questions list | article stringlengths 9 6.44k | id stringlengths 9 14 |
|---|---|---|
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "They lived in peace."
},
"options": [
"They lived a poor life.",
"They lived in peace.",
"They never spoke to each other.",
"They lived on the same farm."
],
"question": "What was the life like for the two broth... | Once upon a time, two brothers who lived on neighboring farms fell into conflict . It was the first serious one between them in 40 years of farming peacefully side by side. In the end, they fell apart.
One morning, a man with a carpenter's toolbox came for some work. The elder brother said, "I just have a job for you. Look at the farm across the creek . My younger brother lives there. It was he who used his bulldozer to dig the creek last week to spite me. So I want you to build me a fence, an 8foothigh fence, in order not to see his place any more." The carpenter smiled and said, "I see. I'll try to do a job that satisfies you." Then the elder brother went downtown.
At sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job. The farmer's eyes opened wide! To his surprise, there was no fence there at all! Instead, there was a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work! He saw his younger brother coming to him with the hands outstretching. The brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and then they met in the middle, taking each other's hands. They turned to see the carpenter lift his toolbox on his shoulder. "No, wait! Stay a few days. I've a lot of other work for you," said the elder brother. "I'd love to stay on," the carpenter said, "but I have so many more bridges to build." | high13078.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "The frogs were easy money."
},
"options": [
"The frogs were easy money.",
"They needed money to buy medicine.",
"They wanted to please the visitors.",
"The frogs made too much noise."
],
"question": "Why did the... | It was a village in India.The people were poor.However,they were not unhappy.After all,their forefathers had lived in the same way for centuries.
Then one day,some visitors from the city arrived.They told the villagers there were some people elsewhere who liked to eat frog's legs.However,they did not have enough frogs of their own,and so they wanted to buy frogs from other places.
This seemed like money for nothing.There were millions of frogs in the fields around,and they were no use to the villagers.All they had to do was catch them.Agreement was reached,and the children were sent into the fields to catch frogs.Every week a truck arrived to collect the catch and hand over the money.For the first time,the people were able to dream of a better future.But the dream didn't last long.
The change was hardly noticed at first,but it seemed as if the crops were not doing so well.More worrying was that the children fell ill more often,and,there seemed to be more insects around lately.
The villagers decided that they couldn't just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak.They would have to use the money earned to buy pesticides and medicines.Soon there was no money left.
Then the people realized what was happening.It was the frog.They hadn't been useless.They had been doing an important job--eating insects.Now with so many frogs killed,the insects were increasing more rapidly.They were damaging the crops and spreading diseases.
Now,the people are still poor.But in the evenings they sit in the village square and listen to sounds of insects and frogs.These sounds of the night now have a much deeper meaning.
(2010*,A) | high6250.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Because they can devote time and energy to their careers"
},
"options": [
"Because family life is not important",
"Because they can devote time and energy to their careers",
"Because they don't want to devote time and attenti... | The choice between having a career or making time for love is an extremely personal and individual decision. There are many factors which can affect your choice.
Careers and love fulfill us in different but important ways. Having a solid career gives us a sense of accomplishment and self worth. Then there are those who measure their success in terms of having a pleasant and rewarding home life.
So what happens if you cannot or do not wish to make room in your life for both? Consider these factors when pondering which is more important for you.
1. Your Career May be More Important When You are Young
Many people these days focus on careers first and family later. The reasoning is that, while you are young and unencumbered , you have the time and energy to fully devote yourself to a career. If you have lofty career ambitions while you are young, it may indeed be the time to start making progress towards those goals.
Once you get married and begin to build a family, much of your time and energy-by necessity-becomes devoted to your family. This is as it should be. You should not start a family unless you are willing to devote time and attention to your loved ones.
2. Falling in Love can be Better When You are Older
More and more people these days are choosing to wait when it comes to making decisions about family. It is not unusual for people to delay marriage until their late 30's or even their early 40's. Delaying family decisions allows you to be better prepared for those obligations, and creates a better likelihood that you are in touch with your most important goals and values. You have had the opportunity to completely grow up, greatly reducing the chances of feeling like you are "missing out." You have had the chance to purge the foolishness of youth from your system and are now confident with the wisdom of maturity.
3. Choosing Both
If you can find a work life balance that allows you to experience the joys of love and maintain a successful career, you will have a truly happy and rewarding life. A loving family at home can help you celebrate all of your successes, and bolster your confidence through your failures. There are many people out there reaping the tremendous rewards that come with including love and work in their lives, and finding the balance that allows for both.
The truly healthy and well balanced person will recognize the benefits of having both. He or she will take steps to achieve the work life balance necessary to assure the continuation of career growth while nurturing and maintaining the health of personal relationships. It is only when we can maintain this delicate balance that we are living life to its greatest potential. | high9163.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "English is the main working language in the world."
},
"options": [
"English is the first language in Denmark.",
"All of African people can speak English.",
"English is the main working language in the world.",
"About 7... | English has now achieved global status (position). Whenever we turn on the news to find out what's happening in East Asia, or Africa, or South America, or anywhere, local people are being interviewed and telling us about it in English.
Indeed, if one looks at the facts about the amazing reach of the English language, he or she would be surprised. English is used in over 90 countries as an official or semi-official language. English is the working language of many international colleges as well as of most international research scientists. It is believed that over one billion people worldwide are learning English now.
One of the most remarkable sides of the spread of English around the world has been the extent to which Europeans are accepting it as their language. English is spreading from northern Europe to the south and is now firmly set up as a second language in countries such as Sweden, Norway, Netherlands and Denmark. If one visits any of them , it would seem that almost everyone there can communicate with ease in English.
Recently, a special survey of Europeans' use of languages has just been published. The report said that English is the most widely known foreign language now, with 43% of Europeans saying they speak it and that Sweden now holds the most of English speakers, with over 89% of the population. What's more, English is the language _ as the most useful language to know, with over 77% of Europeans who do not speak English as their first language considering it useful.
English has without doubt become the global language. | high14717.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "its big size"
},
"options": [
"its big size",
"its business-to-business service",
"its not charging small sellers",
"its low price"
],
"question": "Alibaba's advantage mainly lies in _ .",
"question_type"... | Alibaba started taking the lead in China, simply enough, by connecting big Chinese manufacturers with big buyers across the world. Its business-to-business site, Alibaba.com allowed business to buy almost everything. Alibaba's advantage wasn't hard to identify: size. Alibaba is just big, even by Chinese standards. Its marketplaces attract 231 million active buyers, 8 million sellers, 11.3 billion orders a year--and _ It encourages people to use its markets--not charging small sellers a percentage of the sale.
If you want a quick look into the influence of Alibaba on daily Chinese life, take my experience. I moved to Beijing almost a year ago and quickly got tired of visiting small stores across the crowded, polluted city of 20 million people in search of new electronics, bathroom furnishings, and anything else my wife wanted. "You're looking for what exactly? Why not try _ ? " my Chinese teacher asked me one day. With that, my wonderful new relationship with Alibaba began.
Alibaba's original business-to-business model now is secondary to consumer buying. Chinese retail buying makes up 80% of Alibaba's profit, and leading that group is Taobao, with 800 million items for sale and the most unbelievable selection of things you'll ever find. TMall.com is Alibaba's other big site, where you can find brand name goods from Nike and Unilever near the lowest prices.
What I have a hard time explaining to friends and family back in the U.S. is how China has gone beyond traditional shopping--big-box retailers especially --in favor of online purchases on Taobao and a few other sites. In smaller towns than Beijing, where big retailers have not yet traveled, shopping online is shopping, and shopping is Taobao.
I have a list of some of my recent purchases on Taobao for a sense of how extensive the marketplace is. Almost everything arrived a day or two after ordering with free shipping. I'm not even a big buyer, because I need friends to help me search the Chinese-language site. When I was searching my purchase history on my Chinese teacher's iPad, which helps me buy goods, I looked through with great difficulty about 10 of her purchases for every one of mine. | high8269.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Amy Chua considers her methods useful"
},
"options": [
"Amy Chua will change her methods",
"Amy Chua considers her methods useful",
"Amy Chua's children don't love their mother",
"Amy Chua's children prefer western pare... | Just what is a tiger mother? Amy Chua is a law professor at America's Yale University and her recent book on the subject is making waves. She's been called "dangerous","outrageous",even a "monster" for her descriptions of how she brought up her two daughters.
Her bookBattle Hymn of the Tiger Motherdescribes fighting with a daughter for hours at the piano to ensure the child gets a piece of music right. She rejected birthday cards made for her by her girls because she didn't think they had made enough effort. She compared one child negatively with the other, threatening to burn their toys. Her rules include: schoolwork always comes first; an A-minus is a bad grade; children must be two years ahead of their classmates in math, and playing the violin or the piano is a must. Ms. Chua considers the Chinese hard work ethic as a way of creating happy, successful children--at least in her case. Although she's had a large amount of _ for her theories, one thing can't be ignored--the success of Chinese children in the education system.
In Britain, shocking research shows that Chinese girls, for example, are outperforming all other foreign groups at GCSE--79 percent getting 5 A--C Grades, compared with 58 percent of white British girls. So what is it about Chinese parenting that's leading to high achievers? And how do Amy Chua's theories play into that success?
She told me that if her daughter came back from school with 96/100 in a test, Chua would ask her what happened to the other 4 points. It's about always knowing "you can do better",she told me. Interestingly, in China, the birthplace of the tiger mother, people are moving away from traditional Chinese parenting. They are following more western parenting styles. | high14703.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "high unemployment"
},
"options": [
"tough policy",
"stable pension",
"high unemployment",
"free medical care"
],
"question": "In Passage 1,one reason for suggesting earlier retirement in the US is the _",
"... | The passages below discuss the retirement age.
Passage 1:
In the United States,the financial crisis has left the country with 11 million fewer jobs than Americans need now.No matter how tough the policy ,we are not going to find 11 million new jobs soon.So common sense suggests we should make some decisions about who should come first:older people,who have already worked three or four decades at hard jobs? Or younger people,many just out of school,with fresh skills and ambitions?
The answer is obvious.Older people who would like to retire and would do so if they could afford it should get some help.The right step is to reduce,not increase,the retirement age.As a rough cut,why not make it a law to set a three--year window during which the age for receiving full Social Security benefits would drop to 62----providing a voluntary ,one--time,grab-it-now bonus for leaving work? Let them go home! With a secure pension and medical care,they will be happier.Young people who need work will be happier.And there will also be more jobs.With pension security, older people will consume services until the end of their lives.They will become.each and every one,an employer.
Passage 2:
Too many people see longer working lives as a worry rather than an opportunity--and not just because they are going to be chained to their desks.Some worry that there will not be enough jobs to go around.This misunderstanding,known to economists as the"lump of labour fallacy ",was once used to argue that women should stay at home and leave all the jobs for breadwinning males.Now lump-of-labourites say that keeping the old at work would deprive the young of employment.The idea that society can become
better-off by paying more of its citizens to be idle is clearly ridiculous.On that reasoning,if the retirement age came down to 25 we would all be as rich as Bill Gates. | high9177.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "What other people say about you may not be correct."
},
"options": [
"You needn't have the same opinion as others.",
"You should believe what other people say.",
"What other people say about you may not be correct.",
"T... | On the first day of the 11th grade, our new math teacher Mr Washington asked me to go to the blackboard to do a math problem. I told him that I couldn't do it. He asked, "Why not?" I paused, and then I said, "Because I'm educable mentally retarded ."
He came from behind his desk and looked at me. "Don't ever say that again. Someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality," he said.
It was a very special moment for me. Doctors said that I was educable mentally retarded in the fifth grade, and I was put back into the fourth grade. When I was in the eighth grade, I failed again.
But Mr Washington changed my life. This person always gave students the feeling that he had high expectations of them, and then all of the students did their best to live up to what those expectations were. He often said, "You have greatness within you."
One day, I caught up with him in the parking place and said, "Mr Washington, is there greatness within me, sir?"
He said, "Yes, Mr Brown."
"But what about the fact that I failed in English, math and history? What about that, sir? I'm slower than most kids."
"It doesn't matter. It just means that you have to work harder. Your grades don't determine who you are or what you can produce in your life."
"I want to buy my mother a house."
"It is possible, Mr Brown. You can do that." And he turned to walk away.
"Mr Washington?"
"What do you want now?"
"Uh, I'm the one, sir. One day you're going to hear my name. I'm the one, sir."
School was a real struggle for me. Mr Washington put many demands on me. He made me believe that I could do it. At the end of that year, I was on the honor roll for the first time in my life.
Years later, I produced five programs on public television. When one of my programs was shown on the educational television channel, I had some friends call him. I was sitting by the phone waiting when he called me. He said, "May I speak to Mr Brown, please?"
"Oh, Mr Washington, is that you?"
"Yes, it's me. You were the one, weren't you?"
"Yes, sir, I was." | high18139.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "2 in 100."
},
"options": [
"Nobody.",
"Everybody.",
"2 in 100.",
"98 in 100."
],
"question": "How many people can drive equally well while using a cell phone?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
... | Many people think it is safe to use a cell phone while they are driving. Yet Scores of studies suggest that real multitaskers - those who can carry out multiple tasks equally well, make up just 2 per cent of the population. More surprisingly, the so-called "supertaskers" actually have differently structured brains to the other 98 percent.
The brain areas that make supertaskers differ from the rest of the population are the same parts that are most different between humans and nonhuman primates , according to David Strayer, director of the applied cognition lab at the University of Utah. Scientists are unsure of the reason why some brains are different. In fact, we could all benefit from doing just one task at once.
In most of us, scientists have located a "bottleneck in the brain" that may explain why we find it hard to do two things at once.
The problem appears to be caused by a logjam of nerve messages. Faced with two almost simultaneous tasks less than 300 milliseconds apart, the brain's ability to deal with the second one slows down. The neural response to the second task was postponed until the response to the first was completed. This means that with e-mails, phone calls, text messages and online social media all competing for our attention, often against a background of television, radio or music, our brains can reach information overload.
Scientists made the discovery after scanning the brains of volunteers attempting to multitask on a computer. The task was deliberately designed to involve the use of different senses and _ responses.
Dr Rene Marois, one of the neuroscientists who carried out the experiment at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, said: "Our research offers neurological evidence that the brain cannot effectively do two things at once." The next step, the neuroscientists say, is finding out "why these areas cannot process two tasks at once." | high21960.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "stayed together in a small room"
},
"options": [
"went to another hotel",
"each got a small room for the night",
"stayed together in a small room",
"got a small room Mr. Knight kept for himself"
],
"question": "... | Mr. Knight was the manager of a hotel. One weekend all of the hotels in the city were full because there was a large meeting. On Friday, three men came into the hotel and asked for rooms. Mr. Knight said there were no rooms ready because of the meeting. The men were unhappy.
Mr. Knight wanted to help them. He remembered that Room 418, a small room, was empty. He asked them if they could share a room. The three men said they would. Mr. Knight said the room would be thirty dollars; ten dollars for each person. Each man gave him the money and then went up to the room.
Mr. Knight soon began to feel sorry. "Thirty dollars is a lot to ask as a price for that small room." he thought. He called his assistant over and said, "Here is five dollars. Take it to the men in Room 418. I asked too much for their room."
The assistant took the money. While he was on the way there, he started to think, "How can three men divide five dollars? I'll give them each only one dollar and keep the two dollars for myself. The men will be happy to get something back. And Mr. Knight will never know." So the assistant returned one dollar to each man.
Each man had at first paid ten dollars. After the assistant returned them one dollar each, each had actually(in fact) paid nine. There were three men. $9 3="$27." The assistant kept$2. $27+$2="$29." Where is the missing dollar? | high2022.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "of great use to people like the author"
},
"options": [
"only intended to help the Chinese-Americans",
"an organization which is set up to make a profit",
"of great use to people like the author",
"a school showing how ... | Although I started learning English during my college years, when I entered the States, I only understood two English words "Yes" and "No". We learned many grammar rules but we could not make the language connections to the real English world. Language _ worries almost all first generation immigrants. For example, I got a letter from a Chinese-American who has lived in the States for a long time and has a good IT job saying "My 11-year-old girl writes quite well, but as her parents, we could not even read her article."In addition, my Chinese-American professor friend has difficulty reading a novel. Improving our English skills has become a long journey for all of us. Honestly, if I have a chance, I really want to reach out to everyone in the world who has had a similar experience: learning a second language in adulthood. I wish I could encourage them to speak out about the culture shock, frustration they felt about the differences between West and East.
I have mainly focused on my English writing since 2008 after I found "Literacy Volunteers", an organization that specially focuses on helping immigrants improve their English. I decided to challenge myself, writing a story like an American. I saw many wonderful Americans there. As soon as I met my teacher Alice, I asked her to be my private language tutor and have taken Tims English class. Every week Alice and I have worked on my English essays sentence by sentence.
To observe the culture differences between West and East, occasionally, I posted a few of my English essays online. I mentioned previously about American culture; when people read the same article or even face the same situation, American and Chinese act very differently. In my viewpoint, these differences make America the strongest country in the world. I know you have the right to express your own opinions, but accusing others without proof is not acceptable. | high10565.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "She lost it while helping to plant potatoes in the field."
},
"options": [
"She lost it while helping to harvest tomatoes in the field",
"She lost it while watering the plants in the field.",
"She lost it while working in the... | One day newly wedded Nancy lost her ring while helping to plant potatoes. Friends were called and the field was searched long but _ . Later, when the potatoes were harvested, Everyone looked out for the ring but it remained lost. Another year came round and all the farmers working in the field kept their eyes open. The following year was the same. And year after year, whoever had business in the field always had Nancy's ring in his mind.
Then the farm changed hands but it went no farther than to cousins. So the memory of the lost ring remained alive until thirty-eight years had passed. Then came a spring day when a man was ploughing the field behind a pair of horses. Even after thirty-eight years he still looked out for the ring, and knew just which part of the field Nancy had lost it in. At this time, when he came there, he found it .He picked it up, put it carefully into his pocket, left his horse, and ran all the way down to the village and placed it into Nancy's hand. | high5995.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "more people will suffer from mental problems"
},
"options": [
"more people will be poorer",
"more people will be out of jobs",
"more people will suffer from mental problems",
"more people will commit suicide"
],
... | The global financial crisis is likely to cause increased mental health problems as people struggle to deal with poverty and unemployment, the World Health Organization warned Thursday.
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are already affected by mental problems such as depression and bipolar disorders and the current market meltdown could worsen feelings of despair among people who can't stand such illnesses.
The United Nations agency said the impact could be especially marked for those living in low and middle income countries where access to treatment is often limited.
"We should not be surprised at the turbulence and likely consequences of the current financial crisis.Now we are seeing a huge gap in taking care of people in great need," WHO director general Margaret Chan told at a meeting of mental health experts.
"It should not come as a surprise that we continue to see more stresses, suicides and mental disorders," Chan warned.
Benedetto Saraceno, director of WHO's mental health, said mental health disorders affected one in four people at some point in their lives.
Mental and neurological disorders are often chronic and disabling, he said.Nearly 1 million people commit suicide worldwide every year, a large part of them are young adults.
Asked about the financial crisis, Saraceno said, "Poverty can be the consequence of such events, the debts, despair and sense of loss that may reach middle and lower classes.Even the poor can be affected by this crisis."
"There is clear evidence that suicide is linked to financial disasters.I am not talking about the millionaire's jumping out of the window but about poor people," he said.The global crisis could be expected to affect the "stability of communities and families", according to Saraceno. | high16114.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "participants can experience different adventures"
},
"options": [
"participants can make friends with others",
"participants can visit some places of interest",
"participants can experience different adventures",
"parti... | Although there are no state controlled survival courses in Britain or the United States, there are various independent organizations offering similar activities.
Students can participate ( take part ) in outdoor training courses through university clubs and societies . Anyone can register ( ) with such groups , which then organize courses ,training and trips for all members .
One of the most popular outdoor training programmes in both the US and Britain , is Outward Bound ( ) . It was founded in 1941 in Wales and attracts hundreds of thousands of adventurous types every year .
The courses are to broaden minds through experiences that build confidence , self-esteem ( ) and character . As well as specialist courses such as canoeing , leadership skills and sailing , participants can take part in week long adventure training camps which include a host of sports and survival training education skills .
Michael Williams , an American student , took part in an Outward Bound course last year . He said : "We learned lots of first aid skills , lots of natural history , lots of environmental facts , and participated in a wildlife preservation ( protecting ) programme . Beyond that , my favorite skills learned were sailing and rock climbing ."
Courses can last up to 40 days and are open to anyone over the age of 14 . Students must be in general good health , but do not need to be experienced in outdoor-sports . There is no selection process ; everyone is welcome , although new participants are advised to pick a course matching their physical power .
Most of the British courses take place in the Beacons in Wales . Another similar organization is the UK Survival School , which includes courses on learning to live with the environment , sailing and winter survival . On a basic survival weekend students will learn how to get water and food , how to make fire and cook with it , to find and build a shelter , control survival life support , how to cross rivers , send off an SOS signal , and to use compasses by day and night .
According to the leaders , such adventures are "an awakening , an exploration into unknown." Outward Bound believes that participants will "use mind and body traveling some of the earth's roughest wildness areas ." | high4453.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Happy."
},
"options": [
"Doubtful.",
"Angry.",
"Happy.",
"Regretful."
],
"question": "How did the author feel after seeing Dad's smiling to her talk of Kitty?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {... | Kitty is a little black-and-brown Australian dog. It's not a particularly bright dog. While Dad can make my sister and me afraid just by the tone of his voice, I have never heard him raise his voice at Kitty. In fact, one look from Kitty at the biscuit tin is enough to send my dad flying to get him a snack. Whenever we protest about the unfair treatment, Dad has a sorry smile on his face. It's become a long-standing family joke that Kitty is the closest thing to a son Dad will ever have.
Then, five years ago, our lives were turned upside down when Dad suffered two major strokes within a month. For four long months, mentally he was non-responsive. We had to take turns standing by his bedside to protect him. We were exhausted after every "shift" but grateful that he was still alive. As the months went by, I couldn't help but talk about Kitty constantly, often hoping that Dad could show some awareness of what I said.
Then one day, without even realizing it, I blurted out , "Is Kitty a tiger?" Dad began to smile. It was the first sign in four months that Dad had showed any awareness of what I said. Seeing this, the whole family felt a huge weight lift from our shoulders.
Over the next nine months, Dad had to learn all the basic things we take for granted. Dad, who was an independent man with a successful career before all this happened, found it increasingly frustrating . The only thing that ever brought a smile to his face was talk of Kitty.
When we massaged Dad's arms and legs to prevent his muscles from weakening, I would always say: "Now all you need is Kitty to give you a 'lick-lick' foot massage!" No matter how many times I repeated this comment, the whole family would laugh. | high19227.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "They were not pleased with American society."
},
"options": [
"They were not pleased with American society.",
"They wanted to grow marijuana.",
"They wanted to go to the Vietnam War.",
"They did not want all people to b... | In the 1960s, many young Americans were dissatisfied with American society. They wanted to end the Vietnam War and to make all of the people in the U.S. equal. Some of them decided to "drop out" of American society and form their own societies. They formed utopian communities, which they called "communes ," where they could follow their philosophy of "do your own thing". A group of artists founded a commune in southern Colorado called "Drop City". Following the ideas of philosopher and architect Buckminster Fuller, they built dome-shaped houses from pieces of old cars. Other groups, such as author Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, the followers of San Francisco poet Steve Gaskin, and a group that called itself the Hog Farm, lived in old school houses and traveled around the United States. The Hog Farm become famous when they helped organize the Woodstock Rock Festival in 1969. The followers of Steve Gaskin tried to settle down on a farm in Tennessee, but they had to leave when some members of the group were arrested for growing marijuana .
Not all communes believed in the philosophy of "do your own thing", however. Twin Oaks, a commune founded in Virginia in the late 1960s, was based on the ideas of psychologist B. F. Skinner. The people who lived at Twin Oaks were carefully controlled by Skinner's conditioning techniques to do things that were good for the community. In 1972, Italian architect Paolo Soleri began to build Arcosanti, a utopian city in Arizona, where 2500 people will live closely together in one large building called an "archology". Soleri believes that people must live closely together so that they will all become one. | high16672.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "stay at a local guesthouse"
},
"options": [
"stay at a local guesthouse",
"book an empty house for free",
"use an empty bed without permission",
"share your room by paying your roommate"
],
"question": "If a fri... | You have a special card which operates the electronic lock on your room door and a key for the main door of the door of the hotel. These are your responsibility and should never be lent to anyone, including your fellow classmates. If you lose them you will be charged PS20 per replacement. Do not leave your room unlocked even for short periods. Unfortunately, theft from student hotels is very common and insurance companies will not pay for stolen goods unless you can prove that your room was broken into by force.
_
There are rarely any rooms available for visitors, except at the end of the summer term. Stan Jenkins, the hotel manager, will be able to tell you and can handle the booking. A small charge is made. Stan also keeps a list of local guesthouses, with some information about what they're like, price, etc. You are also allowed to use empty beds for up to three nights, with the owner's permission (for example, if the person who shares your room is away for the weekend ), but you must inform Stan before your guest arrives, so that he has an exact record of who's in the building of a fire breaks out. Students are not allowed to charge each other for this.
_
There is a kitchen on each floor where light meals, drinks, etc. maybe prepared. Each has a large fridge and a food cupboard. All food should be stored, clearly marked with the owner's name, in one of these two places. Bedrooms are too warm for food to be stored, and the cleaners have instructions to remove any food found in them. After using the kitchen, please be sure you do all your washing up immediately and leave it tidy. If you use it late in the evening, please also take care that you do so quietly in order to avoid disturbing people in nearby bedrooms. | high4335.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Because the certain sounds are connected to happy memories for that person."
},
"options": [
"Because certain words or songs can make a person happy.",
"Because a person has the ability to recognize the sounds",
"Because the ... | Everything that humans hear is in the form of waves. Just as the eye sees light waves in the form of color1s, the ear hears sound waves in the form of noises. The ear and the eye turn these different waves into signals that the brain can make sense of.
The ears and brain have an amazing ability to recognize particular sounds. For example, a mother often can tell when her baby is crying even if there are other crying babies in the same room. This is because the sound of her baby's cry has special meaning to her and the brain has recorded its importance.
The ability to recognize sounds improves with experiences. As the brain receives information about sounds from day to day, it stores the information in its memory. When the brain hears new sounds, it gives meaning to them based on the information already in the memory. This is why certain words or songs can make a person happy. Often it is not the words or songs themselves that cause this feeling. The sounds are connected to happy memories for that person.
Another hearing process controlled by the brain is to decide where a sound is coming from. One ear is usually closer to the source of a sound than the other ear is. Sound waves are stronger when they reach the ear that is closer. They also reach the closer ear first. The brain recognizes these differences and uses them to decide the location of the source of the sound. | high18887.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "People had a divided sleep pattern only in the 18th century."
},
"options": [
"People had a divided sleep pattern only in the 18th century.",
"It may be natural to wake up in the middle of the night.",
"Scientists agree that ... | Most people today think of sleep as one continuous period of downtime.This is not the way people used to sleep.According to researchers,in earlier times,people divided sleep by first sleeping a few hours,waking up,then going back to sleep.In the first period,you would typically sleep until midnight or shortly afterwards.Halfway through the night,you came out of first sleep,you would stay in bed and relax quietly.It was called the watching period.Then you would start to feel sleepy.so would return to bed and tall asleep again for your second sleep.This period would continue until early morning when daylight arrived.With no artificial lighting in homes,people naturally woke up early to take advantage of sunlight.
Before the 18th century, people had no gas or electricity in their homes.Fire,candles,or oil lamps were the common forms of lighting.This lack of artificial lighting in homes contributed to people's sleep patterns.It made sense for people to go to bed early.
Today,human may consider divided sleep a strange habit,but sleep researchers say that it is actually a more natural sleep pattern.Dr.Thomas Wehr of the U.S.National Institute of Mental Health has studied human sleep.He thinks that modern sleep problems occur because the older, natural way of sleep is breaking through the more recent continuous sleep pattern.Wehr and other scientists believe that artificial lighting has altered the way people sleep.In a research study,he asked 15 adults to rest and sleep in darkness for 14 hours(from 6:00 P.M.to 8:00 A.M.).At first,the subjects took a few hours to get to sleep,and then slept 11 hours a night.Then overtime,they switched to divided sleep.They fell asleep for about three to five hours in the evening,stay awake for an hour or two,and then slept again for four hours till early morning.
We modern humans generally do not practice divided sleep.However, many of us have the experience of waking up in the middle of the night.We usually consider this a sleeping"problem".but perhaps we should look at it as natural behavior.Divided sleep may be the way we should all be sleeping.A first sleep followed by a relaxation period and a second period of sleep could help all of us to beat the stress of our fast-paced lives. | high10203.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "does not bother to make clothes for fat people"
},
"options": [
"makes a lot of money by making clothes for fat people",
"does not bother to make clothes for fat people",
"targets on fat people mainly for the purpose of makin... | Some people would have you believe that being fat is the worst thing you can be. They think that if a person is fat they have no life, no love, no reason to want to look good in their clothes. The sad thing is that many people who are fat do feel the same loathing toward themselves and others who are overweight or obese.
I know what I'm talking about because I have been there. I have been that fat girl who wore big T-shirts to cover my "sins". Forget style. Forget fashion sense. I absolutely had none. I didn't even bother getting haircuts for years, just wore my hair long and straight, pulled back in a ponytail, I have to wonder if the reason the fashion industry has ignored plus sized women and children for so long is because plus sized people, feeling they couldn't possibly look great, didn't bother shopping for new clothes, and therefore no profit was to be found by producing those sizes.
For me, the change that improved my outer look actually started with my outlook on life. I started by being grateful for all I do have, like great health, a stable family, a steady income, freedom, a decent home, the ability to see the trees turn orange in the fall, to hear my grandson humming in the back seat, to remember the great times I've had in my life.
I started to focus on all the positive aspects of the life I already had. I actually started to feel the beauty of the Universe all around me and to realize that I am part of that perfection. The self loathing stopped. I noticed all the people in my life who loved me in spite of my size. I got off the pity pot and smiled at myself. I acknowledged my shame and embarrassment and moved through that too. | high14065.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "She drove her away."
},
"options": [
"She gave her some food.",
"She drove her away.",
"She took her home.",
"She said thank you to her."
],
"question": "What did the woman do when she first saw Brandy?",
"q... | My 18-month-old son, Adam, called from the front door. "Look, Mama! Doggie!" I dropped what I was doing and stuck my head out the door. Brandy, our next-door neighbor's 11-year-old dog, was over again. "Go away!" I shouted.
Brandy's owner had died about a month earlier. The woman's family had emptied the house and stuck a "For Sale" sign in the front yard, but the family had left old Brandy behind. For weeks, she'd been wandering around the neighborhood.
It wasn't that I disliked dogs or anything like that. I just didn't think about them very much. I never had a dog growing up and had never thought to get one.
Brandy went away and I stayed outside with Adam. Then the phone rang. I went inside to take the call. When I came back, Adam was gone. I searched the yard, front and back, then the basketball court and public pool. No trace of him. I was so nervous that I ran home and called the police, then my husband.
Police searched the neighborhood. Suddenly I heard another sound: a dog barking. "It's coming from the woods," one of my neighbors said. We followed the barking to a wooded cliff . There we found my son, and he was just inches away from the edges of the cliff, fast asleep. Brandy was beside him, leaning against him to keep him away from the edge. When I picked Adam up, Brandy sank down on her side, breathing quickly. She must have been holding Adam there for hours!
I thanked the police and brought Adam and Brandy back to our house. She hesitated a moment on our doorstep, no doubt remembering the time I'd driven her away.
"Come on, girl," I said. "This is your home now." Brandy stepped in, and once she saw she was really welcome, she relaxed and lay down on the floor just inside the door. She'd done a great thing, and I wondered if she knew it . She'd certainly touched me in a way that no animal ever had. What a pity a dog like Brandy had been left behind! | high9611.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "didn't do so well in his studies"
},
"options": [
"was good at writing novels",
"loved Horticulture very much even",
"didn't do so well in his studies",
"decided to be an apprentice"
],
"question": "We know that... | Alan took an early interest in gardening---first on his grandfather's Yorkshire allotment in Ilkley, and then in his parents' back garden. Small polythene greenhouses appeared in the back garden, and cacti were bought from church markets.
Alan left school at fifteen with one `O' level in Art and took a job as an apprentice gardener in Ilkley Parks Department nursery, studying for his City and Guilds in Horticulture in the evening.
He went on to horticultural college at Oaklands in Hertfordshire where he studied for one year full-time, being awarded the National Certificate in Horticultural. This was followed by three years at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, resulting in the award of the Kew Diploma.
After two years as supervisor of staff training at Kew, Alan entered journalism where he became first a gardening books editor, and then Deputy Editor of Amateur Gardening magazine. He appeared regularly on BBC Radio and Television in programs such as Nationwide , Breakfast Time, Open Air, Pebble Mill, Songs of Praise, Titchmarsh's Travels, and the Chelsea Flower Show. He presented the 100th edition of The Word for Channel 4, and hosted the quiz show Ask the Family.
Gardeners' World and the hugely popular Ground Force, second only to Easterners in the BBC1 ratings, are broadcast as far as Australia, New Zealand and North America. After leaving both programs, Alan worked on two other series for the BBC to be transmitted in 2003 and 2004, one of them a landmark series on the natural history of Britain. Alan writes for the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Radio Times and BBC Gardeners' World magazine, and has more than thirty gardening books to his credit. His four novels, as well as a book about his own life, have been best sellers.
Alan, 53, gardens organically, and lives with his wife, two daughters and a medley of animals. | high12414.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "going home after school"
},
"options": [
"serving as a warner",
"going home after school",
"staying in classroom",
"playing at home"
],
"question": "Malala was violently attacked by the Taliban when _ .",
... | On March 19, Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old Pakistani student and women's education activist, returned to the classroom for the first time since being violently attacked by a member of the Taliban--a terrorist organization-- on October 9, 2012. Malala was shot on her way home from school in Mingora, Pakistan. A Taliban group took responsibility for the attack, saying the attack should serve as a warning to others. Members of the group follow a strict version of the local religion and believe girls should not go to school. Malala was targeted because she is appealing for girls' rights to education in Swat Valley, Pakistan.
Malala recovers from the attack at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England. After a long period of recovery, Malala is starting as a ninth-year student at Edgbaston High School. It is the oldest independent girl school in Birmingham, England. Though she has no concrete plans to return to Pakistan, Malala still speaks out as a voice for change in her country, and everywhere.
"I am excited that today I have achieved my dream of going back to school. I want all girls in the world to have this basic opportunity," Malala said in a statement. "I miss my classmates from Pakistan very much but I am looking forward to meeting my teachers and making new friends here in Birmingham."
Malala has been an Internet blogger, or writer, since she was 11 years old. In 2011 she was awarded Pakistan's National Peace Award for her bravery in writing about the difficulties of life and education in the shadow of the Taliban. She has spoken publicly about children's rights and been nominated for an international children's peace prize.
After the attack in 2012, support for Malala poured in from around the world. The United Nations declared November 10 Malala Day. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the day honors Malala and shows the world that people of all sexes, all backgrounds and all countries stand behind the heroine . | high23811.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "they are most likely satisfied with life."
},
"options": [
"their children have grown up.",
"they don't have to work every day.",
"they can do whatever they like best.",
"they are most likely satisfied with life."
]... | Are people less happy or more happy the older they get ? A study found that people generally become happier and experience less worry after age 50. In fact, it found that by the age of 85, people are happier with their life than they were at 18.
The finding came from a Gallup survey of more than 340,000 adults in the United States in 2008. At that time, the people were between the age of 18 an 85.
Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of 22 and 25. Stress levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties.
Happiness was highest among the youngest adults and those in their early seventies. But the people least likely to report feeling negative emotions were those in their seventies and eighties. The survey also found that men and women had similar emotional patterns as they grow older. However, women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men did.
The researchers also considered possible influences like having young children, being unemployed or being single. But they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being related to age.
So why would happiness increase with age ? One theory is that, as people get older, they become more thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.
The original goal of the study was to confirm the popular belief that aging is connected with increased sleep problems. The survey did find an increase during middle age, especially in women. But except for that , people reported that they felt their sleep quality improved as they got older. | high11135.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "health and safety are more important than personal freedom"
},
"options": [
"health and safety are more important than personal freedom",
"personal freedom is more important than health and safety",
"old people should keep th... | Very old people do raise moral problems for almost everyone who comes in contact with them. Their values--this can't be repeated too often--are not necessarily our values. Physical comfort, cleanness and order are not necessarily the most important things. The social services from time to time find themselves faced with a flat with decaying food covered by small worms , and an old person lying alone in bed, taking no notice of the worms. But is it interfering with personal freedom to insist that they go to live with some of their relatives so that they might be taken better care of? Some social workers, the ones who clear up the worms, think we are in danger of carrying this concept of personal freedom to the point where serious risks are being taken with the health and safety of the old.
Indeed, the old can be easily hurt or harmed. The body is like a car, it needs more mechanical maintenance as it gets older. You can carry this comparison right through to the provision of spare parts. But never forget that such operations are painful experiences, however good the results. And at what point should you stop treating the old body? Is it morally right to try to push off death by pursuing the development of drugs to excite the forgetful old mind and to activate the old body, knowing that it is designed to die? You cannot ask doctors or scientists to decide, because so long as they can see the technical opportunities, they will feel bound to give them a try, on the principle that while there's life, there's hope.
When you talk to the old people, however, you are forced to the conclusion that whether age is happy or unpleasant depends less on money or on health than it does on your ability to have fun. | high3472.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "it was not easy for them to find water"
},
"options": [
"Regis had never heard of hippos",
"they had their own source of water",
"it was not easy for them to find water",
"some of them had been attacked by hippos"
]... | When Regis Mngwiro and the other villagers moved to a new place in southeastern Zimbabwe, Africa, they were happy to find a lake nearby. Now, they would no longer have to walk long distances looking for water. At last, they had a source of water what they call their own.
But several days later, two young boys saw something they had never seen before--a huge animal was standing at the edge of the lake, eating grass. When the animal saw the boys, it walked into the lake and disappeared beneath the water.
Regis looked into the story of the big creature that vanished into to the lake. "When I took a closer look at the dung , I realized that it was from a hippo ," he said.
Twelve hippos were living in the lake. The villagers were worried. In the countrry of Zimbabwe, hippos attack humans more often than lions do. The hippos would often stay on the village side of the lake all day. This meant that the villagers could not go near the lake until the hippos got out. It was too long a wait for the villagers, because they needed the water from the lake to survive . "This is the only source of fresh water in the village," said a villager. "There is no way we can avoid this lake." So the women began moving in groups whenever they went to get water from the lake. Before collecting water, they made sure no hippos were nearby. The men began fishing in pairs, with one man always looking out for hippos.
It took time, but these days, the hippos and humans live side by side. The villagers say that when the hippos find people coming, they swim slowly to the other side of the lake and mind their own business. The villagers do not go into the part of the lake where the hippos usually stay. They have learned to share the lake they both need to survive. | high16882.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "was persuaded into taking tennis training"
},
"options": [
"was interested in playing tennis",
"was persuaded into taking tennis training",
"began to become interested in space",
"decided to become an astrophysicist"
... | When Sally Ride was ten years old, she had no idea that she would some day grow up to be one of America's first woman astronauts. In fact, if you had asked her then what wanted to be, she would have said, " I want to play shortstop for the Los Angeles Dodgers." Sally collected baseball cards by the boxful, and she knew the name and batting average of every player in the National League.
But major league baseball didn't seem much of a possibility for a girl, even an athletic one like Sally, so her father and mother talked her into taking tennis lessons when she was twelve. At first she hated to trade in her baseball bat for a tennis racket, but it wasn't long before she started to win tournaments in her new sport. " Tennis became much more fun when I started winning," Sally remembers. Soon a row of trophies replaced her box of baseball cards, and tennis star Billie Jean King replaced Dodger shortstop Maury Wills as her sports idol.
Sally first became interested in the space program in 1962 when astronaut John Glenn orbited the earth in his Mercury space capsule. Sally was ten years old at the time, but she remembers the launch and the splashdown as if they happened yesterday. The girl who used to memorize batting averages became a space fan. She quickly learned the name of every NASA astronaut(there were only eight of them in 1962), the date of every launch, and the name and number of every spacecraft from Freedom 7 to Skylab 3. She could tell you the speed of light (186,300 miles per second), the distance to the moon (238,860 miles), and the names of the three nearest stars( the Sun, Alpha Centauri, and Barnard's Star).
By the time she was sixteen, Sally had decided to become an astrophysicist, a scientist who studies space. She had also become a nationally ranked tennis player. She remembers yawning through an important tennis match on June 20, 1969, after staying up all night to watch Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon. Sally lost the match.
As Sally got older, many of her friends started playing professional tennis. Some of them tried to talk her into quitting school to join them on the professional tennis circuit. But Sally said no. " Black holes are more interesting to me than backhands," she told them. Now she knows that she made the right choice, but in 1970 Sally had no way of knowing that NASA would open the space program to women. | high5003.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "go there yourself and visit it"
},
"options": [
"see its photographs",
"listen to the report about it",
"watch its introduction on TV",
"go there yourself and visit it"
],
"question": "The best way to feel the t... | Probably you have seen photos of the Grand Canyon , the great valley in the desert country of Arizona. But you must go there yourself to feel its true size and beauty. The Grand Canyon is one of the greatest natural wonders of the world
The Colorado River formed the Grand Canyon over millions of years.Slowly,the river cut down through hard rock.At the same time,the land was rising.Today,the canyon is 1.5 kilometres deep and 445 kilometres long.The oldest rocks at the bottom of the canyon are more than 1 billion years old.The width varies from about 200 metres to 29 kilometres across.The rim or top of the canyon is about 2,300 metes above sea level on the South Rim,and about 3,000 metres on the other side,the North Rim.As a result,there are different kinds of plants and animals on opposite sides of the canyon.The South Rim is a dry desert country.The North Rim has tall forests.
The canyon looks different at different times of day, and in different seasons and weather. At sunrise and sunset the red, gold, brown and orange color1s of the rocks are especially clear and bright. In winter, the canyon is partly covered with snow.
The view from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon is the best. Most visitors come here and stay in campgrounds or hotels. Every point along the canyon's edge offers a different view.
The North rim of the Canyon is quieter. It takes all day to drive there from the South Rim because there is only one bridge across the Colorado River. On the way, you go through Navado Indian lands, and a color1ful pink desert called "The Painted Desert". | high18677.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "a white lie is necessary sometimes"
},
"options": [
"supporting each other in anything helps build a good relationship",
"a white lie is necessary sometimes",
"compromises are essential at any time",
"your friends need ... | Good relationships are definitely good sources of happiness in life. We all want happy relationships but if we do not keep that relationship alive, it can also be one of the most distraught things in life. There may be no hard and fast rules in making good relationships, as each of us has different preferences and points of view as to what is a great relationship. The following are some major key points in making relationships work.
It is often said that building good relationships is all about communication. Good communication indeed governs a good relationship -- knowing the right thing to say, when to say it, how to say it, and accepting that some things are better left unsaid. I personally think communication must be broadened because relationships involve more decisions to make. From study to work, from money to entertainment and even in things about yourself or about your friend that you do not know, communication is essential in these aspects of the relationships.
Of course, being with someone is not saying that you totally agree with him all the time. You and your friend come from different family backgrounds, raised in different environments so there may be disagreements here and there. However, it is important in making relationships work to express disagreements without pushing the relationship to end. Again, good communication and learning to compromise at times are necessary.
As the relationship lasts longer, you may also discover things about you and your friend that you may not have known before. Therefore, supporting each other on both your "hidden selves" can also make a good relationship.
Love is an important aspect of building relationships and for me, I always believe that love needs open communication, respect, support and understanding each other in making relationships work. | high17544.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "tell us how to live an easier life in high school."
},
"options": [
"advise us to study hard in high school.",
"tell us how to live an easier life in high school.",
"show that we may live a hard life in high school.",
"... | Starting high school means many changes in your life. Most teenagers look forward to the first day of high school, but still feel a little bit nervous. In order to make your high school life easier, you can follow these tips.
Learn all you can about your first day before the first day. Take part in some activities that are held at the school for new students to know the school better. If parents are invited to these activities, take yours with you. Carefully look over all the materials you receive. Be sure you know where the school's buildings are.
Get the things you will need for class. Buy the things suggested on your teachers' supply lists and place your materials for each class separately.
Keep up with your high school workload . If you find you're not doing well in a subject, make use of after-school study groups or ask your teacher to help you with your schoolwork. Consider private tutoring to get you through a difficult time.
There're more extracurricular activities in high school than in middle school, such as clubs, music and theater groups, student government, and sports teams. Make friends and be seen at such school activities. Join a club or other organizations to meet people and develop friendships. Ask someone in school activities if you don't know how. This is a good time to do what you like doing and an opportunity to try new things. Who said school has to be all work and no play?
Since you'll attend more activities in high school than in middle school, you'll have to learn how to manage you time... | high1265.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "her neighborhood was destroyed"
},
"options": [
"some friends had lost their lives",
"her neighborhood was destroyed",
"her school had moved to Brooklyn",
"the elderly were free from suffering"
],
"question": "W... | Surviving Hurricane Sandy
Natalie Doan,14, has always felt lucky to live in Rockaway, New York. Living just a few blocks from the beach, Natalie can see the ocean and hear the wave from her house. "It's the ocean that makes Rockaway so special," she says.
On October 29, 2012, that ocean turned fierce. That night, Hurricane Sandy attacked the East Coast, and Rockaway was hit especially hard. Fortunately, Natalie's family escaped to Brooklyn shortly before the city's bridge closed.
When they returned to Rockaway the next day, they found their neighborhood in ruins. Many of Natalie's friends had lost their homes and were living far away. All around her, people were suffering, especially the elderly. Natalie's school was so damaged that she had to temporarily attend a school in Brooklyn.
In the following few days, the men and women helping Rockaway recover inspired Natalie. Volunteers came with carloads of donated clothing and toys. Neighbors devoted their spare time to helping others rebuild. Teenagers climbed dozens of flights of stairs to deliver water and food to elderly people trapped in powerless high-rise buildings.
"My mom tells me that I can't control what happens to me," Natalie says. "but I can always choose how I deal with it."
Natalie's choice was to help.
She created a website page matching survivors in need with donors who wanted to help. Natalie posted introduction about a boy named Patrick, who lost his baseball card collecting when his house burned down. Within days, Patrick's collection was replaced.
In the coming months, her website page helped lots of kids: Christopher, who received a new basketball; Charlie, who got a new keyboard. Natalie also worked with other organizations to bring much-need supplies to Rockaway. Her efforts made her a famous person. Last April, she was invited to the White House and honored as a Hurricane Sandy Champion of Change.
Today, the scars of destruction are still seen in Rockaway, but hope is in the air. The streets are clear, and many homes have been rebuilt. "I can't imagine living anywhere but Rockaway," Natalie declares. "My neighborhood will be back, even stronger than before." | high13722.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "It excites readers to read William Wordsworth's poems."
},
"options": [
"William Wordsworth's poems are full of wisdom.",
"It excites readers to read William Wordsworth's poems.",
"Only gross and violent words can arouse peop... | He wrote that the "human mind is capable of excitement without the application of gross and violent stimulants ". And it appears that simply reading those words by William Wordsworth proves his point.
Researchers at the University of Liverpool found the works of Shakespeare and Wordsworth and the like had a beneficial effect on the mind, lifting the readers' spirits by catching their attention and leading to moments of self-reflection.
Using equipment, they examined the brain activity of volunteers as they read pieces of classical English literature both in their original form and in a more simplified, modern translation.
And, according to the Sunday Telegraph, the experiment showed the more "challenging" works set off far more electrical activity in the brain than the ordinary versions.
The research also found poetry, in particular, increased activity in the right hemisphere of the brain, an area concerned with "autobiographical memory", which helped the reader to reflect on and reevaluate their own experiences in light of what they had read. The academics said this meant the classics were more useful than self-help books.
The brain responses of 30 volunteers was monitored in the first part of the research as they read Shakespeare in its original and "modern" form.
In one example, volunteers read a line from King Lear, "A father and a gracious aged man: him have you madded ", before reading the simpler "A father and a gracious aged man: him you have enraged ".
Shakespeare's use of the adjective "mad" as a verb caused a higher level of brain activity than the straightforward translation.
"Reading classics is not just a matter of style. It is a matter of deep versions of experience that promotes the cognitive ability," said Prof Davis, who will present the findings at the North of England education conference in Sheffield this week. | high23839.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Students."
},
"options": [
"Students.",
"Parents.",
"Teachers.",
"Doctors."
],
"question": "For whom is the passage most probably written?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index... | As you grow older, you'll be faced with some challenging decisions--like whether to cut class or try cigarettes. Making decisions on your own is hard enough, but when other people get involved and try to pressure you one way or another it can be even harder. People who are your age, like your classmates, are called peers. When they try to influence how you act, to get you to do something, it's called peer pressure.
Peers can have a positive influence on each other. Maybe another student in your science class taught you an easy way to remember the planets in the solar system. Maybe you got others excited about your new favorite book, and now everyone's reading it. These are examples of how peers positively influence each other.
Sometimes peers influence each other in negative ways. For example, a few kids in school might try to get you to cut class with them; your soccer friend might try to convince you to be mean to another player and never pass him the ball.
It is tough to be the only one who says "no" to peer pressure, but you can do it. Paying attention to your own feelings and beliefs about what is right and wrong can help you know the right thing to do.
You've probably had a parent or teacher advising you to "choose your friends wisely." Peer pressure is a big reason why they say this. If you choose friends who don't cut class, smoke cigarettes, or lie to their parents, then you probably won't do these things either, even if other kids do.
If you continue to face peer pressure and you're finding it difficult to handle, talk to someone you trust. Don't feel guilty if you've made a mistake or two. | high929.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "in a travel booklet"
},
"options": [
"in a school magazine",
"in a travel booklet",
"in a store window",
"on a company notice-board"
],
"question": "You may find the above introduction _ .",
"question_typ... | Opened in 1977, Ocean Park is one of Hong Kong's perennially popular attractions, providing an exciting mix of entertainment, education and conservation facilities. The 80-hectare (200-acre) park is situated on the southern side of Hong Kong Island, with rides, exhibits and facilities on both sides of the mountain. A cable car system links the lowland and headland sections, offering spectacular views on route.
New and fun-filled entertainment facilities are introduced from time to time. Over the past few years, new rides and exhibits such as Pacific Pier (2001); the Mine Train (2000); The Hong Kong Jockey Club Giant Panda Habitat (1999); Discovery of the Ancient World (1997); the Flying Swing (1997) and the Film Fantasia Simulator Ride (1996) have entertained thousands of visitors.
Ocean Park works to promote and support animal conservation in Hong Kong and throughout the Asia region. It has, in co-operation with other conservation organisations, launched various conservation programmes for a number of endangered species, including whales and dolphins. In addition, it has successfully bred rare species of birds, sharks and butterflies.
Visitors can purchase admission tickets from 7-Eleven convenience stores throughout Hong Kong.
Opening Hours: Open daily from 10am to 6pm.
One-day Admission Tickets: Adult $185/Children ( 3 -11 years) $93 | high7614.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "1,800 kinds of medical plants."
},
"options": [
"over 1,000,000 words",
"1,800 kinds of medical plants.",
"a lot of medical work",
"many foreign medical stories"
],
"question": "His COMPENDIUM OF MATERIA MEDICA ... | Li Shizhen was born in 1918 in Hubei province. His father was a doctor. He learned a lot about medical herbs from his father and read many medical books. At the age of 23 he became a doctor. He often treated poor people's illness, so many peasants and fishermen made friends with him.
The year he was 35 Li shizhen began to write the COMPENDIUM OF MATERIA MEDICA. He walked all over famous mountains which grew medical plants to learn their shapes. The conditions in which they grew and collected all sorts of specimens . He spent 27 years in writing this book.
The COMPENDIUM OF MATERIA MEDICA with over 1,000,000 words, describe 1,800 kinds of medical plants. When the work had just been ready for printing and publishing , Lishizhen passed away.
The COMPENDIUM OF MATERIA MEDICA introduces not only medical herbs growing in China but also many foreign medicines. After its publication the books reached foreign countries. It was translated into English, French, German, Japanese and Russian and became an important piece of _ in international medical research. | high8241.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "its huge population affects its native ecosystem"
},
"options": [
"it's gradually dying out",
"it's not found anywhere else",
"it's well protected by the local people",
"its huge population affects its native ecosystem"... | The red crab lives on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean and has been found nowhere else in the world. But on its homeland it is a very significant species -- some 120 million individuals cover the rain forest floor and play a major role in determining the structure of the ecosystem.
These large crabs are active during the day but prefer to stay in the shade and can die in the heat of direct sunlight. They feed on fallen leaves, seeds, fruits and flowers, recycling nutrients and helping to determine the spread and composition of native plants.
Most of the year the red crabs live in the holes they dig throughout the forest. During the dry season they hide in these shelters to keep their body wet and remain there for two to three months. But when wet season returns in October or November they begin a legendary mass migration to their seaside breeding grounds, moving in color1ful wave that wash over all obstacles like roads (including special passages and some closed roads built for the red crab) and even seaside cliffs.
The annual migration is also closely tied to the lunar schedule. The crabs arrive at the coast and breed at such a time that the females can produce eggs and develop them in caves for a dozen or so days before carrying them into the sea exactly when high tide turns between the last quarter and new moon. During this period sea level on the beaches varies the least and offers an easier approach, which is so important that if the weather delays the migration crabs will put off laying eggs until the next lunar month.
Red crab eggs grow right away, and the young live in the sea for a month before returning to the coast, changing into air breathers, and slowly returning inland to begin the cycle once again. | high22299.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "It's thought that the Boog is beyond control."
},
"options": [
"He wants to seek a comfortable settlement.",
"It's thought that the Boog is beyond control.",
"The Boog is required to find enough food.",
"The Boog is eag... | A twisted sense of humor and a strong voice cast make "Open Season" fun for kids and adults. It's a great start for Sony's animation studio.
Boog is a full-grown grizzly bear that has been raised among humans by park ranger Beth. He has a warm place to live, all the food he wants, and is safe from hunters.
However, when he crosses paths with the spastic mule deer Elliot, all that changes. Thanks to a series of misunderstandings, everyone believes Boog is dangerous and out of control. Beth is forced to release him back into the wild.
Once Boog finds himself in the great outdoors, he has no idea what to do. He gets lost, can't find food, and is attacked by unfriendly forest cutters. Boog is forced to rely on the idiotic Elliot to help him find his way back to civilization . But can they _ before open season begins for hunting?
The movie also has a really strong voice cast. Martin Lawrence voices Boog, and his attitude and persona perfectly fit the bear. The same goes for Aston Kutcher as Elliot. Even if you can't stand him in the real world, you'll be surprised how well he brings the annoying deer to life in the movie.
The animation in "Open Season" is also excellent. The characters are quite cartoonish, but the hair is realistic looking and the movements are fantastic. The body language adds a lot to the performances of the characters. | high7172.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "link the human brain with computers"
},
"options": [
"help to update computer systems",
"link the human brain with computers",
"help the disabled to recover",
"control a person's thoughts"
],
"question": "BCI is... | Since the 1970s, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers.Brain-computer interface(BCI) technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines.
Recently, two researchers, Jose Millan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland, demonstrated a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person's thoughts.
In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right hand.He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts.
"Our brain has billions of nerve cells.These send signals through the spinal cord to the muscles to give us the ability to move.But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles," Tavella says."Our system allows disabled people to communicate with external world and also to control devices."
The researchers designed a special cap for the user.This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp and sends them to a computer.The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path.They help the computer react to commands from the brain.
Prof.Millan, the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that interprets brain signals and turns them into simple commands."The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: communication, and controlling devices.One example is this wheelchair."
He says his team has set two goals.One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can benefit from.And the other is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time. | high1503.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "A 30 - year - old woman without disability"
},
"options": [
"A pupil in grade six",
"A 30 - year - old woman without disability",
"An old man in his seventies",
"A person in a wheelchair"
],
"question": "Which o... | Here is some information from a tourist guide to Patapsco Valley state Park Maryland, USA.
Wildlife and Nature Appreciation
While visiting Patapsco Valley State Park, you will see a variety of natural habitats. Throughout spring and fall, dogwoods, maples, redbuds, and many varieties of wildflowers color the forest. This park is also home to many small mammals and birds. If you pause during your journey through tile forest, you are likely to see rabbits, grey squirrels, and red foxes. Along the banks of tile river, birdwatchers will spot Canada geese and wood ducks all year round
Fishing
The Patapsco River meanders through the park and is a popular attraction for anglers . The Department of Natural Resources' Fisheries Service assigns the river as a put-and-take fishery with adult rainbow and brown trout in spring and fall. Anglers also enjoy catching naturally reproducing smallmouth and largemouth bass, bluegill, redbreast sunfish and yellow perch.
Fishing opportunities have been specially set aside at Lost Lake for youth under 16 and seniors 62 years of age and older. This area is also designed for anglers with disabilities.
Trails
Adventure seekers will enjoy hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding on the park's popular trail system. More than 17 miles of challenging and rough single track trails follow the ridges, steep hillsides and stream valleys in the park. These trails are also excellent gateways for wildlife viewing, bird watching and general nature appreciation. Please respect the rights of nearby private property owners by using only blazed trails. Remember that the park is a natural area with certain dangers, such as poison ivy, slippery trail surfaces, insects, etc. You are responsible for having the necessary skills, knowledge and equipment for a safe visit.
Discover History Along the Trail
Enter another time as you explore Patapsco's trails. Layer upon layer of history tells the story of man's interaction with nature. Native American hunted, gathered and fished here for centuries. In the 1700s, the valley became one of the earliest sites for America's Industrial Revolution. Early settlers cut down trees for charcoal used to fire iron furnaces . The river's current was dammed and channeled to power iron, paper, grain and textile mills . Towns and tobacco farms were established throughout the valley. | high13044.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Fossil fuels were created millions of years ago by plant and animal remains."
},
"options": [
"Fossil fuels are a kind of renewable resource just like sun, wind and water.",
"Burning natural gas releases more pollutants than oil or... | Many people think the search for cleaner energy leads only to renewable resources like sun, wind and water. But it also leads to a fossil fuel. Natural gas is considered the cleanest of the fossil fuels, the fuels created by plant and animal remains over millions of years.
Burning it releases fewer pollutants than oil or coal. The gas is mainly methane . It produces half the carbon dioxide of other fossil fuels. So it may help cut the production of carbon gases linked to climate change.
Russia is first in what are called "proved reserves" of natural gas. The United States is sixth. Over the years, big oil and gas companies recovered much of the easily reached supplies of gas in America. They drilled straight down into formations where gas collects. As these supplies were used up, big drillers looked for similar formations in other countries.
But now the industry is taking a new look. Companies are developing gas supplies trapped in shale rock two to three thousand meters underground. They drill down to the shale , then go sideways and inject high-pressure water, sand or other material into the rock. This causes the rock to break, or fracture, releasing the gas. Huge fields of gas shale are believed to lie under the Appalachian Mountains, Michigan and the south-central states.
Gas shale exploration is being done mainly by small to medium sized companies. Eric Potter is a program director in the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin.
ERIC POTTER: "The types of opportunities that are left for natural gas exploration in the U.S. have changed. So it's a different class of resource -- not as easy to develop, and not even recognized as something worth pursuing, say, twenty years ago."
He says more than half the gas in the United States is now coming from these new reserves.
But hydraulic fracturing can also produce debate and anger over the risk of groundwater pollution. This method of drilling is not federally supervised under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Some in Congress want to end that exemption from the law.
Natural gas provides Americans with about one-fourth of their energy. And, unlike oil, most of it is produced in America. Gas producers invested heavily in reaching new supplies when prices were high. But prices are down sharply now because the recession cut demand for energy. So energy expert Eric Potter says it is too early to know how the new gas shale reserves will affect the market. | high23187.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "just listen while a kid is explaining his problem"
},
"options": [
"give a kid some help when he is explaining his problem",
"just listen while a kid is explaining his problem",
"work together with a kid toward the solution t... | Science Daily--Kids may roll their eyes when their mothers asks them about their school day, but answering her may actually help them learn. New research from Vanderbilt University reveals that children learn the solution to a problem best when they explain it to their mom.
"We knew that children learn well with their moms or with a peer, but we did not know if that was because they were getting feedback and help," Bethany Rittle-Johnson, the study's lead author and assistant professor of psychology at Vanderbilt's Peabody College of education and human development, said. "In this study, we just had the children's mothers listen, without providing any assistance. We've found that by simply listening, a mother helps her child learn."
Rittle-Johnson believes the new finding can help parents better assist their children with their schoolwork, even when they are not sure of the answer themselves. Although the researchers used children and their mothers in the study, they believe the same results will hold true whether the person is the child's father, grandparent, or other familiar persons.
"The basic idea is that it is really effective to try to get kids to explain things themselves instead of just telling them the answer," she said. "Explaining their reasoning, to a parent or perhaps to other people they know, will help them understand the problem and apply what they have learned to other situations. We saw that this simple act of listening by mom made a difference in the quality of the child's explanations and how well they could solve more difficult problems later on. | high5765.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "they are flying in the sky"
},
"options": [
"they are floating above their own bodies",
"they are walking towards a light",
"they are flying in the sky",
"they are seeing a bright light"
],
"question": "Accordin... | An out-of-body experience? It's just your brain playing tricks on you.
Some report feeling as if they are floating above their own bodies, while others find themselves drawn towards a blinding light. But out-of-body experiences are nothing more than a trick of the mind, scientists claim.
They say that common spooky scenarios, such as floating above a hospital bed or walking towards the light at the end of a tunnel, can be explained by the brain trying to make sense of the process of death.
Scientists from the universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge reviewed studies into changes in the brain that cause certain strong feelings associated with near-death experiences.
Researcher Caroline Watt said one common vision -- that of people seeing a bright light which seems to be drawing them into the afterlife -- is probably produced by the death of the cells we use to process the light picked up by our eyes and turn it into pictures.
"It is simply your brain trying to make sense of the unusual experiences you are having," Dr Watt said.
Feelings of being out of the body can also be explained by the brain's behavior, the journal Trends in Cognitive Science reports.
"If you put on a virtual reality headset showing an image of yourself three feet in front, you can trick your brain into thinking that is you over there, and get the sense you are outside your body," Dr Watt added.
The scientific evidence suggests that all aspects of the near-death experience have a biological basis.
In another example, the hormone noradrenalin, which is released when we suffer from stress and injuries, could be behind the feelings of love and peace that many experience when they seem to be approaching death.
However, other scientists say we should not be so quick to dismiss (stop considering) people's accounts (descriptions).
Sam Parnia, of the University of Southampton, stressed that being able to trace something back to the brain does not mean it is not real.
Dr Parnia, who is close to completing a three-year study of hospital patients' recollections of their near-death experiences, said, "Every experience, whether near-death or otherwise -- such as depression, happiness and love -- is mediated by the brain." | high18111.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Kunqu Opera has a history of over 600 years."
},
"options": [
"Kunqu Opera has a history of over 600 years.",
"Kunqu Opera is the oldest form of opera.",
"Kunqu Opera dates back to the beginning Yuan Dynasty.",
"Kunqu O... | The Chinese classic work of literature "A Dream of Red Mansions" has been adapted into a number of stage and screen versions over the years. Artists from the Northern Kunqu Opera Theatre made the classic back in 2011. And now the triennial China Arts Festival is recognizing their work.
Kunqu Opera is one of the oldest forms of opera still existing in China, with its origins dating back to the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). It has distinguished itself by its rhythmic patterns and has had a key influence on all the more recent forms of opera in China, including the Sichuan and Beijing operas.
In 2001, UNESCO(United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization)announced Kunqu Opera as a masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity (a UNESCO program that ensures the best of every country's traditions is preserved and developed as well as made known to the outside world).
Kunqu Opera, acknowledged as an outstanding opera, has suffered somewhat of a decline since the eighteenth century because it requires a high level of technical knowledge from the audience. Today, it is facing competition from mass culture and a lack of interest among the young. Of the 400 arias regularly sung in opera performances in the mid-20th century, only a few dozen are still performed. More information, please click here. | high17222.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Stealing Patch from the shelter."
},
"options": [
"Letting Patch follow him wherever he went.",
"Telling his aunt Patch was deaf..",
"Stealing Patch from the shelter.",
"Asking Aunt Kim for help."
],
"question":... | In the six months that he'd worked at his aunt's shelter, Bryan had never grown close to a dog, but Patch was different. Aunt Kim had warned him, "Bryan, your mom says no dogs." The fact that Patch was deaf did not help.
"It's not your fault you're deaf, "Bryan said, "Don't worry, because I've got a plan!" Later, Bryan got ready to leave. Making sure no one was coming; he secretly put the dog into his bag, and waved his aunt goodbye.
Two hours after arriving home with Patch, Bryan sat sadly in his room. He had told his mother he would take care of Patch, but Mom didn't agree.
Bryan lay awake that night, Patch jumped onto his bed, and soon he fell asleep.
Unbearable barks woke Bryan sometime later. Bryan got up to quiet the dog, but he froze when he saw black smoke snaking into his room. He pulled the door open. Red-yellow flames licked greedily at the hallway entrance, blocking the front door. Suddenly, Patch ran down the hall. Bryan followed and found the dog in his sister Sarah's room. Bryan pushed Sarah to the window and shouted, "Jump with Patch!"
Racing back into the smoky hallway, Bryan saw his mom. She seemed hardly able to catch her breath. Bryan tried to drag her to the hall window. But he failed. He looked up just in time to hear voices and feel _ pull them both to safety.
A neighbor had heard Patch's barks and called 911. The firefighters thought a few candles had caused the fire.
"I can't believe I forgot to blow out my candles," Mom said.
"Sorry about the house, Mom,"Bryan said quietly.
To his surprise, Mom smiled. It's OK. The important thing is that our family is safe. "She patted Patch's head. "Our whole family." | high21948.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "university students"
},
"options": [
"book dealers",
"university students",
"publishers",
"campus staff"
],
"question": "The intended readers of this passage are _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
... | Bookie's, the campus bookstore is located at the Campus Activity Centre, main floor.
Bookie's is the only place in Kamloops to buy your course textbooks. There is a booklist in the bookstore listing the books required for each course. If you need help in finding your course textbooks, ask any of the staff in the bookstore.
There are more than just textbooks at bookie's. They carry a wide variety of stationary, art supplies and gift items. You can also buy telephone cards, postage stamps and bus passes. You must show your student card to get a discount for the bus passes.
TEXTBOOK RETURNS
1) Do I need my receipt to return books?
Yes.
2) How long do I have to return books?
Books purchased must be returned within ten working days of the date of the purchase.
3) What if I wrote my name in the book?
Unfortunately, we can not give you a full refund for books not in mint condition as publishers will not accept this for credit.
4) What happens if I miss the last day for return?
We may purchase the text book as "used" in accordance with our Buyback program.
5) What if I discover that my book has missing pages half way through the semester?
We will replace the _ books, new or used, for a like copy of that title. Cash refunds are not given for defective books returned outside the normal return dates.
BUYBACKS
1) What books do you buy back?
We buy back all current edition textbooks. If we do not use them at UCC, we buy them back according to the value established in the North American marketplace.
2) How much do I get for my books?
If bookie's is buying the book for use at UCC, you will receive 50% of the current new retail price. In order to receive optimum buyback price, discs and supplements must accompany the book.
3) What happens to the books that I sell?
Books for bookie's are processed by our staff and sold to students at 75% of the new retail price.
4) What condition do my books need to be in?
Books should be in good condition, meaning that the cover is still attached and all pages intact. Notes and markings on the pages of the books are perfectly fine. Workbooks and study guides are generally not purchased back unless they are free of all markings. No sales receipt is required for these books.
BOOKSTORE HOURS
Monday-Thursday 9:00am-6:00pm
Friday 9:00am-5:00pm
Saturday and Sunday Closed | high11653.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "To arouse the American public's interest."
},
"options": [
"To show his bravery and make him a role model for teenagers.",
"To arouse the American public's interest.",
"To help reform the spaceflight industry.",
"To fil... | An astronomer is making a case for launching pop singer Justin Bieber into suborbital space aboard a private rocket ship. The idea is not to rid the world of the Canadian teenager -- he would come back down to Earth eventually, after all -- but rather to help jump-start the emerging suborbital spaceflight industry.
It would generate a lot of public interest, which would help commercial spaceflight pick up some much-needed momentum, said Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in Mountain View, California. "If there's more interest, there are more customers. If there are more customers, there's more technical development. It's a positive feedback loop, and obviously that's good."
Such missions would return to Earth without completing a full lap around the planet. Instead, the flights would hit the edge of space about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth, experience a few minutes of weightlessness, then re-enter the atmosphere and land back at a spaceport.
None of these firms are ready to fly customers yet, but some are getting close. For instance, Virgin Galactic hopes to begin powered test flights of its SpaceShipTwo vehicle later this year, with commercial operations perhaps beginning in 2013 or 2014. It is SpaceShipTwo that reportedly grabbed the attention of Beyonce and Jay-Z.
Virgin Galactic has collected deposits from nearly 500 customers willing to pay $200,000 for a ride aboard SpaceShipTwo, and both Virgin and XCOR have inked deals to fly scientists and their experiments on research flights. So a suborbital market already exists -- but Shostak is thinking about ways to make it grow.
A celebrity launch isn't Shostak's only idea. Suborbital firms should also promote their activities aggressively via social media, Shostak said, and they should make sure their spaceships are bristling with cameras both inside and out, to give the public dramatic views of every mission.
Some observers view commercial suborbital spaceflight as a potentially transformative industry, saying it could serve as a stepping stone to the exploration and exploitation of space on an unprecedented scale. While the industry's success is far from assured, Shostak offered some reason for optimism: The American public remains keen on space. | high3314.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the first racing horse in Kentucky"
},
"options": [
"Isaac's father",
"a winning horse",
"a slave taking care of horse",
"the first racing horse in Kentucky"
],
"question": "We knoe from the text that Buchanan i... | May: Happenings from the Past
May 5, 1884
Issac Murpthy, son of a slave and perhaps the greatest horse rider in American history, rides Buchanan to win his first Kentucky Derby. He became the first rider ever to win the race three times.
May 9, 1754
Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazetteproduces perhaps the first American political cartoon , showing a snake cut in pieces with the words "Jion or Die" printed under the picture.
May 11, 1934
The first great dust storm of the Great Plains Dust Bowl, the result of years drought . Blows topsoil all the way to New York City and Washington,D.C.
May 19, 1994
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, former first lady and ond of the most famous people of the 1960s, died od cancer in Mew York City at the age of 64
May 24, 1844
Samuel F.B. Morse taps out the first massage, "What hatch God wrought," over the experimental long -distance telegraph line which runs from Washington,D.C. ,to Baltimore,Md. | high21790.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Michael Jordan"
},
"options": [
"Larry Bird",
"Michael Jordan",
"Jerry West",
"Magic Johnson"
],
"question": "The most powerful basketball player in l980's is",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
... | What is America's number one sport? Can I still say baseball? You could make that statement 30 years ago,but things have changed.Baseball of course has the richest history of all sports.But with the popularity of basketball and American football,there can now be an argument on which sport is American's number one sport.
Basketball really took a turn in the1980's as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird took the NBA to another level.Of course,basketball was already popular and had seen such stars as Jerry West and Dr.J,but the real breakthrough came in the 1980's and from there it really took off with Michael Jordan into the 90's.Basketball has even become very global now as many NBA stars competed in the Olympics and faced no competition.Today,they had better be ready because there are so many talents in other countries and the competition will be stiff.
Like basketball,American football has always been a favorite of many sports fans and its popularity has grown widely.The ratings that Super Bowl Sunday brings are amazing.They have even talked about making Super Bowl Sunday a national holiday.
In the year 2050,basketball and American football will have history like baseball's rich history and maybe American national sport.They have been trying for years,but it is not going to happen.
So what is American's number one sport? To me baseball will always be Americans' hobby--rich in history and many memories for people of all ages.If you have any comments on this subject,do give your opinions. | high17236.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The weather did not permit"
},
"options": [
"They preferred to fly alone",
"The weather did not permit",
"They did not like winter flights",
"The equipment was not adequate"
],
"question": "Why did the author's ... | At least once each winter I manage to get a good flight in the middle of a snowstorm. Last Sunday was that flight. My gliding partners had looked at the weather reports of showers and decided to stay at home. People say that you shouldn't fly by yourself, but on that day I felt the urge to go flying and so headed for my favorite gliding site.
I had the mountain ridge to myself. After a smooth lift-off, I floated stably in the breeze, feeling at peace with myself and the world. I looked across the valley to Bedford and a moment later saw the town disappear in a band of snow that was moving towards me.
The breeze remained strong enough for flying and I knew that as long as the _ was good, it was OK for me to stay in the air. The snow moved in and swirled around me. It was a light dry snow. The day was already very quiet but, somehow, the light snow made it even more silent. I felt like a snowflake.
Two bald eagles joined me. They didn't pay me any attention and spent a few minutes flying around the ridge before disappearing. I flew through another band of snow. I had been flying for about 45 minutes when I next looked across the valley. I could see there were more bands of snow to come and the breeze was dying too.
It was time to go home, get in a hot bath and warm up. I couldn't wait to tell my gliding partners that they had missed out on a perfect flight. | high11647.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "He should make sure the service meets proper standards."
},
"options": [
"He should determine the completion time himself.",
"He should provide free repairs within three months.",
"He should make sure the service meets proper... | Goods must be of proper quality ,must be as described on the package and must be fit for any particular purpose made known by the seller .Those three rules used for the goods you buy can also be used for the goods you get on hire ,or for the goods you get as part of a service.
There are also rules which deal with the standard of services you get--from ,say ,travel agents ,shoe repairers ,hairdressers and builders. _ tell you what you should expect from any service you pay for.
A person providing a service must do so:
--With reasonable care and skill .You should expect a proper standard of workmanship . A new house should have straight walls and the roof must not leak .
--Within a reasonable time. A shop should not take three months to repair your TV. You can always agree upon a completion time with the supplier of the service.
You ,the customer ,must pay:
--A reasonable charge for a service, where no price has been fixed in advance .A trader can not expect a large payment for a small job. | high21784.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "To introduce a newly-invented cupcake ATM."
},
"options": [
"To tell us a newtrend of the diet.",
"To advertisefor the cupcake ATM.",
"To introduce a newly-invented cupcake ATM.",
"To advise more customers to buy cupcak... | An ATM that spits out cupcakes instead of cash is now filling a popular demand in the American market:late-night desire for freshly baked sweets.
In six cities across the country, sugar addicts can now purchase a cupcake for $4.25 from an automatic machine 24 hours every day.The freshly baked goods are made by the California-based cupcake shop Sprinkles.
The idea came to the company's co-founders Candace and Charles Nelson when Candace was pregnant with their first child. Candace thought it was ridiculous that she owned cupcake bakeries aad couldn't get a freshly baked treat at an unusual hour.That desire inspired the company's first cupcake ATM in Beverly Hills,Calif.in 2012.
Charles said each ATM serves about l,000 cupcakes per day.The machine is so popular that when it appeared in Manhattan, customers were lined up around the block to use _
Yet,inventing the first cupcake ATM was not as easy as convincing customers to use it.When the Nelsons started defigning the machine,they quickly realized nothing existed that could give a fully unbroken cupcake to a customer.The company had to partner with a European firm to develop the technology that could deliver a cupcake without dropping it several feet like a typical machine.After going through a seeond development cycle with the product, the ATMs can now satisfy tlle demand of growing customers and even make as many as four cupcakes at a time.
In terms of the company, the-machine allows Sprinkles to do the impossible:increase hours of operation without raising costs.Now the company can sell cupcakes around the clock through the ATM without paying employees.
Now the company is partnering with a Middle Eastern company to open 34 new locations abroad. | high7166.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "was hard for a plane to land in the two countries."
},
"options": [
"there are many mountains in the country.",
"it snows the year around in the country.",
"was hard for a plane to land in the two countries.",
"coming d... | Have you ever heard anyone say "It's raining cats and dogs"? It means "It's raining hard!"
But sometimes cats and dogs do drop from the sky! Here's how _ happens.
Not so long ago, a country far away had many large rats. The people there said, " We need cats!" So cats were sent to them by airplane. But the country had many mountains. It was hard for an airplane to land. So the cats came down by parachute . Did the cats like the ride? They didn't say they didn't! And today they are still catching rats!
In another country far away, there is snow the year around. People sometimes got lost in it.
"We need big dogs!" the people said, "The dogs could find people lost in the snow. The dogs could help bring them home. Where can we get big dogs?"
A man across the sea had big dogs to sell. "I will send dogs to you," he said. " I have some very big ones. They can find people lost in the snow."He sent the dogs by airplane.
But the airplane did not land in the snow. The dogs came down by parachute ---- you guessed it !Did the dogs like the ride? They didn't say they didn't! And today they are well and happy.They find anyone who gets lost in the snow. Then they help him get home. Good dogs!Remember it, so you can say, " Yes, it does rain cats and dogs sometimes. They came down by parachute!" | high1517.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "She stops eating."
},
"options": [
"She stops eating.",
"She eats less junk food.",
"She has three small meals a day.",
"She dances many more hours a day."
],
"question": "What does Kessa do to lose weight?",
... | In the book The Best Little Girl in the World, Kessa has a serious eating disorder called anorexia nervosa. But she is not alone. Many people have this eating disorder.
In the beginning of her story, Kessa is a normal 15-year-old. She is good at many things, especially dancing. She has danced for many years and loves it. One day her dance teacher tells her to continue eating right, but maybe lose a few pounds. Once Kessa hears this, she takes things too far. Instead of cutting down on snacks and junk food, she decides not to eat at all. She does not eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner. She begins losing weight and becomes slimmer and slimmer. But she loses weight to a point where she is unhealthy.
As her poor eating habits continue, her parents start getting as much help as possible to cure their beautiful daughter. But it is just as hard for Kessa's parents to deal with her disorder as it is for her. Everyday she exercises to lose more pounds and plans what and when she will eat. Her parents try everything, but Kessa decides not to have any fat on her body.
Kessa's doctor and parents finally take her to the hospital. She is now so thin that she can hardly walk. There, she is given good care.
In the rest of the book, Kessa goes through a lot of trouble in order to cure her eating disorder. This book, I think, can help to prevent people from doing this to themselves. It shows the trouble that people go through just to be slimmer, and all the terrible things they must experience to be cured. It is a book I think every teenager should read. | high13050.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Murder"
},
"options": [
"Internal hemorrhage",
"Fireworks",
"Lightning weather",
"Murder"
],
"question": "What is NOT the probable reason why the dead red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky?",
"question_typ... | Thousands of dead red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky in an Arkansas town on New Year's Eve after massive injuries, tests by Arkansas officials concluded on Monday. Some 5,000 birds mysteriously fell from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas after dark on New Year's Eve. "The birds suffered from acute physical injuries leading to internal hemorrhage and death. There was no sign of infectious disease," the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said in a statement. The birds were otherwise healthy, it said.
One theory is that birds were frightened by New Year's fireworks and flew into buildings or other objects. "Loud noises were reported shortly before the birds began to fall from the sky," the statement said, adding that blackbirds have poor night vision and seldom fly at night.
Another theory was that severe weather such as lightning accounted for the loud noises but this was _ because the violent weather had already left the area. "We're leaning more toward a stress event," said Arkansas Game and Fish Commission spokesman Keith Stephens.
The commission also is trying to determine what caused the deaths of up to 100,000 fish over a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near a dam in Ozark, 125 miles west of Beebe. The fish were discovered on December 30. Stephens said the commission expected results on the fish tests in probably a month. Since almost all the fish were one species -- bottom-feeding drum, Stephens said, the test was very important. Stephens also said: "The events do not appear related." Both that section of the river and the air at the site of the bird deaths were tested for toxins . Beebe is a town of about 4,500 people located 30 miles northeast of the state capital. | high23193.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Scaly Spotted Feathered Frilled"
},
"options": [
"Ultimate Bugopedia",
"Beyond the Solar System",
"Journey Into the Invisible",
"Scaly Spotted Feathered Frilled"
],
"question": "Kids interested in pre-historical... | There is a lot of talk these days about how kids should be interested in science. Here's an area of science for everyone, and these cool new books might inspire you to discover your inner scientist.
Scaly Spotted Feathered Frilled by Catherine Thimmesh, 58 pages, ages 9-12
Seeing a picture or a model of a dinosaur, do you wonder how anybody knows what they look like? After all, nobody has seen a living dinosaur. This book explains how scientists and artists work together to re-create dinosaurs. As scientific discoveries have been made, the models have changed. Scientific tests may one day expose what a dinosaur's coloring was, but now artists have to use their imagination to determine how these huge creatures looked.
Beyond the Solar System by Mary Kay Carson, 128 pages, ages 10-13
This book takes readers back to the beginnings of space exploration--thousands of years ago, when people began star observation--and forward to today's search for planets in distant parts of the Milky Way. Along with history lessons, readers get 21 activities, such as making a black hole and creating a model of Albert Einstein's universe using a T-shirt. The activities are perfect for cold winter days.
Ultimate Bugopedia by Darlyne Murawski and Nancy Honovich, 272 pages, ages 7 and older
If you're always on the lookout for butterflies, this book is for you. Hundreds of color photos of common and unusual insects fill this hardcover. There are fascinating stories related to the photos. For example, do you know an insect feeds on the tears of Asian cattle? There's a question-and-answer section with an insect scientist and advice on how to help preserve endangered insects.
Journey Into the Invisible by Christine Schlitt, 80 pages, ages 9-12
If you use a magnifying glass, you know a leaf looks quite different. This book explains what microscopes do and then shows what happens to things around the house when watched with this amazing scientific tool. The bacteria in your mouth, when magnified 20,000 times, look a bit like swimming pool noodles. Fascinating photos are paired with suggestions about how to learn about the world around you, just by looking a little closer. | high6278.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Sleeping hours and changes of genes."
},
"options": [
"Sleeping hours and changes of genes.",
"Sleeping hours and diseases.",
"Changes of genes and diseases.",
"Genes and health."
],
"question": "What kind of re... | I've often wondered how exactly sleep, or lack of it, can have such an awful effect on our bodies and, guess what, how much we sleep switches good genes on and had genes off.
In the first half of 2013, the Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey found a direct link between hours spent sleeping and genes. Every cell in our bodies carries genetic instructions in our DNA that act as a kind of operating handbook. However, each cell only "reads" the part of this handbook it needs at any given moment.
Can sleep affect how a gene reads instructions? It's a question asked by Professor Derk-Jan Dijk at the University of Surrey. He set up an experiment and asked his volunteers to spend a week sleeping around seven and a half hours to eight hours a night and the next sleeping six and a half to seven hours.
Blood samples were taken each week to compare which genes in blood cells were being used during the long and short nights. The results were rather surprising. Several hundred genes changed in the amount they were being used, including some that are linked to heart disease, cancer, and Type 2 diabetes. Genes to do with cell repair and replacement were used much less.
Sleep restriction(six and a half to seven hours a night) changed 380 genes. Of these, 220 genes were down regulated (their power was increased). Those affected included body-clock genes which are linked to diabetes . One of the most downgraded genes is that which has a role in controlling insulin and is linked to diabetes and insomnia . The most upgraded gene is linked to heart disease.
So changing sleep by tiny amounts can upgrade or downgrade genes that can influence our health and the diseases we suffer from when we sleep too little.
The important message is that getting close to eight hours of sleep a night can make a dramatic difference to our health in just a few days through the way it looks after our genes. | high14059.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "To let people realize the bad effects of global warming."
},
"options": [
"To collect evidence for his scientific research.",
"To develop the young people's adventurous spirit.",
"To let more people enjoy its natural beauty."... | Do you want to see the effects of global warming? Then head north. Will Steger is going to take all of us there.
Steger, 64, the first person to make a dogsled trip to the North Pole, is a very famous and admired polar explorer. He's at home in frozen parts of the world where few humans ever step on. Steger is also a devoted environmentalist who was early to ring the alarm bell on global warming. He saw its effects firsthand in frequent polar expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica.
Now Steger is about to lead a team of six young adventurers on a 1,400-mile, 60-day-long dogsled trip across Ellesmere Island, in the Canadian Arctic. The sea ice in that region should still be frozen. "We want to take our audience to the front lines of global warming," says Steger. The team will be uploading videos, stories and photos to the website globalwarming101.com as they march along, allowing armchair adventurers and kids in classrooms to follow their progress day to day. "We can actually bring the audience up there," Steger says.
Steger's team will include some already-famous young explorers. Sam Branson, the 22-year-old son of British airline tycoon Richard Branson, is an experienced Arctic traveler. Also on the journey will be 27-year-old Norwegian Sigrid Ekran. Last year, Ekran became only the second woman in history to win Rookie of the Year for the Iditarod Sled Dog Race.
What they will see may be very surprising. Even Steger doesn't know exactly what to expect. Climate change has already reshaped the geography of the Arctic. "Within a decade or less, it's going to be impossible to reach the North Pole by dog team without flotation ," says Steger.
Climate change is happening, but people can change too. Their willingness to change will determine the shape of the Earth's future. | high1271.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Chimps seldom care about others' interests."
},
"options": [
"Chimps seldom care about others' interests.",
"Chimps tend to provide food for their children.",
"Chimps like to take in their neighbors' food.",
"Chimps nat... | Chimps will cooperate in certain ways, like gathering in war parties to protect their territory. But beyond the minimum requirements as social beings, they have little instinct to help one another. Chimps in the wild seek food for themselves. Even chimp mothers regularly decline to share food with their children. Who are able from a young age to gather their own food.
In the laboratory, chimps don't naturally share food either. If a chimp is put in a cage where he can pull in one plate of food for himself or, with no great effort, a plate that also provides food for a neighbor to the next cage, he will pull at random ---he just doesn't care whether his neighbor gets fed or not. Chimps are truly selfish.
Human children, on the other hand are extremely corporative. From the earliest ages, they decide to help others, to share information and to participate a achieving common goals. The psychologist Michael Tomasello has studied this cooperativeness in a series of expensive with very young children. He finds that if babies aged 18 months see an worried adult with hands full trying to open a door, almost all will immediately try to help.
There are several reasons to believe that the urges to help, inform and share are not taught .but naturally possessed in young children. One is that these instincts appear at a very young age before most parents have started to train children to behave socially. Another is that the helping behaviors are not improved if the children are rewarded. A third reason is that social intelligence. Develops in children before their general cognitive skills,at least when compared with chimps..In tests conducted by Tomtasell, the children did no better than the chimps on the physical world tests, but were considerably better at understanding the social world
The cure of what children's minds have and chimps' don't in what Tomasello calls what. Part of this ability is that they can infer what others know or are thinking. But that, even very young children want to be part of a shared purpose. They actively seek to be part of a "we", a group that intends to work toward a shared goal. | high13736.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "One's feelings can be shown through their eyes."
},
"options": [
"It is always very rude and aggressive to look at others for a long time.",
"One's feelings can be shown through their eyes.",
"If a stranger looks at you for s... | Much meaning can be conveyed, clearly, with our eyes, so it is often said that eyes can speak.
Do you have such kind of experience? In a bus you may look at a stranger, but not too long. And if he is sensing that he is being stared at, he may feel uncomfortable.
The same is in daily life. If you are looked at for more than necessary, you will look at yourself up and down to see if there is anything wrong with you. If nothing goes wrong, you will feel angry toward other's stare at you that way. Eyes do speak, right?
Looking too long at someone may seem to be rude and aggressive. But things are different when it comes to stare at the opposite sex. If a man glances at a woman for more than 10 seconds and refuses to avert his gaze, his intentions are obvious. That is, he wishes to attract her attention, to make her understand that he is admiring her.
However, the normal eye contact for two people engaged in conversation is that the speaker will only look at the listener from time to time; in order to make sure that the listener does pay attention to hat the former is speaking, to tell him that he is attentive.
If a speaker looks at you continuously when speaking, as if he tries to dominate you, you will feel disconcerted. A poor liar usually expose s himself by looking too long at the victim, since he believes the false ides that to look straight in the eye is a sign of honest communication.
In fact, continuous eye contact is confined to lovers only, who will enjoy looking at each other tenderly for a long time, to show affection that words cannot express.
Evidently, eye contact should be done according to the relationship between two people and specific situation. | high12428.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "at the beginning of a new school year"
},
"options": [
"at the beginning of a new school year",
"before summer vacation",
"at Anne E. Moncure Elementary Scholl",
"after an important test"
],
"question": "We can ... | Dear Parents,
Welcome to our fifth grade class in Room 35 at Anne E. Moncure Elementary School. We have a very busy and exciting year in store for us!
Before I give you a short preview of some of the subjects to be covered during the course of this year, let me first introduce myself. I am Elaine Bogucki and I have lived in Stafford County since 1987 with my husband. This will be my fourteenth year at Anne E. Moncure Elementary School and I consider myself very fortunate to be among such a professional faculty .
I realize that teaching your child is a _ , as well as a very great responsibility. I will do my best this year to ensure that each student has a motivating and safe learning experience in the classroom. However, I cannot do this alone: I need your help. We both need to be partners in the learning process. I need each of you to encourage your child at home by helping to ensure that they have completed their assignments, and help them study for tests, if necessary. I will keep you informed of all assignments and subjects that are covered in class with a weekly summary.
Finally, I have prepared some information that may help answer some of your questions about our subjects and classroom. I know that with your help we are going to have a great year!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Elaine Bogucki | high8533.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "never open in constant darkness"
},
"options": [
"never open in constant darkness",
"change their usual time to open",
"open ahead of the time as they usually did",
"continue to open at usual time"
],
"question"... | We had known for along time that flowers of different plants open and close at different time of day. Yet no one really understands why flowers open and close like this at special time. The question is not as simple as we might think, as recent experiments have shown. In one experiment, flowers were kept in constant darkness. We might expect that the flowers ,without any information about the time of the day, did not open as they usually do. In fact, they continue to open at their usual time. This shows that they have some special ways of knowing the time. Their sense time does not depend on information from the outside world. It is inside them: a kind of "inner clock". This discovery may not seem to be very important. However, it is later found that not just plants but animals have this "inner clock" which control the working of their bodies and influences their activities. Human beings, then, are also influenced by it. Whether we wish or not, it _ such things in our life as our need for sleep or need for food. | high7600.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "they help students find jobs"
},
"options": [
"students are free to choose their courses",
"students do well in important national tests",
"they help students find jobs",
"they help students to be independent"
],
... | Children are our future, and it's up to us to arm them with the tools to succeed. Sadly, today's children are being armed with more dangerous tools like weapons , drugs and gangs. Once a relatively peaceful environment, many schoolyards of today are becoming unsafe for both students and teachers.
Home schools are available to give you choices. Home schooling provides top-quality education, flexibility, and freedom to create your own schedule. At Heritage Home School we believe the choice should be yours. Thanks in part to modern technology, home schooling information is becoming readily available across our nation. A recent study by the ITBS (Iowa Tests of Basic Skills) and TAP (Tests of Achievement and Proficiency) shows us that students of home schools do particularly well when compared with the nationwide average. In every subject at every grade level, students of home schooling scored obviously higher than those in public and private schools.
If you're new to home schooling, you may be asking yourself, "Will home schools really work for my children?"
Fact: A nationwide study using a random selection of 1,516 families found students of home schooling to be scoring, on average, at or above the 80th percentile in all areas on standardized achievement test.
Note: The national average on standardized achievement tests is the 50th percentile. Collectively, the staff at Heritage Home School brings 65 years of experience in home schooling curriculum. We've placed students in the top 2 % of the nation in math and many are successfully moving on to college.
One study found that of the home schooled adults, 0% were unemployed, 0% were on welfare and 94% said home education prepared them to be independent persons. For more home schooling information, call us today toll free at(877)532-7665. | high11121.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "for young Cambodians in troubled lives"
},
"options": [
"that works with Cambodian students",
"for young Cambodians to learn a trade",
"for young Cambodians in troubled lives",
"for young Cambodians taking skateboarding... | Some young Cambodians are learning a new sport -- skateboarding. The country's first skateboard park is located on the grounds of a local charity group at the edge of Phnom Penh, the capital.
Sports like Khmer boxing and soccer are wildly popular in Cambodia. But Chea, who has been skating for 6 months, says skating has already become his favorite sport.
The skaters are learning tricks like launching off a jump or half-pipe and flying through the air on their narrow wooden boards.
A non-governmental organization called Skateistan Cambodia organizes weekly programs at the park. Skateistan started its work in Afghanistan years ago. Rory Burke is working with the group which expanded to Cambodia last year.
Rory Burke points out, "Yeah, it's definitely not a typical Cambodian pastime . And I think the idea of 'why skateboarding' is that it's not been done before here. We want to use skateboarding as something saying, 'Hey, this is new, this is something different.And that kind of itself becomes _ . People see it and they think and they say, 'Wow, what is that?' and they want to get involved. "
Skateistan partners with local groups that work with young people. The park is on the grounds of the group known as PSE, where children attend school and learn a trade. There are almost one hundred twenty participants. They all come from troubled lives.
Seventeen-year-old Sang Rotha is a student at PSE. "Sometimes I don't do well in subjects like math," he says, "I feel bad when I find it hard to keep up with my lessons. So that is why I skateboard ---to improve my bad feelings. ',
He says he began skateboarding more than a year ago. Before he started training, it seemed very easy. But it was very difficult to learn tricks, and he got hurt a lot from falling off.
Rory Burke says learning to deal with the difficulties is part of the lesson for these young skateboarders. | high3466.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Texting While Walking? No Way!"
},
"options": [
"A Fantastic Lifestyle: Texting, not Calling",
"A New Danger: Texting While Walking",
"Texting: Easier and Less Formal",
"Texting While Walking? No Way!"
],
"quest... | Katy Johnson hit her forehead into a tree branch while walking and texting on her cell phone a couple of weeks ago.
"I'm pretty sure I was replying to two texts at a time," the 18-year-old girl said, recalling one text was from her dad and one from a friend.
"I was just so devoted to the texts that I just walked right into it."
There appear to be a growing number of serious injuries that occur when people use their cell phones to send text messages while also doing something else, such as walking. Bill Haselow, an emergency physician, said the risks are real. He treated two serious texting-while-walking injuries at the Mequon hospital in the past few months. Both teens suffered a broken nose after falling face first on a sidewalk.
If you're over 25 or so, it might be hard to appreciate the popularity of exchanging word messages that you compose and read on the screen of your cell phone. But there's no doubt they have an attraction.
Perez, a new college graduate, said the number of text messages she sends and receives easily exceeds the number of calls she makes and receives on her cell. Perez said her bills show she typically sends 3,000 texts per month, or an average of 100 per day.www.ks5u.com
Perez said she favors texting because it's less formal than calling someone and because it's easier to communicate while doing another activity -- although she is aware now that texting and walking aren't always easy to do together.
"I only talk on the phone if I really have to," Perez said.
The popularity of cell phones has led to efforts to limit their use. Illinois is considering a ban on walkers using wireless devices while crossing streets. And Wisconsin passed a bill to forbid text messaging by drivers.
But don't expect laws to change addiction -- er, habits. | high16896.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "in the morning"
},
"options": [
"in the evening",
"in the afternoon",
"in the morning",
"at midnight"
],
"question": "The story happened _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | The air hostess was in a small kitchen at the back of the plane, preparing the plates for lunch, when a little old lady came and spoke to her, "Could you please tell me," she asked, "where is the ladies' lavatory in the plane?"
"Yes, madam," said the air hostess and smiled. "It is right at the other end of the plane---at the front."
The little lady went too far. She walked all the way to the front of the plane, opened the door in front of her, and saw the captain of the plane and the other officers. They were all busy with their work and did not see her. She went out again, shut the door and returned to the air hostess.
"Oh, didn't you find it, madam?" the girl asked her. "Yes, I did," said the little lady. "But there are four men in the ladies' lavatory watching television." | high2778.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "World's top 10 rivers are at risk."
},
"options": [
"Saving fresh water in our life.",
"How to protect our rivers.",
"An important discovery.",
"World's top 10 rivers are at risk."
],
"question": "hat is the tex... | Climate change,pollution,overuse of water and development are killing some of the world's most famous rivers including China's Yangtze.India's Ganges and Africa's Nile.WWF said on Tuesday.At the global launch of its report "World's Top 10 Rivers at Risk",the group said many rivers could dry out, affecting hundreds of millions of people and killing unique aquatic life.
"If these rivers die,millions will lose their livelihoods,biodiversity will be destroyed on a massive scale,there will be less fresh water and agriculture,resulting in less food security,"said.Rayi Singh,secretary--general of WWF--India.The report launched ahead of "World Water Day" today,also cited the Rio Grande in the United States,the Mekong and Indus in Asia,Europe's Danube, La Plata in South America and Australia's Murray--Darling as in need of greater protection.
Rivers are the world's main source of fresh water and WWF says about half of the available supply is already being used up.Dams have destroyed habitats and cut rivers off from their flood plains.while climate change could affect the seasonal water flows that feed them,the report said.Fish populations,the top source of protein and overall life support for hundreds of thousands of communities worldwide,are also being threatened, it found..The Yangtze basin is one of the most polluted rivers in the world because of decades of heavy industrialization,damming and huge influxes of sediment from land conversion.
Climate change,including higher temperatures,also means serious consequences for fishery productivity,water supply and political security in Africa's arid Nile basin.Tributaries flowing into the Ganges are drying up because of irrigation,WWF said. | high5017.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "A Paris Exposition."
},
"options": [
"Television and radio broadcasting industries.",
"A Paris Exposition.",
"Promoting the tourism industry.",
"Displaying a special framework structure."
],
"question": "What wa... | Today, the Eiffel Tower, which serves an important role in television and radio broadcasts, is considered an architectural wonder. It attracts more visitors than any other paid tourist attraction in the world. The Eiffel Tower was designed by the French engineer and bridge builder Alexandre Gustave Eiffel for the Paris Exposition of 1889. The tower is 300 m high and consists of an open iron framework making it the highest manmade structure in the world at the time.
It was almost not built. After being awarded the contract to build the tower, Eiffel discovered that the Exposition Committee would only provide about a quarter of the money needed to construct it. Eiffel himself would have to finance the balance. He thought of a deal that would make him a very rich man. He agreed to independently find the people to fund his tower but he wanted to be the only one to control of the tower and he wanted the profits for twenty years. They agreed. To everyone's surprise, including Eiffel, the tower was paid off in the first year.
The deal that Eiffel came up with was probably what saved the tower from destruction. A Committee of Three Hundred was formed and they demanded an end to its building. Many members of the committee said, "They have only put up the framework of this monument, It has no skin." Many sculptors and architects protested , in the name of threatened French art and history, about the useless Eiffel Tower, in the heart of their capital.
It is built of iron, which is an inferior material, and a single beam of it is unable to support large stresses. That is why the tower appears over-engineered by today's standards. Though, from this very weakness, its simple beauty can be found. If you look at the tower, the structure of it sort of copies the biological cellular structure of a plant. | high17550.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Wong Kar-Wai"
},
"options": [
"Tony Leung",
"Wong Kar-Wai",
"Zhang Ziyi",
"Jackie Chan"
],
"question": "Who is the director of the Grandmaster ?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": ... | FORBES CHINA's annual celebrity list is based on income and appearances in magazines, newspapers, TV shows and online. Stars from the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong are included. And here are some of the winners:
Jay Chou
Taiwan singer, actor and director unveiled his 12th studio album, Opus 12, last December (Another "12''). New flick in the works: The Rooftop, being filmed in Taiwan and the mainland, which he stars in and also directs.
3. Andy Lau
Now in his 50s, the evergreen Hong Kong star of song and film stayed popular last year with the movie Blind Detective. Lau's sixth film with Hong Kong actress Sammi Cheng is in the works.
Jackie Chan
Hong Kong movie industry icon last year released what may be his last action film CZ12, or Chinese Zodiac, which he wrote and directed.
5. Zhang Ziyi
Popular actress had hit romantic comedy last year with My Lucky Star, which she also produced. Appears in this year's star-laden The Grandmaster kung fu movie, directed by Hong Kong's Wong Kar-Wai and also starring Tony Leung.
7. Yang Mi
Actress was named most popular female singer in mainland China last year in a joint CCTV-MTV event. Last year's flicks included Love in the Buff, Beijing Love Story and Wu Dang. Has endorsement deals with Pepsi and cosmetics brand Wetcode.
8. Huang Xiaoming
Actor turned up in several successful films last year, including Love in the Buff, An Inaccurate Memoir and White-Haired Witch. Promotes Baleno, Tissot, Olay.
10. Lin Chi-ling
Taiwan TV hostess, model and actress. Most recent success: romantic comedy Say Yes, which took in more than $30 million in China. | high5598.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the wind is strong and reliable"
},
"options": [
"boats and caravans can often be seen",
"isolated farms don't have enough electricity",
"there are less human activities",
"the wind is strong and reliable"
],
"q... | We've used the wind as an energy source for a long time. The Babylonians and Chinese were using wind power to pump water for irrigating crops 4,000 years ago, and sailing boats were around long before that. Wind power was used in the Middle Ages, in Europe, to grind corn, which is where the term "windmill" comes from.
We can use the energy in the wind by building a tall tower, with a large propeller on the top. The wind blows the propellor round, which turns a generator to produce electricity. We tend to build many of these towers together, to make a "wind farm" and produce more electricity. The more towers, the more wind, and the larger the propellors, the more electricity we can make. It's only worth building wind farms in places that have strong, steady winds, although boats and caravans increasingly have small wind generators to help keep their batteries charged.
The best places for wind farms are in coastal areas, at the tops of rounded hills, open plains and gaps in mountains - places where the wind is strong and reliable. Some are offshore. To be worthwhile, you need an average wind speed of around 25 km/h. Most wind farms in the UK are in Cornwall or Wales. Isolated places such as farms may have their own wind generators. In California, several "wind farms" supply electricity to homes around Los Angeles.
The propellors are large, to obtain energy from the largest possible volume of air. The blades can be angled to cope with varying wind speeds. Some designs use vertical turbines , which don't need to be turned to face the wind. The towers are tall, to get the propellors as high as possible, up to where the wind is stronger. This means that the land beneath can still be used for farming. | high20673.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the fourth year"
},
"options": [
"the first year",
"the second year",
"the third year",
"the fourth year"
],
"question": "The schoolmaster could decide wisely whether to further employ the teacher by the end of ... | But what is teacher quality? How can one measure it reliably?
An analysis is issued on a sample of data from a Texas school district. Experts argue convincingly that teacher effectiveness should be measured by students' gains on standardized tests: Mr. Smith is probably a better teacher than Ms. Brown if his students consistently improve their test scores more than hers do.
Though this approach is appealing, there are tricky issues. For example, what if Ms. Brown teaches in a school where students score so high there is little room for improvement?
The authors try to correct for this problem, as well as other sorts of measurement issues, to generate a measurement of teacher effectiveness. The paper is primarily concerned with how this measure is related to other observable characteristics.
The first finding is that there is a large variation in teacher effectiveness: some teachers consistently have a larger impact on their students' achievement than others.
Second, easily observable characteristics like having a master's degree or a passing score on the teacher certification exam are not correlated with teacher effectiveness.
Then what does matter? The most important single influence is experience: first-year teachers are much less effective than others. The second year is significantly better, and by the fourth year, _ .
It is not entirely clear whether this experience effect is learning by doing (the more you teach, the more effective you become) or survival of the fittest (those who are not good at teaching tend to drop out early.)
From my reading of the paper, both effects appear important and there is no simple answer. The data do suggest, however, that teacher effectiveness is pretty clear by the end of the second year, so the information to make an informed decision is available at that time.
The authors also investigate the contentious issue of racial matching of students and teachers. Here they find strong evidence that minority teachers tend to be more effective with minority students. Again, it is unclear whether this is because of a role model effect (students respond better to a teacher of their own race) or an empathy effect (teachers empathize better with students of their own race) or something else entirely.
The authors also look at teacher mobility. There is some evidence that teachers who quit teaching or switch schools tend to be below average in effectiveness. This is consistent with the survival-of-the-fittest model. | high4686.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "people are fond of personal items."
},
"options": [
"they can be used on any occasion.",
"people manage to speak to two at a time.",
"they can put drivers in great danger.",
"people are fond of personal items."
],
... | Everywhere I go, people are speaking on their cell telephones regardless of their surroundings . This happens when people are walking around a lake or through town, or even driving. I have even seen a person attempting to speak on her cell phone while ordering ice cream at Dairy Queen, thus speaking to two people at once.
As the over-spending of technology increases, people begin to take less joy in the simple pleasures of life--joys that don't cost money--from observing clouds, playing with children to thinking or reading. And it is not just telephones that take the responsibility; too much value is placed on items from computers to cars. Many things are purchased merely to show off. Do you really need a cell phone that plays games, shows movies and takes pictures? No, cell phones should be purchased to use in urgent situations.You do not need to use your telephone when you are at someone else's house or in a restaurant.
Technology and possessions do not bring joy. While some technology is necessary, it can get ridiculous . Each possession just makes us want more, while simple pleasures can be enjoyed now and then.
Instead of spending our time buying a third television or looking into the newest cell phone models, we should be acting more productively to improve the world by volunteering, for example. Or, we should reconsider playing computer games or taking pictures on our cell phones and read a book or imagine what shapes the clouds are in the sky instead. | high1926.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "she failed to voice her opinion on some issues"
},
"options": [
"she didn't put gun-control measures into effect",
"she failed some feminists to stand out to be a career woman",
"she didn't solve some racial problems",
... | First lady Michelle Obama turns 50 on Friday, Jan. 17, 2014.
Michelle Obama has spent the first half-century of her life breaking barriers and checking off a series of firsts. Now, as she reaches her milestone birthday Friday, the nation will be watching to see in what other areas she will leave her mark.
Five years after moving into the White House, and without a re-election campaign to worry about, she has more room to relax in her role and, political watchers say, possibly become more vocal on political issues in the three years left in office.
So far, critics have complained about Michelle's silence on issues where they expected to hear her voice: Last year, at the start of her husband's second term, she disappointed advocates for tighter gun-control measures after she failed to push harder on the issue in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. She also disappointed some feminists who wanted her to defend their causes instead of falling back on her self-described role as the nation's "mom-in-chief." Nor did she handle racial issues during her second term, as some had expected.
"The most important thing to remember is, whether you are black, white or Hispanic, you're the first lady and the president of all the people in the United States. That's a huge melting pot, so to reinforce that she's African American over anything else would not be wise," said Anita McBride, who directs programming and national conferences on the legacies of America's first ladies and their historical influence at American University.
Valerie Jarrett, a top White House adviser and a close friend of the Obamas, said the first lady doesn't want to " _ "
"She really wants to have a maximum impact and to do that in fewer areas," Jarrett told the Associated Press. "That, she said, "is better than trying to take on every single possible cause."
But Robert Watson, a Lynn University professor, said he expects Obama to "go a little harder at issues" over the next several years. "Second-term first ladies usually feel more at ease to speak more forcefully about issues close to their heart," he said.
Myra Gutin, a Ryder University communications professor and frequent lecturer on first ladies, said she expects Obama to continue making both of them a priority in her remaining years in the White House, given their success. Michelle launched the "Let's Move" campaign in 2010. It in particular has gained widespread support, ranging from the National Football League to the Sesame Street franchise , which even gave permission to the produce industry to use its licensed characters for free on fruits and vegetables.
"There's no such thing as a traditional first lady, not anymore in this technology-filled world. Is Mrs. Obama cutting edge? Is she an activist? No. As first ladies go, I think she's been politically careful because she does not want there to be a major flare-up that would require her husband to use his political capital to clean up," she said. "But she's not exactly just sitting in the White House pouring tea and having receptions, either." | high6091.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "at eighteen years old"
},
"options": [
"at eighteen years old",
"from childhood",
"after they get married",
"from an early age"
],
"question": "Many American young people begin to live on themselves _ .",
... | At 18, many American young people go off on their own. They go away to college or find full-time jobs, and they often rent their own apartments. Some get married and start families. This independence is learned from childhood.
From an early age, American children learn responsibility . Children as young as 2 begin to put away their toys and dress themselves. At 3, many children do simple chores like setting the table.
Using money wisely is also taught early. As soon as a child understands the value of money, he or she receives a weekly _ . This is used for things the child wants, like toys or treats. The child can spend or save it, usually with little guidance from parents. If the child wants money besides his or her allowance, it must be made by doing extra chores.
Children are taught early in life to think for themselves. They are allowed to make some decisions--and make mistakes. Failure often teaches more than success. | high8902.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "To make us aware of the pollution around us."
},
"options": [
"To call on us to guard our water.",
"To show us that no place is like home.",
"To make us aware of the pollution around us.",
"To argue that neither homes n... | Apparently,we are safe neither at home nor in the business office.We use water in both places,but the research shows that chemicals added to our local water supply to kill harmful bacteria can have unwanted side effects.These chemicals can cause potential harm through drinking and in seemingly harmless activities as cleaning one's house.They are released(set free)from water by daily actions like water running out of tap,spraying from garden pipes,or splashing in dishwashers and washing machines.As the water is moving.these chemicals are released into the air and then breathed in. Once inside our bodies, they start to affect our health.
Does this mean we should stop bathing? No, say the scientists, but _ . Activities at home such as the burning of coal, cooking oil, or even candles release carbon monoxide and particulates such as cigarette ashes which have been proven as harmful to health as working or living near heavy traffic. New tugs, bedding, and even clothing give off that"new smell, "which is a sure sign of chemicals. In the office, newly applied paint, newly purchased telephones and other telecommunications equipment, and computers release polluting chemicals, too. As offices and homes often have inadequate ventilation , these chemicals can build up to become health problems. Their poisonous effects are only now being slowly recognized.
These facts suggest that, at a minimum, proper airing of newly purchased goods with an obvious chemical smell is a wise warning. Home and office windows should be opened during good weather. Even one's car needs to be ventilated as well while in the garage.
We need further research to understand better other potential health dangers, too. For example, the effects of overcrowding of schools (carbon dioxide build-up ), the factory work environment ( an endless list of potentially dangerous substances ), and even home heating and cooling (the air conditioner may be our enemies, not our friends) have only recently started to come to light. Until we understand the effects of our new technological environment better, we can only hope that"there is no place like home." | high1098.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "now is more confident than before"
},
"options": [
"often went shopping before she lost weight",
"was overweight when she was a child",
"ever wanted to give up losing weight",
"now is more confident than before"
],
... | I went shopping for a dress to wear to my daughter's high school graduation half a year ago. To my horror, I could only fit into a size 20.
Being overweight most of my adult life, I always had very little self-confidence. Wearing a dress I didn't like to such an important event was enough to make me look for help. Thankfully, a friend of mine was attending Weight Watchers meetings, and I noticed her great progress. Her success _ me to give it a try. I joined Weight Watchers, attended their meetings and started following their Weight-Loss System.
I focused on the plan with determination and never missed a weekly meeting! I discovered that I enjoyed the benefits of having the help and support of others. I also read the weekly online e-newsletter and was inspired by the stories, recipes and information offered there, I also read magazines produced by Weight Watchers, which have great tips and new ideas in each issue.
It's hard for me to even remember the person I was before my amazing change. I didn't walk anywhere and couldn't wash my car or walk my dog. Today I do these simple tasks without even thinking about them. But the change didn't happen overnight. I had to exercise with patience and perseverance . I decided to take it one day at a time and stick with if for good.
The "new me" is more self-confident and healthier. I love how I feel now. I have more energy and feel like I'm 25 again. So why not give Weight Watchers a try if you have the same overweight problem? | high12819.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "stress the restaurant's being unusual"
},
"options": [
"prove the restaurant has a long history",
"advise us to do more exercise",
"stress the restaurant's being unusual",
"express his fondness of the restaurant"
],... | You can have your adventure and eat too at Europe's first green restaurant where traditional German food is served in a beautifully lit wooden hilltop restaurant powered by solar energy at a height of 1,025 metres among tall trees in the Black Forest.
The Rappenecker Hutte is a 350-year-old farm house in south Germany which has been serving as a hikers' restaurant for several years. It was the starting point of the downhill course of the Mountain Bike World Championship (MBWC) in 1995 and is a well-known station of the Black Forest Ultra Bike Marathon (BFUBM).
"People come here for adventure trips, mountain biking or hiking and stop for traditional German food. We produce all our energy from renewable sources as it is very expensive to get a power grid connection at this site," said Dirk Behringer, owner of the Rappenecker Hutte.
Like the restaurant, the story of its present owner is equally amazing as Behringer, 57, left his well-paid job in 2003 to stay here with his wife. "I have traveled across the world and as I was growing old I realized I wanted to retire and live in nature. So I rented the restaurant. Since then I, along with my wife, live here in summer and we travel during winter," said the six-foot-tall man dressed in a T-shirt and shorts.
Due to heavy snow during winter, the restaurant opens only for six months from April to September when it receives around 500 guests per week. The Behringer couple has employed no helper and does everything from cooking to cleaning at this hilltop restaurant which gives a picturesque view of the Black Forest.
There are not many dishes on the menu for unexpected visitors. On a routine basis, there is one vegetarian dish which includes fried potatoes with dense milk cream, boiled vegetables and fresh salad. The non-vegetarian dish includes fried potatoes with pork and salad. There are also options to pick from fresh juices, hard drinks and coffee. All vegetables, fruits, dairy products and meat supplies to the restaurant come from farms in nearby villages. | high22702.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Teamwork skills."
},
"options": [
"Specialized knowledge.",
"Highly-skilled staff.",
"Exceptional talent.",
"Teamwork skills."
],
"question": "In the author's opinion, which of the following is important for a c... | When it comes to human resources, hiring highly-skilled staff is not usually enough for a company to function successfully. Besides the knowledge in their particular fields, employees must always have additional skills-----those of co-operation. In the case that work tasks can only be carried out by communicating with people, accepting common decisions, solving problems, sharing information and helping one another, teamwork skills are important.
While some jobs may require talent, the ability to work as a team is learned. There are no complicated formulas ; you don't need to have any special qualities or exceptional mental abilities. Individuals can be effective as a team if they have developed certain behaviors or habits of communication. Many companies, clubs and organizations use team building activities. Team building activities may include a number of teamwork elements. They are aimed at encouraging active participation in task accomplishment while all members have their roles as individuals and are able to co-operate towards a common goal as a team.
Many team building activities focus on problem solving and discussing team issues; thus argument as a way to common consensus is encouraged. Team building activities often involve recognition and identification of team member skills, talents, knowledge, and experiences which allow the team members to learn more about each other and fully utilize those skills where appropriate . Many team activities are focused on developing keys to trust during challenging times. | high3857.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "a personal letter"
},
"options": [
"a research paper",
"a course schedule",
"a personal letter",
"a book review"
],
"question": "This text is most probably taken from _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questio... | Lots of people have hobbies. Some people collect old coins or foreign stamps; some do needlework; others spend most of their spare time on a particular sport.
A lot of people enjoy reading. But reading tastes differ widely. Some people only read newspapers or comics, some like reading novels, while others prefer books on astronomy, wildlife, or technological discoveries.
If I happen to be interested in horses or precious stones, I cannot expect everyone else to share my enthusiasm. If I watch all the sports programs on TV with great pleasure, I must put up with the fact that other people find sports boring.
Is there nothing that interests us all? Is there nothing that concerns everyone--no matter who they are or where they live in the world? Yes, dear Sophie, there are questions that certainly should interest everyone. They are precisely the questions this course is about.
What is the most important thing in life? If we ask someone living on the edge of starvation, the answer is food. If we ask someone dying of cold, the answer is warmth. If we put the same question to someone who feels lonely and isolated, the answer will probably be the company of other people.
But when these basic needs have been satisfied--will there still be something that everybody needs? Philosophers think so. They believe that man cannot live by bread alone. Of course everyone needs food. And everyone needs love and care. But there is something else--apart from that--which everyone needs, and that is to figure out who we are and why we are here.
Being interested in why we are here is not a "casual" interest like collecting stamps. People who ask such questions are taking part in a debate that has gone on as long as man has lived on this planet. How the universe, the earth, and life came into being is a bigger and more important question than who won the most gold medals in the last Olympics. | high20115.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "made some changes by parents"
},
"options": [
"repeated without any change",
"treated as no more than a joke",
"made some changes by parents",
"set in the present situation"
],
"question": "The author considers ... | A child, who has once got interested in a tale, likes, as a rule, to have it retold in almost the same words, but this should not lead parents to treat printed fairy stories as formal texts. It is always much better to "tell" a story than just "read" it out of a book, and, if a parent can produce his own as an improvement on the printed text, according to his child's actual situation, so much the better.
There is a charge made against some fairy tales, as they probably harm children by frightening them or leaving them sad feelings. To prove it, an experiment has been done to show that children who have heard terrible fairy stories often feel more uneasy than those who have not. As for fears, there are some cases where children get timid by some fairy story. Often, however, this arises from the child having heard the story once. Familiarity with the story by repetition may weaken the pain of fear.
There are also people who object to fairy stories on the grounds that the stories are not objectively true, and that those giants, witches, two-headed dragons, magic carpets etc. do not really exist, so children should be taught to learn the reality by studying history, instead of being got fond of the strange side in fairy tales. Those, who prefer to create such stories, are so peculiar that it is hard to argue with them. If their creative exaggeration were _ , the world should be full of mad men attempting to fly from New York to Philadelphia on a stick or covering a telephone with kisses in the belief that it was their beloved girl-friend.
Not once is a fairy story ever declared to be a description of the real world, but not every child is clever enough to be aware of it. Parents should choose their children's "bed-time" reading materials with much care. Only the fairy stories containing positive effect will make a clever and caring child with rich imagination. | high2591.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Each autumn"
},
"options": [
"Each spring",
"Each summer",
"Each autumn",
"Each winter"
],
"question": "When do the Orange Monarch butterfly come to central Mexico?_.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
}... | In the first programme,The Mexican Wave, the focus is on the Orange Monarch butterfly.
Each autumn in the pine forests of central prefix = st1 /Mexico, one of the greatest natural phenomena appears, as tens of millions of beautiful orange Monarch butterflies pour into the trees to spend the winter months.
Some of them have migrated several thousand kilometres from their breeding grounds in North America and Canada, but although they've never been here before, they travel south and find their way to an area not much bigger than the English county of Devon.
Although they coat the trees and when they take flight, look like an orange snowstorm, these butterflies are under threat at both ends of their journey.The pine forest are being cut down illegally by gangs of loggers, despite protection from the Mexican government.
Local people need timber and firewood to survive. Where the butterflies breed in North America, their foodplant, the milkweed, is being killed by herbicides and agricultural practices, and the Monarch's migration is in danger.With location reports from the Mexican forests, Brett Westwood explores how steps are being taken to develop sustainable forestry to help preserve this magnificent insect. | high17975.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "An apprentice has less practical experience."
},
"options": [
"An apprentice has more theoretical skills.",
"An apprentice has less practical experience.",
"An apprentice needn't pay for school.",
"An apprentice owns a ... | An apprenticeship is a form of on-the-job training that combines workplace experience and classroom learning. It can last anywhere from one to six years, but four years is typical for most. An apprentice spends most of the time in a workplace environment learning the practical skills of a career from a journeyman--someone who has done the job for many years. The rest of the apprentice's time is spent in a classroom environment learning the theoretical skills the career requires. Being an apprentice is a full-time undertaking.
One of the advantages of apprenticeship is that it does not cost apprentices anything. The companies that hire them pay for school. What's more, it offers apprentices an "earn while you learn" opportunity. They usually start out at half the pay of a journeyman, and the pay increases gradually as they move further along in the job and studies. Near the end of the apprenticeship, their wages are usually 90 percent of what a journeyman would receive. Apprenticeship also pays off for employers. It can offer employers a pool of well-trained workers to draw from.
Despite the advantages, apprentices are usually required to work during the day and attend classes at night, which leaves little time for anything else. Sometimes, they might be laid off if business for the employers is slow.
Once they have completed the apprenticeship and become journeymen, they receive a nationally recognized and portable certification and their pay also increases again. Some journeymen continue employment with the companies they apprenticed with; others go onto different companies or become self-employed contractors. | high19780.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Conceptualism"
},
"options": [
"classic style",
"Conceptualism",
"Pop art",
"Baroque style"
],
"question": "One of the artistic styles that many people today discuss and arguing about is _ .",
"question_t... | What is art? According to one definition, it is the creation of something that appeals to our sense of beauty. This definition may include painting, drawing, sculpture, and architecture, or performing arts such as music and drama. Cultural and historical influences, as well as one's own consciousness of what is aesthetically( )pleasing, play a role in what one believes to be art. To some people, art is the description of an object--- a painting or sculpture of a person, for example. For others, art may be a blank canvas, or a piece of chalk.
In order to talk about the different artistic styles that have existed over time, art historians have classified these styles into different periods and organized them in chronological order. The works of art produced within each period mirror the culture and events of that time.
The earliest forms of art, from the prehistoric era , include simple cave paintings and figures made from stone. There were followed by the sculptures and carvings of Ancient Civilizations era. Styles of the later Classical era (800 B.C. to 200 A.D.), reflect the culture of the time--- one that favored simplicity and balance. The period of the Middle Ages followed, and was succeeded by a revival of classical styles in the Renaissance era, beginning around 1400. Well-known artists of this time include Michelangelo and da Vinci. One hundred years of Baroque style, and then fifty years of Rococo followed the 200-year Renaissance. The start of the nineteenth century saw the rise of the Premodern era, followed by the Modern era, a period that lasted until 1945. This was followed by Postmodern era that characterizes the present day.
In addition to differences in artistic styles between eras, there are also differences within each era. The Postmodern era, for example, has featured innovative artistic styles such as Pop Art ( which includes work by Andy Warhol), Minimalism, and Conceptualism. Since the 1960s, Conceptualism has grown in popularity. This style focuses more on the idea or 'concept' of art using realistic objects, rather than on art that is created using traditional materials such as paint, canvas, stone, or clay. Whereas Warhol used a can of beans as the basis for a painting, for example, a conceptual artist might say that the can itself is a work of art.
Conceptualism has become an increasingly controversial art style, particularly as result of numerous conceptual artists winning the Turner Prize. This PS20,000 award is presented annually to a British artist under the age of fifty, in recognition of an outstanding work. Sponsored by the Tate Gallery of Britain, it is recognized as one of Europe's most prestigious awards for visual arts. Its aim is to promote discussion about contemporary British art. In 2002, pop music icon Madonna presented the Turner Prize to conceptual artist Martin Creed.
...... | high20101.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "She took it for a waste microwave oven."
},
"options": [
"She had no microwave oven and wanted one.",
"She took it for a waste microwave oven.",
"She saw nobody was looking.",
"She just wanted to steal it."
],
"... | One morning Mrs Smith was driving home after she had done shopping. When she drove near a rubbish dump, she noticed a microwave oven not far from the side of the road."John is a good electrician!"she said to herself."Perhaps he can repair this. I'll take it home and let him try."She picked up the oven and put it in the _ of her car. Then she drove on happily. A few kilometers later, she heard the siren of a police car behind her. She looked in the driving mirror and saw a policeman waving to her to tell her to pull over and stop.
Mrs Smith was very puzzled. She slowed down at the side of the road. A traffic policeman got out of the police car and walked up to her.
"Can I see your driving license and insurance certificate ,please? "he asked her. He copied down details of her name, address and the number of the car."What's wrong, officer?" Mrs Smith asked. The policeman did not reply. He looked in the car and then at the back. "Open the boot, please."he said to Mrs Smith.
Mrs Smith was still puzzled. She opened the _ and pointed to the microwave oven. "I found this old microwave oven a few minutes ago," she said. "I'm just taking it home to see if my husband can repair it." The policeman stared at her for a moment to see if she was telling the truth. "That's not a microwave oven." he said at last. "That's our radar set . It was the start of a speed trap. Do you mind if we have it back?" Mrs Smith's face turned red. "Oh", she said," I'm very sorry. I wouldn't have touched it if I'd known what it was." | high3843.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Bill Gates' Regret"
},
"options": [
"An Interview with Bill Gates",
"How Bill Gates Succeeded",
"Bill Gates' Regret",
"The Richest Billionaire"
],
"question": "Which of the following can be the best title for th... | The world's richest man might seem to have it all, but Bill Gates has one regret. The self-made billionaire said he felt stupid for not knowing any foreign languages.
Speaking in his third Ask Me Anything question-and-answer session for online forum Reddit , the Microsoft founder said that he wished he spoke French, Arabic or Chinese.
He said: "I took Latin and Greek in high school and got A's and I guess it helps my vocabulary. I keep hoping to get time to study one of these--probably French because it is the easiest. I did Duolingo for a while but didn't keep it up."
Gates, who is worth $79.3 billion, praised Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for surprising an audience in Beijing when he spoke fluent Chinese. "Mark Zuckerberg amazingly learned Chinese and did a Q&A with Chinese students--unbelievable, isn't it?" he said
This isn't the first time for Gates to admit his regret over language. He also showed his habits at home and personal insights.
Last February, Gates said he likes to do the dishes himself--to his own special standards every night and also told the interviewer that his wife, Melinda, would likely want Samuel L. Jackson to play her husband in a biopic .
He also admitted that he would pick up a $100 bill if he found it on the street.
As he took the top spot on Forbes 28th Annual Billionaires list last year for the fourth time, he said he is pretty basic when it comes to so ending on clothes and food, but that he enjoys investing in shoes andracquets when he plays tennis.
When asked a life lesson he had to learn the hard way, the billionaire said staying up too late is a habit he is still trying to break. "Don't stay up too late even if the book is really exciting. You will regret it in the morning. Pam still working on this problem." he said. | high19958.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "People who took part in Freedman's research are about 50 to 70 years old."
},
"options": [
"Freedman and his colleagues hired 400,000 Americans to collect date.",
"People who took part in Freedman's research are about 50 to 70 year... | It seems like every day there's some new research about whether our favorite drinks are good for us. One day, science says a glass of red wine a day will help us live longer. The next day, maybe not. It seems journalists are pretty interested in wine research and the same might be said for coffee. Now there's been a lot of research into whether coffee's good for our health "the results have really been mixed",admits Neal Freedman who led the coffee study and published his findings in a medical journal recently. "There's been some evidence that coffee might increase the risk of certain diseases and there's also been maybe more recent evidence that coffee may protect against other diseases as well".
Freedman and his colleagues undertook the biggest study yet to look at the relationship between coffee and health. They analyzed data collected from more than 400,000 Americans ages 50 to 70 participating in the study. "We found that the coffee drinkers had a modestly lower risk of death than the non-drinkers, he said. Here's what he means by "modestly": those who drank at least two or three cups a day were about 10 percent or 15 percent less likely to die for any reason during the 13 years of the study when the researchers looked at specific causes of death, coffee drinking appeared to cut the risk of dying from heart disease, lung disease injuries, accidents and infections.
Now, Freedman stressed that the study doesn't prove coffee can make people live longer .A study like this can never prove a cause-and-effect relationship. All it can really do is to point researchers in the right direction for further investigation. And even if it turns out that coffee is really good for you, scientists have no idea why. | high2585.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The number of your online friends is reduced."
},
"options": [
"A message is sent out to your online friends.",
"You accept someone as your online friend.",
"You send out a friend request to people.",
"The number of you... | "REMOVE from friends."
This is no ordinary button. One click and I have the power to erase a person from my life.
In late fall, I had around 400 friends on Facebook. Today, I have 134.
Click. Make that 133.
When Facebook first entered my life in 2005, I panicked(, ) that my friend count was too low. If I wasn't properly connected, how would anyone see my clever quote ? Who would wish me a happy birthday? I accepted and sent out friend requests without a second thought and soon accumulated 391 friends.
There is an appeal to being able to communicate with someone or just "thumbs up" a photo rather than make real conversation.
"It's comforting and it's easy," said Larry Rosen, a psychology professor at California State University, who studies the way people communicate online." There's a sense of belonging in it. It's a sense of community in a generation where community has sort of disappeared."
However, I don't talk to half of these people in the online community. There are some I would avoid if I met them on the street.
Click. 132.
I decided to rid my account of any "friend" that...well, wasn't. Sound easy? You try it.
Look at who you're dealing with: family, friends, classmates, crushes , acquaintances...
With every click of the "Remove from friends" button, you risk burning a bridge, losing a contact and missing an opportunity. So every time I go to click the button, my heart hurts.
However, I'm not the only one who has experienced a Faceboook friend refreshing. The New Oxford American Dictionary announces its "Word of the Year" each year, and last year, "unfriend" made the cut (though I'll still stick with "defriend").
When I started my mission , _ . Most were surprised by how easily they could cut hundreds of connections without thinking twice.
"Oh my God, I defriended like 600 people today. I feel so good!" my friend Sarah messaged.
Dana, a close friend from high school, and I battled it out to see who could get our counts lower. She wins at 123.
To some, it's poor "netiquette " to defriend. But to me, it's the stage of life when we hold onto the people who count, the people who impact you. | high518.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "their personal needs"
},
"options": [
"the materials used",
"their body frames",
"the technology employed",
"their personal needs"
],
"question": "In choosing a bike, women should first consider _ .",
"que... | Whether you are fitness fan or plan to go eco-friendly, you have a countless number of bikes to choose from. Here are some tips on how to choose bikes for women.
Firstly, if you have decided to buy a bike, let me congratulate you! This is because you are kind to the environment. Before you go to a store to buy a bicycle, first know your need. Once the basic need is determined, then go into the small details like the frame size (Too small frames can increase the risk of the knee injuries while too large ones can be uncomfortable, so it has to be just right to suit your body frame.),brakes, chains, its efficiency and the technology employed. Don't forget the budget ! Experts say that you should be ready to spend at least 500 dollars, because anything less than that would not probably be the best. ks5u
There are a range of bikes to choose from. However, it's important to choose the correct one that fits a woman perfectly. This is because women usually tend to have a shorter torso and longer legs than men of the same height and so does the arm size vary. Moreover, the strength of the back needs to be considered too. Therefore, you have to find the best that suits your body type and gives you a comfortable ride. | high23408.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "won Best in a Show"
},
"options": [
"comes from a royal family.",
"is five years old in 2012",
"won Best in a Show",
"is small and has short and soft hair."
],
"question": "According to the text, we can know tha... | A small-sized Pekingese with long, soft fur took the top prize at the 136thannual Westminster Kennel Club Show in New York City on Feb 14,2012. The dog has a royal name: Palacegarden Malachy . After being named Best in Show, Malachy celebrated by nestling his 11-pound body inside the trophy .
Competition for the top prize was not easy. Malachy beat more than 2,000 dogs, including a Dalmation, a German Shepherd and a Kerry blue Terrier. But to judge Cindy Bogels, Malachy was the clear winner. "Super dog, and he had a surprising night, " she said.
David Fitzpatrick is Malachy's handler and coowner. He said there would be no more shows for the four-year-old dog. Malachy, he said, would most likely go home to East Brlin, Pennsylvania, to enjoy a quiet life in the country. ' He'll probably chase squirrels and will certainly have a good time. " Fitzpatrick said.
However, Malachy had a busy timetable on Feb,15.He made television appearances this morning and had lunch this afternoon at Sardi's a famous New York City restaurant, where he ate from a silver plate. Later, Malachy visited a businessman and TV personality, Donald Trump.
Dogs were not the only ones in the spotlight at Westminster. Young people ages 9 to 18 took part in Junior Showmanship. In this competition, judges looked carefully at the kids, not the dogs. They watched to see how well entrants handled their animals in the ring. About 100 kids from around the country came to New York City to show off their dogs. 11-year-old Macenzie Zeitz was one of them. She traveled eight hours to New York, with her dog Pudding. " It is really amazing, and it's also a real honor to be here." Zeitz said. "Pudding likes the hotel because he gets to sleep in the bed, " added Zeitz. | high22716.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "in 1920"
},
"options": [
"in 1920",
"after 1945",
"in 1950",
"1916"
],
"question": "The story took place _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"a... | Two years after the First World War (1914-1918), a small group of soldiers left the army and returned to their hometown in France. Most of them lived well, but one of them was poor. His name was Clinton. Once a year they had supper in Barton's house. Barton was very rich.
One evening Barton showed his friends a large gold coin at the supper table. The coin was passed around and praised by everyone. At the same time they were talking and talking. They soon forgot about the coin. After supper, Barton asked for his coin, but nobody could tell where it was. It was lost. One man said that everyone must be searched. One by one they turned their pockets inside out. Only Clinton refused, however."I didn't steal the coin, and I will not be searched," he said.After that, people turned their heads away from Clinton when they met him. He grew poorer. Soon his wife died.
A few years later, Barton had his house repaired. The lost coin was found under the floor. Barton felt sorry and went to Clinton to apologize. "But," he asked, "you knew the coin was not in your pocket. Why did you refuse to be searched?" "Because I was a thief," Clinton answered. "My pockets were full of food at that time. I had taken some food from the table to carry to my hungry wife and children." | high1932.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "A ferry that uses solar and wind power."
},
"options": [
"A sailor who is good at using solar energy.",
"An Australian inventor.",
"A ferry that uses solar and wind power.",
"A new type of generator designed by Dane."
... | An Australian inventor has designed and built an environmentally friendly ferry that uses solar and wind power to transport people around Sydney Harbor. Robert Dane and his Solar Sailor were given the top prize at the Australian Design Awards recently.
The Solar Sailor has been in use for six months. It uses four sources of energy for its power -- solar, wind, battery power with stored solar energy and a fuel generator in store all controlled by computers. The ferry can travel up to 7.5 knots on just wind and solar power. It's solar wings and fiberglass solar panels which not only take in sunlight and store it in batteries, but also act as sails.
"We angle our solar panels to the sun in two planes , which increases the amount of energy we get from the sun by 40 percent," Dane says. "And also we can use that same structure to do another job, which is also the sail, and so these wing sails actually push the ferry forward just like a soft sail does."
Computers check the sun and wind and angle the solar wings to take in the most sunlight. If there isn't much wind or it is a cloudy day, energy stored in the batteries runs the electric motor for up to five hours.
"If the batteries are too low, then the computer turns the generator on so the boat is always able to meet a commercial schedule, or get from point A to point B no matter what," Dan explains.
Dane got his idea for the Solar Sailor from a book on insects. He was amazed how insects use their wings to collect solar energy to warm themselves.
"When I read that, I realized there was a good example in nature for what we were going to do, which was to use a solar wing to collect solar energy and also to sail," he says. | high22070.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "find your true purpose in life"
},
"options": [
"find your true purpose in life",
"choose the best work",
"get along well with others",
"adapt to the work environment"
],
"question": "You can't achieve true job ... | Although many online personality tests are fun, only a few will really give you
into who you are and what you are supposed to be doing with your life.
At CareerPlanner.com we believe that each individual, regardless of race or religion, has a purpose in life, and until you discover what your purpose is, you will not find true happiness, nor true job satisfaction.
This doesn't mean you won't be successful. It just means you won't be happy until you are moving towards your true purpose.
Unfortunately, our school system does very little to help students discover their true career. This is where online personality tests and career tests can help.
Online personality tests and career tests can help you better understand what type of work you should be doing to achieve job satisfaction, happiness, and success.
Personality tests are most useful in giving you insight into "how" your personality compares to others and "how" you like to work.
In particular, if you frequently experience difficulty working with others, or getting their support and cooperation, a really good personality test would show you how to get along better.
While personality tests are very useful at showing you how you like to work and how you like your work environment, they are not really designed to show you "what" type of work is right for you.
That is where Career Interest Tests come in. Online Career Tests, such as the CareerPlanner.com offers will help you discover what your true interests are, and what type of work you will be passionate about.
But back to personality tests. The most well-established personality tests are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator R, and the Enneagram. | high15804.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "just on their way when the truck hit a sign on the roadside and then hit them"
},
"options": [
"taking a rest by the road when the truck ran over and hit them",
"just on their way when the truck hit a sign on the roadside and then ... | One day, my friend Jimmy told me a story. Farmer Joe was in his cart when he was hit by a truck. He decided his injuries from the accident were serious enough to take the trucking company (which caused the accident)to court. In court the trucking company's lawyer was questioning Farmer Joe. "Didn't you say, at the same scene of the accident, 'I'm fine'?" said the lawyer.
Farmer Joe responded, "Well, I will tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favorite mule Bessie into the..." "I didn't ask for any details," the lawyer interrupted, "Just answer the question.Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine? ' "
Farmer Joe said, "Well, I had just got Bessie into the cart and I was driving down the road..."
The lawyer interrupted again and said, "Judge, I am trying to make clear the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the police on the scene that he was just fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to cover the fact. I believe he is telling lies. Please tell him to simply answer the question."
By this time the Judge was fairly interested in Farmer Joe's answer and said to the lawyer, "I'd like to hear what he has to say about his favorite mule Bessie."
Joe thanked the Judge and went on, "Well, as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my favorite mule, into the cart and was driving her down the road when this huge truck ran into the stop sign and pushed my cart right in the side. I was thrown into one side and Bessie was thrown into the other."
"I was hurt so badly that I didn't want to move. However, I could hear old Bessie breathing loudly and groaning . I knew she was in great pain. Shortly after the accident a traffic policeman came to the scene. He could hear Bessie groaning so he went over to her. After he looked at her, he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes. Then the patrolman came across the road with his gun and looked at me. He said, "Your mule was in such pain that I had to shoot her. How are you feeling?" | high20667.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "You had better turn your attention away from delicious foods."
},
"options": [
"You had better turn your attention away from delicious foods.",
"Drinking some water of soup before eating helps you eat less.",
"Holidays are ha... | Do you love the holidays, but hate the pounds that follow? You are not alone. Holidays are times for feasting and celebrating. Many people are worried about their weight. With proper planning, though, it is possible to keep normal weight during the holidays. Whether it is celebrating at the office party or sitting down for the traditional family dinner, regard eating as a time for tasting a variety of the foods. The idea is to enjoy the holidays but not to eat too much. You don't have to turn away from the foods that you enjoy.
Here are some tips for preventing weight gain and keeping physical fitness:
Don't skip meals. Before you leave home, have a small, low-fat meal or snack. This may help to avoid getting too excited before delicious foods.
Control portions. Use a small plate (about 10 inches) and put aside the large ones that may encourage you to "load up." You should be most comfortable eating an amount of food about the size of your fist. Once you have your "tasting" serving, move away from the buffet. Doing so will make it less tempting to be eating constantly as your appetite is inspired by the sight of food.
Begin with soup and fruit or vegetables. Fill up beforehand on water-based soup and raw fruit or vegetables. Or drink a large glass of water before you eat to help you feel full.
Stick to physical activity. Don't let exercise take a break during the holidays. A 20-minute walk after a meal can help burn off extra calories.
Avoid high-fat foods. Dishes that look oily or creamy may have a large amount of fat. Choose lean meats. Fill your plate with salad and green vegetables. Use lemon juice instead of dressing or butter. | high21579.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Services are convenient for its members."
},
"options": [
"Special gifts are ready for parents.",
"The bank opens only on work days.",
"Services are convenient for its members.",
"Fees are necessary for the account keep... | The Winners Club is a bank account specially designed for teenagers.It has been made to help you better manage your money.The Winners Club is a transaction account where you receive a key-card so you can get to your money 24/7 --that's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
It's a club with impressive features for teenagers:
*No account keeping fees!
You're no millionaire so we don't expect you to pay large fees.In fact, there are no accounts keeping or transaction fees!
*Excellent interest rates!
You want your money to grow.The Winners Club has a good rate of interest which gets even better if you make at least two deposits without taking them out in a month.
*Convenient
Teenagers are busy --we get that.You may never need to come to a bank at all.With the Winners Club you can choose to use handy tellers and to bank from home using the phone and the Internet.You can have money directly deposited into your Winners Club account.This could be your pocket money or your pay from your part-time job!
*Mega magazine included
Along with your regular report, you will receive a FREE magazine full of good ideas to make even more of your money.There are also fantastic offers and competitions only for Winners Club members.
The Winners Club is a great choice for teenagers.And it is so easy to join.Simply fill in an application form.You will have to get permission from your parent or guardian (so we can organize that cool key-card) but it is easy.We can't wait to hear from you.It's the best way to choose to be a winner! | high8080.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "He must win the World Cup with Argentina."
},
"options": [
"He must win the World Cup with Argentina.",
"He must win the tournament a few more times.",
"He must defeat Pele and Maradona.",
"He must avoid injury or lengt... | Every time Lionel Messi breaks a record, it seems appropriate to compare him to the legends that came before him.
In 2012, he rewrote soccer history on multiple occasions, and his latest record came when he scored his 86th goal of the calendar year, breaking Gerd Muller's previous mark, before wrapping up the year with 91 goals.
All statistics indicate that Messi is currently the best player in the world, and that he will go down in history as the top footballer of his generation. But when he is judged against all-time greats like Pele and Diego Maradona, he still has work to do.
We don't know whether the Barcelona striker will have another year in which he records more than 90 goals, but he must still sustain a similar level of production for the next several seasons.
Messi has already taken part in three of Barcelona's victorious Champions League campaigns, and he played an important role in two of them. In order to firmly establish himself as the greatest club football player in history, he must win the tournament a few more times.
Most importantly, the Argentine needs to win on the international stage. Regardless of what Messi does for Barcelona, his legacy will be incomplete if he cannot win the World Cup with Argentina.
Both Pele and Maradona led their countries to the top of international soccer during their careers, and Messi's performances for his country have been severely disappointing.
While he was still a teenager in 2006 --and his lackluster showing is excusable due to his youth--he cannot brush off the disappointment that characterized Argentina's performance in 2010.
But the 4-0 loss to Germany in the 2010 World Cup Quarter Final seems to have sparked Messi. He scored 12 times for Argentina last year, and the next World Cup could finally be Messi's breakout performance in blue and white stripes.
Due to all of his accomplishments, it is easy to forget that the extraordinary footballer is just 25 years old. If he can avoid injury or lengthy slumps until his speed and skills start to decline due to age, he may continue to break records and win trophies. | high23346.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The new name is Bombay."
},
"options": [
"It is the movie capital of India.",
"The new name is Bombay.",
"More movies are made there than in Hollywood.",
"It is less expensive to make films there than in Hollywood."
... | Most people think that the capital of the movie world is Hollywood, in the United States. However, the real movie capital is Mumbai, in India. Mumbai used to be known as Bombay, and so the film industry there is called "Bollywood". Each year, Bollywood makes twice as many movies as Hollywood.
The movies from Bollywood are very different from Hollywood movies. For one thing, Bollywood movies are longer than most Hollywood movies. Most Bollywood movies are more than three hours long, and contain singing, dancing, adventure, mystery and romance. Because Bollywood films has so many different characters, this style of film is called a "masala" film. Masala is an Indian word for a mixture of spices .
Another big difference is the way the movies are made. It takes longer to make a movie in Hollywood than in Bollywood. In fact, filming may begin on a Bollywood movie before the script is finished. The director and writers can make up the story while the filming is being made. Sometimes they even write the script by hand instead of typing it.
Bollywood actors are so popular that some of them may even work on several movies at the same time. They may even make several different films on the same day using the same costumes and scenery. Since most Bollywood movies follow the same kind of story, shooting scenes for several films at the same time is not a big problem for actors or directors. This also helps to keep the cost of Bollywood movies lower than the cost of Hollywood movies. | high13285.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "to see the father off"
},
"options": [
"to meet a friend",
"to see the father off",
"to take a family photo",
"to enjoy the sailing of the ship"
],
"question": "We can infer that the mother and children went to ... | My father was Chief engineer of merchant ship, which was sunk in Word War II. The book Night of the U-boats told the story.
Memories
In September, 1940, my mother, sister and I went to Swansea, where my father's ship was getting ready to sail. We brought him a family photograph to be kept with him at all times and keep him safe.
Then I remember my mother lying face down, sobbing. She had heard from a friend that the ship had been sunk by a torpedo .
I can remember the arrival of the telegram , which in those days always brought had news. My grandmother opened it. It read, "Safe, Love Ted."
My most vivid memory is being woken and brought down to sit on my father's knee, his arm in a bandage.
He was judged unfit to return to sea and took a shore job in Glasgow for the rest of the war. For as long as I can remember, he had a weak heart. Mother said _ was caused by the torpedoes. He said it was because of the cigarettes. Whichever, he died suddenly in his early 50s.
Ten years later I read Night of the U-boats and was able to complete the story.
Torpedo
One torpedo struck the ship. Father was in the engine room, where the third engineer was killed. He shut down the engines to slow the ship making it easier for it to be abandoned.
By the time he got on deck he was alone. Every lifeboat was gone except one which had stuck fast. When he tried to cut it free, it swung against the ship, injuring his hand and arm. He had no choice but to jump -- still with the photograph in his pocket.
Three days later, he and other survivors were safe in Glasgow. All 23 with him signed the back of the photograph.
A Toast
In my room is the book and the photograph. Often, glass in hand, I have wondered how I would have dealt with an explosion, a sinking ship, a jump into a vast ocean and a wait for rescue? Lest we forget, I have some more whisky and toast the heroes of the war. | high256.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "peer influence"
},
"options": [
"peer influence",
"teenagers' lifestyles",
"academic pressure",
"moral judgment"
],
"question": "The passage is mainly about _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
... | As students enter the school building, they are easy targets of peer pressure.Students may become involved in activities that are dangerous to themselves, or others, due to peer pressure.
Drugs, including alcohol, are a major part of peer pressure.A research institute reports that about 30 percent of the teenagers are offered drugs in middle and high schools.The majority of teens consume their first drink of alcohol at the age of 13.The National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health from the Department of Health and Human Services informs the public that 74.3 percent of the high school students have tried alcohol.A large percentage of those who drink alcohol are also smokers.The American Lung Association points out that about 3.1 million adolescents are smokers in the U.S.Almost 25 percent of teens between 17 and 18 are regular smokers.
Peer pressure can affect the behavior, clothing choice, music and movie choice and even the personality.Academics can also be affected by peer influence.People can be affected by these factors and remain completely unaware of the changes in their lifestyle, but some people do realize when they are being pressured.Just by simply spending time with others, a person can become more like them.
"If you are being pressured to do things that you know are wrong," Shears, a senior, said, "you should get out of that situation anti tell a trusted adult." For people to avoid becoming a victim of peer pressure, they must make their own decisions.Judgment of a situation based on one's morals is very important in peer pressure situations."People," Sheats added, "should follow their own hearts." | high21551.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Bolt suffered a car crash in London recently."
},
"options": [
"Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt broke the world 100m record in the London Grand Prix on Friday.",
"Bolt will not compete in the 200m in London because of Gay's impressive... | Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt plans to send a message to rival Tyson Gay by breaking the world 100m record in the London Grand Prix on Friday.
Bolt, who won gold in the 100m,200m and 4*100m relay in reord times at the Beijing Olympics last year, is determined to use the Crystal Palace event to crush the morale of his main rival for gold at next month's World Athletics Championships in Berlin.
The 22-year-old is slowly returning to peak form after posting 19.59 sec for the 200m in Lausanne earlier this month and clocking a time of 9.79 sec over 100m in cold, rainy conditions in Paris on Friday.
Despite Bolt's impressive times, Gay still believes he has the beating of the Jamaican. But Bolt insists there is no one in the sport who scares him and he will prove the point in south London this weekend.
Although Bolt believes he is only running at 85 percent at the moment while he recovers from injuries suffered in a recent car crash in Jamaica, he sees no reason why he can't break his world record 100m time of 9.69 seconds.
However he won't get the chance to _ Gay in the 100m in London as the American is only running in the 200m, which Bolt is not competing in, so he will have to settle for underlining his own ability.
"You never know what is possible. I will give my best either way. My friends are saying I'm bringing the rain wherever I go but we will see on Friday."
While Bolt would love to make a big impact in London, he knows the main event is the World Championships.
"The London Grand Prix will show me where I'm at and what I need to do. After, we can analyse what I need to do ahead of the World Championships." | high10954.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "prove that they can pay for their study"
},
"options": [
"buy their own textbooks themselves",
"prove that they can pay for their study",
"find a living place with a kitchen",
"find someone to pay for their college fees... | Students who want to attend an American university must explain how they will pay for their education. They have to show that they will be able to pay for each year of study. Students have to consider not only the tuition, the cost of classes, but also meals and a place to live in, which is known as room-and-board. They also need money for books and supplies. And they need money to spend on social activities and other things.
Educational advisers say foreign students should have enough money in a local bank to pay for at least two months of expenditure . So how much will a year at an American school cost? Generally speaking, the answer is: a lot. A leading state university in the Pacific Northwest will serve as an example. The University of Washington says foreign students are paying more than $36,000 this year. This major research university currently has 2,600 foreign students from more than 100 countries. There are many schools that cost less, but also others that cost more. Its web site says the University of Washington does not offer financial assistance to international students. This is generally true of American schools, especially at the undergraduate level.
The international application for the university includes a Statement of Financial Responsibility that must be signed. Students must also provide a bank letter or statement from within the past six months. And they have to name someone who will help with payments. These people must send proof from a bank to show that they have the money. Your government or employer may be able to help you pay all or some of the college costs. A good idea is to ask at least eighteen months before you want to start classes in the United States.
Our Foreign Student Services, including links to web sites discussed in our reports, can be found at www.unsv.com. To learn more about higher education in America, the State Department has a special web site: educationusa.state.gov. | high20897.txt |
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