questions list | article stringlengths 9 6.44k | id stringlengths 9 14 |
|---|---|---|
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "working in an office can be more restricting than being in prison"
},
"options": [
"the former is more comfortable than the latter",
"compared with prisoners, office workers have been badly treated",
"it is unfair that a work... | In prison you spend the majority of your time in an 8*10 cell. At work you spend most of your time in a 6*8 cubicle . In prison you get three meals a day. At work you only get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it. In prison you get time off for good behavior. At work you get rewarded for good behavior with more work.
In prison a guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you. At work you carry around a security card and unlock and open all doors yourself. In prison you can watch TV and play games. At work you get fired for watching TV and playing games (or being on the Internet). In prison you get your own toilet. At work you have to share. In prison they allow your family and friends to visit. At work you cannot even speak to your family and friends.
In prison all expenses are paid by taxpayers with no work required. At work you get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners. In prison you spend most of your life looking through bars , waiting to get out. At work you spend most of your time waiting to get out and inside bars. In prison there are wardens who are often sadistic . At work they are called managers. | high23532.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "keep to the train schedule strictly"
},
"options": [
"keep to the train schedule strictly",
"complete the journey gracefully",
"stop right on the platform mark",
"understand the special lighting"
],
"question": ... | Paris
Passengers carried per day: 4.4m
Cost of ticket: 80p flat fare
Length: 131 miles Lines: 14 Stations: 297
In Paris there are pleasures for those who use the Metro -- many of them artistic. The graceful Art Nouveau dragon-fly entrances are just the most noticeable on a Metro system which celebrated its 100thanniversary by spending 30 million francs (PS2.9million) on making its stations works of art. On my way home I pass Bonne Nouvelle station in the heart of Paris's cinema district. There, during the cinema festival this summer, special lighting effects dot the platforms and films are projected onto the large advertising boards.
More than anything the metro is efficient. "When I worked on line 4", says a retired driver, "we had exactly 30 minutes and 15 seconds to complete the journey. If it took any longer, they cut our pay." But there are problems. Many Metro stations have too many stairs, and changing lines at big interchanges can be tiresome.
Moscow
Passengers carried per day: 9m
Cost of ticket: 12p
Length: 164 miles Lines: 11 Stations: 162
The first underground passage for the Moscow Metropolitan started in 1932. Three years later the trains started running. They haven't stopped since-- every 90 seconds or two minutes during rush hour, every five minutes the rest of the time, from 6 a.m. till 1 a. m. There may be a crowd of people but there is seldom a wait.
The trains take you through spacious and spotless stations. For tourists it's a major sightseeing attraction: from Russian Art Deco to neo-classical, the Metro stations are not to be missed.
Tokyo
Passengers carried per day: 7m
Cost of ticket: 90p ~ PS1.68
Length: 177 miles Lines: 12 Stations: 209
Trains do not just arrive on time in Tokyo. They stop right on the platform mark so that passengers can line up knowing exactly where the doors will open. Train driving is a respectful job for life, for which the applicants must pass a strict screening of health checks, interviews and written exams before they can put on the enviable uniform, cap and white gloves.
However, overcrowding means it is far from perfect. At rush hours, some stations employ part-time platform staff to push in passengers. Carriages can be filled to 184% of capacity . The main reason for such conditions is that the Tokyo subway station system has only 15 miles of track for every 1 million people, compared to 36 on the London Underground. New lines are under construction, but at a cost of PS500,000 per meter of rail. Progress has been slow.
Mexico City
Passengers carried per day: 4.2m
Cost of ticket: 11p flat fare
Length: 99 miles Lines: 11 Stations: 175
Fast, relatively safe, and very cheap, Mexico City's underground is an ideal place of order and efficiency compared to the disorders above. The Mexican capital's underground system is the biggest in the continent and one of the most subsidized networks in the world.
The first trains leave the station at 5 a.m. and the last after midnight as the crowd move from the outskirts of the 20 million-strong megacity . Mexico City's Metro also attracts a sizeable group of passengers who are unwilling to spend hours in traffic jams. There is a master plan to build new lines and extend existing one, but financial constraints complicated by the fact that the system runs through different jurisdicitons mean progress is slow. | high12937.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "People can practise their English via Ellie's website."
},
"options": [
"The Gloria Barron Prize honors people showing leadership and courage.",
"Each year ten winners share US $2,000 to support their higher education.",
"Ell... | The Gloria Barron Prize honors American young people from 8 to 18 who have shown leadership and courage in public service. Each year ten winners each receive $2,000 to support their higher education or their service work.
Ellie Wen, 18, was volunteering at a community center in prefix = st1 /Los Angeles. The center was set up to help immigrant families. She happened to meet adults in an EFL (English as a foreign language) class. "When I saw them struggling hard, I wondered how people in poor countries could learn English," Ellie said.
So she started a Website, "Repeat After Us", where people can listen to English and practice their accents. Volunteers have helped Ellie record more than 6,600 texts, including Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address".
Hard work _ There were so many times that Ellie was discouraged, but she stuck to it. The Website crashed early on, and all the recordings were lost. But volunteers worked together vigorously to start over, and the visitors returned to the site.
"Just follow your idea and know that the world is so kind. Even if you do have trouble, people will help you," Ellie said.
"I was really excited the first month, when we had 49 visitors," she said. Now, more than 480,000 people from all over the world have visited the site. "I get e-mails fromChina,Egypt,India, andBrazil. They say, 'Thank you so much for this resource, we've been waiting for it for so long!'" Ellie loves knowing she is helping so many people.
Gloria Barron Prize winners like Ellie are enthusiastic about the work they do. And they encourage others to join in if they see a need. Anybody can be negative, but it takes somebody brave to be positive. Are you the brave one? | high17697.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "urge Cosmo Books Ltd. to take away the books he had not ordered"
},
"options": [
"show his anger to Cosmo Books Ltd.",
"argue about sending him books he had not ordered",
"advise readers not to order books from Cosmo Books Lt... | Dear Sir,
Just over six months ago, I saw an advertisement in the Morning Mail for a set of the complete works of William Shakespeare.Your company, Cosmo books Ltd , offered this set ( eight books of plays and two books of poetry) at a "remarkable" price: fifteen pounds and fifty pence, including postage and packing. I had wanted a set of Shakespeare's plays and poems for some time, and these books looked particularly attractive, so I sent for them.
Two weeks later, the books arrived, together with a set of works of Charles Dickens which I had not ordered.So I returned the Dickens books to you, with a cheque for fifteen pounds and fifty pence for the works of Shakespeare.Two more weeks passed.Then there arrived on my door step a second set of the works of Shakespeare, the same set of novels by Dickens and a six book set of the plays of Moliere, in French.Since I do not read French, these were of no use to me at all.However, I could not afford to post all these books back to you, so I wrote to you right away instructing you to come and collect all the books that I did not want, and asking you not to send any other books until further notice.
You did not reply to that letter. Instead you sent me a bill for forty two pounds, and a set of the plays of Schiller, in German.Since then, a new set of books has arrived every two weeks, the works of Goethe, the poems of Milton, the plays of Strindberg; I hardly know what I have.The books are still all in their boxes, in the garage, and my car has to stand in the rain outside.
Please send no more books, send no more bills, send no more angry letters demanding payment.Just send one large lorry and take all the books away, leaving me only with the one set of the complete works of Shakespeare for which I have paid.
Yours faithfully,
SIMON WALKER | high16589.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "an American living in Township 15"
},
"options": [
"an American living in Township 15",
"a Canadian living in a Quebec village",
"a Canadian working in a customs station",
"an American working in a Canadian church"
... | Montreal(Reuters)-Crossing the US-Canada border to go to church on a Sunday cost a US citizen $10,000for breaking Washington's strict new security rules.
The expensive trip to church was a surprise for Richard Albert, who lives right on the Canadian border. Like the other half-dozen people of Township 15, crossing the border is a daily occurrence for Albert. The nearby Quebec village of St. Pamphile is where they shop, eat and go to church.
There are many such situations in these areas along the largely unguarded 5,530-mile border between Canada and the US -- which in some cases actually runs down the middle of streets or through buildings.
As a result, Albert says he did not expect any problems three weeks ago when he returned home to the US after attending church in Canada, as usual. The US customs station in this area is closed on Sundays, so he just drove around the locked gate, as he had done every weekend since the gate appeared last May, following a tightening of border security. Two days later, Albert was told to go to the customs office, where an officer told him he had been caught on camera crossing the border illegally.
Ottawa has given out special passes to some 300 US citizens in that area so they can enter the country when Canadian customs stations are closed, but the US stopped a similar program last May. That forces the people to a 200-mile detour along hilly roads to get home through another border checkpoint.
Albert has requested that the customs office change their decisions on the fine, but he has not attended a Sunday church since. "I feel like I'm living in a prison." he said. | high21325.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Because it was an example to show that he knew little about Australia."
},
"options": [
"Because the name of Australiacapital city is too difficult to remember .",
"Because the writer didn't know where the Australian capital city i... | Before I stood on the ground of the largest island in the world I knew only a little about prefix = st1 /Australia. I came here in 2000, I had just heard of Sydney and Melbourne, and I knew koalas and kangaroos were Australian animals. To be frank, _ .
When I was sitting on the plane traveling from Beijing to Melbourne, many questions were rolling around in my mind ceaselessly. Will, I a foreigner, be welcomed by the Australian or not? How long will it take me to get used to this wholly new life in this strange land?
I stepped out the customs sections at Melbourneairport, aimlessly, like a day-dreamer. I really lacked any confidence. However, my start did not seem so bad. I made my way to find a taxi from the information desk. I found my friend, who lived inMelbourne, very easily. I felt that living inAustraliawas not so difficult, with the help of a taxi driver, as I had imagined. At the end of my first day here inAustraliathough, I had only spoken to a customs officer , a receptionist and a taxi driver.
With the time passing day after day , I began to understand this country . The most impressive thing for me is the fresh air , the green grass , and the clear and clean water .Several months later , I realized Australiais a good place for entertainment . There are many sports , games , art exhibitions , music and various cultural festivals fill up everyday Australian life . One of these events attracted me so much that I went to see the international air show held in Laverton Melbourne, and my interest in aircraft was _
Australians are outgoing and friendly . Whenever I meet an Australian face to face , going along the same way as me , most people here will say hello to me . After the first few times this happened , I was affected by this custom , and started to say to people in advance , when I met them .
In fact , Australiahas many charming points to me . The exotic animals , the tasty wine , the wonderful coastline , even the Australian English accent ! Every experience I undertake is a great discovery to me .
All in all , Australiain my eyes is an ideal country for living . Peace , tranquility (quietness) and friendship are forever repeating themes of this country . I loveAustralia. | high17683.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "tried his best to help his father"
},
"options": [
"managed to get in touch with some folks",
"realized how hard his father worked",
"tried his best to help his father",
"was curious about everything"
],
"questi... | Sometimes the best advice doesn't come from a book, a microphone, from behind a desk in Washington or even from the people who are the leaders in their fields. Sometimes the best life lessons are found deep in the roots of where we came from. My father passed away years ago, but I always remember the lessons he taught me. Three of them particularly shape my perspective day after day.
The first one is that little things make big things happen. To the best of my memory, when I was young, we needed to build a new shed. Those were the days when stores like Home Depot and Lowes didn't exist. Brand-new timber was expensive, so folks often reused the materials that others in the community didn't need. That summer, Dad and I used the boards from an old abandoned barn. We pulled them down one by one, drew the nails out and took off the tin and straightened it in order to reuse it. We got our supplies back to our yard and got to work. I don't know how much of a help I really was, but I chose to stay beside Dad the entire period, working along with him.
The sun was hot that day, and sweat formed and ran down our faces. I stood there and handed him the nails one by one, which were hammered into that shed. Dad made me feel proud of my work. Even though I just handed him the nails, he repeatedly emphasized how we built the new shed "together". He taught me that when you're willing to do hard work, even in little things, big things come together.
The second one is that we should honor our promises. As a young man, my father always carried a pocket-sized Bible in his chest pocket. Shortly before the invasion of Normandy in 1944, he prayed for God's protection and promised God that if he made it home, he would make sure his family attended church every Sunday. Well, he made it home and he kept that promise. I cannot remember a Sunday when Dad did not take my mother, my siblings and me to church -- even when we were away on vacation. I now have my Dad's pocket Bible. It is one of my most treasured possessions, and it serves as a constant reminder of my dad's service to his country. However, it also serves as a visual representation of my dad's firm determination to keep his promises.
Today, I place great value on my family and my faith, undoubtedly because of my dad's example. This lesson of promise has been introduced into all areas of my life.
The third one is that listening is a way to acquire wisdom. My dad and I kept ourselves busy doing a lot of things together. During the nights of late summer, after dinner, the whole family would gather on our small porch to talk as the sun went down. Sometimes an aunt or uncle would drop by, and at other times my grandparents would be there. They would talk about the neighborhood news, the goings-on in modern Western society and politics -- mostly ordinary things, but it was good to sit there listening and to be together. Moreover, sitting there on the porch as dusk faded into night, I learned the value of listening and observing. Sometimes taking a moment to pause gives us the best perspective and sometimes we find the best answers simply by listening.
Life in America becomes more complex. However, I like to think back to the simple lessons I learned from my father. They were the building blocks of my character and the values that still guide me today. Perhaps someone who has influence on your life taught you life lessons that helped form your character. I'm convinced that our nation could gain a lot by applying these lessons today. If we did, I think we would be reminded that the reason why our nation has become great is not merely that we have had wise leaders or well-spoken elected officials. Our nation has become great because of those ordinary Americans like my father, who have pride in their work, place great value on honesty, character and commitments, and pass those lessons on to their children and grandchildren. And that is the reason why we are still great today. | high19876.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Great Ocean Road, Australia and Garden Route, South Africa"
},
"options": [
"Stelvio Pass, Italy and Garden Route, South Africa",
"Great Ocean Road, Australia and Stelvio Pass, Italy",
"Garden Route, South Africa and no other... | Garden Route, South Africa
Take in this fresh sea air in this beautiful coastal setting as you cruise the famous Garden Route in the Western Cape in South Africa. A wild life break is a must, as is enjoying great meal stops along the route. There are wild life reserves throughout the Garden Route National Park you can swing into and spend a sleepy morning in a car looking for giraffes and lions. And just over your shoulder in the big blue there are whales to be watched (if the season is right).
Top tip: Add a trip to the Eastern Cape to your Garden Route trip. It is much less known than the Western Cape and full of landscapes. The gas station is occasionally seen.
Great Ocean Road, Australia
Sweep along this dramatic coastal road in Australia with views of the Sourthern Ocean from Geelong to Portland, in Victoria, and you won't regret it. Anyone who has driven it just can't stop talking about it, and with good reason. There're loads to see and plenty of great stops. There's whale-watching here too, and other natural life. And to top it all, there'll be plenty of good old Aussie kindness and welcome when you pull in for lunch or a coffee stop.
Top tip: Rent an open-top car so you can really drink in that sea air.
Stelvio Pass, Italy
If you like snake-like paths and mountain passes, you'll love this. Stelvio in Italy. The mountain slopes stretch away on either side of the road, with snow-topped peaks within sight. There's a great view down the pass. And from the top, it's just a short sweep away from the Swiss border, so if you are gripped by mountain road driving, you can drive from here down to Swiss ski resort Davos. Stelvio has 48 hairpins on the north side and 12 on the decent to Bormio, so this route is not recommended for new drivers, or those with a fear of heights. This decent is is often featured in the Giro d'Italia, the Italian version of the Tour de France, so you may have glimpsed it on the television.
Top tip: Take some Swiss Francs as well as some Euros, so you can make the trip a cross-border experience. | high21331.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the development of advertisement"
},
"options": [
"the development of advertisement",
"the first advertisement in the world",
"the difficulty in advertising",
"the advantages of advertisements"
],
"question": "T... | Advertisement is the difficult business of bringing information to great numbers of people.The purpose of an advertisement is to make people respond to make them react to an idea,such as helping prevent forest fires,or to make them want to buy a certain product or service.At the beginning of the 20th century,advertisement was described as"salesmanship in print".If this definition were expanded to include radio and television,it would still stand today.The most effective way to sell something is through person-to-person contact.But the cost of person-to-person selling is high because it takes a great deal of time,and it increases the cost of the product or service.Advertising distributes the selling message to many people at one time.The first printed advertisement in the English language appeared in 1278,more than a century before Shakespeare's first play was produced.This early advertisement was the work of William Caxton,England's first printer,who used it to advertise religious books from his own workshop Caxton posted small printed notices along London's main streets.Besides advertising his product,he identified his shop with a red-striped shield so that customers could find it easily.
This same sort of simple informational advertising is still used.Examples are the roadside signs that tell travelers that they can buy fresh corn just down the road or that there is a restaurant in the next town.
The Industrial Revolution,in the 18th and 19th centuries,brought a new kind of advertising.Large factories took the place of small workshops and goods were produced in large quantities.
Manufacturers used the newly built railroads to distribute their products over wide areas.They had to find many thousands of customers in order to stay in business.They couldn't simply tell people where shoes or cloth or tea could be bought---they had to learn how to make people want to buy a specific product. Thus modern advertising was born.
Advertising created new markets and helped to raise standards of living as people came to feel that they had a right to new and better products. | high15094.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Find a house"
},
"options": [
"Go shopping",
"Find a house",
"Join his family",
"Take his family"
],
"question": "What did Rashid plan to do after his arrival in Sydney?",
"question_type": null
},
{
... | Arriving in Sydney on his own from India, my husband ,Rashid, stayed in a hotel for a short time while looking for a house for me and our children.
During the first week of his stay, he went out one day to do some shopping. He came back in the late afternoon to discover that his suitcase was gone. He was extremely worried as the suitcase had all his important papers, including his passport.
He reported the case to the police and then sat there,lost and lonely in strange city, thinking of the terrible troubles of getting all the paperwork organized again from a distant country while trying to settle down in a new one.
Late in the evening, the phone rang. It was a stranger. He was trying to pronounce my husband's name and was asking him a lot of questions. Then he said they had found a pile of papers in their trash can that had been left out on the footpath.
My husband rushed to their home to find a kind family holding all his papers and documents. Their young daughter had gone to the trash can and found a pile of unfamiliar papers. Her parents had carefully sorted them out, although they had found mainly foreign addresses on most of the documents. At last they had seen a half-written letter in the pile in which my husband had given his new telephone number to a friend.
That family not only _ the important documents to us that day but also restoredour faith and trust in people.We still remember their kindness and often send a warm wish their way. | high6815.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "begin to be unhappy"
},
"options": [
"live a comfortable life as usual",
"begin to be unhappy",
"are protected from the world outside",
"are about to die from the heat"
],
"question": "On the first night of the ... | Lie in bed, by an open window, and listen...
"No air conditioning? How can you sleep?" a friend asks, horrified. I tell her my family has decided to shut the air conditioner off and reduce our electric bill. On this first night of our cost-cutting plan, it's only 85 degrees. We're going to suffer, but the three kids complain anyway.
They have grown up in 72-degree comfort, protected from the world outside.
"It's too hot to sleep," my 13-year-old daughter complains. "I'm about to die from this heat," her brother complains down the hall. "Just try it tonight," I tell them. In truth I'm too tired to turn for long. My face is sweaty, but I lie quietly listening to the cricket choirs outside that remind me of childhood.
The neighbor's dog howls. Probably a passing squirrel. It's been years since I took the time to really listen to the night.
I think about grandma, who lived to 92 and still helped with my mom's gardening until just a few weeks before she died. And then, I'm back there at her house in the summer heat of my childhood. I move my pillow to the foot of grandma's bed and turn my face toward the open window. I turn the pillow, hunting for the cooler side.
Grandma saw me turn over and over. "If you just watch for the breeze ," she said, "you'll cool off and fall asleep." I stare at the filmy white curtain, willing it to move. Lying still, waiting, I suddenly notice the life outside the window. The bug chorus. Neighbors, porch -sitting late, speak in unclear words that calm me.
"Mom, did you hear that?" my seven-year-old son cries, "I think it was an owl family."
"Probably," I tell him, "just keep listening..."
Without the working air conditioner, the house is peaceful, and the natural night noises seem close enough to touch. I hope I'm awake tonight when the first breeze comes in. | high436.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "What Makes a House Home"
},
"options": [
"Home Means Everything",
"What Makes a House Home",
"Home Is Not Where You Are",
"The Importance of a House"
],
"question": "What would be the best title for the text?",
... | What makes a house a home?
Not size, of course. I've been in some of the grandest houses in America, and it's readily apparent that no one lives there. Earlier this year, I had dinner in a mud hut in Ethiopia, where we sat on chairs next to the hostess's bed --- a home that had more warmth than any house I've been in since.
Now John Edwards is exploring what makes a house a home in his just-released Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives. There Edwards writes, "This is a book about homes, the values they rest on, the dreams they are filled with, and the people they have shaped. The houses and circumstances are different, but much of what you find inside will be familiar."
Whether you're sitting in an airport right now, waiting to fly to your childhood home for Thanksgiving, or in your own home waiting for the s to arrive, you know what he's talking about.
We've lived in our townhouse for 21 years. The loose windows make noise in the wind. The fireplace is so shallow it holds only one log. The kitchen window offers a view of the world passing by. It's where friends sit on the kitchen counter drinking wine while dinner is being fixed. I lived there for only 18 years, but it will always be my true home. Even the lamp in the west living room window, which I could see far down the road when driving home late at night, still shines.
While all this talk about childhood memories can be warm and comforting, home is whom you're with, not where you are. As Edwards writes, "Home is family. Home is safety. Home is faith."
Happy homecoming! | high24249.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "While washing the dishes"
},
"options": [
"Before having dinner.",
"When cleaning a baby.",
"After using the toilet.",
"While washing the dishes"
],
"question": "Which of the following situation doesn't belong t... | October 15th2008 is the first Global Handwashing Day, whose goal is to create a culture of hand washing with soap. Activities are planned in more than twenty countries to get millions of people in the developing world to wash their hands with soap.
150,000 bars of soap were given to schools in prefix = st1 /Ethiopia, where the Education Ministry asked 1,000,000 schoolchildren to wash their hands for _ .
Experts say people around the world wash their hands but very few use soap at critical moments such as after using the toilet, after cleaning a baby and before touching food.
The organizers say all soaps are equally effective at removing disease-causing germs . They say the correct way to wash is to wet your hands with a small amount of water and cover them with soap. Rub it into all areas, including under the fingernails. Rub for at least 20 seconds.
Then, wash your hands well under running water. Finally, dry your hands with a clean cloth or wave them in the air.
They say soap is important because it increases the time that people spend washing. Soap also helps to break up the grease and dirt that hold most of the germs. And it usually leaves a pleasant smell, which encourages people to wash again.
They say washing with soap before eating and after using the toilet could save more lives than any vaccine or medicine. It could help reduce cases of diarrhea by almost half. And it could reduce deaths from pneumonia and other breathing infections by one-fourth.
Diarrhea is the second leading cause of child deaths, killing more than 1,500,000 children a year. Pneumonia is the leading cause, killing about 2,000,000 children under five each year. Hand washing can also prevent the spread of other diseases.
When people get germs on their hands, they can infect themselves by touching their eyes, nose or mouth. Then they can infect others. | high23526.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Texting affects students' performance on test."
},
"options": [
"Cell phone use and texting are more common.",
"Teens should avoid cell phone use and texting.",
"Texting affects students' performance on test.",
"The eff... | Cell phone use and texting are increasingly common, especially among teens. And that could be a problem. Texting affects learning and performing on test, a new study finds. So a Montana teen, Colin decided to test that.
They asked 47 classmates to take part in a two-part experiment. The goal was to test how well these students understood written material. Each one had to read a paragraph or two about a certain topic, then answer questions about it.
In the first part, the participants had 15 minutes to understand and then answer questions about six readings. Throughout this test, they met no distractions.
During a new set of readings, the brothers sent messages to the participants' cell phones every 90 seconds. In each message, there were questions that required a reply.
Participants should have scored better on the second test because it was easier. In fact, they scored worse when distracted by messages. Only a few students scored as well when replying to messages as they did when undistracted. But importantly, nobody performed better during the texting part.
The brothers presented details of their findings at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Boys and girls scored equally poorly while texting, the brothers noticed. Older participants didn't do any better than younger ones. And it didn't matter if a student thought he was good at multitasking. On average, the brothers found that even students who were confident of their abilities did just as poorly while texting. Surprisingly, even though the students remembered less of what they read while texting, most of them answered questions in messages perfectly.
"Our teachers are very happy to see these results," says Coler. The teens' new data strongly support their teachers' opinion that texting while studying is a serious distraction. | high12923.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Obama's decision agrees with the fact that economic freedom grows with political freedom."
},
"options": [
"President Obama is making a wrong move opening to Cuba.",
"Marco Rubio is making a mistake criticizing Obama's normalizatio... | In opposing President Barack Obama's opening to Cuba, Florida's Republican senator, Marco Rubio, explained, "This entire policy shift announced today is based on an illusion, on a lie, the lie and the illusion that more commerce and access to money and goods will _ political freedom for the Cuban people." Rubio has correctly touched on the hottest issue. But theory, logic and history suggest that he's wrong in his conclusions.
I would recommend to Rubio one of the classics of conservative thought, Milton Friedman's "Capitalism and Freedom." He doesn't have to spend too much time on it. The first chapter outlines the "relation between economic freedom and political freedom." The point Friedman makes in the book is one that America's founding fathers well understood. Drawing on the political philosopher John Locke, they believed that the freedom to buy, sell, own and trade were primary elements of human freedom and individual autonomy . As they expand, liberty expands.
This is not just theory, of course. Over the last two centuries, the countries that embraced "more commerce and access to money and goods" in Rubio's phrase -- Britain, America, then Western Europe and East Asia -- have moved toward greater prosperity, but also political freedom. If you exclude oil-rich countries, where money is not earned but dug from the ground, on the whole there has been a strong connection between economic freedom and political freedom.
In Latin America today, democracy and markets have acted to strengthen each other, transforming the continent, which 30 years ago was almost entirely ruled by dictatorships to one that is today almost entirely ruled by democracies. After opening up its economy in the 1970s, Chile began to grow, but that growth then produced a stronger civil society that over time contributed to the end of the dictatorship within the country. Yet Cuba is an outlier, one of the last regimes in Latin America that has embraced neither markets nor ballots. The Obama administration is acting on the theory that more commerce, capitalism, contact, travel and trade will empower the people of Cuba and thus gives them a greater voice in their political future. And so the first point to make is that it will help Cubans economically -- it will raise their incomes, their standard of living, and boost access to technology. These are all good things in and of themselves.
But easing the embargo will also help Americans, who will benefit from being able to trade with a neighbor. This is the reason that conservatives have long understood that free trade is not a gift bestowed on someone. It helps both countries and in particular, helps the United States. That's why the Wall Street Journal's editorial page -- bastion of conservative thought -- has been an advocate on lifting the trade embargo against Cuba, which is a far larger step than Obama's normalization. | high9298.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "She is a teacher."
},
"options": [
"She is a cook.",
"She is a teacher.",
"She is a housewife",
"She is a computer engineer."
],
"question": "What does the author do?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"an... | When I learned that my 71-year-old mother was playing Scrabble--a word game--against herself, I knew I had to do something. My husband suggested we give her a computer to play against. I wasn't sure my mother was ready for it. After all, it had taken 15 years to persuade her to buy an electric cooker. Even so, we packed up our old computer and delivered it to my parents' home. And so began my mother's adventure in the world of computers.
It also marked the beginning of an unusual teaching task for me. I've taught people of all ages, but I never thought I would be teaching my mother how to do anything. She has been the one teaching me all my life; to cook and sew; to enjoy the good times and put up with the bad. Now it was my turn to give something back.
It wasn't easy at the beginning. There was so much to explain and to introduce. Slowly but surely, my mother caught on, making notes in a little notebook. After a few months of Scrabble and other games, I decided it was time to introduce her to word processing . This proved to be a bigger challenge to her, so I gave her some homework. I asked her to write me a letter, using different letter types, colors and spaces.
"Are you demanding this with your kindergarten pupils?" she said.
"No, of course not," I said. "They already know how to use a computer."
My mother isn't the only one experiencing a fast personal growth period. Thanks to the computer, my father has finally got over his phone allergy . For as long as I remember, and time I called, my mother would answer, Dad and I have had more phone conversations in the last two months than we've had in the past 20 years. | high350.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "seaweeds"
},
"options": [
"seabirds",
"seals",
"fishes",
"seaweeds"
],
"question": "Killer Whales do not feed on _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
... | Orcas, or killer whales, are the largest of the dolphins and one of the world's most powerful animals feeding on meat. They feast on marine mammals such as seals, sea lions, and even whales, employing teeth that can be four inches (ten centimeters) long. They are known to grab seals right off the ice. They also eat fish, squid , and seabirds.
Though they often frequent cold, coastal waters, orcas can be found from the polar regions to the Equator .
Killer whales hunt in deadly groups, family groups of up to 40 individuals. There appear to be both permanent and temporary group populations of killer whales. These different groups may hunt different animals and use different techniques to catch them. Permanent groups tend to prefer fish, while temporary groups target marine mammals. All groups use effective, cooperative hunting techniques that some are similar to the behavior of wolf packs.
Whales make a wide variety of communicative sounds, and each group has various noises that its members will recognize even at a distance. They use echolocation to communicate and hunt, making sounds that travel underwater until they meet objects, then reflect back, showing their location, size, and shape.
Killer whales are protective of their young, and other adolescent females often assist the mother in caring for them. Mothers give birth every three to ten years, after a 17-month pregnancy.
Killer whales are immediately recognizable by their special black-and-white coloring and are the intelligent, trainable stars of many aquarium shows. Killer whales have never been widely hunted by humans. | high13383.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "It is seeking further development in China"
},
"options": [
"It will move its head office to Shenzhen",
"It is seeking further development in China",
"It has attracted an investment of US$15 billion",
"It caught up with... | When I was going home to India last year, I called up my mother to ask if she wanted anything from china,
When India had not opened up its markers to the world, I carried suitcase loads of dark glasses and jeans. Thankfully, we can get all these anywhere in India now,
Still ,her answer surprised me: "Green tea,"
As long as I can remember she didn't even drink Indian tea.
I dutifully bought a big packet of Longjing and headed home to hear the story. My mother and her brother, both regular newspaper readers, believed that Chinese green tea was the wonder drug for all illnesses
At the turn of the century, China was not really familiar to the average Indian, It was a strange country
How things change [And how soon]
Now every town of any size seems to have a "China Market". And everyone is talking about China
The government of India has planned to send a team to China to see how things are done A minister once said that India must open the doors for more foreign investment and such a step would "work wonders as it did for China".
But _ , I just heard about a thousand Shenzhen office workers who have gone to Rangalore to train in software. Meanwhile, all the IT majors are setting up a strong presence in China,
No wonder that trade, which was only in the millions just ten years ago, is expected to his about us$15 billion for last year and us$20 billion by 2008, a goal set by both governments,
No wonder, my colleague wrote some weeks ago about this being the Sino-Indian century as the two countries started on January I the Sino-Indian Friendship Year, | high8186.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "She was trying to do homework when it got dark."
},
"options": [
"She was having trouble with math problems.",
"She was trying to do homework when it got dark.",
"She was trying to earn money.",
"She was working on a sc... | In the United States, a person has to be sixteen to drive, seventeen to see certain movies, and eighteen to vote. People can get great discounts on all sorts of things provided they're over sixtyfive. Everywhere we look there are age limits that define what people can and can't do. But creativity has no boundaries, no limitations. Anyone can invent.
Sitting in the car and waiting for her mom to return from shopping, Becky decided she might as well try to finish her math homework. But it was growing dark and getting hard to see the paper.
"I didn't have a flashlight, and I didn't want to open the car door because then the whole car would light up." recalled Becky. "So I thought it would be good to have my paper light up somehow, and that's when the idea came to me."
It isn't every day that a tenyearold invents a product eagerly sought by several businesses, but that's exactly what Becky Schroeder did when she created a tool that enabled people to write in the dark. Her invention ---- the Glosheet.
That night Becky went home trying to imagine different ways of making her paper glow in the dark. She remembered all sorts of glowinthedark toys like balls and Frisbees and wondered how they were made. She was determined to find a solution. So the very next day, Beck's dad took her on an outing to the hardware store. They returned with a pail of phosphorescent paint. She took the paint and stacks of paper into the darkest room in the house. There, she experimented.
"I'd turn on the light, turn it off, turn it on," said Becky. "My parents remember me running out of the room, saying "It works, it works! I'm writhing in the dark!"
She used an acrylic board and coated it with a specific amount of phosphorescent paint. She took a complicated idea and made it work rather simply. When the coated clipboard is exposed to light, it glows. The glowing board then lights up the paper that has been placed on top. Two years after her initial inspiration, in 1974, Becky became the youngest female ever to receive a U.S. patent.
She didn't actively market her Glosheet. She didn't need to. The New York Times wrote an article about an incredible invention ---- patented by a twelveyearold, and the inquiries and orders streamed in. | high21457.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "helps to know what is happening around us"
},
"options": [
"makes us feel excited",
"helps us hear more clearly",
"is something harmful to us",
"helps to know what is happening around us"
],
"question": "The sen... | Scientists believe that one of our most important means of knowing what is going on around us is the sense of sound. We are warned of danger by sounds. Sounds serve to please us in music. Sound has a waste product, too, in the form of noise. Noise has been called unwanted sound. Noise is growing and it may get much worse before it gets any better.
In order to know how noise affects people and animals, scientists have been studying for several years. They are surprised by what they have learned. Peace and quiet are becoming harder to find. Noise pollution is a threat that should be looked at carefully.
Sounds is measured in units called decibels . At a level of 140 decibels people feel pain in their ears.
Trucks , buses , motorcycles, airplanes, boats, factories---all these things make noise. They trouble not only our ears, but minds and bodies as well.
There is a saying that it is so noisy that you can't hear yourself think. Doctors who study noise believe that we must sometimes hear ourselves think. If we don't, we may have headaches, other aches and pains, or even worse mental problems.
Noise adds more tension to a society that has already faced enough stress. | high11594.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "He doesn't want to know his chance of getting a disease."
},
"options": [
"He is strongly in favor of the present genetic tests.",
"He is more likely to suffer from Alzheimer's disease.",
"He believes genetic mapping can help... | How far would you be willing to go to satisfy your need to know?Far enough to find out your possibility of dying from a terrible disease?These days that's more than an academic question,as Tracy Smith reports in our Cover Story.
There are now more than a thousand genetic tests,for everything from baldness to breast cancer,and the list is growing.Question is,do you really want to know what might eventually kill you?For instance,Nobel Prizewinning scientist James Watson,one of the first people to map their entire genetic makeup,is said to have asked not to be told if he were at a higher risk for Alzheimer's .
"If I tell you that you have an increased risk of getting a terrible disease,that could weigh on your mind and make you anxious,through which you see the rest of your life as you wait for that disease to hit you.It could really mess you up." said Dr.Robert Green,a Harvard geneticist.
"Every ache and pain," Smith suggested,could be understood as "the beginning of the end.""That's right.If you ever worried you were at risk for Alzheimer's disease,then every time you can't find your car in the parking lot,you think the disease has started."
Dr.Green has been thinking about this issue for years.He led a study of people who wanted to know if they were at a higher genetic risk for Alzheimer's.It was thought that people who got bad news would,for lack of a better medical term, _ .But Green and his team found that there was "no significant difference" between how people handled good news and possibly the worst news of their lives.In fact,most people think they can handle it.People who ask for the information usually can handle the information,good or bad,said Green. | high6183.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "tried to go after his hobbies"
},
"options": [
"liked working with a group of people",
"didn't like doing sports at all",
"worked in the garage to support himself",
"tried to go after his hobbies"
],
"question":... | Apple has lost a creative genius and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve Jobs have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve Jobs leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.
Steven Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California. As a child, Jobs preferred doing things by himself. He was a competitive swimmer at school, but was not interested in any other team sports or other group activities. He showed an early interest in electronics. He spent a lot of time working in the garage workshop of a neighbor who was an electronics manufacturer.
He went to college but decided to drop out. Recalling his time there he said, " I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms; I sold coke bottles to buy food, and I would walk seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple."
Jobs and a friend started a company in a garage on April 1, 1976. Jobs named their company Apple in memory of a happy summer he had spent as an orchard worker in Oregon. After ten years, Apple, which started with two kids working in a garage, had grown into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees.
At 30, Jobs was fired from the company he founded with Steve Wozniak. He left the company after losing a bitter battle over control with Apple's CEO John Sculley. In 1997, Jobs rejoined Apple. He is the brain behind the best-selling iPhone, iPad and iPod.
Jobs said, "Your time is limited, so don't waste it. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart..." | high23268.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "hope to have more money, time and experience"
},
"options": [
"don't want to spend more time on work",
"have so many household and social affairs",
"hope to have more money, time and experience",
"only expect to make mo... | There are four types of persons who go to work part-time. These include retirees who want a bit more income or socialization, parents who want to spend more time with their children, college and high school students and temporary agency workers who want more experience. Many people enjoy the advantages of working part-time, but benefits are rarely offered to part-time employees.
Most people are hoping for health insurance and retirement benefits when taking a job. Traditionally, companies only offer benefits to employees who work 30 hours or more a week. This is only a 25% reduction in hours, so it doesn't free up a lot of time for the employee who needs part-time hours. Even when a part-timer is offered health benefits, he is rarely offered paid time off and retirement benefits. Dental benefits are almost never offered to part-time employees.
Many businesses hire part-time employees for the simple reason of saving money. If they work less than a certain number of hours, the employers don't need to pay for benefits. There are companies, however, that are beginning to offer benefits to part-time employees. This includes benefits for health, paid time off and retirement plans. Some companies have begun to offer this in order to take in high quality, trained professionals who just want part-time hours. If a company wants a qualified employee, it will have to compete with other companies. People who may only want to work part-time may be forced to take a full-time job to get the benefits. Companies who offer benefits to part-timers have an advantage by offering more choices to their employees in terms of hours.
Conducting an Internet search is probably the quickest way to find companies that provide benefits for part-time employees. Many large corporations like Starbucks, Barnes & Noble and Whole Foods offer benefits to part-time employees among other things. Look for companies that offer a team approach to their employees. Employees are given choices and part of decision-making in the business. Businesses that allow employee input are more likely to offer benefits to part-timers. | high378.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "an English teacher"
},
"options": [
"a project management assistant",
"an accountant",
"a marketing assistant",
"an English teacher"
],
"question": "If you have just graduated from a university, you should apply... | Wanted
Project Management Assistant
Responsibility:
Provide service for the project in Chongqing.
Provide assistance to the project manager for everyday work.
Responsible for file management, customer service for students & parents.
Requirements:
College degree and above.
Good English and computer skill.
Related working experience in an international organization.
Patient, careful, supportive. Have strong team work spirit.
English Teacher
Responsibility:
Conduct English teaching according to British education system.
Requirements:
University degree and above in English major or normal English.
Eager to learn and open-minded with creativity.
With deep understanding for different cultures.
(Warmly welcome the fresh graduates to apply for this position.)
Marketing Assistant
Responsibility:
Responsible for the local management of marketing & sales activities according to the instructions from the head office.
Collect related information to the head office.
Develop relationship with local media and customers.
Requirements:
College degree and above with good English (speaking & writing).
With basic idea of sales and marketing, related experience is preferred.
Working experience in the international organizations is a must.
Good communication and presentation skills
Accountant
Responsibility:
Accountant work for Chongqing office and project.
Perform the finance management locally according to the rules & policy of the company.
Requirements:
College degree and above in finance area.
Good English and good computer skill.
Have sense of finance management.
At least 2 years' experience as an accountant in an international organization is a must.
Self-management, hardworking, independent and able to deal with pressure.
You can go to _ for more information.
Please mail or fax your resume (both in English & Chinese), diploma, training certificates and expected salary to the following address within two weeks. No personal visit or telephone call before that. Your materials will be kept in ACE files.
Add: Room 1806 Plaza Building Yuzhong District Chongqing 40010
Fax No: 023- 63728428
Email: acercq @ cta.cq.cn | high4794.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "176 years old"
},
"options": [
"176 years old",
"100 years old",
"250 years old",
"200 years old"
],
"question": "Now, the oldest animal in the world is about at _ according to the passage.",
"question_t... | CALCUTTA, India Mar 24, 2006 (AP) -- One of the world's oldest creatures, a giant tortoise believed to have been about 250 years old, has died in the Calcutta zoo where it spent more than half its long life.
Addwaita, which means "the one and only" in the local Bengali language, was one of four Aldabra tortoises brought to India by British sailors in the 18th century. Zoo officials say he was a gift for Lord Robert Clive of the East India Company, who was instrumental in establishing British colonial rule in India, before he returned to England in 1767. Long after the other three tortoises died, Addwaita continued to thrive , living in Clive's garden before being moved to the zoo in 1875.
"According to records in the zoo, the age of the giant tortoise, Addwaita, who died on Wednesday, would be about 250 years," said zoo director Subir Chowdhury. That would have made him much older than the world's oldest documented living animal: Harriet, a 176-year-old Galapagos tortoise who lives at the Australia Zoo north of Brisbane, according to the zoo's Web site. She was taken from the island of Isla Santa Cruz by Charles Darwin in the 19th century.
Aldabra tortoises come from the Aldabra atoll in the Seychelle islands in the Indian Ocean, and often live to more than 100 years of age. Males can weigh up to 550 pounds. Addwaita, the zoo's biggest attraction, had been unwell for the last few days, said local Forest Minister Jogesh Burman.
"We were keeping a watch on him. When the zoo keepers went to his enclosure on Wednesday they found him dead," Burman said. | high20761.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the closing ceremony"
},
"options": [
"to award the last gold medal",
"to raise the flags of the winners for the last time",
"to hunt for souvenirs",
"the closing ceremony"
],
"question": "The last event of the ... | Two weeks after the opening ceremony, the Games are over. The last of the three hundred gold medals has been awarded and the flags of the winners have been raised for the last time.
The final event is the closing ceremony. This occasion is always sad and happy at the same time. It is a sad occasion because the tremendous excitement is over, and it will not happen again for four years. Those who have made friends will have to say goodbye, perhaps for ever. It is also a happy occasion because the competition is over and the athletes can really show their friendship for one another.
The closing ceremony is rather like the opening. But now the Olympic flame goes out and the Olympic flag, with its five rings, is lowered. The person who closes the Games calls upon the youth of the world to meet again in four years' time. The scoreboard lights up with the name of the city for the next Games and the band starts to play. Then the celebration starts.
All the athletes try to be at the closing ceremony. They have forgotten all their fears and worries. It does not matter whether they have done well or not. All the teams walk round the stadium together. Everybody is laughing and joking. The band plays and people start to dance.
After that, everybody in the Village _ and gets ready to leave. Everyone is hunting for souvenirs. People exchange track suits, hats, running vests and badges. There is a last chance to take photographs and get addresses of new friends. Then each team starts its journey home. | high3945.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "prefix = st1 /TokyoShows Eco Cars"
},
"options": [
"New Car Trend",
"Tokyo Motor Show",
"Eye-catching Cars on Show",
"prefix = st1 /TokyoShows Eco Cars"
],
"question": "What would be the best title for the passa... | ECO-friendly technology was the hottest trend at the 39thTokyo Motor Show, which opened last Friday.
About 240 car manufacturers from 13 countries presented new models. Most were powered by hybrid ,fuel cell and electrical systems. Carmakers are championing more environmentally models amid increasing oil prices and environmental concerns.
"It's now carmakers' social responsibility to protect the environment," said Mazda president Hisakazu Imaki.
Seventy-nine cars and motorcycles are being presented to the public for the first time, according to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.
The organizing association said the biennial show, due to end on November6,was sure to have a large impact on the automobile industry.
Manufacturers are currently competing in the shift from gasoline-run engines to hybrid, fuel cell or electricity-powered systems.
Mazda has a new sports vehicle, which runs on a hybrid electric-petrol system. It is also showing a gasoline-hydrogen run sports car.
A member of the Ford family, Mazda plans to market a hybrid version of the Tribute sport utility vehicle (SUV) next spring and enhance its co-operation with Ford in hybrid systems development.
Honda's fuel cell sedan on show uses a hydrogen-oxygen fuel. The system only sends water out its exhaust ,a better solution for the environment and less polluting than hybrids. | high20007.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "an experience of doing research on pollution"
},
"options": [
"a research report about pollution.",
"an exciting experience of fishing.",
"an experience of doing research on pollution",
"an unforgettable talk with an ol... | I always avoid going on field investigations with the toxics team, unless it's ly necessary. It's not that I mind the hard work, or am afraid of coming into contact with toxic substances. What I fear is quickly losing hope about the work I do.
However, doing field research with the toxic team, all I see and feel is filth---nothing else. Even if I close my eyes, I can smell the smell of food processing, rotting organic waste from paper mills and chemicals from clothing manufacturers.
One morning, I went to investigate a discharged pipe to document and collect samples of pollutants secretly being emitted by a textile mill. I had to work with the utmost secrecy in order to avoid being discovered by the textile mill.
I dipped a long measuring pole into the large polluting pipe to measure the volume of polluted water being emitted. But the surface of the water, covered in oil and filth, made me feel as if to vomit .
All of a sudden, I felt someone hit me on my back, it frightened me so much that I almost fell into the water. I grasped the pole and looked behind me to see an old man standing there. He asked: "Can you catch fish here?" I realized that he thought I was holding a fish pole, so I kept calm and said: "Yes, I heard that there's a kind of small fish living in this water, and it has medicinal benefits."
The old man grew quite curious and replied: "That may be. If a fish can survive in water as dirty as this, it must have a lot of resistance. So it wouldn't be too strange if such fish had medicinal benefits."
It was clear he was just passing by, so I answered: "Yeah, survival of the fittest. Fish that adapt can survive, just like us humans."
He kept talking to me and didn't want to leave. He wanted to see whether or not I would catch the small fish with medicinal benefits. | high18598.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "To find a job is much more difficult than before"
},
"options": [
"There is nothing we can do to find a good job nowadays",
"To find out what jobs are available is totally impossible",
"To find a job is much more difficult th... | Not so long ago almost student who successfully completed a university degree could find a good career quite easily. However. those days are gone, even in Hong Kong, and nowadays graduates often face strong competition in the search for jobs.
Job seekers first have to make a careful assessment of their own abilities. One area of assessment should be of their academic qualifications, which would include special skills within their subject area. Graduates should also consider their own personal values and attitudes, or the importance to themselves of such matters as money, security, leadership and caring for others.
The second stage is to study the opportunities available for employment.
Job application forms and letters should, of course, be filled in carefully and correctly, without grammar or spelling errors.
When graduates are asked to attend for interview, they should prepare properly by finding out all they can about the prospective employer. Dressing suitably and arriving for the interview on time are also obviously important. Interviewees should try to give positive and helpful answers and should not be afraid to ask questions about anything they are unsure about. This is much better than pretending to understand a question and giving an unsuitable answer.
It is true that it is hard to find a good job. But there will always be good career opportunities for people with ability, skills and determination; the secret to securing good jobs in to be one of them. | high17873.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Anas visited the school Obama once studied in."
},
"options": [
"Obama has met Anas once in Indonesia.",
"Obama visited a school he attended as a boy.",
"Anas became rich after he knew Obama.",
"Anas visited the school ... | JAKARTA, INDONESIA ---Walking with long steps and his smile lighting up a rainy afternoon, Barack Obama seems to have arrived to visit a school he attended as a boy.But wait.He's not real Obama.The US president is back in Washington, D.C..
So who is this guy?He's IIham Anas,34,magazine photographer who has taken advantage of his perfect resemblance to Obama and turned it into his own wealth.[
Since 2007, Anas' s face and big smile have been seen on Southeast Asian TV and the Internet, and in advertisements.Anas's resemblance to the president has turned his life around 180 degrees.
When his sister first mentioned the resemblance, _ .Then a friend asked him to pose as Obama in front of a US flag.He also refused."I'm a photographer, not an object for the camera," he said.
However, as soon as he accepted the idea, his career took off.The father of two children is rarely at home these days.Recently a group of reporters followed him on a tour of the school Obama once attended.Anas sat in the classroom where the present US president once studied.He spoke a few lines in English.The moment he opened his mouth, however, the differences became clear."Obama is a baritone ,"Anas said."I'm not.I sound like a little boy." He is also shorter than the president, but he makes up for that by practicing Obama's typical actions.
He used to dislike looking into the mirror because of his average appearance.Now he no longer considers himself as an average guy, but a superstar.Looking like a president is a good thing, Anas says."How else could a person like me travel the world and meet all kinds of people? I'm really just a shy guy."
He says he has made a request to meet President Obama when he arrives, but he hasn't heard back from the president's schedules.
Now, Anas hopes that Obama will win a second term in the White House."The longer he's in office, the longer my fame will last," he said. | high21319.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "C-e-a-d-b"
},
"options": [
"E-c-a-b-d",
"C-a-e-b-d",
"C-e-a-d-b",
"E-c-d-a-b"
],
"question": "What should be the right order of the life's milestones according to the passage?",
"question_type": null
},
... | Researchers have revealed 25 major life milestones - and the ages by which we should have achieved them.
A new study has unveiled the ultimate guide to life, which involves passing a driving test at the age of 20, moving out at 22 and getting married at 27. The comprehensive study, which draws on the wisdom, life experience and regrets of almost 2,000 adults between the ages of 16 and 65, also found we should be earning the average wage by the age of 30.
Researchers also revealed 19 is the best age to start a full-time job, while we should feel free to enjoy the first holiday without mum and dad two years later. Early 20s should also include moving out of home, buying our first car and flying to sunnier places for the first time with a boyfriend or girlfriend.
A spokeswoman for Amigo Loans, which commissioned the study, said: "It's normal to want to achieve certain things by certain ages and it's good to be ambitious. "Borrowing money to achieve life's milestones, such as moving out, buying a car or starting a business is harder than ever for ordinary, hard-working people and our research shows nearly half of 16-34 year-olds expect to turn to their family and friends for financial help to achieve their life goals. Indeed, nearly 80 per cent of our guarantors are family members."
As we head to late 30s and early 40s, we ought to be aiming to have moved to slightly bigger second home, have earnings of around PS40k a year or more, and even set up our own business.
The study also looked into the subject of pressure and the part it plays in helping us achieve our goals. One in three people said they felt there was more pressure on the current generation to reach milestones within specific time frames. But according to the data, a large percentage of us also put the pressure on ourselves to achieve things by certain times. | high19686.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "introduce a book"
},
"options": [
"introduce a book",
"give some advice",
"tell stories",
"please readers"
],
"question": "The text is written to _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answ... | Most of the stories are written by young,unpublished writers.And the audience undoubtedly will relate perfectly to the tales told in the book.The editors have organized this collection into nine categories :Relationships,Friendship,The Power of Love,Family,Lessons,Difficult Stuff,Overcoming Obstacles ,SelfDiscovery,and Growing Up.You'll be comforted to know that you're never as alone as you think.
This book is written to help teens to deal with the problems that they face every day,from first love to heartache,from best friends to enemies.This book will help guide you through the difficult times and add happiness to the great times.The best part of this book is that there is something for everyone in it.The variety in this book is great.From the cartoons to the poems,you will never get bored of reading it. | high24261.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "on a school day"
},
"options": [
"on the weekend",
"on a school day",
"during a school holiday",
"around Christmas"
],
"question": "For an adult,the best time to visit the Magic Kingdom is _ .",
"question... | When to go:The Magic Kingdom,which was opened in 1971,was the first theme park at Walt Disney World. All Disney World theme parks are open 365 days a year,although opening and closing time for each park changes from day to day.
If you plan to make a trip to the Magic Kingdom without kids,try to visit on a school day to avoid the largest crowds. If you need to visit during a school vacation,try at least to avoid the week between Christmas and New Year and the Fourth of July.
If you are not staying at a Disney World hotel,avoid visiting the Magic Kingdom on its Extra Magic Hours days,as Disney's hotel guests get into the park early on those days,and visitors who arrive at the Magic Kingdom's normal opening time have to wait for a long time.
Before you go:Buy your Walt Disney World tickets online at Disney World's website. For advice on picking the right ticket,see our guide to Disney World tickets.
You will also need to call in advance to make lunch and/or dinner reservations . Disney accepts reservations up to 180 days in advance,but you need contact 1-407-WDW-DINE.
When you get there:Plan to arrive at the Magic Kingdom's front gate before the park opens in the morning. Keep in mind that to reach the Magic Kingdom,you must park at Disney World's Transportation and Ticket Center parking lot,ride at tram to the TTC,then take a ferry boat across the Seven Seas Lagoon to the Magic Kingdom. It makes for a fantastic approach,but takes extra time. Give yourself an extra hour in the summer and half an hour during the school year. | high8810.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "receive and go through the information"
},
"options": [
"ask for the information",
"cut off all channels of information",
"receive and go through the information",
"become information \"hermits\""
],
"question":... | Every day from the time we wake up until the time we go to bed, we are bombarded with information from all sides, from TV, radio, newspapers and books; from family, friends, and colleagues. As a new cable television subscriber, I am ly amazed at the quantity and varying levels of information quality on cable television. Including the networks, there are eight TV "news" organizations vying to provide us with all the information we can possibly absorb. Newspaper, magazines, books, radio, the Internet, email, snail mail, and the telephone all compete for our attention and our minds. At the office conversations around the water cooler and coffee maker serve to spread even more items of information.
There is valuable information out there about the world we live in, on topics as varied as health, safety, traffic, nutrition, business, finance, philosophy, nature, science, weather, history and the human condition. There is also a large amount of misleading and outright false information, not just on controversial subjects such as politics and religion but on any topic one can think of, including all of the topics mentioned above.
With all this information coming at us from all directions, how does one sift through it all to sort out the facts from the fiction, the truth from the lies, the more important from the less important? Should we turn off the TV, cancel our newspaper subscriptions, disconnect our phones and modems to become information "hermits"? Probably not.
A better method of sifting through the information wave without being overwhelmed and confused is to become a skeptical inquirer-or skeptic-with regard to the surrounding world. By "skeptic"-I do not mean a cynic-a person who rejects new ideas simply because they are new. A skeptic is one who questions the validity of a particular claim by calling for evidence to prove or disprove it. Skepticism is a method, not a position. It is a provisional approach to all factual claims. In terms of processing information, a skeptic needs to be able to grasp reality and acquire knowledge about the environment that agrees with reason, logic, and evidence. In other words, as skeptics, when we hear a claim that may or may not be fantastic, we should say, "That's nice, prove it." | high22604.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Because there was too much trash at the park."
},
"options": [
"Because the weather was bad.",
"Because she couldn't find her mum.",
"Because her friends were not at the park.",
"Because there was too much trash at the ... | When Juliet was a child, she often went to the city park and played with her friends. On a sunny morning, when Juliet came to the park with her mum, she looked around and felt very unhappy.
"What's the matter, dear?" asked her mum.
Juliet replied, "Mum, there's so much trash on the ground."
Juliet's mum looked around. There was paper, boxes and glass bottles everywhere.
"What can we do?" asked Juliet.
"I'm sure you will think of something," said her mum.
As soon as Juliet and her mum went home, Juliet painted a picture of the park and wrote a sign in large black letters at the top of the picture. The sign read "PLEASE KEEP OUR PARK CLEAN". Later, she took plenty of bags and went back to the park with her mum. Juliet put up her picture on a big trash can .
"Will you help me pick up the trash, Mum?" Juliet said as she handed her mum a bag.
"I sure will," replied her mum.
The children at the park ran over to see what was going on. Juliet handed them each a bag. "Let's clean this place up," said Juliet. Then they began to pick up the trash, talking and laughing. Soon all the bags were full.
"We need to come back another day. There's still some trash on the ground, but the park looks much better," said Juliet.
Her mum said, "So it does. _ " | high8804.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "he was shocked that the corn output in China was so low"
},
"options": [
"he just graduated from an ordinary high school",
"he was shocked that the corn output in China was so low",
"he was only in his thirties",
"he wa... | Li Denghai, with his muddy boots and tanned face, may not look like he is one of China's famous agricultural pioneers. But the 61-year-old man from Shandong Province has made scientific breakthroughs , which made great contributions to China's food security . His main work has been in achieving the higher output of corn production.
Li, who holds the world record for the highest output of summer corn, once says, "Corn has a life; it sings and dances. If you listen clearly, it can speak to you." He started his research in 1969 when he was 20 and just dropped out of a high school. He then read an article which pointed that corn output per mu in the USA was six times higher than that in China. He was shocked and set out to work on just a small piece of land _ to see if he could increase the output. He often went to the field with a flashlight late at night, if he had been away during the day. By careful nurturing he managed to double the output.
Li Denghai was awarded the "China Award for Significant Contribution to the Maize Industry" in 2005, and the same year the company named after his own name came into the market on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Li, however, is never happier than when he is in the middle of his cornfields. "I can forget my tiredness when talking to my corns," he says. | high3951.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "improved his grades greatly"
},
"options": [
"became the best student in his class",
"was interested in singing songs",
"quickly finished his 4\nthgrade lessons",
"improved his grades greatly"
],
"question": "Wi... | As the father of a student, I have experienced first hand what a great teacher is. My son was in the 4thgrade last year, and he had a teacher called Miss Green. I believe that when he is an adult he will surely look back on her as the best teacher he has ever had.
My son has attention deficit disorder that makes it a little more difficult for him to learn. She was able to change her teaching methods for him so that he could keep up with the rest of the class. As a result, he got straight As on many subjects. She regarded her class as a family and they even had their own class song. She would often have them sing it to encourage them and develop a team spirit for them. When she saw that they were no longer listening carefully to what she was teaching, she would have them close their textbooks, stand up all around the room and throw around a small football. This helped them clear their minds and then _ the lesson again. Besides, she was quick to reply to any phone calls or emails from us and got rid of our worries about children quickly.
When my son went to the 5thgrade this year, we happened to pass her classroom. When she saw my son, her face lit up and she came out and hugged him. She generally loves all of the children in her classroom and that love really shows. I can only pray that my son will continue to get teachers just like her for the rest of his school years. | high2497.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "She had been beaten terribly."
},
"options": [
"She had taken his place and become a gang leader.",
"She had come to this place to see her husband.",
"She wanted to pay for what she had done to Michael Zey.",
"She had b... | Where was I? The room was dark and quiet. My head hurt really badly. I shouted, "Help! Help! Can anybody help me?"
After a while somebody came in. The room was so dark that I couldn't see his face clearly. The man turned on the light and said with a sharp voice, "Ah! Sweetie, do you still remember who I am?" I was shocked. Oh, my God! I cried, "You are Michael Zey, the man I charged with murder! Why are you here? You should be in prison!"
"You never thought about the result of charging a gang leader, did you? Because of you, I was in prison for 15 years. You ruined my life!" His voice was very cold. My face was pale with fear. He was here to take revenge !
"Please, let me go! Don't hurt me! Please!" I asked him. "Dr. Calment, you are smart enough to know it is impossible. Now, I give you two choices. One is shooting your head. It is the quickest way. The other is cremation . Your husband and you will be together forever. It's quite romantic. Don't you think?" He spoke angrily. "What? My husband? He is innocent!" I shouted at him.
Suddenly, he took hold of my head and said, "You will pay for what you have done to me." He took out a gun from his bag.
"Help! Help! Can anybody help me?" | high17867.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "is fond of collecting family life photographs"
},
"options": [
"is fond of collecting family life photographs",
"found a complaining not under his car wiper",
"is working for several self-published magazines",
"wondered... | Photos that you might have found down the back of your sofa are now big business!
In 2005, the American artist Richard Prince's photograph of a photograph, Untitled (Cowboy), was sold for $ 1, 248, 000.
Prince is certainly not the only contemporary artist to have worked with so-called "found photographs"--a loose term given to everything from discarded prints discovered in a junk shop to old advertisements or amateur photographs from a stranger's family album. The German artist Joachim Schmid, who believes "basically everything is worth looking at", has gathered discarded photographs, postcards and newspaper images since 1982. In his on-going project, Archiv, he groups photographs of family life according to themes: people with dogs; teams; new cars; dinner with the family; and so on.
Like Schmid, the editors of several self-published art magazines also champion found photographs. One of _ , called simply Found, was born one snowy night in Chicago, when Davy Rothbard returned to his car to find under his wiper an angry note intended for some else: "Why's your car HERE at HER place?" The note became the starting point for Rothbard's addictive publication, which features found photographs sent in by readers, such a poster discovered in our drawer.
The whole found-photograph phenomenon has raised some questions. Perhaps one of the most difficult is: can these images really be considered as art? And if so, whose art? Yet found photographs produced by artists, such Richard Prince, may riding his horse hurriedly to meet someone? Or how did Prince create this photograph? It's anyone's guess. In addition, as we imagine the back-story to the people in the found photographs artists, like Schmid, have collated , we also turn toward our own photographic albums. Why is memory so important to us? Why do we all seek to freeze in time the faces of our children, our parents, our lovers, and ourselves? Will they mean anything to anyone after we've gone?
In the absence of established facts, the vast collections of found photographs give our minds an opportunity to wander freely. That, above all, is why they are so fascinating. | high3789.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "they have difficulty finding qualified personnel at home"
},
"options": [
"they find foreign employees are usually more talented",
"they need original ideas from employees hired overseas",
"they want to expand their business ... | Interest in pursuing international careers has risen in recent years strengthened by permanent personnel shortages that are causing companies to search beyond their home borders for talent.
Professionals seek career experience outside of their home countries for a variety of reasons. They may feel the need to recharge their batteries with a new challenge. They may want a position with more responsibility that encourages creativity. Or they may wish to expose their children to another culture, and the opportunity to learn a second language.
When applying for a job, one usually has to submit a resume or curriculum vitae (CV). The two terms generally mean the same thing: a one--or two--page document describing one's educational qualifications and professional experience. However, guidelines for preparing a resume are constantly changing. The best advice is to find out what is appropriate regarding the company culture, the country culture, and the culture of the person making the hiring decision. The challenge will be to include two or more cultures in one document. The following list is a good place to start.
"Educational requirements differ from country to country. In almost every case of 'cross--border' job hunting, just stating the title of your degree will not be an adequate description. Provide the reader with details about your studies and any related experience. "
Pay attention to the resume format you use-chronological or reverse-chronological order. Chronological order means listing your 'oldest' work experience first. Reverse-chronological order means listing your current or most recent experience first. Most countries have preferences about which format is most acceptable. If you find no specific guidelines, the general preference is for the reverse-chronological format. "
If you are submitting your resume in English, find out if the receiver uses British English or American English because there are changes between the two versions. For example, university education is often referred to as 'tertiary education' in the United Kingdom, but this term is almost never used in the United States. A reader who is unfamiliar with these changes may assume that your resume contains errors. | high4780.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "His seat was damp."
},
"options": [
"His seat was damp.",
"His pay was low",
"The weather was terrible",
"His coffee was spilled"
],
"question": "Why did the driver of the train refused to do his job?",
"que... | Poor weather. Technical difficulties. These are some of the typical causes of cancelled trains and planes. But sometimes, the excuse can be a lot more _ .
Just recently, passengers waiting for a train to Peterborough heard the following announcement, "For reasons beyond our control, we regret to inform passengers that the 13:46 Train to Peterborough has been cancelled. The next train will be arriving on Platform in approximately 36 minutes."
Oh, well, another delayed train, thought most passengers. But a couple of them decided to enquire further. Incredibly, they were informed that the real reason for the non-arrival of the train was that the driver refused to do his job because his seat was wet.
"A wet seat? That's got to be a joke," said one passenger angrily. "I wouldn't normally complain if the train is just a bit delayed, but this was unbelievable, " he added. "What really made me angry is that this driver refused to get in the train," said another passenger. "He probably went off for a cup of tea after that!" she added.
A spokesperson for the rail company apologized for the incident, but said the driver couldn't sit on the damp seat, and wouldn't be able to drive the train standing up. The spokesperson went on to explain that the seat had become wet after water entered through an open window when the train was being cleaned in a "train wash"
In another transport-related incident, a flight from Chicago to Frankfurt made an emergency landing in Canada after the pilot spilled his coffee. Apparently, the spilt liquid caused the plane's radio to send out "transponder code 7500", which is used to inform ground control that there's been a hi-jacking . After landing in Toronto, the 255 passengers crew members were put up in a hotel for the night, then flown on to Frankfurt the following afternoon. "What a disgusting trip!" said one tired passenger after the painful experience had ended.
So, does your job have the potential to cause such disorder? | high4958.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "English courses."
},
"options": [
"English courses.",
"Ways to improve students' English.",
"The best way to improve your skills.",
"The importance of English."
],
"question": "What does this passage mainly talk... | Welcome to Language upon Thames. This brochure has been designed to give you an overview of our Language School and the courses we offer. If you have some additional questions please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.
At Language upon Thames, we feel it is important to be flexible, in order that students can decide what period of study suits them best.
Small Group General English Courses
These courses are aimed at students who wish to improve their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills and are offered at the following levels.
BEGINNERS
ELEMENTARY
PREINTERMEDIATE
UPPERINTERMEDIATE
Studying one of the above courses will enable you to use English more confidently and competently on a daily basis.
Try our free online test to see which level you are at--CLICK HERE.
Exam Courses
These courses are aimed at students who wish to gain academic qualifications in English and are offered at the following levels.
University of Cambridge exams:
ADVANCED 1--FCE (First certificate)
ADVANCED 2--CAE (Advanced)
ADVANCED 3--CPE (Proficiency)
Studying one of the above courses will enable you to continue your education or enter university in this country. (Students wishing to gain admission to a British university are normally required to have the Cambridge Proficiency Certificate.)
Speaking, Listening & Pronunciation
This course builds on communicative confidence and competence and is aimed at students who wish to develop the important skills of speaking and listening.
Emphasis is also placed on pronunciation, with activities designed to meet the needs of students of different nationalities, who need to focus on different areas.
CLICK HERE to register for a General English course.
Other Languages
At Language upon Thames we offer a wide range of cafeterias, restaurants, shops and bars. Most importantly, we have foreign language classes of French, Japanese, German, Spanish and Italian during the day, evening or on a onetoone basis. | high20775.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Banks are making it harder for people to get credit cards."
},
"options": [
"Banks are making it harder for people to get credit cards.",
"Some people's credit limits have been reduced.",
"It is more difficult to borrow money... | Credit cards let people buy things now and pay for them over months or even years.But some people get deep into debt:Some banks have terms and charges that can make it harder for people to pay off that debt.In the United States,there are calls for stronger government supervision of the credit card industry. _ In 2004,Americans had about $800 billion in credit card debt.Now they own about $968 billion.
Critics say banks made it too easy to get credit cards.But that may be changing.The crisis in the housing and credit they call markets is beginning to affect the credit card industry.More payments are late.Charges for late payments are a growing source of profit for banks.But late payments can also signal bad debts.
The central bank,the Federal Reserve,says twothirds of American banks have recently reported tighter lending requirements.Many people report having their credit limits reduced without warning.
Some lawmakers are concerned that cardholders do not have enough protections from what abusive policies.These include actions like raising interest rates because of an unrelated event.Also,banks may raise the chances of a late payment by changing monthly payment dates for credit cards.
According to a survey,82% of Americans think credit cards provide a valuable service.But a majority,58%,say they do not trust credit card companies.And three out of four think the government should regulate the industry more closely.Three out of four people feel there is always some condition that makes a card less appealing than the company made in scared.And a little more than half say they have had a card that was not as good as they expected.But close to 80% say no one really reads the terms and conditions when they sign up for a credit card. | high6197.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "A foreigner who works in China for a long time."
},
"options": [
"A foreigner whose wife of husband is of Chinese nationality.",
"A foreign child whose parents are Chinese citizens.",
"A foreigner who invests large sum of mon... | The creation of a Chinese Green Card in 2004 was a milestone in the country's immigration law. Five years on, the card is an increasingly sought-after document.
On August 15, 2004, the Regulations on Examination and Approval of Permanent Residence
oAliens in China created a Green Card system granting qualified foreigners the right to live in
China permanently.
Liu Lili, who works in the Exit and Entry Administration of Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, has watched the Green Card system develop since its inception. She said nearly all applications received by the Bureau are approved. So far, 323 people have been granted a "Green Card" qualifying them for permanent residence in Beijing. Another 15 are awaiting final approval. It takes around 6 months to process each application.
Of the 323 Green Card holders, 94 are wives or husbands of Chinese citizens; 50 are minors dependent on their parents; 20 are senior citizens returning to live with relatives; 114 are individuals who have made outstanding contributions or are of special importance to China (another 7 are their family members); and 23 are high-level foreign personnel who hold posts in businesses (another 15 are their family members).
Liu said the authorities had been granting residence to returning senior citizens for some time before the Green Card system was formally launched .The government has approved permanent residence for over 3,000 foreigners since the implementation of the Law on Control of the Entry and Exit of Aliens which was adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in November 1985.
Four groups of people are eligible for permanent residence: high-level foreign personnel who hold posts in businesses that promote China's economic, scientific and technological development or social progress; foreign citizens who make large direct investments in China; persons who have made outstanding contributions or are of special importance to China; and people who come to China to be with family, such as husbands and wives, minors dependent on their parents, and senior citizens dependent on their relatives.
Liu said that most applications she dealt with were from American citizens.
Why do overseas citizens apply for permanent residence status in China? The main concern, aid Liu, is the political factor. Once people have a "Green Card", they feel they are accepted and trusted by the Chinese government. The "Green Card" also facilitates entry and exit. With permanent residence status, visas are no longer needed and people can enter and leave the country using only a valid passport. China offers outstanding career opportunities and is seen by many as safer and more secure than many other countries, said Liu.
Liu said that Green Card holders have the same rights and responsibilities as Chinese citizens. However the card is not equivalent to Chinese nationality and holders are not allowed to vote in elections, hold political office, or serve in the military.
Obtaining a Green Card is not easy. The qualifying conditions are tough. Unless you are a close relative of a Chinese citizen,you will either have to invest a substantial amount of money in the country or make a genuinely outstanding contribution to the country's development.
To meet increasing demand, he authorities are considering making the Green Card more available by broadening the range of applicants without lowering the requirements, aid Liu, but she gave no further details. | high15916.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Making a person ill."
},
"options": [
"Helping to digest food.",
"Helping to take nutrients from food.",
"Helping to regulate weight.",
"Making a person ill."
],
"question": "Which of the following is NOT the fu... | Health experts have long worried about the increasing rate of obesity in kids. It's an important concern: Being weight or obese during childhood can lead to serious problems normally seen in adults, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Poor diets and a lack of exercise are usually the causes. But would you ever have imagined there might be a connection between the bacteria that lived in your guts when you were a baby and the chance that you would become overweight?
Scientists in Finland recently found just such a link. In a recent study, they showed that overweight kids had different species of bacteria living in their guts.
You probably think of bacteria only as germs that can make you sick. While it's true that some bacteria can make people ill, your body actually depends on some types of bacteria to help you digest food and extract nutrients from it. These "good" bacteria live in your guts, where they process the food you eat.
Human babies get these bacterial helpers from their moms. When a baby is born, some of the bacteria in the mother move into the baby's body. Growing babies get additional "good" bacteria from the milk their mothers produce. And it turns out the bacteria might play an important role in regulating weight just six years later.
So how could these bacteria affect weight? The researchers still haven't tested that question, but future tests might lead to an answer. | high7289.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "They cannot easily focus on learning during the day."
},
"options": [
"They can get bored easily about everything.",
"They might have no time to do the homework.",
"They might not pay much attention to learning.",
"They... | During the school year many parents take on the role of driver as they drive their children from one lesson to another .Understandably so. Many of us want our children to have a little taste of everything, from organized sports to music, dance and more. But we can overdo it, leaving our children feeling a little burnt out, and according to parent educator Diane Loisie ,it's their school work which suffers the most. "After school, if they're busy in a number of sporting events, besides they need to do their homework, then the time they'll feel sleepy is in the classroom. Your child needs free time. So if you're filling up that after school time, then it's during the day that they're going to be taking a break."
Professor Claire McDermott agrees that there's a lot to be gained from sometimes putting those scheduled lessons and activities away. "Relaxing time is important for children. It's time just to do the things they want to do. A child can go up to their room, or they can play around. It doesn't look like productive time; parents certainly wouldn't be saying 'Wow, are they ever learning things now?' But this relaxing time gives both the body and the brain just a wonderful chance to relax after a day. It helps a child prepare for sleep, but it also helps to understand the learning that's gone on that day."
It's hard to prevent signing our kids up for some activities and lessons. After all, many of us want our children to have a head start in life and the chance to join in great activities in the arts or sports is a part of that. However, Loisie feels that in the long run most children feel better with just a few key activities because it gives them an opportunity to master them. "When we get our children in too many activities because we want our children to experience everything, then what we're doing is setting them up not to be good at one thing or gaining a skill." So choose your children's activities wisely. It may be one of the best things you've ever done for your kids... and for the family drivers! | high1820.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "To call on people to join in the fight against the environmental pollution."
},
"options": [
"To praise Zhou Liqun and her friends.",
"To remind us that our world is heavily polluted.",
"To give us advice on how to make envir... | Many students are planning field trips as spring draws near. Fourteen-year-old Zhou Liqun is busy digging holes along rivers. The girl and her "One Piece of Paper Team" are planting trees to improve the environment.
They collect waste paper to sell for trees and have set up websites to spread the message of connections between humans and nature. "We want to make environmental protection everyone's habit," says the girl. "Even a piece of paper matters."
Eager to join Zhou in such meaningful work? Now you are offered advice on what to do. Last month, measures for public participation in environmental protection were published by the State Environmental protection Administration . The special measures are expected to change the light rain of the past into a storm of environmental protection.
Last year's Songhua River pollution acted as an alarm to Chinese people. According to SEPA officials, environmental pollution has become serious, and will continue so for the next 15 years.
A recent survey showed that though most Chinese people care about environmental problems, they don't put their concerns into practice. One reason is that they don't know how. So the newly published measures present information about how to report environmental problems and how to join in the battle against pollution.
Actually there is much you can do in daily life. Buy less to reduce waste. Don't throw away things before you have made the most use of them. Use electricity, water and gas only when necessary. Switch them off when you don't need them.
Everyone can participate in making the planet suitable for future generations. Why not join in and make our world more fantastic? | high22162.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Australia"
},
"options": [
"South Africa",
"Australia",
"All of Canada",
"Malaysia"
],
"question": "English is the native language of _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | English is the native or official language of one-fifth of the land area of the world. It is spoken in North America, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. In South Africa and India it is one of the official languages.
More people study English than any other language. In many countries, the textbooks in universities are in English. Many university classes are taught in English even though the native language is not English.
English is the language of international communication. It is the language of international business, research, and science. More than three-fourths of the world's mail is written in English. More than half of the scientific research journals are in English. Most other languages have borrowed many English words.
Why did English become the international language? In the middle of the nineteenth century, French was the international language. The Britain became very powerful in the world. England started colonies in North America and India in the seventeenth century. By 1900 England also had colonies in other parts of Asia, Africa and the South Pacific. The people in the colonies had to use English. Slowly it became more important than French internationally. After the Second World War, the United States became very powerful, and even more people began to learn English.
Is English a good international language? It has more words than any other language. The grammar is simpler than in other major languages. However, English spelling is difficult. Foreigners all have trouble spelling English. So do native speakers!
Since 1880, people have invented over fifty artificial (not natural) languages. No one speaks them as a native language. However, none of them has ever become popular. Some people don't want to study English, but it is the international language. There is no way to change that now. | high15725.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "To encourage his students to be positive."
},
"options": [
"To share his lucky experience.",
"To make his class more lively.",
"To draw all students' attention.",
"To encourage his students to be positive."
],
"... | I teach geography at UNLV three times per week. Last Monday, at the beginning of class, I cheerfully asked my students how their weekend had been. One young man said that his weekend had not been so good. He had his wisdom teeth removed. The young man then asked me why I always seemed to be so cheerful. "I choose to be cheerful." I said. Then I told them a story.
In addition to teaching here at UNLV, I also teach out at the community college in Henderson, 17 miles down the freeway from where I live. One day I drove those 17 miles to Henderson. I exited the freeway and turned onto College Drive. I only had to drive another quarter mile down the road to the college. But just then my car died and wouldn't start again. So I left my car there and marched down the road to the college.
As soon as I got there I called AAA and arranged for a tow truck to meet me at my car after class. The secretary in the office asked me what had happened. "This is my lucky day." I replied, smiling.
"Your car breaks down and today is your lucky day?" She was puzzled. "What do you mean?"
"My car could have broken down anywhere along the freeway but it didn't." I replied, "Instead, it broke down in the perfect place: off the freeway, within walking distance from here. I'm still able to teach my class, and I've been able to arrange for the tow truck to meet me after class." The secretary's eyes opened wide, and then she smiled. I smiled back and headed for class. So ended my story.
I scanned the sixty faces in my class at UNLV. Despite the early hour, no one seemed to be asleep. Somehow, my story had touched them. Or maybe _ In fact, it had all started with a student's observation that I was cheerful. An Indian wise man once said, "Who you are speaks louder to me than anything you can say." I suppose it must be so. | high7262.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Skagway"
},
"options": [
"Juneau",
"Skagway",
"Haines",
"Gustavus"
],
"question": "You can feel the history of the local place at _",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answe... | Nothing evoke Alaska like a whale exploding out of the water or an eagle pulling a silver fish from the river. Combine these images with high mountains, brilliant icebergs and wonderful meals and you really do have the Best of Alaska!
Join us for an unforgettable 7-day excursion to the last frontier! Additional highlights include: a scenic flight over Glacier Bay National Park, a rafting trip through the heart of the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, historic Skagaway, a whale watching cruise and the company of knowledgeable local guides.
HIGHLIGHTS:
JUNEAU: Juneau, the state capital, is rich in culture and scenic beauty. It is here that we start and end our trip.
HAINES: Haines is a small community located along the fiords . The natural beauty and expansive wilderness found here have made Haines a premier center for adventure in Alaska. In 2004, Haines was listed by Outside Magazine and National Geographic Adventureas one of the best places for recreation and living. The activities listed below are located in Haines.
ALASKA INDIAN ARTS: Alaska Indian Arts is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to the preservation and continuation of traditional native craft and culture of the Northwest Native Tribes. Alaska Indian Arts is also the headquarters for several of Alaska's outstanding craftsmen and artisans. We spend a few hours learning carving, native beading and culture from these master artists.
SKAGWAY: Skagway is famous for its role in the Klondike Gold Stampede over 100 years ago. Today, it is historic yet lively town, which still reflects its gold rush roots and contains colourful shops. In Skagway, we stop by the Klondike Gold Rush National Park Visitor's Center and ride the White Pass Yukon Route Railway.
GUSTAVUS: Gustavus is the gateway to the Glacier National Park. We'll stay at a comfortable lodge here for two nights. This will be the base for both the whale-watching excursion and a full day cruise in Glacier Bay.
DATES/PRICES:
2011: May 16, June 20, July 18, August 15.
7 days--$3,500, including lodging, all meals, excursions, guides, park fees, sales taxes, and transportation between Juneau, Skagway, Haines, and Gustavus. Not included: alcohol, personal items, airfare to and from Juneau.
CONTACTS:
E-mail: info@aladkamountinguides.com
Call(800)766-3396
Write: Alaska Mountain Guides&Climbing School
P.O.Box 1081, Haines AK99827 | high23297.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Sentences to paragraphing."
},
"options": [
"Critical thinking.",
"5-paragraph essay.",
"Sentences to paragraphing.",
"Writing for TOEFL and CEE."
],
"question": "According to the letter, what will Edward teach ... | Dear Ms. Wang,
I am writing to inform you of some arrangements about my composition course and Latin course next year.
I've decided to re-establish the 5-paragraph essay as the goal for the composition course. I interviewed some of my former students and they all agreed that being able to write critically and continuouslywas important to them.
So next academic year, Term 1 will be like always: sentences to paragraphing. And Term 2 will work toward the 5-paragraph essay. The final 3 weeks of Term 2 will be reserved tointroduce writing for TOEFL and CEE. By that time, if the students have done their job correctly, then they should be able to write quite well.
As for the Latin course, I will post notices around campus next week so that the students will understand what's on offer before I actually introduce the course. A number of students already emailed me about the course.
I am sure you don't understand what a big deal our opening this program at our school is. People around the world are interested in what we plan to do. There are many rewards available to the students who succeed in the course. Please share what I have said with the administration. I want them to understand the importance of this course. The reason I have contacted these colleagues (actually Oxford contacted me) isthatI have confidence in our students and in myself. I know that when those professors meet our students and hear them speaking and reading Latin, they are going to be amazed. It will open all sorts of doors for students that they never even thought of knocking on.
Well, that's it for now. I'll see you soon.
Yours,
Edward Johnson | high13354.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Sharing the joy of gardening with children."
},
"options": [
"Teaching children how to garden.",
"Giving children the chance to show off",
"Helping children realize the importance of work.",
"Sharing the joy of gardenin... | Gardening can be a very relaxing hobby for many people and this wonderful experience is not just for adults. Children are interested in gardening as well, if given the chance to explore nature and science in this way. Gardening can bring joy to both children and their parents alike, especially when the experience is shared together.
The time that is spent gardening together builds precious memories within their hearts and minds for years to come. When you are gardening with your children, try to give them their own special area. Keep their area in the center of the best soil and light, as you want to make sure of a successful gardening experience.
Plastic tools easily break and are difficult to use in the dirt, so when you are gardening with your children, give them real tools to use if possible. Even offering to let them use your tools is a way to admit the worth of the work they are doing. It is also important to talk with your children about the whole process of gardening, from planting to the harvest. They need to understand how things work and the importance of what they are doing.
Show off the children's gardening work by taking friends and visitors for a walking tour through the garden and point out the children's particular spot. When you give attention to the children's work, this is a great motivation for children to continue wanting to be involved. Do not force children to take part when they are in a bad mood or if they are becoming bored. Instead, allow them to do something different, like building a scarecrow ! This makes the gardening experience even more interesting. As you work together side by side with your children, you will encourage a love of the land in them, as well as create lasting memories of time spent with you. | high5475.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "They are lovely but troublesome."
},
"options": [
"They are polite and helpful.",
"They are lovely but troublesome.",
"They are clever and full of imagination.",
"They are careless and make silly mistakes."
],
"... | I am a mother of three girls. Getting married and having children was my childhood goal in life. By the time I had my third daughter, my middle daughter was not quite two and my oldest was three and a half. I loved them so much, yet there were some days I referred to as "too much of a good thing".
As any mother of young children knows, when the children are quiet, they're either sleeping or in trouble. This morning, I knew that the only sleeping child at this time of day could be the baby. I was wondering whether I should enjoy the silence or ruin my peace --- and the girls' fun.
Finally, I thought I'd better go and find out what those two were doing. I could hear a noise. It was coming from the bathroom. As I got closer, I could see that the door was closed. I said to myself, "Oh no, please not the toilet again!"
Sure enough, when I opened the door I saw Candace and Charity standing around the toilet, dipping their toothbrushes in --- and brushing their teeth! Not only that, but the toilet was unflushed !
I hardly had any words to speak. As I snatched the toothbrushes out of their hands and flushed the toilet I shouted, "What are you doing?"
Candace, my oldest daughter, answered, "We're brushing our teeth!" They both smiled at me.
Hoping this was the only time they had ever done this shocking thing, I asked, "You never did this before, did you?" Candace answered, "Oh, we do it all the time, mommy. We do it with yours and Daddy's toothbrush, too!"
The moral of the story: What you don't know won't hurt you; but when you do find out, it just might kill you! | high18201.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Allowing children to learn about science through play."
},
"options": [
"Encouraging more people to do scientific work.",
"Allowing children to learn about science through play.",
"Helping people understand scientific develop... | Vacation spots in Ohio
The Boon shoft Museum of Discovery
The museum is based on the understanding that science is the process through which we come to
understand our world, and that play is the way children do science. Visitors of all ages can explore the wonders of the world. The museum includes many places for adventure such as the Discovery Center and the Hall of the Universe. What make adventures more exciting are real speciments from the museum's collection of 1.4 million items.
African Wildlife Park
This wildlife park is spread across a large area of about 100 acres and you can see different species of animals moving freely as if in their natural habitat. On entering the park, you are given a basket of food for free. You are able to feed the animals out of the comfort of your own car. Any additional basket of food needs to be paid for.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was opened some where in 1995, with a purpose of celebrating the spirit of rock and roll music and also studying it! It is among the top 10 vacation spots in Ohio. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame offers exhibitions, music events and also training programs on the subject. This is a perfect stop for everything on rock and roll music!
The Armstrong Museum
The Armstrong Museum, located in Neil Armstrong's hometown of Wapakoneta, Ohio, celebrates the life and the mission of the first man to walk on the moon. You can see one of the planes that Armstrong tested and enjoy a film about the development of the US space program. | high17132.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "language"
},
"options": [
"places",
"time",
"money",
"language"
],
"question": "The writer thinks _ should be considered first before students study abroad.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
... | "USA? Britain? Which country is better to study in?" We often hear such discussions. As China opens its doors, studying abroad has become a dream for many Chinese students. They want to learn about the world.
It's true that studying abroad can help students develop themselves. Language skills will improve and it may be easier to find jobs.
But there are problems that should be considered. Language is the first. Students must spend a lot of time learning another language and getting used to a different culture.
Students must also learn to live without parents' care and deal with all kinds of things they haven't had to do before, like looking after themselves. There are reports about Chinese students abroad sinking into an ocean of difficulties and giving up easily. When they have to take care of themselves, it is hard for students to study well.
Finally, studying abroad brings a heavy burden to the family. For most Chinese parents, the cost of studying abroad is very high. But is it worth it?
We know that there are many famous people who succeed in great things through their hard work in China. Liu Xiang is a good example. Once an American teacher invited him there but he refused. He kept training hard with his Chinese teacher. He surprised the world when he won a gold medal at the Athens Olympics. So when you wonder which country is better to study in, consider whether studying abroad is the right choice. | high10885.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "He decided to order some roses."
},
"options": [
"He planned to open a flower shop.",
"He decided to order some roses.",
"He wanted to take a good rest.",
"He had to see somebody there."
],
"question": "Why did ... | John had been on a business trip for three weeks. It was coming up on Mother's Day, and he usually tried to go back home, but this time he was too tired. He was in a small town outside of Little Rock when he drove by a flower shop. He decided to send his mother some roses.
He went into the shop and saw a young man talking to the florist. "How many roses can I get for six dollars, ma'am?" the boy asked. The florist tried to explain that roses were expensive. Maybe he should be happy with carnations .
"No, I have to have roses," he said, "My mom was sick so much last year and I had little time with her. It has to be red roses, 'cause that's her favourite."
The florist shook her head. John was touched by the boy, who wanted to get those roses so badly. John looked at the florist and silently mouthed that he would pay for the boy's roses. Then the florist said, "Ok, I will give you a dozen red roses for your six dollars." The young man almost jumped into the air. He took the flowers and ran from the store. It was worth the extra thirty-five dollars just to see that kind of excitement.
John ordered his own flowers and had the florist be sure that delivery would include a note telling his mother how much he loved her. Then he drove away from the shop. As he waited at the light, he saw the young man crossing the street and enter a park through two huge gates. Suddenly, he realized it wasn't a park. It was a cemetery .
The light changed, and John slowly crossed the road, parked his car and got out to follow the boy down the fence. The boy stopped by a small monument and went on his knee. He carefully laid the roses on the ground and cried, "Mommy, why didn't I tell you how much I love you?, Jesus, please. Tell my mommy I love her." John turned, tears in his eyes, and walked back to his car. He drove quickly to the flower shop and told the florist he would take the flowers personally. | high21480.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Watersports Club"
},
"options": [
"Diving Center",
"Watersports Club",
"Riding School",
"Sailing Club"
],
"question": "If you want to swim and enjoy activities which are fast and a bit dangerous, you should join... | Riding School:
You can start horse-riding at any age. Choose private or group lessons any weekday between 9 a. m.and 8:30 p.m.(3:30 p.m.on Saturdays). There are 10 kilometers of tracks and paths for leisurely rides across farmland and open country. You will need a riding hat.
Opening Hours: Monday through Friday:9:00 a.m.--8:30 p.m.
Phone:( 412)396--6644 FaxL412) 396-6752
Sailing Club:
Our Young Sailor's Course leads to the Stage 1 Sailing qualification. You'll learn how to sail safely and the course also covers sailing theory and first aid. Have fun with other course member, afterwards in the clubroom. There are 10 weekly two-hour lessons (Tuesday 6:00 p.m--8:00p.m)
Opening Hours:Tuesdays:6:00p.m--8:00 p.m.
Phone: (412)396--6644 Fax: (412)396--6644
Diving Center:
Our experienced instructors offer one-month courses in deep-sea diving for beginners. There are two evening lessons a week, in which you learn to breathe underwater and use the equipment safely. You only need a swimming costume and towel. Reduced rates for couples.
Opening Hours: Monday and Friday:6:30p.m-8:30p.m.
Phone: (412)396-6312 Fax: (412)396-6706
Medical Center:
The staff of the Medical Center aim to provide convenient and comprehensive medical care to students and staff of the university. The center is well equipped and the staff here are trained to deal with a broad range of medical problems. Both female and male doctors as well as nursing staff are available for consultation. Also, all kinds of medicines are sold here and are cheaper for students than other drugstores.
Opening Hours: 24 hours from Monday to Sunday
Phone:(412)396--6649 Fax:(412) 396--6648
Watersports Club:
We use a two-kilometer length of river for speedboat racing and water-skiing.A beginners' course consists of ten 20-minute lessons. You will learn to handle boats safely and confidently, but must be able to swim. The club is in a convenient central position and is open daily from 9 a. m to 4 p.m, with lessons all through the day.
Opening Hours: Monday through Friday: 9:00a.m.--4:00 p.m.
Phone: (412)39606899 Fax: (412) 396-6890 | high3004.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Her name."
},
"options": [
"Her address.",
"Her birthday.",
"Her name.",
"Her telephone number."
],
"question": "What did Nikki know about her sister before her searching?",
"question_type": null
},
{
... | Nikkli was brought up from a vey early age by her father while her sister was raised by her mother. Nikki spent a very small amount of time with her mum and sister when she was about 6 years old, but soon after contact stopped when communication broke down between her parents.
She never felt she wanted to find her family while she was growing up. But now with a husband and a son, she decided it was the right time.
Nikki didn't know where to start, but her husband's mum had used 192. com for finding people before and recommended it to her. With the help of her son, she started by searching for her sister's full name on the electoral roll without a location, because she had no idea where she lived, even her date of birth. From that one search, the site returned two results listed in the area they used to live.
Nikki decided to call the first number. To her surprise, it was her long lost sister! So after 20 years, it was one phone call that helped her contact her sister! Her sister then passed her number on to her mother, who called Nikki straight away, and it was like they had never been apart.
Her mum was so glad to find out Nikki was well that they arranged to meet everyone that Saturday (3 days after the phone call) where she was reunited with her sister and met her two nephews for the first time. Nikki also found out she had a half sister and brother.
When talking about the reunion, Nikki said, "192.com made finding my long lost family very easy. I was not on any social networking sites before and surprisingly neither was my sister or mum, so we would never have found each other that way."
Nikki will be spending her first Christmas tighter with the other side of her family this year. | high20946.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "To help solve the universal problem of stress."
},
"options": [
"To release his or her working tiredness.",
"To help solve the universal problem of stress.",
"To strengthen his or her anxiety.",
"To have more people cry... | While it is impossible to live completely free of stress, it is possible to prevent stress as well as reduce its effect when it can't be avoided. The US Department of Health and Human Services offers the following suggestions for ways to deal with stress.
Try physical activity
When you are nervous, angry or upset, try releasing the pressure through exercise or physical activity. Running, walking, playing tennis, or working in your garden are just some of the activities you might try. Physical exercise will relieve your anxiety and worry and help you to relax. Your body and your mind will work together to ease the stress in your life.
Share your stress
It helps to talk to someone about your anxieties and worries. Perhaps a friend, family member, teacher or even your leader can help you a better view of what's troubling you. If you feel your problem is serious, you might seek professional help from a psychologist or a doctor. Knowing when to ask for help is an important step in avoiding serious problems later.
Take care of yourself
You should make every effort to eat well and get enough rest. If you easily get angry and cannot sleep well enough, or if you're not eating properly, it will be more likely that you will fall into stressful situations. If stress repeatedly keeps you from sleeping, you should consult a doctor. Make time for yourself.
Make a list of the things you need to do
Stress can result from disorganization and a feeling that "there's so much to do, and not enough time". _ . Instead, make a list of everything you have to do, then do one thing at a time, checking off each task as it is completed. Set out to do the most important tasks first.
Go ahead and cry
A good cry can be a healthy way to bring relief to your anxiety. It might even help you avoid a headache or other physical effect of anxiety and stress. | high11225.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "every year when autumn comes"
},
"options": [
"every year when autumn comes",
"in the afternoon every day",
"every time he walks along his street",
"now that he is an old man"
],
"question": "The writer calls up... | About this time every year, I get very nostalgic . Walking through my neighborhood on a fall afternoon reminds me of a time not too long ago when sounds of children filled the air, children playing games on a hill, and throwing leaves around in the street below. I was one of those children, carefree and happy. I live on a street that is only one block long. I have lived on the same street for sixteen years. I love my street. One side has six houses on it, and the other has only two houses, with a small hill in the middle and a huge cottonwood tree on one end. When I think of home, I think of my street. Only I see it as it was before. Unfortunately things change. One day, not long ago, I looked around and saw how different everything has become. Life on my street will never be the same because neighbors are quickly grown old, friends are growing up and leaving, and the city is planning to destroy my precious hill and sell the property to contractors.
It is hard for me to accept that many of my wonderful neighbors are growing old and won't be around much longer. I have fond memories of the couple across the street, who sat together on their porch swing almost every evening, the widow next door who yelled at my brother and me for being too loud, and the crazy old man in a black suit who drove an old car. In contrast to those people, the people I see today are very old neighbors who have seen better days. The man in the black suit says he wants to die, and another neighbor just sold his house and moved into a nursing home. The lady who used to yell at us is too tired to bother any more, and the couple across the street rarely go out to their front porch these days. It is difficult to watch these precious people as they near the end of their lives because at once I thought they would live forever.
The "comings and goings" of the younger generation of my street are now mostly "goings" as friends and peers move on. Once upon a time, my life and the lives of my peers revolved around home. The boundary of our world was the gutter at the end of the street. We got pleasure from playing night games or from a breathtaking ride on a tricycle. Things are different now, as my friends become adults and move on. Children who rode tricycles now drive cars. The kids who once played with me now have new interests and values as they go their separate ways. Some have gone away to college like me, a few got married, two went into the army, and one went to prison. Watching all these people grow up and go away makes me long for the good old days.
Perhaps the biggest change on my street is the fact that the city is going to turn my precious hill into several lots for new homes. For sixteen years, the view out of my kitchen window has been a view of that hill. The hill was a fundamental part of my childhood life; it was the hub of social activity for the children of my street. We spent hours there building forts, sledding, and playing tag. The view out of my kitchen window now is very different; it is one of tractors and dump trucks tearing up the hill. When the hill goes, the neighborhood will not be the same. It is a piece of my childhood. It is a visual reminder of being a kid. Without the hill, my street will be just another pea in the pod.
There was a time when my street was my world, and I thought my world would never change. But something happened. People grow up, and people grow old. Places changes, and with the change comes the heartache of knowing I can never go back to the times I loved. In a year or so, I will be gone just like many of my neighbors. I will always look back to my years as a child, but the place I remember will not be the silent street whose peace is interrupted by the sounds of construction. It will be the happy, noisy, somewhat strange, but wonderful street I knew as a child. | high3762.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "When she was eight years old."
},
"options": [
"When she was eight years old.",
"When she was in the fifth grade.",
"When she was thirteen years old.",
"When she was in the eighth grade."
],
"question": "When di... | Not being the best but touching the limits of your ability. This belief came from my third grade teacher, the most trusted and loved person in my life.
Mr. Myrus was always perfectly dressed and spoke with the conviction that talking to small kids didn't mean that he had to sacrifice proper pronunciation or grammar. And he was demanding. Oh, he wasn't unreasonable or cruel; he simply felt that no matter what your best was, you should achieve it.
As luck would have it, I met him again as my eighth grade math teacher. I was not, nor ever will be, gifted in math. And thirteen-year-old girls do not have the energy to devote to something like square roots . I remember our struggles, "I don't know the answer. I can't do it.!" "Perhaps you don't know the answer," he would say quietly. "Do you think we might figure it out together? How do you know what you can do until you try?"
Mr. Myrus lived around the corner, and I would often stop by to talk while he worked in his wood shop. In this room of sawdust, wood chips, and the smoke from the woodburning stove, I felt respected and valued as a person. I knew there was someone who liked me for who I was, someone who, while he always wanted me to do my best, let me know that if I had really tried, that was enough.
Mr. Myrus was my teacher and my friend. He taught me to be kind. He taught me my own value. He taught me about honor, about truth, and about doing my best--and that all feelings and beliefs have dignity and deserve respect. And of all the things I know, this I believe: We can't all be "the" best, but we can, each of us, be our best, and I know that's true because Mr. Myrus told me. | high19679.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "There are three doctors in Poe's family."
},
"options": [
"Poe is too busy to spare time for her family.",
"Poe decided to be a doctor when she was in Grade 5.",
"There are three doctors in Poe's family.",
"Poe's husban... | As the only physician in a small local clinic and hospital, Katrina Poe sees dozens of patients on any given day. She's on call at the hospital in Kilmichael every day, and she gets little time with her sons, aged 3 and 3 months. But the country doctor doesn't complain about her job. It's the one she chose for herself 25 years ago while she was a fifth-grader in Kilmicahael.
The daughter of two workers in a town that had produced only two other doctors, Poe might not have been expected to go to college at all, let alone medical school. But it was a challenge at first, being the town's first female and first black doctor. She even had patients who refused to see her at first. But a lot of those patients who were unwilling in the beginning are now some of her most favorite patients and have accepted her, finally. Many patients, in fact, now refuse to seek health care elsewhere.
Though she's working at least 80 hours a week, Poe is sorry that she sometimes has to turn patients away. "I just can't see everybody," she says. "I'm seeing patients after hours, so it's just very busy."
In addition to her work at the hospital and clinic, Poe cares for all residents of the local nursing home and the local mental health facility during monthly visits. "This town and the little hospital are fortunate to have her," says Calvin Johnson, Poe's husband. He says it is without a doubt "the love and support of the people" that make living in Kilmichael worthwhile for the family.
In recognition of her services to rural medicine, the Texas-based physician staffing firm Staff Care Inc. named Poe, 35, the "2005 Country Doctor of the Year." | high17654.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "They were repairing the building"
},
"options": [
"They were searching for gold",
"They were repairing the building",
"They were pulling down the building",
"They were cleaning the building"
],
"question": "What... | A French wine producer is spreading the wealth with his workers after they discovered nearly $ 1milion worth of gold coins stored in the building's ceiling, according to a French newspaper.
"One of the workers was attacking the building's ceiling when gold coins started to rain down on him, followed by sacks of gold, " Francois Lange, the head of a wine company in Les Riceys, France, told the reporter. It's not unusual to hear about treasure hunters searching the ocean for gold and other precious metals lost at sea, but finding $ 1million in your office ceiling is an uneasy thing and a valuable one too, given that demand for gold has reached a new height recently. In 2011, about 31 grams of gold was valued at $ 1,920.30.
In all, 497 gold coins were discovered, raining down upon the workers who were busy repairing the building. Made between 1851 and 1928, the coins have a face value marking of $ 20 each. However, together they are now worth nearly $ 1million, according to the newspaper. Lange says he will keep half of the money for himself, and the other half will be shared with the workers who made the discovery. No one knows for sure who placed the coins in the building, but the newspaper reports the building was owned by a wine producer in the 1930s.
People haven't known much about these coins for now but don't be surprised if this "buried" treasure story still has another chapter to be told. After all, the $ 1 million of gold coins once belonged to somebody. Just look at the recent legal case being argued between Spain and people who found more than $500 million worth of gold coins in a sunken ship. | high22837.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "drink a few cups of water before each meal"
},
"options": [
"drink a few cups of water after each meal",
"drink a few cups of water before each meal",
"eat plenty of pears",
"eat plenty of apples"
],
"question":... | A new study suggests that the way to weight loss may be clear.A couple of glasses of water before meals help dieters lose about 5 pounds more than those who do not drink water.While drinking water before a meal may fill a person up,the contents of their meal are important as well.Should a person be eating a low-fat diet or a lowcarbohydrate diet? Or does it matter at all?
Recent research suggests that one diet isn't any better than the other.A few weeks before the water study,another concluded that lowfat and lowcarbohydrate diets tied in weight loss.While the lowcarbohydrate dieters did show a slight increase in good cholesterol and a reduction in blood pressure,there was not much difference in the dieters'weight loss.The point here is that the person had to stick to the diet.What helps a person see a diet through? It could be body type.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association,as reported byTimemagazine,found that body shape is the key to which diet a person will be able to stick with.Apples are people who carry most of their weight above the belt,while pears carry their weight around their hips .Apple types were more likely to be highinsulin secretors who respond more strongly to carbohydrates in their bodies.They lost the most weight on a lowcarbohydrate diet.Pears were lowinsulin secretors who lost the same amount of weight on both diets.Unstable insulin levels can create stronger hunger senses,causing the apple types to go off their diet plans.
All of these studies again come down to choosing the diet that helps you eat less.The bodytype diet does make some sense as men are more likely to be apple types,with larger stomachs,and tend to do well on higherprotein diets,while women,who tend to carry weight around their hips,find themselves drawn to the lowfat diets.The reality is if a diet is failing you try another one.A plan you can't,or won't,stick to will never work,no matter what the research says. | high1175.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "To buy some books from a bookstore."
},
"options": [
"To prepare for a meal.",
"To arrange the furniture in a special way.",
"To buy some books from a bookstore.",
"To \"write\" a letter with the computer."
],
"... | According to the dictionary definition of "create ",ordinary people are creative every day. To create means " to bring into being, to cause to exist"-something each of us does daily.
We are creative whenever we look at or think about something in a new way. First, this includes an awareness of our surroundings. It means using all of our senses to become aware of our world. This may be as simple as being aware of color and texture ,as well as taste, when we plan a meal. Above all, it is the ability to notice things that others might miss.
A second part of creativity is an ability to see relationships among things. If we believe the expression,"There is nothing new under the sun," the creativity is remaking or recombining the old in new ways. For example, we might do this by finding a more effective way to study or a better way to arrange our furniture, or we might make a new combination of camera lenses and filters to create an unusual photograph.
A third part of creativity is the courage and drive to make use of our new ideas, to ask for them to achieve some new results. To think up a new idea is one thing; to put the idea to work is another.
These three parts of creativity are included in all the great works of geniuses, but they are also included in many of our day-to-day activities. | high9529.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Pennies from Heaven"
},
"options": [
"Pennies from Heaven",
"My loving Dad",
"My happy childhood",
"Days in New York"
],
"question": "What is the best title for the text?",
"question_type": null
},
{
... | My dad loved pennies, especially those with wheat. Those were the pennies he grew up with in Iowa and he didn't have many.
When I was a kid, Dad and I would go for walks together. We'd spy coins along the way. Whenever I picked up a penny, he'd ask, "Is it a wheat?" It always thrilled him when we found one of those special coins produced between 1909 and 1958, the year of my birth. He told me he often dreamed of finding coins. "I have that dream too!" I told him. It was our secret connection.
Dad died in 2002. One grey day, not long after his death, I was walking down Fifth Avenue and I found myself in front of the oldest church in Manhattan, which my father had been attending. I was greeted in warmly. The song was Dad's favorite, one we'd sung at his funeral.
After the service, I walked out, stepped onto the sidewalk--and there was a penny. I picked it up, and sure enough, it was a wheat, a 1944, a year my father was serving on a ship in the South Pacific. Then, wheat pennies began turning up on the sidewalks everywhere. I got most of the important years: his birth year, the war years, the year he met my mom, the year they got married. But, no 1958 penny-my year.
The next Sunday, after the service, I was walking up Fifth Avenue and spotted a penny in the middle of the street. It was a busy street, but I risked my safety and got it.
A wheat! There was my birthday.
_ | high15043.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "last only five days"
},
"options": [
"last only five days",
"offer a free parking",
"have the only one singer",
"take place in a private house"
],
"question": "We can learn from the text that the show will _ ... | Welcome here! The Southern Spring Home & Garden Show will be held at The Park Expo and Conference Center. This show will last from Wednesday (March 2) to Sunday (March 6,2012).
Admission : Adults $10.00. Teenagers under 15 free with a paying adult.
Join Lincolnton's own Tammie Davis as she performs her original country songs at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday,March 5th.
Special Days: The Spring for Kids First Night Gala benefiting the Council for Children's Rights will take place from 7 p.m. to 10p.m. on Wednesday, March 2,2012. Tickets are $50 and include an access to Freedom Hall, where you can enjoy delicious food, beverage and entertainment free of charge.
Seniors Day(55+):Wednesday is for them. Cost is $7.00 but without coupons .
Hours :Wednesday,Thursday &Sunday :10 a.m.---5p.m.;Friday &Saturday :10 a.m.----9 a.m.
Wheelchairs are available on a first come first served basis for you. The cost is $1.00 and you are required to leave a valid driver's license or ID.
Parking :All Day Parking: $6.00;Half Day Parking:$3.00; Every Hour Parking:$1.00
For more Information: Come to visit Mardee Woodward in person.
E-mail: mwoodward@southernshows.com
Telephone:704-376-4085 | high8637.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "may not be the key to success"
},
"options": [
"is not important at all",
"has taken on a different meaning",
"may not be the key to success",
"does not help you do better at school"
],
"question": "The new rese... | Everyone has good days and bad days.
Sometimes, you feel as if you're on top of the world. But occasionally you feel horrible, and you lose things and you cannot focus on your schoolwork.
For more than 20 years, scientists have suggested that high self-esteem is the key to success. Now, new research shows that focusing just on building self-esteem may not be helpful. In some cases, having high self-esteem can bring bad results if it makes you less likeable or more upset when you fail at something.
"Forget about self-esteem," says Jennifer Crocker, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, US. "It's not the important thing."
Feeling good
Crocker's advice may sound a bit strange because it is good to feel good about yourself.
Studies show that people with high self-esteem are less likely to be depressed, anxious, shy, or lonely than those with low self-esteem.
But, after reviewing about 18,000 studies on self-esteem, Roy Baumeister, a psychologist at Florida State University, has found that building up your self-esteem will not necessarily make you a better person.
He believes that violent and wicked people often have the highest self-esteem of all. He also said: "There's no evidence that kids with high self-esteem do better in school."
Problems
All types of people have problems. People with high self-esteem can have big egos that can make them less likeable to their peers , said Kathleen Vohs, a psychology professor at Columbia University.
People with high self-esteem tend to think more of themselves, Vohs says. People with low self-esteem are more likely to rely on their friends when they need help.
What to do
Researchers say it is best to listen to and support other people. Find positive ways to contribute to society. If you fail at something try to learn from the experience. "The best therapy is to recognize your faults," Vohs says. "It's OK to say, 'I'm not so good at that,' and then move on." | high7504.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "People should have an objective view towards alternative energy."
},
"options": [
"Any kind of alternative energy is a good thing.",
"Alternative energy is bound to take the place of oil.",
"People should have an objective vi... | If I see one more article about how wonderful alternative energy is compared to oil, I will flip . Alternative energy sources can be good---- very good in fact. And it's pretty obvious that we're going to need them, and that our dependence on oil is a Bad Thing. But accepting that does not mean accepting that any kind of alternative energy is a good thing.
To be a good thing, it has to have three properties: 1) It has to help reduce our dependence on oil, 2) It has to be no worse for the environment, and 3) It has to be economically practical.
Many of the things praised meet one or even two of those properties. Solar panels, for example. They can reduce our need for oil, at least in certain regions, and they're certainly not bad for the environment. But they're expensive. If you spend the money to make your home solar-powered, you probably won't get back your costs for at least 15 years, which approaches the lifespan of the panels.
Certainly we need to clean up our act big time and find workable sources of alternative energy. But we also have to keep in mind that every one of these alternative-energy sources comes at a cost, which is something people seem to forget. They hear the phrase "alternative energy" and automatically assume it's got to be good. But green isn't always good, and oil isn't always bad.
One seemingly "green" technology that pops up again and again is electric cars. It is praised by well-meaning people as good for the environment and a way to reduce our oil dependence, especially as oil prices continue to rise.
Electric cars are dirty. In fact, not only are they dirty, they might even be more dirty than their gasoline-powered cousins.
People in California love to talk about " zero-emissions vehicles", but people in California seem to be clueless about where electricity comes from. Power plants mostly use fire to make it. Aside from the new folks who have their roofs covered with solar cells, we get our electricity from generators. Generators are fueled by something---- usually coal, oil, but also by heat generated in nuclear power plants. There are a few wind farms and geothermal plants as well, but by far we get electricity mainly by burning something.
In other words, those "zero-emissions" cars are likely coal-burning cars. It's just because the coal is burned somewhere else that it looks clean. It is not. It's as if the California Greens are covering their eyes ---- " If I can't see it, it's not happening. " Gasoline is an incredibly efficient way to power a vehicle; a gallon of gas has a lot of energy in it. But when you take that gas ( or another fue) and first use it to make electricity, you waste a nice part of that energy, mostly in the form of wasted heat ---- at the generator, through the transmission lines, etc.
A gallon of gas may propel your car 25 miles. But the electricity you get from that gallon of gas won't get you nearly as far ---- so electric cars burn more fuel than gas- powered ones. If our electricity came mostly from nukes; or geothermal, or hydro, or solar, or wind, then an electric car truly would be clean. But for political, technical, and economic reasons, we don't use much of those energy sources.
In addition, electric cars' batteries which are poisonous for a long time will eventually end up in a landfill. And finally, when cars are the polluters, the pollution is spread across all the roads. When it's a power plant, though, all the junk is in one lace. Nature is very good at cleaning up when things are too concentrated, but it takes a lot longer when all the garbage is in one spot. | high1161.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The cost of staying home is great."
},
"options": [
"They often ignore the illness if not serious.",
"They work in high spirits.",
"The cost of staying home is great.",
"The cost of medical treatment is high."
],
... | Have you ever gone to work to find that one of your coworkers is coughing and sneezing all day long? You do your best to keep a safe distance and wonder:Why did he or she come to work when they were ill? The reality for many Americans is that they do not have enough paid sick time each year to afford them the luxury of staying home because they don't feel well.
This problem doesn't just affect the working employees who are sick,though.In an article by James Warren for Bloomberg Business Week, a second-grade school teacher, Stilli Klikizos shares about the sick children that must stay in school all day long because their parents can't get off work to come and get them.In the past school year, she had several children who were unable to be picked up at school who were later diagnosed with H1N1.
There is a movement called the Healthy Families Act in Congress that would change rids situation for many Americans.The Healthy Family Act would require employers with 15 or more employees to provide 7 paid sick days a year for their workers, These days could be used not only for days when the worker is sick, but the time can also be used when caring for others,or going to routine doctor's appointments.
Those who are against the Act argue that many businesses are struggling to make ends meet owing to recession ,and point out that this is the wrong time to force employers to add an additional expense.
Those who support the Healthy Families Act say that our nation can't afford to not take
these measures. When an individual goes to work sick, they are possibly infecting their
coworkers,clients and customers.
According to a report by Katie Couric on the CBS evening news,three fourths of low wage earners _ when they are on sick leave.Those individuals include daycare workers and restaurant workers,whose health can affect the health of many. | high22823.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The laws are so general that they are hard to put into effect."
},
"options": [
"The laws are so complicated that people don't understand them.",
"The laws are so general that they are hard to put into effect.",
"The laws are... | Repeated cases of child abuse in China have shocked the country. They also have led to more protection of children's rights. But rights activists say the government and private groups need to do more to help children in need.
A small child protection service in Shanghai is trying to stop neglect and violence against children.
Gege is seven years old. She has been homeless for almost half her life. Her mother suffers from a mental condition. They lived on the streets in Shenzhen for more than three years. A man named Xiao Xudong learned about Gege. He told her story to the local media earlier this year. Government officials heard the story and found help for Gege and her mother. The mother began to receive treatment for her mental problems. Gege was sent to a centre for children who had lost both parents. She was later re-united with her father.
Her story has a happy ending. But social workers are not yet celebrating.
Xiao Xudong spoke on Skype: "We have many child protection organizations, but why do we still have so many children being abused and neglected?"
Recently, Chinese newspapers and magazines reported on repeated cases of child abuse in the country. The reports shocked many people and led the government to strengthen measures to protect children's rights.
Xie Chang'e is a lawyer. She offers legal assistance at a child protection service called Hope Home. Ms. Xie said that China has laws to protect children's rights. But the laws are often unclear, she added, and difficult to put into effect.
However, the government is starting to recognize the problems in the child welfare system. New rules state that parents or legal guardians who sexually abuse, sell, abandon or violently hurt children will lose their legal right to care for them.
Ms. Xie supports the new regulations. She says they are a good way to help protect children. But she says police and other officials do not know about the regulations or do not always follow them. She also notes that the new regulations have the force of law, but they have not yet been written into laws. | high13426.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "A deep mass of fine sand mixed with water."
},
"options": [
"A piece of solid ground mixed with water.",
"A pool near the beach filled with water.",
"A deep mass of fine sand mixed with water.",
"A piece of sinking land... | A man steps on what seems like solid ground but discovers with horror that the ground is _ beneath his feet. The man struggles desperately, but he is trapped. He cannot escape. Slowly he sinks deeper and deeper until at last he is gone, buried in the treacherous earth. The solid ground was solid only in appearance. It was actually quicksand, which is a deep mass of fine sand mixed with water.
How is quicksand formed? Water pushes up from below the surface and is held by the sand. The grains of sand are forced apart by the water. They cannot hold any weight. The subsurface water may have come from a spring, a river or a stream. Sometimes pools of water near beaches become filled with sand. When the soil under these pools does not allow for good drainage , the sand can become stretches of quicksand.
Is it true that a man who steps into quicksand is doomed to die? No, for men have fought their way from quicksand to firm land again. It is panic that creates the condition that can result in death, for the more a person struggles, the worse matters become. Quick movements will make the sand give way temporarily , but then it rushes and settles solidly around the body. A man trapped in quicksand should either lie back, or not move at all, except to stretch out his arms. When the weight of the sand his body has displaced equals his weight, he will stop sinking. With feet held still, and with slow movements of the arms, as in the backstroke in swimming men can manage to roll to safety and reach firm ground. | high14349.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "She fell in love with him."
},
"options": [
"She didn't like him because he was rude.",
"She was annoyed by his strange appearance.",
"She didn't have any strong feelings about him.",
"She fell in love with him."
],... | Paul was dealing with _ . The new girl Linda in class really liked him a lot. Paul was not happy about it.
Paul's good friend, Sam, tried to comfort him. "What's the big deal? I think Linda is kind of cute and nice enough."
Paul glared at Sam. "Then why don't you ask her to be your girlfriend? There she is, sitting all by herself at the other end of the cafeteria. Go there and ask her to be your honey!"
"She's crazy about you, not me," Sam replied.
"Well, I don't want any girlfriend, especially not a girl like her! "Paul growled.
Sam wouldn't give up. "The only thing pesky about her is that she keeps writing you those notes ."
"I don't like notes at all!" Paul interrupted. He took another sip of milk.
"Did you notice those strange brown eyes? Why aren't they normal red or pink?"
Sam took another look at Linda. "I think her face is a lovely shade of green. And her dark green curly hair is quite pretty. Besides, she's very gentle and that's what really matters."
Paul stuck out his tongue. "I think I'm going to be sick! I'd better save my dessert for later." He crammed a small bag of Maggot Munchies into his even smaller shirt pocket. "The fact is, I have a problem. That girl is getting on my nerves! "
Sam followed Paul's example and decided to save his dessert for later. However, he carefully placed the bag into his lunch box. "Do you have any ideas about how to solve your problem?" Tremor asked.
"I'm going to be mean and rude to her," Paul announced. "I'll call her names and make ugly faces at her."
"That's how you treat everyone," Sam reminded his friend.
Paul nodded. "It's time that Linda got to know the real Paul !" | high15057.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Human Capital."
},
"options": [
"OECD in Figures 2006-2007.",
"OECD Economic Outlook.",
"Human Capital.",
"Climate Change in the European Alps."
],
"question": "Which of the following books was published most la... | Human Capital - How what you know shapes your life
Version: Print (Paperback) Publication date: 20 Feb 2007
Language: English ISBN: 9789264029088 Price: C15 I $19 1$10
This book explores the influence of education and learning on our societies and lives and examines what countries are doing to provide education and training to support people throughout their lives.
Economic Policy Reforms -- Going/or Growth, 2007 Edition
Version: Print (Paperback) Publication date: 15 Feb 2007
Language: English ISBN: 9789264030473 Price: $60|$75|$41
Based on a broad set of indicators of structural policies and performance, Going for Grcwth 2007 takes stock of the recent progress made in implementing policy reforms and identifies, for each OECD country, five policy priorities to lift growth.
Climate Change in the European Alps -- Adapting Winter Tourism and Natural Hazards Management
Version: Print (Paperback) Publication date: 22 Jan 2007
Language: English ISBN: 9789264031685 Price: $24 $32$ 17
The first systematic cross-country analysis of snow-reliability of Alpine ski areas under climate change for five countries in the region: France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Germany.
OECD in Figures 2006--2007--Statistics on the Member Countries -- OECD Observer-- Volume 2006 Supplement 1
Version: Print (Paperback) Publication date: 05 Jan 2007
Language: English ISBN: 9789264022638 Price.; $15 |$20 |$10
A handy pocket reference containing key data covering the entire range of OECD
work including the economy, employment, health, education, migration, the environment, science and technology, public finances, agriculture, trade, and development aid.
OECD Economic Outlook -- December No, 80 -- Volume 2006 Issue 2
Version: Print (Paperback) Publication date: 26 Jan 2007
language-English ISBN: 9789264030954 Price: $80 | $97|$55
OECD's twice yearly assessment and projections for the economies of the OECD area and selected non-members. This edition also looks at the rise in household debt. | high7510.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "College students are involved in partying."
},
"options": [
"Making assumptions is part of college life.",
"Everyone will do something wrong in college.",
"College students are involved in partying.",
"College professor... | Ever since I started my freshman year in another state, I've realized that people make many assumptions about college students, many of which are based on partying. Even my sociology professor jokingly told our class: "If your motto isn't 'I am partying therefore I am,' you're college-ing wrong."
Whenever I say partying isn't fun, I get the same response: wide-eyed stares, dropped jaws and a resounding "Seriously?", which makes me feel like I'm being judged.
Don't get me wrong - I've tried to enjoy dancing in hot, crowded spaces to loud rap music. But at last, I've always escaped to an empty corner while trying to ignore rude, crazy people. I wondered if I was weird for wanting to stay in on a Friday night to read a book. I even questioned whether or not I was living the "authentic " college experience.
"Maybe you - a shy boy - just need to go out more." Friends have said. Suggestions like these make me think about food. Have you ever tasted something that someone else really likes and you don't? When that happens to me, I have a habit of eating more hoping that it will eventually taste good. Does that ever work? No.
For me, partying is a lot like that. From what I can tell, I'm just not a fan. I'm not trying to set myself apart - I just have a different definition of fun.
As you begin to think about your present college life, I hope this helps you realize that there isn't just one way to experience college life. Some turn up at a party to relax. I turn to a good book. Which option have you made in college? And remember: college is a place where you can keep yourself originally. It means not going with the flow and means figuring out what you want for yourself, originating your own values and thinking a way towards your future success. | high12738.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "What is the market?"
},
"options": [
"Selling and Buying.",
"Everything you do is producing for the market.",
"What is the market?",
"What the market can do for you."
],
"question": "Which of the following would... | The market is a concept. If you are growing tomatoes in your backyard for sale you are producing for the market. You might sell some to your neighbor and some to the local manager of the supermarket. But in either case, you are producing for the market. Your efforts are being directed by the market. If people stop buying tomatoes, you will stop producing them.
If you take care of a sick person to earn money, you are producing for the market. If your father is a steel worker or a truck driver or a doctor or a grocer, he is producing goods or service for the market.
When you spend your income, you are buying things from the market. You may spend money in stores, supermarkets, gas stations and restaurants. Still you are buying from the market. When the local grocer hires you to drive the delivery truck, he is buying your labor in the labor market.
The market may be something abstract . But for each person or business that is making and selling something, it is very _ . If nobody buys your tomatoes, it won't be long before you get the message. The market is telling you something. It is telling you that you are using energies and resources in doing something the market doesn't want you to do. | high11231.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "a year off between high school and college for certain purposes"
},
"options": [
"a gap you come across after leaving high school",
"a time when you are caught in a dilemma between work and study",
"a period before you find a... | Young women are more adventurous than young men when traveling abroad in gap years. One in three female backpackers visits more than three countries during a year out and travels alone, according to new research.
By contrast, the majority of their male counterparts visit only one country and tend to travel in groups, says a survey by the Gap Year company, which provides information and services for students considering taking a year out.
More women than men say that their prime reason for taking time off is to see the world and experience different cultures. Men were more likely to rank "having fun" higher on their list of priorities. Women were more likely to value the challenge of a foreign trip, and many cited reasons such as learning a language and meeting new people.
The more adventurous gap years taken by women seem to work to their benefit: more than three quarters of those surveyed reported increased confidence, self-reliance and independence, whereas only half of the men had that experience.
The research also showed that women were more likely to do voluntary work while traveling, with more than one in ten helping with teaching or development projects. One of the reasons given for this is a wish to see the country in an authentic light.
A greater proportion of women than men faced objections or criticism from their families over their gap-year plans. Among the men surveyed, lack of money was the main barrier to travel.
Carolyn Martin, a doctor from London, was a typically confident female traveler.
Starting in Cape Town, she traveled around southern Africa and Australia with a string of unusual and sometimes dangerous jobs.
"I had one job chasing elephants off the runway in Africa by banging a stick against a pan," she recalled. "It was OK but one day I did get chased by one."
She said that she had traveled alone because "you meet more people". | high17898.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "sympathy"
},
"options": [
"brave",
"honest",
"sympathy",
"pride"
],
"question": "Which is the most correct description of the author's too? He was/had _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
... | Last night was the last game for my eight-year-old son's soccer team. It was the final quarter. The score was two to one, my son's team in the lead. Parents surrounded the playground, offering encouragement.
With less than ten seconds remaining, the ball suddenly rolled in front of my son's teammate, Mickey O' Donnel. With shouts of "Kick it!" echoing across the playground, Mickey turned around and gave it everything he had. All around me the crowd erupted . O'Donnel had scored!
Then there was silence. Mickey had scored all right, but in the wrong goal, ending the game in a tie. For a moment there was a total _ . You see, Mickey has Down syndrome and for him there is no such thing as a wrong goal. All goals were celebrated by a joyous hug from Mickey. He had even been known to hug the opposing players when they scored.
The silence was finally broken when Mickey, his face filled with joy, hugged my son tightly and shouted, "I scored! I scored. Everybody won! Everybody won!" For a moment I held my breath, not sure how my son would react. I need not have worried. I watched, through tears, as my son threw up his hand in the classic high-five salute and started chanting, "Way to go Mickey! Way to go Mickey!" Within moments both teams surrounded Mickey, joining in the chant and congratulating him on his goal. Mike happily and everyone sent their wishes to him.
Later that night, when my daughter asked who had won, I smiled as I replied, "It was a tie. Everybody won." | high4019.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "good at judging one's character"
},
"options": [
"interested in observing things around",
"good at judging one's character",
"strict with her boyfriend",
"fond of challenges"
],
"question": "According to the tex... | My father had always been an alert observer of human character. Within seconds of meeting someone, he could sum up their strengths and weaknesses. It was always a challenge to see if any of my boyfriends could pass Dad's test. None did. Dad was always right -- they didn't pass my test either. After Dad died, I wondered how I'd figure it out on my own.
That's when Jack arrived on the scene. He was different from any other guy I'd dated. He could sit for hours on the piano bench with my mother, discussing some composers. My brother Rick loudly announced that Jack wasn't a turkey like the other guys I'd brought home. Jack passed my family's test. But what about Dad's?
Then came my mother's birthday. The day he was supposed to drive, I got a call. "Don't worry," he said, "but I've been in an accident. I'm fine, but I need you to pick me up."
When I got there, we rushed to a flower shop for something for Mom. "How about gardenias?" Jack said, pointing at a beautiful white corsage . The florist put the corsage in a box.
The entire ride, Jack was unusually quiet. "Are you all right?" I asked. "I've been doing a lot of thinking," he said. "I might be moving." Moving? Then he added, "Moving in with you." I nearly put the car on the sidewalk. "What?" I asked. "I think we should get married," he said. He told me he'd planned his proposal in a fancy restaurant, but after the accident, he decided to do it right away. "Yes," I whispered. We both sat dumbfounded , tears running down our cheeks. I'd never known such a tender moment. If only Dad were here to give his final approval.
"Oh, let's just go inside." Jack laughed. My mother opened the door. "Happy Birthday!" we shouted. Jack handed the box to her. She opened it up. Suddenly, her eyes were filled with tears. "Mom, what's wrong?" I asked. "I'm sorry," she said, wiping her eyes. "This is only the second gardenia corsage I've ever received. I was given one years ago, long before you kids were born." "From who?" I asked. "Your father," Mom said. "He gave me one right before we were engaged." My eyes locked on Jack's as I blinked away tears. Dad's test? I knew Jack had passed. | high18573.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "To inspire all young people with disabilities"
},
"options": [
"To inspire all young people with disabilities",
"To tell the story of Cox's life and her desire",
"To show how important one's foot is",
"To show how Cox w... | Earning a black belt in martial arts and being issued a pilot's license are both impressive accomplishments that take year of effort to achieve, but 30-year-old Jessica Cox has done both despite being born without arms.
In spite of all difficulties , but with strong faith and the help of her family ,Cox put herself through high school and then college, typing papers with her toes, She became the first armless black belt in American Taekwondo Association and now has two black belts, She got her driver's license and then, astonishingly, her pilot's license in 2008, The achievement earned her a place in the Guinness Would Records, which recognized her for becoming the first person without arms to fly an airplane.
Now Cox is the subject of a new documentary, Rightfooted, Which Cox says the hopes will inspire disabled young people around the world, "Had I watched a film similar to this one earlier, in my life ,I know it would have make a difference." Cox says in a trailer for the documentary.
The young woman says her current goal is to become a motivational speaker, particularly for chileren born without arms , She says she believes her message can reach millions of people working to overcome a variety of disabilities.
As the next step, she has been invited by non-governmental organization Handicap International to work with disabled children in Ethiopia Cox is extremely excited for the opportunity, She hopes that sharing her story will inspire children with disabilities and encourage Ethiopians to include all children in school because in Ethiopia only one percent of children with disabilities are educated and their parents do not think they can benefit from going to school, She also hopes to meet with government officials to inspire change. | high5307.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Signs of improving."
},
"options": [
"Great efforts.",
"Signs of improving.",
"Learning ability.",
"Change in method."
],
"question": "What does the phrase \"green shoots\" mean in \"You will be bound to see tha... | Consult the page adapted from an English dictionary and do Questions 53-56.
Important words to learn: E Essential I Improver A Advanced
shoot [Su:t]
^verb (shot, shot) WEAPON-1 E to fire a bullet or an arrow, or to hit, injure or kill a person or animal by firing a bullet or arrow at them: If he's not armed, don't shoot. [?]The kids were shooting arrows at a target.[?]She was shot three times in the head.[?]He has a license to shoot pheasants on the farmer's land. [?]A policeman was shot dead in the city centre last night. [?] The troops were told to shoot to kill. SPORT-2 A to try to score points for yourself or your team, in sports involving a ball, by kicking, hitting or throwing the ball towards the goal: He shot from the middle of the field and still managed to score. MOVE QUICKLY-3 A to move in a particular direction very quickly and directly: She shot past me several meters before the finishing line. [?] He shot out of the office a minute ago - I think he was late for a meeting.[?]They were just shooting off to town so we didn't stop to speak.
shooter ['Su:t@] noun[C]He's thought to be the best shooter in the league.
^idioms have shot your bolt UK INFORMAL to have already achieved all that you have the power, ability or strength to do and to be unable to do more: He started off the game well but seemed to have shot his bolt by half-time.
* shoot yourself in the foot to do something without intending to which spoils a situation for yourself
* shoot your mouth off INFORMAL to talk too much in a loud and uncontrolled way: It's just like Richard to go shooting his mouth off about other people's affairs.
* shoot for the moon US to ask for the best or the most you could hope for: You might as well shoot for the moon and ask for a promotion as well as a raise.
* shoot questions at sb to ask someone a lot of questions very quickly, one after the other: He shot questions at me so quickly that I didn't even have time to answer.
* shoot the breeze US INFORMAL to talk with someone or a group of people about things which are not important: We sat out on the porch, just shooting the breeze.
^ phrasal verbs shoot sth down to destroy an aircraft or make an aircraft, bird, etc. fall to the ground by shooting at it: He was killed during the war when his plane was shot down.
shoot sb down to shoot and usually kill someone, showing no sympathy: I saw Tom shoot him down like a dog in the street.
shoot for/at sth US to try to do something: It's worth taking chances when you're shooting at a chance of fame and wealth.
shoot out If opposing groups or people armed with guns shoot it out, they shoot at each other until one of the groups or people is dead or defeated.
shoot through AUSTRALIAN INFORMAL to leave a place very quickly, especially in order to avoid having to do something
shoot up INCREASE-INFORMAL to grow in size, or increase in number or level, very quickly: David has really shot up since I saw him last. [?]Prices shot up by 25%.
^ noun PLANT-1[C]the first part of a plant to appear above the ground as it develops from a seed, or any new growth on an already existing plant: Two weeks after we'd planted the seeds, little green shoots started to appear. [?]FIGURATIVE The first green shoots (="hopeful" signs) of economic recovery have started to appear.
FILM-2[C USUALLY SINGULAR] when photographer take a series of photographs, usually of the same person or people in the same place: We did a fashion shoot on the beach, with the girls modeling swimwear. WEAPON-3[C]an occasion on which a group of people go to an area of the countryside to shoot animals
shooting ['Su:tiNG] noun 1 A [U]when bullets are shot from guns or other weapons: We heard some shooting in the night. 2 A [C]when someone is injured or killed by a bullet shot from a gun: There have been a number of shootings in the capital this week. 3[U]the sport of shooting animals or birds: pleasant/grouse shooting [?] He goes shooting most weekends. | high10649.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "be in hot water"
},
"options": [
"be in hot water",
"have to hold water",
"be in deep water",
"keep your head above water"
],
"question": "Don't cheat in this exam! Or you'll _ if you're caught cheating by th... | Expressions about water are mostly as common as water itself.
The expression "to be in hot water" is one of them. It is a very old expression. Hot water was used five hundred years ago to mean being in trouble. One story says it got that meaning from the custom of throwing extremely hot water down on enemies attacking a castle. That no longer happens. But we still get "in hot water". When we are in hot water, we are in trouble. It can be any kind of trouble, serious or not so serious. A person who breaks a law can be in hot water with the police. A young boy can be in hot water with his mother if he walks in the house with dirty shoes.
"Being in deep water" is almost the same as being in hot water. When you are in deep water, you are in a difficult position. Imagine a person who can not swim being thrown in water over his head. You are in deep water when you are facing a problem that you don't have the ability to solve. You can be in deep water, for example, if you invest in stocks without knowing anything about the stock market.
"To keep your head above water" is a color1ful expression that means staying out of debt. A company seeks to keep its head above water during economic hard times. A man who loses his job tries to keep his head above water until he finds a new job.
"Water over the dam" is another expression about past events. It is something that is finished, and cannot be changed. The expression comes from the idea that water has floated over a dam and cannot be brought back again. When a friend is troubled by a mistake she has made, you might tell her to forget about it. You say it is water over the dam.
Another common expression "to hold water" is about the strength or weakness of an idea or opinion that you may be arguing about. It probably comes from a way of testing the condition of a container. If it can hold water, it is strong and has no holes in it. If your argument can hold water, it is strong and does not have any holes; if it does not hold water, then, it is weak and not worth debating.
"Throwing cold water" also is an expression that deals with ideas or proposals.
For example, you want to buy a new car because the old one has some problems, but your wife throws cold water on the idea because she says a new car costs too much. | high18215.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "When you need to concentrate."
},
"options": [
"While breathing.",
"While not reading.",
"When you need to concentrate.",
"When you waste your time."
],
"question": "When can you feel you are thinking?",
"qu... | Thoughts claim our attention continuously, and waste our time and energy on unimportant and useless matters. They actually rule our life. We have become so used to this slavery, that we take it for granted, and have become unconscious of this habit, except on certain occasions.
While breathing, we do not need to pay attention to each inhalation and exhalation. We become conscious of the process of breathing only when we have some difficulty with breathing, such as when our nose is blocked, due to a cold, or when we are in an unventilated room.
It is the same with thinking. We become conscious of the constant onslaught of our thoughts, and of our inability to calm them down, only when we need to concentrate, solve a problem or study. We are also aware of them when we have worries or fears.
Look at the following familiar situation. You need to study something for an exam. You sit comfortably on the sofa with the book in your hands and start reading. After a while you feel hungry and go to the kitchen to eat something.
You return to read, and then hear your people talking outside. You listen to them for several moments and then bring your attention back to the book.
After a while you feel restless and switch on the radio to listen to some music. You continue to read for a little while, and then remember something that happened yesterday, and you start thinking about it.
When you look at your watch, you are amazed to find out that one complete hour has passed and you have hardly read anything. And at this time, you feel you're thinking.
This is what happens when one lacks concentration. Imagine what you could have accomplished if you could control your attention and focus your mind! | high5461.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "a newspaper"
},
"options": [
"a scientific report",
"a newspaper",
"a school textbook",
"a science fiction"
],
"question": "Where is the passage probably taken?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer":... | WASHINGTON -- Patients with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, often develop vitamin deficiencies . A new study has found that giving these patients a multivitamin with a mineral supplement helps to fight the disease and slows the disease's progression.
Sub-Saharan Africa has always been the center of the AIDS. In Botswana, despite aggressive prevention campaigns, one out of every four adults is infected with HIV. Professor Marianna Baum based her latest research there.
Baum recruited almost 900 newly infected adults who had not yet received the anti-AIDS drugs that target the virus.
These adults were then divided into groups that randomly received different combinations of vitamins B, C and E, the mineral selenium or a placebo .
Most patients with HIV become deficient in these vitamins, which help improve immunity . Baum said she initially thought the multivitamins alone or selenium alone would be effective in strengthening the immune system, but found that incorrect.
"We were surprised to find that only the combination was effective," said Baum.
Research shows that when people with HIV receive anti-retroviral drugs shortly after infection, they can remain healthy and are less likely to pass the virus to others. For many countries, however, the cost of these anti-AIDS drugs is still prohibitive.
Baum said the vitamin and mineral combination treatment should help low income countries better control the virus.
"A simple multivitamin supplementation with selenium provided early in HIV disease can actually slow the HIV disease progression and it is safe. It is low cost and it should be provided very early in HIV infection," said Baum.
Baum said the supplements are not meant to replace anti-retroviral therapy, but can help those who cannot obtain the drugs.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a world famous expert on AIDS, disagrees.
"I haven't read the paper, but having taken care of HIV-infected individuals for three decades, I would doubt that vitamins are going to have a major effect on stopping the virus," said Fauci.
Fauci said vitamin and mineral supplements may make a patient generally healthier, but the only thing that truly works to stop HIV is anti-retroviral treatment.
Baum's study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. | high17126.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "many young people think handshaking is too formal"
},
"options": [
"they prefer physical contact",
"many young people think handshaking is too formal",
"they prefer to touch fists or blow an air kiss",
"they are not acc... | Officials say an elephant has killed an American woman and her baby while the family was on a tour in Kenya.Kenya Wildlife Service official Michel Kipkeu said Sharon Brown,39, was holding her one-year-old daughter when they were trampled by the elephant Monday.Melia van Laar, owner of the castle Forest Hotel,where the family was walking with a guide about 2 kilometers from the hotel when an elephant came out from the bush at full speed.The father of the family is a teacher in Naiobi.Friends and colleagues held funeral services Wednesday.
From world leaders on the White House lawn to people at the bus stop,the common handshake is the universal greeting of peace and kindness.But young people are kissing goodbye to traditional social etiquette ,killing off the handshake, researchers say.The custom is seen as too formal by many, who prefer to touch fists or blow an air kiss instead.Nearly 74 percent of adults shake hands less than they used to -- and only 45 percent of under-25s use the greeting.But many prefer no physical contact at all, a side effect of the growing fear of diseases,according to the survey of 1,000 people.
The growing mountain of e-waste will cause great environmental damage if no new strategies are produced to deal with the _ televisions, mobile phones and computers,the UN Environment Program (UNEP) study said.Electronic waste is piling up around the world at a rate estimated at 40 million tons a year.China produces 2.6 million tons of electronic waste a year, second only to the United States with 3.3 million tons, it said.LNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said the globe was ill-prepared to deal with the explosion of electronic products over the past decade. | high10891.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "jokes can be played on this day"
},
"options": [
"it is not official holiday",
"jokes can be played on this day",
"people are relaxed on this day",
"it is an important day"
],
"question": "April Fools' Day is di... | April Fools' Day, not officially considered a holiday, is most definitely a notable day that is celebrated in many countries on April 1. The thing that is so special about April 1 is that it is the day for playing tricks and practical jokes on others. The aim of these jokes is to bring embarrassment to others.
Superstitions have it that the practical jokes are meant to be played before noon, and that those that are performed afterwards will bring bad luck. This limitation is widely losing its value due to the fact that many major hoaxes throughout history appear after noon. Another superstition is that anyone who fails to respond properly to the jokes played on them is also said to be easy to suffer from bad luck.
Some people think that being fooled by a pretty girl will be accompanied by marriage, or at least a friendship with her. That sounds like a good deal if she is truly pretty. Some people believe that being married on April Fools' Day is not a good idea for a man, and that forever in the future he will be ruled by his wife.
The origin of April Fools' day is not clearly known, but it is generally accepted to have come about as a result of the changes in the calendar system. The New Year celebrations used to begin on 25 March and last for a week, ending on 1 April. In 1582, Charles IX, King of France brought in the new Gregorian calendar, in which the new year began on 1 January. Unfortunately, some people did not hear about the change, and many others simply refused to break the tradition. | high16238.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The Arctic Ocean."
},
"options": [
"The Pacific Ocean",
"The Atlantic Ocean",
"The Indian Ocean",
"The Arctic Ocean."
],
"question": "Which of the following oceans didn't Ms Watson cross through in her voyage?",... | The 16-year-old girl Jessica Watson is said to be the youngest person to sail non-stop alone around the world. But her record has been questioned because someone thought that she has not sailed far enough. She will also not be recognized by the World Speed Sailing Record Council, as it was too dangerous for someone under 18 years old.
Ms Watson sailed into Sydney port on Saturday, seven months after leaving on a hard voyage. Family, friends and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have gathered to greet her. Thousands of well-wishers waited at the port and watched from boats as Ms Watson sailed her pink, 10m boat over the finishing line. Many more Australians watched the event broadcast live on television. Watson said she was just an "ordinary girl who believed in her dream".
Ms Watson left Sydney on 18 October, despite that some people disagreed her plan. Watson traveled northeast through the South Pacific and across the equator , south to Cape Horn at the tip of South America, across the Atlantic Ocean to South Africa, through the Indian Ocean and around southern Australia. The route took her through some of the world's most changeful waters, and she battled through huge storms and suffered seven accidents of her boat.
People around the world have followed Ms Watson's adventures on her blog, which she has daily updated . On her blog, she wrote down beautiful sunrise over seas, the excitement of meeting a blue whale and the bright, terrible sight of a shooting star flying across the night sky above her boat. Ms Watson has reportedly sold her story to a news company for $700,000. She is planning to write a book on her experience. | high11557.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "modern humans arrived in Europe about 44,000 years ago"
},
"options": [
"modern humans arrived in Europe before Neanderthals",
"modern humans arrived in Europe about 44,000 years ago",
"Neanderthals arrived in Europe about 44... | A previously unknown kind of human group disappeared from the world so completely that it has left behind the merest piece of evidence that it ever existed -- a single bone from the little finger of a child, buried in a cave in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia.
Researchers removed DNA from the bone and reported that it differed obviously from that of both modern humans and of Neanderthals , living in Europe until the arrival of modern humans on the continent some 44,000 years ago.
The child carrying the DNA line was probably 5 to 7 years old, but it is not yet known if it was a boy or a girl. The finger bone was unearthed in 2008 from a place known as the Denisova cave.
Researchers are careful not to call the Denisova child a new human species, though it may prove to be so, because the evidence is initial.
But the genetic material removed from the bone, found in a layer laid down on the cave floor between 48,000 and 30,000 years ago, belonged to a distinct human line that traveled out of Africa at a different time from the two known ancient human species. Homo erectus , found in East Asia, left Africa two million years ago, and the ancestor of Neanderthals moved away some 500,000 years ago. The numbers of differences found in the child's DNA indicate that its ancestors left Africa about one million years ago.
The region was inhabited by both Neanderthals and modern humans at that time. Counting the new human line, three human species may have lived together.
The standard view has long been that there were three human resettlements out of Africa -- those of Homo erectus; of the ancestor of Neanderthals; and finally, some 50,000 years ago, of modern humans. But in 2004, archaeologists reported that they had found the bones of small humans who lived on the Indonesian island of Flores until 13,000 years ago, causing a serious problem to this view. The new line is the second such challenge.
If the nuclear DNA of the Denisova child should differ as much as its mitochondrial DNA does from that of Neanderthals and modern humans, the case for declaring it a new species would be strengthened. But it would be unusual for a new species to be recognized on the basis of DNA alone.
In new diggings starting this summer, archaeologists will look for remains more analytical than the finger bone. Researchers will also begin re-examining the fossil collections in museums to see if any wrongly assigned bones might belong instead to the new line. | high20952.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "watermelons could be used to make fuel"
},
"options": [
"watermelon juice will be the largest source of renewable energy",
"the advantages of fuel made from watermelons",
"Western countries aim at producing biofuels",
"... | Forget chip fat, sugar cane or rapeseed oil -- the latest source of biofuel could be watermelons. Scientists have discovered that the fruit is a great source of sugar that can be readily distilled into alcohol to power cars and farm machinery.
And sellers reject 360,000 tons of "substandard" fruit every year in America alone which could be used as an economical way to make fuel. The waste from US growers could produce nearly two million gallons (nine million litres) of biofuel per year.
In the study, researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture set out to determine the biofuel potential of juice from rejected watermelons --those not sold due to
imperfections, and currently ploughed back into the field. About a fifth of each yearly watermelon crop is left in the field because of surface blemishes or because they are misshapen.
Dr. Wayne Fish, who led the team, found that 50 percent of the fruit was fermentable into alcohol which could provide valuable fuel.
"We've shown that the juice of these watermelons is a source of readily fermentable sugars, representing an unexploited raw material for alcohol biofuel production," he said.
The study, published in the journal Biotechnology for Biofuels, discovered that watermelons could produce around 20 gallons of fuel per acre from fruit that otherwise would go to waste.
Production of biofuels has been targeted by Western governments as a way to support renewable energy targets.
The European Union has a target for 2010 that 5.75 percent of transport fuels should come from biological sources, but the target is unlikely to be met.
The British government's Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation requires five percent of the fuel sold at the pump by 2010 to be biofuel. | high15731.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Wilder's achievements in American movies"
},
"options": [
"the background of American movies",
"Wilder's achievements in American movies",
"Wilder's attitude to American movies",
"the development of American movies"
... | Many experts say that Billy Wilder changed the history of American movies. He is often called the best movie maker Hollywood has ever had.
He was known for making movies that offered sharp social comment.Wilder was one of the first directors to do this.Between the middle l930s and the l980s,Billy Wilder made almost fifty movies.During that time he received more than twenty nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.He won six of the Oscar awards.His movies have been seen by people around the world.
In l944,Billy Wilder made the film Double Indemnity.Some critics said this movie established him as one of the greatest Hollywood directors.Wilder directed The Lost Weekend in 1945.Ray Milland plays the part of an alcoholic writer in the movie.It shows that alcohol rules his life,yet he does not admit it.He hides alcohol in his home and says he is not drinking.
In l950, Wilder made Sunset Boulevard.This movie told of an aging actress in silent movies.She plans to return to movies though facing many problems.In l954,Billy Wilder became an independent producer.The next year,Wilder's first movie as an independent filmmaker was a huge success.It was The Seven Year Ihch.In this movie,a married man wants to cheat on his wife with some of his friends.In l959,Wilder made a funny movie that was very popular.It was Some Like It Hot.It tells about two jazz musicians being chased by criminals.They decide to wear women's clothes and join a band in which all the musicians were women.
Wilder died in March,2002.He was ninety--five.A current Hollywood producer said:"Billy Wilder made movies that people will never forget." | high7276.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "they could see it on the map"
},
"options": [
"they had been told about it",
"they could see it on the map",
"they had seen it earlier in the day",
"they could see it from the top of the mountain"
],
"question":... | It had been a long,hard,wonderful day.The two of us had walked from the sea's edge through the length of a beautiful valley,climbed a superb mountain,travelled its narrow,rocky ridge ,and now stood on its final peak,tired,happy and looking for the perfect campsite.
The experienced backpacker has a natural feeling for such things,and our eyes were drawn to a small blue circle on the map,like an eye winking at us.We could not see _ from where we were,but we followed our judgement and went down steeply until it came into view.
We were right.It was a calm pool,with flat grass beside it.Gently taking our packs off,we made the first of many cups of tea before pulling up our tent.Later that evening,over another cup of tea and after a good meal,we sat outside the tent watching the sunset over a sea dotted with islands,towards one of which a ferry was slowly moving.It is not always so perfect,of course.On another trip,with a different companion,a thoroughly wet day had ended at a lonely farm.Depressed at the thought of camping,we had knocked and asked if we could use a barn as a shelter.
Backpacking could be defined as the art of comfortable,selfsufficient travel on foot.Everything you need is in the pack on your back,and you become _ .I once left my pack hidden in some rocks while I made a long trip to a peak I particularly wanted to climb.I was away for nearly three hours and ended up running the last stretch in fear that my precious pack would not be there.It was,of course.
The speed at which the backpacker travels makes this the perfect way to see any country.You experience the landscape as a slow unfolding scene,almost in the way it was made;and you find time to stop and talk to people you meet.I've learned much local history from simply chatting to people I met while walking through an area.At the end of a trip,whether three days or three weeks,there's a feeling of achievement,of having got somewhere under your own power.
After years of going out walking just for the day,many people start backpacking simply through wanting to stay out rather than cut short a trip. | high6168.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "keep rewards better in their memory"
},
"options": [
"keep rewards better in their memory",
"recall consequences more effortlessly",
"make risky decisions more frequently",
"learn a subject more effectively"
],
... | Decision-making under Stress
A new review based on a research shows that acute stress affects the way the brain considers the advantages and disadvantages, causing it to focus on pleasure and ignore the possible negative consequences of a decision.
The research suggests that stress may change the way people make choices in predictable ways.
"Stress affects how people learn," says Professor Mara Mather. "People learn better about positive than negative outcomes under stress."
For example, two recent studies looked at how people learned to connect images with either rewards or punishments. In one experiment, some of the participants were first stressed by having to give a speech and do difficult math problems in front of an audience; in the other, some were stressed by having to keep their hands in ice water. In both cases, the stressed participants remembered the rewarded material more accurately and the punished material less accurately than those who hadn't gone through the stress.
This phenomenon is likely not surprising to anyone who has tried to resist eating cookies or smoking a cigarette while under stress -at those moments, only the pleasure associated with such activities comes to mind. But the findings further suggest that stress may bring about a double effect. Not only are rewarding experiences remembered better, but negative consequences are also less easily recalled.
The research also found that stress appears to affect decision-making differently in men and women. While both men and women tend to focus on rewards and less on consequences under stress, their responses to risk turn out to be different.
Men who had been stressed by the cold-water task tended to take more risks in the experiment while women responded in the opposite way. In stressful situations in which risk-taking can pay off big, men may tend to do better, when caution weighs more, however, women will win.
This tendency to slow down and become more cautious when decisions are risky might also help explain why women are less likely to become addicted than men: they may more often avoid making the risky choices that eventually harden into addiction. | high393.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "he found that plants could express feelings of shock"
},
"options": [
"he destroyed an insect",
"he destroyed a plant by pulling off its leaves",
"he found that plants could express feelings of shock",
"he found that pl... | Because plants cannot move or talk, most people believe that they have no feelings and that they cannot receive signals from outside. However, this may not be completely true.
People who studied plants have found out that plants carry a small electrical charge . It is possible to measure this charge with a small piece of equipment called "galvanometer". The galvanometer is placed on a leaf off the plant, and it records any changes in the electrical field of the leaf. Humans have a similar field which can change when we are shocked or frightened.
A man called Backster used a galvanometer for his studies of plants and was very surprised at his results. He found that if he had two or more plants in a room and he began to destroy one of them - perhaps by pulling off its leaves or by pulling it out of its pot - then the galvanometer on the leaves of the other plants showed a change in the electrical field. It seemed as if the plants were signalling a feeling of shock. This happened not only when Backster started to destroy plants, but also when he destroyed other living things such as insects .
Backster said that the plants also knew if someone had destroyed a living thing some distance away, because they signalled when a man who had just cut down a tree entered the room.
Another scientist, named Sauvin, achieved similar results to Backster's. He kept galvanometers fixed to his plants all the time and checked regularly to see what the plants were doing. If he was out of the office, he telephoned to find out about the signals the plants were sending. In this way, he found that the plants were sending out signals at the exact times when he felt strong pleasure or pain. In fact, Sauvin could cause a change in the electrical field of his plants over a distance of a few miles simply by thinking about them. | high1607.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "be careful about everything"
},
"options": [
"find the right methods",
"be careful about everything",
"know your ability",
"have a clear goal"
],
"question": "According to the passage, if you want to be successf... | The quest for success always begins with a target. As Berra once said , "you get to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."
Too many people wander through life like sleepwalkers. Each day they follow familiar routines, never asking, "What am I doing with my life?"and they don't know what they're doing because they lack goals.
Goal-setting is a focus of the will to move in a certain direction. Begin with a clear conception of what you want. Write down your goals and date them---putting them into words clarifies them. Rather than concentrating on objects to acquire and possess, focus on fulfilling your desires to do, to produce, to contribute to goal-setting that yields the true sense of satisfaction we all need.
It's important to visualize yourself accomplishing your goal. While losers visualize the penalties of failure, winners visualize the rewards of success. I've seen it among athletes, statistics contrasting air and highway safety, but it made no difference. I had read too many articles describing crash scenes and imagined these scenes vividly. I had programmed myself, without realizing it ,to stay off planes.
Then one summer I had the opportunity to fly on a private plane with friends to a resort; I didn't want to miss out on a great vacation. So I spent two weeks imagining a smooth flight on a beautiful sunny day and an easy landing.
When the day arrived, I was eager to go . To everyone's surprise, I got on the plane and I loved every minute of it , and I still use the techniques I employed that day. | high2326.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "was pulled a long distance in the pram by the train"
},
"options": [
"almost fell onto the rails",
"needed to stay in hospital",
"was badly injured by the train",
"was pulled a long distance in the pram by the train"
... | The TV shows a baby's pram rolling off a train platform as the mother makes a mad rush to save her son, but she is too late and it falls onto the rails in front of an incoming train. This heart-stopping scene happened yesterday at Ashburton station in Melbourne, Australia. But the story has a happy ending: the six-month-old baby survived with just a cut on his forehead, although the pram was dragged about 35 metres by the braking train. The nurse Jon Wright said the boy just "needed a feed and a sleep" and didn't need to stay in hospital.
"Luckily, he was strapped into his pram at the time, which probably saved his life. I think the child is extremely lucky, " Wright told theHerald Sunnewspaper after the baby was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
Fortunately the train was already slowing down to stop at the station so it stopped quickly when the driver put on the brakes as soon as he saw the pram fall in front of him. Rail firm Connex is to look into how the pram rolled off the platform. The accident came one day after Connex started a child safety awareness activity warning parents to keep babies strapped into their prams at all times while on platforms.
The accident happened at the same time as the "balloon boy "story in the US, in which a six-year-old Colorado boy was reported to be trapped in a flyaway balloon. However, he was later found hiding in the family's garage. Many people believe that it had all been a publicity _ by the parents. No such doubts surround the baby on the train platform. | high10661.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "In a Canadian restaurant, the plates will stay at the table until you leave."
},
"options": [
"\"I'm good\" can mean you do not need more food in Canada.",
"In Canada, you will meet strangers in the street saying \"Hi\" to you.",
... | Don't be surprised when strangers talk to you in Canada! You will find that many Canadians will smile at you as they pass in the street, or say something to you like "Hi!" or "How's it going?" Just reply with something similar. In the UK the reply would be "I'm fine", but in Canada they say "I'm good".
In company, when someone is offering you a second helping of food or more wine, if you don't want any more, use the same expression-- "I'm good". In this case, it means "No, thank you. I've had enough". Most Canadians don't press you to eat more than you want.
In restaurant, your plate will be cleared away almost immediately you have finished eating. When you go into a shop or store, the shop assistant asks you how you are or if they can help you, it is their way of being friendly and making conversation with the customers.
Canadians eat early and go home early. When you are invited to a Canadian's home, you may be asked to arrive at 5:30 pm or 6 pm. But guests in Europe don't expect to arrive until 7:30 pm or 8 pm. Remember to take off your shoes and leave them inside the door without being asked. It's not a religious custom, but it's practical. In winter, there can be a lot of snow and dirt on your shoes, once you are in the warm house it melts and falls off, making a mess. Canadians tend to have light colored carpets or hardwood floors.
If you're invited for dinner, it will be a full sit- down meal. Meat is usually barbecued in the freezing cold of winter. Do take something with you, like a bottle of wine. Arrive on time and don't stay over 10 pm. | high16210.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "He could hardly make ends meet."
},
"options": [
"He was always very stingy.",
"He could hardly make ends meet.",
"He had already saved some money.",
"He was lucky and had a well-paid job."
],
"question": "What ... | Money management should be easy, right? You earn money. Then you use it to pay bills and taxes, donate some if you can and save some. I have paid out more than I earned in the past. I have been stingy occasionally and been sorry later. My biggest regret about money, however, is regarding savings.
When I was 30 years old, I started saving money. Finally, I had a well-paid job with a salary that would grow with time and seniority. I purchased my home and moved in. The next logical step was to save money. So I did. In one year I put away $5,000. My goal was to build another $5,000 and start investing . I was pleased with my progress. Unfortunately, life stepped in. A family member became disabled and needed financial assistance. I could not seem to control my spending, and my checking account ran dry. My credit card bills rose.
I carry no regret to any necessities that I bought for my family. However, as I look back, I realize that I did not research enough about balancing my budget before spending my savings account. I used the money to buy fast food just for convenience. I would go to the store for food when my cupboards were still not empty, because I wanted something special. I bought convenient items to save time, not considering that I was wasting money. I should have given up the name brand paper towels and used more dish rags. My $5,000 was gone quickly. That was just over 10 years ago. If I had kept the savings and restarted my savings after the emergency, I might have doubled that $5,000 by now.
When I am a senior, I will still regret that $5,000. My credit card debt will be paid back soon. I will be as wise in my charity donations as possible. But I shall always mourn my savings account. | high19123.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "53"
},
"options": [
"64",
"53",
"87",
"45"
],
"question": "How old was Lady Thatcher when she became prime minister?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
... | Baroness Thatcher, Britain's greatest post-war prime minister, died at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke (a disease related to blood vessels in the brain), her family announced on 8 April 2013. Her son, Sir Mark, and daughter Carol confirmed her death that morning. zxxk
Margaret Thatcher, daughter of a businessman and mayor of Grantham, was educated at the local grammar school, and at Oxford, where she got a degree in chemistry, and upon graduation she worked for four years as a research chemist. She then qualified as a lawyer in 1954.
As Miss Margaret Roberts, she stood twice in parliamentary elections for the Conservative Party , before being elected (after her marriage) to the House of Commons in 1959.
When the Conservatives returned to office in June 1970, she was appointed secretary of state for education and science. After the Conservatives lost power in 1974, she was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet , and was elected leader of the Conservative Party in 1975.
Baroness Thatcher became prime minister on 4 May 1979 and went on to earn the nickname "the Iron Lady", becoming known for her strong responses to the political and economic crisis, which Thatcher's supporters think are good for Britain, while her opposers argue that her policies destroyed British manufacturing.
Lady Thatcher governed Britain from 1979 to 1990. She will go down in history not only as Britain's first female prime minister, but as the woman who changed Britain's economy in addition to being an awesome rival on the international stage. zxxk
Lady Thatcher was the only British prime minister to leave behind a set of ideas about the role of the state which other leaders and nations try to copy and apply. | high4757.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Scotland"
},
"options": [
"Wales",
"England",
"Scotland",
"Chester"
],
"question": "The highest mountain in the British Isles is in _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | Welcome to this Website on the British Isles. Over the coming months it will be expanded to allow you to find information on all aspects of life in the British Isles. The British Isles is visited by millions of people each year, many returning time and again.
Wales: Wales is full of fascinating places to visit and stay. The castles of Beaumaris, Conwy, Harlech and Caernarfon are officially listed as world heritage sites and provide an insight into the troubled past of this great land. The national park of Snowdonia is stunning and provides walkers and climbers with many opportunities to challenge their limits. South Wales also has interesting places to visit: Pembrokeshire is especially inviting for tourists.
England: We all know about the attractions lf London but England has a lot more to offer outside of the city. The "English Riviers", Torquay, is blessed with good weather and is a major tourist attraction. This is a great place to stay and explore the local seaside resorts.
Windsor castle is a great place to visit and the town and surrounding areas are beautiful. Warwick castle in the centre of England is world famous and holds regular evens to show how life was like in the time it was built.
Scotland: A great place to visit, Scotland still has many places that are relatively uninhabited and are great for getting away from it all. Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in the British Isles and the numerous lakes provide great fishing. In parts you can still hear Gaelic spoken and we all know about the Scottish expertise in making Whisky! You can also visit the ski resorts of Aviemore in the Cairngorms. Glasgow, the capital is now recognized as a centre of culture as well as being a great shopping centre. | high3038.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "know whether we really love ourselves"
},
"options": [
"know whether we really love ourselves",
"appreciate what we give to the world",
"realize what type of relationship we long for",
"know whether we are loved and acc... | Most of us long for relationships in which we are loved and accepted. Our hearts' desire is to give and receive love in relationships that make us feel that even if others disagree with what we do or say, they still love us, accept us, and appreciate what we give to the world. While it would be wonderful to have these types of relationships with all people, we know that's hard to do. However, we can have such relationships with some others, but only when we first have them with ourselves--and, strangely, this is often the hardest relationship of all.
Do you love yourself? You may think you do, but do you really? There's only one way to find out-- by taking a close look at what you think, say, and do. You may not like some of what you find, but if you are serious about really loving yourself, you can use this insight to do some positive inner work. Here're three ways for gaining greater personal insight for deeper love:
Listen Closely to Your Thoughts
Your thoughts will determine your actions. One thing helping you to listen to your thoughts is keeping a journal. It is not necessary for you to write in it every day, but it helps to record various insights you gain as you go about your life. Instead of using a big notebook, you might use a small notepad that you can keep in your pocket for easy access to record your thoughts as they occur to you. Whichever method you choose, what's most important is that you write your thoughts down. It will help you know what's in your heart.
Be Honest with Yourself
To do this, you should pay attention to your actions. Actions speak louder than words, and they always tell the truth. If you say you love your job, but your actions say otherwise, which do you think is more reliable? On the other hand, if you say you're not good at a certain job, but your actions say otherwise, that's also important. What do you do with this insight? You can use it to make more positive choices in your life. By being honest with yourself, you will act according to truth instead of just what you tell yourself.
Take Quiet Time to Listen to Your Inner Voice
This is similar to the first point, but it takes a step further-- beyond the natural mind to the heart that cannot be seen. You may want to use your quiet time to think deeply. However you use this time, the key is to shut out all of the noise around you by focusing deep within yourself. Breathing deeply during quiet time will also help you focus. I know it's hard to find quiet time during a particularly busy day, but it's so important-- even if it's just 10 minutes a day and you have to hide somewhere to get it. Quiet time can really make a difference in your life.
Despite what your mind may be telling you, you can have love with no limits. The key is to unconditionally love yourself first. | high12076.txt |
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