questions list | article stringlengths 9 6.44k | id stringlengths 9 14 |
|---|---|---|
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Across country borders."
},
"options": [
"In mountains",
"In cities",
"Across deserts",
"Across country borders."
],
"question": "Where are the peace parks built?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
... | People usually have to cany passports to travel from one country to another. But should animals? Groups around the word are working to create parks that cross country borders. They hope that the parks will help die environment and bring peace and cooperation to neighboring countries.
"People draw lines on a map and call them countries," said Steve Thompson of the National Parks Conservation Association. "But animals don' t understand international borders. " When animals are kept in small areas,they can spread diseases more easily. They can also hurt the environment by eating too many plants and other animals. Allowing animals to cross borders would help improve these conditions,experts say.
But that's just one reason why people to create international parks. People have named the parks "peace parks" because these people believe the parks can help countries learn to work together. The parks create a link between communities and a common desire to learn more about one another. According to Steve Thompson, the parks can "help nations resolve international conflict or even war. " Today there are dozens of peace parks on five continents, The parks play an important role in southern Africa. The Kgalagadi Trausfrontier Park is in the Kalahari Desert in South Africa and Botswana. The countries work together to manage the land and the animals that live there. Other countries ,such as Zimbabwe and Lesotho, are also forming parks. The parks will let animals wander over larger parts of southern Africa, much as they did centuries ago, and it really helps expand elephant and lion populations, which are now damaged by, confinement in smaller parks.
The parks can also help countries attracting tourists and creating jobs. But many issues still remain, such as illegal killing of animals, pollution, and population pressure on the land. | high19379.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "a sports game"
},
"options": [
"a sports game",
"daily life",
"an exercise",
"a ceremony"
],
"question": "The high five had its origin in _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
}
] | The high five is very popular in today's society. However, there was a time when people didn't give it out to each other. The history of the high five isn't very long. It's even been said that the first high five was given out in a 1977 Los Angeles Dodgers game between Dusty Baker and Glen Burke as a way to celebrate Baker's home run .
After this first sighting of the high five in 1977, Derek Smith, a player on the 1980 Lousiville Cardinals basketball team, invented the actual "high five", which the team used all throughout the season as a way to congratulate one another. After the Cardinals began to use the high five, more and more sports teams began to replace other popular celebratory gestures of the time, such as a pat on the back or the behind, with the high five.
As you can probably guess, it didn't take long for the high five to make its way all across the sports scene and into the daily lives of every American who wanted a new and interesting way to congratulate or say hello to their friends, co-workers and family. The high five is here to stay and can be seen in more places and situations than ever before in history.
People use it in the bar, the gym, the office or sometimes on the street. No matter where you try to give a high five most people will happily give you a raised arm and a smile. But giving it in the right way is not easy. You need to have a basic understanding of the rules of giving the right high five. | high8337.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "all kids must receive education"
},
"options": [
"all kids shall go to school",
"all kids must receive education",
"home schooling parents shall receive continuing education",
"state schools must give support to home-sc... | Believe it or not, going to school is not a legal requirement in the United States. It
is a legal requirement that all kids be educated, though. When parents believe they can give their kids a better education--- or have other reasons for not wanting to send their kids to a local school --- they may choose home schooling.
However, if a kid hates school, home schooling is probably not the escape he is looking for. Home schooled students can learn just as much as they would in regular school if they and their parents work hard to cover all the subjects and experiences necessary. Parents who home school usually have higher levels of education than parents who do not. They already have the skills to educate themselves about teaching their kids.
Parents who home school have to be able to put the time and skill into not just teaching, but also researching lesson plans and resources . So they have to know how to find the information necessary to teach their kids. State schools often provide home-schooling parents with a curriculum , books and materials and places to meet. Some state schools will point parents to other resources for _ forgotten subjects. Or parents may receive continuing education at local colleges or universities. | high7004.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Because the man said he would not cause much inconvenience."
},
"options": [
"Because the man said others refused to accommodate him.",
"Because the man said he would not cause much inconvenience.",
"Because the man said he h... | Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to the patients at the clinic.
One evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful-looking man. He's hardly taller than my eight-year-old son. "Good evening. I've come to see if you've a room. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there's no bus till morning." He told me he'd been hunting for a room since noon but with no success. "I guess it's my face...I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments..." For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: "I could sleep in this chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning."
I told him we would find him a bed. When I had finished the dishes, I talked with him. He told me he fished for a living to support his five children, and his wife, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury. He didn't tell it by way of complaint. Next morning, just before he left, as if asking a great favor, he said, "Could I come back and stay the next time?" He added, "Your children made me feel at home."
On his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and the largest oysters I had ever seen. I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m. and I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.
In the years he came to stay overnight with us and there was never a time that he did not bring us vegetables from his garden. I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned how to accept the bad without complaint when facing the misfortune. | high14885.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "warn other rabbit of danger"
},
"options": [
"tell other rabbits where the food is",
"warn other rabbit of danger",
"make itself look strong",
"help itself to run fast"
],
"question": "A rabbit moves its tail up... | When a rabbit sees something dangerous, it runs away. Its tail moves up and down as it runs. When other rabbits see this tail moving up and down, they run too. They know that there is danger. The rabbit has told them something without making a sound. It has given them a signal .
Many other animals use this kind of language. When a bee has found some food, it goes back to its home. It cannot tell the other bees where the food is by speaking to them, but it does a little dance in the air. This tells the bees where the food is.
Some animals say things by making sounds. A dog barks, for instance, when a stranger comes near. A cat purrs when pleased. Some birds make several different sounds, each with its own meaning.
But human beings have something that no animal has ---a large number of words which have the meanings of things, actions, feelings or ideas. We are able to give each other information, to tell or inform other people what is in our mind or how we feel. By writing words down we can remind ourselves of the things that have happened, or send messages to people far away. No animals can do this. No animals have the wonderful power of language.
No one knows how man learned to make words. Somehow he learned to make them. As centuries went by, he made more and more new words. This is what we mean by language.
People living in different countries made different kinds of words. Today there are about fifteen hundred different languages in the world. A very large English dictionary, for example, _ four or five hundred thousand words. But we don not know all these. The words we know are called vocabulary. We should try to make our vocabulary larger. Read as many books as possible. When we meet a new word, look it up in the dictionary. A dictionary is the most useful book. | high9029.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "is still going on with his acting career"
},
"options": [
"has sold his carriage house for charity",
"is still going on with his acting career",
"makes a living by begging in the street",
"leads a poor life with all his... | He is a familiar sight, the old man who asks change from drivers stopped at a red light on East 35th Street in Slidtown Manhattan every day. After all, he has been at it for 17 years now, seven days a week. With the help of a walker, he hobbles between lanes of traffic, approaching drivers, offering newspapers --- often a free paper collected from boxes on the sidewalk nearby --and asking for change."Help a guy out?" he repeats to drivers who will usually hand over a dollar or some change.
Most drivers simply regard him as another homeless down-and-out ,but every so often one might realize that it's the legendary comedian Professor Irwin Corey, who is now 98.
Over his eight-decade career, he has been on television and in comedy clubs, nightclubs and concert halls worldwide. He began his stage career on Broadway in 1943. Indeed, he still performs fairly regularly -- a week ago he flew to Chicago to play two nights at a local club.
And though he has a homeless appearance, Mr. Corey lives in a comfortable 1840 carriage house on East 36th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues that he estimates could sell for $3.5 million.
Mr. Corey said he gathers his daily take-- usually about $100, though there have been $250 days-- every few months and donates the money to a charity that buys medical supplies for children in Cuba. As for the drivers he solicits, Mr. Corey said, "I don't tell them where the money's going, and I'm sure they don't care."
Mr. Corey has traveled to Cuba to donate personally. There are photographs of him with President Fidel Castro on his wall. One is with an inscription by Castro: With admiration, gratitude and affection. | high23797.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "an interview"
},
"options": [
"an interview",
"an argument",
"a talk show program",
"a science report"
],
"question": "The passage may be _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | We've heard about radiation from the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan reaching American shores. Experts say so far there is no reason to worry, and point out that we meet radiation every day. Where and how? NPR's Renee Montagne posed that question to Peter Caracappa, a radiation safety officer and professor of nuclear engineering.
MONTAGNE: How many things emit radiation?
Dr CARACAPPA: Well, radiation and radioactive material is a part of nature. So everything that's living has some amount of radiation coming from it--a very small amout. Plus there's radiation in the ground and the air.
So the extremes are uranium in the soil to bananas?
Yes.
By the way, why do bananas have radiation?
Bananas have a lot of potassium . And a small amount of potassium naturally is called potassium 40, which is radioactive
What's the difference between radiation that's harmful and not harmful?
Well, the term radiation can apply to a lot of different things. But the harmful radiation is ionizing radiation. It has enough energy that it can make chemical changes in material. We could get ionizing radiation from an X-ray, for example. It's the kind of radiation that causes cancer.
The broader definition of radiation includes a lot of things that we call non-ionizing radiation. That includes everything like radio waves and visible light and your microwave.
So what then is the largest contributor of ionizing radiation?
For the natural sources of ionizing radiation, actually the biggest chunk of that tends to come from radon , which is a radioactive material that is present in the air. It can become a concern when it builds up in low-lying areas of homes like basements.
Would it be fair to say that most people do not need to worry about the danger of being exposed to radiation?
I would say that the everyday exposure to radioation that we meet contributes an extremely tiny risk to our life or to our health compared to all of the other risks that we meet in our day-to-day life. | high1313.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "he was not satisfied with the food"
},
"options": [
"he was not hungry",
"he was seriously ill",
"he was given special meals",
"he was not satisfied with the food"
],
"question": "The patient had no desire to ea... | Once Dr. Mellinkoff invited me to join him at the hospital to discuss interesting cases(, ) with his students.The case at hand was a Guatemalan man, aged 34, who had a fever and many other medical problems.His condition was not improving, and there was not much hope he would live.
Dr.: Mellinkoff asked to see the patient.He introduced himself in Spanish and, in a very gentle voice, asked how he felt.The patient smiled and said everything was all right.Then the doctor asked if he was able to eat.The patient said that he had no desire to eat.
"Are you getting food you like?"
The patient said nothing.
"Do you get the kind of food you have at home?"
The answer was no.
The doctor put his hand on the man's shoulder and his voice was very soft.
"If you had food that you liked, would you eat it?"
"Yes, yes," the patient said.
The change in the patient's appearance couldn't have been more obvious.Nothing was said, but it was easy to tell that a message had been sent and had also been received.
Later, the doctor asked why the Guatemalan man wasn't getting food he could eat.One of the students said, "We all know how difficult it is to get the kitchen to make special meals."
"Suppose," the doctor replied, "you felt a certain medicine was absolutely necessary but that our hospital didn't carry it, would you accept defeat or would you insist the hospital meet your request?"
"I would probably insist," the student said.
"Very well," the doctor said."You might want to try the same method in the kitchen.It won't be-easy, but I can help you.Meanwhile, let's get some food inside this man as fast as possible, and stay with it.Or he'll be killed by hunger.By the way, there must be someone among you who can speak Spanish.If we want to make real progress, we need to be able to talk with him."
Three weeks later.Doctor Mellinkoff told me that the Guatemalan man had left the hospital under his own power.It takes more than medicine to help sick people; you also have to talk to them and make them comfortable. | high687.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "This experiment indicates restricted diets could extend humans' lifespan."
},
"options": [
"Adequate sleep is another way to reduce the speed of aging process.",
"This experiment indicates restricted diets could extend humans' life... | THURSDAY, July 9 (Health Day News) -- A new study that found that a lower calorie diet slowed the aging process in monkeys could be the best proof yet that restricted diets might do the same for humans.
"The big question in aging research is, 'Will caloric restriction in species closely related to humans slow aging?'" said Richard Weindruch, senior author of a paper appearing in the July 10 issue of Science. This is the first clear demonstration that, in a primate species, we' re inducing a slowdown of the aging process -- showing increased survival, resistance to disease, less brain atrophy and less muscle loss.
"This predicts humans would respond similarly," added Weindruch, professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin and an investigator at the Veterans Hospital in Madison. Another expert noted that, despite some highly publicized studies in certain species, the link between restricted eating and longer lifespan has been far from proven.
"The idea that dietary restriction extends lifespan in all species is not true. Many strains of rats and mice do not respond. In some strains, it' s actually deleterious," explained Felipe Sierra, director of the biology of aging program at the US National Institute on Aging (NIA), which supported the new study. "The fact that it doesn't work in some mice but it does seem to work in monkeys is surprising and it gives us hope."
But there's a larger question: how to change humans' increasingly careless eating habits. "This finding doesn't give me hope that humans are going to go into dietary restriction," added Marianne Grant, a registered dietitian at Texas A&M Health Science Center Coastal Bend Health Education Center in Corpus Christi. | high13654.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The Giver"
},
"options": [
"A Wrinkle in Time",
"The Giver",
"The Book Thief",
"Harry Potter"
],
"question": "Which of the following shares the same theme with The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian?",
... | To honor the best books for young adults and children, TIME has created this list of classics: Best Young-Adult and Children's Books.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie's coming-of-age novel shows family and traditions through young Arnold Spirit, torn between his life in an Indian community and his largely white high school. The specifics are sharply drawn, but this novel, with its themes of self-discovery, speaks to young readers everywhere.
Harry Potter
What more can be said about J. K. Rowling's unique series? How about this: seven years after the final book was published, readers young and old still go crazy at the slightest rumor of a new Potter story.
The Book Thief
For many young readers, Markus Zusak's novel provides their first in-depth reflection of the Holocaust . Although terror surrounds Liesel, a young German girl, so too does evidence of friendship, love and charity -- recovering lights in the darkness.
A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L'Engle's super-realist adventure has provided generations of children with their first-ever exciting experiences, as Meg travels across the fifth dimension in search of her father. But the science fiction also has a message: Meg learns independence and bravery in the process.
Charlotte's Web
Readers are still drawn to the simplicity and beauty of spider Charlotte's devotion to her pig friend Wilbur. Though family farms may be less common than they were in 1952, E. B. White's novel remains timeless for its lasting reflection on the power of friendship and of good writing.
Holes
Louis Sachar's story of a family curse , fancy sports shoes and poisonous lizards moves forward and backward through time, telling of how Stanley Yelnats IV ended up in a prison camp. It's an introduction to a complex story, filled with fun, warmth and a truly memorable criminal.
Matilda
With apologies to the lovable Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this may be Roald Dahl's most inspiring book for young people. Poor Matilda feels troubled and ignored by her family -- a sense that many preteens share. They don't share her supernatural powers, but that's the lasting appeal of this escapist fun.
The Outsiders
Published when author S. E. Hinton was just 18, this coming-of-age novel offers evidence that even the youngest writer can provide valuable wisdom. Her striking look at Ponyboy and gang life in the 1960s has continued to have a powerful effect for decades on readers of all kinds, whether they identify more with the Greasers or the Socs.
The Phantom Tollbooth
In a humorous, sharp fairy tale that shows language and mathematics through a story of adventure in the Kingdom of Wisdom, Jules Feiffer's unusual drawings do as much as Norton Juster's plain language combined with complex ideas to carry readers through Digitopolis and the Mountains of Ignorance.
The Giver
Lois Lowry's tale of self-discovery in society has a memorable central character, Jonas, and an unforgettable message -- that pain and harm have an important place in individual lives and in society, and to forget them is to lose what makes us human. | high9997.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "a serious writer who hates fame"
},
"options": [
"a selfish and moody youth",
"a serious writer who hates fame",
"a famous American author",
"someone who lives away from society"
],
"question": "According to the... | All writers dream of success. Yet some writers turn their back on success the moment it comes along. J.D. Salinger, the American author, is a good example.
On the face of it, the future did not look promising for the teenage Salinger. He seems always to have been running away from something. First it was school, then he dropped out of New York University. Finally, after failing to find a career in his father's food import business and dropping out of yet another college he decided that his destiny was to be a writer. In the same year he joined a writing class at Columbia University which was taught by Whit Burnett, founder and editor of a magazine called Story. The March-April issue contained a story written by Salinger entitled 'The Young Folks'. In it there are early versions of the moody, selfish youths that appear in his later fiction. Soon, his stories were appearing in various mass-circulation magazines but it was the famous New Yorker which he dreamed of, believing that publication within its covers would indicate his future potential as a serious writer.
Salinger has a huge reputation around the world yet it rests mainly on just one novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Published in 1951, it soon became highly popular with teenagers who identified with the hero's powerful sense of dissatisfaction. Its success made Salinger a public figure. Most writers, of course, would welcome this. Salinger, however, hated it and refused it. He moved to a small house in Cornish, New Hampshire, where he lived away from society until his death in 2010 at the age of 91.
For Salinger, fame and artistic honesty were not the same thing. Some people become writers because they wish their works to speak for themselves. Salinger appears to have been disgusted by the idea that he had become the spokesman for a generation. In death he has perhaps achieved his highest goal: to be out of the spotlight, represented only by his work. | high15225.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "light blue or light green"
},
"options": [
"light blue or light green",
"deep red or deep brown",
"deep orange or deep red",
"light green or light yellow"
],
"question": "We'd better paint the walls of the hospi... | When you get tired of homework, several minutes' walk in a nearby green park helps you relax at once. Or you may stand facing the lake or the seas. They will calm (not to be excited or nervous) you just like the green plants.
Wonder why? Color is a key part of the answers. Since it is so, green and blue help make people feel more quiet and safe.
All colors have special power. Scientists have found that many colors have specific effects on people's mind and feelings.
Try an easy and interesting experiment and you'll see how color " _ " you sometimes. Wrap two boxes of the same size with colored paper, one red and the other white. Then weigh the two boxes with your hands. Which one is heavier? Most people will think that the red box is heavier, even though they weigh the same.
Colors can affect learning. Scientists have found that students spend more time reading if they read information written in blue text. Blue helps most people calm down and think more.
Clever uses of colors in daily life are to be seen everywhere. Hospitals and libraries seldom paint their walls, tables and desks red. They use light colors, like light blue or green. Red makes people excited while light colors help them relax. Haven't worked out how color affects your daily life? Start with your small room. Try to make some changes in it and you'll get to know how important color is! | high8451.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "helping poor Chinese students get a better education"
},
"options": [
"helping poor Chinese students get a better education",
"helping the students in earthquake-stricken area",
"helping his off-springs lead a rich life in th... | Yu Pengnian is an 88-year-old real estate Chinese businessman. He amassed a fortune of $1.3 billion dollars during his career but instead of keeping the money and living like an emperor, he decided to give it all away. All of his fortune will be spent on helping poor Chinese students get a better education.
And Yu isn't the only super-rich person in China who has this spirit of giving. Chen Guangbiao, a Jiangsu recycling tycoon, has given millions of dollars to charity and promises to give all of his money to charity when he dies.
Yu and Chen are among the many businessmen who have become prosperous during China's economic rise. An American business magazine, Forbes, estimates that there are 117 billionaires in China and hundreds of thousands of millionaires. What sets Yu and Chen apart from the rest, though, is their tremendous generosity(,) when it comes to donating money to charity.
Last week Bill Gates and Warren Buffett came to Beijing. Gates and Buffett, two of the world's richest men, are also the world's biggest philanthropists. They invited fifty of China's richest people to have dinner with them and talk about the spirit of giving. At first, only a few people accepted their invitation. It seemed some of the invited guests were afraid that Buffett and Gates were going to pressure them into giving their wealth to charity.
A lot of people are angry at the billionaires who are not willing to give away their fortunes. They _ hem for being miserly and not caring about the poor and the less fortunate. But I think this criticism is wrong. A gift, any gift, should come from the heart. Instead of criticism, these reluctant billionaires should be encouraged to follow the examples of Yu Pengnian and Chen Guangbiao. Encouragement is always a better strategy than criticism. As we say in English, "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." | high22489.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Obama said that the U. S. would be \"sound stewards of the money we invest.\""
},
"options": [
"Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao expressed his worry about the huge fund to the United States.",
"Obama claimed that China can have confidenc... | WASHINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) --U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed on Saturday at the White House that China can have confidence in the American economy.
"Not just the Chinese government, but every investor can have absolute confidence in the _ of investments in the United States," Obama said.
"There is a reason why even in the midst of this economic downfall you have seen actual increases in investment flows here in the U. S.,"he said.
Obama also noted the U. S. will push for stricter regulation of the financial industry "front and center" at the upcoming Group of 20Summit in London ,ending an argument between the Europe and the United States over whether more focus should be placed on financial regulatory reform.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said earlier Friady he is "a little bit worried "about the safety of Chineseassets in the United States ,urging the U. S. government to ensure the security of those assets.
China has invested its hugeforeign exchangereserves in low-risk but low-yield assets ,such as U. S.government bonds ,to play it safe . According to the U.S. Treasury, China held 681.9 billion U.S. dollars worth of U.S. government bonds as of November.
"China is indeed the largest creditor of the United States, which is the world' s biggest economy .We are extremely interested in developments in the U. S. economy."said Wen, adding that he is expecting the effect of the measures taken by the U.S.government to counter the global financial crisis.
Asked to react to Wen' s concern, Lawrence Summers, director of the U.S. National Economic Council, noted on Friday that the U.S. will be soundsteward of the money it invests.
"This is a commitment that the president has made very clear--we need to be sound stewards of the money we invest."said Summers in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a leading think tank in the united states. | high7762.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Young people are far too much influenced by too much entertainment news in media."
},
"options": [
"Young people are taught by adults to seek pleasure of senses.",
"Young people have given up our traditional value of hard working c... | During an exhibition show the skills of disabled people, an armless man used his mouth and feet to repair a watch. He completed the task in just a few minutes at the show, which was held in Beijing last Saturday. Just imagine the tiny parts that make up a watch. You have to wonder how the disabled man developed such a skill.
It was reported that 28-year-old Wang Jianghai lost his arms in an accident when he was five and began learning to repair watches at the age of 17. He has repaired more than 10,000 watches in the past 11 years.
What strong self-confidence he must have to overcome the difficulties in getting this skill! What optimism he must have to face the unfairness of his hard life! And what strong determination he must have to go through the hardship in his struggle for a normal life! Such confidence, optimism and willpower are exactly the qualities many physically healthy people lack nowadays. Wang has set a good example for young people.
But today's youth seem to be more interested with their TV stars and pop singers but less interested in learning from the examples of working and studying hard to achieve higher goals. . That is undoubtedly the result of the influence of a changing social atmosphere. One must admit that there is a trend towards _ in our society. People are increasingly more concerned about material gains than about spiritual pursuits. While adults know they must work hard whatever way they choose to materialize the gains, the younger generation are more likely to seek ease and comforts of their senses.
This pleasure-seeking trend provides a huge market for the entertainment industry and the mass media. The media devote excessive too much coverage to anecdotes of pop and TV stars, which in turn fans wider and stronger enthusiasm for entertainment among the public, especially young people.
Ours is a developing country. Global competition in the growth of national strength presents a demand for China to be quicker in its development. We cannot afford to lose time. We need to make our economy more powerful. To meet this need, all of us should maintain our tradition of working hard and overcoming difficulties. | high21180.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Civilized Dog Raising"
},
"options": [
"Man's Best Friend",
"Civilized Dog Raising",
"No Room For Dogs",
"When A Dog Bites A Man"
],
"question": "Which of the following may be a suitable title for the story?",
... | When a dog bites a man, it usually doesn't make news. However, this saying change when Beijing and several other Chinese cities announced the "Civilized Dog Raising" campaign in November.
The government will require Beijingers to get licenses for their dogs, and will enforce the one-dog, one-family policy. Police say the "one-dog policy" is aimed at reducing the number of dog bites and lowering the risk of rabies. According to the Ministry of Health, rabies has become the top infectious disease in China. Dangerous dogs and dogs taller than 35 centimeters, such as Great Danes, have been banned from urban areas.
Pet owners are also required to clean up their dog's droppings and make sure dogs are leashed , especially in public areas. Some public areas, such as banks, are closed to dogs entirely.
Dogs are regarded as man's best friend and the history of raising dogs can be traced back to the stone age. It therefore seems sad that dogs are unwelcome in Beijing. But it is not the case that Beijingers dislike dogs. Actually, there are many dog lovers in Beijing. The city now has more than 550,000 registered dogs, up 20 percent from the previous year.
The problem is, actually, about living space. Different from many Westerners, most Beijingers live in urban apartment buildings, not houses in the suburbs. There is very limited open space for walking dogs. The barking, the waste, and unleashed dogs in buildings, elevators and places people gather can cause fear, fights and frustration.
Beijing is not the only city to have a dog problem. Paris, London, New York and Vienna all face similar challenges and have common rules for dogs and their owners. | high11043.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Belguim"
},
"options": [
"USA",
"Belguim",
"Italy",
"England"
],
"question": "Hepburn was born in _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_t... | Audrey Hepburn is one of Hollywood's all-time greatest actress. She is famous not only in the USA, but also in other parts of the world.
Hepburn was born in Belgium on May 4, 1929. She began taking ballet lessons at a very young age. She loved dancing and her dream was to become a successful ballet dancer. She had put most of her effort into ballet training before she entered the film industry.
In 1951, Hepburn was chosen to play the lead role of a young princess in the Hollywood film Roman Holiday. It was a big success and Hepburn became famous immediately. She won an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in this film.
During her life time, Hepburn earned four more Oscar nominations . Some well-known films that she acted in include Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany and My Fair Lady.
Hepburn also devoted much of her time to charity . She spent the last few years of her life working closely with UNICEF to help poor children in different parts of the world. She was honoured with a number of awards because of her efforts in helping them. | high3504.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The choking smog may promote their development."
},
"options": [
"They are used to trade various resources.",
"They caused the choking smog in China.",
"They have been in existence for many years in China.",
"The chokin... | BEIJING--As China scrambles to respond to the choking smog that has _ Beijing in recent weeks, authorities in several major cities are experimenting with carbon trading platforms. The schemes are one effort to get control over greenhouse gases in an economy still hungry for cheap energy.
It has been a persistent concern in recent years, but the spiking pollution levels in January are sparking a public outcry.
Emissions from coal-fired electricity plants and busy factories are part of the problem that officials hope to get control over through carbon trading platforms. Seven cities are expected to open carbon markets later this year, including Tianjin.
"The government has decided to start with programs because the carbon trading is something new to China," said David Tang, secretary of the board of the Tianjin Carbon Exchange. "So we want to have a number of programs to explore the use of the market." said Tang.
China wants to launch a national carbon trading program by 2016. If it is successful, analysts say, the program would be one of the largest in the world and would help the country meet its target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 45 percent within seven years.
The platforms allow companies to earn credits for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, which can then be traded. If it works, it would encourage for-profit businesses to invest in green technology.
As public concern builds pressure for the government to find a solution, Wu Changhua, greater China director of the Climate Group, says there is a broad shift under way in how Chinese weigh their quality of life.
China has long put economic growth ahead of environmental concerns, making it the world's biggest polluter. Carbon trading supporters hope that the markets could be one way to curb pollution and keep the economy growing. | high5175.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "it will lead to more intimacy and help to establish a relationship"
},
"options": [
"it will lead to more intimacy and help to establish a relationship",
"it will help to establish status with their listeners",
"it will help ... | According to the latest research in the United States,men and women talk such different languages that it is like people from two different cultures trying to communicate.Professor Deborah Tannen of Georgetown University has noticed the difference in the style of boys' and girls' conversations from an early age.She says that little girls' conversation is less definite than boys' and expresses more doubts.Little boys use conversations to establish status with their listeners.
These differences continue into adult life,she says.In public conversations,men talk most and interrupt other speakers more.In private conversations,men and women speak in equal amounts--although they say things in a different style.Professor Tannen believes that,for women,private talking is a way to establish and test intimacy(,).For men,private talking is a way to explore the power structure of a relationship.
Teaching is one job where the differences between men's and women's ways of talking show.When a man teaches a woman,says Professor Tannen,he wants to show that he has more knowledge,and hence(,)more power in conversation.When a woman teaches another woman,however,she is more likely to take a sharing approach and to encourage her student to join in.
But Professor Tannen does not believe that women are naturally more helpful.She says women feel they achieve power by being able to help others.Although the research suggests men talk and interrupt people more than women,Professor Tannen says,women actually encourage this to happen because they believe it will lead to more intimacy and help to establish a relationship.
Some scientists who are studying speech think that the brain is pre-programmed for language.As we are usually taught to speak by women,it seems that the brain must have a sexual bias in its programming,otherwise male speech patterns would not arise at all. | high18701.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "visit camelcamelcamel.com"
},
"options": [
"come to getinvisiblehand.com",
"read the holiday shopping tips",
"visit camelcamelcamel.com",
"download it from the official site"
],
"question": "If you want to get t... | Best Ways to Save Money on Holiday Shopping
Black Friday and Cyber Monday-that's amateur hour. These holiday shopping tips will help yousave big bucks on your own.
Track prices online
Websites like Amazon and Bestbuy.com are constantly adjusting the prices of items, meaning knowledgeable shoppers can keep their eye out for savings if they check back frequently. But who hasthe time to refresh every few hours? Try camelcamelcamel.com.Search for any item (say, a Furby for the kids) and track its price history-it' ll show you a graph and the highest and lowest price positionsit' s had over the past several days. Close to the lowest point? Snatch it up now.
Believe in the Invisible Hand
If you' re big on online shopping, visit getinvisiblehand.com to install(set up for use) the Invisible Hand extension on your computer or download the official iPhone app. Whenever you' re browsing for items online from retailers like Lowe's or Sears, it'll automatically search alternatives and notify you if there's a better deal elsewhere.
Try shopping on a Tuesday
According to a recent New York Times report, online retailers tend to offer the best deals on Tuesdays .Better yet, try Tuesday morning. That same report suggests sales tend to go live early. You can also try shopping late.
It' s true that sales start in the early morning hours. But Business Insider notes that if you shop after 6:00 p.m., some retailers will already have sales for the next day activated, allowing you to get great deals without setting your alarm. | high17432.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "A parent and his or her daughter."
},
"options": [
"Friends.",
"A parent and his or her daughter.",
"A teacher and a student.",
"Sisters."
],
"question": "What is the most probable relationship between the write... | Dear XXX,
As we drove off from Columbia, I wanted to write a letter to you to tell you all that is on my mind.
First, I want to tell you how proud we are. You have become a talented and accomplished young woman. You should be as proud of yourself as we are.
College will be the most important years in your life. It is in college that you will truly discover what learning is about. You often question "what good is this course". I encourage you to be inquisitive , but I also want to tell you: "Education is what you have left after all that is taught is forgotten." What I mean by that is -- the material taught isn't as important as you gaining the ability to learn a new subject, and the ability to analyze a new problem.
Do your best in classes, but don't let pressure get to you. If you graduate and learn something in your four years, we would feel happy. Your Columbia degree will take you far, even if you don't graduate with honors. So please don't give yourself pressure. The only thing that matters is that you learned. The only measurement you should use is that you tried.
Most importantly, make friends and be happy. College friends are often the best in life, because during college you are closer to them physically than to your family. Also, going through independence and adulthood is a natural bonding experience. Pick a few friends and become really close to them -- pick the ones who are genuine and sincere to you. Don't worry about their hobbies, grades, looks, or even personalities. If you think you like someone, tell her. You have very little to lose. People are not perfect, so as long as they are genuine and sincere, trust them and be good to them. They will give back. This is my secret of success -- that I am genuine with people and trust them (unless they do something to lose my trust).
College is the four years where you have:
*the greatest amount of free time
*the first chance to be independentk%s5$u
*the most flexibility to change
*the lowest risk for making mistakes
So please treasure your college years - make the best of your free time, become an independent thinker in control of your destiny. May Columbia become the happiest four years in your life, and may you blossom into just what you dream to be.
Love,
XXX | high16738.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Because the author didn't want to grow up."
},
"options": [
"Because the author was older than her sister.",
"Because the author didn't want to grow up.",
"Because her sister always wore pigtails and liked eating chocolate.",... | On Saturday, February 12 two thousand, two things happened that changed everything in my life. The first was that on this day my baby sister was married. She was twenty-six this day, and yet to me she was still my baby sister. I suppose that I pictured her as a little girl, and treated her like one in order to hold onto and preserve my own youth. Until I saw her in her wedding dress I still had a vision of her with chubby little cheeks and long, dark-brown pigtails blowing in the wind, perhaps even a permanent smudge of chocolate around her pink lips. I guess it's true that you see only what you want to see. Where did this beautiful woman with the glowing complexion and gentle curves come from?
I was happy that day, and also sad. Gone were the days of me bossingher around and telling her what she should do with her life. My bossy behavior had earned me the nickname Lucy. If you are a Peanuts fan then you can clearly imagine my behavior as an older sister. To me it wasn't an insult; I rather like the nickname Lucy. I happen to think that Lucy is strong and has incredible self-confidence, although she is a little overbearing at times. I did my best to live up to the standards set forth by this dynamic cartoon character.
I left the reception to get some air because suddenly I was overcome with grief at the realization that I was no longer a child. I went outside and walked to a nearby playground where there were children playing on the slide, the swings and digging in the dirt. There was a little girl twirlingaround on a bar, one knee wrapped tightly around the bar and fashioned behind her knee. It was all I could do to sit there and just watch, for I too wanted to get on that bar with her and see if I could still hold the all-timetwirlingrecord (ninety-nine times in fifth grade). Somewhere inside I knew that I would break my neck, and I was wearing abridesmaiddress. Not exactly playground material. And so I sat watching the children play. I'm not sure how long I sat there before my sister came and joined me. We talked about how we are grown up now and shed a few tears for our childhood days gone by. As she wiped a tear from my eye she lovingly said, "you'll always be Lucy to me." We hugged.
My cousin Mike walked over and told my sister that it was time to cut the cake. And then he dropped bomb number two on me. "Hey, did you guys hear that Charles Schultz died today?" He said it like it was no big deal. He took my sister's arm and turned to head back for the reception hall. "Coming?" They asked. "In a minute." I replied, and sat back down on the bench, dizzy from what he had just told me.
Dead? How could Charles Schultz be dead? He was my creator! And though I have never met the man personally, he has always been like an invisible father to me. He did, after all, fashion a famous character after me. I lost so many things on this day. Innocence slipped away from me like a thief in the night: come and gone before I could do anything about it, taking with it all the treasures that I held most valuable in my heart. I felt myself grow up, all in one moment. Reality rushed in around me like a hurricanetide. There was nowhere to run to. All I could do was sit there and watch it destroy and reshape what had existed only a moment before. I was no longer a child. I was no longer Lucy who knew what was best for everyone else. I saw, for the first time, what I really was--a thirty-year old woman with a husband of my own, and soon, a child of my own.
I allowed the tide to carry my sadness out with it. Take it out to sea, for it serves no purpose in my life. I stood up from the bench; a little taller than I was when I sat down. I turned and headed back to the hall, hoping I didn't miss the cutting of the cake. It was the day my sister grew wings of her own and left the nest. _ | high21194.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "food can be cooked simply and healthily"
},
"options": [
"it can save time and money",
"food can be cooked simply and healthily",
"it is easy to clean and store",
"it is available in any store"
],
"question": "T... | The latest fashion in the kitchen is the food steamer.All the stores are selling them;everyone wants one.Steaming is one of the simplest and healthiest ways of cooking food.However,that cooking time is usually longer than with other methods.In case you're thinking of buying a steamer,I've done a survey about the steamers available on the market to help you decide which will suit you best.
Folding Steamer
The simplest and least expensive is the folding stainless-steel version.
Advantages:This is a good,basic design which sits inside a variety of different shapes of pans with the water under it;a ring in the centre allows for easy lifting and it's easy to clean.
Disadvantages:It only holds small dishes.Also,if you put too much water in the pan,it will boil up through the vegetables and they will be watery.If you put too little water in and let it get dry,you will burn the pan and get strange-smelling vegetables.
Steaming Pan
This is a three-layered black Teflon-coated version with a lid and two double-handled steamers,which sits on the oven ring.The brand I bought is calledNutritious Living.
Advantages:This is an excellent steamer, lightweight,easy to clean,and of all the steamers I've tried,this cooks the fastest.Fish and chicken can be cooked on the bottom with rice or vegetables on the top.It's easier to store.
Disadvantages:Water can boil away until the pan is dry,but if you make sure you fill the pan up to the suggested level and do not overcook the food,this should not happen.You cannot see the food cooking from the top.It doesn't supply a dish for cooking rice.
For serious users of steamers,I recommend having one of each version.If you just want to try it,get the folding stainless-steel type. | high11057.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The bad conditions in the hospital."
},
"options": [
"The difficulties in his career.",
"The deaths in the bus accident.",
"The bad conditions in the hospital.",
"The responsibilities in the operation."
],
"ques... | In one of the old buildings near our school,one could see an old man sitting by a large window on the first floor.His name was James.During the three years at schoo1, I had hardly ever found him missing from his usual position.
He was a high-ranking government official and lived happily with his wife.Once there was a bus accident,in which a number of passengers were seriously injured and were taken to the hospital for treatment.James was responsible for the rescue operation.It was a big hospital,but James was shocked to notice how ill-equipped it was.There were no enough life-saving drugs and life--supporting equipment. The injured and their companions had to struggle there.James attempted to help.However,though he emptied his pockets,many of them died that day.
That was a turning point in his life.He made a decision to devote his life to helping others, particularly the poor and needy patients and their companions.He began spending much of his income on these people.Since this required a lot of time and energy,he found it difficult to fulfill his official duties and therefore chose to retire,which,in turn,reduced his income considerably.
His wife was deeply worried. Most of the time,James was out and paid least attention to home affairs.Meanwhile,as he was spending a lot helping others,she had to struggle even to meet the household expenses.Though she was not opposed to his helping the poor,she urged him not to overlook his own life and home,but it had no effect on him.One day they had a heated argument and in the end she left him,never to return.Though he continued with his work, _ was a great blow and did serious harm to his health and enthusiasm and was soon forced to stay indoors.That was when he took his position by the window,spending his time looking outside.
A few weeks after my graduation,I returned to school,only to find the buildings gone.I heard that they were torn down.All the people left except James.He refused to go and the next morning,he was found at his usual place by the window,dead. | high10349.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Von Altenburg was Anne's intended husband."
},
"options": [
"Von Altenburg was the Baron's son.",
"Anne and Bertha were the Baron's sisters.",
"Anne was Berton's only daughter.",
"Von Altenburg was Anne's intended husba... | The Ghost Bridegroom
At the time of this story, there was a great family gathering at the castle to meet the promised bridegroom of the Baron's daughter. An arrangement had been made between the Baron and an old nobleman of Bavaria, Berton, for a marriage between their children. It would increase the importance of both families. The initial plans had been made in the usual way: the young people were engaged without having met each other and the date set for the wedding.
The young Count Von Altenburg had been recalled from the army and was on his way to the castle to meet his promised bride. Messages had been received from Wurtzburg where he was accidentally delayed. The messages indicated the day and time when he might be expected to arrive. The castle was in a fever of preparation to provide him with a suitable welcome.
Anne had dressed with particular care. Bertha and Wilda had selected her clothing and quarreled all morning about what she should wear. The young lady had taken advantage of their arguments to wear exactly what she wanted and had chosen very well. She looked as beautiful as any young bridegroom could wish for, and the excitement made her look even lovelier. The two aunts constantly directed her, as single aunts usually take a great interest in the love affairs of others. They were giving her the final instructions on how to behave, what to say, and how to greet her intended husband.
Hour by hour passed. The sun, which had been so warm over the rich forests of the Odenwald, was now setting along the tops of the mountains. The Baron went to the tallest tower in the castle to see if he could see any sign of the Count and his escorts.
Once, he thought he saw them. The sound of horns came floating up from the valley. A party of men was seen far below, riding slowly along the road. It was a false alarm, for when they reached the foot of the mountain, they suddenly rode off in a different direction. The sun, by now, had set, and the bats began to fly about in the evening light. It was getting dark, and the only movement on the road was the occasional worker returning home. | high18715.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Richard Wagner is a very controversial man."
},
"options": [
"Richard Wagner is not worth talking about",
"Richard Wagner has made many people angry",
"Richard Wagner has contributed much to opera.",
"Richard Wagner is ... | Richard Wagner was a German musician has been a very controversial person, but he has gained great fame by writing opera, a form of performance combining singing, music on instruments, and drama.
While he wrote excellent music, many people think his operas are too dark and serious, lacking the fun common in operas written before his time.
Wagner, on the other hand, thought the opera of his time was too simple.He wanted to make opera a serious form of art that combined drama and music to tell deep stories that would have a strong effect on the audience.
Some people thought Wagner's new kind of music was too different from the operas they were used to hearing.Wagner agreed with them.In fact, he didn't call his works "operas" at all, using instead a German word that means "Musical Festival" or "Musical play".
While many people today still do not like Wagner's operas, they cannot deny that Wagner has had a lot of influence on opera as a form of art.Wagner invented the tradition of turning off the lights before starting a play.He also was the first person to make the whole audience sit down for an entire play.Today, almost all operas are performed in this manner.
Wagner as a man was even more controversial than Wagner as a writer of music.He hated Jewish people, and made many people angry, which we would today think of as evil.Some would say he was a good musician, while others would say that he was a bad musician.But it would be difficult to say he was not an important person in music and in the world. | high5161.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "45 yuan."
},
"options": [
"30 yuan.",
"45 yuan.",
"50 yuan.",
"60 yuan."
],
"question": "If Mr. Green(VIP), together with his wife and his three schoolchildren watches the movie Chinese Girl, how much will they ... | Fri, Jun. l
Nightlife Back to the Age of innocence
This performance, organized by the group Lifetime Wharf, will celebrate Children's Day and commemorate the lost childhoods of office workers. Five bands will perform: DH & Chinese Hellcats, DUDE, Candy Monster, Residence A and Island Mood.
Where: Yugong Yishan Livehouse, 3-2 Zhangzizhong
Lu. Dongcheng District
When: 8 pm
Admission: 60 yuan pre-sale; 80 yuan at door
Tel:64042711
Sun, Jun.3
Movie Chinese Girl by Guo Xiaolu
The indie film Chinese Girl directed by Guo Xiaolu is about the life of a girl who lives in the countryside. The lead actress. Huang Lu, will attend the screening and answer participants' questions afterwards.
Where:UCCA, 4Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District
When:7 pm
Admission:15 yuan(10 yuan for students, free for VIP)
Tel:57800200
Mom, Jun. 4
Script Reading
Scripts written by students from the 166th Middle School of Beijing will be performed. They include: Love Sleeping Beauty, Lucky Ferris Wheel production, Jane Eyre, Our Self-study Class and Farewell-Bing xin.
Where: Penghao Theater, 35 Dongmianhua Hutong, Dongcheng District
When: Until Jun. 5, 7:30pm
Admission: 80 yuan(40 yuan for students)
Tel:64006472
Thu, Jun.7
Movie Invictus
This film is directed by Clint Eastwood and stars Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman, both of whom were nominated for Academy Awards.
Where: China Film Archive, 3 Wenhuiyuan Lu, Haidian District
When: Until Jun. 8,7:30-10 pm
Admission:120-480 yuan
Tel:66550000 | high17426.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The store was in disorder and she was not familiar with the shop."
},
"options": [
"She was too young to remember all the items on the list.",
"Miss Bee thought she was a thief and did not treat her kindly.",
"Her grandmother... | You went to the butcher's for meat, the pharmacy for aspirin, and the grocery store for food. But when I spent the summer with my Grandmother in Warwick, N.Y., she sent me down to the general store with a list. How could I hope to find anything on the packed, messy shelves around me?
I walked up to the counter. Behind it was a lady like no one I'd ever seen. Fake-jewel-encrusted glasses teetered on the tip of her nose, gray hair was piled on her head.
"Excuse me," I said. She looked up.
"You're that Clements kid," she said. "I'm Miss Bee. Come closer and let me get a look at you." She pushed her glasses up her nose. "I want to be able to describe you to the sheriff if something goes missing from the store."
"I'm not a thief!" I was shocked. I was seven years old, too young to be a thief!
"From what I can see you're not much of anything. But I can tell you've got potential." She went back to reading her newspaper.
"I need to get these." I said, holding up my list.
"So? Go get them." Miss Bee pointed to a sign on the screen door. "There's no one here except you and me and I'm not your servant, so I suggest you get yourself a basket from that pile over there and start filling. If you're lucky you'll be home by sundown."
Sundown was five hours away. I wasn't sure I would make it.
I scanned the nearest shelf for the first item on my list: pork and beans. It took me three wall-to-wall searches before I found a can nestled between boxes of cereal and bread. Next up was toilet paper, found under the daily newspaper. Band-Aids --where had I seen them? Oh, ye next to the face cream. The store was a puzzle, but it held some surprises too. I found a new Superman comic tucked behind the peanut butter.
I visited Miss Bee a couple of times a week that summer. Sometimes she short-changed me. Other times she overcharged. Or sold me an old newspaper instead of one that was current. Going to the store was more like going into battle. I left my Grandma's house armed with my list--memorized to the letter--and marched into Miss Bee's like General Patton marching into North Africa.
"That can of beans is only twenty-nine cents!" I corrected her one afternoon. I had watched the numbers change on the cash register closely, and Miss Bee had added 35 cents. She didn't seem embarrassed that I had caught her overcharging. She just looked at me over her glasses and fixed the price.
Not that she ever let me declare victory. All summer long she found ways to trip me up. No sooner had I learned how to pronounce bicarbonate of soda and memorized its location on the shelf than Miss Bee rearranged the shelves and made me hunt for it all over again. By summer's end the shopping trip that had once taken me an hour was done in 15 minutes. The morning I was to return to Brooklyn, I stopped in to get a packet of gum.
"All right, Miss Potential," she said. "What did you learn this summer?" That you're a meany! I pressed my lips together. To my amazement, Miss Bee laughed. "I know what you think of me," she said. "Well, here's a news flash: I don't care! Each of us is put on this earth for a reason. I believe my job is to teach every child I meet ten life lessons to help them. Think what you will, Miss Potential, but when you get older you'll be glad our paths crossed!" Glad I met Miss Bee? Ha! The idea was absurd.
Until one day my daughter came to me with homework troubles.
"It's too hard," she said. "Could you finish my math problems for me?"
"If I do it for you how will you ever learn to do it yourself?" I said. Suddenly, I was back at that general store where I had learned the hard way to tally up my bill along with the cashier. Had I ever been overcharged since?
As my daughter went back to her homework, I wondered: Had Miss Bee really taught me something all those years ago? I took out some scrap paper and started writing. | high23783.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "prevent students going into debt"
},
"options": [
"better students' learning methods",
"prevent students going into debt",
"help students get accepted by colleges",
"make students become very wealthy"
],
"questi... | During her junior year of high school, Diane Ray's teacher handed her a worksheet and instructed the 17-year-old to map out her future financial life. Ray pretended to buy a car, rent an apartment, and apply for a credit card. Then, she and her classmates played the "stock market game", investing the hypothetical earnings from their hypothetical jobs in the market in the disastrous fall of 2008. "Our pretend investments crashed," Ray says, still frightened. "We got to know how it felt to lose money."
That pain of earning and losing money is a feeling that public schools increasingly want to teach. Forty states now offer some type of financial instruction at the high-school level, teaching students how to balance checkbooks and buy stock in math and social-studies classes. Though it's too early to measure the full influence of the Great Recession , the interest in personal-finance classes has risen since 2007 when bank failures started to occur regularly. Now, many states including Missouri, Utah, and Tennessee require teenagers to take financial classes to graduate from high school. School districts such as Chicago are encouraging money-management classes for kids as young as primary school, and about 300 colleges or universities now offer online personal-finance classes for incoming students. "These classes really say, 'This is how you live independently,' " says Ted Beck, president of National Endowment for Financial Education.
Rather than teach investment methods or financial skills, these courses offer a back-to-the-basics approach to handling money: Don't spend what you don't have. Put part of your monthly salary into a savings account, and invest in the stock market for the long-term rather than short-term gains. For Ray, this means dividing her earnings from her part-time job at a fast-food restaurant into separate envelopes for paying bills, spending and saving. "Money is so hard to make but so easy to spend," she says one weekday after school. "That is the big takeaway."
Teaching kids about the value of cash certainly is one of the programs' goals, but teachers also want students to think hard about their finances long term. It's easy for teenagers to get annoyed about gas prices because many of them drive cars. But the hard part is urging them to put off the instant satisfaction of buying a new T-shirt or an iPod. "Investing and retirement aren't things teenagers are thinking about. For them, the future is this weekend," says Gayle Whitefield, a business and marketing teacher at Uth's Riverton High School.
That's a big goal for these classes: preventing kids from making the same financial missteps their parents did when it comes to saving, spending, and debt. Though the personal savings rate has increased up to 4. 2 percent, that's still a far distance from 1982, when Americans saved 11. 2 percent of their incomes. "It's hard for schools to reach strict money-management skills when teenagers go home and watch their parents increase credit-card debt. It's like telling your kids not to smoke and then lighting up a cigarette in front of them," Beck says.
Even with these challenges, students such as Ray say learning about money in school is worthwhile. After Ray finished her financial class, she opened up a savings account at her local bank and started to think more about how she and her family would pay for college. "She just has a better understanding of money and how it affects the world," says her mother, Darleen-and that's sown to the details of how money is spent from daily expenses to various taxes. All of this talk of money can make Ray worry, she says, but luckily, she feels prepared to face it. | high6468.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Alfred tried to sound big to hide his fear."
},
"options": [
"It was the first time Alfred had stolen anything.",
"Mr. Carr set a trap to catch Alfred stealing.",
"Alfred tried to sound big to hide his fear.",
"Mr. Carr... | The drug store was closing for the night and Alfred Higgins was about to go home when his new boss approached him.
"Empty your pockets please, Alfred," Sam Carr demanded in a firm voice.
Alfred pretended to be shocked but he knew he had been caught. From his coat he withdrew a make-up kit, a lipstick and two tubes of toothpaste.
"I'm disappointed in you, Alfred!" said the little gray-haired man.
"Sorry, sir. Please forgive me. It's the first time I've ever done such a thing," Alfred lied, hoping to gain the old man's sympathy.
Mr Carr's brow furrowed as he reached for the telephone, "Do you take me for a fool? Let's see what the police have to say. But first I'll call your mother and let her know her son is heading to jail."
"Do whatever you want," Alfred shot back, trying to sound big. But deep down he felt like a child. He imagined his mother rushing in, eyes burning with anger, maybe in tears. Yet he wanted to come quickly before Mr. Carr called the police.
Mr. Carr was surprised when Mrs. Higgins finally arrived . She was very calm, quiet and friendly. "Is Alfred in trouble?" she asked.
"He's been stealing from the store," the old man coolly replied.
Mrs. Higgins pulled out her hand and touched Mr. Carr's arm with great gentleness as if she knew just how he felt. She spoke as if she did not want to cause him any more trouble. "What do you want to do, Mr.Carr?"
The woman's calm and gentle manner _ the once-angry store-owner, "I was going to get a cop. But I don't want to be cruel. Tell your son not to come back here again and I will let it go." Then he warmly shook Mrs. Higgins' hand.
Mrs. Higgins thanked the old ma for his kindness, then mother and son left. They walked along the street in silence. When they arrived home his mother simply said, "Go to bed, you fool."
In his bedroom, Alfred heard his mother in the kitchen. He felt no shame, only pride in his mother's actions. "She was smooth!" he thought. He went to the kitchen to tell her how great she was, but was shocked by what he saw.
His mother's face looked frightened, broken. Not the cool, bright face he saw earlier. Her lips moved nervously. She looked very old. There were tears in her eyes.
This picture of his mother made him want to cry. He felt his youth ending. He saw all the troubles he brought her and the deep lines of worry in her grey face. It seemed to him that this was the first time he had ever really seen his mother. | high693.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "He played music."
},
"options": [
"He played music.",
"He worked here and there.",
"He stayed at home practicing his lessons.",
"He read for his profession."
],
"question": "What did the author do in his spare t... | I am not just a successful architect . I also like to play the piano. In my spare time I often turn some dry musical symbols into beautiful music.
Many years ago, while I was in a university studying architecture, I worked in a workshop. During the break I found an old piano in the corner of the room. With the allowance of the boss I sat down to have a try. Following my fingers the keys danced brilliantly and at the same time beautiful music flew out and then to every part of the room. All my workmates suddenly stopped talking and made their ears ready for my music.
After graduation, I began to devote myself to my profession. All my musical talent was wasted into zero. Then one evening we went to a concert at which Mr. Stevenson, one of the ordinary workers in my company, sang us some beautiful songs. His musical talents made us all surprised. We all enjoyed ourselves with his beautiful voice so much that we even thought him a professional singer. I was also reminded of my musical talent.
I began to train in a training center. My teacher was strict with me. He encouraged me to train every weekend and each time he asked me to play better than the last. Now I can proudly say I am also a successful pianist because every time I played on the stage fresh flowers and warm clapping would come from my audience. So I say, my friends, don't busy yourself with your work too much. Find some time to develop your potential talent and your life will become more wonderful. | high1307.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "personality is largely decided from birth"
},
"options": [
"certain personality traits are common",
"personality is largely decided from birth",
"some personality types are better than others",
"personality traits are v... | Finding the Real You
Psychometric testing--personality testing--has been very popular nowadays as studies show their results to be three times more accurate in predicting your job performance. These tests are now included in almost all graduate recruitment and are widely used in the selection of managers.
The most popular of these personality tests is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). It is based on the theory that we are born with a tendency to one personality type which stays more or less fixed throughout life. You answer 88 questions and are then given your "type", such as Outgoing or Quiet, Feeling or Thinking.
Critics of personality testing raise doubts about "social engineering". Psychologist Dr. Colin Gill warns that the "popular" personality traits have their disadvantages. "People who are extremely open to new experiences can be butterflies, going from one idea to the next without mastering any of them." However, the psychometric test is here to stay, which may be why a whole sub-industry on cheating personality tests has sprung up. "It's possible to cheat," admits Gill, "but having to pretend to be the person you are at work will be tiring and unhappy and probably short-lived."
So can we change our personality? "Your basic personality is fixed by the time you're 21,"says Gill," but it can be affected by motivation and intelligence. If you didn't have the personality type to be a doctor but desperately wanted to be one and were intelligent enough to master the skills, you could still go ahead. But trying to go too much against type for too long requires much energy and is actually to be suffered for long. I think it's why we're seeing this trend for downshifting--too many people trying to fit in to a type that they aren't really suited for."
Our interest in personality now exists in every part of our lives. If you ask an expert for advice on anything, you'll probably be quizzed about your personality. But if personality tests have any value to us, perhaps it is to free us from the idea that all of us are full of potential, and remind us of what we are. As they say in one test when they ask for your age: pick the one you are, not the one you wish you were. | high13640.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "a person who eats no meat"
},
"options": [
"a pet lover",
"a heavy smoker",
"a person who eats no meat",
"one who needs a one-night stay"
],
"question": "Chika and Tara's house would be a good choice for _ ."... | Homestay UK/Great Britain
Here you will find a selection of homestay hosts and host families in the UK. If you want to learn more about the British host family of your choice, please click on information at www. Homestaybooking. Com. You will then see a personal introduction of the UK homestay host. If you don't want to search yourself, just register for free and receive our matching recommendations.
Chika and Tara from London, the United Kingdom
Information about the homestay host
Chika is 28 years old. She is away from home most of the time. Tara is 18 years old. She is at home every day. They both speak English.
Chika and Tara's guests can stay for at least 5 nights and up to a maximum of 365 nights. Chika and Tara have no children living at home. It is a non-smoking residence . No pets live in this household.
Information about the homestay accommodation
The accommodation is in London. The name of the neighborhood is Greenwich. The distance to the city center is 1.6km. The next access point to public transport is at 15 m distance.
Three guests can stay in Tara and Chika's house at the same time. The following accommodation is generally available:
Single room with shared use of the family bathroom
*Size: 12.0 m2
*Facilities: desk, Internet access, mirror, hairdryer and wardrobe
*Price per night per person: PS20.00 per night(one single)
Twin room with shared use of the family bathroom
*Size: 15.0 m2
*Facilities: TV, desk, Internet access, mirror, hairdryer and wordrobe
*Price per night per person:
PS20.00 per night(one guest)
PS17.00 per night(two guests)
The room charge includes the following services: Internet access, regular room cleaning, breakfast, free use of the washing machine.
Additional available service at an extra charge: Pick-up service(PS60.00 one-way); Lunch(PS6.00 per person per day); Dinner(PS6.00 per person per night)
Vegetarian meals are available. | high9983.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Ibn Battuta and adventures."
},
"options": [
"Visitors to Mecca.",
"A great travel joumal.",
"Ibn Barttuta and the sultan.",
"Ibn Battuta and adventures."
],
"question": "What is the main topic of the article?",... | "I left Tangier, my birthplace, the 13th of June 1325 with the intention of making the pilgrimage to Mecca... to leave all my friends both female and male, to abandon my home as birds abandon their nests." So begins an old manuscript in a library in Paris-the travel journal of Ibn Battuta.
Almost two centuries before Columbus, Ibn Battuta set off for Mecca, returning home three decades later as one of history's great travelers. Driven by curiosity, he journeyed to remote comers of the Islamic world, traveling through 44 modern countries, three times as far as Marco Polo. Little celebrated in the West, his name is well known among Arabs. In his hometown of Tangier, a square, a hotel, a cafe, a ferry boat, and even a hamburger are named after him.
Ibn Battuta stayed in Mecca as a student for several years, but the urge to travel soon took over. In one adventure, he traveled to India seeking profitable employment with the sultan of Delhi.On the way, he described his group being attacked in the open country by 80 men on foot, and two horsemen. "We fought... killing one of their horsemen and about twelve of the foot soldiers... I was hit by an arrow and my horse by another, but God in his grace preserved me... ". In Delhi, the sultan gave him the position of judge, based on his _ study at Mecca. But the sultan had an unpredictable character, and Ibn Battuta looked for an opportunity to leave. When the sultan offered to finance a trip to China, he agreed. IbnBattuta set off in three ships, but misfortune struck while he was still on the shore. A sudden storm grounded and broke up two ships, scattering treasure and drowning many people and horses. As he watched, the third ship with all his belongings and slaves (one carrying his child), was carried out to sea and never heard from again.
After a lifetime of incredible adventures, Ibn Battuta was finally ordered by the sultan of Morocco to return home to share his wisdom with the world. Fortunately, he agreed and wrote a book that has been translated into numerous languages, allowing people everywhere to read about his unparalleled journeys. | high8445.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "many plants, trees and flowers don't grow there any more"
},
"options": [
"there has been a lot of conservation in Holland",
"Holland does not need so many plants, trees and flowers",
"many plants, trees and flowers don't gro... | 1970 was "World Conservation Year". The United Nations wanted everyone to know that the world was in danger. They hoped that the governments would act quickly in order to conserve nature. Here is one example of the problem. At one time there were 1300 different plants, trees and flowers in Holland, but now only 860 remain. The others have been destroyed by modern man and his technology. We are changing the earth, the air and the water, and everything that grows and lives. We can't live without these things. If we continue like this, we shall destroy ourselves.
What will happen in the future? Perhaps it is more important to ask "What must we do now?" The people who will be living in the world of tomorrow are the young of today. A lot of them know that conservation is necessary. Many are hoping to save our world. They plant trees, build bridges across rivers in forests and so on. In a small town in the United States a large group of girls cleaned the banks of eleven kilometres of their river. Young people may hear about conservation through a record called "No, One's Going to Change our World. " It was made by Scatles, Cliff Richard and other singers. The money from it will help to conserve wild animals. | high7776.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "don't make good use of banana peel"
},
"options": [
"like eating bananas",
"waste a lot of food every year",
"don't make good use of banana peel",
"know little about the value of the flesh of bananas"
],
"questi... | If you live in the U.S., you're probably used to throwing banana peel into the trash. But people in other countries, including India, have been taking advantages of their nutritional benefits for many years.
While the flesh of a banana is soft and sweet, the skin is thick, hard and slightly bitter. To eat the peel, you can fry, bake, or boil it for at least 10 minutes. Also, the riper bananas get, the thinner and sweeter banana peel will become. That's because of a natural plant hormone called ethylene that fruits release as they ripen. Ethylene interacts with the sugars and fiber in the banana skin, changing complex sugars into simple sugars and breaking down pectin, a form of fiber in bananas that keeps them stiff. That's why the older your banana is, the flimsier it feels.
The sweet flesh of a medium-sized banana contains great percentages of your daily recommended intake of various nutrients, such as:
*12% of your daily fiber, which helps with digestion and may help lower your risk of diabetes
*17% of your vitamin C, which is important for your immune system as well as your growth
*20% of your vitamin B6, which aids the body's ability to turn food into energy
*12% of your potassium, which helps with the development of cells, tissues, and organs throughout the body
If you eat the skin along with the flesh, you will get an even bigger increase in these same nutrients.
Eating the peel is not only good for your body but also better for the earth. The average American ate 11.4 pounds of bananas in 2014. Since a medium-sized banana weighs about 0.3 pounds, that equates to about 38 bananas per person, or about 12 billion for the whole of the U.S. And since most of us throw away the peel, that also means a lot of organic waste. | high13898.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the society tends to have a wrong image about single women"
},
"options": [
"many Americans get married by 30 and have kids by 32",
"married women have a happier life than those never-married",
"divorced women lives a miserab... | Single people, especially women, are stigmatized in our society: We're all familiar with the image of a sad, lonely woman eating ice cream with her cats in her pajamas on Saturday night. But about 45 percent of US adults aren't married and around one in seven lives alone. This might be you. Research shows that young people's expectations about their marital status (e.g. the desire to be married by 30 and have kids by 32) have little or no relationship to what actually happens to people. So, go with the flow. And, if you're single, you're in good company. Single people spend more time with friends, volunteer more, and are more involved in their communities than married people. Never-married and divorced women are happier, on average, than married women. So, don't buy into the myth of the miserable singleton.
If you do get married, keep going with the flow. Relationship satisfaction, financial security, and happy kids are more strongly related to flexibility in the face of life's challenges than any particular way of organizing families. The most functional families are ones that can bend. So partnering with someone who thinks that one partner should support their families and the other should take responsibility for the house and children is a recipe for disaster. So is being equally rigid about non-traditional divisions of labor. It's okay to have ideas about how to organize your family but your best bet for happiness is to be flexible.
Buying a home is often taken for granted as a stage on the path to adulthood. But the ideal of universal home ownership was born in the 1950s. It's a rather new idea.With such a short history, it's funny that people often insist that buying a house is a fool-proof investment and the best way to secure retirement. In fact, buying a house may not be the best choice for you. The mortgage may be less than rent, but there are also taxes, insurance, and the increasingly common Home Owners Association (HOA) fees. You may someday sell the house for more than you bought it but, if you paid interest on a mortgage, you also paid far more than the sale price. You have freedom from a landlord, but may discover your HOA is just as controlling, or worse. And then there's the headache: renting relieves you from the stress of being responsible for repairs. It also offers a freedom of movement that you might cherish.
So be wise and consider all your options. | high8323.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "imperfect"
},
"options": [
"impolite",
"amusing",
"imperfect",
"practical"
],
"question": ". The author used to think of her mother's English as _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answe... | I am a writer. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language--the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. _ . And I use them all--all the Englishes I grew up with.
Born into a Chinese family that had recently arrived in California, I've been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described it to people as "broken" English. But I feel embarrassed to say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than"broken", as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness. I've heard other terms used, "limited English," for example. But they seem just as bad, as if everything is limited, including people's perceptions of the limited English speaker.
I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother's "limited" English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect. And I had plenty of evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.
I started writing fiction in 1985. And for reasons I won't get into today, I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with: the English she used with me, which for lack of a better term might be described as "broken" ; and what I imagine to be her translation of her Chinese, her internal language, and for that I sought to preserve the essence, but neither an English nor a Chinese structure. I wanted to catch what language ability tests can never show: her intention, her feelings, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts. | high7010.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "always lived a lonely life"
},
"options": [
"drew pictures for magazines",
"always lived a lonely life",
"showed no interest in art",
"liked to paint and dance"
],
"question": "During his childhood, Warhol _ ... | Recently, a painting of actress Elizabeth Taylor, which was drawn by American artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol, sold for US $63 million. Another simple black-and-white image of a Coca-Cola bottle sold for US $35 million. But the all-time record for a Warhol painting is $100 million for a piece titled "Eight Elvises". What's amazing is not that the pieces sold for so much, but the fact that they are not what you would call traditional art. They are "pop art", art based on simple images of things and people from advertising, movies, music and day-to-day life.
Born in the 1920s, Warhol grew up mostly separated from other children due to health problems. He spent a lot of his time alone drawing and then went on to study art in college. He began his career as a commercial artist, creating pictures for magazine articles and newspaper ads. That inspired him to experiment with pop art and he hosted America's first pop art exhibition in the 1960s. The show met with a lot of discussion with some people saying that what he was doing was not art.
Warhol followed his first works with a series we are all familiar with -- paintings of Coca-Cola bottles, Brillo soap pad boxes, and portraits of famous people. Soon after, Warhol stopped creating his own artwork. Instead, he had assistants and other artists create them at his studio called "The Factory". Warhol wanted to show the world that art doesn't have to be complex or original; it can be created by anyone using ordinary things.
Today, Warhol's work is unmistakable in its uniqueness. No matter how you may feel about his work, one thing cannot be argued. He introduced the world to a whole new art form, inspiring future generations of artists, and eventually becoming one of the most famous and successful pop art artists in the world. | high14891.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Now more and more people realize the importance to stop sub health."
},
"options": [
"Chinese people especially the city citizens are suffering from sub health problem.",
"Infectious diseases used to be the main cause of death acro... | A surprisingly high number of city citizens in China suffer from poor health and many die at an early age.
Poor health with no sign of any identified disease, a condition known in China as "sub health," is on the rise. Sub health is marked by general weakness, low energy levels and a poor immune system.
A survey held in 16 cities with over 1 million population showed high proportions of urban Chinese have been suffering sub health problems.
The numbers are particularly high in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, with 75.31, 73.49, and 73.41 percent respectively of residents in poor health, the survey showed.
The problem happens mostly among senior and middle-level managers, clerks and other white-collar workers with high education levels, said the website of the Red Cross Society of China.
"The sub health condition, found in most cases among groups of people with a high educational level, will have bad effects on China's long-term development and progress if not dealt timely and properly," the website warned.
A survey by the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows that the average life of Chinese intellectuals is 58 years, 10 years lower than the nation's average.
This early death phenomenon may be increasing.
Among Chinese people with high education in the 25-59 age group, the death rate for women is as high as 10.4 per cent. For men it is even higher: 16.5 percent.
A report published by the China Sub Health Academic Seminar said the country's health is going through a transitional period and many long-term diseases have taken the place of infectious diseases such as SARS and flu as the main cause of death.
"Bad working habits, poor disease prevention knowledge, not enough governmental investment and lack of health education are the main reasons," said Yang Xiaoduo, a healthcare expert with a local health association, who said China should race against time seeking measures to solve the sub health problem. | high12238.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Harry's father"
},
"options": [
"Harry's father",
"Harry's mother",
"Harry",
"Nobody"
],
"question": "_ always does some housework in the morning",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": ... | Harry is eighteen now. He studies in a middle school.His parents like him very much and hope he can become a famous man. So they often tell him to study hard and they do almost everything for him. They wakes him up at six in the morning, after breakfast his father takes him to school in a car and in the afternoon, as soon as the young man comes back, the supper is ready. Of course, he never washes his clothes or goes to buy anything in the shops.
Once Harry's father was sent to London on business. He would stay there for half a year. Upon leaving, he told his wife to take good care of their son. The woman had to get up eatlier and did all that her husband did before. And two months later she was so tired that she was ill in bed. Now the young man got into trouble. He couldn't do any housework. He had to do as his mother told him. He didn't even know where to get on the bus!
One day Harry's mother found his shoes were worn out and told him to buy a pair in the shop. But he didn't know how to choose The woman had a sigh and give him a shoe patten and told him to buy a pair of.shoes himself. With a policeman's help, Harry found a shop. The shopkeeper was friendly to him. The man brought a lot of shoes and asked him to choose. When he was trying on a pair, suddenly he remembered something and took them off. The man was surprised and asked, "What's the matter, young man?"
"I'm sorry. I've left the shoe pattern at home!" | high1461.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "can be prevented"
},
"options": [
"can be ignored",
"can be prevented",
"will disappear",
"are all deadly"
],
"question": "According to the passage, chronic diseases _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_question... | Such chronic diseases as heart disease, stroke, cancer and lung disorders are the most leading causes of death in the world. Yet health experts say these conditions are often the most preventable.
The World Health Organization (WHO) points out chronic diseases lead to about 17 million early deaths each year. The United Nations (UN) agency expects more than 380 million people to die of chronic diseases by 2015. About 80% of the deaths will happen in developing nations.
Chronic diseases now cause two-thirds of all deaths in the Asia-Pacific area. In ten years it could be almost three-fourths. People are getting sick in their most economically productive years. In fact, chronic diseases are killing more middle-aged people in poorer countries than in richer ones. The WHO estimates that chronic diseases will cost China alone more than 500,000 million dollars in the next ten years. That estimate represents the costs of medical treatment and lost productivity. Russia and India are also expected to face huge economic losses.
According to a WHO report, deaths from chronic diseases have increased largely as the result of economic gains in many countries. Until recently infectious and parasitic diseases have been the main killers in Asia and the Pacific but they are no longer the major cause of death in most countries.
As many as 80% of the deaths from chronic diseases could be prevented, health officials say. An important tool for governments is to limit the marketing of alcohol and tobacco to young people. Also, more programs are needed to urge healthy eating and more physical activity.
The UN aims to reduce chronic-disease deaths by 2% each year by international action through 2015, that's to say, 36 million lives could be saved, including 25 million in Asia and the Pacific. | high13126.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Dogs can read human actions and feelings."
},
"options": [
"Dogs prefer yummier foods.",
"Dogs can read human actions and feelings.",
"Dogs can interact with humans easily.",
"Dogs like to copy human's behavior."
],... | Ever get that feeling you're being watched? Well, if you're a dog-owner, you may have a point. Dogs are able to watch people's interactions with one another to determine who holds yummier treats, according to a new study. This study joins others that show dogs are good observers of human behaviors and feelings. It offers evidence that dogs use information not only from people's direct interactions with them, but also their interactions with one another.
In the study, dogs watched a man ask two women for some of their corns. Both women gave the man corns when he asked, but in response to one woman, the man showed his enthusiasm and said the corns were so delicious. In response to the other woman, he gave the corns back and called them _ (in Spanish;the study was conducted in Argentina). After these interactions, the man left and an assistant holding the dog let the dog go. While many dogs didn't approach either woman, the dogs that did have a preference tended to prefer the woman with the yummier food.
Other studies of dogs' people-watching ability have found dogs are able to tell the difference between happy and sad faces in their owners. They prefer people who give others food when asked over people who don't give others food. And in one study, dogs turned toward crying people more often than toward talking people.
So how much do dogs really understand about the humans around them? That's not totally settled yet. In a strange twist to the Argentine study above, when the researchers tried an experiment in which they put two plates of corns on a table and had a man react to each plate, dogs didn't preferentially approach the tastier plate afterward. You could say dogs watch for the interaction between two persons, not just how a person reacts. Yet a previous study found dogs will choose boxes that people reacted to happily, but not boxes people reacted to with a disgusted face.
Well, either way, you can be sure Fluffs is keeping an eye on you, to the best of her ability. The study was published in the journal PLOS One. | high14649.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "to walk in space"
},
"options": [
"to walk in space",
"to enter space",
"to land on the moon",
"to speak with people on earth in space"
],
"question": "Astronaut Zhai Zhigang will be remembered as the first Chin... | Astronaut Zhai Zhigang became the first Chinese man to walk in space on Saturday, climbing out of prefix = st1 /China's Shenzhou VII spacecraft in a technological feat that made the Chinese people excited.
"I'm feeling quite well. I greet the Chinese people and the people of the world," Zhai said as he climbed out of the craft at around 16:40 Beijingtime, a historic achievement telecast live on CCTV. Tens of millions of Chinese viewers gathered before TV screens to watch the moment.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top leaders had appeared at the BeijingAerospaceControlCenterto watch the live transmission of Zhai's spacewalk.
Zhai, 42, chosen by an expert team for the first "extra-vehicular activity". unveiled a red national flag, helped by colleague Liu Boming, who also briefly popped his head out of the capsule. Zhai slowly made his way towards a test sample of solid lubricant outside the capsule, took a sample and handed it to Liu. Zhai safely returned inside the craft after about 20 minutes. The walk marked the high point of China's third manned space journey, which has received widespread media coverage.
Zhai wore a$4.4 million Chinese-made suit weighing 120kg. Liu wore a Russian-made one and acted as a back-up. The third crew member, Jing Haipeng, monitored the ship from inside the re-entry module. The risky manoeuvre is a step towards China's longer-term goal of assembling a space lab and then a larger space station, analysts said.
"On this flight, Chinese people's footprints will be left in space for the first time," said a commentary by the Xinhua News Agency. The astronauts embarked on their walk after receiving a clean bill of health from doctors on the ground at mission control in Beijing, Xinhua said. Zhai's suit has 10 layers and takes up to 15 hours to assemble and put on.
China's first manned spaceflight was in 2003. A second, two-manned flight followed in 2005. The only other countries that have sent people into space are Russiaand theUnited States. | high18073.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "dreaming in a foreign language means a good command of it"
},
"options": [
"people can learn foreign languages in their dreams",
"she already dreamed in Spanish so she has mastered Spanish",
"one of her worst students had alr... | When Pat Jones finished college, she decided to travel around the world and see as many foreign places as she could while she was young. Pat wanted to visit Latin America first, so she got a job as an English teacher in a school in Bolivia. Pat spoke a little Spanish, so she was able to communicate with her students even when they didn't know much English.
Once, A sentence she had read somewhere struck her mind: if you dream in a foreign language, you have really mastered it. Pat repeated this sentence to her students and hoped that some day she would dream in Spanish and they would dream in English.
One day, one of her worst students came up and explained in Spanish that he had not done his homework. He had gone to bed early and had slept badly.
"What does this have to do with your homework?" Pat asked.
"I dreamed all night, Miss Jones. And my dream was in English."
"In English?" Pat was very surprised, since he was such a bad student. She was even secretly jealous . Her dream was still not in Spanish. But she encouraged her young student, "Well, tell me about your dream."
"All the people in my dream spoke English. All the newspapers and magazines and all the TV programs were in English."
"But that's wonderful," said Pat. "What did all the people say to you?"
"I am sorry, Miss Jones. That's why I slept so badly. I didn't understand a word they said. It was a nightmare ". | high5607.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Steve Jobs combined technology with art"
},
"options": [
"Steve Jobs is greater than Thomas Edison.",
"Steve Jobs combined technology with art",
"Steve Jobs' methods can't be absorbed by others",
"another Steve Jobs wil... | On Wednesday evening in New York, Apple broke the news that Steve Jobs had died. Since then, praise and respect have poured over the world like rain. He changed industries, redefined business models, fused technology and art. People are comparing him to Thomas Edison, Walt Disney and Leonardo da Vinci, and saying it will be a very long time before the world sees the likes of Steve Jobs again.
After all, there are other brilliant marketers, designers and business people. Many of them have studied Steve Jobs, tried to absorb his methods and his philosophy. Surely they can recreate some of his success. But nobody ever does, even when they copy his moves down.
So how did he become a visionary who changed every business he touched? Actually, he has given us clues all along. The story of Steve Jobs boils down to this: Don't go with the flow. If Mr. Jobs saw something that could be made better, smarter or more beautiful, nothing else mattered.
Apple has attained its current astonishing levels of influence and success because it is sensitive. It is incredibly focused. It has had amazingly few failures. And that is because Mr. Jobs didn't buy into focus groups, groupthink or decision by a committee. At its core ,Apple existed to carry out his vision. He focused on every button and every corner .He lost sleep over the cardboard of the packaging and the color1 of the power cord.
He wanted to sell a smart phone that had no keyboard, when physical keys were what had made BlackBerry the most popular smart phone at the time. Eventually, of course, most people realized that he was just doing that Steve Jobs thing again: being ahead of his time.
Mr. Jobs is gone. Everyone who knew him feels that sorrow. But the ripple of that loss will widen in the days, weeks and years to come: to the people in the industries he changed. | high17340.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "How Competition Impacts Gas Prices"
},
"options": [
"How Competition Impacts Gas Prices",
"Gas Prices Go Up or Down",
"Competition---a Very Complex Word",
"We Can't Stress Enough the Need for Competition"
],
"qu... | Competition. It's a simple word, yet a very complex word that covers many angles when it comes to how gasoline prices are determined. It seems so easy to explain, but don't let that trick you--it's incredibly difficult to explain and adequately understand.
Say you're on a Sunday afternoon drive, and notice a gas station near you charging $3.50. Down the road a few miles, that price could easily be 10 or more cents higher or lower. The question is "how" or "why" is that? Think of it this way. Are you more likely to get a better deal on a car if there are two similar car dealers next to each other? Perhaps, because the dealers are too close. Say there is a third similar car dealer miles away. Is he going to be at the same level of competition and sell his cars for the same price as the two dealers next to each other? Likely not. He may charge more or less. Maybe people don't know there are two other dealers down the road. Maybe the dealer is almost outside of the city and the land value isn't as high, so his taxes aren't as high.
These situations do take place at gas stations. And more factors can impact what a station will charge. Timing can greatly impact what price a station charges as well! Many motorists fail to realize that the price a station pays for gasoline changes daily. If one station gets lucky and buys gas on Monday and the cost goes up Tuesday, the station that bought on Monday doesn't necessarily have to raise prices like the station that bought on Tuesday. Maybe the station that got caught buying for a higher price on Tuesday will pass that higher cost on by raising its gas price.
Perhaps the difference is what brand the station is---branded stations usually pay a slightly higher cost for their gasoline. In return for paying a higher cost, those stations are guaranteed first supply in case of emergency situations. Independent stations don't pay as much, but aren't guaranteed supply.
While competition sounds easy to understand, there are always a large number of factors that could influence what one station charges. Keep in mind how many variables there are next time you fill up. | high2168.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Whether schools can search students' lockers."
},
"options": [
"How to make sure schools are safe.",
"Whether there are crimes in schools.",
"Whether schools can search students' lockers.",
"How to establish trust betwe... | Elaine Yu Yee-nee, 15, Creative Secondary School
Lockers are designed in a way to hide their contents for a reason. Otherwise, they'd have open fronts like cupboards. Searching students' lockers would be total invasion of privacy. Having a locker is more than having a place to store your stuff. A locker also gives you the freedom to keep certain things hidden. These can include harmless personal items like diaries, letters and photos. Searching lockers could _ students and others might make fun of them.
Yes, lockers are school property . But that doesn't give schools the right to inspect lockers as they please. While students are using lockers, they have the right to keep their contents private. Teachers could ask for permission to take a look inside a student's locker and if the student is OK with that, then it would be fine. Searching students' lockers without their permission would result in the loss of trust.
I doubt that students who have something dangerous to hide, such as weapons or drugs, would put them in their lockers. They would not want to risk being caught so easily.
Giving schools the right to search lockers would not help catch those who commit crimes. But it would certainly create an environment in which students would be embarrassed to have their belongings shown in public for no good reason.
Ronald Ling Pak-ki, 20, University of Hong Kong
Many students see their lockers as personal property. They would never agree that schools should have the right to inspect their lockers. But I think schools have an absolute right to do so.
It is the schools that actually own the lockers. Students just use them to store some of their things safely and conveniently. There are clear rules on what items students can and cannot keep in their lockers. Schools have both the duty and the right to check if students are following the rules.
I don't think school authorities would decide to search a student's locker unless they felt the need to do so. They might, for instance, suspect students of hiding drugs. To make sure that the process remains open and fair, only authorized teachers should have the right to search lockers. The search should be carried out in such a way as not to embarrass students in front of others. | high3276.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "It is too expensive for most people to afford"
},
"options": [
"It is too heavy for the walker to bear",
"It is too complex for people to use",
"It is too expensive for most people to afford",
"It will slow down one's w... | Electrical devices could soon use power make by human energy, Scientists say they have developed an experimental device that produces electricity from the physical movement of a person walking , British scientist Max Donelan and other scientists in Canada and the United States developed the device.
The device connects to a person's knee, As the person walks, the device captures energy each time the person slows down, To do this ,the device helps with the slowing sown movement of the leg, The movements of the walking person push parts of a small machine that produces electricity, Using the device, an adult walking quickly could produce thirteen watts of electricity in just a minute, Donelan says walking at that speed could produce enough power to operate a laptop computer for six minutes.
There are several possible uses for the device ,Developers say it could help people who work in areas without electricity to operate small computers, The deice could also be used in hospitals to operate heart pacemakers ,It could even be used to assist in the movement of robotic arms and legs.
The experimental version of the device weighs about one and a half kilograms, but it is too costly for most people to buy, But the researchers hope to make a lighter, less costly version.An improved version should be ready in one year.
The developers hope the device will one day help developing countries, Nearly twenty five percent of people around the world live without electric power.
A similar product was invented in 2005 by Larry Rome of the University of Pennsylvania,He created a bag carried on a person's back that also produces power from walking, The knee device does not produce as much electricity as the bag ,But the bag requires the walker to carry a load of twenty to thirty kilograms. | high4519.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Easy English"
},
"options": [
"Seaspeak",
"Basic English",
"Internetish",
"Easy English"
],
"question": "The best title for the passage would be _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answ... | English is an important global language, but that doesn't mean it's easy to learn. Many experts have tried to make English easier for students to learn--but they weren't always successful.
In 1930, Professor CK Ogden of Cambridge University invented Basic English. It had only 850 words (and just eighteen verbs) and Ogden said most people could learn it in just thirty hours. The problem was that people who learned Basic English could write and say simple messages, but they couldn't understand the answers in "real" English! It was also impossible to explain a word if it wasn't in the Basic English word list. For example, if you wanted a watermelon, you asked for "a large green fruit with the form of an egg, which has a sweet red inside and a good taste"!
RE Zachrisson, a university professor in Sweden, decided that the biggest problem for learners of English was spelling, so he invented a language called Anglic. Anglic was similar to English, but with much simpler spelling. "Father" became "faadher", "new" became "nue' and "years" became "yeerz". Unfortunately for some students of English, Anglic never became popular.
Even easier is the language which ships' captains use: it's called "Seaspeak". Seaspeak uses a few simple phrases for every possible situation. In Seaspeak, for example, you don't say, "I'm sorry what did you say?" or "I didn't understand, can you repeat that?" It's just "Say again." No more grammar!
In the age of international communication through the Internet who knows? ... a new form of English might appear. A large number of the world's e-mails are in English and include examples of "NetLingo" like OIC (Oh, I see) and TTYL (Talk to you later). In another fifty years, English might not exist ... we will probably all speak fluent Internetish! | high7038.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The boom of pay by phone business."
},
"options": [
"The expansion of cellphone companices.",
"The boom of pay by phone business.",
"The dissppearanceof credit cards.",
"The increase of Starbucks sales.s"
],
"qu... | Which are you more likely to have wath you at sny given mement--your cell phone or your wallet? Soon you may be able to throw your wallet away and pay for things with a quick wave of your smart phone over an electroue scannet.
In January, Starbucks announced that customers could start using their phones to buy coffee in 6,800 of its states. This is the first pay-by-phone practice in the U.S., but we're likely to see more witeless payment alternatives as something called ucar field communcation(NFC)GETS IN TO America's consumet electanies. Last Deccmbet some new smart phanes which cantain an NFC chip were introduced to the public.
Already in use in part of Asia and Europe, NFC allows shoppers to wave theie phones a few inchs above a payment terminal-a contact-free system build for speed and convenience. plan a few incees live a payment tetminal a one a few ptaht need to be worked out, like who will get to collect the profitable trunsacian fees. Although some credit card providers have been experimenting with wave and pay systems that use NFC enabled credit cards, cellphone service providers truay try to mused their way into the point of sale (POS)market. Three big cell phone service providers have formed a joinf tenture that will go into opention over the next 15 months. Its goal is"to lead the U.S. payments industry from cards to mobile phone."
The other big NFC sue, apart from how paymeats will be processed, is security, For instance, what's to stop a thief from digitally pickpocketing you? "We're still not at the point where an attacker can just brush against yee in a crowd and steal all the money out of your phone,"says Jimmy Shah. A mobile security rescarcher, "Usera may also be able to set transaction timeits,requiring a password to be enteced for larger putchases.
Bussiness? Keep in mund you lost your smart phone, it can be located on a located on a map and remotely disabled. Plus, your phone can be password protected, Your wallet isn't. | high12210.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "That people preferred watching TV to seeing films."
},
"options": [
"That people preferred watching TV to seeing films.",
"That movies couldn't be a business any more.",
"That their movies might be played on television.",
... | Movie makers at one time worried that they might be put out of business by television. Recently, however, more and more people have been going to the movies. This may be partly because the economic situation in America has _ When at the movies, people forget their troubles, as they get involved in the story on the screen. Also, directors have recently been producing pictures that large numbers of people want to see.
Americans in the millions are returning to their love affair with the movies. Motion picture industry experts see two main factors responsible for this: an increased need by Americans to escape from economic worries and a large number of new movies with broad audience appeal.
Movie makers admit that their rising popularity is partly the result of poor economic conditions, which traditionally bring an increase in theater attendance. "When people are fearful about the future, they look for escape," comments Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America. "In a shaded theater, with a 65-foot screen, you lose yourself for two and a half hours and people find this beneficial." | high1449.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Future man will look quite different from us."
},
"options": [
"Man's life will be different in the future.",
"Future man will look quite different from us.",
"Man is growing taller and uglier as time passes.",
"Man's o... | What will man be like in the future--in 5,000 or even 50,000 years from now? We can only make a guess, of course, but we can be sure that he will be different from what he is today, for man is slowly changing all the time.
Let us take an obvious example. Man, even five hundred years ago, was shorter than he is today. Now, on average, men are about three inches taller, so we may assume that man will continue to grow taller. Again, as time goes on, we shall have to use our brains more and more. This is likely to bring about a physical change to the head, in particular, the forehead will grow larger.
Nowadays our eyes are in constant use. In fact, we use them so much that very often they become weaker and we have to wear glasses. But over a very long period of time it is likely that man's eyes will grow stronger.
On the other hand, we are likely to make less use of our arms and legs, which, as a result, are likely to grow weaker. At the same time, however, our fingers will grow more sensitive because they are used a great deal in modern life.
But what about hair? This will probably disappear from the body altogether in course of time because it does not serve a useful purpose any longer.
Perhaps all these give the impression that in the future man will not be a very attractive creature to look at! This may well be true. All the same, in spite of all these changes, future man will still have a lot in common with us. | high14661.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "to help the students to learn about university life."
},
"options": [
"to persuade the students to attend lectures",
"to encourage the students to take part in discussions",
"to advise the students to choose proper majors",
... | Since many of you are planning to study at a college or university in this country, you may be curious to know what you usually do in a typical week, how you can get along with your fellow students, and so on. These are the questions I want to discuss with you today.
First, let's talk about what your weekly schedule will look like. No matter what your major may be, you can expect to spend between four and six hours a week for each class attending lectures. Lectures are usually in very large rooms because some courses such as introduction to sociology or economics often have as many as two or three hundred students, especially at large universities. In lectures, it's very important for you to take notes on what the professor says because the information a lecture is often different from the information in your textbooks. Also, you can expect to have exam questions based on the lectures. So it isn't enough to just read your textbooks; you have to attend lectures as well. In a typical week you will also have a couple of hours of discussion for every class you take. The discussion section is a small group meeting usually with fewer than thirty students where you can ask questions about the lectures, the reading, and the homework. In large universities, graduate students, called teaching assistants, usually direct discussion sections.
If your major is chemistry, or physics, or another science, you'll also have to spend several hours a week in the lab, or laboratory, doing experiments. This means that science majors spend more time in the classroom than non science majors do. On the other hand, people who major in subjects like literature or history usually have to read and write more than science majors do. | high2140.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Because of the limited service and high cost."
},
"options": [
"Because their old ones are out of date.",
"Because they accept Google's announcement.",
"Because of the limited service and high cost.",
"Because of the te... | To switch or not to switch, that is the question.Google's announcement of its Nexus One smartphone happened over a week ago and I'm still receiving lots of e-mails from readers asking the same question: Should they give up their iPhone for the Nexus One?
Some people with iPhones, disappointed by American Telephone&Telegraph's inadequate service and the high monthly cost, are wondering if they have really got something to replace it.Does the Nexus One offer the functions that Apple has led them to expect?
I'm on the fence myself, even though I never thought I'd be interested in anything but the iPhone.From my experience using the Nexus One, and from talking to people who have made the change, it's not necessarily about the differences between the iPhone and the Nexus One.The phones are extremely similar in design and general feel.Instead, the decision can be made based on the software services you use on your desktop.
My friend Chad Dickerson received a pre-launch Nexus One from Google three weeks ago.He said Google's phone feels connected to certain services on the Web in a way the iPhone doesn't."Compared to the iPhone, the Google phone feels like it's part of the Internet to me," he said."If you live in a Google world, you have that world in your pocket in a way that's cleaner and more connected than the iPhone."
Personally, the phones work perfectly with their own software, but both of them don't make an effort to play well with other services. | high11719.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "mail is important to all countries"
},
"options": [
"mail is important to all countries",
"not enough letters are sent all over the world",
"all the letters must go to Switzerland first",
"all stamps look exactly the sa... | Every day millions of letters go from one country to another. Letters mailed in Italy are received in Japan. Letters mailed in Canada are received in Africa. On the letters are many different kinds of stamps,bought in different countries.
The Universal Postal Union helps each letter get to the right place as quickly as possible. It sets up rules about the size and weight of letters,postcards,and small packages . It has rules that all countries must follow about international postal rates .
One hundred years ago,international mail did not move so smoothly. One country did not always accept another country's letters. Letters from some countries were too large to fit into the mailboxes of other countries. Letters travelled by many different routes .Some were lost along the way.
Sometimes the person who sent the letter could pay only part of the
. The person receiving the letter had to pay the rest.
The United States was the first to suggest that all countries work together to settle the questions of international mail. In 1974,men from twenty-four countries met in Switzerland to form the Universal Postal Union.Today,more than 120 nations belong to this union. From its office in Switzerland,the union helps the mail to move safely and quickly around the world. | high16076.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "bring us up by working hard"
},
"options": [
"are much older than us",
"bring us up by working hard",
"give us money and food",
"have many interesting stories"
],
"question": "According to the author, elders are... | Who are the elders in your family? The most common answer is that they are your parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and elder cousins ------in a word, any who is older than you. But that doesn't really answer the question, does it? In a normal family, there is a big difference between being elderly and being an elder.
Elders are the storytellers, the cooks, the historians, the authorities, the knitters, and the workhorses. They are the people we respect and turn to for answers or help when we are in trouble, because of their many years of life experience. Most of all, they are the people who raised you and your loved ones and helped you growing into the people you are. For many years, they carried the burden of caring for your family and leading it to better times. Now it's your turn to dote on them. Ensuring the welfare of your elders should come as naturally to us as raising our children.
Unfortunately, too many people take their parents' and grandparents' ability to care for them for granted. And in a country where so many of us live hundreds of miles from our families, looking after loved ones can be difficult. Even so, you should make sure your loved ones are taken care of no matter where they live, and try to look after the seniors living alone in your neighbor, too. Taking responsibility for the elders in our society in an important thing that all citizens should do. | high19345.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The custom of kissing."
},
"options": [
"The way to express love and respect.",
"The expression of affection.",
"The custom of kissing.",
"The function of kissing."
],
"question": "What's mainly talked about in ... | Over time, the custom of kissing developed as a way for adults to express their love and affection for one another. The roots of this form of affection can be traced back to primitive times, when mothers fondled their children, much as mothers do today.
Much later, in the sixth century, society apparently accepted the custom of kissing between adults as an expression of their affection. Not surprisingly, France first accepted kissing in courtship . There, figure dancing was popular, and each dance was sealed with a kiss.
The custom of kissing swept from France through Europe to Russia, where Russian nobility loved to imitate the French. Eventually, the kiss was incorporated into marriage ceremonies, and today lip locks couples into sweet matrimony.
The custom of kissing today, as well as in ancient times, serves to pay _ to another. Early Romans kissed each other on the mouth or on the eyes to greet one another in a manner they thought to be dignified. One Roman emperor even ranked a person's importance by the body part he was allowed to kiss. He allowed important nobles to kiss his lips, less important ones to kiss his hands, and the least important ones to kiss his feet.
In Russia, the highest sign of recognition from the Crown meant a kiss from the Tsar himself. Today, natives of many African tribes pay homage to their Chief by kissing the ground over which he has walked. | high4531.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "The couple will set up their new home in Nelson."
},
"options": [
"The couple will set up their new home in Nelson.",
"The wife always complained about the life in Britain.",
"They decided to leave all the things behind in Br... | Eric and Doris King Turner are packing their bags for New Zealand.They're busy deciding what to pack and what to leave behind in Britain and are making plans to make their new home in Nelson.Doris is looking forward to getting the garden into shape and Eric has his heart set on a spot of fly fishing.The difference is that Eric is 102 , Doris is 87.Eric thinks he's Britain's oldest _ .
In January next year Eric King Turner and his wife will wave goodbye to their neighbors,and set sail from Southampton on the voyage of a lifetime.The ocean liner Saga Rose will take six weeks to get to Auckland and the couple are expecting a redcarpet welcome from family.
Doris was born in New Zealand but gave up her homeland when the couple met and married in the 90s.But New Zealand is close to both their hearts and the attraction of family and friends,and the good fishing helped to persuade them to move.
Doris,who has five children and nine grandchildren,supported her husband's application to settle in New Zealand . The paperwork took five months.Says Eric,"We not only had to produce a marriage certificate but we had to produce evidence that we were in a long and firm relationship!" Eric says he was not asked about his age but had to show that he could support himself financially in New Zealand.
"I like New Zealand.The way of life is very much the same as it is here but it is not so crowded . " His wife has always been "a little bit homesick" but has never complained.Now the couple are in the middle of the task of sorting out possessions and selling their flat . | high16710.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "similar to classical art"
},
"options": [
"similar to classical art",
"different from classical art",
"better than classical art",
"worse than classical art"
],
"question": "Van Gogh's style of painting was _ ... | Vincent Van Gogh was an important painter of the 19thcentury. He was born in Holland, but he lived much of his life inprefix = st1 /France. He was a very emotional man, and there was much suffering in his life. His style of painting was very different from classical art. He painted pictures of sunny, hot regions ofFrance. He looked for interesting shapes and exciting colours. He liked to work freely and quickly.
There is a fast movement in many of his paintings. Sometimes the trees look like fire. The sun, the moon, and stars move rapidly in the sky. He also painted pictures of people.
Like his life, his art was always unusual and very emotional.
Paul Gauguin was another 19-century painter. He was French and a friend of Van Gogh. Before he became an artist, Gauguin had been a businessman for many years. He made a lot of money, and he likes to buy modern paintings.
At the age of 354, Gauguin decided to become a painter himself. Gauguin wanted to discover more important things about man. He went to a different part of Franceto live with the farmers. He painted pictures of French country people there. Two years later he went to live in a small place in the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles fromFrance. He wanted to learn about the simple life there. His most famous and interesting paintings were painted at that time. | high19423.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "as the situation changes"
},
"options": [
"in order to distinguish themselves from others",
"in order to better recognize other people",
"as their mental processes change",
"as the situation changes"
],
"questio... | Statuses are wonderful human inventions that enable us to get along with one another and to determine where we "fit" in society. In our everyday lives whenever we meet people, we always try to judge them in terms of their statuses. For example, we must judge whether the person in the library is a reader or a librarian, whether the telephone caller is a friend or a salesman and so on.
Our statuses often vary with the people we meet, and change through life. Most of us can, at very high speed, assume the different statuses that various situations require. Much of social communication consists of recognizing and selecting among proper statuses and allowing other people to assume their statuses in relation to us. This means that we fit our actions to those of other people, based on a constant mental process of assessment and understanding. Although some of us find the task more difficult than others, most of us perform _ rather easily.
A status has been compared to ready-made clothes. Within certain limits the buyer can choose style and material. But an American is not free to choose the clothes of a Chinese peasant or that of a Hindu prince. We must choose from among the clothing presented by our society.
Furthermore, our choice is limited to a size that will fit, as well as by our wallet. Having made a choice within these limits, we can have certain changes made. But apart from small adjustments, we tend to be limited to what the stores have on their shelves. Statuses too come ready-made, and the range of choice among them is limited. | high4257.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The participants had to tell reasons for their judgments."
},
"options": [
"EI has something to do with telling truths and 1ies.",
"The participants were asked to identify liars on the spot.",
"The participants had to tell re... | Science Daily (May 1S, 2012) - People who rate themselves as having high emotional intelligence (El) tend to overestimate their ability to detect deception in others. This is the finding of a paper published in the journal Legal and Criminological Psychology on 18 May 2012.
Professor Stephen Porter. director of the Centre for the Advancement of Psychological Science and Law at University of British Columbia Canada along with colleagues Dr. Leanne Brinke and Alysha Baker used a standard questionnaire to measure the EI of 116 participants.
These participants were then asked to view 20 videos from around the world of people pleading for the safe return of a missing family member. In half the videos the person making the plea was responsible for the missing person's disappearance or murder.
The participants were asked to judge whether the pleas were honest or deceptive say how much confidence they had in their judgments, report the clues they had used to make those judgments and rate their emotional response to each plea.
Professor Porter found that higher EI was associated with overconfidence in assessing the sincerity of the pleas and sympathetic feelings towards people in the videos who turned out to be responsible for the disappearance.
Although EI, in general, was not associated with being better or worse at telling the difference between truths and lies. people with a higher ability to notice and express emotion (a component of EI) were not so good at spotting when people were telling lies.
Professor Porter says: "Taken together, these findings suggest findings features of emotional intelligence and the decision-making processes _ lead to may nave the paradoxical effect of weakening people's ability to detect deception."
"These findings are important because El is a well-accepted concept and is used in a variety of fields, including the workplace" | high5149.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "tell what impression credit cards leave on kids"
},
"options": [
"prove the convenience of using credit cards",
"tell what impression credit cards leave on kids",
"give advice on using credit cards wisely",
"explain the... | Is it ever a good idea admitting a teenager to carry a credit card?
My kids watch closely as I swipe the card through the register. They've seen me do it hundreds, thousands of times. Cool. They are _ to swipe it through the machine themselves. When we walk out of the store with our groceries or pet food, or whatever, it's almost as though money has not changed hands, painless, easy.
So it shouldn't be shocking to discover that teenagers are becoming card carrying consumers in their own right. The question is, should they?
While some argue it's best to teach kids how to use a credit card while still living under the family roof, not everyone agrees. Dave Ramsey, financial expert says getting credit card for your teenager is actually "an excellent way to teach him or her to be financially irresponsible."
Now parents are required to co-sign on credit cards for children under 21. "If their name is on the credit card, then the parent may say, Hey, my name is on this. Don't get me into trouble," says Mary Beth Pinto, a marketing professor. "When parents were the co-obligors , the children caused less debt. If the parents are the co-obligors, the tendency is that the parents were explaining how to use the cards." Still, Pinto believes parents should start the process much earlier. "Yes, there has to be teaching going on and it has to start when they're younger. You're not going to get rid of credit cards. They are here to stay. You have to have them. You can't fight progress," Pinto said.
Ramsey, however, disagrees. "Throwing teens into a pool of (credit) sharks is a sure way to guarantee a life-time of heartache." he said, "You can make online purchases and rent a car with a credit card. Of course, you must have money in your bank account before you can make a purchase with a credit card. But paying for things with money is what you are supposed to do." | high6440.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The entrance fees of the two parties will not be charged."
},
"options": [
"The two parties will be held on the same day.",
"The two parties will be held at the same time.",
"The entrance fees of the two parties will not be c... | Ad. 1
April fool's party
On Friday, April 1, Inner Affair goes back to the days of funk! Classic Tunes from the 70's and 80's by DJs Den & Sion. 9pm till late.
Tickets: Free entrance for those in costume, otherwise 50 Yuan (US$6)
Time/date: 9 pm, April 1
Place: Inner Affair, 1/F Qiankun Dasha, 6 Sanlitun Xiliujie, Chaoyang District
Tel: 8454 0321
Ad. 2
Language in use
Enjoy free in house coffee, tea and beer as well as music and dancing. Practice your Chinese, make friends and have fun.
Time/date: 7 to 9 pm, March 25
Place: Language In Use Club, 2/F, Science Fortune Center, 8 Xueqing Lu, north of Xueyuan Lu, Haidian District
Ad. 3
The "worst" party
Organized by Ozone Productions, the party is set to be "the worst ever", with the lamest music from the 60s, 70s and 80s. Special prizes will be awarded to the worst dressed or for bad fashion sense.
Tickets: Free entrance
Time/date: 9 pm, April 1
Place: Pula Pula, Tianze Lu, Oriental Seven Colours Plaza, Chaoyang District
Tel: 64668575
Ad. 4
La Nuit Francaise
Again on the 2nd Thursday of the month La Nuit Francaise will be held at Le Rendezvous. The monthly event is an opportunity for all French people and everyone interested in France or speaking French to gather together.
The evening features three glasses of wine and canapes for participants and a special exhibition.
Time/date: 7 to 10 pm, April 14
Place: Le Rendezvous, 3 Gongti Beilu, across from the Pacific Century Plaza, Chaoyang District Tel: 64629110
Ad. 5
Marco V
Dutch DJ Marco V drops by Banana for a gig which is supported by Hong Kong's DJ Spark.
Marco V has been around for many years, as an inventive, style blending deejay and a successful and devoted producer. His spinning is energetic, crowd pleasing and never sees an empty dance floor. He was ranked No. 15 in this year's international DJ MAG DJ Top100.
Tickets: 40 yuan (US$4.80) in advance, 50 yuan (US$6) at the door, both include a free drink
Time/date: 10 pm to 4 am, March 31, April 1
Place: Banana, in the lobby of the Scitech Hotel, 22 Jianwai Dajie, Chaoyang District
Tel: 65283636 | high9773.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Because a substance may have the same effects on mice and humans."
},
"options": [
"Because a substance may have the same effects on mice and humans.",
"Because mice have a longer lifespan than other animals.",
"Because mic... | We live in a sweet world. An average American kid consumes more than 20 teaspoons of sugar per day, and adults eat 50% more sugar today than they did in the 1970s. We all know that too much sugar isn't good for us. Researchers at the University of Utah used mice to make a study to prove the _ effects of eating more sugar. They found it could influence people's health seriously.
During the 58-week-long study, mice were fed a diet containing 25% more sugar. This percentage is equal to a healthy human diet along with three cans of soda daily. The team found that these mice were twice as likely to die as mice without eating so much sugar. Though the mice did not show signs of obesity or high blood pressure, male mice produced 25% fewer offspring than the other mice.
The reason why mice were chosen for research by scientists is not far to seek. "Mice have the genetic structure similar to humans'. Most substances that are harmful to mice are also harmful to people; it's likely that those important physical problems that cause the rising death rate among mice can also influence people," says the study author James Ruff of the University of Utah. Findings from this study reveal negative effects that are not as detectable as weight gain or heart problems. Sugar can contribute to long-term changes in the body that can affect development and even shorten lives.
Different types of sugar have different effects on the human body. Some of the sugar we consume comes from foods we might expect--candy, soda, and cookies. But much of the sugar that we eat is hidden. Food companies add large amounts of sugar to items we may not classify as sweets. To help cut down extra sugar consumption, nutrition experts suggest looking at the ingredients on food packages. Cutting sugar out of the American diet altogether may be difficult, but making every effort to control our nation's desire for sugar will avoid a sweeter future. | high14107.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "it is not proper."
},
"options": [
"it is rather meaningful.",
"it is interesting.",
"it is natural.",
"it is not proper."
],
"question": "About \"explore the deeper meaning of life and death\" at a wedding, th... | A couple of weeks ago, a few friends and I had an opportunity to attend a dear friend's wedding in New York. After the wedding and reception, rather accidentally four of us gathered in a hotel room and began to explore the deeper meaning of life and death. What does it mean to live truly? If we are all getting closer to death, is all the material accumulation worth it? It is not exactly the type of conversations one has at a wedding.
While the answers varied from person to person, I was left with more questions than answers and a feeling of gratefulness to be surrounded by friends who were asking the "right" questions. As the clock kept ticking past 3 a.m., one of the roommates suggested we watch a short film titled "Last Days of Zach Sobiech". The film is about a teenager's journey through the last days of his incurable illness. The film brought up a lot of mixed emotions but one quote that stood out for me was Zach's simple explanation of happiness, " What makes one happy is seeing someone else smile because you put it there." By 4 a.m. , there was this energy in the room that had to be shared! With a few packages of post-it notes, we hit the halls of the hotel. We decided to leave short inspirational words on guests' doors, so when they opened their doors few hours later a smile would turn up.
We ended up sticking post-it notes on all the doors until we ran out of them. The note on the door of the newly-weds properly said, "Where there is love, there is life." | high13668.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "British soap operas deal with real people."
},
"options": [
"American dramas are longer.",
"British soap operas are longer.",
"American dramas deal with dangerous things.",
"British soap operas deal with real people."
... | There are probably no people on Earth who like to gossip as much as the British. If prying into other's lives were an Olympic sport, then Team GB would surely take the gold medal.
And when the British can't watch the lives of real people, they have another source of entertainment to fall back on--the soap opera. British soap operas are very different to US TV dramas. For one, they are normally longer running. The two most popular, Coronation Street and East-enders, have been running for 48 and 24 years respectively. Both are broadcast several times a week, so remarkably there have been more than 7,000 _ of Coronation Street.
The most obvious difference is that, unlike US dramas, the British soap operas focus on the real world. There is little glamour , the stars are rarely rich, and they normally have boring jobs. Perhaps the appeal is that the lives of the characters often mirror the lives of the audience--but with some drama added. This means the viewer can relate to the characters and feel the pain and happiness they go through on the show.
Because these soap operas last for decades, the cast is ever changing. The shows rarely focus on one or two main characters. Like the real world, people come and go all the time. However, there are exceptions. Coronation Street's William Roach, 76, has played the role of Ken Barlow since the very first episode of the show in 1960, and he is still a regular.
The choice of which soap opera you follow is often cultural: People from the north of British tend to watch Coronation Street as it is set in Manchester. People from the south generally prefer East-enders, which is set in the east of London. The show is generally considered grittier and is aimed at a younger audience. | high12576.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "we have practiced it for years"
},
"options": [
"we have a natural ability of learning language",
"our own language is much easier",
"we listen to our own language more carefully",
"we have practiced it for years"
]... | Listening to a radio broadcast in a foreign language is difficult for many of us. We may have studied the language for several years, and are able to read it, perhaps even write in it. But listening and understanding the spoken language require special skills. Some people have a natural ability that helps them to learn a language quickly, while others must study for a long time. Everyone, however, can improve his or her listening skills with practice.
We are good listeners in our own language because we have had years of practice. We understand the grammar and the language. We know what to expect a person to say to us in almost any situation. We have been in similar situations many times, and we have heard it all before. We can understand it, even if we do not listen carefully.
But this is not true with a foreign language. We must listen with our full attention. And we must try not to let the cultural style of our language affect our understanding of the foreign language. Listening to a foreign language broadcast is easier if we know something about it. There are clues that can help us. One clue is the time of a day. Morning programs usually contain many short items of news, information or entertainment. The items are short because most of us are getting ready to go to work in the morning. Often we do not have time to listen to long programs. Evening programs are different. There is time for more details about the subjects discussed.
We can get a clue about the program from the music at the beginning, but we must be familiar with the music of the foreign culture. The kind of music--serious and slow, or fast and light--can tell us what kind of program to expect. The name of the program can give us good information about what it will contain.
Another good clue is the broadcaster. The more we listen to the same person, the easier it will be to understand him. His speaking style will become familiar to us. Further, the broadcaster provides clues to the organization of the broadcast at the beginning of the program. The broadcaster usually gives us the highlights of the program to prepare us for the details that will follow. | high15219.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "to turn the sound down"
},
"options": [
"to turn the sound down",
"to stop using MP3 players",
"to be clear about the problem",
"to report the change in hearing loss"
],
"question": "The writer advises teenagers... | As many as one in five US teenagers have some degree of hearing loss, according to researchers. They say the problem is growing.
"Teenagers really don't pay attention to how much noise they are exposed to ," Josef Shargorodsky of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston told Reuters. "Often people won't notice it, but even very little hearing loss may influence language development," said Shargorodsky, one of the researchers.
The study compared surveys from the early 1990s and the mid-2000s. Each included a few thousand teenagers. In the first survey, about 15 percent of teenagers had some degree of hearing loss. Some 15 years later, that number had risen by a third, to nearly 20 percent.
"This certainly is big news," said Alison Grimes, an ear doctor. "Hearing loss is very common in old people," Grimes said, but she added that it was worrying to see it happen in the younger age group.
In babies and young children, hearing problems are known to slow language development. The science is less clear for teenagers, but it is easy to imagine how being hard of hearing could influence learning, said Grimes.
The reasons for the rise are still unclear. When researchers asked teenagers about noise exposure - on the job, at school or from activities, for example - the teenagers didn't report any change. But Shargorodsky said that might not be true. "We know from before that it is difficult to ask this age group about noise exposure - _ " Few people would call it noise when they listen to music on their MP3 player, for example. "There is a difference between what we think is loud and what is harmful to the ear," said Grimes.
Although it's not clear that the MP3 players cause teenagers' hearing loss, Grimes said it was still a good idea to turn down the sound and take short breaks from listening. | high863.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "there is a natural difference between them"
},
"options": [
"baby boys are much more active",
"baby girls like bright colors more",
"their parents treat them differently",
"there is a natural difference between them"
... | Baby girls make their way directly for dolls as soon as they can crawl, while boys will head for the toy cars, a study has shown. The findings, the first to show differences in very young babies, suggest there is a biological basis to their preferences.
Psychologists Dr Brenda Todd from City University London carried out an experiment involving 90 infants aged nine months to 36 months. The babies were allowed to choose from seven toys. Some were stereotypically boys' toys - a car, a digger, a ball and a blue teddy. The rest were girls' toys: a pink teddy, a doll and a cooking set. They were placed a meter away from the toys, and could pick whichever toy they liked. Their choice and the amount of time they spent playing with each toy were recorded.
Of the youngest children (nine to 14 months), girls spent significantly longer playing with the doll than boys, and boys spent much more time with the car and ball than the girls did. Among the two-and three-year-olds, girls spent 50 percent of the time playing with the doll while only two boys briefly touched it. The boys spent almost 90 percent of their time playing with cars, which the girls barely touched. There was no link between the parents' view on which toys were more appropriate for boys or girls, and the children's choice.
Dr Brenda Todd said: "Children of this age are already exposed to much socialization. Boys may be given 'toys that go' while girls get toys they can care for, which may help shape their preference. But these findings agree with the former idea that children show natural interests in particular kinds of toys. There could be a biological basis for their choices. Males through evolution have been adapted to prefer moving objects, probably through hunting instincts , while girls prefer warmer colors such as pink, the color of a newborn baby." | high37.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Because they watch TV too often"
},
"options": [
"Because they watch TV too often",
"Because they have done too much homework.",
"Because they have to fulfill too many duties.",
"Because teachers are too strict with the... | "It hurts me more than you,''and "This is for your own good.''These are the statements my mother used to make years ago when I had to learn Latin,clean my room,stay home and do homework.
That was before we entered the permissive period in educafion in which we decided it was all right not to push our children to achieve their best in school.The schools and the educators made it easy on us.They thought that it was all right to be parents who take a let-alone policy. We stopped making our children do homework. We gave them calculators,turned on the television,left the teaching to the teachers and went on vacation.
Now teachers,faced with children who have been developing at their own pace for the past 15 years,are realizing we've made a terrible mistake.One such teacher is Sharon Klompus who says of her students-"so passive"-and-wonders what happened.Nothing was demanded of them,she believes. Television,says Klompus,contributes to children's passivity."We're not training kids to work any more," says Klompus."we're talking about a generation of kids who've never been hurt or hungry.They have learned somebody will always do it for them. Instead of saying 'go look it up',you tell them the answer.It takes greater energy to say no to a kid."
Yes,it does.It takes energy and it takes work. It's time for parents to end their vacation and come back to work.It's time to take the car away, to turn the TV off, to tell them it hurts you more than them but it's for their own good.It's time to start telling them no again. | high6454.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "To realize her dream of becoming a businesswoman."
},
"options": [
"To learn how to teach at a high school.",
"To realize her dream of becoming a businesswoman.",
"Because her parents wanted her to study hard.",
"Becaus... | Zambia is a country in southern Africa. More than half of the population is very poor, and companies pay people very little money for their work. One woman named Sylvia Banda had a dream to become a successful businesswoman and build her own brand . So, after finishing high school, Banda went to college to learn how to start a food company. She studied hard and spent her free time coming up with ways to make money, including making food and selling it to friends.
In 1987, when Banda was 24 years old, she decided to start her own restaurant. She borrowed a room and used food, and pans from her own kitchen. The first day, her restaurant did not have any chairs or tables, but she was able to sell all of the food that she had made. After counting the money, she was surprised that she had made more in one day than most people make in one month.
From that small restaurant, Banda built a large company called the Sylva Group. It now has hundreds of people working for it and is worth over a million dollars. Besides restaurants, the company has now built hotels and a college in Zambia, and it also sells many kinds of packaged foods. After reaching her goal of starting her own business and becoming rich, Banda decided to work to improve the lives of other Zambians.
She does this in a number of ways. For one, her restaurants use vegetables and other products made in Zambia, and by doing so, Banda can support the farmers. Her college also teaches farmers ways to make their farms better, which helps them make more money. The college also helps young Zambians get skills to start their own businesses. Through hard work, Banda has been able to improve both her life and her country. | high14113.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Trying in shops and buying online."
},
"options": [
"Trying in shops and buying online.",
"Showing products in a room.",
"Buying something in a store.",
"Shopping on the Internet."
],
"question": "What does show... | Do you like shopping? Or does the thought of wandering round the shops fill you with terror? For some of us,shopping is an enjoyable way of spending our spare time and our money. For me.it's something I would rather avoid.Thank goodness for the Internet! It's more convenient to buy CDs,electrical items,even food,from the comfort of your sofa.But that's not the only reason:price is an important factor.We can buy goods and services cheaper online. But sometimes the problem is knowing what to buy.This has led to a type of shopping called "show rooming".
Show rooming is something I've done.I will go to a shop to see,touch and try out products but then go home and buy them online at a knock--down price.I'm not alone in doing this.Research by a company called Foolproof,found 24%of people show roomed while Christmas shopping in 2013.
Amy Cashman,Head of Technology at TNS UK,says the reasons for this new shopping habit are that"people are lacking time,lacking money and they want security about the products they are buying."She explains that consumers are not only shopping online at home but they are using the Internet in store or on their smartphones to shop around.
But does this mean technology will kill shops? Certainly shops will change.They will have to offer more competitive prices or encourage people to buy more by giving in--store discounts or free girls.
We mustn't forget that buying in a shop means you can get expert advice from the sales assistant and you can get good aftercare.It's good to speak to a real human rather than look at a faceless computer screen but at least by show rooming,you get the best of both worlds! | high9767.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "It may become worse than we expected."
},
"options": [
"It will be brought under control by 2100.",
"It will cause few problems to many islands.",
"It may become worse than we expected.",
"It may be caused by fast urban... | Three key facts about rising sea levels need to be pointed out to the world's politicians and planners: sea-level rise is now unavoidable, it will happen faster than most of us thought, and it will go on for a very long time.
Even greenhouse gas emissions stopped tomorrow, the oceans will continue to become larger as they get warm. The climate scientists estimate that sea-level rise may be in the range of 1 to 2 meters by 2100, with a small risk of an even greater rise.
For many islands and low-lying regions, even small rises will cause disasters. But for most countries, the problem is what has been built on that land: New York, Sydney and Tokyo, to mention just a few cities. Unless something can be done, great areas of urban network will disappear under the waves. It will take a great engineering effort to protect these cities---an effort that may be beyond economies that have been brought to their knees.
None of this means we should fear, and stop trying to forbid emissions. But together with these efforts, we need to start acting now and we must stop building in danger zones.
Billions of dollars are being spent on constructing homes, offices and roads in _ coastal areas. For instance, the skyscrapers of Shanghai are being built on land that is merely 4 meters above sea level on average, and they are sinking under the weight of the buildings. Therefore, planning for new coastal developments is to go against reality. If we want to build a lasting heritage for our children, we should do so on the plentiful land that is in no danger from the sea. It is one of the effective ways to slow down climate change, and we should be acting on it now. | high7992.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "A robot journalist."
},
"options": [
"The Wordsmith platform.",
"A robot journalist.",
"A special dictionary.",
"Articles written by computer."
],
"question": "What does natural Language-generation software refe... | Writing one or two articles a day is a fair goal for a human writer. By contrast, the Wordsmith platform can produce up to 2,000 articles a second! Wordsmith is one example of natural language-generation software, often referred to as a robot journalist. To be fair, the software doesn't start from the beginning, like a human writer might. Instead, the software takes a set of structured data and transforms it into readable text.
Natural language-generation software, such as Wordsmith and Quill, does its work by identifying trends and highlights in sets of data. The software then searches its own dictionary for the words to express its findings.[:]
Why keep human writers around
Although this type of software writes faster than any human, it requires sets of structured data to work. That's why it's especially useful for writing earnings reports and other types of "dry" writing. Humans, on the other hand, are good at turning their unstructured thoughts directly into prose. The reports produced by Wordsmith and Quill read naturally, and they can match the tone of human writers. But for now, the robot journalists probably won't steal many jobs or win any Pulitzer Prizes!
Current applications of natural language-generation software
Financial reports: The software is commonly used by banks or traders to analyze large amounts of financial data and then produce reports in plain English.
Health and fitness: The software can turn data gathered from wearable devices or fitness trackers into personalized reports. The writing tone can even be adjusted to sound more encouraging!
Sports reporting: The software is often used to turn real baseball, basketball and football statistics into exciting stories. | high12562.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The sender's emotions."
},
"options": [
"The receiver's appearance.",
"The sender's emotions.",
"The feeling of the receiver.",
"The love between them."
],
"question": "What did the items in the basket explain t... | Young men often give flowers to young women when they are in love. This tradition may have come from prefix = st1 /Turkey.
In the 1700s inTurkey, it was quite popular for people in love to send each other baskets full of strange things. The baskets were delivered secretly to the person who was receiving it. Usually, an old woman who sold flowers or fruit on the street left the basket beside the person's door.
These baskets included a variety of "gifts": flowers, stones, feathers, wax, and even charcoal. Each thing in the basket had a special meaning. By figuring out the secret message contained in each item, the person who received the basket began to understand little by little the true feeling of the person who sent it.
This idea of sending gifts of love with secret meanings quickly spread toGermany,France, andEngland. However, as time passed, only flowers remained popular.
An innocent bunch of flowers told young ladies about the feeling in the hearts of young men. Each different flower held a different meaning. For example, the flowers from an orange tree meant, "You are beautiful and pure." Pink carnations meant, "My love for you is strong and great." Yellow roses, on the other hand, meant, "I saw you with someone else."
Many flower dictionaries were made to help young people in love understand the meaning of the flowers they received. Not all of the dictionaries agreed, however, on the meaning of each flower, so a person had to be careful about the flowers they chose to send.
By the 1880s, using flowers to send messages had fallen out of fashion, and the more direct way of sending love letters began. Today, flowers are still considered a lovely gift, but the meaning for each kind of flower has been lost. | high23967.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "his smooth breath"
},
"options": [
"his smooth breath",
"ambulances' arriving time",
"the quiet surroundings",
"emergency medical help"
],
"question": "The most important point to save a person's life is to ensu... | A blocked airway can kill someone in three to four minutes, but it can take more than eight minutes for an ambulance to arrive. So a simple procedure such as opening someone's airway can save their life while they're waiting for emergency medical help. This means you're more likely to give first aid to someone you know than a stranger.
There are many misconceptions surrounding first aid. Below are the 'most popular' ones with details of what you should do.
You should put butter or cream on a burn. The only thing you should put on a burn is cold water - keep the butter for cooking. Put the affected area under cold running water for at least ten minutes.
The best way to treat bleeding is to put the wound under a tap. If you put a bleeding wound under a tap you wash away the body's clotting agents and make it bleed more. Instead put pressure on the wound with whatever is available to stop or slow down the flow of blood. As soon as possible call 999. Keep pressure on the wound until help arrives.
Nosebleeds are best treated by putting the head back. If you put the head back during a nosebleed, all the blood goes down the back of the airway. Instead advise them to tilt their head forwards and ask the person to pinch the end of their nose and breathe through their mouth.
You need lots of training to do first aid. You don't - what you mostly need is common sense. You can learn enough first aid in a few minutes to save someone's life - whether it's from a book, attending a course or watching videos online.
Remember: anyone can save a life | high877.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "1972"
},
"options": [
"1952",
"1962",
"1972",
"1982"
],
"question": "In which year did the author first live in a place with an air conditioner?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
"answer... | It was one of those terribly hot days in Baltimore. Needless to say, it was too hot to do anything outside. But it was also scorching in our apartment. This was 1962, and I would not live in a place with an air conditioner for another ten years. So my brother and I decided to leave the apartment to find someplace indoors. He suggested we could see a movie. It was a brilliant plan.
Movie theaters were one of the few places you could sit all day and--most important --sit in air conditioning. In those days, you could buy one ticket and sit through two movies. Then, the theater would show the same two movies again. If you wanted to, you could sit through them twice. Most people did not do that, but the manager at our theater. Mr. Bellow did not mind if you did.
That particular day, my brother and I sat through both movies twice, trying to escape the heat. We bought three bags of popcorn and three sodas each. Then, we sat and watched The Music Man followed by The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. We'd already seen the second movie once before. _ had been at the theater since January, because Mr. Bellow loved anything with John Wayne in it.
We left the theater around 8, just before the evening shows began. But we returned the next day and saw the same two movies again, twice more. And we did it the next day too. Finally, on the fourth day, the heat wave broke.
Still, to this day I can sing half the songs in The Music Man and recite half of John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart's dialogue from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance! Those memories are some of the few I have of the heat wave of 1962. They're really memories of the screen, not memories of my life. | high8479.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "For stealing."
},
"options": [
"For fighting.",
"For stealing.",
"For being crazy.",
"For killing someone."
],
"question": "Why was Joe put into prison?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"a... | Joe,31,has spent nearly three years in a prison in Douglas, South Africa, counting the days in prison for house breaking. Joe made bad friends, who were always talking about stealing. Later, Joe did things bad.
"I want to be a bright, bright star. I want people, when they hear me, to see the darkness a little less."
The first seven months in prison he thought about "everything".Then he started to write songs." I started to put my feelings into words," said Joe.
Aron Turest-Swartz, Freshly Ground's founder, noticed Joe's music." I was really shocked because I hadn't heard a voice like that before,"he said. Turest-Swartz visited Joe and listened to some of the 40 songs he had written in prison, and came up with the idea of recording an album there.
When Joe was 13, his family was very poor: his sister would tell him that she had a headache because of no enough food, but there was nothing to give her. Joe made bad friends, who were always talking about stealing. Later, Joe did things bad. Finally, he was put behind bars.
Prison could have broken him: he couldn't even see his family members buried. His father died when he was in prison. So did Joe's 18-month-old daughter. Before prison, he'd seen her in the hospital. Joe felt broken when she died. But he marked the time of his rebirth--his decision to be a better man--from that moment." I decided to be myself. So I started behaving like a gentleman,"he said.
On December 13,2010,the album he recorded in prison was timed for release ( ).He was set free for good behavior after two years and 10 months. That afternoon, Joe gave a concert at the prison to celebrate his freedom and his CD, Crazy Life. Joe got into a crowd favorite. | high16704.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "honour the passing away of the great woman"
},
"options": [
"get repaired for the first time",
"honour the passing away of the great woman",
"tell the specific time to the public",
"welcome the officials from all over t... | London will stage its biggest political funeral in almost half a century on Wednesday when Britain's governing elite join the Queen and global leaders to bid farewell to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, better known as the " Iron Lady".
In an event comparable to that of Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965, Thatcher's coffin will be carried on a horse-drawn gun carriage through streets lined with admirers from parliament to the city's most famous cathedral.
The bells of London's symbolic Big Ben clock tower will fall silent for the first time since Churchill's funeral and more than 700 men and women from Britain's armed forces will honor a woman who led them to victory in the 1982 Falklands War as foreign politicians from around 170 nations look on.
Surveys have shown that many are unhappy that the estimated l0-million($15 million)pound bill for the funeral is being picked up by the taxpayer, while some left-wing lawmakers say the luxurious funeral is too expensive.
But her admirers, of whom there are many in her party and in southern England, argue that her historical profile deserves such a funeral. She was the country's first and only woman premier, was Britain's longest-serving prime minister of the 20th century, and won three general elections.
More than 2,300 mourners will attend including 11 serving prime ministers from around the world, the British government's entire cabinet, two heads of state and 17 foreign ministers.
But there will be notable absences. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is too ill to attend and Nancy Reagan, the widow of Thatcher's great U*S. ally Ronald Reagan, is also unable to come.
Thatcher struck up a close relationship with Reagan during the Cold War, backed the first President George Bush during the 1991 Gulf War, and was among the first to discover that Gorbachev was a man she could "do business with. "
Covered in the red, white and blue British flag, Thatcher's coffin lay overnight in a 13th-century church in Britain's parliament, a forum she dominated for years. | high4243.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "In 1997"
},
"options": [
"In 1997",
"In 2001",
"In 2005",
"In 2009"
],
"question": "When did the author meet her teacher---Mr Rupp?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
... | Dear Mr Rupp,
The day I met you was the first day of high school. We liked each other immediately. You gave me a lot of advice over the next four years, like how I should get my ass to Berkeley where I belonged. I'm still there, by the way. I wish you were still around, too.
I remember your laugh, which would start with a rough guffaw and end with a hacking smoker's cough that would make even the most rebellious teenager swear to lay off the cigarettes.
I remember the way you didn't lower your standards, yet still refused to give up on us. You were tough on us, and we were tough on you. Love is tough sometimes.
The last time I wrote you a letter, it was 2005---four years after I graduated. I had just become a teacher, like you, and it had given me a new appreciation for the work you did with countless high school students over the years.
It's hard to say what I'll miss the most about you. There are simply too many memories to sort through those four years, and it hurts to think you'll never read this letter. I want to believe that you knew how much you meant to your family, your students, your community, and your colleagues, but that would be a lot of realization to handle, even for you.
You changed the lives of everyone around you. Even now, you are reminding me to cherish life and its brevity and beauty, and to tell the people I love how much they mean to me before it is too late.
Dear teacher, dear mentor, and dear friend----I miss you and all that is about you. God bless you in Heaven.
To infinity and beyond,
Teresea | high19437.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "holding an ice party"
},
"options": [
"going fishing",
"going skating",
"appreciating ice sculptures",
"holding an ice party"
],
"question": "If you visit the Ice Hotel, you can enjoy the following EXCEPT _ ."... | Ice Hotel Quebec, located 30 minutes west of Downtown Quebec City, Canada, is only open during the winter season. The hotel is made entirely of ice. The two galleries at the Ice Hotel Quebec feature events such as ice painting and ice sculpture competitions.
Things to Do
Guests have a choice of different winter vacation activities, including cross-country skiing, ice skating, dog sledding , ice fishing and sliding . Ice Hotel Quebec has a sauna( ),so remember to pack your bathing suit.
Rooms & Suites
The hotel offers 18 rooms and 14 theme suites built from 12,000 tons of snow and 400 tons of ice. The walls at Ice Hotel Quebec are four feet thick and allow the hotel to keep a temperature of -2degC to -5degC.
The furniture at the hotel is made of snow and ice, including the beds. The beds are equipped with a thick foam mattress and an extra thick sleeping bag. That is enough to prevent you from catching a cold.
Vacation Tip
Ice Hotel Quebec offers 30-minute guided public tours daily from 10:30am to 4:30pm. It costs $15 CAD for adults, $7.5 for children (under eight), $13for students\seniors (above sixty), and $42 for families.
Plan This Vacation
Ice Hotel Quebec-Canada will be open for its sixth season from January 5thto April 1st. Costs for overnight stays start at $199CAD per person.
If you're looking for something really different to do on your next trip, think creatively and plan to visit the truly unusual Ice Hotel Quebec! | high2632.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "What to Blog about?"
},
"options": [
"What to Blog about?",
"How to Start a Blog?",
"Why to Launch a Blog?",
"How to Make Website Attractive?"
],
"question": "Which is the best title for the text?",
"questio... | A blog can be a very effective way of spreading the words about yourself,and your other writing.It can _ your knowledge,and create an ongoing relationship with your readers.A good blog is more than just a marketing tool;it's also an expression of your personality.
An obvious starting point is to post samples of your work that not only show off your skills and writing ability but also leave people wanting more.Post elections from the most exciting parts of your stories but end them just as the action reaches its peak.If you write nonfiction ,show people what they can achieve,and give them a few steps to get them started.
Give tips,information and advice about the subjects you cover.For example,something about struggling with difficulty and many other issues like this.Your writing tips can also be included,as well as interesting,strange or funny things you discovered during your research.Whenever you contact an expert,ask if he or she has any interesting stories you could use.You may also give background information about your stories and locations
Give details of coming posts on your blog,so people can watch out for you,or come and meet you.Personal news will help people feel better connected to you.Include photos of objects and locations in your writing,famous people you meet,the views from your window, and your favorite things--with a note about where they come from and what they mean to you.Look out for things that will help your readers get to know you better,know the subject better,or anything else you think they might find useful,inspiring or entertaining.
If you only occasionally post things on your blog,people have a tendency to forget you.As a writer you shouldn't ever run out of interesting materials to fill your blog with----and your readers will love you for it. | high10375.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "taking care of her food and uniforms"
},
"options": [
"offering car service and flight tickets to Boston",
"arranging for a substitute for her beforehand",
"taking care of her food and uniforms",
"cheering for her durin... | She almost did not run. Christine Williams admits that now. She could barely put one foot after another following the wake for her sister, who had died in an automobile accident. But she did run. With the cheers of friends and strangers reaching her heart, Williams set a C.W. Post record in Boston. Now she will run again, in the national Division II cross-country championships in Evansville, Ind. She wanted to be sure she was doing the right thing by running. She was the middle of three sisters, between Kerry, who is 25, and Jennifer, who was 18.
Just going through any motions was hard enough, but Christine Williams wanted to know if she should put on her uniform and her shoes and run through the woods on an autumn afternoon, in the awful gaping time between her sister's wake and her funeral. "I kind of got upset beforehand." Williams admitted. Not a chatterbox under normal conditions, she now holds herself the best way she can, the fewer words the better. She almost walked away from the start line. But her friend Angela Toscano, who had flown up to Boston with her, directly from the wake, was standing near the line and talked her through it. "She said my sister would have wanted me to run." Christine said. And that was enough to get her started.
The accident happened just after midnight on Nov, 4. Four young women were driving in an unfamiliar area of Long Island in Eastport, N.Y., when one of them apparently ran a yield sign, and the car was hit by another vehicle. Heather Brownrigg and Jennifer Williams died, and their friends April Brown and Kaci Moran were treated at a hospital and released.
The crash made the papers. April Brown was charged with drunken driving and driving without a license.
The wake began on Nov. 6. The next day Christine was to run with the Post cross-country team at the regional meet. Rich Degnan, the Post coach,"and Post officials offered a car service and tickets on the last flight-to Boston for Christine and Toscano. When they arrived at the hotel, the entire team was waiting up for her.
Everybody knew about it at the regional meet. Degnan had to arrange for the flexibility of an alternate, just in case Christine could not go. Several times during the race, Christine felt she could not continue. But then she heard her friends and all those other people, those strangers from other colleges, calling her name. She thought about Jennifer. And she ran. She finished fourth in 22 minutes 58 seconds, breaking the Post record for the 6-kilometer distance by 15 seconds. And although the Post team didn't qualify for the nationals, Christine did. | high18729.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "She was sent to the park because her mother left her.s6t----"
},
"options": [
"She arrived at the park five months ago.s6t----",
"She lives at the park together with some wolves.s6t----",
"She was sent to the park because her... | While firing off pictures of a curious five-month-old fox, photographer Simon Czapp soon
realized his subject had quite an interest in photography herself. The clever fox was so curious about the camera equipment that she climbed right on top of it. And while she was supposed to be the subject of the shoot, the fox stood on the shutter release button and took her own _ .s6t----
Mr Czapp visited the New Forest Wildlife Park to capture images of new arrival Jessie. She has been at the animal park in Ashurst, Hampshire -- home to wolves, deer and other animals in 25 acres of ancient woodland -- after being left by her mother.s6t----
Mr Czapp said, "Jessie was very playful and curious and not at all camera shy. Soon after I arrived she was chewing my shoes and everything seemed to be a game to her. Then she started exploring the camera I had set up on a tripod . She stood on her back legs to look at the back of the camera. She balanced her front paws on it and at one point knocked it over."s6t----
He put the camera back on the tripod and Jessie soon jumped back up. At one point she had all four paws on the camera and was keeping her balance. Mr Czapp added, "She jumped up there several times and I realized it could make a good picture. As I was leaving with the public's viewing window behind me, I thought I heard the camera go off but didn't think much of it. But when I checked the memory card afterwards, I was amazed to see Jessie had actually taken two pictures of me photographing her. I couldn't believe a fox had gained an advantage over me! Jessie is a lovely little fox. There were some lovely photos of her but she obviously thought the photographer was worthy of a picture too!"s6t---- | high21816.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "seemed unlikely to win a gold medal"
},
"options": [
"made his turn to start back pitifully",
"was skillful at freestyle swimming",
"swam faster than the average swimmer",
"seemed unlikely to win a gold medal"
],
... | While watching a swimming competition one night, I came across an unbelievable sight. It was not a gold medal, or a world record broken, but a show of courage.
The event started with only three men on the blocks. For one reason or another, two of them false started, so they were disqualified. That left only one to complete. In fact, it is difficult enough, not having anyone to race against.
I watched the man dive off the block and knew right away that something was wrong. I'm not an expert swimmer, but I can tell a good dive from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he resurfaced, it was obvious that the man was not out for gold -- his arms were waving in an attempt at freestyle. The crowd started to laugh. Clearly this man was not a medal competitor.
I listened to the crowd beginning to laugh at this poor man who was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back. It was pitiful. He made a few desperate strokes and you could tell he was exhausted.
But in those few awful strokes, the crowd had changed.
No longer were they laughing, but beginning to cheer. Some even began to stand and shout "Come on, you can do it!" and he did.
This young man finally finished his race. The crowd went wild. Even though he recorded one of the slowest times in swimming history, this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors.
Just a short year ago, he had never even swum, let alone race. His country had been invited to the competition.
In a competition, we usually watch the brilliant athletes competing for medals, but _ . | high2154.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "There are some good bargains."
},
"options": [
"There are some good bargains.",
"It has more offers from accommodation agencies than Renting.",
"It gives you personal information about other co-renters.",
"Their website... | Below is a housing guide for students going to London.
University accommodation offices
Many university accommodation offices have their own list of registered landlords . Others also provide information on accommodation agencies and other housing organizations. The advantage of using your university accommodation office is that you can get some support if you have a problem. The disadvantage is that they are unlikely to have enough registered landlords to houses all their students.
Property papers: Loot and Renting
Loot is an important source of information about private housing for co-renters. The offers are from private landlords, agencies and individuals looking for other co-renters. They also have a website: www.loot.com. The advantage of using Loot is that there are some excellent bargains. The disadvantage is that there is no quality control over the offers.
Renting is another useful paper. The offers in this paper are mainly from accommodation agencies. Their website is at www.renting.co.uk.
Accommodation agencies
The majority of rented accommodation in London is probably advertised through accommodation agencies. The advantage of using accommodation agencies is that: you will have access to a large number of accommodations. A good agent will listen to your requirements and can save you time in looking for the right accommodation. The disadvantage is that they will make a range of charges to potential renters.
Noticeboards
Around the universities you will find a number of noticeboards where offers of accommodation will be posted. These will either be from landlords or from students. Some universities will also have online noticeboards where students can advertise to other students. Advertisements from students can be an excellent way to find accommodation. However, advertisements from landlords can be problematic.
Word of mouth
Some of the best housing in London is never advertised but is passed on from one group of students to another by word of mouth. It might be that you can find out about good offers from final year students. However, don't suppose that just because you have found out about housing from a friend it is necessarily going to be better than that found through any other source.
Family
Faced with the very high rents charged in London, some students and their parents will consider buying as an alternative. In some cases this might be a good choice. | high10413.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Because they are convenient and inexpensive."
},
"options": [
"Because they are convenient and inexpensive.",
"Because they are traditional and safe.",
"Because they are colorful and available.",
"Because they are fast ... | China is a land of bicycles. At least it was back in 1992 when I traveled the country. Back then everyone seemed to be riding a bicycle. Millions of them, all black. Cars were rare. Yet since my arrival in Beijing last year, I've found the opposite is true. There are millions of cars. However, people still use their bicycles to get around. For many, it's the easiest and cheapest way to travel today. Bicycles also come in different colors---silver, green, red, blue, yellow, whatever you want.
It's fun watching people biking. They rush quickly through crossroads, move skillfully through traffic, and ride even on sidewalks . Bicycles allow people the freedom to move about that cars just can't provide.
Eager to be part of this aspect of Chinese culture, I decided to buy a bicycle. Great weather accompanied my great buy. I immediately jumped up on my bicycle seat and started home.
My first ride home was orderly . To be safe, I stayed with a "pack" of bikers while cars on the streets came running swiftly out of nowhere at times. I didn't want to get hit. So I took the ride carefully.
Crossing the streets was the biggest problem. It was a lot like crossing a major highway back in the United States. The streets here were wide, so crossing took time, skill and a little bit of luck.
I finally made it home. The feeling on the bicycle was amazing. The air hitting my face and going through my hair was wonderful. I was sitting on top of the world as I passed by places and people. Biking made me feel alive. | high4525.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Diving"
},
"options": [
"White water rafting",
"Diving",
"Igloo-building",
"Sand boarding"
],
"question": "What kind of activities can you do if you go to the Red Sea in summer?",
"question_type": "factiod_q... | Are you a bit bored with your nine-to-five routine? Have a look at our exciting range of holidays and decide what type of adventure you'd like.
Activity holidays Our activity holidays are for everyone who loves danger. We have a huge of water, snow and desert holidays. We'll take you scuba diving in the Red Sea of kayaking and white water rafting in Canada.
If you prefer snow, you can try skiing or snowboarding in the Alps or even igloo-building( ).For those who like warm weather, we also have sand boarding(the desert version of skateboarding) or camel safaris.
Polar expeditions Take a cruise to the Antarctic or the Arctic; explore a land of white nature beauty or wonderful wildlife. Our experts will explain everything about the two poles as you watch penguins or whales in the Antarctic and polar bears in the Arctic. There's no greater adventure than traveling to the two ends of the earth.
Culture journeys Our culture journeys will help you discover the secrets of distant places such as India, Thailand or Egypt. Explore their history by visiting temples, palaces and ancient ruins. You can also get to know how people live in the modem world by exploring markets, eating exotic foods and meeting local people.
Hiking tours We have hiking holidays to famous places, such as Machu Picchu or the Everest Base Camp Trek,as well as some nearer to home, for example in the highlands of Scotland. You don't need to be too sporty, just fairly fit.
You'll have a great time enjoying nature with a group of new friends. Some of the holidays need camping, but we'll transport the tents for you!
Wildlife holidays We organize small group tours to get closer to nature in Africa, Asia or South Africa. Go on safari in Africa and watch lions and giraffes.
Meet the famous turtles of Galapagos Islands. Look for tigers in India, or take an elephant safari in Sri Lanka. We use local guides and stay in a range of accommodation, from tents to tree houses. | high19351.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "remind people of the real sense of folk music."
},
"options": [
"gather people with different musical tastes.",
"remind people of the real sense of folk music.",
"exhibit the good voices of great talent in folk music.",
... | For five days, Edmonton's Downtown Park is transformed into one huge stage where artists are able to share their talents, and where people are able to celebrate and enjoy themselves .Since is beginning in 1980,the Edmonton Folk Music Festival has been commemorating the true feeling of what folk music is all about and that's the traditional togetherness that is felt when people gather to share stories and feelings through song.
This year will be the sixth year when volunteer Riedel will be offering up her time to the festival. "People coming off a busy spring and summer have a moment of relaxation." Riedel said. "It's really easy to relax, and it's great seeing family and friends have fun together." These families and friends come from all different kinds of musical tastes. People who take pleasure in Blues are there, so are people who love Bluegrass. This festival does its best to develop everyone's musical interests.
With so many years of experience, the festival has become a well-oiled machine, and does whatever it can to make attendees feel as comfortable as possible. There are free water stations throughout the venue for people to fill up their travel cups. When people buy food, reusable dishes are given a $2 plate fee, but that is returned when the plate is brought back.
The festival has completely sold out of tickets, and in record time .But with big names such as Van Morrison and Jacob Dylan, it's easy to see how that was going to happen. The festival has completely sold out of tickets, and in record time, so using the same Park and Ride system or Edmonton Transit is highly recommended .A bike lock-up area is provided and will be available Thursday until Sunday one hour before the gates open until 45 minutes after the gates close.
The Edmond Folk Music Festival begins on Wednesday, Aug 4 with Van Morrison plaything the special donation fund concert, and will finish up on Sunday,Aug 8. | high12204.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "head offices ofOttawa's high tech industry"
},
"options": [
"a large number of tall towers",
"head offices ofOttawa's high tech industry",
"a number of apartments and hotels",
"the older single family homes and townhous... | Ottawa is the capital of Canada. It is the second largest city in Ontario and the fourth largest city in the country.
The Centre Block is the main building on Parliament Hill . It is also the location of several ceremonial spaces, such as the Hall of Honor and the Memorial Chamber. The present Centre Block is the second iteration of the building,after the first was destroyed by fire in 1916,and it is one of the most recognizable buildings in Canada.
Downtown Ottawa is the commercial and economic centre of the city. Most of the buildings are office towers. While most of Ottawa's high tech industry is based elsewhere, it has a significant presence in the downtown core. The downtown also contains a number of apartments, hotels, and the older single family homes and townhouses along its edges.
The National Gallery of Canada is one of Canada's premier art galleries. The Gallery has a large and varied collection of paintings, drawings, sculpture and photographs. Although its focus is on Canadian art, it also holds works by some noted American and European artists.
The Rideau Canal is the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America. At the very beginning,the purpose of the Rideau Canal was military, as it was intended to provide a secure supply and communication route between Montreal and the British naval base in Kingston. It remains in use today primarily for pleasure boating, with most of its original structures undamaged. The locks on the system open for navigation in mid-May and close in mid-October. | high6332.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "whether invigilators are needed in exams"
},
"options": [
"how to pass an exam",
"how to make students honest",
"whether there is cheating in exams",
"whether invigilators are needed in exams"
],
"question": "Th... | 169 junior 1 students at No. 35 Middle School of Shenyang took their first noteacher exam. After the teacher handed out the exam paper, he left the room and never came back. A student collected the papers when the exam ended.
"That test was not only a test of knowledge, but also a test of moral . We wanted to show students how important honesty is," said Cai Wenguo, the school's headmaster. The school says no cheating happened in the test. Next year, it wants 80% of its exams to be without teachers. But students have different ideas.
"I was happy and excited during the exam because my teachers trusted me," said Lang Yudan, a 13yearold girl in Class 11.
"Schools must trust students a lot not to use invigilators . But I think it is too early. Some students will cheat if there are no invigilators. And the students will not be able to ask for help when needed," said Hua Sha.
"I don't like having invigilators in exams. When they walk around the classroom, they make me nervous. I would get higher marks without them in the room because I would feel more relaxed," Liu Qingxi said.
"I think it's very important to have invigilators in exams. Many students want to check their answers with each other after they have finished papers. And they can also keep the classroom in order when something unusual happens. They may make me nervous, but I still think we need them," Shangguan Yuan said.
Not using invigilators may be a good idea. But before using it, schools must tell students the importance of honesty and try to find ways to solve something unusual in exams. | high14675.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "It lies south of the equator."
},
"options": [
"There is a famous statue in it.",
"It lies south of the equator.",
"It has its specific animals.",
"It is free for admission."
],
"question": "Why is the National ... | These eco-inspired books get kids thinking about nature and environment.
How to Raise Monarch Butterflies
--By Carol Pasternak
Have you ever watched a monarch transform from a caterpillar to a butterfly from up close? In this book, learn everything about the monarch life cycle and how to raise monarchs from eggs to adult butterflies. You will also get to know the efforts involved to protect the species.
A Kid's Guide to America's Parks
--By Erin McHugh
This year, the US National Park Service's National Park Week is on April 21-29. During the week, all the national parks offer free admission. Enrich your knowledge with this book, as it introduces the national parks and some interesting places in the US, including their geography, specific animals as well as environmental challenges. The book's featured places include Yosemite National Park, Ellis Island (home of the Statue of Liberty) and the National Park of American Samoa, the only U.S. national park south of the equator .
Where Do you Recyclable Materials Go?
--By Sabbithry Persad
Tiana had been learning about recycling at school. But when her dog, Bubbles, gets lost running after a recycling truck, she ends up learning a lot more about recyclable materials than ever! Follow Tiana and her family as they search for Bubbles around town and at the Material Recovery Facility. Along the way, readers will learn a lot about recycling and how they can do their part in protecting the environment.
Scrap Kins Build-It Book Volume1
--By Brian Yanish
Meet the Scrap Kins. They are creative, friendly monster who live in a recycling center, known as Scrap City. They'll show you how to turn junk into pretty cool things. Readers will learn how to create cute bags from old jeans, beautiful ships from milk boxes, and more. Remember that one person's trash is another person's treasure! | high9001.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "To give children the chance to experience rural life"
},
"options": [
"To help troubled children become good",
"To promote the beautiful scenery there",
"To help the police find gangs",
"To give children the chance to e... | It is growing dark as Daniel and I walk along the path. "I would be afraid to be out at this time in London," he says. "I would be frightened of being attacked." I am spending the day with 16-year-old Daniel and six other pupils from Burlington Danes School on a farm in Bath. Most of them have never been in the countryside, and have spent the past week feeding cows and going for long winter walks.
They are here on Jamie's Farm. Started by Feilden, it aims to give inner-city children the experience of rural life. The children, many of whom have been in gangs or in trouble with the police, stay for a week in the Feildens' family home. According to Feilden, not a single item has been lost, stolen or broken in the farm. As his mother says, "I think the beauty here helps them." Or as 16-year-old Daniel says, "I like to be here. It smells all fresh."
The pupils rise early to feed the cows, ping, chickens and horses, before eating a cooked breakfast. Following this comes more farm work, lunch, more work, a long walk, supper and finally bed. They love it. "It is great not having a phone," explains one. "I focus so much better." Many speak of how the diet has changed their mood and others of how much they like feeding the animals.
The idea for the farm came when Feilden was working as a teacher in a "challenging" Croydon school. Most of the pupils had never been beyond the town, let alone into the countryside. Feilden felt farming could help. "It gave the pupils something to do besides fighting." It is, of course, not a _ -- a troubled child will still be a troubled child -- but Feilden says it still worthwhile. "If all we achieve is to show them the beauty of the countryside, then I think we've achieved a lot." | high23032.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "he told the daughter what he suspected"
},
"options": [
"he told the daughter what he suspected",
"he delayed running the necessary tests",
"he failed to confirm the patient's disease",
"he forgot what the consultant ha... | Honesty,my mum always used to tell me,is the best policy.Of course,this didn't include her when she told me that if I didn't eat all my vegetables Father Christmas would find out and wouldn't give me any presents.
But when it comes to medicine.I had assumed it was important to always be honest with my patients.After all,the doctor-patient relationship is based on trust,and therefore honesty is essential.Or so I thought.
I had just started working in geriatrics .Mr. McMahon was brought in when his belly was found very swollen.I took a medical history from his daughter who'd accompanied him in the ambulance.She'd been his main carer for years.I stood looking at him as she gave a detailed history."Has he lost any weight recently?"I asked."Well,it's funny you should mention that,but yes."she said slowly.There was silence for a few moments."Why? What are you worried about?"she asked.I hesitated.She was obviously very involved in his care and it was only fair that I told her the truth."Well.we need to prove it's not cancer."I said and talked briefly about some of the tests I was going to order.
Half an hour later, a nurse called me:"Mr. McMahon's daughter broke down--she said you told her he had cancer."My heart sank.By the time I arrived at the ward,my consultant was already there,explaining that we still had to run lots of tests and that it was by no means confirmed that he had cancer.I stood silently at the end of the bed.My consultant was obviously angry with me and as we left Mr. McMahon,she turned to me."Why on earth did you do that?"she asked in disbelief.I looked at her and bit my lip."She asked me what I was worried about and I told her."I said,hanging my head."And give her more to worry about?"replied my consultant."You don't say the word'cancer'until it's confirmed.Even if you suspect it,think very carefully before you tell people."
As it turned out, it wasn't cancer.But I did learn that when someone is stressed and worried about their loved one they're sometimes selective in what they hear and as a doctor it's important to be mindful of this.In being truthful,I'd made the situation worse. | high15580.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the biting by bats"
},
"options": [
"the biting by bats",
"the danger of keeping bats",
"the spreading of an infectious disease",
"the extinction of an endangered species"
],
"question": "According to the text, ... | After a confirmed rabies case in Parke County, Indiana, experts are urging caution if you find a bat in your home or office.
"If you try to kill a bat, you are more likely to get bitten," said Joy O'Keefe, assistant professor of biology and director of Indiana State University's Centre for Bat Research, Outreach and Conservation. "Most bats people find in their houses are healthy and are not going to bite them and give them rabies." But they could be a federally endangered species, such as the Indiana Bat, which is found in this area.
So if you spot a bat in your home or office, don't kill it or touch it with bare hands, O'Keefe said. Instead, put on a pair of heavy gloves and gently move it into a box or bucket. Once contained, the bat can be removed outside.
"If it's a healthy bat, it'll fly away eventually," O'Keefe said. "If it doesn't move or seem to be healthy, you can take it to the health department to be tested."
This is the time of year when bats move from their summer resting sites to their winter resting sites, O'Keefe said.
"We get calls every year during the first month of school year from people finding bats in the university's buildings," said O'Keefe.
Bats are a great help to people, as every night they can eat up to their entire body weight of insects. Bats, however, are facing great threats from epidemics , habitat destruction and other things.
"The best way the average person can help bats is by understanding them and by telling other people how awesome bats are and what bats do for us," O' Keefe said. "Hopefully, _ will make people think that if there's a bat in their house, they should try to get it out but not kill it. That would be really positive for bats--to not have people be one of their major threats." | high14846.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Objective."
},
"options": [
"Critical .",
"Indifferent.",
"Objective.",
"Negative."
],
"question": "According to the passage, what's the attitude of Mr. Liu towards divorce?",
"question_type": null
},
{
... | Soaring divorce rates around the globe are
the environment, American researchers suggested in a study released on a Monday.
Michigan State University researcher Jianguo "Jack" Liu and his assistant Eunice Yu said the increasing number of divorces leads to more households with fewer people and greater consumption of water and energy. They said housing units require space, construction materials and fuel to heat and cool, regardless of the number of inhabitants.
For example, in the United States in 2005, divorced households consumed an extra 73 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water. An additional 38 million extra rooms required heating and lighting that same year due to divorced households.
That costs $6.9 billion in extra utility costs per year, Liu said, plus an added $ 3.6 billion for water, in addition to other costs such as land use.
"A married household actually uses resources more efficiently than a divorced household," Liu said. He said that in cohabitating household, people will watch the same television, share the air conditioning and heat and use the same refrigerator. All things use energy at a regularly stable rate, regardless of the number of users.
Liu said he was not condemning divorce, "Some people really need to get divorced." He said cohabitation--whether by a family or friends--was simply a more environmentally friendly option. Additonally, the researchers noted that trends other than divorce are also changing family living structures, such as the end of multiple generations of a family sharing a home and people remaining single longer.
"People's first reaction to this research is surprise, and then it seems simple." Liu said in a press release. "But a lot of things become simple after research is done. Our challenges were to connect the dots and quantify their relationships. People have been talking about how to protect the environment and fight against climate change, but divorce is a factor that people don't notice and it needs to be considered".
He said the increasing energy demands caused by divorce should be considered by governments when they are creating environmental policies.
The research was published in this week's online edition of the | high16089.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "a kind of tree in South America"
},
"options": [
"Portuguese settlers",
"Native American tribes",
"a kind of tree native to Europe",
"a kind of tree in South America"
],
"question": "According to the passage, th... | Before the arrival of Europeans, many Native American tribes lived in Brazil. In 1500 Pedro Alvares Cabral sailed from Lisbon and arrived at Porto Seguro, in Bahia. Brazil got its name from a kind of reddish tree, native to this land, which was sold in Europe. Salvador da Bahia was founded in 1549 and became the capital city of the new Portuguese colony. Portuguese settlers started to produce sugar and the northeast of Brazil became a wealthy corner of the world. During that time, Portugal brought millions of black slaves to work in its sugar refineries .
In the 18th century, many Portuguese started to explore the remote areas that were far away from the coastal cities. Gold was discovered in Minas Gerais and Vila Rica became one of the richest cities in the world. In 1763 the Portuguese decided to move Brazil's capital city from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro.
In the 19th century, when Napoleon invaded Portugal, the royal family moved to Brazil and Rio became the capital city of the Portuguese Empire. When the king returned to Portugal, Brazilians didn't want their land to be a colony anymore and declared their independence in 1822. During that period of time, lots of European immigrants were crossing the ocean to find jobs in the coffee markets. In 1889 Brazil became a Republic.
In 1960 Brazilians moved the national government from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia, a modern planned city that was built to be capital of Brazil.
Nowadays Brazil is the most powerful country in South America and one of the most important nations in the world. In spite of its growing economy, poverty and many crimes appear which are nothing but far from being solved in the short term. | high17397.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Five children died in a kindergarten bus accident."
},
"options": [
"Five children died in a kindergarten bus accident.",
"A bus accident in Deng zhou.",
"All primary school and kindergarten vehicles in Dengzhou.",
"The... | DENGZHOU: Five children seriously injured Tuesday in a kindergarten bus accident in Dengzhou City, in central China's Henan Province, have died after emergency hospital treatment failed, hospital sources said Wednesday.
The NO. 1 People's Hospital and No. 3 People's Hospital in Dengzhou admitted eight injured children after the accident, which took place at 6:40 a. m. Tuesday.
According to initial investigation , 11 children aged between two and five were on the bus owned by a village kindergarten in Gengzhuang Village of Dengzhou.
It was taking children from neighboring villages to the kindergarten when it suddenly lost control and plunged into a river by the roadside. Three of the children on the bus were not injured.
The hospitals said the three remaining injured were in stable condition and they would be out of hospital.
The driver of the bus has been put into custody by the police. | high16937.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Differences between two festivals."
},
"options": [
"Food in different festivals.",
"Differences between two festivals.",
"Festivals in China and western countries.",
"Traditional celebrations in different countries."
... | Every year, as Spring Festival draws near, most Chinese people will get excited to make preparation for the most important festival and make plan for the winter break. It is a little like Christmas in the United States, but there are some differences between the two festivals.
Both the major Chinese and the major Western holidays come during the cold season, and special food is expected. In western countries, cookies and cakes begin just after Thanksgiving in November and show up everywhere. Turkey, potatoes and other food come later. Similar thing happens in China. Entering lunar December, most families will make shopping plans for _ and food is certainly one of the most important things to be considered. At the end of the month, both parents in each family will be very busy---the father is busy buying food while the mother is busy cooking.
A deeper similarity is tradition. Christmas, as the letters "Christ" suggests, began as a holiday to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ. Many people pray on this day. In China, people living in cities or towns, though they don't plan to sow seeds this month, still celebrate on the big day for farmers.
Followers of both holidays are also different from each other. While Chinese people travel to the homes of elder relatives, Americans usually call or send cards. Westerners prefer Christmas carols to fireworks. In Christmas, many family gifts come together instead of one by one, since adults may have only one day free to celebrate.
But the most curious difference is about students. Chinese students going home for Spring Festival sometimes report that they get bored by the end of vacation, yet American students seldom get bored around Christmas and western New Year.
Not everyone enjoys classic holiday traditions. Students in western countries may get upset, as too much homework, travel or bad family relations may destroy the short holiday season. In China, more and more college students choose to travel or work during the winter holiday instead of going home to stay with their families. It's against the tradition but many people accept it. | high2801.txt |
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