questions list | article stringlengths 9 6.44k | id stringlengths 9 14 |
|---|---|---|
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "It has different forest ecosystems."
},
"options": [
"It sits at the foot of a 4,800-meter-high mountain.",
"It has different forest ecosystems.",
"Most of China's endangered plants can be found there.",
"In all about 1... | If you'd like to go sightseeing, the following World Heritage Sites may be your best choices.
Jiuzhaigou Valley Scenic and Historic Interest Area
The Jiuzhaigou Valley, which lies in the northern part of Sichuan Province, reaches a height of more than 4,800 meters, with a series of different forest ecosystems . There you can enjoy watching excellent waterfalls. Some 140 kinds of birds also live in the valley, as well as a number of endangered plants and animals, including the giant panda. For more information, please visit http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/637.
Khami Ruins National Monument
The city of Khami, which developed after the capital of Great Zimbabwe had been given up in the mid-16th century, is of great archaeological interest. The discovery of objects from Europe and China shows that Khami was a major centre for trade over a long period of time. For more information, please visit http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/365.
Henderson Island
Henderson Island, which lies in the eastern South Pacific, is one of the few atolls in the world whose ecology has not been touched by human beings. It is especially famous for the ten plants and four land birds that can only be seen on the island. For more information, please visit http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/487.
The Old City of Jerusalem
As a holy city for three different religions in the Middle East, Jerusalem has always been of great religious importance. It was given a World Heritage Status in 1981 and placed on the "List of World Heritage in Danger" the following year. For more information, please visit http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/148. | high1845.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Creative sites for family to hang out."
},
"options": [
"Programs designed for culture exchange.",
"Theme parks attracting most tourists.",
"Creative sites for family to hang out.",
"Top museums around the world."
]... | For families on vacation,a playground provides a welcome break from sightseeing.It can also provide a glimpse into the local culture,from the setup of the park to the ways families interact.Here are the designs that live up to that challenge.
Fruit and Scent Park, Stockholm
Is there a picky eater on a steady diet of chicken fingers and cheese? Perhaps a trip to Sweden's Fruit and Scent Park will change his or her culinary tune.This playground features a banana slide,an orange seesaw,pear huts,a watermelon jungle gym and a pair of cherry swings,all designed by public artist Johan Ferner Strom.Now,who can say you can't play with your food?
Nishi Rokugo Park, Tokyo
Located between central Tokyo and the city of Kawasaki,Nishi Rokugo combines recycled rubber tires with traditional playground equipment.In total,more than 3,000 tires of different sizes are used to create tunnels,bridges,tall sculptures for climbing and,of course,tire swings.There's little shade,so you can visit here in the early morning or late afternoon for the most comfortable weather, and be sure to wear your play clothes.
$?Bicentennial Children's Park, Santiago,Chile
Set a top San Cristobal Hill,the Bicentennial Children's playground in Metropolitan Park was built to celebrate 200 years of Chilean independence and improve the lives of Santiago citizens.Dozens of slides are built into the slope,creating a design completely complementary of the surrounding landscape.Fountains offer some relief from the sun,and ample seating gives parents a place to relax. | high19191.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "From their association."
},
"options": [
"From the words themselves.",
"From their characteristics.",
"From their curiosity.",
"From their association."
],
"question": "Where does the real power of the words com... | How men first learned to invent words is unknown, in other words, the origin of language is a mystery. All we really know is that men, unlike animals, somehow invented certain sounds to express thoughts and feelings, actions and things, so that they could communicate with each other; and that later they agreed upon certain signs, called letters, which could be combined to represent those sounds and which could be written down. Those sounds, whether spoken, or written in letters, we call words.
The power of words, then, lies in their association--the thing they bring up before our minds. Words become filled with meaning for us by experience; and the longer we live, the more certain words recall to us the glad and the sad events of our past; and the more we read and learn, the more the number of words that mean something to us increase.
Great writers are those who not only have great thoughts but also express these thoughts in words which appeal powerfully to our minds and emotions. This charming and telling use of words is what we call literary style. Above all, the real poet is a master of words. He can _ his meaning in words which sing like music and which by their position and association can move men to tears. We should, therefore, learn to choose our words carefully and use them accurately, or they make our speech silly and impolite. | high20710.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "convey useful information including one's emotional stability"
},
"options": [
"be used to judge others' personality accurately",
"show thick and useful information about one's personality",
"convey useful information includi... | Researchers at the University of Kansas say that people can accurately judge 90 percent of a stranger's personality simply by looking at the person's shoes.
"Shoes convey a thin but useful slice of information about their wearers," the authors wrote in the new study published in the Journal of Research in Personality."Shoes serve a practical purpose, and also serve as nonverbal cues with symbolic messages.People tend to pay attention to the shoes they and others wear."
Medical Daily notes that the number of detailed personality traits detected in the study include a person's general age, their gender, income, political affiliation, and other personality traits, including someone's emotional stability.
Lead researcher Omri Gillath said the judgments were based on the style, cost, color and condition of someone's shoes.In the study, 63 University of Kansas students looked at pictures showing 208 different pairs of shoes worn by the study's participants.Volunteers in the study were photographed in their most commonly worn shoes, and then filled out a personality questionnaire.
So, what do your shoes say about your personality?
Some of the results were expected: People with higher incomes most commonly wore expensive shoes, and flashier footwear was typically worn by extroverts .
However, some of the more specific results are intriguing.For example, "practical and functional" shoes were generally worn by more "agreeable" people, while ankle boots were more closely aligned with "aggressive" personalities.
The strangest of all may be that those who wore "uncomfortable looking" shoes tend to have "calm" personalities.
And if you have several pairs of new shoes or take exceptional care of them, you may suffer from "attachment _ " spending an inordinate amount of time worrying about what other people think of your appearance.
There was even a political calculation in the mix with more liberal types wearing "shabbier and less expensive" shoes.
The researchers noted that some people will choose shoe styles to mask their actual personality traits, but researchers noted that volunteers were also likely to be unaware that their footwear choices were revealing deep insights into their personalities. | high2394.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "unexpected happens and some changes must be made in the procedure."
},
"options": [
"The nurses are counting the equipment and the patient is being X-rayed.",
"The surgeons are doing the last operation of the day, and everyone is e... | Surgical teams accidentally leave clamps, sponges and other tools inside about 1,500 patients nationwide each year.
The mistakes largely result not from surgeon tiredness, but from the stress arising from emergencies or complications discovered on the operating table, the researchers reported.
The study found that emergency operations are nine times more likely to lead to such mistakes, and operating-room complications requiring a change in procedure are four times more likely.
It also happens more often to fat patients, simply because there is more room inside them to lose equipment, according to the study.
Two-thirds of the mistakes happened even though the equipment was counted before and after the procedure, in keeping with the standard practice.
Most lost objects were sponges, but also included were metal clamps and electrodes . In two cases, 11-inch retractors metal strips were forgotten inside patients. In another operation, four sponges were left inside someone. When there is significant bleeding and a sponge is placed in a patient, it can sometimes look indistinguishable from the tissue around it.
The lost objects usually lay around the abdomen or hips but sometimes in the chest. They often caused tears or infections. Most patients needed additional surgery to remove the object. In other cases, patients even sensed nothing about the object, and it turned up in later surgery for other problems.
To prevent such mistakes from happening, Loyola University Medical Center is becoming one of the first hospitals in the country to use sponges outfitted with bar codes. The new system was brought to Loyola through the efforts of the hospital's operating room nurses.
Another effective way is to X-ray patients after surgery to reduce the likelihood of objects being left inside patients. | high3934.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "New computers make shopping carts smarter"
},
"options": [
"New age for supermarkets",
"Concierge and Shopping Buddy",
"New computers make shopping carts smarter",
"Touch-screen devices make shopping enjoyable"
],
... | Supermarkets are trying out new computers that make shopping carts more intelligent. _ will help shoppers find paper cups or toilet soap, and keep a record of the bill.
The touch-screen devices are on show at the Food Marketing Institute's exhibition here this week, "These devices are able to create value and get you around the store quicker," said Michael Alexander, manager of Springboard Retail Networks Inc., which makes a smart cart computer called the Concierge.
Canadian stores will test the Concierge in July. A similar device, IBM's "Shopping Buddy", has recently been test-marketed at Stop & Shop stores in Massachusetts.
Neither device tells you how many fat grams or calories are in your cart, but they will flash you with items on sale. The idea is to make it easier for people to buy, not to have second thoughts that maybe you should put something back on the shelf.
"The whole model is driven by advertisers' need to get in front of shoppers," said Alexander. "They're not watching 30-second TV ads anymore."
People can use a home computer to make their shopping lists. Once at the store, a shopper can use a preferred customer card to start a system that will organize the trip around the store. If you're looking for toothpicks, you type in the word or pick it from a list, and a map will appear on the screen showing where you are and where you can find them.
The device also keeps a record of what you buy. When you're finished, the device figures out your bill. Then you go to the checker or place your card into a self-checkout stand and pay.
The new computerized shopping assistants don't come cheap. The Buddy devices will cost the average store about $ 160, 000, and the Concierge will cost stores about $ 500 for each device. | high20076.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The ability of the ecosystems to function."
},
"options": [
"Fresh water, air, plants, animals and people.",
"The ability of the ecosystems to function.",
"The local people's life and their health.",
"The scenery which ... | Maybe you don't know the fact that the green forests we see from an airplane or from the highway can be false. Because centuries ago forests were twice as many as what they are today. A hike into many of those woods will tell different stories, too--of diseases and insects that are slowly killing trees, of some forests that are burned by fire, of logging that local people do more often. Deforestation and degradation of the world's forests mainly harm the basic ability of those ecosystems to function or provide services, such as fresh water, air, plants and animals, which benefit people everywhere and keep the balance of nature.
Deforestation
Forests today are a small part of what they once were. Nearly half of the world's forest cover is gone, and each year 40 million acres more are cut and replaced by agriculture and development. Over the next 45 years, wood use in the world is guessed to increase by 50 per cent over its present rate. Many of the forests that remain are severely destroyed, which harms the ability to protect birds or wild animals, and to supply natural resources to people. Deforestation also brings about between 20 per cent and 25 per cent of all air pollution causing global climate change.
Degradation
Forests continue to be degraded by some uses such as the gathering of wood for fuel, the arrival of pests and diseases that kill trees, the effects of climate change and poor management such as the fire, flood and so on. | high21368.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Elise Christie"
},
"options": [
"Li Jianrou",
"Elise Christie",
"Arianna Fontana",
"Fan Kexin"
],
"question": "Who made a mistake causing three athletes to fall over in the final?",
"question_type": "factiod... | Who won China's first gold medal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics? It was Li Jianrou. The 27-year-old finished first in the women's 500m short track speed skating on Feb 13. The race was full of drama. Three athletes fell over because of an accident caused by Elise Christie of Britain in the second turn and Li became the surprise winner.
Three-time defending champion Wang Meng of China missed the Olympics after breaking her ankle last month. Li had little experience in the race, where getting off to a quick Start is important. But she kept her cool while everyone else was falling around her.
"I feel very lucky," Li said through a translator.
She and one of her coaches cried tears of joy after China joined South Korea as the only countries to win the same short track event four Olympics in a row. The Koreans won the 3,000 relay in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006.
"I cried because I was so excited," Li said. "My coach told me this medal is for Wang Meng as well, so I felt very moved."
Li's victory made up for the surprising fall of teammate Fan Kexin in the semifinals. In the semis, Fan didn't even complete the first lap of the race, catching her left blade as she skated near the front. She crashed on all fours into the crew of workers who maintain the ice between races. They climbed onto the top of the pads to avoid being injured by Fan's long, sharp blades.
Arianna Fontana of Italy took the silver and Park Seung-hi of South Korea earned the bronze. | high17802.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "InAmerica."
},
"options": [
"In England.",
"InAmerica.",
"InTexas.",
"InManitoba."
],
"question": "Where is the author of the above passage now?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
"answer... | Thanks for bringing me down here to the university last Sunday. Classes didn't start until Wednesday, so I had a few days to get adjusted. I'm signed up for five classes: zoology, calculus, English, and two history sections. It's a heavy load, but they are all courses that will count for my degree. The zoology class which meets at 8:00 every morning is going to be my hardest subject. The history class that I have in the morning is on Western Civilization; the one in the afternoon is on early prefix = st1 /United Stateshistory, our ancestors' life. Calculus which I have at noon every day looks like it's going to be easy. Besides zoology, the other class that's going to be hard is English, for you see, we have to do a composition a week.
I like all of my classmates but one. There are four of us in our suite including two girls from Texas and a girl from Manitoba. Sally who is fromSan Antoniois great: I feel like I've known her all my life. I also really like Anne who is the girl fromManitoba. Heather the other girl fromTexasis kind of a pain, though; she's one of those types of people who never tell you what's bothering them and then get hostile. I don't know how to get along with her but I'll try my best to make friends with her. This I take as one other class I myself open. All in all, though, it looks like it's going to be a great year. I'll write again in a week or so. | high22661.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "the unscientific way of teaching of science"
},
"options": [
"a mistaken picture in students' mind",
"the unscientific way of teaching of science",
"the fact that students fail to see the influence of science",
"the fac... | Governors, lawyers and business leaders have to deal with scientists, and every educated person finds his views affected by science. Yet our science teaching of non-scientists, in school and college, has built up mistaken ideas, dislikes, and the common boast, "I never did understand science.' Even those students who arrive at college with plans to become scientists usually bring a mistaken picture of science: some have a collection of unorganized facts about science, and some regard the study of science as a game which includes getting the right answer.
The first of these attitudes seems to come from a kind of course which provides various kinds of information; the second, from a training course on how to pass examinations that do not ask about the student's understanding but simply require him to put the numbers in the right formulas . Neither type of courses (in school or college) seems to give students and understanding of science as we find it among scientists. Neither shows students how real scientists work and think how the facts are gathered, how discoveries are made, and what they mean. Young people need good teaching of science, not so much a great wealth of knowledge as a healthy understanding of the nature of science. They need an understanding of knowledge leading to sympathy with science and an eagerness of the way scientists work. Given these, it is easy to encourage later reading and learning. | high6694.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "when Diana refused Vivien's sandwich"
},
"options": [
"because she was too good for anyone",
"when Diana refused Vivien's sandwich",
"though she asked the writer to forgive",
"so Diana walked away"
],
"question"... | It is a very common thing for a person to have a good friend.My good friend is Diana.She is a rich and proud girl.She often thinks that she is too good for anyone,so nobody wants to be her friend.
One day after school,I was waiting for Diana when Vivien came up to me.She gave me a biscuit.I accepted it.We talked and joked,and from then on,I began to spend more time with Vivien than with Diana.I felt a little uneasy.
After a few days,I went to see Diana for some snacks when Vivien came and sat with me.She offered me a sandwich.She also offered one to Diana,but Diana refused it.She walked away.I was angry with Diana for being so rude and thoughtless.
"Never mind,"Vivien said,"I'm used to it."
After school,I tried to catch up with Diana.While walking home,I tried to correct her attitude,but she would not listen to me.She said,"Go and join your 'dear' Vivien.I know you make new friends and forget the old ones."
For the next few weeks,we did not talk to each other.Then,one day,Diana came to Vivien and me,saying,"I'm really sorry about what I did.I'm a spoiled girl,but I also need good friends just like you.Would you please forgive me?"Vivien and I looked at each other and smiled.From then on,Diana,Vivien and I have been best friends." | high24210.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the sign of life"
},
"options": [
"the sign of life",
"the laughter of the world",
"the ruler of the world",
"the sign of authority"
],
"question": "Green thinks he is _ according to the passage.",
"questi... | Once upon a time the colors of the world started to quarrel. All believed that they were the most important.
" Clearly I am the most important. I am the sign of life and of hope. Without me, all animals would die. " Green said.
" You only think about the earth," Blue interrupted, " but consider the sky and the sea. The sky gives space, peace and serenity. Without my peace, you would all be nothing. "
Yellow shouted, " You are all so serious. I bring laughter and warmth into the world. Without me there would be no fun. "
Orange started next , " I am the color of health and strength. My beauty is so striking that no one gives another thought to any of you. "
Red could stand it no longer, he shouted out, " I am the ruler of all of you. I am the color of danger and of bravery. Without me, the earth would be an empty as the moon. "
Purple rose up to his full height. He was very tall and spoke with great pomp , " I am the color of loyalty and power. I am the sign of authority and wisdom. People do not question me! They listen and obey. "
Finally Indigo spoke, much more quietly than all the others, " I represent thought and reflection . You need me for balance and contrast . "
Their quarreling became louder and louder. Suddenly there was a flash of lightning. Rain started to pour down and speak " You should stretch across the sky in a great bow of color. Remember to appreciate one another. Only the rainbow is the most beautiful. " | high6858.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "our body can't deal with the changes in lifestyles"
},
"options": [
"the human body has changed compared with human first appeared on earth",
"the way we live has changed a little",
"our body can't deal with the changes in li... | Two American scientists told the people in industrial nations that they would be much healthier if they ate more of the same kind of foods eaten by humans living more than 10,000 years ago.
The scientists say that the human body has changed very little since human first appeared on the earth,but the way we live has changed greatly. Our body has not been able to deal with these changes in lifestyles and this has led to new kinds of sicknesses. These new sicknesses were not known in ancient times. So they are called "diseases of civilization ".Many cancers and diseases of the blood system,including heart attacks and strokes are examples of such diseases.
Scientists noted that early stoneage people used very little alcohol or tobacco ,probably none. Ancient people also got a great deal of physical exercise,but a change in food is one of the main differences between life in ancient times and life today.
Stoneage people hunted wild animals for their meat ,which had much less fat than farm animals. They also ate a lot of fresh wild vegetables and fruits. They did not use milk and other dairy products ,and they made very little use of grains . But today,we eat a large amount of dairy products and grain foods. We eat six times more salt than stoneage people. We eat more sugar. We eat twice as much fat but only one third as much protein and much less vitamin C.
People today probably do not want to live as people thousands of years ago did,but scientists say that we would be much healthier if we ate as those ancient people did,cutting the amount of fatty,salty and sweet foods. | high22675.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "topsoil"
},
"options": [
"litter",
"subsoil",
"humus",
"topsoil"
],
"question": "The layer of soil that provides necessary nutrients for plant growth is called _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},... | Have you ever noticed the colour of the water in a river or stream after a heavy rainfall? What do you think caused this change in colour? It is soil that has been washed into the river from the riverbank or from the nearby fields.
Components of Soil
Soil is made up of a number of layers, each having its own distinctive colour and texture. The upper layer is known as the litter. It acts like a blanket,limiting temperature changes and reducing water loss. The topsoil layer is made up of small particles of rock mixed with rotten plant and animal matter called humus , which is black and gives the topsoil its dark colour. This layer is usually rich in nutrients, oxygen, and water. Below the topsoil is the subsoil, a layer that contains more stones mixed with only small amounts of organic matter. This layer is lighter in colour because of the lack of humus. Beneath the soil lies a layer of bedrock.
Soil forms from the bottom up. Over time bedrock is attacked by rain, wind, frost, and snow. It is gradually broken down into smaller particles in a process called weathering. Plants begin to grow,and rotten materials enrich the topsoil. Most of the soil in Eastern Canada ,for example ,was formed from weathered rock that was exposed when the ice disappeared 12,000 years ago.
Water Beneath the Soil
Surface water collects and flows above the ground in lakes ,ponds, and rivers. Once in the soil or rock, it is called groundwater. Gravity pulls groundwater through the soil in a process called percolation . Eventually the water reaches a layer called the water table. Under this is bedrock through which water cannot percolate.
As water percolates downward, it _ organic matter and minerals from the soil and carries them to deeper layers.This causes a serious problem because plants require these nutrients for growth.
Soil pH
Soil can be acidic, neutral, or basic. The pH of the soil is determined by the nature of the rock from which it was formed,and by the nature of the plants that grow and rot in it.
The acidity of rain and snow can lower the pH of the groundwater that enters the soil. By burning fossil fuels such as coal ,oil and gasoline,humans have been contributing to higher levels of acidity in many soils. When fossil fuels are burned,gases are released into the air and then fall back to earth as acid rain. Acid soil increases the problem of carrying nutrients to lower soil levels. As nutrients are removed,soil is less fertile. Plants grow more slowly in acidic soil,and also become easily attacked by diseases. | high6680.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "They know it by experimenting on rats."
},
"options": [
"Many women say so.",
"They know it by experimenting on rats.",
"They know it through their own experience.",
"Some researchers have told them."
],
"questi... | Motherhood may make women smarter and may help prevent dementia in old age by bathing the brain in protective hormones ,US researchers reported on Thursday.
Tests on rats show that those who raise two or more litters of pups do considerably better in tests of memory and skills than rats who have no babies, and their brains show changes that suggest they may be protected against diseases such as Alzheimer's . University of Richmond psychology professor Craig Kinsley believes his findings will translate into humans.
"Our research shows that the hormones of pregnancy are protecting the brain, including estrogen , which we know has many neuroprotective effects," Kinsley said.
"It's rat data but humans are mammals just like these animals are mammals," he added in a telephone interview. "They go through pregnancy and hormonal changes."
Kinsley said he hoped public health officials and researchers will look to see if having had children protects a woman from Alzheimer's and other forms of age related brain decline. "When people think about pregnancy, they think about what happens to babies and the mother from neck down," said Kinsley, who presented his findings to the annual meeting of the Society of Neuroscience in Orlando, Florida. "They do not realize that hormones are washing on the brain. If you look at female animals who have never gone through pregnancy, they act differently toward young. But if she goes through pregnancy, she will sacrifice her life for her infant--that is a great change in her behavior that showed in genetic alternations to the brain." | high24204.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "the Giudecca Canal"
},
"options": [
"the Giudecca Canal",
"La Serenissima",
"the Contorta Sant'Angelo Canal",
"the Adriatic Sea"
],
"question": "Before last month, toursits left Venice by ship through _ .",
... | When travelers think of an Adriatic cruise, scenes of Venice, Italy--its canals, bridges, piazzas, and stunning architecture--come to mind. It's one of the most popular cruise destinations in Europe. And for many, the sail-away from Venice, through its Giudecca Canal, is an awe-inspiring experience.
Venice may be known as La Serenissima, or "the most peaceful," which, however, isn't entirely accurate these days. Venetians have been increasingly concerned about the impact of tourism and the potential for an environmental disaster off its shoreline due to the number of cruise ships that enter and exit its lagoon .
That's why earlier last month, Venice announced a new policy to forbid the transit of cruise ships to the city via the Giudecca Canal. It's not that the city wants to shun the cruise industry altogether: It simply wants to force traffic further away from the landmarks along the shoreline. City officials say that most ships will now transit the Contorta Sant'Angelo Canal.
Additionally, the city is _ the size of ships that can visit Venice, as well as the total number of ships that call on it on a daily basis. As of January 2014, Venice plans to reduce the visitations of larger ships (those that are 40,000 tons or heavier) by 20 percent. This effectively caps the number of ships that can enter per day to five. In November, ships heavier than 96,000 tons will not be allowed to enter Guidecca Canal at all.
How the city plans to carry out the new five-ships-per-day rule remains to be seen and have yet to be announced. Which ships will be allowed passage? Will it be first-come, first-served? However they proceed, cruise line executives want their passengers to know that Venice will remain a regular port of call--even if the transit to and from the city must evolve. | high8875.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "they take us to a world beyond our imagination and expectation"
},
"options": [
"they remind us of the childhood and environment we had in the past",
"they take us to a world beyond our imagination and expectation",
"they off... | Today, almost everyone has heard of Harry Potter.The books detailing his experiences at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry have aroused passion, creativity, and interest in reading throughout the world.
But have you ever considered why you are a fan of the Harry Potter series?
JK Rowling has created a list of characters and an environment for them to inhabit that appeals to both adults and children.
The fantasy aspect of the wizarding world expands the imagination, and takes the mind to new and exciting places.Anything could happen there.Her stories contain parts of the believable and unbelievable, changing the predictability that readers commonly come across and bear in fiction.
The main theme of the series, including good versus evil, prejudice, love, death, sacrifice, friendship and loyalty, in actuality contributes to the ever-lasting nature of the stories.At the same time, these themes remind us of classic literature, offering mature readers tales that wear like a comfortable pair of shoes, while introducing younger readers to concepts they will meet throughout their lives.
Much of the appeal also comes from the characters.In each book, JK Rowling introduces and describes the characters in such a way that we wonder not only about their futures, but also about their pasts.Even supporting characters are suddenly more than just extras in the background.And what of Harry Potter himself? We care about Harry, because we watch him grow from an innocent boy to a powerful wizard.We see him as both Hero and Victim.He experiences endless love and extreme pain, and as readers, we experience them with him.
This perfect combination of emotion, suspense and fantasy, together with the fact that JK Rowling is a superb storyteller is the reason why we are Harry potter fans.People are fond of Harry Potter series.With books like these, it' s hard not to be. | high20062.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "One who enjoys working with teenagers from different countries."
},
"options": [
"One who enjoys working with teenagers from different countries.",
"One who hopes to take action in fighting against diseases",
"One who has a s... | Take Action for a Better World: Volunteers Needed
Six months' preparation in Denmark: Africa studies, team work combined with social work risk group teenagers.
Six months' community work in Malawi in people to people projects: Child Aid, HIV/AIDS Fights and Teacher Training.
Qualifications:18 years, hard-working and social engagement.
Please contact us by email:takeaction@betterworld.com
Part-time Work with Exchange Students
YOUTH International is a non-profit high school foreign exchange student organization. We welcome teenagers from over 80 countries worldwide and provide host families. The Community Representative is a part-time position designed for people with a strong desire to do something rewarding in the community and earn some extra money.
Applicants best suited for this work should enjoy teenagers, have a strong interest in cross-cultural communication, and feel comfortable networking. Full training and support will be provided through branch offices throughout the U.S Positions available in most states.
If interested, please email staff@youth.org or call 888-123-9872.
International Summer Job
Hi, I'm an ESL student in China. I'm 20, quiet and polite, and I speak reasonable English. I am looking for a summer job in an English-speaking country. I can teach Chinese or do house and garden work, and cook Chinese dishes. Can anybody offer me a Job? I don't need to earn much, just enough in 2 months (July-August) to pay for my return ticket to China. My goal is to improve my English and see a bit more of the world.
My email is : ram3462@hotmail.com
Call for Native Speakers of English
I am looking for native speakers of English to join in an experiment. This experiment is carried out over the Internet. You don't need any specific knowledge other than understanding and speaking English at a native level. The first task will take you around 15 minutes. After this task, you can decide whether you want to continue the experiment. The tasks involve reading texts and designing questions and answers.
If you are willing to help me , then please email me : club3864@hotmail.com | high3920.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The specialization of labor."
},
"options": [
"The discovery of iron.",
"The specialization of labor.",
"The appearance of new jobs.",
"The development of farming techniques."
],
"question": "What probably led t... | No one knows for sure when advertising first started. It is possible that it grew out of the discovery that some people did certain kinds of work better than others did them. That led to the concept of specialization, which means that people would specialize, or focus, on doing one specific job.
Let's take a man we'll call Mr. Fielder, for example. He did everything connected with farming. He planted seeds, tended the fields, and harvested and sold his crops. At the same time, he did many other jobs on the farm. However, he didn't make the bricks for his house, grind the wheat for his flour, or cut his trees into boards. He also did not make the plows , the work boots, or any of the other hundreds of things a farm needs. Instead, he got them from people who specialized in doing each of those things.
Suppose there was another man we shall call Mr. Plowright. Using what he knew about farming and working with iron, Mr. Plowright invented a plow that made farming easier. Mr. Plowright did not really like farming himself and wanted to specialize in making really good plows. Perhaps, he thought, other farmers will trade what they grow for one of my plows.
How did Mr. Plowright let people know what he was doing? Why, he advertised, of course. First he opened a shop and then he put up a sign outside the shop to attract customers. That sign may have been no more than a plow carved into a piece of wood and a simple arrow pointing to the shop door. It was probably all the information people needed to find Mr. Plowright and his really good plows.
Many historians believe that the first outdoor signs were used about five thousand years ago. Even before most people could read, they understood such signs. Shopkeepers would carve into stone, clay, or wood symbols for the products they had for sale.
A medium, in advertising talk, is the way you communicate your message. You might say that the first medium used in advertising was signs with symbols. The second medium was audio, or sound, although that term is not used exactly in the way we use it today. Originally, just the human voice and maybe some kind of simple instrument, such as a bell, were used to get people's attention.
A crier, in the historical sense, is not someone who weeps easily. It is someone, probably a man, with a voice loud enough to be heard over the other noises of a city. In ancient Egypt, shopkeepers might hire such a person to spread the news about their products. Often this primitive form of advertising involved a newly arrived ship loaded with goods. Perhaps the crier described the goods, explained where they came from, and praised their quality. His job was, in other words, not too different from a TV or radio commercial in today's world. | high4097.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "made extracts in a creative way"
},
"options": [
"began with a private project",
"succeeded during the first experiments",
"faced many different opinions",
"made extracts in a creative way"
],
"question": "In th... | Tu Youyou, a scientist at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, has no postgraduate degree. She has never studied or done research abroad. She is neither a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences nor the Chinese Academy of Engineering. However, the 81-year-old pharmacologist has become the first scientist on the Chinese mainland to win a Lasker Award, the medical prize of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation.
The Lasker Awards have existed since 1945. The winners are always people who have really helped us to understand, recognize, treat, cure and prevent disease. Tu was presented the 2011 Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award on September 23. She discovered a drug called artemisinin . The drug is now widely used against malaria .
Tu and her colleagues joined a government project to find a new malaria drug in the late 1960s during the "cultural revolution" (1966~1976). They made 380 herbal extracts from 200 potential recipes. The recipes came from traditional Chinese medical books. The team then tested them on malaria-infected mice. Finally Tu became interested in an extract of the plant qinghao, or sweet wormwood .
According to an ancient Chinese medicine book, qinghao was once used to treat malaria. However, the extract they made in the lab didn't work well. Tu thought the effective ingredient in qinghao may be destroyed by high temperatures. Therefore, Tu tried to make the extract with ether which has a much lower boiling point than water.
In 1971, after more than 190 failures, Tu finally got an extract that was 100 percent effective against the malaria parasites . The extract was called qinghaosu, later renamed artemisinin.
According to a statement on the Lasker Foundation website, during the past four decades, Tu's drug has saved millions of lives. It is especially important for children in the poorest and least developed parts of the world. However, not many people knew of the scientist until she won the Lasker Award this month.
Lasker Awards are known as "America's Nobels" for the reason that in the last two decades, 28 Lasker Prize winners have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize, and 80 since 1945, according to Xinhua News Agency.
"The discovery of artemisinin is a gift to mankind from traditional Chinese medicine, " Tu said when she received the award. "Continuous exploration and development of traditional medicine will, without doubt, bring more medicines to the world. " | high17816.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Helping others will make it easier for us to solve our own difficulties."
},
"options": [
"Helping others will make it easier for us to solve our own difficulties.",
"We can learn to see life from a fresh light.",
"We should ... | Rich or poor, we all have problems: that unfaithful mate, that irritating colleague, that persistent disease, the investment that is turning into a huge loss. How do we remain calm, positive and even elegant in the face of all these difficulties of life?
That following suggestions may help.
It comes with the pay. I have a friend who used to complain about her dead-end job and unreasonable boss. Sound familiar? One day I told her, "Look at it this way. You are getting paid for the annoyance as well as the work. It comes with the pay." This has become my favorite saying for work-related frustrations. "Take every day as a bonus." When we learn to treasure every moment of what we have, we begin to see life in a whole new perspective.
It's all in the mind. Sure, the psychologists tell us it is important we work at resolving problems. But they also say if you try to resolve a problem that would not go away, it would only compound the frustration. If you tell yourself there isn't a problem, there won't be one. It's all in the mind.
Stop thinking about your own problem ---help others instead. A lady who is combating a life-threatening disease revealed she coped with her illness by making herself useful, by offering help to others in a similar situation. She has spoken to at least five other women with breast cancer. She says that the sharing has helped her to find fresh meaning in her own life.
Never give up on your dream. Why do we give in and give up when meet difficulties? Is it because we have no confidence in our cause and no commitment for what we pursue? It was said that Albert Einstein's last request on his death bed was to be given his equations and his unfinished statement declining the presidency of prefix = st1 /Israel. Einstein first picked up his equations and lamented to his son, "If only I had more mathematics!" What a great persistent spirit!
One strong-hearted lady was the late head of the tragic Kennedy family, Rose Kennedy. She said this on nationwide television one week after losing yet another son to an assassin's bullet---Boddy Kennedy: "And we go on our way with no regrets not looking backwards to the past, but we shall carry on with courage."
Not the end of the world. Do you know something else? I've learned that care as you might, love as you might, some people just don't care back. And it's not the end of the world. After all, it's not the event that makes a person, is it? It's what we do about that happens to us. | high19185.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Thin people may be fat inside."
},
"options": [
"Thin people may be fat inside.",
"Internal fat is of no importance.",
"Internal fat leads to many diseases.",
"Thin people don't have diabetes."
],
"question": "W... | If it really is what's on the inside that counts, then a lot of thin people might be in trouble.
Some doctors now think that the internal fat surrounding important organs like the heart liver could be as dangerous as the external fat which can be noticed more easily.
"Being thin doesn't surely mean you are not tat, said Dr Jimmy Bell at Imperial College.
Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create "fat maps" showing where people store fat.
According to the result, people who keep their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are slim.
Even people with normal Body Mass Index scores can have surprising levels of fat deposits inside.Of the women, as many as 45 percent of those with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) actually had too high levels of internal fat.Among men, the percentage was nearly 60 percent.
According to Bell, people who are fat on the inside are actually on the edge of being fat.They eat too many fatty and sugary foods, but they are not eating enough to be fat.Scientists believe we naturally store fat around the belly first, but at some point, the body may start storing it elsewhere.
Doctors are unsure about the exact dangers of internal fat, but some think it has something to do with heart disease and diabetes .They want to prove that internal fat damages the body's communication systems.
The good news is that internal fat can be easily burned off through exercise or even by improving your diet."If you want to be healthy, there is no shortcut.Exercise has to be an important part of your lifestyle, " Bell said. | high20704.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "a newspaper"
},
"options": [
"a magazine",
"a newspaper",
"a textbook",
"a map"
],
"question": "The passage may come from _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_ind... | TOKYO - Japan is considering plans to calm tensions with China by acknowledging Chinese claims to the disputed islands in the East China Sea, while maintaining its own position, Kyodo News cited sources as saying on Tuesday.
The report said that the plans would allow Japan, without changing its long-held position, to _ a little with China, which has called on Tokyo to acknowledge the existence of a dispute over the Chinese Diaoyu Islands, referred to as Senkaku Islands in Japan.
Japan has refused to rescind its recent purchase in mid-September of three of the five Diaoyu islands from a so-called private Japanese owner, which the government says was meant to maintain the uninhabited islands in a stable manner, despite China's strong protest.
It remains uncertain, however, whether China would be encouraged by the Japanese step to improve the tensioned ties, said Kyodo. | high2380.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "finding a good career used to be easier in Hong Kong than elsewhere"
},
"options": [
"finding a good career used to be easier in Hong Kong than elsewhere",
"now everyone in Hong Kong has an equal chance of finding a good job",
... | Not so long ago almost any student who successfully completed a university degree could find a good career quite easily.Companies toured the academic institutions, competing with each other to select graduates.However, those days are gone, even in Hong Kong, and nowadays graduates often face strong competition in the search for jobs.
Most careers organizations highlight three stages for graduates to follow in the process of securing a suitable career:recognizing abilities, matching these to available jobs and presenting them well to possible employers.
Job seekers have to make a careful assessment of their own abilities.One area of assessment should be of their academic qualifications, which would include special skills within their subject area.Graduates should also consider their own personal values and attitudes.An honest assessment of personal interests and abilities such as creative skills, or skills acquired from work experience, should also be given careful thought.
The second stage is to study the opportunities available for employment and to think about how the general employment situation is likely to develop in the future.To do this, graduates can study job and position information in newspapers, or they can visit a careers office, write to possible employers for information or contact friends or relatives who may already be involved in a particular profession.After studying all the various options, they should be in a position to make informed comparisons between various careers.
Good personal presentation is essential in the search for a good career.Job application forms and letters should, of course, be filled in carefully and correctly, without grammar or spelling errors.Where additional information is asked for, job seekers should describe their abilities and work experience in more depth, with examples if possible.They should try to balance their own abilities with the employer's needs, explain why they are interested in a career with the particular company and try to show that they already know something about the company and its activities.
When graduates go to an interview, they should prepare properly by finding out all they can about the possible employer.Dressing suitably and arriving for the interview on time are also important.Interviewees should try to give positive and helpful answers and should not be afraid to ask questions about anything they are unsure about.This is much better than pretending to understand a question and giving an unsuitable answer. | high15967.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Item 3"
},
"options": [
"Item 1",
"Item 3",
"Item 4",
"Item 6"
],
"question": "If you want to have a red T-shirt with a Google logo on it, you'd better choose _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
... | T-shirts on sale
Item 1: This classic T-shirt is now available in youth sizes. Made from 100% organic cotton, this white T-shirt with a four-color Google logo is a great fit for both boys and girls. It has double-needle sleeves and a double-needle bottom hem ,and comes in children sizes XS-8,S-10,M-12 and L-14. Price:$9.65.
Item 2: The softest, smoothest, best-looking, organic cotton T-shirt available anywhere. This T-shirt is made of 100% organic cotton and is specially designed to satisfy women's need. Price:$13.25.
Item 3: Talk about user-friendliness--not only does this ladies' T-shirt look great. It's likely to be the most comfortable piece of clothing you own. Made of 70% bamboo and 30% cotton, it's antimicrobial . This shirt is so soft, and you may find strangers asking if they can touch you. Color: red with a Google logo screened on the left sleeve in white. Price :$8.86
Item 4: 100% organic cotton T-shirt. This shirt has a flattering and stylish fit for any body type. Other characteristics include a reinforced shoulder construction to maintain shape through repeated washings, and a durable double-needle bottom hem. It comes in white with a full color YouTube logo. Price :$14.50
Item 5: This super comfortable full-zip T-shirt not only meets your eyes. Its unseen benefits include moisture-wicking and antimicrobial _ .It is made of 56% cotton,16% bamboo, and 28% polyester. Price :$55.20.
Item 6: Your purchase of this 100% African organic cotton T-shirt supports the Edun Live cause, which helps create jobs in Africa. These shirts are referred to as "grow to sew African " meaning the farmers, ginners, millers, and stitchers in Africa benefit every time an order is placed. This comfortable and stylish shirt comes in natural color. Price :$13.00. | high1689.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "it can show their status"
},
"options": [
"it is very delicious",
"it is very cheap and healthy",
"it is very popular in society",
"it can show their status"
],
"question": "The reason why some Chinese new-rich ... | Some Chinese new-rich like eating shark fin soup because they think it shows their class. However, for the Chinese NBA idol Yao Ming, doing so is unacceptable as the practice has led to the overfishing of sharks.
When Yao and his wife Ye Li got married in 2007, they publicly announced that they would not allow shark fin soup to be served at their wedding banquet.
Actually, Yao had been saying no to shark fins since 2006, when he was appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador for wild life protection.
Now, the 226-cm big guy is resorting to his personal influence to encourage more to say no to eating the soup and to raise awareness of animal protection. "Sharks are friends of human beings. They are not our food," Yao said.
Other celebrity athletes like Olympic champions Li Ning and Kong Linghui are following on the heels of Yao, throwing themselves into serving the public as Goodwill Ambassadors for wild animal rescue. Recent reports about Yao's retirement have saddened tens of thousands of basketball fans both at home and abroad. Yet Yao's influence goes far beyond the basketball courts.
Yao has engaged himself in charity and public welfare services for quite a while. When the devastating 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit Wenchuan in southwest China in 2008, Yao donated 2 million yuan . "When I was a little boy, my parents and teachers told me to help others and to be a good man," Yao recalled. "But I could not donate then because I had not much pocket money. After I moved to Houston, I got involved in quite a number of community service activities and I felt a strong sense of achievement when I got people together," Yao said.
Like Yao, newly crowned French Open champion Li Na has showed her willingness to donate. Li gave 480,000 yuan of her prize money from the open, plus 20,000 yuan from her own pocket, to a local nursing home in her hometown. Another Chinese sports icon, hurdler Liu Xiang, has also been actively involved in charity for years. | high1851.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "To advertise for recruiting some good employees."
},
"options": [
"To describe the positions of the China Daily newspaper group.",
"To describe the working conditions of the China Daily newspaper group.",
"To advertise for re... | The China Daily newspaper group is looking for English-language senior business editors, senior copy editors, copy editors and graphic designers to strengthen its international team. We offer a competitive salary package, accommodation with utilities paid for 90 percent, medical reimbursement, a seven-day paid leave, eleven-day public holidays and a return ticket to the country of residence.
Senior Business Editor
You must:
assist the business editor in setting goals and working on achieving them;
be an excellent team person who can generate ideas and think creatively and be able to rewrite totally if needed and mentor junior staff;
ideally have been working or have worked in a position of responsibility and understand what leadership entails;
have had at least five years' editing experience working on editing the Business Desk and be familiar with industry software.
Senior Copy Editor
You must:
work on shifts in the Business Desk and usually have the last word before the page is sent to print;
edit or rewrite copy and give snappy headlines and captions;
have had at least two years' editing experience working on editing desks and be familiar with industry software.
Copy Editor
You must:
be good at editing or rewriting copy and writing snappy headlines and captions;
be able to work on shifts for different pages, and usually have the last word before the page is sent to print;
have two years of editing experience working on copy desks, and be familiar with industry software.
Graphic Designer
You must:
have excellent skills in information graphics;
be good at illustrations and freehand drawings;
be experienced in newspaper or magazine layouts;
have a good sense of typography;
have good news judgment;
be well versed in Macintosh software, including In Design , Illustrator and Photoshop;
be fluent in English.
For enquiries or to apply, write to job @ chinadaily.com.net. | high22113.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "have their sleep patterns observed all night"
},
"options": [
"sit in a row and receive the strict tests",
"have their sleep patterns observed all night",
"read a paper book and an iPad at the same time",
"have their bl... | The bed should be reserved as a place for sleep, but people tend to read an iPad a lot in bed before they go to sleep.
Charles Czeisler, a professor at Harvard Medical School, and his colleagues got a small group of people for an experiment. For five days in a row, the people read either a paper book or an iPad for four hours before sleep. Their sleep patterns were monitored all night. Before and after each trial period, the people took hourly blood tests to paint a day-long picture of just how much melatonin was in their blood at any given time.
When subjects read on the iPad as compared to the paper books, they reported feeling less sleepy at night and less active the following morning. People also took longer to fall asleep on the iPad nights, and the blood tests showed that their melatonin secretion was delayed by an hour and a half.
The researchers conclude in today's journal article that given the rise of e-readers and the increasingly widespread use of e-things among children and adolescents, more research into the long-term consequences of these devices on health and safety is urgently needed. Czeisler and colleagues go on, in the research paper, to note:"Reading an iPad in bed may increase cancer risk."
However, software has been developed that can reduce some of the blue light from the screens of phones and computers according to time of day, and there are also glasses that are made to filter short wavelengths. While they seem like a logical solution for the nighttime tech users, it needs more research. | high10837.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. 1
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 Girlby 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, 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District
When: 7pm
Admission: 15 yuan (10 yuan for students, free for VIP)
Tel: 57800200
Mon, Jun. 4
Script Reading
Scripts written by students from the 166thMiddle 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: 30 pm
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 | high21432.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The sudden brake."
},
"options": [
"The bad weather.",
"The high dam.",
"The sudden brake.",
"The heavy truck."
],
"question": "What might be the main cause of the car accident?",
"question_type": null
},
... | The 30-mile road that runs through the mountains of Willie Valley makes most drivers' hands sweat. But Andersen, a 46-year-old father of four, wasn't expecting any trouble on the road last New Year's Eve, when he set off for a ski trip to the Bear Mountains with nine-year-old daughter Mia, four-old son Baylor, and nine-year-old neighbor Kenya. Andersen had driven through the Valley hundreds of times over the years.
The weather was fine. But the higher they drove, the more slippery the road became. Rounding a sharp U-turn, Andersen saw a heavy truck off the road and immediately hit his brakes. In a minute, the car was going at 25 miles per hour down the mountain before falling down from a ten-foot dam into the extremely cold Logan River.
The crash had broken a few windows, and within seconds, the car was filled with water. "It was frightening that we were going fast into deep water," remembers Andersen, a soft-spoken manager.
Having lost all sense of direction, Andersen began to search the freezing water for the kids. Mia had been right next to him in the front seat; now, in the blackness, he couldn't find her. "I thought, if I don't get out, maybe none of us are going to get out." Andersen got out of his seat belt, swam through a broken window, and, deeply and quickly, breathed air at the surface. That's when he saw a group of men, about ten in all, appear at the top of the dam. One after another, they rushed down into the water. Helping onto safety all the three children, they began to shout at the father, "Who else is in the car?"
Andersen says respectfully, " _ ." | high4901.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "O. Henry didn't start his career as a successful writer when living in central Austin."
},
"options": [
"Most of O. Henry's short stories were finished in prison.",
"O. Henry didn't start his career as a successful writer when livi... | Visitors can find a small, old house called the O. Henry Museum in central Austin, Texas. William Sydney Porter(1862-1910)----better known as O. Henry, was one of America's best loved writers of short stories. Beginning in 1893, he lived here. It was saved from destruction, moved, and turned into a museum in 1934. The museum is a good way to learn about the interesting life of him.
William Porter rented this house and lived with his wife and daughter for about two years. Many objects in the museum belonged to the Porters. Others did not, but are in the house to recreate the way it looked during their lifetime.
Porter worked at a pharmacy, farm, land office and bank. He also loved words and writing. The museum has special proof of Porter's love of language---his dictionary. It's said that he read every word in it. Porter started a small publication called "The Rolling Stone". He wasn't being published early on, so he published himself. His funny stories, poems, and drawings were published in the magazine. But it was too costly to continue for long, so he closed the project after about one year.
Other troubles would lead the Porters to leave Austin. Porter was accused of financial wrongdoing at the bank and lost his job. Fearing a trial, he fled the country. But he returned because his wife was dying. After her death, he faced trial and was found guilty. He served three and a half years in a federal prison in Ohio.
Porter would keep his time in prison a secret. But there was one good thing about it. It provided him with time to write. By the time of his release, he had published 14 stories and was becoming well-known as O. Henry.
Porter would later move to New York City and find great success there. He published over 380 stories in the last eight years of his life. | high335.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "The dying sun."
},
"options": [
"The dying sun.",
"The black hole.",
"The asteroid.",
"The exploding star."
],
"question": "Which of the following will cause the earth's average temperature to go up dramatically... | The universe looks like a pretty quiet place to live. But the universe is filled with dangerous things, all struggling to be the one to wipe us off the planet. Happily for us, they're all pretty unlikely, but if you wait long enough, one of them is certain to get us. But which one?
1. Death by Asteroid
Of all the ways we might meet our untimely death, getting wiped out by an asteroid is the most likely. Why? Because we sit in a universal shooting gallery, with 100 tons of material hitting us every day. The problem, though, occurs every few centuries when something big this way comes. If you could ask a dinosaur, I'd imagine they would tell you to take _ seriously.
2. Death by Exploding Star
When a huge star ends its life, it does so with a bang, which sends death spreading across space in the form of high-energy radiation. Many studies show that the bang would have to be closer than about 75 light years to do us any harm. The good news: no stars so close are able to do the deed.
3. Death by Dying Sun
The sun is important to us; without it, we'd freeze. But the sun is also middle-aged, already halfway to running out of fuel, expanding into a red giant, and cooking us to a fine crisp. Even long before then, it'll warm up enough to raise our average temperature and cause a runaway greenhouse effect, boiling our oceans.
Happily, that's a long time from now.
4. Death by Black Hole
Black holes are misunderstood. They don't wander the galaxy looking for tasty snacks in the form of planets and stars; they turn around the Milky Way just like the hundreds of billions of other stars do. But it's possible that one could wander too close to us. If it did, planetary paths would be disturbed, causing the Earth to drop into the sun or be thrown out into deep space.
Given that it could be trillions of years or more before even that happens, we don't have to worry too much about black holes.
My advice? Go outside, look up, enjoy the sun, the moon, and the stars. They may be there forever as far as any one of us is concerned...and forever is a long, long time. | high14489.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "how Bugu villagers pay attention to education."
},
"options": [
"how Bugu villagers get education.",
"how Bugu villagers pay attention to education.",
"how many students go to university in Bugu village.",
"how Bugu vil... | There is a small village named Bugu in the mountains of Shanglin County, Guangxi. The place is so small that it can't be found in the map of the county of Shanglin. However, the place has strongly interested experts both at home and abroad.
There are altogether 81 families in the village with more than 540 people. Among them as many as 156 villagers have a university education. Take this year's college entrance examination for example. Six out of nine students from the village who took the examination were taken into universities.
Going to school has been a great thing for the whole village. To encourage children to study hard and become useful people, the village has set up a special group made up of four old villagers. Every day, the four villagers go round the village. If they find any child who is not going to school, the child's parents will be punished .
When university students come back to the village for the Spring Festival,the old villagers of the special group always ask them to make up test papers and let the children take the special "Village Test". Those who are taken into university can receive money from the village's education fund. The whole village also helps the poor families send their children to school. | high1879.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "guide's service"
},
"options": [
"bus tours",
"English service",
"three routes",
"guide's service"
],
"question": "The similarity of the three tours lies in that they all include _ .",
"question_type": "... | Sightseeing Tours in Germany
Germany has a variety of cities each with its own characteristics, from the busy city of Berlin, to the ancient city of Cologne, to the Bavarian capital of Munich. Thankfully, these major German cities offer sightseeing tours that offer the opportunity to better explore the surrounding regions and the country's most historic sites.
Berlin on Bike
Berlin on Bike takes visitors through the German capital via five bicycle tours, all with guides. Regular tours include the Wall Tour and Berlin's Best, with stops at some of the city's most famous landmarks, such as the Reichstag explores what life was like in East Berlin under Communist Rule. The cost of the tour includes the bike and helmet rental, and tourists may choose to continue renting their bikes once the tour has ended.
Berlinonbike.de/English/index.php
Munich City Sightseeing Tour
The Munich City Sightseeing Tour transports travelers throughout the city via an open-air, double-decker bus. Passengers can hop on and off at various stops throughout the day. This tour includes stops at such sites as the Munich central train station, the 1972 Olympic Stadium Park, Munich's opera house and Karlsplatz, the gate to the historic city. The bus features a narrated tour guide and offers an English-language option.
Raileurope.com/activities/munich-city-sightseeing-tour/index.html
Nice City Tours- Cologne
Nice City Tours offers three tours of Cologne, available to private or business groups in a variety of languages. The old Town Tour runs for two hours and includes a guided tour of the Cologne Cathedral and some of the city's old squares. The Brewery Pub Tour explores some of the city's most beloved breweries and pubs, and details the history behind Kolsch, Cologne's resident beer. Finally, the Old Town and Rhine Tour begins by visiting some of old town's most historic sites and ends with a ride down the Rhine River.
Nicecitytours.con/tours.htm | high15797.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "they want to look for a better life in Britain"
},
"options": [
"they want to get a British degree",
"the education in UK is the best in the world",
"they want to know more about British",
"they want to look for a bette... | "Let the world know China and let China know the world." I can't remember exactly where I have seen this slogan in Beijing. Considering the simple fact of the wish people have for learning foreign languages and the number of people going abroad each year, everyone can tell how hard China and Chinese people are trying to know the world. But I didn't know how equally important and urgent it is for the world to know China until I came to the UK.
In the self-introduction during our first class in a PhD course, when I told them I wanted to finish the degree as soon as I could and then go back to China, the British students looked at me in both surprise and disbelief. Their idea is that everybody who comes to the UK, including the Chinese, will stay here to look for a better life and that this is the only place where one can find a better life.
When I asked my friend for advice about buying a new car, she looked at me, asking in surprise, "A new car?" Later I found out that her surprise was because of the popular image of Chinese students: either too poor or too economical.
When we Chinese students for the first time joined the monthly performance hour of the department and sang some traditional songs and gave a short humorous introduction, all the teachers and students were surprised. To them, Chinese students are so serious and shy. These ideas have been because of the fact that Chinese students are sometimes not seen among the students.
So "let the world know China" should no longer remain an empty slogan. It is something we all should do, home and abroad, and something we should do with confidence and openness. | high8685.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Old people are more likely to meet with accidents in crosswalks."
},
"options": [
"Among 100 pedestrian deaths there were 21 people younger than 70.",
"Old people are more likely to meet with accidents in crosswalks.",
"Traff... | Cities alarmed by deaths and injuries of pedestrians are taking efforts to make crosswalks safer for people on foot, especially seniors and children who need more time to cross streets.
A pedestrian is killed in a traffic accident in the USA every 110 minutes;one is injured every nine minutes, according to official data. Crosswalk can be especially dangerous for the elderly. Among people 70 and older, 36% of pedestrian deaths in 2006 occurred in crosswalks, compared with 21% of those younger than 70, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The Federal Highway Administration(FHWA)advises that next year states increase by nearly 15% the amount of time traffic lights provide for pedestrians to cross the street after the flashing orange hand appears .
FHWA spokesman Doug Hecox says reasons for the change include an aging population that needs more time to cross, health-conscious Americans walking more, children encouraged to walk to prevent getting overweight and high gas prices pushing people to walk instead of driving.
Pedestrian deaths went down by 12% from 5,449 in 1996 to 4,784 in 2006. But among those in 2006, 471 were killed in crosswalks, down slightly from 488 ten years earlier, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says . | high23543.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "you cannot see or touch"
},
"options": [
"you cannot think about",
"you can't remember well",
"you cannot understand",
"you cannot see or touch"
],
"question": "An abstract sense in the passage refers to awarene... | Consumers everywhere are faced with the same dilemma: given limited resources, what sorts of purchases are most likely to produce lasting happiness and satisfaction? Recent research has confirmed that experiential purchases tend to produce greater hedonic gains than material purchases.
The reason why experiences improve with time may be because it is possible to think about experiences in a more abstract manner than possessions. For example, if you think back to a fantastic summer from your youth, you might easily remember an abstract sense of warm sunshine and youthful exuberant , but you're less likely to remember exactly what you did day-by-day.
Material possessions are harder to think about in an abstract sense. The car you bought is still a car, that great new jacket you picked up cheap is still just a jacket. It's more likely the experience of that summer has taken on a symbolic meaning that can live longer in your memory than a possession.
Purchasing may have a negative impact on happiness because consumers often buy "joyless" material possessions, resulting in comfort but not pleasure. In general, people adapt to experiences more slowly than to material purchase. This can be seen in both negative and positive purchases: hedonic adaptation would result in a positive experience causing more happiness but a negative experience causing less happiness than the comparable material purchase with the same initial happiness level.
Experience, however, seems to be more resistant to these sorts of unfavourable comparisons. It is because of the unique nature of experience. It's more difficult to make an unfavourable comparison when there is nothing directly comparable. After all, each of our youthful summers is different.
It's well established that social comparisons can have a huge effect on how we view what might seem like positive events. One striking example is the finding that people prefer to earn $50,000 a year while everyone else earns $25,000, instead of earning $100,000 themselves and having other people earn $200,000.
A similar effect is seen for possessions. When there are so many flat-screen HD TVs to choose from, it's easy to make unfavourable comparisons between our choice and the others available. | high12946.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "About 50%"
},
"options": [
"25%.",
"About 50%",
"70%.",
"Over 80%."
],
"question": "How many of car journeys are just for fun in the UK?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | How often do you use your car? Can you use your car less often? Do you know the following facts in the UK?
* About 50% of all car journeys are just for fun.
* Over 80% people go to work by car.
* 25% car journeys are under two miles.
* 70% car journeys are under five miles.
WALKING & CYCLING
Instead of using the car for short journeys, why not walk or ride a bicycle? Walking is a most popular form of exercise--it's healthy and it can save you money. If you work nearby, try walking or cycling instead of driving.
BUSES
Bus companies are using new buses: some run on new fuels which produce less pollution; some have easier access for disabled and old people. There are special traffic lanes to make bus journeys easier and more reliable. So do something to help solve the pollution problem--let the bus take you to work and your children to school.
TRAINS
All car journeys, long or short, can be hard work. For some trips it is wiser to take the train. Leave your car at home and walk, cycle or take a bus to and from the station. Train travel is fast, safe and comfortable. Train tickets are not always expensive; some are quite cheap at discount. | high453.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "the sick person to sit on the sand painting"
},
"options": [
"many people to draw together",
"the sick person to sit on the sand painting",
"the sick person to eat some sand",
"the medicine man to use several sand paint... | Native American sand paintings are a very beautiful and popular art form for collectors today. But traditionally, the paintings are created to heal a person during a ceremony. The type of image and ceremony used is determined by the disease which the person is suffering from. The sand painting may contain an image of the Holy People. The tribe medicine man may ask the Holy People to help him paint the image and therefore help heal the person in need. When the medicine man finishes painting, he checks its accuracy. The order and the symmetry of the painting symbolize the harmony which a patient wishes to achieve in his or her life. The accuracy of a sand painting is believed to determine its healing effects.
In some cases, more than one sand painting might be used in a healing ceremony. During the ceremony, the person who needs healing will sit on the Native American sand painting. The sand painting serves as an entrance for the spirits and through the painting, the person can absorb the healing energies from these spirits.
The sand paintings were not originally meant to be sold or hung on the wall. Once the ceremony is completed, the sand painting must be destroyed, thus allowing the sand to return to the Earth. This is necessary because the sand painting is now seen as poisonous, having absorbed the illness, and must be destroyed. The entire ceremony, from the painting to the destroying is usually completed within a 12-hour period. The medicine man never wrote down how to perform the healing ceremony, but it was passed down from generation to generation.
The Pueblo tribe was the first tribe to create Native American sand paintings, but the art soon spread to many other tribes. Today, it is the Navajos who are the most active in creating Native American sand paintings.
It is believed that it was a medicine man named Fred Stevens who was the first person to create a Native American sand painting for sale in the 1950s. A trader, Rex Bollin, recommended Fred to sell sand paintings since they were so beautiful. After working out how to make the sand stick to the canvas , Fred began selling his sand paintings. | high22885.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The US' agricultural wealth"
},
"options": [
"Relying on rotating crops",
"The difficulty of planting crops",
"The US' melting pot culture",
"The US' agricultural wealth"
],
"question": "What has made American c... | The "melting pot" in American cuisine(. ) is a myth, not terribly unlike the idea of a melting pot of American culture, notes chef Dan Barber. "Most cultures don't think about their cuisine in such monolithic terms," he says. "French, Mexican, Chinese, and Italian cuisines each consist of dozens of distinct regional foods. And I think 'American' cuisine is moving in the same direction, becoming more localized, not globalized. "
American cuisine is shaped by the natural wealth of the country. Having never faced agricultural hardship, Americans don't have to rely on rotating crops, such as the Japanese, whose food culture now showcases buckwheat alongside rice, or the Indians, or the French and Italians, who feature beans alongside wheat. "That kind of negotiation with the land forced people to incorporate those crops in to the culture," says Barber. And so eating soba noodles becomes part of what it means to be Japanese, and eating beans becomes part of what it means to be French.
So if what we eat is what we are, what are Americans? Well, meat. "If Americans have any unifying food identity, I would say we are a mostly white meat culture," says Barber. "The protein-centric dinner plate, whether you're talking about a boneless chicken breast, or a 16-ounce steak, as an everyday expectation is something that America really created, and now exports to the rest of the world."
Every single culture and religion uses food as part of their celebrations, says Ellen Gustafson, co-founder of the FEED Project and The 30 Project, which aims to deal with both hunger and overweight issues globally. "The celebratory nature of food is universal. Every season, every harvest, and every holiday has its own food, and this is true in America as well. It helps define us." | high13480.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "All about Provinces and Territories"
},
"options": [
"All about Provinces and Territories",
"Scary Tales to Tell in the Dark",
"Velcome: a Very Scary Book",
"A Children's Atlas"
],
"question": "If you want your ... | The Calgary Public Library has some great resources to beat boredom and keep your children busy over the summer, whether at home or on the road.
During the school year children are busy with homework and required reading, so summer is a great time for them to relax and read what they choose. Not only is reading a pleasurable way to pass the time, it will also help children keep their skills up over the summer, so they are prepared to go back to school in the fall.
If you are taking a trip this summer, why not let the kids help out with the planning? Borrow a children's atlas to choose your way together and check out some books about your destination before departure. The All about Provinces and Territories series is full of interesting facts about each Canadian province.
Going camping? How about taking along some scary stories to tell around the campfire? Alvin Schwarz's collections of Scary Tales to Tell in the Dark are sure _ . For something a little less horrible, try Velcome: a Very Scary Book, by Kevin O'Malley, which includes such horrors as a plate of mixed vegetables!
Remember to lead by example and pack a book in your own beach bag. If children see you reading, they will understand that books are an important and valuable part of summer and they will begin to copy your habits!
The staff at the Calgary Public Library are always happy to help find that perfect summer read, so stop by your nearest branch, call us at 260-2600, or visit our website at calgarypubliclibrary. com today. | high10189.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "It can make information easily accessible to people."
},
"options": [
"It can be lowered to the ocean floor easily.",
"It can cool computing components automatically.",
"It can be built close to the place where people live.",... | Microsoft just finished a three-month experiment operating an underwater data center.A server rack with the power of about 300PCs was placed into a water-tight steel container and lowered into the ocean off the coast of central California.
The unusual experiment was launched because current data centers are unpleasantly inefficient.They're built where energy and land are cheap (not close to where people actually live).And they waste so much energy cooling their massive computers.The ocean can solve those problems.The cold ocean floor sufficiently cools the computing components inside the pod.And since most people live near the ocean,placing data centers under water could potentially increase the speed at which customers could access the information stored in Microsoft's cloud.
The experiment was so successful that Microsoft operated the underwater data center for 75days longer than it had planned to.The next step is to get a larger pod,with about four times the computing power,under the ocean for testing.Unlike the first experiment,the next pod will also be equipped with turbines,which will transform the ocean's currents into electricity.It's not clear when,if ever,underwater data centers will become a possible product."Our first experiment was like dipping our pinkie toe in the water,and now we're going for the big toe,"said Lee,corporate vice president of Microsoft Research.
Microsoft is still analyzing the environmental impacts of the study.Data centers are both hot and loud,which could have damaging effects on ocean life.Microsoft found that the noise its underwater data center produced was drowned out by nearby shrimp and crabs.The data centers are also built from recyclable materials,and Microsoft believes that the total carbon footprint of underwater data centers will be"dramatically lower"than current land-based centers.
Given the growth in the cloud,industry analysts believe that most of the world's data centers have yet to be built.But building a data center takes at least two years-an eternity in the fast-developing tech industry.As a result,Microsoft builds its data centers with the future in mind,installing far more computing power and space than it currently needs.
Lee believes that going under water can shift the building of data centers from construction projects to manufacturing jobs."What if we could mass-produce these pods on an assembly line?"he thought."We could deliver a data center,from conception to operation,in 90days.That's dramatically different than what's happening today." | high19813.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "seious deprrssioa"
},
"options": [
"poor memory",
"liule exercise",
"seious deprrssioa",
"uhualthy eating"
],
"question": "The real cause of the inability to focus is _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_question... | Have you ever noticed that some people am able to effortlessly remember even the most boring details, and quickly understand new things, and wished that you too could be like that? To unlock the full potential of you brain. you need m keep it active and acute. But how? Check out these tips:
.Exercise&get your body moving
Exercising doesn't just exercise the body; it also helps to exercise your brain. Without regular exercise your blood vessels<<)begin m lose the ability to effectively pump blood and it also mduws the amount of oxygen and nutrients thatyour blood carries to your brain. When the nutrients don't make it them, the brains ability to function is compromised. To prevent this from happening, make sure you get moving every day. Walking, swimming and dancing arc all excellent activities.
Get rid of stressorsbnd seek help for depression
Among the most brain-damaging stressars is severe depression, which is actually often mistaken for a memory problem since one of its primary symptoms is the inability to concentrate. If you can't concentrate, yon might feel like you am conrtantly forgetting things. Depression increases the levels of codisol in your brain, which affects your memory. Seek professional help to get rid of your depressionyour brain will thank you.
.Feed you brain
50 to 60 percent of the brain's overall weight is pure fat, which is used to insulam its billions of nerve cells. The better insulated a cell is, the quicker you will be thinking. This is exactly why paints are advised.feed their young children whole milk. Thus. eating foods chat contain a healthy mix of fats is vital for long-term memory. Some excellent food choices include fish end dark leafy green vegetables. | high21354.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "an experimental lab built on Earth."
},
"options": [
"a research base on Mars.",
"an experimental lab built on Earth.",
"a strange place on Mars .",
"a town existing in scientists' imagination"
],
"question": "T... | Many scientists are now exploring the idea of going to live on Mars. Some other scientists from the MASA AMES Center have already started the creation of a "Mars town" and many others are in fact already experimenting with it. Of course, these experiments are done on Earth itself but this "Mars town" has an environment practically like that of Mars.
The astronauts working in these towns wear their space suit and also do everything they would really have to carry out if they ever go to Mars in the future.
But Mars would be like Earth, a temporary place for humans. When the Sun starts swallowing up the planets, Mars will disappear only hours after Earth. So Mars only seems to be the ideal place to spread the human beings. It is also a good location to send humans if ever there is a disaster on Earth. By saying disaster, I mean asteroids hitting and things like that.
If we humans do not want to disappear when Earth or Mars gets swallowed up, we will have to go and live beyond the solar system. But are there any planets outside our solar system prepared to support life? Astronomers' answer is:
"If Earth can support life, why can't other planets do the same too? Astronomers have already discovered a Jupiter - like planet _ a Sun-like star, so why not an Earth-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star?
To achieve this goal though, many other problems have to be taken into consideration. How do we transform a dusty planet like Mars into one more or less like our Earth? How should we go on? There is still a long way to go. | high11297.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "can give off light at night"
},
"options": [
"can fly here and there at night",
"can be used as Christmas lights",
"can give off light at night",
"1ives happily in the trees"
],
"question": "Firefly is a kind of... | Firefly is just a name.They are actually very cool insects. And they are not even flies, they are beetles.They have a way of sending out light signals every now and then.If you see them at night on a tree, you might think it is a brightly lit Christmas tree.That is the kind of light these fireflies produce.
But the light they send out does not have heat,like the bulbs we use.The firefly's light is cold. Aetually these beetles could be the most efficient bulbs if only we knew how to use them. For almost all the energy they produce gets changed into bright lightcool light.
How do they do it? The back portion of their stomachs are transparent.There are cells of crystals or chemical substances inside which get broken down by enzymes.Some energy is released in the form of light.
The fireflies send out 1ight signals at fixed intervals.And the purpose behind it is to attract beetles for mating.But one firefly's signal is different from another's, depending on its sex and the type of family it belongs to.If a firefly sends a signal at a fixed interval but gets a response either too soon or too late,it will ignore the signal.It is like a perfect dance sequence.If you are faster or slower than your partner,the dance fails.
Fireflies come from two families of beetles.One family of fireflies is usually found in Europe.North Ameriea and Australia.They are found on trees.The other family of fireflies is found in the Pacific islands.There is another type of beetle which gives out a softer 1ight.It is called the glow worm. | high21340.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Sea ice cover"
},
"options": [
"Rainfall",
"Krill",
"Sea ice cover",
"High sea level"
],
"question": "Which of the following is the most important for whales and dolphins?",
"question_type": null
},
{
... | The USA, New York--Whales and dolphins are facing increasing threats from climate change, according to a new report published by WWF and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).
The report "Whales in hot water?" draws attention to the growing impacts of climate change on whales.They range from changes in sea temperature and the freshening of the seawater because of the melting of ice and increased rainfalls, to a sea level rise, loss of icy polar habitats and the _ of krill populations in key areas.Krill, a tiny shrimp that is dependent on sea ice, is the main source of food for many of the great whales.
The speeding up of climate change adds greatly to trouble from other human activities, such as chemical and noise pollution, which kills some 1000 whales every day.
"Whales and dolphins have an ability to adapt to their changing environment," said Mark Simmonds, International Director of Science at WDCS."But the climate is now changing at such a fast pace that it is unclear to what extent whales and dolphins will be able to adjust."
Climate change impacts are currently greatest in the Arctic and the Antarctic.According to the report, cetaceans that rely on polar, icy waters for their home and food resources are likely to be greatly affected by the reduction of sea ice cover.
WDCS and WWF are urging governments to cut global production of C02 by at least 50 percent by the middle of this century.The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed it was possible to stop global warming if the world's emissions start to decline before 2015. | high11283.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Joining the army was a good choice for those who couldn't afford college education."
},
"options": [
"Joining the army was more beneficial than going to college.",
"Joining the army was a good choice for those who couldn't afford c... | My brother Ron joined the US army a few years ago. Most girls, especially those who are my age, are thrilled by anything that has to do with the "army". It's a novelty to them to shoot a gun, jump out of a plane, and wear uniform.
Now I know you're thinking that I must find it really cool to know a solider, who's my brother. That's wrong, before I found out that my brother joined the army, I was crazy about the army. Firstly, I wanted to go to college, knew that joining the army was probably the only way I could get it as my parents couldn't afford it. Additionally there were all the other points of the army that grabbed my heart. I wanted the challenge, I wanted the discipline and I wanted the feeling that I would be doing something beyond the ability of average citizen.
But as soon as my brother joined the army, all those things fell away. All I saw were dead people, guns shooting, tanks turning into a ball of fire, tents burning, and lots of blood. It was so horrible. When Ron went to Iraq, I freaked out whenever I didn't hear from him for more than a week. I kept up with the news, reading the latest newspaper and listening to the hourly reports. And every time I heard that an American solider was killed, I prayed, it' wasn't Ron.
I'm proud of my brother for serving our country, and his willingness to devote his life to something he finds important. It's great to see how discipline and mature he's got, and I'm glad he has his college paid for. But although I am proud, I gladly give up the "coolness" of having a brother in the army. I would be perfectly all right if I had never seen that uniform on him, and he was just a plain old "boring" brother.
I love my brother, and I'm proud of him, but I want him back home! | high6864.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "from October 21 to 24"
},
"options": [
"from October 5 to 7",
"from October 5 to 8",
"from October 21 to 24",
"from October 21 to 25"
],
"question": "The Culinary Arts Festival lasts _ .",
"question_type"... | The British coloney of Bermude is a top summertime escape. Yet, even through October, Bermuda isn't ready to stop for the winter. During this month, world-class festivals on teh island keep things lively and the weather remains comfortable enough for Bermuda shorts and bathing suits.
In October, Bermuda hosts two major festivals--the Bermuda Music Festival and the Bermuda Culinary Arts Festival. The 10thanniversary Bermuda Music Festival begins October 5 and features three days of performances at the Royal Naval Dockyard on Bermuda's West End. Featured main stage performers include Joss Stone, Pattie Labelle, and Al Green, and a second stage spotlights local Bermudian artists. General admission tickets start at $60 for on e day or $160 for a three-day pass.
Starting October 21, the Culinary Arts Festival brings some of North America's top chefs to the island for four days of food and wine tastings, conferences and cooking competitions. Participating chefs include Todd English and Michael Lomonaco, among others. Three-day festival passes start at $649 per person, but you can also buy separate tickets for individual events.
Even if you don't attend one of the festivals, there's still plenty to do. With mostly sunny days and temperatures averaging aroung 79 degrees, the weather is just right for participating in Bermuda's two favorite pastimes--golf and tennis. With fewer visitors on the island than during the summer, you may have an easier time getting the best times or a spot on the courts. It's also still warm enough to enjoy the island's pink sand beaches and go swimming, because the water keeps the summer's heat longer than the air. Of course, you can always shop in the city of Hamilton's upscale small goods arts and crafts shops. | high8691.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "To stop climate change."
},
"options": [
"To fight against pollution.",
"To save electricity effectively.",
"To stop climate change.",
"To support WWF's work."
],
"question": "What is the main purpose of Earth H... | Earth Hour is organized by WWF. With almost 5 million supporters and a global network in over 100 countries, it's one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organizations. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the Earth's natural environment and build a future where people live in harmony with nature.
Earth Hour started on March 31st, in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change. Only a year later Earth Hour had become a global movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, CN Tower in Toronto, Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome's Colosseum, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.
In March 2009, hundreds of millions of people took part in the third Earth Hour. Over 4,000 cities in 88 countries officially switched off to pledge their support for the planet, making Earth Hour 2009 the world's largest movement to stop global climate change.
On Saturday 27 March, Earth Hour 2010 became the biggest Earth Hour ever. A record 128 countries and territories joined the global display of climate action. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Asia Pacific to Europe and Africa to the Americas switched off. People across the world from all walks of life turned off their lights and came together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common--our planet.
Earth Hour will continue to be a call to action to every individual, a call to stand up, to take responsibility and lead the global journey to a sustainable future. | high22649.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The causes of stress are worth serious study."
},
"options": [
"Freedom from responsibilities helps reduce stress.",
"Stress is the direct cause of caner.",
"The causes of stress are worth serious study.",
"Cancer is th... | Cancer is among the top killer diseases in our society today and scientists have found out that stress helps to bring it on. We need to consider, therefore, what are the causes of stress in our life, and whether we can do anything about them.
Are we under-employed, or overburdened with too many responsibilities? Do we have a right balance of work and leisure in our lives? Are our relationships with family, friends or fellow workers all that they should be?
All these things can be a cause of stress, and it is best to face them directly, and to bring our frustrations into the open. People who have a good _ and then forget it are doing their health more good than those who bottle up their feelings.
If our self-examination has brought any causes of stress to light, let us consider what we can do about them. It is possible to change jobs. We can make more leisure and fill it more happily, if we will accept a different living standard. We can improve our personal relationships by a different attitude. It is we who allow other people to make ourselves unhappy. Often the little things that disturb us are not worth an hour's anger. The teaching in the Bible "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath " is good advice from the health point of view as well as religion. | high23557.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Alexis didn't believe in herself"
},
"options": [
"Alexis took a wrong path",
"Alexis was trapped in rocks",
"Alexis didn't believe in herself",
"Alexis' forearms were badly hurt"
],
"question": "Jason went down... | Alexis was _ and tired. With anger in her voice she shouted,"Pull me up. I give up. I hate this. This is stupid!"It was at that moment when Jason, the adviser on the trip, looked at me and said,"Ed, I'm going to go down and talk with her."I then shouted down to Alexis,"Hold on! You can do this. We know you can!"
Jason grasped another rope, put this climbing harness on and began to move down the cliff. Within moments Jason was beside Alexis. She had her cheek directly against the face of the rock with her feet barely resting on a small piece of the cliff that jetted outward.
Jason said to Alexis,"I know that you have been on this cliff now for what seems like a long time. Your feet and fingers are cramping " up and your forearms feel as though they are on fire. But, Alexis, you are strong. Look how far up you are already. You have taken one of the more difficult parts up the cliff. Alexis, look at the path you have taken."
At that moment, Alexis moved her cheek away from the rock face and looked down. The bright white chalk she used on her hands to give her a better hold, showed the path where her tired hands had moved her upward on the cliff. Jason was right. Alexis had taken the hardest way up the cliff. Jason then looked straight into Alexis' eyes and in a calm voice he said,"You are not alone out here. There are people who care about you, who want to help you and see you succeed. We are going to do this together. Are you ready?"Slowly she nodded and took a deep breath. | high22891.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "A teacher praised his students for their talent and wisdom."
},
"options": [
"A boy tells his girlfriend how pretty she looks",
"An employee tells his boss how good he is at management",
"A knight is said to be of limitless p... | An "apple polisher" is one who gives gifts to win friendship or special treatment. It is not exactly a bribe ,but is close to it.
All sorts of people are apple polishers, including politicians and people in high offices -- just about everybody. Oliver Cromwell, the great English leader, offered many gifts to win the support of George Fox and his party, but failed.
There are other phrases meaning the same thing as "apple-polishing" -- "soft-soaping" or "butter-up". A gift is just one way to "soft-soap" somebody, or to "butter him up". Another that is just as effective is flattery, giving someone high praise -- telling him how good he looks, or how well he speaks, or how talented and wise he is.
Endless are the ways of flattery. Who does not love or hear it ? Only an unusual man can resist the thrill of being told how wonderful he is. In truth, flattery is good medicine for most of us, who gets so little of it.
We need it to be more sure of ourselves. It cannot hurt unless we get carried away by it. But we just lap it up for its food value and nourishment, as a cat laps up milk, then we can still remain true to ourselves.
Sometimes, however, flattery will get you nothing from one who has had too much of it. A good example is the famous 12th century legend of King Canute of Denmark and England. The king got tired of listening to the endless sickening flattery of his courtiers .They overpraised him to the skies, as a man of limitless power.
He decided to teach them a lesson. He took them to the seashore and sat down. Then he ordered the waves to stop coming in. The tide was too busy to listen to him. The king was satisfied. This might show his followers how weak his power was and how empty their flattery. | high447.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "PS40."
},
"options": [
"PS10.",
"PS24.",
"PS16.",
"PS40."
],
"question": "How much should an adult with a child pay to enter Leeds Castle?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | Leeds Castle is in Kent, England. 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Maidstone. It is built on islands in a lake formed by the River Len to the cast of the village of Leeds. It has been open to the public since 1976.
Opening time: April to September. 10:00--18:00 October to March: 10:00~17:00 Tickets:Tickets are valid for one year from date of purchase giving free repeat visits to the Castle, grounds and attractions. Excludes special ticketed events and Christmas Day.
Adult tickets: PS24 single
Child tickets: PS16 single (4~15 years old)
Kid ticket: free (under 4)
Transportation:
Coach or express: National Express from London to Leeds Castle directly
Train: Any train from southern cities to Bearsted. transfer by Spot Travel to Leeds Castle. 15 minutes' ride, goes by each hour.
The Upstairs Tour: Thursday 21st April, 11:30am
See the State bedrooms, not normally on show to the public. Hear about the guests of the roaring 1920s. see the bedroom where Edward and Simpson stayed and where Pavarotti was accommodated during his visit.
Price: PS5 per person. A valid entrance ticket is required per person
Embroidery Taster Workshop: Sunday 5th June, 10:30am
Learn the basics with expert supervision from members of the Embroiderers Association and sew your own small piece of embroidery to lake home and frame to turn into a cushion or handmade greeting card.
Price: PS20 per person.
A valid entrance ticket is required per person. Includes refreshments and all materials. | high13494.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "her grandparents"
},
"options": [
"her grandparents",
"Christine",
"Nicos.",
"her parent"
],
"question": "Elena went to Greece in order to visit_.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": ... | Christine and Elena grew up in the same suburb of Sydney and first met at kindergarten. They took to each other immediately and became inseparable friends throughout their school lives. Elena's parents had moved from Greece to Australia, and her grandparents still lived on the small Greek island of Santorini, When she was 16, Elena visited her grandparents for the first time. On returning to Australia, she talked endlessly about her grandmother's next-door neighbor, Mara. When Christine expressed puzzlement at Elena's obsession with people next door, Elena admitted that Maria had a handsome son called Nicos. She showed Christine a photo of him, standing next to his prize possession, a motorbike. Elena and Nicos exchanged emails for a while, but suddenly Nicos stopped writing. While not heartbroken, Elena was nevertheless hurt. A year later, when Christine announced that she was going to visit Greece, Elena begged her to visit Santorini and say hello to Maria and Nicos. Christine agreed to do so.
When she flew into Athens on an unseasonably cold day in September, she quickly realized that she hadn't brought enough warm clothes. Walking through the streets of the Greek capital, she happened to see a nice coat in a shop window and went in to ask about the price. The coat was too expensive, but as Christine was about to leave the shop, the woman asked her where she was from. When Christine answered Australia, the woman agreed to reduce the price because she knew a nice girl from Australia called Elena. Christine then noticed a photo of a young man standing next to a motorbike. Her eyes opened wide with astonishment. It was Nicos! Indeed the young man was Nicos, and the woman in the shop was Maria. She had come to Athens from Santorini to look after the shop for a friend.
Sadly, the story has a tragic ending. Nicos had been killed in a motorcycle accident.
"I wanted to tell Elena," said Maria. "But I didn't know how. Now that I have met you, I know that it's time to tell her." | high24238.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "to call on us to use our time in a smart manner"
},
"options": [
"to explain the origin of the expression\"first things first\"",
"to call on us to use our time in a smart manner",
"to introduce a meaningful class given by an... | People say time is .But to what.I do know that sometimes time"seems"to be moving slower.Remember Christmas Eve when you were a child? It was the longest night of the year.It lasted forever! And now it seems like I just paid my bill yesterday...and it's due again!
People tell me all too frequently...I need more time! Oh ,really?...Mother Teresa,
Michelangelo,and Helen Keller all had 24 hours a day.Look what they did with their time!
Is it that we need to manage our time better...or our priorities ?You've heard the expression"first things first."The first step in understanding the power of time is to understand that it is limited.Why is it then that some people get a lot more done? We know the answer.They use their time smartly.
One day an expert on time management was speaking to a group of students and announced a quiz.He pulls out a wide-mouthed jar.Next,he places about a dozen fist-sized rocks,one at a time , into the jat, until no more will fit."Is it full?"he asks."Yes,"responds the class."Oh really?"he asks.So he takes out a bucket of gravel . which he manages to work down into the spaces between the larger rocks."Is it full now?"he asks.
Wising up,one answered,''Probably not."Sure enough. he takes out a bucket of sand,which he pours into the empty spaces."Is it full now?"he asks."N0 1"reply the students confidently.So he takes a glass of water and fills it in.Then he asks,"What is my point?''
One said,''No matter how full your schedule is,if you try really hard,you can always fit some more things into it!"
"No,"the speaker replied,"It tells us if you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all.''
What are the big rocks? The things you should put in to your jar first.
The rich don't get 25 hours and the poor don't get 23...we all get the same.Let's use them wisely! Invest your time wisely! | high23231.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Japan had to import most of its natural resources"
},
"options": [
"Japan had to import most of its natural resources",
"Japan would not be powerful enough to beat a blockade",
"an attack would probably destroy Japanese resou... | Nuclear weapons were first developed in the United States during the Second World War to be used against Germany.However, by the time the first bombs were ready for use, the war with Germany had ended and, as a result, the decision was made to use the weapons against Japan instead.
The real reasons why bombs were dropped on two heavily populated cities are not altogether clear.A number of people in 1944 and early 1945 argued that the use of nuclear weapons would be unnecessary, since American Intelligence was aware that some of the most powerful and influential people in Japan had already realised that the war was lost, and wanted to discuss a Japanese surrender .It was also argued that, since Japan has few natural resources, a blockade by the American navy would force it to surrender within a few Weeks, and the use of nuclear weapons would prove unnecessary.If a demonstration of force was required to end the war, a bomb could be dropped over an unpopulated area like a desert, in front of Japanese observers, or over an area of low population inside Japan, such as a forest.Choosing this course of action might decrease the loss of further lives on all sides, while the power of nuclear weapons would still be adequately demonstrated .
All of these arguments were turned down, however, and the general agreement was that the quickest way to end the fighting would be to use nuclear weapons against the centres of population inside Japan.In fact, two of the more likely reasons why the decision was reached seem quite shocking to us now. | high15783.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "both A and C"
},
"options": [
"she was very tired",
"her husband was driving very slowly",
"it was too late",
"both A and C"
],
"question": "Mrs. Lee fell asleep in the car because _ .",
"question_type": "... | One night Mr. Lee was driving his wife home from work. She was a staff nurse in a hospital. It was almost midnight and she was quite tired out. She soon fell asleep. Mr Lee looked at her and smiled.
Mr. Lee was a cautious and experienced driver. He knew it was safer to drive slowly on a dark night. After some time he noticed a car following him. It was traveling very fast. Suddenly it overtook his car.
The driver of the car was in a hurry. He did not see the approaching lorry . To avoid hitting it, he swerved his car. It skidded off the road and hit a big tree. The driver and his passenger were injured. They were badly cut by glass splinter from the broken windscreen.
Mr. Lee quickly stopped his car by the side of the road. His wife got out of the car to help the injured men. The lorry driver also stopped to lend a helping hand. Mr. Lee immediately drove off to telephone the police.
About twenty- five minutes later, a police car and an ambulance arrived. The injured men were carried into the ambulance and taken to hospital.
The policemen took down details of the accident. Mr. Lee and the lorry driver told them all that they could remember. The policemen thanked them for their help. Mr. and Mrs. Lee then got into their car and continued their journey home. | high10823.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "33%"
},
"options": [
"66%",
"44%",
"33%",
"55%"
],
"question": "The number of smokers in China makes up about _ of the world's smokers.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | A ban on smoking in public places has come into force in China - home to a third of the world's smokers.
The move is aimed at controlling the number of deaths from smoking-related diseases, running at a million a year.
But the rules have been criticized, because they do not include punishments for those who choose to ignore them.
Many business owners hate rules that force them to ban smoking on their premises because many customers do not like the rules and complain.
The rules do not allow smoking in places like restaurants, hotels, railway stations or theatres, but not at the office.
Employers have a duty to warn staff off the dangers of smoking but do not have to forbid them from lighting up at their desks.
Shanghai introduced similar rules a year ago, but people do not seem to take much notice of them. Often you find people smoking at the next table while you are eating your meal or having a drink in a bar. The problem is that the rules do not include punishments for businesses or individuals who ignore them.
It appears that many Chinese people _ the dangers of smoking. Research suggests that only one in four knows the harm cigarettes of second-hand smoke can cause.
Officials say they have to try to persuade people not to smoke to reduce the numbers dying from smoking-related diseases.
At the same time the government makes a lot of money from the sales of cigarettes by the state-owned firm that makes and sells all tobacco products throughout the country. | high20738.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "She likes helping others."
},
"options": [
"She liked exercising outside before that day.",
"In fact she likes taking care of dogs very much.",
"She likes helping others.",
"She was sorry for not going on holiday with h... | I learned how our attitudes made a big difference in our everyday lives from my friend Mary.
She doesn't have any pets. I happened to see her outside on a -30 degree morning walking a dog. I felt sorry for Mary, out there walking a dog that's not hers in such cold weather. I thought maybe she was saying to herself, "Yeah, this is why I don't have any pets! I hate walking dogs."
Later that day I saw Mary and said, "I saw you out there walking a dog this morning. Are you unhappy because you had to walk it on such a cold day?" To my surprise, she said that she enjoyed getting out there and walking the dog and that she got good exercise because of the dog. She also said she had talked to her brother, the dog's owner, who was on holiday in Orlando, Florida with his family. He said his children were enjoying Disney World and the resorts . His four-year-old son had breakfast with Mickey Mouse and said it was the best day in his life. Mary said, "If I can help my brother and his family have a wonderful time relaxing for a week, knowing that their pet is being loved and cared for, what more could I ask for?" She added, "It's worth it for me to make the sacrifice so that they can go and have fun."
I learned a lesson from Mary. | high5438.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "learn to relax yourself in a possible way"
},
"options": [
"it is possible to control it",
"let it known by whoever you are facing",
"do whatever you like and don't care what others say",
"learn to relax yourself in a p... | Learning how to be patient with people can be challenging for some. After all, not everybody is gifted with great patience. The good news is that it is something that can be learned and eventually perfected.
When the customer before you takes ages to pay for his or her groceries, you tap your foot impatiently and cough every now and then; but no, the customer is still not hurrying up. It takes all of your power not to _ However, if you picture that customer to be someone you like (say your partner), then you will find yourself not getting too annoyed, right? So the next time you find yourself losing patience with somebody, simply visualize that person to be someone you really, really like and your patience will extend its life.
The second step on how to be patient with people involves whistling. When you whistle a happy tune, you instantly cheer up. You can sing your favorite song if you can't whistle - it really doesn't make a difference. What's important here is that you have done something that makes you feel good. And when you feel good, you are more likely to be patient with the people around you.
Next, when you're stressed, it's almost impossible to learn how to be patient with people. If you know you're going to be in a situation where your patience will be tested, meditate or get yourself a massage first. Don't dive into anything unless you've managed to clear yourself off negative emotions. Remember: the more stressed you are, the faster you'll lose your temper. The less stress you have in your life, the longer your patience.
Learning how to patient with people is not a necessity in life. You've seen people who manage to survive day to day with incredibly bad tempers after all. But do you really want to live like they do? If, however, you want a life that has better quality than that, then just follow these steps and embrace the fact that patience is a virtue. | high2357.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "fireworks ,Coca-Cola and the microwave"
},
"options": [
"fireworks, the microwave and Coca-Cola",
"fireworks ,Coca-Cola and the microwave",
"Coca-Cola , fireworks and the microwave",
"the microwave, Coca-Cola and firewo... | Did you ever wonder how some of your favorite foods, products or toys came about? Believe it or not, they may have been an accident, or a failure of some other intention. Below, we found three mistakes we're thankful for turned out to be what they are.
1. Most historians hold that the Chinese invented fireworks in the 9th century when they
discovered how to make gunpowder. Story has it that a Chinese cook accidentally mixed together what were then considered common kitchen items and noticed they burnt. When put tightly in a bamboo tube and lit, it blew up.
2. In May of 1886, a law led John Pemberton, a pharmacist , to rewrite the formula for "Pemberton's French Wine Coca," his popular headache treatment. Containing sugar instead of wine as a sweetener, the outcome became something for Coke, which was later mixed with carbonated water. His bookkeeper suggested the name Coca-Cola because he thought the two C's would look good together, which is how what we call Coca-Cola, a world -wide drink came into being.
3. During World War II, scientists at the University of Birmingham invented the magnetron--an important heat-producing part of the microwave oven . While working for Raytheon Corporation after the war, the American engineer Percy Spencer was testing the magnetron when a chocolate bar in his pocket melted. He went on to test other foods including popcorn kernels, and found it to be a much more efficient way to cook. In 1947 Raytheon came out with the first restaurant microwave oven, which was six feet tall and weighed 750 lbs. | high10610.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "keep active"
},
"options": [
"make herself beautiful",
"keep active",
"earn more money",
"become famous"
],
"question": "According to the passage, Grandma Moses began to paint because she wanted to _ .",
... | Grandma Moses is among the most famous twentieth-century painters of the United States, yet she did not start painting until she was in her late seventies. As she once said of herself: "I would never sit back in a rocking chair, waiting for someone to help me." No one could have had a more productive old age.
She was born Anna Mary Robertson on a farm in New York State, one of five boys and five girls. At twelve she left home and was in domestic service until, at twenty-seven, she married Thomas Moses, the hired hand of one of her employers. They farmed most of their lives, first in Virginia and then in New York State, at Eagle Bridge. She had ten children, of whom five
; her husband died in 1927.
Grandma Moses painted a little as a child and made embroidery pictures as a hobby, but only changed to oils in old age because her hands had become too stiff to sew and she wanted to keep busy and pass the time. Her pictures were first sold at a local market and were soon noticed by a businessman who bought everything she painted. Three of the pictures exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, and in 1940 she had her first exhibition in New York. Between the 1930s and her death she produced some 2,000 pictures: detailed and lively portrayals of the country life she had known for so long, with a wonderful sense of colour and form. "I think really hard till I think of something really pretty, and then I paint it." she said. | high16261.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "he wanted to make the jeweler believe him"
},
"options": [
"he was very rich",
"he wanted to make the jeweler believe him",
"he was anxious to get it",
"his business had been successful"
],
"question": "He paid ... | A well-dressed man came to a famous jewelry shop. He explained that he wished to buy a pearl for his wife's birthday. The price didn't matter. Since business had been very good for him that year. After examining a nice black one that cost $5000, he paid for the pearl in cash, shook hands with the jeweler, and left.
A few days later the man returned and said that his wife liked the pearl so much that she wanted another one just like it. It had to be exactly the same size and quality, because she wanted a pair of earrings made, "Can you give me any advice on how to get such a pearl? " said the man. The jeweler regretfully replied, "I would say it's exactly impossible to find one exactly like that pearl. "
The rich man insisted that the jeweler advertise in the newspapers, offering $ 25,000 for the matching pearl. Many people answered the advertisement but nobody had a pearl that was just right.
Just when the jeweler had given up hope, a little old lady came into his store. To his great surprise, she pulled the perfect pearl from her purse. "I don't like to part with it," she said sadly, "I inherited it from my mother, and my mother inherited it from hers. But I really need the money. "
The jeweler was quick to pay her before she changed her mind. Then he called the rich man's hotel to tell him the good news. The man, however, was nowhere to be found. | high4726.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "dogs love to go out and play as much as human beings"
},
"options": [
"there are no close feelings between dog and owner",
"many of them lack enough sports or exercises",
"there are no local athletic activities or sports for ... | Sure,you've watched extreme pet sports on Animal Planet. But did you know that there's a whole world of athletic activities for dogs right in our area?
There are some reasons for considering taking part in such activities. Such sports strengthen the close feelings between dog and owner,and also benefit your pup's body and mind." Dogs that are tied with chains often have behavioral problems," says Lee Morgan. "They love to go out and play as much as we do."
Of course,many of these sports require some amount of practice,and some breeds are simply better at certain activities than others .But all dogs can participate in the following games.
Frisbee Dogs
This sport requires you to throw as many Frisbees as your dog can catch in a 60second time period. The further out your dog catches the Frisbee,the more points you rack up. Extra points are awarded if your pet catches the Frisbee while it's still in the air. Mid Atlantic Disc Dogs (MADDogs) hosts local competitions and offers informal instruction in local parks or even in people's backyards.
Flyball Dogs
The sport has been around since 1970s.Flyball is a relay race with four dogs in a team. Each must jump four hurdles spaced with 10 feet apart and then land on a springloaded box that shoots out a tennis ball. The dog must then catch the ball and run back over the four hurdles. Once that's done,the next dog can go. The first team that successfully completes the course wins the competition. There are a number of local teams,including 4 Dog Night,which holds classes for beginners and intermediate players and is always looking for new team members. The Beltway Bandits is another team,based in Leesburg,that hosts private classes and competitions. | high1886.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "listing situations"
},
"options": [
"challenging the reader",
"solving daily problems",
"listing situations",
"giving explanations"
],
"question": "The text starts by _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_question... | Think about the last time you felt afraid. Was it a fear of height? Did you oversleep on a weekday and fear you'd get into trouble at the office? In any case, you know what it feels like to feel fear.
But one woman doesn't the woman, code-named "UM", gave her first-ever interview after years of being studied by a team of researchers. The woman is given a code name because the researchers want to protect her from anyone who would take advantage of her inability to feel afraid.
UM can't tell you what fear is because she's never experienced it. "I wonder what it's like to actually be afraid of something," she said. The formal name for the disease is Urbach-Wieth disease, which is characterized by a hoarse voice,small bumps around the eyes, and calcium deposits in the brain.
In the case of UM,the disease has transformed the part of her brain that controls the human response to fear. In the interview, UM talks about an event in her life where she was held at knifepoint and gunpoint, "I was walking to the store,and I saw a man on a park bench.He said. "Come here,please," so I went over to him. He grabbed me by the shirt,put a knife to my throat and told me he was going to cut me. I told him, "Go ahead and cut me," I wasn't afraid at all. And for some reason,he let me go."
Doctors who have been studying UM's condition for years have been trying different things that could strike fear into her. They finally figured something out--increasing UM's carbon dioxide levels.Extra carbon dioxide concentration in the blood is known to cause fear and panic in health individuals. Increasing UM's carbon dioxide levels did manage to give her a fright. | high12007.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "She could hardly afford any better trip."
},
"options": [
"She missed her cousins very much.",
"Her aunt begged her to go there.",
"She could hardly afford any better trip.",
"Spain was her ideal destination."
],
... | The day of my holiday arrived, but I wasn't looking forward to it. I had little money and had only been able to afford to stay with my Aunt Rosa in Spain. So, I wasn't really excited as I knew exactly what it was going to be like: lots of noisy cousins , and Aunt Rosa begging me to take her for a ride.
After I had checked in, I made my way slowly to the departure gate. As I was waiting to board the plane, I kept thinking about my ideal holiday destination: Jamaica, with its long, sandy beaches and crystal clear water.
As soon as the plane took off, I fell fast asleep and only woke to the sound of the announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten you seat belts, as we will shortly be landing in Kingston." I froze in my seat. Was I dreaming? Kingston? Jamaica? I had boarded the wrong plane!
Immediately after the plane landed, I explained the situation to the authorities. It seems there were also three other passengers heading for Spain. Apparently it had been the airline's fault, since the flight numbers for Spain and Jamaica were exactly the same! Therefore, with no flight back to London for a week, the airline had no choice but to pay for our stay.
So there I was, lying on the beach, enjoying the music and the marvelous food of Jamaica! As for Aunt Rosa, I suppose she just had to live without me! | high6131.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The information about the role of vitamins and minerals in health."
},
"options": [
"The knowledge of deficiency diseases.",
"The low prices of nutritional supplements.",
"The frighteningly high death rate from cancer and hea... | Today, we know that the role of vitamins and minerals goes way beyond the prevention of deficiency diseases to actually preventing cancer and heart disease, the most fearsome killers of our time. With this knowledge has come the widespread call for nutritional supplementation -- and a confusing group of vitamin, mineral, and supplements lining the supermarket shelves.
Far from contributing to better health, however, nutritional supplements threaten to turn a scientific breakthrough into a nutritional disaster.
_ of vitamins and minerals -- especially vitamins A, C, and E-- would have consumers believe that the little vitamin pill in the bottle is all they need for good health. Take your vitamins in the morning, and you're covered. It's okay to eat fast foods for the rest of the day or skip meals to achieve today's fashionably skinny look. But vitamins and minerals are only one part of the nutritional puzzle. A diet rich in fiber and balanced in carbohydrates and protein is essential for good health. You can't get these things from a nutritional supplement. The focus on vitamin and mineral supplements may actually be robbing us of the full nutrition we seek.
And no supplement can compare to the quality of nutrition found in natural sources. For example, our bodies turn carotenes from plant foods into vitamin A. Many supplements contain a single carotene, but natural sources are rich in many different carotenes. Many supplements contain a form of vitamin E that is made from chemicals, when natural vitamin E is more readily absorbed and used by the body. And science is still discovering the wealth of nutrients in foods.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a supplement as nutritionally comprehensive and powerful as a balanced diet. Even if you could, you'd pay much more than if you got the same nutritional value from natural sources.
But perhaps the greatest danger presented by nutritional supplements comes from the very real risks presented by self-medication. Anyone can walk into the market and buy as many different supplements as desired. The reported benefits of high dosages of certain nutrients have led some people to believe that the more the better. Many take several vitamin and mineral supplements without regard to possible consequences.
Surprising new research suggests that vitamin C pills may speed up hardening of the arteries, the underlying cause of heart attacks. Researchers said their findings support the recommendations of health organizations, which urge people to avoid high doses of supplements and to get their nutrients from food instead.
As appealing as they're made to sound, nutritional supplements are _ . If you're looking for good health, don't look on the supplement shelves of your supermarket. Look in the produce section instead. | high14476.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "he ran very slowly"
},
"options": [
"he only passed in flying",
"he ran very slowly",
"he wasn't good at swimming",
"he had to practice climbing"
],
"question": "Why was the duck kept after school according to t... | Once upon a time,the animals decided that they must do something heroic to meet the problems of" a new world".So they organized a training school.
They adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running,climbing,swimming and flying.To make it easier to manage the curriculum,all the animals took all the subjects.
The duck was excellent in swimming,in fact,better than his instructor,but he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running.Since he was slow in running,he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running.This was kept up until his webbed feet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming.But average was acceptable in school,so nobody worried about that except the duck.
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running,but had a nervous breakdown because of so much make-up work in swimming.
The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down.He also developed a "Charlie horse" and then got a C in climbing and a D in running.
The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely.In the climbing class he beat all the others to the top of the tree,but insisted on using his own way to get there.
At the end of the year,an abnormal eel that could swim very well,and also run,climb and fly a little,had the highest average and was the one who gave a good-bye speech.
The prairie dogs stayed out of the school because the administration would not add digging to the curriculum. | high6657.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "She performed well at school."
},
"options": [
"She performed well at school.",
"She was a girl filled with love.",
"She often made trouble at school.",
"She used to be a discipline problem."
],
"question": "Wha... | Katie was in big trouble. She was such a sweet kid; a third-grade teacher always dreamed of having a classroom filled with Katies; she was never ever a discipline problem. I just couldn't imagine why she had made her parents so angry.
It seemed that Katie had been running up sizable charges in the lunchroom. Her parents explained that Katie brought a great homemade lunch each day, and there was no reason for her to buy school lunch. They assumed a sit-down with Katie would solve the problem, but failed. So they asked me to help them get to the bottom of this situation.
So the next day, I asked Katie to my office. "Why are you charging lunches, Katie? What happened to your homemade lunch?" I asked. "I lose it," she responded. I leaned back in my chair and said, "I don't believe you, Katie. " She didn't care. "Is someone stealing your lunch, Katie?" I took a new track. "No. I just lose it," she said. Well, there was nothing else I could do.
The problem was still unsolved the next week when I noticed a boy who was new to the school sitting alone at a lunch table. He always looked sad. I thought I would go and sit with him for a while. As I walked towards him, I noticed the lunch bag on the table. The name on the bag said "Katie".
Now I understood and I talked to Katie. It seemed that the new boy never brought a lunch, and he wouldn't go to the lunch line for a free lunch. He had told Katie his secret and asked her not to tell anyone that his parents wanted him to get a free lunch at school. Katie asked me not to tell her parents, but I drove to her house that evening after I was sure that she was in bed. I had never seen parents so proud of their child. Katie didn't care that her parents and teacher were disappointed in her. But she cared about a little boy who was hungry and scared.
Katie still buys lunch every day at school. And every day, as she heads out of the door, her mom hands her a delicious homemade lunch. | high9564.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "be easily found for her appearance"
},
"options": [
"meet no natural predators",
"not get along with other zebras",
"manage to make enough melanin",
"be easily found for her appearance"
],
"question": "If Zoe th... | Auckland, New Zealand
After two months of learning, Monty, and Porter were able to drive an automobile around a racetrack. "We wanted to prove how smart rescue dogs are," animal behaviorist Mark Vette says. Vette first used voice commands and treats to teach the dogs how to turn a steering wheel and how to change gear .
The dogs' ride only accelerated up to 7.5 miles an hour, and trainers could stop the auto using a remote control.
GOLDEN ZEBRA
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
Zoe the zebra's markings are special. The animal has white and golden stripes. Zoe's appearance resulted from a rare condition called amelanosis . Her body doesn't make enough melanin, the substance in an animal's skin and hair cells that produces color. "Only 25 other golden zebras are known to exist in the world,"says Ann Goody, who runs the wildlife refuge where Zoe lives. In the wild, life may be difficult for animals with amelanosis because predators can easily spot them. But Zoe is protected at her refuge.
COCKATOO MAKES TOOLS
Vienna, Austria
When Figaro the cockatoo spots food lying just out of reach from his cage, he builds a tiny wooden tool to sweep the tasty prize in his way.
The bird first revealed his talent when a stone he was playing with rolled out of his cage. The cockatoo couldn't reach the stone. So he flew away and returned with a small branch, slipping it through the fence to slide the stone toward him.
Wondering if he would do it again, scientists placed a nut exactly where the stone had been. This time, Figaro pulled out a small piece of wood in his cage and dragged the nut toward him. | high14310.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Women have not been given the same chance as men"
},
"options": [
"There're more men than women in the world",
"There're more men scientists or engineers than women scientists or engineers in the world",
"Women cannot live wi... | A large number of women in Western European countries wish that they were born men. The number is said as high as 60% in West Germany.
"Women often wish that they had the same chance as men have, and believe it is still men's world," said Dr James Holden, one of the scientists who did the study.
Anne Harper has a very good job for an international oil company. She also believes in "Women' s Liberation ".
"I don't wish that I were a man," she says, "and I don't think many women do. But I do wish that people would stop looking down upon us women. At work, for example, we often do the work that men do but get paid less. There are still a lot of jobs that are usually the best ones and open only to men. If you're a man, you have a much better chance of leading an exciting life. How many women pilots are there ... or engineers or scientists?" | high1138.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Pleasant feelings can be smelt out."
},
"options": [
"Men produce more sweats.",
"Negative emotions have a smell.",
"Pleasant feelings can be smelt out.",
"Women have a better sense of smell."
],
"question": "Wh... | Does happiness have a scent?
When someone is happy,can you smell it?
You can usually tell when someone is happy based on seeing them smile,hearing them laugh or perhaps from receiving a big hug.But can you also smell their happiness? Surprising new research suggests that happiness does indeed have a scent,and that the experience of happiness can be transmitted through smell,reports Phys.org.
For the study,12 young men were shown videos meant to bring about a variety of emotions while researchers gathered sweat samples from them.All of the men were healthy and none of them were drug users or smokers,and all were asked to abstain from drinking or eating smelly foods during the study period.
Those sweat samples were then given to 36 equally healthy young women to smell,while researchers monitored their reactions.Only women were selected to smell the samples,apparently because previous research has shown that women have a better sense of smell than men and are also more sensitive to emotional signaling--though it's unclear why only men were chosen to produce the scents.
Researchers found that the behavior of the women after smelling the scents--particularly their facial expressions--indicated a relationship between the emotional states of the men who produced the sweat and the women who sniffed them.
"Human sweat produced when a person is happy brings about a state similar to happiness in somebody who breathes this smell," said study co-author Gun Semin,a professor at Koc University in Turkey.
This is a fascinating finding because it not only means that happiness does have a scent,but that the scent is capable of transmitting the emotion to others.The study also found that other emotions,such as fear,seem to carry a scent too.This ensures previous research suggesting that some negative emotions have a smell,but it is the first time this has proved to be true of positive feelings.
Researchers have yet to isolate exactly what the chemical compound for the happiness smell is,but you might imagine what the potential applications for such a finding could be.Happiness perfumes,for instance,could be invented. Scent therapies could also be developed to help people through depression or anxiety.
Perhaps the most surprising result of the study,however,is our broadened understanding of how emotions get communicated,and also how our own emotions are potentially managed through our social context and the emotional states of those around us. | high12761.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "a single man who is financially stable needs a wife"
},
"options": [
"a single man without money needn't a wife",
"women want to get married to financial stable men",
"a single man who is financially stable needs a wife",
... | It is a truth universally acknowledged that
.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is considered the rightful property of someone or other of their daughters.
"My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day. "have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?" Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
"But it is, " returned she, "for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it."
Mr. Bennet made no answer.
"Do you not want to know who has taken it?" cried his wife impatiently.
"You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it."
This was invitation enough.
"Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise to see the place, and was so much delighted with it, that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week."
"What is his name?"
"Bingley."
"Is he married or single?"
"Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!"
How so? How can it affect them?
"My dear Mr. Bennet," replied his wife, "how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them."
"Is that his design in settling here?"
"Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes."
"I see no occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better, for as you are as beautiful as any of them. Mr. Bingley may like you the best of the party. " | high16507.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "worried about his studies"
},
"options": [
"felt proud of his success",
"forbade him to enter a cyber cafe",
"worried about his studies",
"wanted to buy him a computer"
],
"question": "When Suhas Gopinath was pr... | Fourteen is not an age at which you try to earn millions of dollars. But for Bangalore boy, Suhas Gopinath, it was.
One day in August, 1999, Suhas, studying at the Air Force School in Hebbal, was surfing the Net at a cyber cafe. He happened to hit an MSN source code . That made him decide to learn more about HTML and to design and set up his own website under the address of a US-based company, Network Solutions.
He kept updating his website, posting interesting things on it. This impressed Network Solutions and they invited him to attend a class on Web design and development. His mom and uncle criticised him for not taking his education seriously. But gradually, his dad started encouraging him and even bought him a computer and Net connection. In fact, that was his first investment in the company.
On May 14, 2000, along with friends Clifford Leslie and Binay M. N, he floated his own website -- www.coolhindustani.com. He did not have the money to start, for his parents refused to give him a penny. So he wrote to Network Solutions Inc. in the US and they readily agreed.
In August, the same year, he set up Globals Inc., a Web solutions and networking company, with a team of four. Now, he has 400 employees, more than 200 customers across the globe and offices in 11 countries, and he is worth over $100 million.
After finishing his high school education, he studied at Stanford University for two years. But Suhas says: "Education alone will not make a good professional ." | high4040.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "experienced an unhappy holiday at the beach"
},
"options": [
"had a wonderful holiday at the beach",
"must have suffered a lot because of the terrible weather",
"is only interested in talks by doctors about operation",
... | It was a beautiful day at the beach--blue sky, gentle wind, calm sea.I knew these things because a man sitting five feet from me was shouting them into his mobile phone, like a play-by-play announcer .
"IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY," he shouted."THE SKY IS BLUE, AND THERE'S A GENTLE WIND, AND THE WATER IS CALM, AND..."
Behind me, a woman, her mobile phone pressed to her ear was walking back and forth.
"She DIDN'T," she was saying."No.She DIDN'T.She DID? Really? Are you SERIOUS? She did NOT.She DID? No she..."
And so on.This woman had two children, who were playing in the sea.I found myself watching them, because the woman surely was not.A huge squid could have caught and snatched the children, and this woman would not have noticed.Or, if she had noticed, she'd have said, "Listen.I have to go, because a huge squid just......No! She didn't ! She DID? No! She......"
And next to me, the play-by-play man would have said: "...AND A HUGE SQUID JUST ATE TWO CHILDREN, AND I'M GETTING A LITTLE SUNBURNED, AND ..."
It used to be that the major trouble at the beach was the fellow who brought a boom box and turned it up so loud that the bass notes caused seagulls to explode.But at least you knew where these fellows were; you never know which beachgoers have mobile phones.You'll settle next to what appears to be a sleeping sunbather, or even (you hope) a _ , and you'll lie happily on your towel, and you'll get all the way to the second sentence of your 467-page book before you fall asleep to the hypnotic surge of the surf , and ...
BREEP! BREEP! The corpse sits up, feels urgently for its mobile phone, and shouts "Hello! I'm at the beach! Yes! It's nice! Very peaceful! What? She did? No, she didn't! She DID? No, she..."
Loud mobile-phoners never seem to get urgent calls.Just once, I'd like to hear one of them say, "Hello? Yes, this is Dr.Johnson.Oh, Dr.Smith.You've opened the abdominal cavity ? Good! Now the appendix should be right under the ... What? No, that's the liver.Don't take THAT out, ha ha! Oh, you did? My God! OK, now listen carefully..." | high11268.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Repairing musical instruments."
},
"options": [
"Teaching music.",
"Writing music.",
"Making musical instruments.",
"Repairing musical instruments."
],
"question": "What's the job of West and Jernigan at school?... | Public schools in Washington, D.C. provide students with musical instruments for free. When something goes wrong with an instrument, Charles West and Larry Jernigan do the repairs. Both men approach their work with a passion . For them, it's important that students have a joyful experience with music.
The two have worked together for almost 20 years. This year alone, they've fixed about 450 instruments. Both men are musicians and music lovers, so learning to do repairs came naturally.
"I have been a musician all my life." says West. "I played in an orchestra here in the city. I majored in music in college. I played in an army band."
Jernigan's musical interests are varied. "I was formerly trained in the piano and guitar. The alto sax, and the flute, I picked up while working here."
In addition to fixing instruments, the two also go to schools to instruct teachers and students on how to make minor repairs on their own.
West believes if children start early and stay concerned with music, it enriches other areas of their lives. "I see that in other kids. I see it in myself. I have seen it hundreds of times and it works," he says. "They learn teamwork. They learn patience and respect."
But West has concerns about the future of music in the electronic age.
"This instant age has taken away from the sit-down, the patience. And to learn to play an instrument, it takes patience, it takes diligence, it takes time."
Being able to enjoy music on the job is one of the benefits of the job. Both men agree their best rewards are the students' performances. | high2431.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Kate Heyhoe."
},
"options": [
"Kate Heyhoe.",
"Emily Luchetti.",
"Graham Kerr.",
"Marcel Desaulniers."
],
"question": "Who is the author of Cooking with Kids?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {... | "Cooking With Kids creates fun and food for the family. Kate Heyhoe gives simple practical tips on how to bring the family together for mealtime magic."
--Linda Gassenheimer, award-winning author of Dinner in Minutes
"I have just helped my four year old granddaughter Jessica to make stuffed eggs. What fun it is to cook with a new generation and what a joy now to have a brilliant new book like Cooking With Kids to pass on a passion for life and its healthy pleasures to a child!"
--Graham Kerr, International Culinary Consultant
"Like millions of moms, I want to prepare delicious, nutritious meals for my family, and after working all day in the restaurant, I also want to spend quality time with my sons. Cooking together is the natural solution. But in the kitchen, you need the proper tools to do the job well; Cooking With Kids is just the tool to get you started."
--Chef Mary Sue Milliken, TV hostess, cookbook author
"In Cooking With Kids, Kate Heyhoe brings kids into the kitchen and teaches them not only great tasting recipes but cooking fundamentals such as how to hold a knife, set a table and how to survive in a supermarket. With families' busy schedules, this book is a wonderful sourcebook for family interaction."
--Emily Luchetti, executive pastry chef
"Seize the moment, and a copy of this delightful cooking guide, then call the children to the kitchen to experience the joy of an often neglected pleasure of family life---cooking food together."
--Marcel Desaulniers, author of Death by Chocolate
"In Cooking with Kids, Kate Heyhoe takes your hand and leads you through the kitchen on a most delightful tour. The book is packed with easy-to-understand guidance and simple, tasty recipes that will delight kids of any age, and that includes every inner child who never learned the secrets of the kitchen. "
--Michele Anna Jordan, author of Home Cooking | high10176.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "It was in need of financial support"
},
"options": [
"The number of its customers was declining",
"Its customers found the food unhealthy",
"It was in need of financial support",
"Most of its restaurants were closed"
... | Sparrow is a fast-food chain with 200 restaurants. Some years ago, the group to which Sparrow belonged was taken over by another company. Although Sparrow showed no sign of declining, the chain was generally in an unhealthy state. With more and more fast-food concepts reaching the market, the Sparrow menu had to struggle for attention. And to make matters worse, its new owner had no plans to give it the funds it required.
Sparrow failed to grow for another two years. Until a new CEO, Carl Pearson, decided to build up its market share. He did a survey, which showed that consumers who already used Sparrow restaurants were extremely positive about the chain, while customers of other fast-food chains were unwilling to turn away from them. Sparrow had to develop a new promotional campaign.
Pearson faced a battle over the future of the Sparrow brand. The chain's owner now favored rebranding Sparrow as Marcy's restaurants. Pearson resisted, arguing for an advertising campaign designed to convince customers that visits to Sparrow restaurants were fun. Such an attempt to establish a positive relationship between a company and the general public was unusual for that time. Pearson strongly believed that numbers were the key to success, rather than customers' speeding power. Finally, the owner accepted his idea.
The campaign itself changed the traditional advertising style of the fast-food industry. The TV ads of Sparrow focused on entertainment and featured original songs performed by a variety of stars. Instead of showing the superiority of a specific product, the intention was to put Sparrow in the hearts of potential customers.
Pearson also made other decisions which he believed would contribute to the new Sparrow image. For example, he offered to lower the rent of any restaurants which achieved a certain increase in their turnover .
These efforts paid off, and Sparrow soon became one of the most successful fast-food chains in the regions where it operated. | high4054.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "To give us some information about homestays in Canada."
},
"options": [
"To advise us to learn English in Canada.",
"To give us some information about homestays in Canada.",
"To suggest that we practice English in Canada.",
... | Staying in a Homestay in Canada will give you an excellent opportunity to improve your English conversation skills and know more about Canada customs and cultures. Our homestay families are located in areas of Vancouver,Toronto and Montreal,Canada,living from 40 to 60 minutes from the school. These homes are safe,secure,inspected and approved by our homestay program coordinators.
Your homestay family in Canada will be different from your own,especially the food and customs,but you will become one of the family!
Most Canadians work outside the home and are active in community affairs. Family members have duties around the home and do many things for themselves. For example,family members are expected to take their own dishes from the dining room to the kitchen and take care of their own possessions. This will apply to you too!
There will be many differences,both personal and cultural between you and your homestay family in Canada. We ask both you and your new family to be accepting of these differences.
Each family will assist you in learning the arrangement of your new home. You will be asked to respect the rules and regulations that are suitable for their household. If any questions arise about your new home,please feel free to ask your family.
You will be provided with a clean,comfortable,private room. The room will be furnished with a desk,bed,dresser,closet and good lighting. You are expected to keep your own room neat and tidy. You will have your own house key. Please respect the security of the household. Make sure you return the key when you leave. | high19620.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "find another lady to share the cost to rent a flat"
},
"options": [
"rent a beautiful flat of her own in Happy Valley",
"find another lady to share the cost to rent a flat",
"share her room in a flat with whoever has no pet",... | Advertisement
Share Flat. Happy Valley big flat, 1 room ready for use immediately, quiet and convenient, fully furnished, park view. $6800 including bills with maid. Female non-smoker. No pet. Sara 25720836 or 10077809.
Moving Sale: 2 armchairs, red/brown at $ 400 each; coffee table, black, wood, $800; oil painting, big, $900; Tianjin carpet, green 3x7,$600; double bed, $500; mirror, big square, $500; fridge, big, double-door, $1000; old pictures, $140 each. Tel: weekend, 2521-6011; weekday, 2524-5867.
Part-time Laboratory Assistant Wanted. Required by busy electronics company to help with development of computer. Should have an electronics degree and some practical experience of working in an electronics laboratory. Hours 9:30 a.m.~1:00p.m., Mon.~Fri. Fourteen days, paid leave. Salary 6598~10230dependent on experience. Letter of application to: Mrs. G. Chan, NOVA ELECTRONICS, 45 Gordon RD, Hung Hom Knowloon. | high2425.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "refused to listen to him"
},
"options": [
"took his advice immediately",
"obeyed him without any hesitation",
"apologized for his bad manners",
"refused to listen to him"
],
"question": "When the head waiter ask... | A man in a very splendid restaurant started to take off his jacket. Seeing this, the head waiter dashed to his table and said, " I'm afraid I must ask you to keep your jacket on, sir, for it is not good manners to do it in such a smart restaurant."
"Now listen," said the man, "I'll let you know that the Queen of England gave me permission to remove my jacket here." "The Queen of England?" said the waiter in great surprise. "Sure," replied the man, " When I was in England last month, a friend of mine who had a very important position in high society took me to see the Queen. It was rather hot, so I started taking my coat off. The Queen looked over and said, "You may do that in the United States, but you may not do it here. " So I got the Queen's permission, right? | high10162.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "orphans and shutins"
},
"options": [
"the young and disabled",
"friends and relatives",
"orphans and shutins",
"the sick and aged"
],
"question": "Sweetest Day was intended to remember _ .",
"question_typ... | Sweetest Day in America is always the third Saturday in October. This holiday is much more important in some regions than in others (Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo being the biggest Sweetest Day cities). It is a holiday that is gaining in popularity every year throughout the country.
Sweetest Day is celebrated on the third Saturday in October as a day to make someone happy. It is an occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick, aged, and orphaned, but also friends, relatives and associates whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed.
Over 60 years ago, a man in Cleveland, believing that the city's orphans and shutins too often felt forgotten and neglected, thought of the idea of showing them that they were remembered. He did this through the distribution of small gifts. With the help of his friends and neighbors, he distributed these small remembrances on a Saturday in October. During the years that followed, other Clevelanders began to participate in the celebration ceremony, which came to be called "Sweetest Day". In time, the Sweetest Day idea of spreading cheer to the underprivileged was broadened to include everyone, and became an occasion for remembering others with a kind act or a small remembrance. And soon the idea spread to other cities all over the country.
Sweetest Day is not based on any single group's religious affection or on a family relationship. It is a reminder that a thoughtful word or deed enriches life and gives it meaning.
Because for many people remembering takes the form of giftgiving, Sweetest Day offers us the opportunity to show others that we care, in a practical way. | high6643.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "people may eat very different things"
},
"options": [
"some cultures may seem rather strange",
"understanding between different cultures is easy",
"people may eat very different things",
"eating properly is very difficu... | We all have ideas about what kinds of foods are good or bad to eat. As a result, people from one culture often think the foods that people from another culture eat are unacceptable. Many people would find it terrible to eat rats, but there are forty-two different cultures whose people regard rats as proper food.
Food likes and dislikes do not always seem related to nutrition. For example, broccoli is first on a list of the most nutritious common vegetables, but it is twenty-first on a list of vegetables that Americans like most to eat. Tomatoes are sixteenth on the list of most nutritious vegetables, but they are first on the list of vegetables that Americans like most to eat.
But dislikes is not the only reason why some cultures will not eat a certain food. In some cultures, certain foods are taboo. Taboo is a word from the language of the Fiji Islands that is used to describe something that is forbidden. We do not usually think about why certain things are taboo in our culture.
One example is that Americans do not eat dogs, although people from some other cultures regard them as good food. In the United States, dogs are very important to people as pets. They are usually regarded as part of the family, almost like a child in some cases. In addition, dogs have value as protection against criminals . Actually, the dog's place in society as a companion makes the dog taboo as food.
Scientists believe that most food likes and dislikes are a result of the ways of life of different people. People will not eat pets such as dogs. Americans eat a lot of beef because there is plenty of land for raising cattle and their meat can be shipped cheaply for long distances by railroads. | high14304.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "express his views on homeschooling"
},
"options": [
"express his views on homeschooling",
"explain what homeschooling is",
"share his ways of teaching his children",
"promote homeschooling"
],
"question": "The a... | When Jane put out the idea of homeschooling to her parents, the first reaction they gave was, "You are cutting the child off the world.'' "Did the child really get cut off or did the child socialize better?"
The moment we hear of homeschooling, we think the child will have no opportunities to interact with peers. However, in my friend's opinion, we forget that when attending a regular school, the child is not into socializing all the while. The child is restricted to so many other activities. Studies take a major role in a child's life. The child hardly has the time to interact at school.
The child might be meeting and studying along with many peers; however, how many kids interact with all the kids in a class? But in homeschooling system, as my friend mentioned, the kid has all the time and can plan his day accordingly. During the day the child studies just like other school-going kids but with no burden of homework and project work, the child has so much free time in the evening as to effectively interact and play with peers. The quality time the child spends in education is really impressive.
Homeschooled kids have the opportunity to socialize more often as they have a lot of time in their hands. They can also make socializing a regular habit. Just as my friend said, her child goes to a neighboring park almost every day and has a set of friends who go there daily. Other children get back home to finish off homework and project work whereas her child who is already through with studies gets the opportunity to spend time with family members.
When I heard this, I really felt how lucky the child was. Definitely the child had a better opportunity to socialize when compared with my kid. However, I might not consider homeschooling for my kid, as I am so used to the conventional schooling system and feel regular schooling the safest bet. | high9570.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "prove the theory"
},
"options": [
"find what causes the eyes to blink",
"shock the world",
"win the prize",
"prove the theory"
],
"question": "Tests were carried out in outer space in order to _ .",
"ques... | Experiments aboard the spaceship Columbia have disproved a theory on the human nervous system which won an Austrian professor a Nobel prize 79 years ago.
West German astronaut Ulf Merbold disproved the theory during tests aboard the spaceship yesterday. His discovery is connected with the workings of the inner ear, the body's balance mechanism .
In l914 Professor Robert Barany won the Nobel prize for Physiology and Medicine when he announced that temperature differences affected the inner ear and caused the eyes to blink . His theory was accepted by scientists.
But Merbold carried out tests to find if the theory was correct and shocked himself and space officials when he proved it wrong.
According to Barany's theory the eyes would blink when cold air was blown into one ear and hot air blown into the other.
But if this theory was correct such a movement would be impossible in zero gravity .
Both Merbold's eyes continually blinked when the test was carried out. | high12775.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "it, unlike many other dogs, always wanted its master to please it"
},
"options": [
"it, like many other dogs, always tried to please its owner master",
"it, unlike many other dogs, always wanted its master to please it",
"it ... | Most dog owners feel that their dogs are their best friends. Almost everyone likes dogs because they try hard to please their owners. One of my favorite stories is about a dog who wanted his owner to please him.
One of my friends has a large German shepherd ( ) named Jack. Every Sunday afternoon, my friend takes Jack for a walk in the park. Jack likes these long walks very much. One Sunday afternoon, a young man came to visit my friend. He stayed a long time, and he talked and talked.
Soon it was time for my friend to take Jack for his walk, but the visitor didn't leave. Jack became very worried about his walk in the park. He walked around the room several times and then sat down directly in front of the visitor and looked at him. But the visitor paid no attention. He continued talking. Finally, Jack couldn't stand it any longer. He went out of the room and came back a few minutes later. He sat down again in front of the visitor, but this time he held the man's hat in his mouth.
German shepherds aren't the only intelligent dogs. Another intelligent dog is a Seeing Eye dog. This is a special dog which helps blind people walk along the streets and do many other things. We call these dogs Seeing Eye dogs because they are the "eye" of the blind people and they help them to "see". Seeing Eye dogs generally go to special schools for several years to learn to help blind people. | high1892.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Because it rained heavily and she had no umbrella with her."
},
"options": [
"Because she wanted to keep warm.",
"Because she wanted to wait for her friend there.",
"Because she wanted to phone her mother.",
"Because it... | Have you ever done something foolish that made you feel so embarrassed ?
Well, that's exactly how I felt. On a Saturday morning last autumn.I had gone to town to do some shopping and as I was on my way home,it suddenly began to rain. I at once ran into a nearby phone box because I didn't have an umbrella.It was raining so heavily that I have to stay in the phone box until it stopped.
A few moments later,I saw a young man walk up to the phone box,wearing a yellow raincoat and holding a box. I didn't want to go out into the rain,so I picked up the phone and pretended I was talking to someone. I thought the man would go away,but he didn't. He just waited in the rain,watching me. I had to wave my hands about and acted as if I was deep in conversation.
Luckily,it began to stop after about ten minutes."Okay,Mum," I said loudly into the phone,"I'll see you later Bye!" I put the phone down, picked up my shopping bag and walked out of the phone box "I'm sorry I took so long,"I said to the man.
"Oh, I don't want to use the phone,"he replied, smiling."I've just come to repair it. It's out of order.you see." I felt myself go red in the face and I hurried away with my head down,feeling a complete fool. That was certainly one of the most embarrassing moments of my life! | high8108.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "computer crimes"
},
"options": [
"computer crimes",
"stealing through computers",
"computer mistakes",
"punishment through computers"
],
"question": "This passage is mainly about _ .",
"question_type": "c... | In many businesses, computers have largely replaced paperwork, because they are fast, and do not make mistakes. And they are honest. Many banks say that their business is "untouched by human hands" and therefore safe. But they have no thought that the growing number of computer crimes show they can be used to steal.
Computer criminals don't use guns. And even if they are caught, it is hard to punish them because there is often no proof. A computer cannot remember who used it. It simply does what it is told. The head teller at a New York City bank used a computer to steal more than one and a half billion dollars in just four years. No one noticed this because he moved the money from one account to another. Each time a customer whose money he had stolen questioned the balance in his account, the teller said it was a computer mistake, then replaced the missing money from someone else's account. This man was caught at last.
Some workers use the computer's power to punish their bosses they consider unfair. Recently, a large company fired its computer record assistant for reasons that were connected with her personal life rather than her job. She was given thirty days notice. In those thirty days, she stole all the company's computerized records.
Most computer criminals have been common workers. Now police wonder if this is "the tip of iceberg". As one official says, "I have the feeling that there is more crime out there than we are catching. What we are seeing now is all so poorly done. I wonder what the real experts are doing--the ones who really know a computer works." | high14462.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "families with teen drivers; an insurance company"
},
"options": [
"teen drivers; a company called Drive Cam",
"insurance companies; a San Diegocompany",
"families with teen drivers; an insurance company",
"American Fami... | Parents in three Midwestern states will soon know just how good or bad their kids' driving is when their children take the car for a spin .
Starting today, American Family Insurance is offering customers with teen drivers free cameras that record what happens when a sudden change in the car's movement occurs.
The cameras record the action inside and in front of the car in 20-second audio-video clips . The clips are then transmitted to Drive Cam, a prefix = st1 /San Diegocompany that analyzes the clips for risky behavior.
Among things the analysts look for is the response time of the drivers and if they are paying attention to the road. Parents can receive a report on their kids' driving and view the clips on a home computer.
Car accidents are the leading cause of death among U. S.teens, according to the NHTSA(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration).
"There will be fewer accidents," Rick Fetherston, vice president at American Family said of the new system. American Family will test the system out by offering it for free for one year to 30.000 families in Wisconsin, Indiana and Minnesotato see whether the system results in fewer accidents. If the system is proven to prevent accidents, customers who volunteer to use it might see their insurance premiums drop. The company would not be viewing the videos or individual score cars, unless there is an accident.
Bruce Moeller, president of Drive Cam, says his company's system is already being used by companies with lots of cars. "Some of our customers are reporting a 30% to 90% reduction in their risky driver events," Moeller says.
But a lawyer in Minneapolissays. "If I felt I needed a camera in the car to watch over my kids, I shouldn't be letting them drive."
American Family tested the system in two high schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Megan Ireland, 17, said the camera caught her stopping too late and taking turns too fast. The student at Prior Lake High School in Savage, Minn., said she didn't like it because she felt it invaded her privacy but has warmed up to the system. "Now I don't really have a problem with it because it's made me a better driver," she says. "For real." | high18258.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "a good way of making money"
},
"options": [
"an art serving the public",
"a good way of making money",
"a way of living fully",
"a fashionable lifestyle"
],
"question": "The passage shows that many singers consi... | There is an interesting, but at the same time a sad phenomenon now: there is a rise in the number of singers and bands that have little to do with good music.Many singers or bands know little about what good music means.What is the cause of this rise?
Most of these singers have taken music as a "job" because it is a good source of making money.And if you have a good appearance and also expensive clothes to show off at your concerts or at different appearances in public, then your voice is not as important as it should be.The public will prefer to admire more the most interesting parts of your body, whether you are a girl or a boy.They will even forget about the fact that you are there to show your music skills, not your dancing, which is important too, but not at such a high level.
Therefore, we can see many young girls on TV who look very good but who have nothing to do with music.They choose to wear very provocative clothes to catch attention, but when it comes to singing they are a complete mess and one doesn't need to have an ear for music to notice their lack of talent.But anyway, they have concerts and they enjoy travelling from one place to another.It is the public's fault because they accept this and are pleased with this commercial music.People who enjoy this kind of music are generally young people while adults prefer listening to old good bands.
However, the young generation should understand while appearance is important, it is less important than talent and a good voice.If somebody has a great voice and wants to become a singer, he should take some special courses in this area, because they will help them improve singing abilities. | high10604.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Asia"
},
"options": [
"Europe",
"Africa",
"Asia",
"America"
],
"question": "Bali is an island belonging to _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
... | Bali is a tiny island that is part of Indonesia today. It is a pretty island that has many mountains and a pleasant climate. For a long time, Bali was cut off from much of the world.
The people of Bali were happy and had a peaceful life. They were not allowed to fight. At one time there had been terrible wars on Bali. Then the people decided it was wrong to fight or have wars. They made rules to keep apart those people who wanted to fight.
Bali was divided into seven small kingdoms. The land around each kingdom was kept empty, and no one lived there. Since the kingdoms did not share the same borders , the people could not fight about them.
On Bali, even children were not allowed to fight. If two children started a fight over a toy, someone separated them. When two boys argued, they would agree not to speak to each other. Sometimes they did not talk together for months; this gave the boys a chance to forget their anger.
Families who were angry with each other also promised not to speak. Their promise was written down, and the whole village knew about it. If they broke their promise, they had to offer gifts to their gods. | high16275.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "ask her friend for help"
},
"options": [
"stay with her friends",
"ask her friend for help",
"leave the party at once",
"make fun of her friends"
],
"question": "Alice advises Susan to _ .",
"question_typ... | I sometimes feel left out with my friends at the party.What can I do?
--Susan
Alice: Speak to your best friend before you arrive and ask her to make sure you don't get left out of the group.That way, she'll know to include you in all the fun.Make the effort to speak to some other people at the party.You might even make a new friend or two.
Sometimes I think parties get boring and I want to go home!
--Jenny
Alice: Even a great party will drag if you're not enjoying yourself.Making the effort to dance and have a chat with your friends will beat the boredom! You don't have to stay to the very end of the party.
Our school is having a Christmas dance party but I'm really shy.Shall I go or not?
--Emma
Alice: Part of you would like to go to the party, so give it a try.Let good friends know how you feel and make sure you'll have people to dance with when the evening comes.Practice some fun dances so you'll feel comfortable on the dance floor.
Whenever I go to a party, my dad comes to pick me up at 8 pm.I always have to leave earlier than the rest of my friends and I get really angry with my dad.
--Anny
Alice: Talk with your dad and let him know how you feel.It feels hard to have different rules from your friends but don't worry too much--your friends are probably picked up soon after you anyway. | high19146.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "suggest way of setting goals to reach success"
},
"options": [
"show that it's necessary to set goals",
"prove the disadvantages of setting goals",
"suggest way of setting goals to reach success",
"introduce how to reac... | It might sound ridiculous that goal setting could actually hold you back from completing tasks and dreams you may have. But it seems like everyone tells you should be setting goals for everything you want to accomplish, short term and long term. Goals can help you sometimes, but in some cases they just lead to constant frustration and they actually bring you down.
Let's look at this a little closer with an example. A lot of people might set forth as a goal. Many people jump online and are looking to start a business online as a way to make money from home and let's say they set a goal to make $10,000 in their first month. They do this because they seem tons of people making large sums of money in very little time so they think, $10,000 a month, that shouldn't be too hard.
But what happens when you only bring in $1,000 in your first 30 days online? If this is pure profit you might still be happy but this is nowhere near reaching the goal you originally set out to meet. So naturally you would feel like you failed to reach your goal and you may be a little disappointed in yourself.
If you continue not to reach this goal month in month , it starts to add up and really weighs on you. I'm not saying that they are bad and you shouldn't set them but you need to realize that you should not be emotionally attached to your goals.
An alternative approach would be to set certain milestones for when you want to accomplish things and start out small. Build your confidence by accomplishing smaller feats and if you overproduce, then it will be a nice surprise. You have to have some sort of end result in mind but break it down in to a day by day task. It makes it a lot easier for you to handle by just knowing everyday you have to complete a few small tasks and over time the snowball will roll into great things. | high15754.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "They will make children solve difficult problems better than others."
},
"options": [
"They will make children solve difficult problems better than others.",
"they will improve children's ability to get along with others.",
"... | The average American child spends three to five hours a day watching TV. In 1961, the average child began to watch television at age three; however, today it is nine months. Yet, most parents think that television has bad influence on their children. For example, in the early 1970s, my parents believed that my bad eyesight was the result of sitting too close to the screen, and they therefore made my stay at least six feet from it. Today, most people have no such worry, but many new ridiculous sayings have appeared:
*TV makes kids stupid. Many children watch more educational programs when they are pre-schoolers. When they grow up, they can read more books and have much better ideas to solve difficult problems than other children.
*TV makes kids violent. The real story is not so simple. Hundreds of studies show that watching violence on TV makes children more aggressive . But a study of over 5,000 children also finds that some positive programs make children kinder. The problem is that kids are increasingly watching shows with violence instead of those suitable for their age.
*Sitting around watching TV makes kids overweight. An experiment finds that when children watch less television, they do lose extra weight; however, reducing their television time does not make them more active. The real problem lies in snacking . A widespread habit for kids, and junk-food advertisements.
*TV helps kids get to sleep. The opposite is true. The more television children watch, the more likely they are to have irregular sleep and nap patterns. Allowing kids to watch television is part of the problem, not the solution. | high8120.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Ban on Valentine's Day cards at school causes argument."
},
"options": [
"Ban on Valentine's Day cards at school is well received.",
"Ban on Valentine's Day cards at school causes argument.",
"British children spend too much ... | A primary school in UK has banned Valentine's Day cards because of concerns that young pupils spend too much time talking about boyfriends and girlfriends.
Ashcombe Primary School in WestonSuperMare,Somerset,has told parents that cards declaring love can be"confusing" for children under the age of 11,who are still emotionally and socially developing. In this month's newsletter ,Peter Turner,the head teacher,warned that any cards found in school would be confiscated .He wrote:"We do not wish to see any Valentine's Day cards in school this year. Some children and parents encourage a lot of talk about boyfriends and girlfriends. We believe that such ideas should wait until children are mature enough emotionally and socially to understand the commitment involved in having or being a boyfriend or girlfriend."Mr.Turner said any families wanting to support the Valentine's Day idea should send cards in the post or deliver them to home addresses by hand.
His views were _ by Ruth Rice,46,who has twins Harriet and Olivia at the school. She said,"Children at that age shouldn't really be thinking about Valentine's Day,they should be concentrating on their schoolwork."They are at an age when they are impressionable and most parents including myself are with Mr.Turner. "She added that the cards cause" too much competition. If someone gets a card and another doesn't,then someone will be disappointed.
However,Rajeev Takyar,40,who has two children Jai,11,and Aryan,five,at the school,said he was "outraged".He said,"There are schools that have banned conkers and snowballs,and now Valentine's Cards."I think banning the cards stops children from having social skills. How are they going to learn about relationships otherwise?It's ridiculous. Alec Suttenwood,father of three children,said of the ban:"It's totally ridiculous. Young children just send the cards to each other as friends and to their parents. It's just a bit of harmless fun. There is no difference between this and Mother's or Father's Day." | high7213.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "show their faces"
},
"options": [
"have fun",
"make friends",
"show their faces",
"find new customers"
],
"question": "Harper and Moyse go to highly populated areas to _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questi... | Two graduates from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom found themselves about to graduate, yet with loans to pay off. The pair decided to begin a strange, year-long project to battle their debt.
The men, Ross Harper and Ed Moyse, set up the site BuyMyFace.co.uk. last October as a way to get rid of the $80,000 they shared as student loans. The idea behind the project was to earn money by selling their faces as advertising space every day for a year. Each day, they advertise a different business on their site by painting the brand's logo or name on their faces and including a link to the company's site. After they paint their faces and publish them on the site, Harper and Moyse go out to highly populated areas such as music festivals and theme parks to maximize their faces' exposure.
At this time, Harper and Moyse have advertised their faces for over four months without skipping a day and they're more than halfway to their goal. Though they first started charging a minimum of about USD $1.60 per company, the prices have risen as their popularity increased. For advertising space during the remainder of April, they range between USD $250 and $750.
Terri L. Rittenburg, associate professor of marketing at the University of Wyoming, said she had heard of people tattooing logos on themselves before, but this idea is much better. According to her, at first the idea would be new and novel and attract attention, but she is unsure how long it would last.
At least for now, companies that have bought Harper and Moyse's faces have written positive comments on the pair's website. "We had a three percent increase in website traffic on the very day and for two days more afterwards," said an alcoholic beverage company. | high1662.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "He'll feel unhappy."
},
"options": [
"He'll feel unhappy.",
"He'll live a pleasant life.",
"He'll go on a diet.",
"He'll become a vegetarian."
],
"question": "What if Bill has to change his habit ?",
"questi... | The World Health Organization (WHO) said that processed meat may be carcipogenic . Do you still dare eat cancer-linked processed meat ? Here are some comments on the website.
Bill (Australia) I'd rather live a short, pleasant life than a long, unhappy one, denying myself tasty food just because some experts say it's not healthy. We should all enjoy the one life we have ---if I had listened to every piece of health advice I would never go anywhere, eat anything or enjoy life in any way. So, I won't change my habit. I am going to have bacon sandwich, glass of wine, burger, can of coke whenever I fell like it.
Tim (America) Is meat really as bad as smoking: I don't think so. According to the WHO 34,000 people die worldwide per year because they eat processed meat. In 2012, 8.2 million people died of cancer worldwide. That means if you eat a lot of processed meat you have a chance of being among the 0.41 percent of people dying of cancer because of processed meat. I'll take the chance.
Helen (Switzerland) The WHO doesn't say that just one bite of meat causes cancer, it is rather saying that people should vary their diet. People who eat more meat often have other unhealthy habits. They usually eat fewer fruits and vegetables and they also often exercise less.
Van (China) Perhaps this report will make people consider becoming vegetarians ( ). So for your health, the environment and future generations, it is not difficult; it just needs a change of attitude. There is a vast variety of other delicious food available to enjoy. | high13325.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "is full of contrasts"
},
"options": [
"is full of contrasts",
"has a surprise ending",
"reflects Dickens' own life",
"is set in the Industrial Revolution"
],
"question": "The Old Curiosity Shop is different from... | The grandfather of Nell Trent owns a shop of odds and ends. He wants to make sure his grandfather is provided for when he dies. His memory of his daughter's suffering and early death gives him a fear of poverty. Gambling becomes an addiction for Nell's grandfather, which results in his financial and physical ruin. Nell and her grandfather flee from their home and begin a journey that has no destination. For Nell, all she wants is a peaceful existence with enough to live on.
They come across many interesting people on their travels and often meet with the kindness of strangers. Yet, in a colorful world, they also face the reality of the Industrial Revolution. From simple villages and fields of flowers, they go into a dirty city full of mass unemployment and plague victims --- where children die of starvation and many are abandoned.
The story isn't only about Nell and her grandfather, but also the people who are connected to them directly or indirectly. There is Richard Swiveller, a careless young man who is a friend of Nell's older brother, who wants Swiveller to marry Nell for the fortune he thinks she has. Daniel Quilp is a cruel moneylender, who manages to fool the grandfather into borrowing large sums of money from him. There is honest Kit, a boy employed at the shop, who becomes a victim even though he never harms other people. Kit desires to help Nell, whom he considers an angel that has always inspired the best in him. The mysterious Bevis Marks, who is a generous customer to some people and an enemy to others, also has his own reasons for looking after Nell and her grandfather.
Unlike Dickens' other works, The Old Curiosity Shop is a book of contrasts: the purity of Nell compared to the dishonesty of Quilp, fresh air and scenic villages to the polluted, stone-covered city, etc. Even people's reaction to the book presented a cruel contrast. At first, Nell Trent was praised and considered Dickens' best character. Later, she was criticized by many well-known people like Oscar Wilde. While characters in Dickens' other books are moving towards a better future, Nell and her grandfather are fleeing for their life and their story is moving towards a sad ending. | high5404.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Because she couldn't live without him."
},
"options": [
"Because Christmas is drawing near.",
"Because she was interested in cloning.",
"Because she couldn't live without him.",
"Because other cats are afraid of water."... | What would you do if your pet cat died just before Christmas? Many cat lovers would go out and buy another cat. But one American woman was unable to bear life without her much loved pet cat Nicky. He had been with her for 17 years; and when she knew he was going to die, she had him cloned. Little Nicky was cloned by an American company, called GSC. But the new cat cost his owner $50,000.
"He is the same. His characteristics are the same," the woman told news reporters. The company, Sausalito-based Genetic Savings and Clone, made her available to speak to reporters only on condition that her name or hometown was not used. The woman said she feared being the target of groups against cloning.
"Nicky loved water, which is an unusual characteristic of cats. Little Nicky jumped into my bath. Most cats are afraid of water, but Little Nicky is different: he loves it, just like my old cat," said the woman, who said she was in her early 40s and worked in the airline industry. The company delivered Little Nicky two weeks ago and was expected to publicly announce the news on Thursday.
However, the cat's creation has raised heated debate. Many people have said they felt disgusted at the amount of money spent on cloning a cat. They said that she should have chosen one of the many cats without a home -- cats like this are a common problem in many countries. The woman has only told news reporters her first name, Julia, but she has already received nearly 100 frightening letters from angry people, who say that cloning is against nature. Little Nicky was not only expensive, but also, like all cloned animals, may have more health problems than an animal which was born in the usual way.
GSC said it had to try 80 times before it succeeded in producing a cloned cat. The company is now using new techniques and soon they hope to produce cloned dogs as well as cats. GSC said that if people were not happy with the cloned cats or dogs, they could have their money back. At the moment the cost of cloning is very high, but the manager of CSC said he hoped that eventually it would go down, and that in five years, the cost should be $20,000 for a dog or $10,000 for a cat. | high18270.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "the terrorists spent plenty of time and efforts in planning the attack"
},
"options": [
"few Indian people are rich enough to take the first-class compartments",
"the terrorists spent plenty of time and efforts in planning the atta... | Bomb attack onprefix = st1 /Bombaytrains kills 190
BOMBAY, India-Eight bombs exploded in first -class compartments of packed Bombay Trains Tuesday, killing 190 people and wounding hundreds in a well-designed terror attack on the heart of a city that embodies the ambition of the country.
Liu Xiang record warmsChina's hearts
Liu Xiang ofChinaset a new 110 metres hurdles world record on a stunning night in Lausanne, breaking the record he shared withBritain's Colin Jackson. Liu rushed to the finishing line in a time of 12.88 seconds, beating the old mark of 12.91 that he matched in winning gold at the 2004 A thens Olympics. Jackson ran 12.91 inStuttgart,Germany, in August 1993.
Materazzi admits insulting Zidane
Marco Materazzi admits he insulted Zinedine Zidane before the France captain head-butted him in the World Cup final. Materazzi denies calling him a"terrorist."Zidane and Materazzi _ after Italy broke up a French attack in extra-time of Sunday's final in Berlin Seconds later, Zidane lowered his head and rammed Materazzi in the chest, knocking him to the ground.
President Hu departs for G8 summit
BEIJING,July 16-Chinese President Hu Jintao left Beijing on Sunday morning for Russia's St. Petersburg to attend the summit of the Group of Eight major economies. Hu is invited by Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Monday. Hu will meet with G-8 leaders to discuss energy security, prevention and control of epidemic diseases, education, African development and other topics. Among Hu's entourages are State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, Director of the Policy Research Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China(CPC)Wang Huning, Deputy Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee Ling Jihua, Director of thePresident's Office Chen Shiju and Assistant Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai. The G-8 members are Britain,Canada,France,Germany,Italy,Japan,Russiaand theUnited States. | high17143.txt |
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