback whales and 120,000 right whales. At the beginning of the twentieth century there were 75,000 humpbacks and 80,000 rights.
Since 1900 their numbers have fallen very quickly. Between 1935 and 1950 the number of humpbacks fell from 20,000 to 10,000 and since 1950 the number has fallen to only 6,000. The number of right whales has fallen even faster. In 1935 there were 25,000. The number fell to 6,000 in 1950 and since 1950 the number has fallen to 4,000. Men have always been hunters. Thousands of whales have become victims . It's time to do something to protect whales. | high7539.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "he will experience complex feelings brought on by different regions of his brain"
},
"options": [
"he feels as if he were addicted to cocaine",
"he will be committed to the beloved as long as necessary",
"he will experience a... | Biologists believe that love is fundamentally a biological rather than a cultural construct, because the capacity for love is found in all human cultures and similar behavior is found in some other animals. In humans the purpose of all the desire is to focus attention on the raising of offspring. Children demand an unusual amount of parenting, and two parents are better than one. Love is a signal that both partners are committed, and makes it more likely that this commitment will continue as long as necessary for children to reach independence. But what does science have to say about the notion of love at first sight?
In recent years the ability to watch the brain in action has offered a wealth of insight into the mechanics of love. Researchers have shown that when a person falls in love, a dozen different part of brain work together to release chemicals that trigger feelings of euphoria, bonding and excitement. It has also been shown that the unconditional love between a mother and a child is associated with activity in different regions of the brain from those associated with pair-bonding love.
Passionate love is rooted in the reward circuitry of the brain--the same area that is active when humans feel a rush from cocaine. In fact, the desire, motivations and withdrawals involved in love have a great deal in common with addiction. Its most intense forms tend to be associated with the early stages of a relationship, which then give way to a calmer attachment form of love one feels with a long term partner.
What all this means is that one special person can become chemically rewarding to the brain of another. Love at first sight, then, is only possible if the mechanism for generating long-term attachment can be triggered quickly. There are signs that it can be. One line of evidence is that people are able to decide within a second how attractive they find another person. This decision appears to be related to facial attractiveness, although men may favor women with waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7, no matter what their overall weight is. (This ratio may indicate a woman's reproductive health.)
Another piece of evidence comes from work by a psychologist at Ben-Gurion University, who found in a survey that a small percentage (11%) of people in long-term relationships said that they began with love at first sight. In other words, in some couples the initial favorable impressions of attractiveness triggered love which sustained a lengthy bond. It is also clear that some couples need to form their bonds over a longer period, and popular culture tells many tales of friends who become lovers.
One might also assume that if a person is looking for a partner with _ that cannot be quantified instantly, such as compassion, intellect or a good sense of humor, then it would be hard to form a relationship on the basis of love at first sight. Those more concerned with visual appearances, though, might find this easier. So it appears that love at first sight exists, but is not a very common basis for long-term relationships. | high14360.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Isabella Stewart Gardner and her museum"
},
"options": [
"how Isabella Gardner realized her dream of being an artist",
"how Mr. and Mrs. Gardner added to their collection of art",
"how Isabella's museum was opened",
"Is... | Isabella Stewart was born in New York City in 1840. Her father made a great deal of money in trade. During school,her parents took her to Italy to explore the country's many cultural treasures.
One of the private art collections Isabella visited in Milan had a deep influence on her. She wrote to her friends about her dream of owning a house one day with an art collection like the one she had seen in Italy.
In Paris, Isabella became a close friend of one of her classmates, Julia Gardner, whose family was from Boston. Julia would later introduce Isabella to her brother, Jack. In 1860, Isabella Stewart married Jack Gardner.
The couple had too much art to fit inside their home. So they decided to start planning a museum. Mrs. Gardner didn't like the cold and empty spaces of many museums during her time. She wanted a warm museum filled with light. She once said that she decided years ago that _ . America was a young country developing quickly in other areas. But the country needed more chances for people to see beautiful examples of art.
After her husband's death in 1898, Isabella knew she had no time to lose in building her museum. She bought land, hired a building designer, and supervised every detail of her museum's construction.
Mrs. Gardner opened her museum on January 1,1903. The museum was then called Fenway Court. She invited her friends that night for a special musical performance. The next month, she opened the museum to the public. At first, visits were limited to twenty days out of the year. Visitors paid one dollar to enter.
Isabella Stewart Gardner died in 1924 in Boston. In her will, she left the museum a million dollars and a series of requirements about how it should be managed. One requirement is that the permanent collection cannot be changed. | high9514.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "a kind of emotional disability"
},
"options": [
"a not very normal mental condition",
"a disease that can be easily cured",
"something we pick up after birth",
"a kind of emotional disability"
],
"question": "In... | People often talk as if shyness is a disease or mental condition that can be cured. I prefer to think of it as an emotional disability. It's something we are born with and something we carry with us in our entire lives. There are too many people, however, who seem to be determined to find some way of doing away with their shyness. In my opinion, it's a waste of time. I don't mean that we should do nothing about it; quite the contrary, I think we need to separate the basic fact of our shyness from our ability to take part in a social environment.
Look at one of the most famous shy people of them all, Johnny Carson. This man is painfully shy, yet for decades he made a living talking and associating with different people every night, in front of a national audience. Carson has never done away with his shyness, but he has successfully found a way to deal with it to the extent that he could be, not just a talk show host, but a legend among talk show hosts. Look also at Sally Fields, who has recently admitted her problem with shyness. This is a woman who has appeared in many films, TV shows and interviews, yet in her early years she was so shy that she turned down a lunch invitation from Jane Fonda because she was terribly afraid of meeting her.
I guess that our shyness is there because each of us is born with some insecurity and this insecurity prevents us from reaching out to others the way people with a more open personality do. As we grow up and become adults, we allow our social skills to grow and develop. But we are still stuck in kindergarten or elementary school or wherever it was when our shyness took root in our soul. | high6627.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "illustrate a boa constrictor's act of digesting an animal"
},
"options": [
"show the grown-ups what the book was about",
"frighten the grown-ups trying to enter the forest",
"remind himself of the adventures of the jungle",
... | Once when I was six years old I saw an amazing picture in a book called True Stories from Nature about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. In the book it said:"Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole without chewing it. After that they are not able to move and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion ."
I thought deeply then over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing Number One. I showed my work to the grown-ups and asked them whether the drawing frightened them. But they answered:"Frighten? Why should anyone be frightened by a hat?"
My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing. I drew the inside of the boa constrictor so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. That's my Drawing Number Two.
The grown-ups' response this time was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of ba constrictors whether from the inside or the outside and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. That is why at the age of six I gave up what might have been a great painter. I had been _ by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
So then I chose another profession and learned to pilot airplanes. I have flown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography has been very useful to me. At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona. If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.
In the course of this life I have had lots of chances to meet with a great many people. And that hasn't much improved my opinion of them. Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted, I tried showing him my Drawing Number One which I have always kept. I would try to find out if this was a person of true understanding. But whoever it was, he or she would always say: That is a hat. Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors or primeval forests or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him about bridge and golf and politics and neckties. And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such an intelligent man. | high1148.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "a Scottish woman"
},
"options": [
"a judge",
"a reporter",
"a beautiful",
"a Scottish woman"
],
"question": "Susan Boyle is _",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_ind... | When we talk about stars ,especially women stars ,it seems that they are always young, pretty and own charming body shapes. But recently a Britain's Got Talent star Susan Boyle has changed our views absolutely.
Simon Cowell ,one of the judges of the talent show spoke of his shock over Ms Boyle's voice. "This lady camp up ,and I'm thinking, 'This will take five seconds and I can go to have a cup of tea'. That changed when she began to sing I Dreamed to Dream from Les Miserables. She knew we were going to have that reaction and just to see that look of satisfaction on her face through -it was one of my favorite moments," Cowell said.
The performance was posted on line and before long, the 47-year-old Scottish woman has been famous all over the world.
Speaking from her home in Scotland, Ms Boyle said that she hasn't thought of changing her appearance. She said that her friend helped her with make-up. "I mean, that's hardly a makeover," she added.Ms Boyle also spoke of the reason she first began to explore her vocal talents, "I was kind of slow at school, so getting like singing was a good way of hiding behind that and thus it built my confidence." | high2469.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "what true friendship is"
},
"options": [
"what true friendship is",
"how to make friends with children",
"his love of children's friendship",
"the habits of little children"
],
"question": "The author talks abou... | True friends are always with you when the rest of the world refuses you.A true friend is like a mirror that shows the real you.True friendship is like a 100% safe journey in this risky and unpredictable world.True friendship is always fresh.
Children can share their feelings, things and thoughts among themselves freely.They comfort their friends when they are in trouble and share their happiness when they are happy.You can find fresh and wonderful friendship among children.
As we grow into teenagers, we will be attracted by worldly things.We will wonder who is a true friend and who is not.We will be busy deciding about our future jobs or following everything that is popular.
When we reach our thirties, we will be busy with our marriage and taking care of our children and their education.But we need somebody to meet and share our ideas with, and we need suggestions from friends.However, we have few true friends because we are all busy working towards our future.
When we grow older, we feel like children again and we need more friends and true friendship.If we are lucky enough to keep our childhood friendships to this age, then that is wonderful.Otherwise, we have to find new friends again to have a wonderful life. | high18572.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "can't control themselves in life"
},
"options": [
"are ready to change their minds",
"are easily affected by windy weather",
"don't have the power to face their fate",
"can't control themselves in life"
],
"ques... | From now on, never spend your precious time thinking of reasons for your failures and shortcomings. Instead, realize that the seeds of success were planted within you when you were born. Only you have the power to make those seeds grow.
The seeds, and the power to grow them, are contained in the most awesome machine ever created: the human mind. Success is a choice and not a chance. You were born a winner. You were born rich. You can be a success if only you make the right choice.
You cannot be successful without first developing your self-confidence. Your level of self-confidence is always based on the degree of control that you are able to exercise over yourself, and thus over your life. People with low self-confidence are people who do not believe that they have any power, or responsibility for their lives. They are mere victims. They are leaves tossed by the winds of chance blown about with any sudden change in the weather.
You can exercise control over your life only to the degree that you believe that you are responsible for everything that happens in your life. Failures think that everything happens by accident and chance. Successful people realize that they are responsible.
Everything happens as a result of something. If we can identify the cause, we can control the effect. We are responsible for what we choose to think and believe. One generally rises to the level that one expects. We are responsible for setting our expectations. Our success is dependent upon our level of confidence.
If you associate with positive-thinking people, you are definitely going to achieve success. On the contrary, the opposite happens. We are responsible for finding, planting, and nurturing the seeds that contain future victory, born from setbacks.
In short, in all areas of your life, whether they be financial, physical, emotional, or spiritual, you are responsible. Once you recognize this, accept it, and firmly believe it, you are on the road to success. | high4018.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Wildcats and their stories."
},
"options": [
"Wildcats and their stories.",
"Wildcats and their characters",
"Varieties of animal species.",
"Relationship between animal and humans."
],
"question": "What is the ... | From the beginning of human history, wild animals provided food, clothing and sometimes medicine. We may not depend as much on wild animals now. But we hear about them every day. Americans use the names of animals in many ways. Automobile manufacturers and gasoline companies especially like to use big cats to sell their products. They like lions, tigers and wildcats. When Americans say wildcat, they usually mean _ . All these cats attack quickly and fiercely. So wildcats represent something fast and fierce.
An early American use of the word wildcat was quite different. It was used to describe members of Congress who declared war on Britain in 1812. A magazine of that year said the wildcat congressmen went home. It said they were unable to face the responsibility of having involved their country in an unnecessary war.
Wildcat also has been used as a name for money in the 1800s. At that time, some states permitted banks to make their own money. One bank in the state of Michigan offered paper money with a picture of a wildcat on it. Some banks, however, did not have enough gold to support all the paper money they offered. So the money had little or no value. It was called a wildcat bill or a wildcat bank note. The banks who offered this money were called wildcat banks. A newspaper of the time said those were the days of wildcat money. It said a man might be rich in the morning and poor by night.
Wildcat then was also used for an oil well or gold mine that had almost no oil or gold in it. Dishonest developers would buy such property. Then they would sell it and leave town with the money. The buyers were left with worthless holes in the ground. Today, wildcat oil wells are in areas that are not known to have oil. | high3777.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Comic Books in the Classroom."
},
"options": [
"Japanese Comic Books.",
"Comic Books in the Classroom.",
"Reading Efficiently.",
"A Current Craze."
],
"question": "Which of the following is probably the best tit... | Generations of children grew up reading comic books secretly, hiding out from parents and teachers who saw them as a waste of time and a risk to young minds. Comics are now gaining a new respectability at school. That is thanks to an increasingly popular and creative program, often aimed at struggling readers, that encourages children to plot, write and draw comic books, in many cases using themes from their own lives.
The Comic Book Project was started in 2001 by Michael Bitz at an elementary school in Queens. Since its creation, the program, which is mainly conducted after school, has spread to more than 850 schools across the country. It has gotten a big push from the craze among teenagers for comic book clubs and for Manga, a wildly popular variety of comic from Japan.
The point is not to drop a comic book on a child's desk and say "read this". Rather, the workshops give groups of students the opportunity to work together on stories and characters that they then revise, publish and share with others in their communities.
Teachers are finding it easier to teach writing and grammar with material that students are fully invested in . And it turns out that comic books have other built-in advantages. The pairing of visual and written plotlines that they rely on appear to be especially helpful to struggling readers. No one is suggesting that comic books should take the place of traditional books or for standard reading and composition lessons. Teachers who would once have dismissed comics out of hand are learning to use a style that clearly has a powerful hold on young minds. They are using what works. | high17899.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Drinking green tea properly can help you keep healthy"
},
"options": [
"Ten percent of women suffer from breast cancer",
"Berries are the richest source of the oleic acid",
"The lycopene found in olive oil has a good effect o... | One woman in nine will develop breast cancer over her lifetime. However, a healthy diet can reduce your risk of developing the disease by 40 to 60 percent.
Generally speaking, eating more vegetables can reduce your risk of developing breast cancer by 60 percent. Vegetables like cabbage are rich in fiber , can lower your risk of developing breast cancer. To get the most from their goodness, it's recommended that you eat at least three to four cups of these vegetables per week.
It's the oleic acid contained in olive oil. American scientists conducting laboratory research have observed that oleic acid has a beneficial effect on breast cancer cells. Olive oil is the richest source of this acid, so whenever possible, use it in place of butter.
Eating fruit is another excellent way to help prevent the development of breast cancer. In fact, women who do eat fruit are six percent less likely to develop the disease. The American Institute for Cancer Research considers berries (blueberries, strawberries, etc.) to be powerful for breast cancer fighters.
It's the lycopene , found in great quantities in tomatoes, that can reduce the risk of developing breast cancer. The lycopene found in canned tomatoes is more readily absorbed by the body than that contained in fresh ones, so add tomato juice, paste, and sauce to your diet.
As a result of various studies, the American Institute for Cancer Research has concluded that components found in green tea can help halt the development of cancerous tumours and even prevent them from appearing in the first place. Three cups a day will help you get the benefits of green tea. | high11230.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Uncontrolled greenhouse effect may happen in some situation."
},
"options": [
"People still have decades to solve this problem.",
"Uncontrolled greenhouse effect may happen in some situation.",
"The Earth's natural systems fo... | Climate change, global warming, the greenhouse effect ... these days nobody denies that there is something strange and worrying happening to the atmosphere. Scientists are puzzled by the rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. They are afraid that the world may be a short way from what they refer to as uncontrolled global warming.
At Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, meteorologists have been carefully monitoring the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere for the past 50 years. Until recently, there has been a gradual increase of around 1.5 parts per million (ppm). In 2013 the figure rose to 2.08 ppm and in the following year they registered an increase of 2.54 ppm.
.Climate analysts feel that it istoo soon to draw conclusions about the phenomenon although the public are concerned that the carbon dioxide emissions are getting out of control. Jason Samenow, the chief meteorologist in the American National Weather Service,thinks that instead of having decades to find a solution to the problem, people might have only a few years. He believes that the Earth's natural systems for absorbing the gas are breaking down resulting in the uncontrolled green house effect. He insists that this is something that could happen if the Earth'stemperatures rose to such a degree that it was unable to contain the heat. .
One interesting aspect of this climate change ng down resulting in the uncontrolled greenhouse effect. He insists that this is something that could happen if the Earth's temperatures rose to such a degree that it was unable to contain the heat.is that it is not happening in a uniform way around the world. Carbon dioxide levels in the South Pole are noticeably lower. This suggests that something has happened in the northern hemisphere that set off the rise. Forest fires in North America might hold the answer to the puzzle, along with very hot summers in Europe.
The 2014 heat wave was certainly out of the ordinary. Statistics claim that more than 30,000 people lost their lives as a direct result of the high temperatures. Scientists are being cautious in their interpretations. Most feel that it is too soon to say that a new trend has been set. All agree that the phenomenon needs to be closely observed. | high12739.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "cloned adult animals are safe to eat except sheep."
},
"options": [
"foods from cloned animals are popular in America",
"cloned adult animals are safe to eat except sheep.",
"cloned animals will be easy to produce",
"mo... | The United States government wants to know what the public thinks about its findings on the safety of cloned animals.
The Food and Drug Administration says meat and milk from clones of adult cattle, pigs and goats are safe to eat. An F.D.A. official called them "as safe to eat as the food we eat every day." And when those clones reproduce sexually , the agency says, their offspring are safe to eat as well. But research on cloned sheep is limited. So the F.D.A. proposes that sheep clones not be used for human food.
The United States this year could become the first country to approve the sale of foods from cloned animals. First, however, the public will have ninety days to comment on three proposed documents. On December 28th the F.D.A. released a long report, called a draft risk assessment, along with two policy documents.
The agency says it must receive comments by April second. The F.D.A. seemed ready to act several years ago, but an advisory committee called for more research.
For now, the government will continue to ask producers to honor a request that they not sell foods from cloned animals.
Clones are still rare. They cost a lot and are difficult to produce.
The F.D.A. says most food from cloning is expected to come not from clones themselves, but from their sexually reproduced offspring. It says clones are expected to be used mostly as breeding animals to spread good qualities.
Public opinion studies show most Americans do not like the idea of food from cloned animals. But this research also shows the public knows little about cloning.
Cloning differs from genetic engineering. A cell taken from a so-called donor animals is grown into an embryo in the laboratory. Next, the embryo is placed into the uterus of a female animal. If the process is successful, the pregnancy reaches full term and a genetic copy of the donor animal is born. | high7511.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Ways of narrowing generation gap."
},
"options": [
"The causes of generation gap.",
"The effects of generation gap.",
"One example of generation gap.",
"Ways of narrowing generation gap."
],
"question": "Which o... | Parents, our first teachers, play a highly significant role in our lives.However, doesn't it seem that many of us come to have conflicts with them when we start high school? We're less likely to listen to them and take their suggestions--we even rebel against them.
Why? It may be the so-called "generation gap".A generation gap appears when we begin to feel our parents
are ignoring us, don't understand us, and we feel we can no longer share our feelings with them.
The key reason is our desire for independence.In senior high school, we start to want to take responsibility for our own lives and make our own decisions.But parents resist this.They still want to control us and try to force us to do things they think we should do.Debate and discussion often come to nothing.Gradually, we talk with them less, and keep our feelings locked up inside.
Zhang Xiaoyun, 16, of Ningbo, Zhejiang, has talked less and less with her mother since she started senior high school."She believes studies should be my priority, not my inner world," Zhang said."Each day, she asks me the same old questions like, 'How was your last exam? or 'Have you made any progress in physics?" To Zhang, these questions are annoying and so she always tries to ignore them and answers _ ."Sometimes, when I get upset, I quarrel with her.After, she comes to apologize and comfort me.But I know, she doesn't completely understand me," Zhang said.Now, a home that was once full of laughter has fallen into gloom and silence.
The generation gap can be harmful.Because of the lack of communication, our parents no longer know what we are thinking about.There are quarrels, even over trivial things.When that happens, we may not be able to concentrate on our studies.Some of us even become afraid to go home after school-- a very serious situation for the whole family. | high15056.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "was a very successful politician like his father"
},
"options": [
"got on very well at the universities",
"was very good at basketball, baseball and football",
"was a very successful politician like his father",
"did ev... | When he took office, George W. Bush, son of former president George Herbert Walker Bush, became the first son to follow his father into the White House since John Quiney Adams followed John Adams in the early 19th century.
Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, the first child of George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush. Although George Herbert Walker Bush began his career in the oil industry, he finally served as a congressman , and vice president and president of the United States.
At the age of two, Bush moved with his parents from Connecticut to Odessa, Texas, where his father took up the oil business. After a year in Texas, the family moved to California for business reasons. A year later, the family returned to Texas and settled in Midland, where Bush lived from 1950 to 1959.
In 1959, again for business reasons, the family moved to Houston, Texas. In 1961 Bush left Texas and went to Andover, Massachusetts, to attend Phillips Academy, aboarding school that his father had also attended.
At Phillips, Bush played basketball, baseball, and football. He was best known for being head cheerleader. In 1964 he enrolled at Yale University in Connecticut.His father and grandfather had also attended Yale. At Yale, Bush was considered an average student, but he was popular with his classmates.
Bush graduated from Yale with a bachelor's degree in history in 1968. Then he joined the Air National Guard and remained in the Guard until 1973. After earning his MBA from Harvard in 1975, Bush returned to Midland. Like his father, he first entered the oil industry as a "landsman ". However, Bush's oil companies never enjoyed great success. He took more interest in politics. He helped his father to become president and in 1994 he himself was elected governor of Texas.
In the summer of 1999, Bush began to run for the president of the USA and on January 20, 2001, George W. Bush, hand raised, took the oath of office to become the 43rd president of the US. | high8622.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "you are advised to take a bottle of water along on hot days"
},
"options": [
"you should buy tickets with cash",
"you can save more money with a single ticket",
"you can go to any place in London quickly",
"you are advi... | The London Underground (The Tube)
The main source of public transport in London revolves around the Underground (or the Tube as it is known to Londoners). This network of 12 lines can get you to most places in the center of the city quickly.
It's most necessary to get an Oyster Card or a Travelcard. Single tickets are priced starting at the intentionally absurd price of PS 4.80 (Zone 1-3), if you pay cash. Using an Oyster card, a single fare is PS 2.30 if you are traveling within the central Zone 1.
On hot days it is also advisable to take a bottle of water with you as Underground trains are not air-conditioned.
Last trains leave central London at around 00:30 weekdays, 23:30 Sundays. First trains leave the suburbs at around 5:00.
The Bus System
Outside the center of London, Tube stations are farther apart, so buses help fill the gaps. Also, the bus offers a cheaper alternative, even if it is a slower journey.
Cash fares for London buses have been abolished -- you cannot pay cash. A bus fare costs PS 1.50 if using only buses, the fare is capped at PS 4.40 per day for Oyster or contactless users.
River Services
There are a number of different routes along the River Thames. The faster commuter services operate all day from Greenwich Pier to Embankment and from Putney and Chelsea harbour to Blackfriars during Peak Hours only. These routes will pass a number of places of interest including the Houses of Parliament and London Bridge. A return fare from Putney to Blackfriars will cost about 12 pounds.
National Rail
Once you leave Central London or if you are traveling South of the River Thames, the best public transport option will often be National Rail. There are numerous connections to the Rail System from the Tube. Travelcards can be used for travel on the National Rail (but not the Heathrow Express). Oyster cards can be used up to Zone 6 except certain services including Heathrow Express, Heathrow Connect and HSI. | high14348.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "got punished by God"
},
"options": [
"sees the cat his friend.",
"received the fur coat.",
"disliked the fur",
"got punished by God"
],
"question": "From the Russian legend we know the dog _ .",
"question_... | A Russian legend has a story about the origins of cats. The cat's coat, it was said, was originally designed for the dog, but the dog became so impatient when coats were being handed out that he was told to wait at the back of the queue. The cat was given the fur instead of the dog. This, according to Russian folk storied, is the origin of why dogs dislike cats.
A nameless cat with a taste for travel flew for three weeks between New York and Tel Aviv in 1984. It escaped from its owner's cat-box in the plane's luggage compartment on the first trip and all efforts to get it out with bowls of milk and food failed. After nearly 80,000 miles of flying the airline called in a vet who got it out.
The Chinese attitude to the cat was not clear. Cats were welcome for their ability to kill mice and were considered suitable pets for women. On the other hand, they were suspected of bring bad luck into the home. In the days before the invention of the watch, it was said that they used their cats as clocks. The pupils of the cat's eyes were believed to gradually change shape with the position of the sun in the sky. At midday they were a narrow line and they gradually became rounder until sunset.
Britain's cleanest cat is undoubtedly Harvey, a five-month-old Persian who climbed into his owner's washing machine. He went through a ten-minute wash cycle before someone noticed him through the glass door, and pressed the "stop" button. Harvey was soon back to his usual self.
Cats seem to be able to sense earthquakes. Josie, who lives in California, warned her family of a quake in 1971.
She wore her owners. Mr. and Mrs. Miller, at 5:50am by jumping onto the bed and running around. When the Miller followed her out of the house, Josie ran off. The earthquake was only a small one, but the cat raised the alarm every time there was a quake after that. | high13427.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "might remind him \"not to speak his mind\" in public places"
},
"options": [
"made him and his works famous nationwide",
"might remind him \"not to speak his mind\" in public places",
"was first used when he began writing as ... | Mo Yan was born in 1955, in GaomiCounty inShandongprovince to a family of farmers. Mo was 11 years old when theCultural Revolutionwas launched, at which time he left school to work as a farmer. At the age of 18, he began to work at a cotton factory. During Mo's teenage years, with a series of political campaigns from theGreat Leap Forwardto theCultural Revolutiongoing on, his access to literature was limited to novels in thesocialist realiststyle under Mao Zedong, which centered largely on the themes of class struggle and conflict.
At the close of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, Mo joined in the People's Liberation Army(PLA), and began writing while he was still a soldier. He began his career as a writer in thereform and opening upperiod, publishing dozens of short stories and novels in Chinese. His first novel was Falling Rain on a Spring Night, published in 1981. In 1984, he received a literary award from the PLA Magazine, and at the same year he began attending the Military Art Academy, where he first adopted the pen name of Mo Yan. He published his firstnovella , A Transparent Radish in 1984, and released Red Sorghum in 1986, launching his career as a nationally recognized novelist. In 1991, he obtained a master's degree in Literature from Beijing Normal University.
"Mo Yan" -- meaning "don't speak" in Chinese -- is his pen name. In an interview, he explained the name came from a warning from his father and mother not to speak his mind while outside, because of China's revolutionary political situation from the 1950s, when he grew up.
Mo Yan's Red Sorghum Clan is about the generations of a Shandong family between 1923 and 1976. The author deals with great changes in Chinese history such as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Invasion, theCommunist Revolution, and theCultural Revolution, but in an unusual way, for example from the point of view of the invading Japanese soldiers. His second novel, The Garlic Ballads, is based on a true story of the farmers of Gaomi Township fighting against a government that would not buy its crops. | high22822.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "reinforces the feminine qualities required"
},
"options": [
"reinforces the feminine qualities required",
"makes women look more honest and capable",
"is of primary importance to women",
"often enables women to succeed ... | Beauty has always been regarded as something praiseworthy. Almost everyone thinks attractive people are happier and healthier,have better marriages and have more respectable occupations. Personal consultants give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive defendants .But in the executive circle,beauty can become a _ .
While attractiveness is a positive factor for a man on his way up the executive ladder,it is harmful to a woman.
Handsome male executives were thought as having more integrity than plainer men;effort and ability were thought to account for their success.
Attractive female executives were considered to have less integrity than unattractive ones;their success was attributed not to ability but to factors such as luck.
All unattractive women executives were thought to have more integrity and to be more capable than the attractive female executives. Interestingly,though,the rise of the unattractive overnight successes was attributed more to personal relationships and less to ability than that of attractive overnight successes.
Why are attractive women not thought to be able?An attractive woman is thought to be more feminine and an attractive man more masculine than the less attractive ones. Thus,an attractive woman has an advantage in traditionally female jobs,but an attractive woman in a traditionally masculine position appears to lack the "masculine" qualities required.
This is true even in politics. "When the only clue is how he or she looks,people treat men and women differently,"says Anne Bowman,who recently published a study on the effects of attractiveness on political candidates. She asked 125 undergraduate students to rank two groups of photographs,one of men and one of women,in order of attractiveness. The students were told the photographs were of candidates for political offices. They were asked to rank them again,in the order they would vote for them.
The results showed that attractive males utterly defeated unattractive men,but the women who had been ranked most attractive invariably received the fewest votes. | high1160.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Social skills play a key role in children's development."
},
"options": [
"Most kindergartners can solve problems alone.",
"Helpful children understand other's feeling better.",
"Outgoing children cooperate with their peers e... | Career success could be predicted as early as kindergarten, according to a 20-year study recently published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Researchers from Pennsylvania State University and Duke University tracked more than 700 children from across the US between kindergarten and age 25 and found a significant correlation between their social skills as kindergartners and their success as adults two decades later.
In 1991, teachers assessed how the kindergartners interacted with each other socially using a range of criteria like whether they cooperate with their peers without prompting , if they're helpful to others, whether they're good at understanding feelings, and if they can solve problems on their own.
Researchers then kept track of whether the students went on to graduate high school on time, get a college degree, and find and keep a full-time job by 25. They also monitored the participants' involvement with crime, drug abuse, public assistance, and mental health issues.
The results showed that socially competent children were far more likely to earn a college degree and have a full-time job by 25 than those with limited social skills. Those with limited social skills also had a higher chance of getting arrested, binge drinking, and applying for public housing.
"This study shows that helping children develop social and emotional skills is one of the most important things we can do to prepare them for a healthy future," said Kristin Schubert, program director at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which funded the research, in a release.
"From an early age, these skills can determine whether a child goes to college or prison, and whether they end up employed or addicted." The good news, according to Damon Jones, lead author of the study, is that intervention at a young age can help improve social and emotional skills. "This research by itself doesn't prove that higher social competence can lead to better outcomes later on," he said. "But when combined with other research, it is clear that helping children develop these skills increases their chances of success in school, work, and life." | high13341.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "to increase product sales"
},
"options": [
"to increase product sales",
"to make a product much better",
"to spend more money",
"to reduce the production"
],
"question": "The purpose of advertising is _ .",
... | Advertising is a highly developed twentieth-century industry. The development of radio, television, cinema, magazines and newspapers has gone _ with the development of advertising. Why is advertising so popular? Is it a waste of money? It has been proved again and again that repeated advertising increases product sales. Since it increases production, the price can be reduced. Therefore advertising, instead of making a product more expensive, makes it cheaper.
Advertising is now a scientific business. Once managers would say jokingly, " I know that half of what I spend on advertising is wasted, but I don't know which half." Now, all parts of an advertising program are properly measured and researched.
What makes a good advertisement? There have been major changes in advertising in the past sixty years. People read advertisements partly for information and partly for pleasure. Today's advertisements often start with a question, or a puzzle, with the purpose of attracting the reader's attention. Of course, most advertisements contain information. But this is usually contained in a text that is interesting and often funny. Humor is very important. Sometimes advertisements tell a story, or the story may be continued over a number of advertisements. However, there is a danger in this. It is possible that the reader or viewer will remember the advertisement but not the name of the product. | high1606.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Arithmetic."
},
"options": [
"Algebra.",
"College Mathematics.",
"Arithmetic.",
"Mathematics Education."
],
"question": "What does the course Basic Math mainly cover?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"an... | The Basics of Math--Made Clear
Basic Math introduces students to the basic concepts of mathematics, as well as the fundamentals of more tricky areas. These 30 fantastic lectures are designed to provide students with an understanding of arithmetic and to prepare them for Algebra and beyond.
The lessons in Basic Math cover every basic aspect of arithmetic. They also look into exponents , the order of operations, and square roots. In addition to learning how to perform various mathematical operations, students discover why these operations work, how a particular mathematical topic relates to other branches of mathematics, and how these operations can be used practically.
Basic Math starts from the relatively easier concepts and gradually moves on to the more troublesome ones, so as to allow for steady and sure understanding of the material by students. The lectures offer students the chance to "make sense" of mathematical knowledge that may have seemed so frightening. They also help students prepare for college mathematics and overcome their anxiety about this amazing--and completely understandable--field of study.
By the conclusion of the course, students will have improved their understanding of basic math. They will be able to clear away the mystery of mathematics and face their studies with more confidence than they ever imagined. In addition, they will strengthen their ability to accept new and exciting mathematical challenges.
Professor H. Siegel, honored by Kentucky Educational Television as "the best math teacher in America," is a devoted teacher and has a gift for explaining mathematical concepts in ways that make them seem clear and obvious. From the basic concrete ideas to the more abstract problems, he is master in making math lectures learner-friendlier and less scary.
With a PhD in Mathematics Education from Georgia State University, Dr. Siegel teaches mathematics at Central Arizona College. His courses include various make-up classes and a number of lectures for future primary school teachers.
If the course fails to provide complete satisfaction to you, you can easily exchange it for any other course that we offer. Or you can get your money back. | high392.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "People thought she was too old to take on a new job."
},
"options": [
"Nursing clinics were hard to find.",
"People thought that old people couldn't be trusted.",
"People thought she was too old to take on a new job.",
... | A job is more than just a job,especially to the older generation."It's not the money that matters,but the sense of selfworth," 56yearold Cheng Wonlan said.So,every day Ms Cheng carries a bag of parcels,letters and documents of all shapes and sizes and does her rounds in North Point.She's a courier .
Five years ago,Ms Cheng was a nurse at a private clinic.She had worked there for almost 30 years but was made jobless when the doctor migrated .It was extremely difficult for her to find another job."People do not trust my ability when they learn how old I am," she said.After two years of searching,the mother of two eventually found another nursing job.But then after two years,she quit.Why?
"My colleagues were young and they didn't understand me because of my age.They often asked me,'You are so old;what are you working for?' I was very unhappy." she said.So while the rest of her family left for work,she was left to lonely boredom at home.The urge to work drove her to suffering.Then,one of Ms Cheng's neighbours told her about Employee's Retraining Board (ERB) offering retraining courses for older people on specific occupations,such as convenience store assistants,junior clerks and so on.
"I was interested in courier work.I didn't think my age was a barrier because I was fit and healthy.So I thought why not give it a try." she said.Upon graduation from the ERB,Ms Cheng was offered a job by the Speeding Shuttle Courier Service Company Limited.But then Ms Cheng was faced with a conflict:she was caught between honour and employment.It took Ms Cheng 24 hours to make up her mind and eventually came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong or embarrassing about doing the job.So she took heart and went off to work as a courier.
Ms Cheng's employer is delighted with her,"Ms Cheng has been working with us for two months and has shown a good responsible attitude to work."Anthony Chong,who runs the company,said.Currently,Mr Chong has 60 couriers working for his company:five of them are over fifty,four of whom have been through the ERB plan.Mr Chong said he hired older people because they were able and reliable."Age is not an important factor but attitude is.Many old people are more capable than the youngsters.They will not run from difficulties but the young ones will," he said."It is not easy to recruit young people since they shy away from hardship and challenges." | high6169.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "It falls on the same day in November every year."
},
"options": [
"It falls on the same day in November every year.",
"It is the most traditional American holiday after 1863.",
"It is a regular national holiday after 1863.",
... | Thanksgiving Day is always celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.It is the most traditional American holiday.The first Thanksgiving was held in Massachusetts in 1621.After a year off great hardship,the colonist wanted to give thanks to God for their first harvest.They invited their Indian friends to join,them in a big feast . Today the holiday is still celebrated as a day for giving thanks.But it Wasn't a regular national holiday until President Lincoln declared that the last Thursday in November would thereafter be Thanksgiving Day in 1863.It is a day of reunion and it is customary to invite friends to share the meal.In some large cities,there are important football games that are played on Thanksgiving Day.
For Americans,Thanksgiving Day is one of the few days of the year when the entire family gets together.Everyone is glad to see everyone else and there is a very busy exchanges of greeting.The women soon disappear into the kitchen to help prepare the dinner.The men,meanwhile,settle down to watch a football game on television,or to discuss business or politics.If weather permits,some of the more athletic men go outside to play ball with the children.Then everyone will sit down to dinner.in which traditional Thanksgiving foods such as stuffed turkey ,sweet potatoes,chestnuts ,and pumpkin pie are served. After dinner,people will sit around and talk. | high23282.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "10%"
},
"options": [
"7%",
"6.7%",
"6%",
"10%"
],
"question": "The highest unemployment rate in the depression in the U.S.was _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answe... | Unemployment in the United States is still high at 6.7 percent. But for job seekers,especially those with college educations,researchers say finding a job can be as easy as logging on to a computer.It used to be that looking for a job meant hurrying around,knocking on doors and turning to ads.But that's changing,thanks to the Internet.A new report says,for college graduates,looking for a job is getting easier.More than 80 percent of the jobs are available online.
At the height of the depression ,when U.S.unemployment peaked at 10 percent,just a little more than two million jobs were being posted each month.But as the recovery takes hold,the job picture looks increasingly bright.
That's great news for Hamilton.Only once has he ever applied in person for a job at a shopping mall. He said,"I think my generation--the idea of going door to door, out knocking and saying,hey are you hiring? --like that--doesn't exist anymore...those days are gone, Just go online.''
Kim Dancy recently graduated with a master's degree in Public Policy.She found her dream job as an education policy researcher.But she says finding the perfect job online takes a lot of perseverance.He said,"It can be really frustrating and it takes a long time,but if you applied for enough positions and really do your homework you will get somewhere.
The report's findings suggest careers in Science,Technology,Engineering and Math provide the greatest opportunities,with salaries that range between $30 to $45 an hour.But for maximum income and satisfaction,workers must be prepared to move and change jobs at least every five years. | high7277.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "give their children freedom to do what they think proper"
},
"options": [
"set limits to what their children do",
"keep a close watch over their children",
"give the whole directions to what their children do",
"give th... | Slow parenting means parenting children in the contact of nature without any interference of materialistic influence. We can also term it as "self-raising". In slow parenting children are allowed to do what they think proper and parents just keep a watch over the child. Curiosity of the child leads to exploring and discovering things. Parents provide little help only when it's too necessary, otherwise keep themselves away from the child and just have a look on him/her: This brings about a feeling of self-dependency and they are encouraged to solve their problems.
This is a natural way of learning. When a child is left to learn in a natural environment, the child's natural development takes place. Influence of any materialistic way doesn't let the mind develop naturally. Watching TV, playing video games or joining classes of dance, swimming or any other sports will not let the mind develop naturally.
Here creativity of their mind is developed. They explore ideas. The logic behind this is that the kids of animals learn by nature, so can our kids. So let our children play in the garden, to watch flowers, plants, birds, butterflies and other gifts of nature. In the classes of dance, swimming etc. their creativity is influenced and their natural creativity is suppressed . In these classes they are overburdened and can't train their creativity. So let them play in the open air or garden without any burden instead of joining classes.
Generally parents give toys to their children and explain how to operate them. But those parents who believe in slow parenting give toys and observe how the children are managing them. Their skill to learn and understand comes out. Maybe the process is slow, but it will be their exploration, which will make them self-dependent, and self-capable to learn. | high15730.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "scientists have learned a little about sheep's intelligence"
},
"options": [
"scientists have learned everything about sheep's intelligence",
"scientists have learned a little about sheep's intelligence",
"scientists can't do... | Sheep Smarter than Thought
London--Sheep, like turkeys and ostriches, are not considered the most clever animals. British scientists said last Wednesday humans may have underestimated the woolly creature. They could be much smarter than we think.
Researchers at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, southern England, have shown that the animals have a good memory system and are extremely good at recognizing faces--which they think is a sure sign of intelligence.
Behavioral scientist Keith Kendrick and his friends trained 20 sheep to recognize and distinguish 25 pairs of sheep faces and used electrodes to measure their brain activity , which showed they could remember 50 faces for up to two years .
"If they can do that with faces, they have to have reasonable intelligence; otherwise, what is the point of having a system for remembering faces and not remembering anything else?" Kendrick said in an interview.
So hours of seemingly mindless eating grass may not be so mindless after all.
Kendrick believes sheep got their reputation as dumb (unable to speak, unintelligent) animals because they live in large groups and do not appear to have much individuality and are frightened of just about everything.
"All animals, including humans, once they are frightened, don't tend to show signs of intelligent action," he explained.
In research reported in the science journal Nature, Kendrick and his team showed that sheep, like humans, have a specialized system in the brain which allows them to distinguish between many different faces which look extremely similar.
"The most important finding (of the study) is that they are able , both from a behavioral point of view and from looking at the way the brain is organized , to remember a large number of individuals for a very long time," said Kendrick. "It is a very strange system. They are showing similar abilities in many ways to humans." | high8144.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "tell how an animal reunited a husband and wife"
},
"options": [
"show that elephants are very clever",
"tell how a woman trained a wild animal",
"show that women care more for animals than men do",
"tell how an animal... | A young man from a village called Nawalapitiya married a young woman from Maliyuwa, a nearby village. They lived with the man's big family--his parents, his brothers, their wives and children. The family kept an elephant, in which the young woman soon took a great interest. Every day she fed it with fruit and sugar.
Three months later the woman went back to her parents' home, having quarreled with her husband. Soon the elephant refused to eat and work. It appeared to be ill and heart-broken. One morning after several weeks the animal disappeared from the house.
It went to the woman's home. On seeing her, the elephant waved its trunk and touched her with it. The young woman was so moved by the act of the animal that she returned to her husband's home. | high3011.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Because he desired to join in public affairs."
},
"options": [
"Because he wanted to be an official.",
"Because he desired to join in public affairs.",
"Because he wanted to make more money.",
"Because he wanted to writ... | Nobody knows for certainty all the details of the life of Aesop. However, scholars have been working to established some facts and this is the brief story of Aesop as it is accepted today.
Aesop was born a slave around the year 620 B.C. InAncient Greece, it was a privilege and tradition of freedmen to be interested in public affairs, so Aesop worked hard to raise himself from a servile slave's position to a high position of renown. He was a thinker and philosopher and eventually became widely admired.
Aesop was a smart man and a good speaker. He liked to learn and to also teach people, so he traveled through many countries. He came to Sardis, the capital of the famous king Croesus of Lydia who was a patron of learning and learned men.
Croesus was so impressed by Aesop that he invited Aesop to permanently reside at Sardis. The king hired Aesop to do diplomatic government work such as trying to establish peace between the various republics of Greece. Aesop reconciled the inhabitants of these cities by telling his wise fables.
It was on one of these ambassadorial missions that Aesop was killed. Croesus had sent him to Delphi with lots of gold which was to be distributed among the citizens. After talking with the people of Delphi, Aesop got so mad at the citizens because of their covetousness. He refused to divide the money and instead sent it back to his master. The Delphians were so mad they executed Aesop as a public criminal.
As it often happens in Greek history, the Delphians were visited by a series of calamities as a sort of retribution for Aesop's death. This is where the phrase "the blood of Aesop" originated. The saying means "wrongful deeds will not go unpunished".
In memory of Aesop, a statue was erected in Athens. The statue was created by the famous Greek sculptor, Lysippus. | high20953.txt |
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