questions list | article stringlengths 9 6.44k | id stringlengths 9 14 |
|---|---|---|
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "you'll have to pay for the plastic bags"
},
"options": [
"you can get free plastic bags",
"you'll have to pay for the plastic bags",
"you can't buy anything",
"you can't use plastic bags"
],
"question": "On June... | Do you still get free plastic bags from the supermarket ? Things will change soon.
To protect the environment, supermarkets in China will stop providing free plastic bags after June 1st. If you don't want to pay money to buy them, you'll have to bring your own shopping bag.
What kind of bags will be the best to bring? Students in Kunming Xinying Middle School have some good ideas.
Recently 54 students of the school held an activity in which they made their own environmentally-friendly shopping bags.
Most students used old clothes to make their bags. They painted pictures like the Olympic rings on them.
But Wang Shuncheng, a Junior 2 boy, chose a different material . He made his bag with old newspaper. Is a newspaper bag strong enough to hold shopping? Wang says it is, "No problem. I put six bottles of water in the bag," he said. "It's strong enough!"
Chen Lisi, a girl, had a more traditional way to make her bag - she weaved a bamboo basket. It was not an easy job. With her grandfather's help, Chen spent a whole afternoon making it. She also weaved wool flowers on the basket.
Making bags was not all the students did. They had another job: to persuade their parents and relatives to use environmentally-friendly shopping bags instead of plastic ones. The school will show the bags so that shops and stores can get inspiration from the students' work. | high2568.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Because he didn't want to see the mule suffer more in the well."
},
"options": [
"Because he thought the mule was of little use.",
"Because he didn't like the praying made by the mule.",
"Because he thought the well couldn't ... | This parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule . The mule fell into the farmer's well. The farmer heard the mule praying for whatever mules do when they fall into wells. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together , told them what had happened, and asked them to help pour dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out his misery.
At the beginning, the old mule was crazy! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shovelling and the dirt hit his back, _ . It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back, he would shake it off and step up!
This he did, blow after blow. "Shake it off and step up... shake it off and step up... shake it off and step up!" He repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows, or how distressing the situation seemed, the old mule fought panic and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up!
It wasn't long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well! What seemed like it would bury him actually helped him... all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity .
That's life! If we face our problems and respond to them positively, and refuse to give in to panic, bitterness, or self-pity.
The adversities that come along to bury us usually have within them the very real potential to benefit us! Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that amateurs built the boat. Professionals built the Titanic. | high5207.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "how life began on a volcano-produced island."
},
"options": [
"how an island rose up in the sea",
"how soil was formed on a new island",
"how life began on a volcano-produced island.",
"how an undersea volcano broke out... | It remained a question who had to be the pioneer life on a new island. In fact, few people knew it.
Thousands of years ago, in the middle of an ocean, miles from the nearest island, an undersea volcano broke out. The hot liquid rock piled higher and higher and spread wider and wider. In this way, an island rose up in the sea.
As time went on, hot sun and cool rains made the rock split and break into pieces. Sea waves dashed against the rock. In this way, soil and sand came into being.
It is well known that nothing lived on the naked soil. And then the wind and the birds brought plant seeds, spiders and other creatures there. Only plants could grow first. Only they, in sunlight, could produce food from the minerals of the soil, water and air. While many animals landed on the island, they could find no food. A spider spun its web in vain , because there were no insects for its web to catch. Insects could not stay until there were plants for them to eat. So plants had to be the pioneer life on his new island. | high18473.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "both A and C"
},
"options": [
"Italy and Spain",
"China and Japan",
"Japan",
"both A and C"
],
"question": "This story is about New Year's Eve in _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"ans... | On New Year's Eve
At midnight on New Year's Eve, people in Rome, Italy, throw out all the things they no longer want. The streets are filled with old chairs, beds, clothes and dishes. In Madrid, Spain, the new year comes in more quietly. People flock to the main square. Each holds a bag of grapes. As the clock strikes twelve, the people eat the grapes-- one for each stroke.
In Tokyo people eat noodles on New Year's Eve. This food is said to bring long life. Early the next morning, some Japanese families climb Mount Fuji. There they watch the first sunrise of the new year. | high17740.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Money can buy happiness, but only if you spend it on someone else."
},
"options": [
"The more you earn, the greater happiness you will get.",
"Spending more money on yourself will make you happier.",
"Money can buy happiness,... | Spending as little as $5 a day on someone else could significantly boost happiness, the team at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School found on Thursday.
Their experiments on more than 630 Americans showed they were measurably happier when they spent money on others--even if they thought spending the money on themselves would make them happier.
"We wanted to test our theory that how people spend their money is at least as important as how much money they earn," said Elizabeth Dunn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia. They asked their 600 volunteers first to rate their general happiness, report their annual (yearly) income and detail their monthly spending including bills, gifts for themselves, girls for others and donations to charity.
"Regardless of how much income each person made, those who spent money on others reported greater happiness, while those who spent more on themselves did not," Dunn said in a statement.
Dunn's team also surveyed 16 employees at a company in Boston before and after they received an annual profit-sharing bonus of between $3,000 and $8,000. "Employees who devoted more of their bonus to pro-social spending experienced greater happiness after receiving the bonus and the manner in which they spent that bonus was a more important predictor of their happiness than the size of the bonus itself" they wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.
They gave their volunteers $5 or $20 and half got clear instructions on how to spend it. Those who spent the money on someone or something else reported feeling happier about it.
"These findings suggest that very minor alterations (changes) in spending allocations (shares)--as little as $5--may be enough to produce real gains in happiness on a given day,"Dunn said. | high4119.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Environment - friendly."
},
"options": [
"Tiny.",
"Imagination",
"Foreign",
"Environment - friendly."
],
"question": "Which of the following words can be used to describe the China Pavilion?",
"question_type... | World Expo 2010 Shanghai China is to be staged in Shanghai from May 1 to October 31, 2010. If you plan to visit the Shanghai Expo this summer, China Pavilion is a must - see area for you.
China Pavilion, which is called Oriental Crown, is located at the center of the Expo site. Standing 63 meters tall, the China Pavilion takes the shape of an emperor's crown, with the upper layers larger than the lower ones. Covering 160,000 square meters in floor space, the pavilion is made up of a national hall and a regional( ) hall. Buildings on the China Pavilion began on Dec. 18, 2007. The design of the China Pavilion was picked from a total of 344 designs put forward by Chinese from around the world. The pavilion has both traditional and modern features, which helps develop the theme of the 2010 Expo; "Better City, Better Life. For example, it is red in appearance, which covers the traditional Chinese culture, and it is green indoors, with the use of energy - saving techniques. The Shanghai World Expo is expected to attract 70 million visitors from across the globe. It is estimated that 400,000 people will visit the Expo and its 140 pavilions every day during the period, but the China Pavilion is only able to receive about one tenth of the total. How to hold so many people in the pavilion remains a tough task. Luckily, the China Pavilion is built as a permanent landmark.
During the Expo, the main structure( ) will be used for an exhibition based on the theme of " Chinese wisdom in urban development" by explaining the values of harmony( ), nature and spirit. The three - story pavilion has three sections. The top floor's "Footprint of the East" will show some of the changes in Chinese cities. There, you can see a film which shows how Chinese cities have changed, especially in the past 30 years. According to Lu Chuan, director of the film, the scenery is like something from Lord of the Rings. On the second floor, "Journey of Wisdom" will explain China's four great inventions. And the ground's " Blossoming" City will display scenes from cities of the future. | high11331.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "deg@waikato.ac.nz"
},
"options": [
"sport@waikato.ac.nz",
"heal@waikato.ac.nz",
"deg@waikato.ac.nz",
"inf@waikato.ac.nz"
],
"question": "If you want to get more information about arts, you can write to _ .",
... | If you want to be a success, study at the University of Waikato is right for you. The university is internationally recognized for its excellence and achievements. It will help you develop advanced research skills. As a university student you can get first-class research facilities with trained teachers to help, support and advise you in your study. We pride ourselves on our high standards, our research success and our international recognition. For further information: inf@waikato.ac.nz.
Degree
We offer a wide choice of bachelor's degrees for international students, which includes: Arts, Communication Studies, Social Sciences, etc. Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Education are only for New Zealand citizens, for further information: deg@waikato.ac.nz.
Tuition Fees
Tuition fees are different from department to department, generally from $5,000 to $6,000 a year. For further information: tui@waikato.ac.nz.
Accommodation
You can have a room in a 4-bedroom flat, which will cost about $100 a month with other regular living costs of about $150 a month for one person. For further information: acc@waikato. ac.nz
Health
The Student Health Service provides excellent medical services for students. The Medical Centre is open five days a week, including student holidays with four doctors and nurses to meet your medical needs. For further information: heal@waikato.ac.nz.
Sports
The Centre is a great place to have sports activities. Trained exercise teachers can help you work out a training plan and keep you active. The sports hall has volleyball, basketball and indoor football courts and a swimming pool as well. There are also a large number of sports clubs at Waikato. For further information: sport@ waikato.ac.nz | high3676.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "coach"
},
"options": [
"coach",
"student",
"cheerleader",
"photographer"
],
"question": "According to the passage,we know the girl'S dad was a",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_i... | I was never tired of heating their story.As a little girl,I'd sit beside my mom with their
wedding album spread across my lap,slowly turning the pages of 8 x l 0 glossy black and white
photographs.I'd trace my fingers along their faces,along that white wedding dress.
"Tell me again,"I said . "Tell me again about you and dad."
And she'd smile and her eyes would crinkle and she'd get that loving look and then she'd
repeat once more Their Love Story.
I'd smile too and stare at that photo of my non looking SO beautiful and my dad so tall and
handsome.
"Your dad was tall and really good--looking as he stood by his classroom door greeting his
students.Besides coaching,he taught history and social studies.I often stole a few looks since my
classes were nearby.That year I had many conversations with ' Mr.Kehoe',sometimes when he
had lunch duty,sometimes when I had cheerleading practice.He was appointed cheerleader sponsor
and I'd been a cheerleader for four years.
We were married that November during the Thanksgiving holiday.1 went from a graduate one
year to a teacher's wife the next!
But part of the story that I loved most,that all my life I thought was magical and wonderful and
amazing and exciting and oh--so romantic.
So,what do you think ?Did God speak to me?"
I'd catch and hold my breath,then exclaim,"Oh,yes !God told you that you'd marry Dad!"
Now can you see why I loved heating Their Love Story ?And SO their wedding.Then their
marriage.Then their family.Three babies in three years,then a fourth. Then,what else would you
expect after heating the Voice of God--years and years and years of Happy Moments!
Now it's come to this:60 years of marriage ! | high17998.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "wouldn't get paid leave"
},
"options": [
"wouldn't get extra time off",
"would get lower pay",
"would pay for her leave or she will be fired",
"wouldn't get paid leave"
],
"question": "If a woman in the U.S left... | The United States does not require business to pay workers who are sick or caring for a new baby. President Obama and some other U.S. lawmakers want to change time-off policies. Supporters say paid leave is the right thing to do. Opponents say it will kill economic growth.
In 2014, the United Nations reported that Papua New Guinea and the U.S. are the only two -- out of 185 -- countries in the world that do not offer workers paid time off to care for newborns. However, several state governments and some private businesses in the U.S. have provided the benefits for their workers.
Not every American agrees that requiring businesses to pay workers for leave is a good idea.
Tricia Baldwin is a business woman. She is secretary and treasurer for her family's company. Her company employs 400 workers. She says giving all of them paid leave would ruin her company. Instead, Reliable Contracting gives paid leave to employees who have stayed with the company for at least five years. She says paid leave is simply another government order that adds more costs to doing business.
President Obama supports paid leave for workers. Recently, he proposed a measure called the Healthy Family Act. It would allow workers to earn up to seven paid days of sick leave a year to care for themselves or family members.
Mr. Obama also wants Congress to approve a measure giving all workers six weeks of paid leave to have and care for a new baby.
U.S. lawmakers who support the proposed measure say paid leave is good for the families and for businesses. Representative Don Beyer says paid leave is an encouragement to parents to return to the job. Mr. Beyer says training a new employee can cost a company a year's worth of income. But U.S. lawmakers who oppose the bill say they do not want to restrict businesses by requiring them to provide paid leave. They are offering a different measure. The Working Families Flexibility Act would allow employees to work extra hours and earn either time off or more pay. | high12610.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "A peice of exercise equipment."
},
"options": [
"A peice of exercise equipment.",
"A club membership card.",
"A commercial health club.",
"An electric wheelchair."
],
"question": "What is ROM?",
"question_ty... | TIME IS IT.Over 92% of people who own exercise equipment snd 88% of people who own health club memberships do not exercise.A 4-minute complete workout is no longer hard to believe for all the people who have bought our excellent Range of Motion machine (ROM) since 1990.Over 97% of people who rent our ROM for 30 days end up buying it,due to the health benefits experienced during that tryout and the ROM performance score that tells the story of health and fitness improvement.At under 20 cents per use,the 4-minute ROM exercise is the least expensive full body complete exercise a person can do.How do we know that it is under 20 cents per use?Over 90% of ROM machines go to private homes,but we have a few that are in commercial use for 12 years and they have endured over 80,000 uses each,without need of repair.The ROM 4-minute workout is for people from 10 to over 100 years old and highly trained athletes as well.The ROM balances blood sugar,and repairs bad backs and shoulders.Too good to be ture?Get our free video and see for yourself.The best proof for us is that 97% of rentals become sales.Please visit our websit at www. Fitness.com or call (800)123-6460.
Factory Showroom : EOMFAB. 823 Main Street , Batom Ronge , LA70893
Fax(800)123-6461 Email: sakes @fitness. Com | high7438.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "supported the volunteers' job"
},
"options": [
"threw out good food on the campus",
"supported the volunteers' job",
"enjoyed the talk with the students",
"donated their leftovers to the poor"
],
"question": "Th... | University of Maryland student Ben Simon and his friends couldn't stand to see good food thrown out on their campus."We basically noticed that some of the extra food from the dining hall was going to waste at the end of the day.And we met with the dining services and asked them whether it would be okay if instead of throwing out the food we would donate it.And they were on board," he said.
So 18 months ago,the students began what they call the Food Recovery Network.Each night,volunteers would show up at a campus dining hall to pick up leftovers and deliver them to area shelters and food banks.So far,they have donated more than 23 000 kilos of food that would otherwise have been thrown out.
Nationwide,$165 billion worth of food is wasted each year,according to the National Resources Defense Council.Spokesman Bob Keefe says that is about 40% of the country's entire food production."If we can reduce our waste in this country by 15%,we can feed 25 million hungry Americans.That is a huge benefit.That is what programs like this Food Recovery Network are doing," he said.
Christian Life Center is one of the beneficiaries of the students' efforts.Ben Slye,the senior pastor ,said,"It has been just amazing to see these students take their own time,their own vehicles and own gas money and be able to make an effort like this.Each week we are able with this food probably to feed over hundred people."
The University of Maryland's Food Recovery Network now has 200 volunteers and the program has expanded to 18 schools across the country."I want to grow 18 chapters to a thousand chapters within five years.And once we get to the Food Recovery Nation being at every college campus in America,we want to expand to restaurants and farms." said Simon.
The volunteers are committed to making that happen. | high6726.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "have biological limitations"
},
"options": [
"are not interested in it",
"are afraid to make an attempt",
"have not invented proper tools",
"have biological limitations"
],
"question": "Walking on water hasn't b... | Humans have long been interested greatly in the idea of being able to walk on water. Sadly, biological facts prevent us ever realizing this dream without artificial aid--we simply weigh too much, and all our weight pushes down through our relatively small feet, resulting in a lot of pressure that makes us sink.
However, several types of animals can walk on water. One of the most interesting is the common basilisk Basilicus basilicus, a lizard native to Central and South America. It can run across water for a distance of several meters, avoiding getting wet by rapidly hitting the water's surface with its feet. The lizard will reach a speed of 20 steps per second to keep moving forward. For humans, we would need huge feet that we could bring up to our ears in order to create enough "hitting".
But fortunately there is an alternative: cornflour . By adding enough of this common thickening agent to water (and it does take a lot), you can create a special mixture that doesn't behave like normal water. Now, if the surface of the water is hit hard enough, particles in the water get together for a moment to make the surface hard. Move quickly enough and put enough force into each step, and you really can walk across the surface of this adequately thick liquid of cornflour.
Fun though all this may sound, it's still rather messy and better read about in theory than carried out in practice. If you must do it, then keep the water wings ready in case you start to sink--and take a bath afterward! | high14261.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "lots of people go shopping for something cheaper"
},
"options": [
"lots of people go shopping for something cheaper",
"people have a lot of money to spend after Christmas",
"all the shops close for a two-week Christmas holida... | Here is something about Christmas. Every year just after Christmas the January Sales start. All the shops reduce their prices for two weeks, and they are full of people looking for bargains. My husband and I do not normally go to the sales as we don't like crowds and are short of money as we have to buy lots of Christmas presents.
Last year, however, I took my husband with me to the sales at the large shop in the center of London. We both needed some new clothes and were hoping to find a television set. When we got to Oxford Street, it was so crowded that we decided to split up and meet again at the underground station. So I left my husband and started looking around the shops. Unfortunately all the clothes were in very large sizes and so were not suitable for me. But I did buy a television at a very low price, so I felt quite pleased with myself.
When I arrived at the station, my husband was not there. So I sat down in a nearby cafe to have a cup of tea. I quickly finished my tea when I saw my husband and went out to meet him. He looked very happy. Then I saw he was carrying a large and heavy cardboard box. "Oh, dear!" I thought. Yes, we had no new clothes but two televisions. We shall not go to the sales again. | high9415.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "they make full use of their abilities"
},
"options": [
"they are born cleverer than others",
"they work longer hours at study",
"they make full use of their abilities",
"they know the shortcut to success"
],
"qu... | Everyone knows about straight-A students. We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge of the _ . They get high grades, all right, but only by becoming dull laborers, their noses always stuck in a book. They are not good at social communication and look clumsy while doing sports.
How, then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres?
Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School. She also sings in the choral group, serves on the student council and is a member of the mathematics society. For two years she has maintained A's in every subject. Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico, was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque. He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair, and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station. Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony, he achieved straight A's in his regular classes, plus bonus points for A's in two college-level courses.
How do super-achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren't the only answer. "Top grades don't always go to the brightest students, " declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super-achieving students. "Knowing how to make the most of your innate abilities counts for more. Much more."
In fact, Walberg says, students with high IQ sometimes don't do as well as classmates with lower IQ. For them, learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down.
Hard work isn't the whole story, either. "It's not how long you sit there with the books open, " said one of the many-A students we interviewed. "It's what you do while you're sitting." Indeed, some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates.
The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn. | high1049.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "race walking is a slow-moving sport"
},
"options": [
"race walking is a slow-moving sport",
"the number of adults who ride for fitness has grown 70 percent in four years.",
"it has speed, the benefits of jogging and beautiful... | First it was jogging. Then aerobics . Not too long ago, Americans discovered race walking.
Now Americans are into a newfitnesscraze. They'retaking up bicycling. Over hills and down mountainsides and across quiet country roads, Americans are busily rolling along.
The number of adults who ride for fitness is around 17 million, an increase of 70 percent over four years ago. Twice as many women as men are coming to the sport. Americans arefalling in love withbiking because it has speed, the benefitsofjoggingand beautiful scenery.
Bicycling is a very appropriate sport, which is important to people who injured their knees while jogging or whosejointsareachingfrom aerobics. And biking is a real awakening for people who have been into race walking in the past. Race walking isas dull as watching paint dry.
The most popular kind of bicycle for people who are new to the sport is the mountain bike, which has afixed framewith wide tires andupright handles. Mountain bikes also have manygears to make it easier to climb hills. About 5 million Americans ride mountain bikes, compared with 200,000 who rode them only five years ago.
Costsrangefrom about $130 for abottom-of-the-linebicycle to more than $2,700 for an expensive bicycle.
Mountain biking has attracted somepeoplewho race down the sides of mountainslike a bat out of hell. But most riders ride slowly and theyrarelyventurefar from home.
The biking craze has brought an unexpected profit to clothing and bicycle accessory makers. Last year, bikers paid $ 630 million for biking clothes and accessories.
Bicycling seems likely to continue its fantastic growth. | high17768.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "He wanted to show he was not guilty."
},
"options": [
"He wanted to live in the house next to the whites.",
"He wanted to have the right to choose where to live.",
"He wanted to show he was not guilty.",
"He wanted to s... | "Your honor !Let me say a few words for myself. What they have told you is just not true. I was not trying to kill anyone, and it was hardly possible to try to kill three strong young men at the same time. I didn't have anything to tell people that night and was quite alone. I didn't know them and needn't hate them. I was attacked by them, and I knocked one of them down. It's true, but I was made to do it, or I might be killed by them. I did this not because I hated the white men as they said. I just had to do so. While I was beaten in the dark street by the three men, a policeman came, caught me and took me here. I know why I was beaten. I have just moved into a house next to these three white men. I have felt that I am not welcome and I have tried to be quiet. I think, as an American, I have the right to choose where to live. I am guilty. What makes me guilty is my color opposite to theirs and I can't enjoy justice . Yes, I'm not guilty. This is all I want to say. Thank you, your honor." | high3886.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The Smallest Backbone Animal"
},
"options": [
"The Strangest Fish",
"Acidic Peat Swamps",
"Strange Species",
"The Smallest Backbone Animal"
],
"question": "64.Which of the following would be the best title for t... | The smallest animal with a backbone known to science, a fish from the carp family, has been discovered in the peat swamps of Indonesia. Mature females of the fish species Paedocypris reach just 7.9mm in length.
The species was discovered in the highly acidic peat swamps of the Indonesian island of Sumatra by a team led by Ralf Britz, a zoologist at the Natural History Museum in London.
"This is one of the strangest fish that I've seen in my whole career," Dr Britz said. "It's tiny, and it lives in acid. I hope that we'll have time to find out more about them before their habitat disappears completely."
The species lives in dark tea-colored swamp waters, which are 100 times more acidic than rainwater. Although these swamps were once thought to be inhabited by very few animals, recent research has shown that they are home to a highly different range of species that occur nowhere else.
The peat swamps were damaged by forest fires in 1997, and are also threatened by agriculture. The scientists behind the discovery said that several populations of Paedocypris had already been lost.
"Many of the peat swamps we surveyed throughout South-East Asia no longer exist," Dr Britz said. "Populations of all the miniature fish of peat swamps have decreased or disappeared."
Details of the discovery are published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B. | high16476.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "have different ideas about the medical effects of cold-water swimming"
},
"options": [
"have different ideas about the medical effects of cold-water swimming",
"believe swimming is helpful both in summer and in winter",
"enou... | When did you see a polar bear ? On a trip to a zoo, perhaps ? If you had attended a winter activity in New York a few years ago, you would have seen a whole polar bear club. These "Polar Bears" are people who meet frequently in the winter to swim in freezing cold water. That day, the air temperature was 3 degrees. And the water temperature was a little higher. The members of the Polar Bear Club at Coney Island, New York are usually about the age of 60. Members must satisfy two requirements. First, they must get along well with everyone else in the group; this is very important because there are so many different kinds of people in the club. Polar Bears must also agree to swim outdoors at least twice a month from November through February.
Doctors don't agree about the medical effects of cold-water swimming. Some are worried about the dangers of a condition in which the body's temperature drops so slow that finally the heart stops. Other doctors, however, point out that there is more danger of a heart attack during summer swimming because the difference between the air temperature and the water tempreature is much greater in summer than in winter.
The Polar Bears themselves are satisfied with the benefits of cold-water swimming. They say that their favorite form of exercise is very good for the circulatory system because it forces the blood to move fast to keep the body warm. Cold-water swimmers usually turn bright red after a few minutes in the water. A person who turns blue probably has a very poor circulatory system and could not try cold-water swimming.
The main benefits of cold-water swimming are probably mental. The Polar Bears love to swim all the year round; they find it fun and relaxing. As one 70-year-old woman says, "When I go into the water, I pour my troubles into the ocean and let them float away." | high4131.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Vardy has proved himself valuable at Leicester City."
},
"options": [
"Vardy's soccer career has always been smooth.",
"Vardy is quite confident in his rise to fame.",
"Vardy has proved himself valuable at Leicester City.",
... | Four years ago, English soccer player Jamie Vardy was a complete unknown. At age 24, he was a part-time player for the Stockbridge Park Steels, earning only PS30 (293 yuan) a week.
Fast forward to 2015, Vardy is Leicester City's star striker and only the second player in the history of the Premier League to score in eleven matches in a row.
Now 28, Vardy has gone from an underdog to a superstar. Even he is surprised by his sudden rise to fame.
"I didn't expect it to happen in a million years, to be honest with you," he told The Telegraph.
His career started with rejection. His local soccer club Sheffield Wednesday let Vardy go at age 16, believing him to be too small to play professionally.
Then he found a part-time job at Stockbridge Park Steels, a soccer team in a lower league. He trained two evenings a week after working in a carbon fiber factory. Vardy lived like this until 2010.
His story is an unusual one, especially because of the highly competitive nature of European soccer. It is often said that if a player can't get a professional contract by his early 20s, he will never be a star. Many of today's soccer stars were successful at a young age. Lionel Messi was named FIFA World Player of the Year at the age of 22. A 23-year-old, Neymar, is a star in the Barcelona team.
But Vardy's late start didn't stop him from dreaming of greatness.
"The secret's just lots and lots of hard work and the motivation that is exactly what I want to be doing," Vardy told The Telegraph. "It's putting it all into the practice on the training field." | high19745.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "the earnings for the holiday quarter was disappointing"
},
"options": [
"the iPhone wasn't popular in China",
"its product quality was widely criticized",
"the earnings for the holiday quarter was disappointing",
"the i... | As Apple tries to maintain its growth and success in China, the world's largest smart-phone market is becoming even more critical. Apple's shares fell sharply as the company's earnings for the holiday quarter through December disappointed investors.
The sales of the iPhone, which include both the iPhone 5 and older models, came in at the low end of analysts' expectations, while the company's income plan for the second quarter was below analysts' forecasts, though Apple is known to give conservative forecasts.
Som'6 analysts have said that for Apple to regain its growth, the company.needs a more aggressive strategy for markets, or more specifically for China, where the market for smart phones has been expanding more rapidly than anywhere else. In China, demand is particularly great for inexpensive phones that run on Android operating system, sold by many Chinese phone makers as well as South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co.
But Apple says it's already enjoying strong growth in China. "We saw big growth in iPhones,"Chief Executive Tim Cook said. He said that the company has been quickly expanding its sales channels in China, including the number of Apple stores. "This isn't nearly what we need, we're not even close to that, but we're making great progress. " he said.
In China, a big missing piece for Apple is China Mobile Ltd. , the biggest local telecom carrier that doesn't yet sell the iPhone. Earlier this month, Mr. Cook met China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua in Beijing and discussed cooperation, stirring hopes that the world's largest mobile carrier may soon start offering the iPhone.
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is working on a lower-end iPhone that could launch as early as this year. But one possible challenge for Apple in China is that low-pricod Android-based phones are getting better in terms of quality. A report from CLSA in late November showed that many smart-phones sold at about 1,000 yuan ( $160) came with higher-reso-lution screens, better cameras and more powerful processors than phones at that price did a year earlier. | high3138.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "How to Measure the Quality of Food"
},
"options": [
"How to Measure the Quality of Food",
"Calories in Foods",
"The Units of Measurement",
"How to Keep Fit"
],
"question": "Which is the best title of passage?",
... | Meat and vegetables are measured in grams and kilograms. Milk and other liquid foods are measured in liters or milliliters. These units only measure quantity: they do not measure the value of the food to the body. The unit which measures the quality or value of food is the calorie the amount of heat given off by food when it brurns. This measurement tells how much energy a certain food has when it is completely used by the body.
Our bodies use varying amount of calories. The more exercise we take, the more calories we burn. If we eat food which contains more calories than we use up, then it is possible that we would increase in weight. In order to avoid becoming overweight, it is advisable to eat a balanced diet and not eat too many foods that have a high calorie rating. The table below gives you some idea of the number of calories in food. | high16310.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "has discovered a big secret []"
},
"options": [
"has fooled the world",
"wasn't smart when he was in high school",
"is a scientist researching the moon",
"has discovered a big secret []"
],
"question": "The writ... | Hero
Carl West is an unassuming all-American 24 year old . You might think that because he works in a convenience store that he's not the brightest guy you're likely to meet. Yet this slightly scruffy young man in his Nike sneakers , was smart enough to break a fake story that successfully fooled the world for 35 years . "I guess I just got lucky," West smiles. " It just goes to show you don't have to finish high school to be smart."
Forty Years' Study
"I've spent 40 years in astronomical study, and 20 years of that specifically in Satellite Systems study. I have a University chair in three major Universities and sat on 5 different governmental committees on Space Exploration. Hell, I wrote a research paper on the Lunar Landings that took 18 months to research, then a further 3 months just to correct it." Steven pauses to scratch his head. "Yet not once did it occur to me to wonder who filmed Armstrong as he stepped onto the moon. How could I have been so stupid? "
The Evidence
* If Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, then who filmed him walking down the ladder?
* There's no gravity on the moon, so why didn't the astronauts just float away?
* It's really hot on the moon, so Armstrong should have died of thirst.
* The deadly radiation belts around the Earth turn everyone radioactive and make your eyes boil unless you are wearing 18 inches of lead . So how did they get through it? | high19023.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "the independent tick rating"
},
"options": [
"the speed of delivering goods",
"the length of running online stores",
"the independent tick rating",
"the varieties of goods"
],
"question": "You can learn about th... | Shopping is easy with Safe-Buyer, a UK online shopping directory. All the online shopping sites listed on Safe-Buyer have been checked for security, delivery, range of goods and prices. We've reviewed the online shopping sites and awarded them a tick rating that's totally independent. So you can shop on the Internet without worrying. Here are some special offers on some shopping sites for you!
_
Save l/3 0ff Photo Gift Orders at _
Jessops Photo is a perfect choice for all photo printing needs, including canvas prints, photo books and more.
First copy the code THIRDOFFGIFT. At the checkout, enter your voucher code for your discount!
Special activity time: 29/09/2013-29/10/2013.
_
Save 15% Off Orders at www. subsidesports.com
Online since 1997, Subside Sports offers an unmatched range of official football shirts and gifts: Over 5000 different products in stock with special offers up to 70% off. Official shirt printing for over 500 players. Personal Customer Services and quick delivery.
First copy the code NEW15PROMO. At the checkout, enter your voucher code for your discount!
Special activity time : 23/09/2013-23/10/2013.
_
Free Delivery on Orders at _ .
As a personalized gifts website, _ offers many gifts for us to choose from, including Photo clocks, Personalized Bags, Photo Key rings, plus more. Al1 our products come with Free Standard Delivery! The majority of our products are dispatched within 24 hours.
First copy the code Free Delivery. At the checkout, enter your voucher code for your discount!
Special activity time: 26/10/2013-06/01/2014.
_
Save 20% Off Orders at _
Personalized gifts continue to grow and be a popular purchase online for all special[ occasions including Birthdays, Valentines, Easter, Retirement and Congratulations plus more. Personalized mugs are the most popular of all personalized products. Only doing mugs allows us to do mugs very well, with an excellent selection of mug types and themed mug designs.
First copy the code SUPERSAVER. At the checkout, enter your voucher code for your discount!
Special activity time: 24/09/2013-04/01/2014. | high5549.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Russia."
},
"options": [
"India.",
"The US.",
"India.",
"Russia."
],
"question": "What country celebrates Teachers' Day in October?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answ... | Teachers' Day is, interestingly, not celebrated on the same day all over the world. In some countries it is marked by a holiday, in others it is a working day.
International Teachers' Day is celebrated on October 5. Being held ever since 1994, it is in honor of teachers' organizations worldwide. Its aim is to encourage supports for teachers and to meet the needs of students.
China--In 1939, Teachers' Day was set for August 27, Confucius' birthday. In1951, the celebration was stopped. However, it was founded again in 1985, and the day was changed to September 10.
India--Teachers' Day is celebrated on September 5 in honour of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the second president of India, whose birthday falls on that day.
Russia--In Russia, Teachers' Day was celebrated on the first Sunday of October between 1965 and 1994. Since 1994, the day is _ on October 5, just the same day as World Teachers' Day.
The US--In the US, Teachers' Day is non-official holiday. It is celebrated on the Tuesday of the first full week of May. A number of activities are organized in schools to honor teachers. The celebrations can continue for the whole week of May.
Thailand--In Thailand, National Teachers' Day is celebrated every year on January 16. The first Teachers' Day was held in 1957. The day is a holiday in schools. | high10761.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "express dissatisfaction"
},
"options": [
"provide information",
"share experiences",
"express dissatisfaction",
"raise expectations"
],
"question": "Jovan wrote the email to _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_... | From: jovangagic56@memail. com
To: kmallory@LN.org
Subject: Hi!
Dear Mr. Mallory,
I am writing to tell you my deep disappointment for my experience at Lingua Nova English summer school in the first two weeks of July. I had been thoroughly looking forward to learning English and learning about culture in the UK, but I am afraid that my time at your summer school failed to live up to my expectations.
Your brochure states that the student accommodation is situated "in the heart of Edinburgh". This is misleading as my accommodation was, in fact, situated a good fifty minutes bus ride from the city center in what I can only describe as a less than picturesque part of the suburbs.
In addition, the activity programme did not reflect the fact that we were located in one of Europe's most interesting and historical cities: one evening activity consisted of a walk to a nearby park, another was a trip to a narrow street which was not usually used by cars. Finally, on our one trip into the city center our "guide" readily admitted that she was not from Edinburgh, and had in fact never visited the city before. I had been eagerly expecting a guided tour of Scotland's treasures. In fact, I was left in the city center with no map and told to "check things out" while your employee went shopping in Princes Street.
This was a long awaited trip and cost me over two years' hard work and saving. Although I do have positive memories of my trip (my English teachers were knowledgeable and inspiring), the accommodation and activity programme were wholly unsatisfactory.
I would like to get my money back for the accommodation and would really appreciate a reply within the next two weeks.
Yours sincerely,
Jovan Gagic | high13268.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "warn people of the danger from air pollution"
},
"options": [
"warn people of the danger from air pollution",
"introduce London's Great Smog of l952",
"blame the government for the smog",
"explain the reasons for air po... | Way back in 1662,John Evelyn,a brilliant Englishman known for his detailed diaries,wrote about disastrous effects of coal-burning on the city of London .In it,he described an _ scene of smog.air filled with "Columns and Clouds of Smoke''given out by small industries and residences that burned coal for fuel.
I found the description in the 2003 book When Smoke Ran like Water,by epidemiologist and environmental advocator Devra Davis.In it,Davis looks back at several historic pollution events and their disastrous effect on human human health-and at how these phenomena were often Ignored or even actively covered up by then people in charge at that time.
As Davis points out,John Evelyn was ahead of his time when writing about how London's polluted air affected the well-being of its residents.It wasn't until nearly 300 years later,after what became well-known as the Great Smog of 1952,that the government began to address the problem in a systematic way.
For four days.Between December 5th"and 9th",due to all accident of the weather pattern,the city was buried in a heavy fog .People were still burning coal for fuel,and low-grade coal at that time, because 0f wartime condition.A temperature inversion trapped the smoke from the city's fires, creating a black cloud in which people could barely find their way down the most familiar streets
Some tried to protect themselves,but most people simply went about their business. But l952's fog was far worse than any other in memory.In the same week of the previous year, 1852 people had died in London;inl952,that number was 4703 And the deaths didn't stop when the weather changed and the fog lifted.Davis and her colleagues analyzed data from the next several months and found that about 13000 more people died between December and March than one would have predicted from historical averages Many of them died of pneumonia .The government,she writes.Tried to blame a bad flu season.Her detailed analysis found that explanation simply did
not pan out.
Davis writes that even today in this country ,we still have not completely absorbed the lessons of similar events.Sixty years the killer fog lifted in London,people are dying preventable deaths and suffering life.changing illnesses,simply because they must breathe the air of the cities where they live | high6040.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "sad"
},
"options": [
"angry",
"sad",
"excited",
"interested"
],
"question": "The author felt _ to watch the couple taking some items out.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | I ran into a local store today to pick up a few things. With an important meeting to attend, I was in a hurry , so I didn't take a cart on my way inside. As I walked between the shelves in the store, I passed by a young couple and their baby. I continued going through the store, picked up a few items I needed and ended up standing behind this couple in the checkout line.
While waiting, I noticed that the young father was holding his money tightly and nervously. The young mother was carrying a baby in her arms and asked the cashier for a job application.
When the total was rung up, they had to pick items out of their cart because they didn't have enough money. But all their items were basic necessities that they needed most. It just broke my heart to watch the couple try to think about what they could do without. However, they were able to _ their items and paid the bill with the money that they had.
After they left, I quietly asked the cashier to add those items to mine. The cashier rang everything up, and then got me a shopping cart. We put in their items and I hurried over to their car. "This is for you," I told them.
The young father just looked at me with such appreciation and thanked me. I will never forget the expression in his eyes. As I was getting into my car, they drove over. The young mother said, "Miss, thank you so much."
Tears welled up in my eyes---as they are again now, while I write this. "You are so welcome. Pay it forward some day," I replied. | high9373.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Toothache"
},
"options": [
"Cold",
"Toothache",
"Cancer",
"Skin disease"
],
"question": "What sickness can the medicine from the willow deal with according to the passage?",
"question_type": null
},
{
... | Since ancient times, people have known about its ability to reduce pain and high body temperature. More than 2000 years ago, the Greek doctor Hippocrates advised his patients to chew on the bark and leaves of the willow.
The tree contains a chemical called salicin . From salicin, researchers in the 1800s discovered how to make salicylic acid . And in 1897, a chemist named Felix Hoffmann at Friedrich Bayer and Company in Germany created acetyl salicylic acid. Later it became the active substance in a new medicine that Bayer called aspirin. The "a" came from acetyl. The "spir" came from the spirea plant, which also produces salicin. And the "in" Well, that is a common way to end medicine names.
In 1982, a British scientist shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in part for discovering how aspirin works. Sir John Vane found that aspirin blocks the body from making natural substances called prostaglandins .Prostaglandins have several effects on the body. Some cause pain and the expansion, or swelling( ; ), of damaged tissue. Others protect the lining of the stomach and small intestine. Prostaglandins also make the heart, kidneys and blood vessels work well. But there is a problem. Aspirin works against all prostaglandins, good and bad. Scientists learned how aspirin interferes with an enzyme . One form of this enzyme makes the prostaglandin that causes pain and swelling. Another form of the enzyme creates a protective effect. So aspirin can reduce pain and swelling in damaged tissues. But it can also harm the inside of the stomach and small intestine . | high15619.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "teach us how to build a solid friendship"
},
"options": [
"explain why people need close friends",
"teach us how to build a solid friendship",
"show us how important close friendship is",
"let people know more about fri... | Do you want to have a lot of close friends? In order to make it happen, you must do a lot of things right. You will learn tips on how to build a solid friendship.
You should be extra respectful when you are at others' homes. For example, you must not make unpleasant comments about them. Once when I was at the house of a friend as a high school senior, I told him he had feet that looked funny while he had his socks off in his bedroom. He rebutted ,"If you're going to make fun of my feet, you can leave.''
You must _ For example, if you say you will do something for or with your friend, you must follow up on it.
You must respect people other than your friends.This includes respecting your friends' family members and being polite to others in general.
It is helpful to be supportive. You should try to provide help when your friends need it.
You should understand them. Even if you do not agree with some of the things they do, you should show an understanding of why they do them and offer advice while avoiding telling them they are at fault for their problems.
You must be caring. You must put care into the things you do for them and show concern for their troubles.
Having a good attitude is a must. You must avoid being combative as well as being sad or mad too often.
Take these tips to build solid friendships! | high12176.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "how to treat kids in a more sensible way"
},
"options": [
"how to solve family problems",
"how a mother shows her love to her children",
"how to treat kids in a more sensible way",
"the value of understanding between pa... | I was very sympathetic with world leaders burdened with resolving conflicts between nations. When my three children were young, in most days it was hard to keep my house from becoming a war zone. It got worse as they grew older. Three years ago, Zack, then 16, couldn't make it through a day without playing tricks on his sisters, Alex and Taryn, then 11 and 9.
My husband and I tried to understand his adolescent moodiness. We begged, reasoned, punished, and left heartfelt notes on his bed about how his behavior was hurting our family. His response was a shrug and "I say it because it's true".
I even tried telling the girls to fight back. But it was a bad idea. Now I had three kids at war. At wit's end, I poured my heart out to my sister in an e-mail. She wrote back, "Don't e-mail me. E-mail him."
Our son was online every day, mailing and instantly messaging his friends. So what if I was within shouting distance? Maybe he would actually hear me this way. There'd be no yelling or door slamming . Zack wouldn't feel under attack. And with a few simple keystrokes, he could respond. Or not. Zack didn't reply for days. When he finally did, his entire message was four words. I expected the worst, but then smiled when I read them, "You are right. I'm sorry." The kids still fought, of course, but Zack scaled back the abuse . Best of all, I now have an effective way to communicate with not one but three easily annoyed teens. They don't tune me out as much. They don't like to listen to me nag .Or as Alex says, "You're so much nicer online."
All I know is that the house is quiet, and we're talking. In fact, Taryn just instantly messaged me from upstairs. It's time to take her to softball practice. | high6054.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The price of chilies is very low."
},
"options": [
"He loved the taste of chilies very much.",
"He spent a lot of money on chilies.",
"The price of chilies is very low.",
"The quality of Indian chilies is very good."
... | There once was a master who went to India. In those times, we didn't have the communications or airplanes or many kinds of transportation that we do now. So the master went to India on foot. He had never been to India before; perhaps he came from Persia. And when he got there, he saw a lot of fruit. In India they have plenty of fruit to sell, but much of it is expensive because they can't grow much due to the water situation. So he saw one basket, a big basket of some very red, long fruit. And it was the cheapest in the shop, not expensive at all.
So he went up and asked, "How much per kilo?" And the shopkeeper said, "Two rupees ." Two rupees in India is nothing; it's like dirt. So he bought a whole kilogram of the fruit and started eating it. But after he ate some of it: Oh, my God! His eyes watered, his mouth watered and burned, his eyes were burning, his head was burning and his face became red. As he coughed and choked and gasped for breath, he jumped up and down, saying, "Ah! Ah! Ah!"But he still continued to eat the fruit! Some people who were looking at him shook their heads and said, "You're crazy, man. Those are chilies ! You can't eat so many; they're not good for you! People use them as a condiment , but only a little bit to put into food for taste. You can't just eat them by the handful like that; they're not fruit!" So the stupid master said, "No, I can't stop! I paid money for them, and now I'll eat them. It's my money!"
And you think that master was stupid, right? Similarly, we sometimes do a lot of things like that. We invest money, time or effort in a relationship, business or job. And even though it's been a long time, bitter experience tells us it won't work, and we know there's no more hope that things will change in the future -- this we definitely know by intuition -- we still continue just because we've invested money, time, effort and love into it. Just like the man who ate the chilies and suffered so much but couldn't stop because he didn't want to waste the money he'd paid. | high9367.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "People can change when they are determined to."
},
"options": [
"How a young man helped his mother.",
"How a young man graduated from college.",
"People can change when they are determined to.",
"People can be successfu... | I want to tell you the story of one of my old friends called Bob. His teachers called him A Troublemaker. They also said that he had no future and no hope. But now he owns a small second-hand bookstore store which makes him enough money to live on and also to support his mother.
He told me that after he finished grade nine, he went to study at a technical college. He was a pretty bad student so he became one of the gang leaders there. Many of them got caught many times for fighting.
It looked like nothing could change his life. That was until one sad day when his father died. That changed everything.
After his father died, his mother had to work very hard to make enough money to support the family. He told me that he really pitied his mum after his dad died. He felt that he needed to earn some money rather than let his mum work alone. He loved reading cartoon books and had been collecting them for years. As his family was short of money, he decided that he should sell them. He did this by the side of the road where his mother was selling food.
Soon he realized that his books were very popular. So he decided to set up his own business. He started his business by going around buying cartoon books from other people. He bought them for 25% and then sold them for half price. He could make enough money to help support the family.
He was a troublemaker to his teachers but he is a hero to me. If you are judged as a bad student or as someone being stupid, I suggest you pay no attention to what they say. Just do your best in everything. Don't give up so easily. Believe in yourself. If you think that you can do it, then you can. Believe me, one day you could be more successful than those persons who looked down upon you. | high14513.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Its network speeds are much slower."
},
"options": [
"Its voice is not as clear as 4G",
"It can't satisfy the users' basic needs.",
"Its network speeds are much slower.",
"It has much less popularity than 4G."
],
... | As long as you have broadband service in your home, you can turn on your desktop computer and connect to the Internet. If you have a wireless router , a device that spreads the broadband connection to other devices, you can set up a Wi-Fi network, which enables your cellphones and tablets go online too. And when you are outdoors where is no Wi-Fi, such as in the park or at the beach, having 3G service allows you to stay connected.
It seems that lots of us have Internet coverage everywhere we go. So why have mobile companies around the world lately been so enthusiastic about a new term, "4G"? First, you need to know that the letter :G" stands for "generation". Even if you have no idea what 4G is, at least you can figure out that it is a step up from 3G since it's the latest generation of mobile internet service.
Unlike broadband, mobile Internet uses the same signal towers that provide voice service to your cellphone, which means wherever you can make phone calls with your cellphone you also have an Internet connection.
But mobile connections have their _ : they don't carry as much information as broadband does, making opening websites and downloading music slower than they are on a Wi-Fi connection. This is why mobile connections have been constantly upgraded since the first generation was launched back in the 1980s.
According to BBC, 4G is five to seven times faster than current 3G network speeds, almost as fast as home broadband. Because of this, 4G is widely suited for services like video downloading, mapping, online shopping and even video conferencing.
To achieve the high speeds, network companies have to spend a lot of money on building new signal towers, which will eventually lead to a higher phone bill if you switch to 4G, and you will also have to get a new phone with 4G capacity. | high8079.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "to show absent-mindedness is common among people"
},
"options": [
"to show absent-mindedness is common among people",
"because he liked telling stories",
"to make the author laugh",
"to make fun of Edison"
],
"q... | A few days ago my wife sent me out to buy something. When I came home, I handed her a paper bag and said, "Here are the apples you wanted." She looked in the bag, and then she looked at me. "I told you," she said slowly, "to buy some eggs."
I felt worried about my _ , so I went to see a doctor. He was a very kind man. "I have seen many people like you. It's nothing to worry about," he said. "If you know you are absent-minded, you are all right. But if you do not know you're absent-minded, you may be really in trouble."
"Many famous people were absent-minded," the doctor told me. "Thomas Edison was standing in line one day to pay his taxes . When he arrived at the window, he found that he had forgotten his own name. He had to ask the man who was behind him to tell him who he was."
I felt much better and got up to leave. "Thank you, doctor," I said. "How much do I have to pay you?"
"Ten dollars for the check-up ," the doctor said.
"But doctor, I did not have a check-up!"
For a moment the doctor looked puzzled. Then he said, "Oh, yes, it was the patient before you who had a check-up. How absent-minded I am!" | high12162.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "examine the lead levels of Beethoven's hair"
},
"options": [
"examine the bone pieces of Beethoven",
"examine the bone pieces of another person",
"examine the lead levels of Beethoven's hair",
"measure the cadmium or me... | Recently, tests have proved that Beethoven died from lead poisoning. Bill Walsh directed the Beethoven Research Project. Mr Walsh and his team examined pieces of bone belonging to Beethoven. They found a large amount of lead in the bone pieces. They said the lead levels were equal to those found in pieces of his hair in earlier studies of other scientists.
Genetic tests proved the bone pieces and hair came from Beethoven. The researchers also examined bone fragments( from someone else who lived during the same period. Both were from the top of the skull. The fragments from Beethoven had more lead than those from the other person. Their study didn't find measurable levels of cadmium or mercury , which scientists used to consider were the causes of his health problems.
Beethoven was sick for much of his life. He experienced strong stomach pains, a sign of lead poisoning, and a change of personality when he was around 20. He also got angry easily, and suffered from depression and hearing loss. His health problems became worse as Beethoven grew older.
Walsh said the lead levels found in Beethoven's skull suggested the metal might have been present in his body for many years. He said although there had been recognized cases of deafness caused by lead poisoning, there was no strong evidence to suggest that lead poisoning was the cause of Beethoven's deafness.
Ludwig van Beethoven visited many doctors to find a cure for his health problems. In a letter he wrote to a friend, he asked researchers to examine his body after he died so that other people would not have to suffer as he did. | high16304.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "It is increasingly popular."
},
"options": [
"It is increasingly popular.",
"It is flexible in length.",
"It is a time for relaxation.",
"It is required by universities."
],
"question": "What do we learn about t... | More students than ever before are taking a gap-year before going to university.It used to be called the "year off" between school and university.The gap-year phenomenon originated with the months left over to Oxbridge applicants between entrance exams in November and the start of the next academic year.
This year, 25,310 students who have accepted places in higher education institutions have put off their entry until next year, according to statistics on university entrance provided by University and College Admissions Serbice(UCAS).
That is a record 14.7% increase in the number of students taking a gap year. Tony Higgins from UCAS said that the statistics are good news for everyone in higher education. "Students who take a well-planned year out are more likely to be stisfied with, and complete, their chosen course. Students who take a gap year are often more mature and responsible," he said.
But not everyone is happy. Owain James, the president of the National Union of Students(NUS), argued that the increase is evidence of student hadship - young people are being forced into earning money before finishing their education. "New students are now aware that they are likely to leave university up to PS15,000 in debt. It is not surprising that more and More students are taking a gap year to earn money to support their study for the degree.NUS statistics show that over 40% of students are forced to work during term time and the figure increases to 90% during vacation periods,"he said. | high19037.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "a village"
},
"options": [
"a peasant",
"a village",
"an old mountain",
"a Mexican"
],
"question": "Paracutin was once the name of _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"a... | Paracutin was born in Mexico in February, 1943. At the end of one week Paracutin was 500 feet high, and it is now over 9,000 feet high. Today Paracutin is asleep.
What is Paracutin? It was the first volcano in the world which was seen from its birth right up to the present day. On February 20, 1943, a peasant and his wife set out to work in their corn fields from the Mexican village of Paracutin. They were surprised to find the earth warm under their feet. Suddenly they heard noises deep in the earth and a small hole appeared in their field. In the afternoon there was a sudden loud noise and stones were thrown high in the air. The peasants ran from the field and turned to watch. They saw the birth of a volcano.
Large quantities of stone and lava broke out and a little hill began to form. By evening this hill was 100 feet high and hot ashes were falling on the village. At night the strong light of the hot lava lit up the countryside. The trees near the village were killed and the villagers had to leave their houses. When the village was destroyed, its name was given to the volcano. The news quickly reached Mexico City, far to the east. Many people came to watch the scene. The volcano grew and grew for ten years and hundreds of square miles of forest were destroyed. Then Paracutin went to sleep. | high4643.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "How to improve a child's well-being"
},
"options": [
"How difficult the parents are now",
"How to improve a child's well-being",
"Parents' worries",
"the difference between parents and their parents"
],
"questio... | Parenting has never been an easy job,but mothers and fathers today face challenges in raising their children that their own parents may never have had to deal with
While children have always been particular eaters,for example,parents today are trying to supply healthful food in a world full of chicken nuggets,processed snacks and soft drinks.Bike riding and hopscotch have given way to video games and text messaging.And working parents have to cope with all things around day care,jobs and family.
At the same time,a large amount of health information on the Internet and elsewhere has introduced a higher level of stress for parents.Web sites provide supplements that increase a child's brain health while news organizations report on the latest scare from baby bottles or too much television.
All of this makes raising a healthy child overwhelming.But it doesn't have to be.
This Well guide offers small steps and simple ways to improve a child's well-being in four areas --nutrition,development,playtime and safety Inside,there's advice from experts on how to raise a healthy,active youngster;tips on diet and behavior,help for problems like insomnia,and the latest thinking on day care,discipline and other topics.It's all designed to help kids stay well every day. | high18329.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "good exam results really need studying hard"
},
"options": [
"chemistry is really hard to learn",
"there are many questions for students to prepare.",
"good exam results really need studying hard",
"tossing a coin can n... | When I was at University I studied very hard. But a lot of my friends did very little work. Some did just enough to pass exams. Others didn't do quite enough. Fred Baines was one of them. He spent more time playing than working in the library.
Once at the end of the term, we had to take an important test in chemistry. The test had a hundred questions. Beside each question we had to write "True" or "False". While I was studying in my room the night before the test, Fred was watching TV. Fred usually worried a lot the night before a test. But on that night he looked perfectly calm. Thenhe told me of his plan. "It's very simple. There are a hundred questions and I have to get fifty correct to pass the test. I'll just toss the coin to decide the answers. That way, I'm sure I'll get half the questions right."
The next day, Fred came happily into the exam room. As he sat tossing a coin for half an hour he marked down his answers. Then he left, half an hour before the rest of us.
The next day, he saw the chemistry professor in the corridor. "Oh, good," he said to the teacher, "Have you got the result of the test?" The teacher reached into his pocket and took out a coin. He threw it into the air, caught it in his hand and looked at it.
"I'm terribly sorry, Fred," he said, "You failed!" | high2554.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Hwy105"
},
"options": [
"Hwy 221 S.",
"Hwy105",
"Hwy 321S",
"Hwy321N"
],
"question": "Which of the following Hwys is closest to the Hampton Inn Boone hotel?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
... | The Hampton Inn Boone hotel is in the attractive Blue Ridge Mountains, just minutes from four ski areas. Our hotel is less than three miles from Appalachian State University, Boone Mall, and Boone Golf Club. Within those same three miles, you can eat at the historic Dan'l Boone Inn, Makoto's Japanese Steakhouse and many others. Guest Accommodations
Hampton Inn is a value-priced hotel. Here you'll find clean, fresh, comfortable rooms standard with a coffee maker, iron and ironing board, and wonderful in-room movie channel. Enjoy good local calls and no surcharge for using a calling card. Guests also enjoy the following items: high speed internet access in every room, wireless internet access in the lobby and public areas, coffee and tea in the lobby 24 hours a day, and USA Today(R) copies (available from Monday to Friday). prefix = st1 /Hamptonalso offers a 24-hour front desk, message and fax service. If you're not 100% satisfied, we don't expect you to pay. That's our promise.Directions & Transportation
From Hwy 221 S. - Follow 221 S. to Newland and make a left on to Hwy 105 at entrance to GrandfatherMountain. The hotel is 15 miles on the right. From Hwy 321N --Follow 321 N. into Boone. Turn left onto Hwy 105 at the Wendy's. The hotel is one block down on the left. From Hwy 321S - Turn right onto Hwy 105. The hotel is one block on left.
Hotel Policies: Check-In: 3:00PM / heck-Out: 11:00AM
Pets: No Pets Allowed | high19989.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Because his research proved that banana peels can produce more biogas."
},
"options": [
"Because he is a prodigy.",
"Because he is of Bengali descent.",
"Because he used an extremely rare organic waste to produce biogas.",
... | How could we have thought so wrongly of as banana peel that it always hits the garbage? Utility of anything seems to be in the eyes of the beholder. The banana peel hasn't been an exception.
What most of us looked at as waste was converted to a thing of utility by Prithwis Mukhopadlyay, a 14-year-old prodigy. This Bengali boy, nourished in the US, Lake Junior High in Woodbury, Minnesota, has come up with an idea to convert banana peels to biogas. .
It's well known that almost any organic waste can be converted to biogas. But why biogas from banana peel has hit the news is because it produced five times as much biogas as manure , a commonly used source for producing biogas, in the experiments Prithwis conducted.
He filled two airtight containers, one with manure and the other with banana peels. Then he mixed each content with water and connected them to empty jars via pipes to collect the gas produced. He placed a heater next to each jar and measured the gas collected for 60 days. His studies proved that banana peels produced five times more biogas than manure.
This project titled 'Comparison analysis: Eco-friendly source of energy for the future,' earned him a spot in Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge. This weekend, the young whiz is to showcase his research work along with 40 other finalists at Washington. "Initially, I thought of doing a project that would reduce global warming. Things changed after I visited a biogas plant in a village in India during my summer vacations. It was an amazing experience," Prithwis says. | high3892.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Disappointed."
},
"options": [
"Surprised.",
"Disappointed.",
"Excited.",
"Pleased."
],
"question": "How did she feel when the author received the email from UBC?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer... | Living in a foreign culture there are many times when I realize that my perspective on life is drastically different from those Koreans I interact with on a daily basis. This past week I have been greatly challenged to change my perspective and here is why.
My dream in life is to become a doctor, one who changes the world. But last week I opened an email from UBC that contained the words "regrets", no interview. I didn't get an interview to medical school, thus will not be entering school for September 2009. My immediate reaction was one of extreme disappointment and anger--mostly directed at myself for not working hard enough, for not seeking out the opportunities necessary to have a good application, for simply not being good enough. My mind was full of hopelessness and despair that left me with no desire to further seek for the dream that I've held for quite a time now.
During the past week two things happened. At church our pastor mentioned perspective in a section of his sermon . He stated that when we take our eyes off ourselves and realize God's greatness, our circumstances will be seen through a new perspective.
The second thing that reminded me to look at perspective was reading a book. The Mitford Series is so good if you are looking for books to read. So last night I was reading and one of the main characters (who is a priest) is trying to figure out what to say at church. His sermon ended up saying "In everything we give thanks." It is easy to give thanks when we feel successful in life. It is easy to give thanks when we receive a blessing. But seriously, who in their right mind says thanks for the financial problems I have? | high4125.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Don't Pay Kids for Good Grades"
},
"options": [
"Tips on Paying Kids for Good Grades",
"New changes in Paying Kids for Good Grades",
"Good Grades Mean Good Rewards",
"Don't Pay Kids for Good Grades"
],
"question... | A couple of days ago, as the test results came out, my son and a group of his 13-year-old friends piled into the back seat of my car, ready for the last-day-of-school party at McDonald's. "Jack got a laptop for getting straight A's, and Laurie got a cell-phone," one boy said. "Oh, yeah, and Sarah got an iPad, and she's only in third grade," said another. "And how about Brian? He got $10 for each A."
I suddenly became concerned. These payoffs might get parents through grammar school, but what about high school and beyond? What would be left after the electric guitar, the cell-phone, and the DVD player?
I saw the road ahead: _ I saw my comfortable lifestyle disappear before my eyes -- no more of those $5 bags of already-peeled organic carrots. No more organic anything!
I started to feel surprised and nervous. Would every goal achieved by my two children fetch a reward? A high grade point average? A good class ranking? Would sports achievements be included in this reward system: soccer goals, touchdowns? What about the orchestra? Would first chair pay more than second? I'd be penniless by eighth-grade graduation.
"We never paid anything for good grades," said my neighbor across the street, whose son was recently accepted at MIT. "He just did it on his own. Maybe once in a while we went out for pizza, but that's about it."
Don't you just hate that? We're all running around looking for the MP3 player with the most updates, and she's spending a few dollars on pizza. She gets motivation; we get negotiation. And what about the primary grades? What do these students get? "When the teacher asked if anyone got rewards for good grades, everyone in my class raised their hands and said they got ice cream cones ," said one third-grader. | high12604.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Her daughter."
},
"options": [
"Her friend Sean.",
"Her mother.",
"Her daughter.",
"Her husband."
],
"question": "Who believed J.K.Rowling was to be a good writer?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},... | Success is often measured by the ability to overcome adversity.But,it is often the belief of others that gives us the courage to try.
J.K.Rowling,author of the Harry Potter book series,began writing at the age of 6.In her biography,she remembers with great fondness when her good friend Sean,whom she met in secondary school,became the first person to encourage her and help build the confidence that one day she would be a very good writer
"He was the first person with whom I really discussed my serious ambition to be a writer.He was also the only person who thought I was bound to be a success at it,which meant much more to me than I ever told him at the time."
Despite many setbacks,Rowling persevered in her writing,particularly fantasy stories.But it wasn't until 1990 that she first conceived the idea about Harry Potter.As she recalls,it was on a long train journey from London to Manchester that the idea of Harry Potter simply fell into her head."To my immense frustration ,I didn't have a functioning pen with me,and I was too shy to ask anybody if I could borrow one.I think,now,that this was probably a good thing,because I simply sat and thought,for four (delayed train) hours,and all the details bubbled up in my brain,and this scrawny,blackhaired,bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard became more and more real to me."
That same year,her mother passed away after a tenyear battle with multiple sclerosis,which deeply affected her writing.She went on to marry and had a daughter,but separated from her husband shortly afterwards.
During this time,Rowling was diagnosed with clinical depression.Unemployed,she completed her first novel in area cafes,where she could get her daughter to fall asleep.After being rejected by 12 publishing houses,the first Harry Potter novel was sold to a small British publishing house.
Now with seven books that have sold nearly 400 million copies in 64 languages,J.K.Rowling is the highest earning novelist in history.And it all began with her commitment to writing that was fostered by the confidence of a friend! | high6732.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "will be out of date quite soon."
},
"options": [
"will be out of date quite soon.",
"is no longer listened to today.",
"will always be loved by some people.",
"is the best tool to introduce new songs."
],
"quest... | Technology is creating big changes in the music industry. Music lovers listen to and buy music on the Internet. They can watch live concerts of favorite artists online. And music makers, as well as music industry officials, use social media to reach an increase public interest.
Nick Sherwin is the founder of the band called Suburban Skies. He says today's technology permits a band to control its own future. He said, "Social media is a wonderful thing. You can make use of it to reach the public." Sherwin says the Internet and social media have created possibilities for musicians. He says the new way to success is to give visitors more than one type of experience. "The most important thing is the content. You have to have songs and videos to show the audience. But I think it is extremely important to do shows, to build your brand, and to make you well known, " Sherwin said.
Music industry officials discussed the future of the business during an international conference in Los Angeles, California. They said musicians are choosing to perform live across the country, following the drop in CD sales in the Unites States. Rob Light is head of music with a creative artists agency. He said, "Most of the income for artists is now coming from the live marketplace."
Along with the popularity of live music there has been a big increase in the number of music festivals. These events are advertised on social media. Pasquale Rotella leads Insomniac, a company that produces electronic dance music festivals in several countries. "Someone could make it in their bedroom and put it out there. People can gain fans online without anyone's help. That has completely helped the growth of dance music. " said Rotella.
Bob Pittman leads the radio organization -- Clear Channel Communication. He says music lovers are still listening to the radio, although there are new ways of finding music. He says 70 percent of Americans say they discover new music from what they hear on the radio. But Rob Light says radio will soon be a thing of the past. However, Nick Sherwin is not worried. He just wants to reach everyone who likes his style of music with the help of the Internet. | high9401.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "About half a year."
},
"options": [
"About four months.",
"About five months.",
"About half a year.",
"About a year."
],
"question": "How long will World Expo 2010 last?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions... | World Expo 2010 will be held in Shanghai. It will last from May 1st to October 31st, 2010. The Expo site covers a total area of 5.28 km2. It spans both sides of the Huangpu River, with 3.93 km2in Pudong and 1.35 km2in Puxi. There are five functional zones marked A, B, C, D and E. Each of them has different functions.
Zone A will host the national pavilions of Asian countries except southeast Asian ones.
Zone B will be home to the China Pavilion and Oceania countries, Pavilions for International Organizations, Theme Pavilions , Expo Centre, and Performance Centre etc.
Zone C will host the national pavilions of European, American and African countries. A large public amusement park will be built at the entrance of this zone.
Zone D is home to Corporate Pavilions , the land is one of the original places of modern China's national industry. So some of the old industrial buildings will be kept and renovated into Expo pavilions.
Zone E will host stand-alone Corporate Pavilions, Urban Civilization Pavilion , and Urban Best Practices Area. | high14275.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "conditions of life in Biosphere 2"
},
"options": [
"conditions of life in Biosphere 2",
"building controlled environments on other planets",
"why Biosphere 2 failed in the past",
"what makes a good biosphere colonist"
... | Drawings of human colonies on other planets often picture the entire community under a glass or plastic bubble. The bubble is intended to create an atmosphere with adequate oxygen and other essential elements. But similar bubble-like structures have also been constructed on earth. One of the most famous, and controversial, is a site in the Arizona desert.
Biosphere 2, as it is called, was built not far from Tucson in 1984 and is now run by Columbia University. This huge(7,200,000-cubic-foot)glass and steel construction contains several separate ecosystems, including a desert, a rain forest, and a 900,000-gallon "ocean." The climatic conditions-humidity, temperature, air quality-are regulated by sensors and can be adjusted as needed or desired. For example, a rainstorm can be created to increase the humidity. The adjustable features of Biosphere 2 make it an ideal location to perform experiments to help determine the effects of such climatic changes as global warming.
The current conditions at Biosphere 2 are vastly different from those in 1993, when eight people who had moved into the environment with great fanfare two years earlier moved out in failure. Though promising to be self-sufficient , these "colonists" had so much trouble regulating the environment that they reportedly had food smuggled into them. Oxygen levels became dangerously low; most plants and animals died. In taking over the unsuccessful site, Columbia hopes to erase its notorious past by focusing on small research projects that gradually answer some of Biosphere 1's -- that is, Earth's most basic environment questions. | high12174.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "was quite close to the mother"
},
"options": [
"used to be a politician",
"was a successful drawing-master",
"was quite close to the mother",
"wanted to give the writer some money in return"
],
"question": "It c... | It was the last day of July and the long hot summer was drawing to a close As for me.1 was out of spirits,and,if the truth must be told, out of money as well,During the past year I had not managed my finances as carefully as usual;and 1 was now limited to spending the autumn economically between my mother's cottage at Hampstead and my own in town.
My father had been dead for some years,and my sister and 1 were the _ survivors of a family of five children. My father was a drawing-master before me He had been highly successful in his profession and my mother and sister were left economically independent after his death.
The view of London below me had sunk into the black shadow of the cloudy night, when I stood before the gate of my mother's cottage I had hardly rung the bell.When the house door was opened violently.My worthy Italian friend,Professor Pesca,appeared in the servant's place,and rushed out joyously to receive me.
I had first become acquainted with my Italian friend at certain great houses,where he taught Italian and I taught drawing What I then knew of the history of his life was that he had left Italy for political reasons and that he had been respectably established for many years in London as a teacher of languages It once happened that I saved him from certain death by drowning while we
were swimming in the sea at Brighton Afterwards he overwhelmed me with the wildest expressions of affection and exclaimed passionately, that he would hold his life at my disposal from then on, and declared that he should never be happy again until he had had the opportunity of proving his gratitude.Little did I think that the occasion to serve me was soon to come.
Pesca dragged me in by both hands into the parlor, where my mother sat by the open window, laughing and fanning herself.Pesca was one of her especial favorites,and his wildest strange acts were always pardonable in her eyes.
"Now, my good dears."began Pesca."listen to me The time has come I recite my good news.I speak at last...'Hear, hear!"said my mother, humoring the joke"I go back into my life,and I address myself to the noblest of men,who found me dead at the bottom of the sea,and who pulled me up to the top. What did I say when l got into my own life and my own clothes again? I said that my life belonged to my dear friend,Walter, for the rest of my days Now,"cried the enthusiastic little mall at the top of his voice."happiness bursts out of me at every pore of my skin.For I have found a job for you" | high6042.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "It is hard to domesticate them."
},
"options": [
"It is of little value to domesticate them.",
"It is hard to domesticate them.",
"They are living a better life than Asian elephants.",
"Their fate is quite similar to th... | In the countries of South and Southeast Asia, the elephant has been an important part of the culture, economy and religion for centuries. And nowhere more so than in Thailand. Unlike its African cousin, the Asian elephant is easily domesticated . The rare so-called white elephants have actually lent the power of royalty to its rulers,and until the 1920s the national flag was a white elephant on a red background. To the early Western visitors, the country's romantic name was" Land of the White Elephant".
Today, however, the story is very different. Out of work and out of land, the Thai elephant struggles for survival in a nation that no longer needs it. The elephant has found itself more or less deserted by previous owners who have moved on to a different economic world and a society in the western part. And while the elephant's problems began many years ago, now it has a very low national advantage.
How does the national symbol turn into ignored animals? It is a story of worse environment and the changing lives of the Thais themselves. According to Richard Lair, Thailand's expert on the Asian elephant and author of the report Gone Astray, at the turn of the last century, there may well have been as many as 100,000 national elephants in the country.
In the north of Thailand alone, it was estimated that more than 20,000 elephants were employed in transport, 1,000 of them alone on the road between the cities of Chiang Mai and Chiang Saen.
This was at a time when 90 percent of Thailand was still forest---a habitat that not only supported the animals but also made them necessary to carry goods and people. Nothing ploughs through thick forest better than lots of sure-footed elephants.
By 1950 the elephant population had dropped, but still to the number of 13, 397. However, today there are probably no more than 3,800, with another l,350 wandering free in the national parks. But now, Thailand's forest covers only 20 percent of the land. This deforestation is the central point of the elephant's difficult situation, for it has effectively put the animals out of work. This century, as the road network grew, the elephant's role as a beast of burden decreased. | high9371.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "it's okay to make mistakes"
},
"options": [
"it is time to forgive others",
"everyone may make mistakes",
"it's okay to make mistakes",
"what can be done to forgive our mistakes"
],
"question": "By writing the p... | In eighth grade, I decided to try out for my school musical. I only made it through the first verse before the drama teacher stopped me. It goes without saying that my Christmas song didn't get me any role.
Am I embarrassed? NO. Not just because it was ten years ago, but also because it's such a great story to share. Why? I think the main reason is that admitting mistakes makes you easier to relate to. Interestingly enough, science confirms _ .
Researchers have conducted many studies and have concluded that when someone makes a mistake or acts in a clumsy way, they are found to be more likeable. In other words, if you're able to do well and then you mess up, it shows your human side. This allows others to connect and relate to you, which in turn makes them like you more.
Growing up, I was type of student who had to get straight A's and the type of athlete who always had to perform at the top of the game. The problem was that my standards were so ridiculously high that I was never happy. It was only when I learned to let go and forgive myself for my mistakes that I truly felt relaxed.
When one of your close friends or family members makes a mistake, are you quick to forgive and forget? Sadly, many of us often express more sympathy for others than ourselves. With each mistake coming a lesson, you will be better equipped to handle life's challenges going forward.
More importantly, if you are always worried about looking silly, you will never be able to get improved. Even if you make a fool of yourself, it isn't the end of the world. Think about it: What's the worst that can happen? In many cases, the reward often outweighs the risk. | high14505.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "put some symbol of \"new life\" into it"
},
"options": [
"play around on that beautiful spring day",
"put some symbol of \"new life\" into it",
"try to pull it apart in the middle",
"go out and discover themselves"
... | Philip was a nine-year-old boy in a Sunday school class of 8-year-old girls and boys. Sometimes the third graders didn't welcome Philip into their group and usually tricked him. This was not because he was older, but because he was "different". You see, Philip suffered from a _ called Downs's Syndrome. This made him "different", with his facial characteristics, slow responses and mental problems.
One Sunday after Easter, the Sunday school teacher gathered some plastic eggs that pulled apart in the middle. The teacher gave one to each child. On that beautiful spring day, the children were to go out and discover for themselves some symbol of "new life" and place it inside the plastic eggs.
After the children returned to the classroom, the teacher opened their eggs one by one, asking each child to explain that symbol of "new life". The first opened egg contained a flower. Everyone cheered. In another was a butterfly.... When the teacher opened the last egg, it was empty. "That's stupid," said someone. The teacher felt a pull at his shirt. It was Philip. Looking up, Philip said, "It's mine. I did it. It's empty. I have new life, because the tomb is empty." Not a sound was heard in class at all. From that day on, Philip became a real part of the group. They welcomed him, and whatever made him different was never mentioned again.
Philip's family knew he wouldn't live a long life, for there were too many things wrong with him. | high2224.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "It has 16 roller coasters for you to choose from."
},
"options": [
"You can visit Cedar Point on weekends.",
"It has 16 roller coasters for you to choose from.",
"You can help unearth the fossilized bones of dinosaurs.",
... | It's time for your family to relax and have fun! The following family adventures have links for you to get more information.
Take the Rides of Your Life
Visit Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, to seek thrills "Even though it's located off the beaten track, experts regularly praise Cedar Point as the best overall theme park of the country," says U.S. News & World Report. The park calls itself the roller coaster capital of the world, and with 16 to choose from, it's hard to argue. It's open daily from May 10 through Labor Day; weekends only from Labor Day through November 2.
Tickets start at $ 48.99 per person if purchased online.
http://www.cedarpoint.com.
Wander Free on a Dude farm
Dust off your cowboy boots and ready your cowboy hats for a visit to this Rocky Mountains paradise. Located in Augusta, Montana, "The farm has everything an aspiring cowboy or girl could long for," says Sunset magazine, including hiking trails, fishing trips, campfires with sing-alongs, and, of course, horseback rides. The large farm operates from June through September; kids-only and adults-only programs are available.
Total cost starts at $ 1,360 per adult, $ 1,276 per teen, and $ 1,168 per child.
http://www.Triplejranch.com.
Dig for Dinosaurs
Most kids (and adults) love dinosaurs, and to make their wildest dreams come true, head to Fruita, Colorado. The Museum of Western Colorado offers Dino Digs for children ages five and older. You can choose from one-, three-, and five-day expeditions. "Imagine how your child will feel when she helps unearth the fossilized bones of ancient species," says Outside magazine. It lasts from May to October.
Digs start at $ 125 per person.
http://www.museumofwesternco.com.
Surf Sand Dunes
Swap your snowboard for a sand-board, and head to Sand Master Park in Florence, Oregon. Real Simple recommends learning the basics at this private dune park, "which offers board rentals and lessons ---- often taught by world-champion sand boarders." Then you can hit the "slopes" to test your skills. From March to June, and September to November.
Rentals for a sand-board start at $ 10 per day; lessons start at $ 45 an hour per person.
http:/'www.sandmasterpark.com. | high10763.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "air pollutants in a city can travel in the sky and affect nearby areas"
},
"options": [
"air pollution has been becoming more and more serious in recent years",
"air pollution like acid rain and smog is threatening people's health"... | Cities need to put efforts to deal with pollution and clear the air.
Chinese cities will need to put efforts to clear up the sky when a new department to improve regional air quality is set up by 2015, according to the latest plan released by the State Council.
Besides the existing pollution control program for SO2, regional emission caps for other certain chemicals will be established in the three key air polluting areas-- the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Coal-consumption caps will also be tried out in some areas, according to the plan.
"The plan is aimed at dealing with regional air pollution--such as acid rain and smog--which have become increasingly obvious in China in recent years and caused a severe threat to people's health," Zhang Lijun, vice-minister of environmental protection, said in an interview on Monday.
"The air quality in a city affects the regions nearby because pollutants Can travel through the atmosphere," said Chai Fahe, vice-director of Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.
"So efforts to reduce air pollution in a single city, targeting a certain pollutant will not be enough," Chai said.
Zhang said, "The country's major industrial districts--the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region--have recorded more than 100 misty days annually in recent years."
These three regions, home to at least 200 million people, occupy only 6. 3 percent of the country's area but consume 40 percent of the country's coal and produce half of its steel, according to official figures.
Studies also show that the visibility in eastern regions of China has dropped by 7 to 15 km compared to that in the early 1960s, as a result of air pollution.
Liaoning province, the Shandong Peninsula, Wuhan in Hubei province and its surrounding area, the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan region in Hunan province, the Chengdu-Chongqing region, and the western coast of the Taiwan Straits are also listed as areas to carry out such regional air pollution control programs, according to the plan.
The new plan also requires an improved air quality system, which will measure the pollution levels. "The current system, which only measures some major pollutants, cannot reflect
." said Chai. | high16312.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The media's negative image of them."
},
"options": [
"Their bad school image.",
"The media's negative image of them.",
"Their false social relationships.",
"The difficulty of getting jobs."
],
"question": "What ... | Like the post-90s generation in China, today's teenagers in the UK have a problem with how they're represented. Most of them feel unfairly represented by the media and their lives are negatively influenced, says a recent survey.
The survey was carried out by the UK Demos, in which more than 1000 14-17-year-old teens from England and Northern Ireland took part.
The survey report shows that four-fifths of teens (81%) felt there was a false image of young people in the media and wider society. Most of them (85%) said that it is hurting both their self-esteem and chance of getting a job.
By researching six UK newspapers over the past 10 years, Demos found that words most commonly connected with "teenagers" and "young people" were "binge-drinking", "yobs" and "crime".
"The young people out there are doing good things for the community, but there are always bad things on the news. But we're not all like that, it's only a few," said Becky Brunskill, 18, member of Youth Parliament for Liverpool.
The survey also found that 80% of UK teenagers believed they cared more about social issues than the older generation. This was a view shared by their teachers, 66% of whom agreed in a separate Demos survey of 500 teachers.
The UK youth are also eager to make a difference. But rather than traditional politics, 87% of the teens believed social media was a good way to change society.
Jonathan Birdwell, author of the Demos report, said "They could be the most active citizens we have seen in a generation." | high19021.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "telling an instructive story"
},
"options": [
"telling an instructive story",
"describing his father",
"reasoning with some facts",
"giving causes and effects"
],
"question": "The author presents this passage by... | My parents always raised me to have strong values and hold firm to my confidence in life, and this was never more proved than when a situation arose when it would be easy for most people to ignore it.
A gentleman at my father's work smelled awful and neglected his behavior, and as the months went by, he showed signs of confusion. After being told to pick up papers at another building, he would be found sitting at his desk staring at his shoes; after being reminded (to which he would completely believe he hadn't been told the first time), he would be found once again sitting at his desk in the same position. This happened to worsening degrees over a few months and his coworkers either ignored it or were ignorant to this due to a lack of social association with the man.
My father began to mentally record all of this and finally sat down with him one day when he was found two hours after work was out, sitting in his car, looking like he didn't know where to go. Apparently the gentleman was in the beginning/middle stages of Alzheimer's and there was someone who used his forgetfulness as a reason to ask him for money every few days. My father took this man to a hospital (for the first time in years) to be properly treated, and then got a caretaker to watch over his condition. He then went to the man's house and helped him sort out all of his financial matters and get his retirement set up; they went to the bank and had a government worker ensure that his bills would be paid for and his children would no longer get to treat him like a personal ATM.
That my father took his much personal time to help another man that so many had forgotten or would choose to neglect, or even make fun of, truly shows his character. | high4655.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Many unemployed people are from families where other members are working."
},
"options": [
"A majority of low-wage workers receive earnings from more than one job.",
"Repetition of short-term unemployment mainly contributes to peop... | How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems? This is one of the most critical yet debatable social policy questions.
In many ways, our social statistics overstate the degree of hardship. Unemployment does not have the same horrible consequences today as it did in the 1930's when most of the unemployed were primary breadwinners, when income and earnings were usually much closer to the margin of survival, and when there were fewer effective social programs for those failing in the labor market. Increasing wealth, the rise of families with more than one wage earner, the growing dominance of secondary earners among the unemployed and improved social welfare protection have unquestionably relieved the consequences of joblessness. Earnings and income data also overestimate the scale of hardship. Among the millions with hourly earnings at or below the minimum wage level, the majority are from multiple-earner, ly well-off families. Most of those counted by the poverty statistics are elderly or handicapped or have family responsibilities which keep them out of the labor force, so the poverty statistics are by no means an accurate indicator of labor market problems.
Yet there are also many ways our social statistics underestimate the degree of labor-market-related hardship. The unemployment counts exclude the millions of fully employed workers whose wages are so low that their families remain in poverty. Low wages and repeated or long-time unemployment frequently interact to weaken the capacity for self-support. Since the number experiencing joblessness at some time during the year is several times that unemployed in any month, those who suffer as a result of forced idleness can equal or exceed average annual unemployment, even though only a minority of the jobless in any month really suffer. For every person counted in the monthly unemployment totals, there is another working part-time because of the inability to find full-time work, or else outside the labor force but wanting a job. Finally, income transfers in our country have always focused on the elderly, disabled, and dependent, neglecting the needs of the working poor, so that the dramatic expansion of cash and non-cash transfers does not necessarily mean that those failing in the labor market are adequately protected.
As a result of such conflicting evidence, it is uncertain whether those suffering seriously as a result of labor market problems number in the hundreds of thousands or the tens of millions, and, hence, whether high levels of joblessness can be tolerated or must be counteracted by job creation and economic stimulation. There is only one area of agreement in this debate--that the existing poverty, employment, and earnings statistics are inadequate for one of their primary applications, measuring the consequences of labor market problems. | high19747.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "parents can use all the services of the app for free"
},
"options": [
"it can help parents know where their children are",
"all parents don't need to own a Smartphone to track children",
"parents can use all the services of t... | It's parents' worst nightmare. Their child doesn't come home one evening and is missing for several days.
When a 14-year-old boy from Atlanta, Georgia disappeared earlier this year, his mother turned to her Smartphone for clues using an app called Family Tracker that helped track his location.
"You can see where your loved ones are without having to call or bother them. "said Roberto Franceschetti of LogSat, the creators of the Family Tracker, which has more than 100,000 users and is available worldwide.
Parents can track the location of their child on a map, send messages, and even sound an alarm on the phone in a long distance.
"We have an option for the sender to make a very unpleasant, noisy sound. It's a loud alarm and we repeat that sound every two minutes until the person picks it up, "he said.
Parents don't need to own a Smartphone to track their children. The service is also accessible through the web, as long as the phone that is being tracked is running the app.
Family Tracker has an additional service that keeps records of all data from the app for a two-week period, which the company calls GPS breadcrumbs.
"With a subscription , we keep all the locations where people have been on our servers. You can see where your kid has been for the past two weeks. You can find out where someone was at a certain time or when that person was at a specific place, "Franceschetti explained.
"When somebody gets abducted , usually whoever does this throws the phone away or takes the battery out. We were hoping that our app would at least provide information on where the person was abducted or where they had been in the past. "
But will these types of apps let out personal secrets?
"The advantages are huge compared to the disadvantages. Let's not forget that the person always has to give initial permission--no one can be tracked unless they allow someone to do it. "said Franceschetti. | high4133.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "can cause negative feelings among people"
},
"options": [
"mostly come from body language",
"are the most serious social problem in the US",
"can cause negative feelings among people",
"can be cleared up with laughter"
... | At a psychology conference in England years ago, a woman said to me: "I'll knock you up in the morning." I was taken aback by her strange suggestion, but it occurred to me that I might not have understood what she really meant. As it turned out, what she had meant was, "I'll knock on your door in the morning so that we can meet for breakfast to discuss the panel we're on."
This example of the difference in the meaning of "knock you up" in British and American English shows the complicated situations that can result from cultural misunderstandings. A cultural misunderstanding occurs when something -- a word, gesture, object, social context, or almost anything you can think of -- has a different meaning in two cultures. Sometimes the misunderstandings get _ , sometimes they lead nowhere, and sometimes they can become the starting point of something much more extreme, from love to war.
Race is one area where cultural misunderstandings are common. We Americans tend to assume that racial categories are biological rather than social, so it may not occur to us that people from other cultures have a different set of racial concepts and classify themselves and us differently. Some African Americans complain that certain immigrants from other countries, such as Haiti or Jamaica, "act as if they aren't black." The cultural misunderstanding is that, in the immigrants' countries of origin, they would never describe themselves as "black". This doesn't mean that they think they are white. It just means that their cultures have more categories, like marabou or grimaud in Haiti, or fair or brown in Jamaica, than are used in the United States. Meanwhile, white people in America, unaware of this cultural diversity, sometimes refer to all darker-skinned people as "black" without realizing that an issue exists.
Resolving cultural misunderstandings can clear the air or even lead to laughter. Sometimes, though, when it comes to race, unidentified cultural misunderstandings can create tension, unhappiness and distrust. | high3884.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "His devotion to his work."
},
"options": [
"His excellent skill in treatment.",
"His anxiety about the hospital.",
"His edge in age.",
"His devotion to his work."
],
"question": "What probably enables Moris Topa... | An Israeli surgeon's dexterity treating the largest and most serious wounds has brought him to Sichuan province again and again, he tells Liu Zhihua.
Moris Topaz, head of the plastic surgery unit of the well-known Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, Israel, finally had a good sleep on the flight from New York to China recently. The 63-year-old usually sleeps only three hours a day but that's enough, he says, to give him plenty of energy for his work.
On this, his most recent trip to China, he was part of a delegation led by Ronni Gamzu, director-general of Israel's Ministry of Health, which aimed to strengthen the cooperation of health communities in the two countries.
While "cooperation" may sound vague to outsiders, Sichuan resident Gong Fangxue has a very clear idea what that word means to ordinary people.
If not for TopCloser, a groundbreaking method for closing large wounds that Topaz applied in her operation, Gong probably would have died from a huge fatal tumor.
"It was a unique case over a very big tumor. Usually with these kinds of tumors, we have to do complicated surgeries with skin grafts or flaps," Topaz says.
"This time, we actually stretched the skin in a way we hadn't done before."
Gong, 40, found a suddenly fast-growing bump on her right shoulder in 2009. The resident of Deyang was diagnosed with a fatal spindle cell tumor.
Although it didn't spread to other parts of the body, the cancerous bump grew very fast.
Over the next two years, Gong underwent several removal surgeries, but the condition always recurred shortly after the treatments, and the tumor grew bigger and bigger.
Late last year, Gong came to the People's Hospital of Deyang City, after many other hospitals, including big ones in Beijing, refused to treat her. By that time, the tumor had become half as big as Gong's head, making her head lean toward the left. It had become difficult for her to move her neck. Worse, the tumor stretched the skin so far that at any time, the blood vessels could be broken, potentially leading to massive bleeding.
Removing the tumor was urgent but unavoidable major bleeding and nerve damage could cause death. An operation wound so large would take a long time to heal with traditional wound-closure methods, such as skin flaps, but Gong needed quick healing so she could have radiotherapy as soon as possible and prevent a relapse.
Luckily, the hospital had established a relationship with Topaz, who has superb experience and skills to treat such complicated conditions, Fan adds.
On Dec 13, 2013, Topaz operated on Gong with physicians from the hospital. In a four-hour operation, they removed the tumor tissues carefully, and used the TopClosure system to connect the two edges of existing skin with a special plastic thread, eliminating the need for skin-implant reconstruction.
The second day after the operation, Gong felt her pain easing. Within two weeks, the wound healed, and she was able to have radiotherapy. Now regular checkups indicate she is recovering from the cancer.
It was the first time in the world that such a large wound was healed without skin flaps and implants, according to Li Yongzhong, director of the hospital's burns and plastic surgery department.
But that's just a sample of what Topaz has done to strengthen medical cooperation between China and Israel. | high18459.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "He was attracted by the \"Great American Dream.\""
},
"options": [
"He suffered from severe hunger in his home country.",
"He was attracted by the \"Great American Dream.\"",
"He hoped to make his son a dramatist.",
"Hi... | Arthur Miller (1915--2005) is universally recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century. Miller's father had moved to the USA from Austria-Hungary, drawn like so many others by the "Great American Dream". However, he experienced severe financial hardship when his family business was ruined in the Great Depression of the early 1930s.
Miller's most famous play,Death of a Salesman,is a powerful attack on the American system, with its aggressive way of doing business and its insistence on money and social status as indicators of worth. In Willy Loman, the hero of the play, we see a man who has got into trouble with this system. Willy is "burnt out" and in the cruel world of business there is no room for sentiment: if he can't do the work, then he is no good to his employer, the Wagner Company, and he must go. Willy is painfully aware of this, and at a loss as to what to do with his lack of success. He refuses to face the fact that he has failed and kills himself in the end.
When it was first staged in 1949, the play was greeted with enthusiastic reviews, and it won the Tony Award for Best Play, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards.
Miller died of heart failure at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, on the evening of February 10, 2005, the 56th anniversary of the first performance ofDeath of a Salesmanon Broadway. | high2542.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "twelve"
},
"options": [
"seven",
"nine",
"ten",
"twelve"
],
"question": "The computer professor has got _ years of experience in computer field.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer"... | Course A: Understanding computers
1. A twelve-hour course for people who do not know very much about computers but need to learn about them. You can learn what computers are, what computers can do and cannot do, and how to use them.
2. Course fee: $75, from June 1 to June 28, 9~12am every Sunday.
3. Equipment fee: $10.
4. Teacher: Joseph Saunders, professor of computer science at New Urban University, with twelve years of experience in computer field.
Call 67801642 or 67801643 for more information.
Course B: Learning to speak French
1. A course with a small class of less than 20 people, twice a week. Your French level is tested in the first class. Then you can begin practicing at one of eight different skill levels. This allows you to learn at your own speed, and prepares you to learn through situations of real life with a funny and easy method.
2. Course fee: $200, from June 1 to June 25, 4~7pm every Monday and Thursday.
3. Personal tutoring fee: $100.
4. Teacher: From the first day on you can have your own personal French teacher that corrects your exercises and assists you along the course, who has successfully taught French course before.
Phone 67353019 for more information.
Course C: Learning to swim
1. A course for people who have interest in swimming. We offer morning and afternoon classes, where swimming knowledge will be taught. Then you can gain swimming skills through practicing in water.
2. Course fee: $150, from June 9 to June 29, 10am~4pm every Tuesday and Friday..
3. Personal tutoring Fee: $100
4. Teacher: Teachers from sports college and experienced swimming-loves.
Very close to the Central Park. For further information call 67432308. | high10005.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "By either programming it or changing its structure"
},
"options": [
"By making it work in such environments as deserts, oceans or space",
"By working hard for 10 or 20 years",
"By either programming it or changing its structu... | The human brain contains ten thousand million cells and each of these may have a thousand connections. Such enormous numbers used to discourage us and cause us to dismiss the possibility of making a machine with human-like ability, but now that we have grown used to moving forward at such a pace we can be less sure. Quite soon, in only 10 or 20 years perhaps, we will be able to assemble a machine as complex as the human brain, and if we can we will. It may then take us a long time to render it intelligent by loading in the right software or by altering the architecture but that two will happen.
I think it is certain that in decades, not centuries, machines of silicon will arise first to rival and then exceed their human ancestors. Once they exceed us they will be capable of their own design. In a real sense they will be able to reproduce themselves. Silicon will have ended carbon's long control. And we will no longer be able to claim ourselves to be the finest intelligence in the known universe.
As the intelligence of robots increased to match that of humans and as their cost declines through economies of scale we may use them to expand our frontiers, first on earth through their ability to withstand environments, harmful to ourselves. Thus, deserts may bloom and the ocean beds be mined. Further ahead, by a combination of the great wealth this new age will bring and the technology it will provide, the construction of a vast, man-created world in space, home to thousands of millions of people, will be within our power. | high22909.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "avoid embarrassment"
},
"options": [
"make themselves understood",
"avoid embarrassment",
"to sound straightforward",
"attract attention"
],
"question": "According to the passage,people use euphemisms in order t... | A euphemism (from the Greek words eu--well and pheme--speak) is a word or expression that is used when people want to find a polite or less direct way of talking about difficult or embarrassing topics like death or the bodily functions.Most people,for example,would find it very difficult to say in plain language that they have arranged for their sick old dog to be killed.They would soften the pain by saying:We had Ruby put down or We had Ruby put to sleep.Many people prefer to call someone plain than ugly,or cuddly rather than fat.
Euphemisms are an important part of every language,but it seems that English has an evergrowing number of them.The nonnative speaker not only has to make sense of the euphemisms he hears,he also has to learn which euphemisms are appropriate in any particular situation.He might be aware that his American friend needs to use the toilet when she asks where the bathroom (or restroom,or comfort station) is,but he is less likely to guess that his English friend has the same need when he says he has to see a man about a dog.He might have learned,for example,that in the family way is a euphemism for pregnant.If,however,he says to his boss,"Congratulations!I hear your wife is in the family way," he would be using an expression that is too familiar for the circumstances.
Schools are full of euphemisms.At Frankfurt International School,for example,the special lessons given to students who are having difficulties in their school subjects are called Study Center (in the middle school) and Academic Workshop (in the high school).Teachers rightly do not want to upset students or parents by being too frank or straightforward,and usually choose a softer word or expression to convey the same message. | high6724.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "a person who is new in a job"
},
"options": [
"a person who is new in a job",
"a new soldier.",
"a young horse",
"a cow without horns"
],
"question": "A greenhorn now refers to _ .",
"question_type": "clo... | Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is also the color of most growing plants.
Sometimes, the word "green" means young, fresh and growing. For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience. In the 15th century, a greenhorn was a young cow or an ox whose horns had not yet developed. A century later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had no experience in war. By the 18th century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today--a person who is new in a job.
Someone who is good at growing plants is said to have a green thumb . The expression comes from the early 20th century. A person with a green thumb can make plants grow quickly and well.
Green is also the color used to describe the powerful feeling , jealousy . The green-eyed monster is not a dangerous animal from outer space. It is an expression used about 400 years ago by the British writer William Shakespeare in his play "Othello". It describes the unpleasant feeling when someone has something he wants. For example, a young man may suffer from the green-eyed monster if you get a pay rise and he does not.
In most places in the world, a green light means to move ahead. In everyday speech, a green light means agree to continue with a project. | high14263.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The words people use can influence their behavior."
},
"options": [
"Aggressive behavior in sports can have serious consequences.",
"The words people use can influence their behavior.",
"Unpleasant words in sports are often u... | "Tear' em apart!" "Kill the fool!" "Murder the referee !"
These are common remarks one may hear at various sporting events. At the time they are made, they may seem innocent enough. But let's not kid ourselves. They have been known to influence behavior in such a way as to lead to real bloodshed. Volumes have been written about the way words affect us. It has been shown that words having certain connotations may cause us to react in ways quite foreign to what we consider to be our usual humanistic behavior. I see the term "opponent" as one of those words. Perhaps the time has come to delete it from sports terms.
The dictionary meaning of the term "opponent" is "adversary" "enemy"; "one who opposes your interests." Thus, when a player meets an opponent, he or she may tend to treat that opponent as an enemy. At such times, winning may dominate one's intellect, and every action, no matter how gross, may be considered justifiable. I recall an incident in a handball game when a referee refused a player's request for a time out for a glove change because he did not consider them wet enough. The player proceeded to rub his gloves across his wet T-shirt and then exclaimed. "Are they wet enough now?"
In the heat of battle, players have been observed to throw themselves across the court without considering the consequences that such a move might have on anyone in their way. I have also witnessed a player reacting to his opponent's international and illegal blocking by deliberately hitting him with the ball as hard as he could during the course of play. Off the court, they are good friends. Does that make any sense? It certainly gives proof of a court attitude which departs from normal behavior.
Therefore, I believe it is time we elevated the game to the level where it belongs there by setting an example to the rest of the sporting world. Replacing the term "opponent" with "associate" could be an ideal way to start.
The dictionary meaning of the term "associate" is "colleague"; "friend"; "companion." Reflect a moment! You may soon see and possibly feel the difference in your reaction to the term "associate" rather than "opponent." | high8709.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The advantage of spending time with one child at a time."
},
"options": [
"The experience of the only child being with mother.",
"The advantage of spending time with one child at a time.",
"The happy life of two families.",
... | Our "Mommy and Me" time began two years ago. My next-door neighbor and fellow mother, Christie, and I were out in our front yards, watching seven children of age 6 and under ride their bikes up and down."I wish I could take one of my children out alone," said Christie.
Then we worked out a plan: When Christie takes one of her children out, I'll watch her other three. And when she watches two of mine, I'll take someone out.
The children were extremely quick to accept the idea of "Mommy and Me" time. Christie's daughter, McKenzie, went first. When she returned, the other children showered her with tons of questions. McKenzie was smiling broadly. Christie looked refreshed and happy. "She's like a different child when there's no one else around,"Christie shared with me quietly. With her mother all to herself, McKenzie didn't have to make an effort to gain attention.
Just as Christie had noticed changes in McKenzie, I also discovered something different in each of my children during our alone times. For example, I am always surprised when my daughter, who is seldom close to me, holds my hand frequently. My stuttering son, Tom, doesn't stutter once during our activities since he doesn't have to struggle for a chance to speak. And the other son, Sam, who's always a follower when around other children shines as a leader during our times together.
The "Mommy and Me" time allows us to be simply alone and away with each child-talking, sharing, and laughing, which has been the biggest gain. Every child deserves to be an only child at least once in a while. | high12612.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "With facial expressions and actions."
},
"options": [
"With laughter and shouts.",
"With signs and expressions.",
"With facial expressions and actions.",
"With gestures of different kinds."
],
"question": "How d... | What are you feeling right now as you start to read this? Are you curious? Hoping that you'll learn something about yourself? Bored because this is something you have to do for school and you're not really into it -- or happy because it's a school project you enjoy? Perhaps you're attracted by something else, like feeling excited about your weekend plans or sad because you just went through a breakup.
Emotions like these are part of human nature. They give us information about what we're experiencing and help us know how to react. We sense our emotions from the time we're babies. Young children react to their emotions with facial expressions or with actions like laughing or crying. They feel and show emotions, but they don't yet have the ability to name the emotion or say why they feel that way.
As we grow up, we become more skilled in understanding emotions. Instead of just reacting like little kids do, we can identify what we feel and put it into words. With time and practice, we get better at knowing what we are feeling and why. This skill is called emotional awareness.
Emotional awareness helps us know what we need and want, or don't want! It helps us build better relationships. That's because being aware of our emotions can help us talk about feelings more clearly, avoid or settle conflicts better, and move past difficult feelings more easily.
Some people are naturally more in touch with their emotions than others. The good news is that everyone can be more aware of their emotions. It just takes practice. But it's worth the effort.
Emotional awareness is the first step toward building emotional intelligence, a skill that can help people succeed in life. | high13518.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "In 1963."
},
"options": [
"In 1997.",
"In 2012.",
"In 1963.",
"In 1971."
],
"question": "When did Arthur Sulzberger Sr die?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index... | The American newspaper publisher Arthur Sulzberger Sr died at the age of 86.Mr Sulzberger led The New York Times for more than three decades,before passing the business to his son.He took over the paper in 1963 when it was in financial trouble,and transformed it into the heart of a multibillion dollar media empire.
His family announced he had died at his home in Southampton,New York State,after a long illness.His son,Arthur Sulzberger Jr,said in a statement that his father,whom he referred to by his childhood nickname of Punch,was "one of our industry's most admired executives"."Punch,the old Marine captain who never backed down from a fight,was an absolutely fierce defender of the freedom of the press," he said.
The New York Times was bought by Mr Sulzberger Sr's grandfather Adolph Ochs in 1896.During Mr Sulzberger's tenure,The New York Times won 31 Pulitzer prizes.
Born in New York City,5 February 1926,Sr served in Marine Corps during World War II and Korean War,joined The New York Times in 1951 after graduating from Columbia College,took over as publisher in 1963 after his brotherinlaw died suddenly,stepped down in 1997 and passed stewardship to his son,Arthur Sulzberger Jr.
He oversaw a huge circulation boost at the paper,and increased its parent company's annual revenues from $100m in 1963 to $1.7bn by the time he stepped down in 1997.He also led the paper through highlevel clashes with the political establishment.In 1971,The Times published a series of stories saying that politicians had systematically lied over the US involvement in Vietnam.The source was thousands of leaked government documents known as the Pentagon Papers.The Nixon administration demanded that the paper stop publishing the stories on grounds of national security.But the paper refused,and then won the subsequent court case by arguing that the First Amendment of the US Constitution guaranteed free speech.The case is seen as a landmark in the history of free speech in the US.Mr Sulzberger said he read more than 7,000 pages of the Pentagon Papers before personally deciding to publish them.
His family still holds a controlling stake in The New York Times.He was a strong believer in family ownership of newspapers.He once joked:"My conclusion is simple. _ works." | high6730.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "By question."
},
"options": [
"By statement.",
"By question.",
"By arguing.",
"By explaining."
],
"question": "How does the author introduce the topic of the text?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answe... | There's a whole lot of things that people fill their stomachs with. Some of them keep people alive. Some of them taste good to people. Some of them help people win pie-eating contests. Alcohol does none of these things. Why do people keep drinking it? And what does it do once it gets to their stomachs?
There are all kinds of alcohol molecules , but the one that people most often pour down their throat is ethanol . Ethanol is very tiny and it dissolves in water, so it gets into all sorts of places that it's not supposed to. Alcohol heads for the digestive system. Because it dissolves in water, it can get into the water in the bloodstream. Because ethanol, to a certain extent, can pass through cell membranes . It can go almost anywhere. It spreads through the muscles, and is sweated -- unmetabolized and whole -- through the skin. It gets into the heart. It even takes a walk through the brain, and this is the secret of its powers.
Alcohol depresses the nerves, and the nerves affect almost every area of the body. Enough alcohol makes people sleep, so people who become unconscious choke on their own vomit . Most worryingly, enough alcohol can shut down those parts of the brain just like any other parts. People become unconscious and their brains simply forget to breathe.
Alcohol is broken down in the liver. Alcohol doesn't destroy the liver, but products that the liver breaks the alcohol into do cause damage. A glass of wine per day can not do any harm. Instead, it can prevent heart attacks or can make someone functionally young. And it is kind of nice to know that sometimes, relaxation and cheer can be bottled. All that's needed is to take care how much alcohol is let into a person's brain. | high14277.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "if you believe you can learn, you will learn"
},
"options": [
"if you are patient, you will learn",
"if you keep a record, you can improve",
"if you believe you can learn, you will learn",
"if you make mistakes, you can... | Some people learn a second language easily. Others have trouble learning a new language. How can you help yourself learn a new language, such as English? There are several ways to make learning English a little easier and more interesting.
The first step is to feel positive about learning English. If you believe that you can learn, you will learn. Be patient. You do not have to understand everything all at once. It is natural to make mistakes when you learn something new. We can learn from our mistakes. In other words, do not worry about taking risks.
The second step is to practice your English. For example, write a diary every day. You will get used to writing it in English, and you will feel comfortable expressing your ideas in English. Several weeks later, you will see that your writing is improving. In addition, you must speak English every day. You can practice with your classmates outside class. You will make mistakes, but gradually you will become comfortable communicating in English.
The third step is to keep a record of your language learning. You can write this in your _ . After each class, think about what you did. Did you answer a question correctly? Did you understand something the teacher explained? Perhaps the lesson was difficult, but you tried to understand it.
You must be positive about learning English and believe that you can do it. It is important to practice every day and make a record of your achievements. You will enjoy learning English, and you will feel more confident in yourself. | high9403.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "is harmful to working people in developed countries"
},
"options": [
"is not as serious as people thought",
"is the first killer in Germany and Italy",
"is created by researchers in Germany and Italy",
"is harmful to wo... | That"Monday morning feeling"could be a crushing pain in the chest which leaves you sweating and gasping for breath. Recent research from Germany and Italy shows that heart attacks are more common on Monday mornings and doctors blame the stress of returning to work after the weekend break.
The risk of having a heart attack on any given day should be one in seven, but a six-year study helped by researchers at the Free University of Berlin of more than 2, 600 Germans showed that the average person had a 20 percent higher chance of having a heart attack on a Monday than on any other day.
Working Germans are particularly not protected against attack, with a 33 percent higher risk at the beginning of the working week. Non-workers, by comparison, appear to be no more at risk on a Monday than any other day.
A study of 11, 000 Italians proved 8 a. m. on a Monday morning as the most stressful time for the heart, and both studies showed that Sunday is the least stressful day, with fewest heart attacks in both countries.
The finding could lead to a better understanding of what is the immediate cause of heart attacks, according to Dr Stefan Willich of the Free University. "We know a lot about long-term risk factors such as smoking and cholesterol but we don't know what actually causes heart attacks, so we can't give clear advice on how to prevent them, "he said.
Monday mornings have a double helping of stress for the working body as it makes a rapid change from sleep to activity, and from the relaxing weekend to the pressures of work.
"When people get up, their blood pressure and heart rate go up and there are hormonal changes in their bodies, "Willich explained. "All these things can have an unfavorable effect in the blood system and increase the risk of a clot which will cause a heart attack."
"When people return to work after a weekend off, the pace of their life changes. They have a higher workload, more stress, more anger and more physical activities,"said Willich. | high15169.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "The author couldn't make the trip."
},
"options": [
"The room reservation was canceled.",
"The author couldn't make the trip.",
"The hotel was no longer available.",
"The author regretted making the plan."
],
"q... | I decided a few months ago that I was going to treat myself to a 4-day getaway from Los Angeles and visit Chicago. I got a free airplane ticket, but had to pay the hotel in cash, which I really couldn't afford. I found a travel website where a discounted 3-night stay was purchased from a recently opened hotel.
About three weeks before the trip, I had to regretfully cancel and only then realized the room, while transferable to another person, couldn't be changed to a later date and wasn't refundable. For the next two weeks I tried selling it on Craig's list with no success. Five days before the "big weekend", I gave up trying to get any money back and decided I'd contact some acquaintances who live in Chicago and offer someone a free "staycation". After trying a handful of people all of whom already had their own plans, I was determined to have the room not go to waste.
That's when it suddenly occurred to me that I was looking at the rooms in the wrong way. Instead of viewing them for vacation purposes, surely there must be a way to put them to good use, and that was when the idea that some sort of shelter might be able to use it. I eventually found one whose focus is aiding victims of domestic violence. This particular one was willing to listen to my out-of-left-field story and made it easier to transfer the rooms. The shelter was working with a desperate woman and her daughter, who were fortunately able to make use of the room. I was later told by the shelter " _ ". | high12606.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "how to build good neighborhood relations"
},
"options": [
"the importance of friendship in our life",
"how to build good neighborhood relations",
"methods to communicate effectively with people",
"how to get rid of misu... | If you have no friends around you, it's time that you should know about your neighborhood. Not all of your neighbors out there are friendly, but at least you need to communicate with them. It is common that when you are new to the neighborhood, your neighbors might actually greet you in an inspiring way.
In other words, they are pleased to welcome you in their neighbor-hood. Both you and your neighbors may start in getting known to each other by introducing yourselves. This is a sign that you and your neighbors are actually friends. Instead of watching television and playing computer games all the time, you also need to take a break and have some fun talking with your neighbors. But if you want to make friends with them, you need to do something that might please them. The only problem for this situation is that you are afraid to approach and greet them in a nice way.
This is a challenge that you or your fellow neighbors must be aware of. You need to get as many friends as possible in your neighborhood, and one of them is to get closer with the unfriendly. If you want to get closer with him but he refuses to be friends with you, don't force him anymore. Treat him with some respect if you don't like to create any more problems. However, if he agrees to be your friend, you are lucky and start treating him like a friend. It is very tough to approach a person in your neighborhood, but it is a good challenge. This is how important for you to get closer with your neighbors, even if they're unfriendly. This is better than sticking yourself alone at home and not having time for social interactions with real people. | high3648.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "English skills"
},
"options": [
"singing skills",
"social skills",
"English skills",
"computer skills"
],
"question": "\"Crazy Creatures\" aims to improve children's _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_question... | Course Details
Crazy Creatures (3--5 year olds)
Class size: 6--10 students
Course summary: "Crazy Creatures" teaches children the English language through songs, arts and craft and games. Every lesson focuses on a famous children's story such as "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". The lesson introduces key vocabulary for the story and the children play games, sing songs, and do arts and craft activities based on the story.
Price: RMB 3,500/week, RMB 6,500/2 weeks, RMB 9,000/3weeks, RMB 11,000/4weeks
Ancient Civilizations (8--12 year olds)
Class size: 6--16 students
Course summary: Children will learn about the culture, food, clothes and entertainment of people who lived in ancient civilizations, from Chinese, Greek, and Mayan / Aztec to Ancient Egypt. At the end of every week children will perform a short play wearing clothes they have made themselves. Throughout the course children will learn songs, read stories and write short stories and poems.
Price: RMB 4,500/week, RMB 8,000/2 weeks, RMB 11,500/3weeks, RMB 14,000/4weeks
Literature Study (12--14 year olds)
Class size: 6--10 students
Course summary: Children will practice the skills required for the GCSE English Literature exam through analyzing a novel. The novel is "Holes" by Louis Sachar, a best-seller across the world. This course will develop children's writing skills and their ability to answer questions.
Price: RMB 4,500/week, RMB 8,000/2 weeks
Dates: June 28--July 2, July 5--July 9, July 12--July 16, July 19--July 23,
July 26--July 30, August 2--August 6
Time: 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, Monday to Friday
Teaching: Classes are taught by experienced native English speaking teachers with a Chinese teaching assistant.
Application Dateline : Friday 18 June 2010
Payment Dateline: Payment to be made to Harrow International School Beijing by first day of the course.
*Snacks and lunch are provided at no cost
*A school nurse will be on site throughout the course.
*Free school bus service available | high4127.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Anxious."
},
"options": [
"Hopeful.",
"Excited.",
"Anxious.",
"Disappointed."
],
"question": "How did most parents feel when waiting for the UPSR results?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
... | It was the day when the UPSR results would be released. Sleepless nights, pounding hearts... Pupils were laughing with their peers or talking non-stop as their eyes searched for their parents. They looked pale, as if someone had squeezed the air from their lungs. Now I was among the anxious parents. I sat behind my daughter. She looked back, saw me and waved. I nodded.
As the teachers walked in, the noise subsided. The year's results were read out. Then came the moment of truth. Pupils who had scored 5As were called out one by one and each of them stepped up on stage. When my daughter went up, I felt fine, but she was crying. I wondered why; maybe she didn't expect to score 5As. Anyway, I said a thankful prayer quietly. After the last name was called, what I saw made an impact on me. One mother just dashed from the back, crying. I thought she was the parent of the last pupil, but I was wrong. She hugged her daughter seated in the front row, saying it was all right that she hadn't scored all As. Her kid was crying. This morn kissed her daughter's forehead and walked straight to the back of the hall, wiping her tears as she walked. She didn't care about the other parents looking at her.
How much pressure do we put on these 12-year-olds? All they did was studying and doing endless homework and countless practice questions. Where was the joy that they rightfully needed? As a parent, I think scoring top marks is not the main thing in life. Survival skills are more important than just chewing school texts and regurgitating them in an exam. So let your kids be kids. Let them play, cycle and climb trees. They will be children only once in their lifetime, so don't rob them of their childhood. Let's teach our kids how to be human, how to interact with others, how to help others and recognize "bad people". Teach them how to survive in this cruel world! | high19753.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "They didn't understand her mind."
},
"options": [
"Her husband didn't give her a hug.",
"Her children didn't give her a chocolate bar.",
"They didn't give her a compliment.",
"They didn't understand her mind."
],
... | Our cat has a sweet nature, and she can let us know what she wants. When we fail to meet her needs, she gently leads us in the proper direction. When I forget to fill her water bowl early in the morning, she runs after my legs, and then pushes me in the direction of her bowl. She doesn't get irritated ; instead, she expresses her wishes in the best way. And I always understand what she is telling me.
One day I found myself envying her simple expression. How many times had I expected my husband or my children to know my wants without my ever giving voice to them? How many times had I been disappointed that they couldn't understand when I needed a hug, a compliment or a chocolate bar?
After a pleasant afternoon with my husband, I wanted to stop somewhere nice and have dinner, but he didn't understand my hints . "Couldn't you see that I wanted to go out to dinner?" I complained when he pulled into our driveway.
"Why didn't you say so? I can't read your mind," he answered in impatience. _ . Had I expected him to read my mind? Why hadn't I expressed my desire more clearly? I realized I had fallen into the female trap of "If you love me, you can read my mind."
Now, I state my needs clearly and directly. I look at my cat and know she agrees. | high3890.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The customers can only go to it once a month."
},
"options": [
"It has turned out to be a success in London.",
"The goods in the shop are free for everyone",
"The customers can only go to it once a month.",
"It sells ev... | A new retail phenomenon from Japan which allows customers to walk away with free products is to launch in Britain.
From tomorrow, visitors to Sample Trend's central London store can try anything on its shelves, and all of the products can be taken home without charge. For a nominal annual membership fee of PS60, users are free to enter the shop once a month and help themselves to no less than PS250 worth of goods every year. The only 'catch' is that shoppers are asked to complete a simple questionnaire about each product they try.
Known as 'try-vertising', the concept allows manufacturers to test products and receive consumer feedback before launching onto the open market. It is already very popular in Japan and now looks set to transform the fortunes of the embattled UK retail industry. According to new figures, stores are facing a Christmas crisis with the weakest High Street trading for six months.
Michael Ghosh, the brainchild behind Sample Trend, said: "The concept behind Sample Trend is unique in the UK. It allows shoppers the opportunity to walk away with a number of real, full-size products of their choosing without handing over a penny."
The concept of in-store try-vertising is simple but effective. Businesses across all sectors, from cosmetic manufacturers to beverage makers, place new products on the shelves at Sample Trend and wait for consumers to try them out.
Customers complete a short 10-point questionnaire about the product, and the feedback they provide is used to make any last-minute improvement before the product is brought officially to market. The Sample Trend store stocks everything from cosmetics, food and drink, and household goods.
Ghosh, the former advertising and sales director for Disney Europe, said such feedback may also build brand loyalty from the outset---a particularly appealing prospect for new businesses. | high5239.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Weigh and talk to people."
},
"options": [
"Weigh and talk to people.",
"Translate information.",
"Give them diet pills.",
"Make them lose weight."
],
"question": "What could the computer do?",
"question_typ... | A well-known manufacturer of weighing machines produced a new model.
The machine had a computer inside it, and this computer could do wonderful things: it could weigh people very accurately; it could tell them their weight in their own language; and it could tell them what they should eat to reduce their weight.
The manufacturer decided to try out his machine before he sold it to the shops.
He looked around for a good place to put it and finally decided on an airport. There were always people at an airport from many different countries.
The first person to use the machine was an Italian woman. She stood on the machine, put a coin in and waited to hear her weight.
The machine took only a second or two to weigh her, decide on her nationality and the language she spoke, and figure out what kind of food she should eat.
"Good morning, madam," it said in perfect Italian. "Your weight is 72 kilos, three more than it should be for a woman of your height, age and nationality. This is because you have been eating too much spaghetti. I suggest you eat more fruit and vegetables. Please have a nice day".
The second person to use the machine was a Chinese girl. She stood on the machine, put a coin in and waited to hear her weight.
"Good morning, Miss," the machine said in perfect Chinese. "Your weight is 38 kilos, exactly the correct weight for your height, age and nationality. Continue to eat what you are eating. Please have a nice day."
The third person to use the machine was a huge Australian woman. She walked up to the machine and looked at it for a long time. At last she found the courage to stand on the machine and put a coin in. The machine spoke immediately. "Good morning. Will one of you ladies please get off?" | high2556.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "The kindness of strangers."
},
"options": [
"The kindness of strangers.",
"Valuable friendship .",
"Two special experiences .",
"Helping others is worthwhile"
],
"question": "Which of the following is the best t... | When was the last time someone unexpectedly did something nice for you ? Not someone you knew, but a total stranger? It's happened to me a few times, but two instances really stand out.
A few years ago, I was dining in a restaurant with a friend who kept talking about himself, completely not aware of the fact that I was sitting there in misery. It wasn't my friend's talks that made me suffer. I was recovering from a broken heart, and just sitting down to dinner reminded me of my last relationship. I could have burst into tears right there at the table.
When we picked up the check, the waitress said, " Your meal was already paid for ." My friend and I didn't have a clue how it happened. Then I remembered a man I saw out of the corner of my eye. He was dressed in mostly white, sat down at the bar, had a beer, and stayed for maybe ten minutes. The waitress said, "Yes, the gentleman in white paid for you ." It felt like an angel was saying "I see you, honey. It's going to be okay."
Just last year, I was running a half-marathon. With just 1 mile to go, I was out of gas. Runners call it " _ ". I thought I couldn't move another inch. Out of nowhere, a stranger came up to me and said, "What's your name, sweetie? Jennifer? Okay, Jennifer, let's go! Come on! It's just around the corner! You can do it!" And he ran with me until I picked up my pace. I found him at the finish line to thank him for the encouragement only to learn he wasn't even supposed to be in the race that day.
I still shake my head when I think of these momentary angels that came to me at my point of need. Do you have any experiences like these? | high4899.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Poor adjustment of her body clock to seasonal changes."
},
"options": [
"An unexpected gain in body weight.",
"Unexplained impairment of her nervous system.",
"Weakening of her eyesight with the setting in of winter.",
... | Every fall, like clockwork, Linda Krentz of Beaverton, Oregon, felt her brain go on strike. "I just couldn't get going in the morning," she says. "I'd get depressed and gain 10 pounds every winter and lose them again in the spring." Then she read about seasonal affective disorder, a form of depression that occurs in fall and winter, and she saw the light literally. Every morning now she turns on a specially constructed light box for half an hour and sits in front of it to trick her brain into thinking it's still enjoying those long summer days. It seems to work.
Krentz is not alone. Scientists estimate that 10 million Americans suffer from seasonal depression and 25 million more develop milder versions. But there's never been definitive proof that treatment with very bright lights makes a difference. After all, it's hard to do a double-blind test when the subjects can see for themselves whether or not the light is on. That's why nobody has ever separated the real effects of light therapy from placebo effects.
Until now, in three separate studies published last month, researchers report not only that light therapy works better than a placebo but that treatment is usually more effective in the early morning than in the evening. In two of the groups, the placebo problem was resolved by telling patients they were comparing light boxes to a new anti-depressant device that gives off negatively charged ions . The third used the timing of light therapy as the control.
Why does light therapy work? No one really knows. "Our research suggests it has something to do with shifting the body's internal clock," says psychiatrist Dr. Lewey. The body is programmed to start the day with sunrise, he explains, and this gets later as the days get shorter. But why such subtle shifts make some people depressed and not others is a mystery.
That hasn't stopped thousands of winter depressives from trying to heal themselves. Light boxes for that purpose are available without a doctor's prescription. That bothers psychologist Michael Terman of Columbia University. He is worried that the boxes may be tried by patients who suffer from mental illness that can't be treated with light. Terman has developed a questionnaire to help determine whether expert care is needed.
In any event, you should choose a reputable manufacturer. Whatever product you use should give off only visible light, because ultraviolet light damages the eyes. If you are photosensitive , you may develop a rash. Otherwise, the main drawback is having to sit in front of the light for 30 to 60 minutes in the morning. That's an inconvenience many winter depressives can live with. | high17018.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "you can tell the difference between them"
},
"options": [
"you will have a strange feeling",
"you will learn how to reach out",
"you can tell the difference between them",
"you can tell what colors they are"
],
... | "If you want to see a thing well,reach out and touch it!"
That may seem a strange thing to say.But touching things can help you to see them better.
Your eyes can tell you that glass ball is round.But by holding it in your hands,you can feel how smooth and cool the ball is.You can feel how heavy the glass is.
When you feel all these about the ball,you really see it.
With your skin,you can feel better.For example,your fingers can tell the difference between two coins in your pocket.You can feel a little drop of water on the back of your hand,too.
You can even feel sounds against your skin.Have you ever wanted to know why some people like very loud music? They must like to feel the sounds of music.
All children soon learn what "Don't touch!" means.They hear it often.Yet most of us keep on touching things as we grow up.In shops,we touch things we might buy,such as food,clothes and so on.To see something well,we have to touch it.
The bottoms of our feet can feel things,too.You know this when you walk on warm sand,cool grass or a bad floor.All feel different under your feet.
There are ways of learning to see well by feeling.
One way is to close your eyes and try to feel everything that is touching your skin.Feel the shoes on your feet,the clothes on your body,the air on your skin.At first,it is not easy to feel these things.You are too used to them!
Most museums are just for looking.But today some museums have some things to touch.Their signs say,"Do touch! There you can feel everything on show.If you want to see better,reach out and touch.Then you'll really see!" | high16306.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Brown, Yellow"
},
"options": [
"Red, Green",
"Green, Yellow",
"Red, Brown",
"Brown, Yellow"
],
"question": "There are four cards here, and each has two colors. Which card's colors do you think a color-blind pers... | People who cannot tell all colors apart are said to be color-blind. Most color-blind people can see yellows and blues, but confuse reds with green. It is very rare for a person to be blind to all colors, but they may see everything in shades of black, white and gray.
It is interesting to point out that many color-blind people don't even realize that they are color-blind, they don't know that the colors they are seeing and naming are not the actual colors that people with normal vision can see. This can be dangerous when a color-blind person confuses the red and green of a traffic light.
Color blindness is thought to be inherited and although doctors have tested color blindness, there is no cure to treatment for it. | high4641.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "they wanted to produce beer with the grain"
},
"options": [
"they were short of food",
"they could sell the grain for money",
"they wanted to produce beer with the grain",
"they wanted to trade the grain for beer"
]... | With little rain, ancient Egyptians relied mostly on the Nile River to water their crops, so they could only grow certain kinds of food. They mainly grew wheat and barley .
The Egyptians made the wheat into bread, soup and porridge, and they also added hops to make the barley into beer. In fact, some people think that the Egyptians would not have begun growing grain if they hadn't liked beer so much. Many Egyptian models of beer jars have been found, which the Egyptians put into graves of dead people so that they would have beer in the next world.
The Egyptians also ate meat. They went to a butcher shop and bought meat there, just as people do today. But because it rarely rains in Egypt, they could have the meat outside in the yard of the store instead of inside. Click on the left and you will see a model of a butcher shop, which was also found in somebody's grave. Can you see the different cuts of meat all laid out? There is a whole leg of mutton at the very bottom. However, Egyptians thought pigs carried infectious disease. They ate beef, mutton, duck and goose.
For dessert, the Egyptians had a great interest in dates. Here is a picture of some real Egyptian dates which were put into people's graves for them to eat in the next world, and which were kept in the dry climate for three thousand years until archaeologists dug them up.
Archaeologists have also found seeds which show that the Egyptians grew watermelon and other kinds of melon. | high19035.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Calls of Campbell's monkeys."
},
"options": [
"A group of scientists.",
"Calls of Campbell's monkeys.",
"The lifestyle of monkeys.",
"The importance of language."
],
"question": "What is the passage mainly about... | Boom boom!( I'm here, come to me!)
Krak krak!( Watch out, aleopard !)
Hok hok hok!( Hey, crowned eagle!)
Very good -- you've already mastered half the basic vocabulary of the Campbell's monkey, which lives in the forests of the Tai National Park in Ivory Coast. The adult males have six types of call, each with a specific meaning, but they can mix two or more calls together into a message with a different meaning.
Having spent months recording the monkeys' calls in response to both natural and artificialstimuli , a group led by Klaus Zuberbuhler of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland argues that the Campbell's monkeys have a certain form ofsyntax .
This is likely to be controversial because despite great effort to teachchimpanzees language, they showed little or no ability to combine the sounds they learned into a sentence with a larger meaning. Syntax, basic to the structure of language, uniquely belongs to humans.
"Krak" is a call that warns of leopards in the neighborhood. The monkeys give it in response to real leopards and to leopard shouting broadcast by the researchers. The monkeys can vary the call by adding "-oo": "Krak-oo" seems to be a general word for hunter, but one given in a special context - when monkeys hear but don't see a hunter, or when they hear the alarm calls of another species.
The "boom-boom" call invites other monkeys to come toward the male making the sound. Two booms can be combined with a series of "krak-oos", with a meaning entirely different to that of either of its single parts. "Boom boom krak-oo krak-oo krak-oo" is the monkey's version of "Timber!" - it warns of falling trees.
If Zuberbuhler is correct, the Campbell's monkeys can both vary the meaning of specific calls by adding something and combine calls to make a different meaning. | high11469.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "America is made up of different cultures"
},
"options": [
"they have a long history in America",
"they are very popular with Americans",
"America is a country full of tasty foods",
"America is made up of different cultu... | The United States is a country of immigrants. It is a place where people from all over the world come to build a better life. Some immigrants bring their families. Some bring a few of their favorite things. Others come alone with nothing but determination. One thing that every immigrant brings with them is their culture.
American immigration began in 1607 with the colony of Jamestown. In 1620, another group of people left England to build a settlement in America. They wanted to go to a place where they could practice their religion freely. Then many more people left their homes in Europe to build a better life in America. Many also came to America from Africa. By 1770, more than two million people had moved to America. Later on, more people came to the United States than ever before.
In cities all over America, you can see different cultures that formed this country. Many things that you may think of as being "American" are actually from a foreign culture. Some of the best examples of this are the foods people eat. Pizza and spaghetti are foods that all Americans know and love. But both of them are from Italy. Baseball is an all-American sport. But the hot dogs that people eat during the game are a type of food that was brought to America by German immigrants.
Over time, pizza and hot dogs have become a part of what is considered to be American food. In the same way, different groups of people have come together to define what an American is. An American can be a person of any background. An American can be of any faith. An American can be of any skin color. They can speak English clearly. They can speak English with an accent. Each new immigrant adds something new to American culture. It will keep changing as more people come to this country. | high12160.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "can serve as a force for social change"
},
"options": [
"are also works of art",
"are popular ways of reporting news",
"often shock the public",
"can serve as a force for social change"
],
"question": "The photo... | Photographs are everywhere. They decorate the walls of homes and are used in stores for sales of different goods. The news is filled with pictures of fires, floods, and special events. Photos record the beauties of nature. They can also bring things close that are far away. Through photos, people can see wild animals, cities in foreign lands, and even the stars in outer space. Photos also tell stories.
Reporting the news through photos is called photojournalism. At times photojournalists tell their stories through a single picture. At other times, they use a group of pictures to tell a story. Each picture is like a chapter in a book, which can do more than record the facts. It can also be a strong force for social change.
Jacob Riis was among the first photojournalists. He took pictures of parts of New York City where the poor lived. Riis believed that poverty caused crime, and he used photos to help him prove his point. A few years later, the photos of small children working in factories by Lewis Hine shocked the public. Hine's pictures helped bring about laws to protect such children.
Hundreds of pictures may have to be taken in order to get one or two really good photos. It takes science to have the photo come out clearly and art to make a photo that has a good design and expresses feeling. Photojournalists make an actual record of what they see. A photo, however, can be both a work of art and an actual record. It can record an important event as a beautiful or exciting picture.
As historical and artistic documents ,photos can become more important over time. Today photojournalists still have their pictures appear in newspapers and magazines. They also publish them in books and on the Internet. | high7348.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "3"
},
"options": [
"2",
"3",
"4",
"5"
],
"question": "Pugh has practised storytelling with _ groups of people.",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
... | Tell a story and tell it well, and you may open wide the eyes of a child, open up lines of communication in a business, or even open people's mind to another culture or race.
People in many places are digging up the old folk stories and the messages in them. For example, most American storytellers get their tales from a wide variety of sources, cultures, and times. They regard storytelling not only as a useful tool in child education, but also as a meaningful activity that helps adults understand themselves as well as those whose culture may be very different from their own.
"Most local stories are based on a larger theme," American storyteller Opalanga Pugh says, "Cinderella , or the central idea of a good child protected by her goodness, appears in various forms in almost every culture of the world."
Working with students in schools, Pugh helps them understand their own cultures and the general messages of the stories. She works with prisoners too, helping them know who they are by telling stories that her listeners can write, direct, and act in their own lives. _ Pugh also works to help open up lines of communication between managers and workers. "For every advance in business," she says, "there is a greater need for communication." Storytelling can have a great effect on either side of the manager-worker relationship, she says.
Pugh spent several years in Nigeria, where she learned how closely storytelling was linked to the everyday life of the people there. The benefits of storytelling are found everywhere, she says.
"I learned how people used stories to spread their culture," she says. "What I do is to focus on the value of stories that people can translate into their own daily world of affairs. We are all storytellers. We all have a story to tell. We tell everybody's story." | high6056.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "is seen as more than decoration"
},
"options": [
"is regarded as transparent",
"is used to make things look pleasant",
"is seen as more than decoration",
"is widely used to replace steel in making containers"
],
... | For thousands of years, people thought of glass as something beautiful to look at. Only recently have they come to think of it as something to look through. Stores display their goods in large glass windows. Glass bottles and jars that hold food and drink allow us to see the contents. Glass is used to make eyeglasses, microscopes, telescopes, and many other extremely useful and necessary objects.
Until the Second World War, most of the glass used for optical instruments was imported from Europe. However, during the war Americans could not get European glass, and they were forced to make their own. Therefore, new kinds of glasses were developed that had been previously unknown. These new effects were achieved by mixing other chemical elements with the sand. Some of these new glasses are very strong and can resist many kinds of shocks. Legend has it that a very hard glass was invented by a Roman who showed his discovery to the Emperor. When the Emperor saw the glass he feared that it would become more valuable than gold and sliver, making his treasure worthless. Therefore, he had the glassmaker killed, and the secret was not discovered again for hundreds of years.
In the present century, safety glass was invented for use in modern cars and planes. Safety glass is made by placing a layer of plastic between two layers of plate glass. When the outside layer of glass is broken, the pieces do not scatter and injure people. Some glass of the type is strong enough to resist bullets .
Although nowadays plastics have replaced glass under conditions where glass might be easily broken, there are new uses being developed, for the greatest advantage of glass is that its component parts are inexpensive and can be found all over the world. | high14511.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "the author is trying to show what he or she says is true"
},
"options": [
"relative information is not that important",
"the author is trying to show what he or she says is true",
"too much information will make readers feel ... | This is a dangerous world we live in. The numbers of murders goes up every year;people are dying of cancer;more people contract HIV;more teens are using drugs;etc. You know this because you've heard all the statistics on the news. But do you really have an accurate idea what they mean? The numbers are going up, but how do they compare to the growth in population? Are more cases of these diseases being reported because of better testing techniques, or are the diseases more common? The fact is that without knowing the background, statistics mean very little.
This growing trend of reporting only part of the information is becoming dangerous.For example, several years ago a high school student reported dangers of the chemical known as dihydrogen monoxide . This chemical, found in most cancerous tumors , is found in the blood of people drunk on alcohol, and causes complete physical and mental dependence for those who take the chemical even once. After reading his report, more than 75% of his Advanced Placement Chemistry class voted to forbid this dangerous chemical! Every one of the above statements is true, yet this chemical is necessary to all life on earth. The students made the mistake because they voted knowing only a few statements and statistics, rather than the chemical's full background.
The point of this article is that one should be aware of what is and is not being said. When one finds a new fact or number, one should try to consider other important information before forming an opinion with only half-truths. Always remember that the author is trying to convince you of his or her own view, and will leave out information that is different to his view. For example, look again at the statistics that suggest skiing is safe. Only 32 people may die each year when skiing, while 897 die from lightning strikes, but which is really more dangerous? If you think about it, you will realize far fewer people go skiing each year than the number of people who are in danger of a lightening strike. When you think about it, skiing is more dangerous than you might at first think when looking at statistics. If we teenagers are to be left in this world, we had better be able to think critically, and form our own views, rather than be easily persuaded by another's. To be warned is to be prepared. | high9365.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "get first-hand information and pictures"
},
"options": [
"save expense and avoid risks",
"buy pictures which are the most stimulating to the senses",
"look for pictures that are of fine qualities",
"get first-hand infor... | When TV news programmers report wars or diseases, the editors rarely use the most horrifying pictures of dead or wounded victims because they don't want to upset their viewers. Even so, viewers are usually warned in advance that they"may find some of these scenes disturbing", so they can look away if they choose. But the men and women whose job is to record those scenes, the TV cameramen, have no such choice. It is their duty to witness the horrors of the world and record them, no matter how unpleasant they may be. As a result, it is one of the most dangerous, exposed and emotionally _ jobs the world has to offer.
Today, the demand for their work is rising. The explosion of satellite broadcasting and 24hour news in recent years has created an almost insatiable demand for TV information. But major broadcaster sand the TV news agencies , such as Reuters and WTN, have never had enough staff to meet thje worldwide demand for up-to-date pictures, so increasingly they turn to freelance TV cameramen.
These freelance cameramen are independent operators tied to no particular organization. They will work for any company which hires them, for just a few hours or for several weeks in a war zone. But if the freelance cameraman is injured in the course of the job, the TV company is not responsible for him. The freelance must survive on his own.
"TV will always need hard, vivid and moving pictures which are fresh, but these companies feel uncomfortable with large numbers of employees on their books."Explains Nik Cowing, once a foreign editor for Britain's Channel 4 news and now a BBC news presenter.
"By hiring freelancers, they can buy in the skills they need only when they need them. It also enables them to reduce the risk."He says. | high2218.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "the author thought she wanted to use the vacant parking space"
},
"options": [
"the author did not know the woman",
"the woman interrupted the author's thoughts",
"the author thought she wanted to use the vacant parking space... | Feeling exhausted and hopeless, I began walking to my car. Every step seemed tiring, and every step was another to survive. As I looked up into the sky I thought about how my grandmother had left me, and my anger began to return. I was annoyed by the loss, and my belief in God was beginning to fade. I couldn't understand why these things happened. So as I stood in a public parking lot a million questions formed in my mind. Why did this happen to me? Aren't we supposed to get signs from the people that pass on? Why did I not feel her presence anymore? Is there a heaven?
Suddenly, a woman driving right by my side rolled down her window and distracted my unanswered thoughts. "Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me," she said loudly. Thinking she was going to ask for my parking spot, I simply pointed to my car. The thought of having to say where my car was seemed like too much to bear. "No, excuse me," she said again.
At this point, I felt I had no choice but to see what this annoying lady wanted. As I got closer, I was startled--was this my grandmother's nurse, Adu, who lived with her during her final months? I soon realized that she wasn't, although the resemblance was unusual. Then, I realized that this Adu was searching for something in her bag. Surprisingly, I was overcome by a sense of relief that led me to be patient the entire time the lady was searching. Others would be nervous by a stranger reaching in their bag, but I wasn't. She finally reached to the very bottom of her bag and handed me a three-page booklet. "It looks like you need this," she said calmly with a warm smile on her face.
I looked down at the mysterious and obviously used booklet and on the front cover in big bold letters read "What Hope for Dead Loved Ones?"
It took me only a few seconds to comprehend the exchange with this woman, but by the time I looked up, she was gone.
I walked slowly into my car holding the tiny little book that was given to me with fear that it would fly away in the wind. I didn't know what it was exactly, but I knew that if my grandmother had anything to do with that I didn't want to let it go.
I felt a sense of relaxation as I opened the first page. It explained how people pass on, but their spirit remains with us. This was the first time since my grandma had passed that I felt her with me, just like I had wanted. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but I did know that I finally felt happiness from the surprising change in events.
I couldn't, and still can't, believe what had happened to me on that day. I don't remember the specific details that you usually hear about like what the person was wearing, the time of day, or even the weather, but it doesn't matter. It was a random day in November when my life turned back around and I began to feel hope again. It was real. It was a miracle. And, I'll remember it for the rest of my life. | high5577.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "People can take photos without eyeing the objects."
},
"options": [
"Google Glass is an immature product.",
"They are acting cautiously in designing Google Glass.",
"People can take photos without eyeing the objects.",
... | Google Glass, a wearable computer, will not go on sale for many months. But the resistance is already under way. The glasses-like device, which allows users to access the Internet, take photos and shoot videos, has been banned by a bar in Seattle, because according to the bar' owner, the bar was "kind of a private place." Besides, large parts of Las Vegas will not welcome wearers.
Google Glass is a pair of glasses with a tiny computer attached to the right earpiece and has the ability to capture any chance encounter and broadcast it to millions. As personal technology becomes increasingly invisible, it is causing questions of whether it will rob people of privacy.
As Google sees it, Glass is a revolutionary new way to quickly and effortlessly connect people with information. Google stresses that Glass is a work in its early stage, with test versions now being released to 2,000 developers. The company hopes they'll be seen as normal and become accepted in the same way smart phones are. The wearer has to speak or touch the device to activate it, and must look directly at someone to take a photograph or video of them. "We are thinking very carefully about how we design Glass because new technology always raises new issues," said Courtney Hohne, a Google spokeswoman.
Critics view Glass as an unfriendly new technology that could rob people of what few privacy they have left. They think Google is downplaying the privacy and security risks. According to Google, it's obvious when someone is taking pictures or recording a video on Glass. Developers, however, are pushing the limits. One created a small sensation in tech circles with a program that eliminated the need for gestures or voice commands. To snap a picture, all the user needed to do was wink .
Imagine a surveillance device that you could wear on your body all day without anyone being the wiser. Out on the street, in the subway, at a bar or cafe, people would never know whether the stranger next to them is secretly recording their every move. It is really a privacy disaster. | high18303.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Quite optimistic."
},
"options": [
"Quite optimistic.",
"Very satisfied.",
"Deeply upset.",
"Rather anxious."
],
"question": "How is the author feeling now about her situation?",
"question_type": null
},
... | I didn't realize how short I was until I started school. There, a few kids picked on me, calling me names. Then I knew. After that, I began to hate the first day of school each year. I didn't know who was new and would stare at me as I struggled to climb the school bus stairs. Some of the kids would point and say, "Look at that kid. Look at her."
As time went on, I just tried to smile and accept the fact that I was going to be noticed my whole life. I was determined to make my uniqueness an advantage rather than a disadvantage. My friends became increasingly protective. They'd help me up the bus steps. If people were cruel, they would take them aside and correct them.
What I lacked in height, I made up for in personality----my ability to laugh, even at myself. For example, one time I was reaching into the washing machine at my parents' house to grab the wet clothes. I fell all the way in and yell for Mother, who was sitting nearby reading the paper. Watching feet flying everywhere, she laughed quietly and said, "I should leave you in there." I laughed with her.
I'm 47 now, and _ as I've grown older. People ask my friends if I live in a dollhouse. They look in disbelief when they see me get out of my car on the driver's side. During those times, I try to keep a good attitude. When people are rude, I remind myself, "Look what else I have----a great family, nice friends..." | high10987.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "to develop children's problem-solving abilities"
},
"options": [
"to direct kids to build solar collectors",
"to train young scientists for city planning",
"to develop children's problem-solving abilities",
"to help you... | "My kids really understand solar and earth-heat energy," says a second-grade teacher in prefix = st1 /Saugus,California, "Some of them are building solar collectors for their energy course." These young scientists are part of City Building Educational Program (CBEP) , a particular program for kindergarten through twelfth grade that uses the stages of city planning to teach basic reading ,writing and math skills , and more .
The children don't just plan any city . They map and analyze the housing , energy , and transportation requirements of their own district and foretell its needs in 100 years . With the aid of an architect who visits the classroom once a week , they invent new ways to meet these needs and build models of their creations . "Designing buildings of the future gives children a lot of freedom," says the teacher who developed this program. "They are able to use their own rich imagination and inventions without fear of blame , because there are no wrong answers in a future context . In fact , as the class enters the final model-building stage of the program , an elected "official" and "planning group" make all the design decisions for the model city , and the teacher steps back and becomes an adviser ."
CBEP is a set of activities , games , and imitations that teach the basic steps necessary for problem-solving ; observing , analyzing, working out possible answers , and judging them based on the children's own standards . | high21582.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "a newspaper"
},
"options": [
"a newspaper",
"a magazine",
"a storybook",
"a guidebook"
],
"question": "This article is probably taken from _",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | Yesterday the police were joined by more than 20 volunteers in the continuing search for the two missing teenagers, Vicky Gray and Tom Hunter, and their guide, Gavin Jones. The police said that they had disappeared during an adventure tour of Cape York Peninsula.
This was the second day of the search and the police were now very worried about the safety of the three missing people.
The police said that the search had covered a wide area, but the rainforest was thick and their work was made harder by the recent rain. Later on Chief Inspector Roger Fleet said, "The travelers had a radio with them. If they had been in trouble, they would have called us."
The three travelers left Cooktown very early on Saturday morning in aToyota car. They took a small dirt road that runs down to the Daintree River, a dangerous river full of crocodiles . Chief Inspector Roger Fleet said the tourists wouldn't have got into trouble if they had stayed on the main road.
A photo of Vicky and Tom was found by a policeman under the "Be Careful about crocodiles" sign near the river. Why was the photo left behind? This is just one of the unanswered questions. Other questions are: Why was the photo left behind? Why was theToyotaparked and locked at the edge of the rainforest? The police said that the travelers had left a map of the area behind. Why? Why had someone drawn a cross on the point where the car is? Is this a sign? What does it mean? If anyone can give information or has seen these three young people, contact the local police in Cooktown. | high11441.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "a natural history museum"
},
"options": [
"a Youtheater",
"an art museum -",
"a natural history museum",
"a hands-on science museum"
],
"question": "If a child is interested in the universe, he probably will ... | Are you looking for some new and exciting places to take your kids to? Try some of
these places:
. Visit art museums. They offer a variety of activities to excite your kids' interest. Many
offer workshops for making hand-made pieces, traveling exhibits, book signings by children's favorite writers, and even musical performances and other arts.
. Head to a natural history museum. This is where kids can discover the past from
dinosaur models to rock collections and pictures of stars in the sky. Also, ask what kind of workshops and educational programs are prepared for kids and any special events that are coming up.
. Go to a Youtheater. Look for one in your area offering plays for child and family
visitors. Pre-show play shops are conducted by area artists and educators where kids
can discover the secret about performing arts. Puppet making and stage
make-up are just a couple of the special offerings you might find.
Try hands-on science. Visit one of the many hands-on science museums around the
country. These science play-lands are great fun for kids and grown-ups alike. They'll
keep your child mentally and physically active the whole day through while pushing
buttons, experimenting, and building.. When everyone is tired, enjoy a fun family
science show, commonly found in these museums. | high20844.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "kind and warm-hearted"
},
"options": [
"good at cheating others",
"honest",
"kind and warm-hearted",
"foolish"
],
"question": "We could see from the passage that the mouse was _ .",
"question_type": "cl... | A mouse looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package; what food might it contain? He was astonished to discover that it was a mouse trap!
Running to the farmyard, the mouse shouted, warning everyone, "There is a mouse trap in the house, there is a mouse trap in the house."
The chicken, with her head high, glared at the mouse and said, "Shut up. Little Ugly. This is a great concern to you, but it has nothing to do with me; I can't be troubled by it.
The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mouse trap in the house." "I am so sorry, Mr. Mouse," said the pig sympathetically, "but there is nothing I can do about it but pray; you are always in my prayers."
The mouse turned to the cow, who relied, " A mouse trap, am I in great danger, huh?"
Now the mouse had to face the farmer's mouse trap alone.
The very night a sound was heard through the house, like that of a mouse trap catching its
. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a big poisonous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever. It is said that drinking fresh chicken soup will help treat fever, so the farmer took his sharp knife to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. His wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer killed the pig. The farmer's wife did not get well, in fact, she died, and so many people came for her funeral. The farmer had the cow killed to provide for all of them to eat.
So next time when someone is facing a problem, don't say that it has nothing to do with you. Remember: when the least of us is threatened, we all might be at risk. | high15627.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Because when they see the magic in the tales in the beginning, they can face the future"
},
"options": [
"Because they can gain greathappiness.",
"Because it is easier for the children to throw themselves in the role",
"Becau... | ''If you can see the magic in a fairytale), you can face the future"-- Danielle Steel
Who have not read fairytales? We all have had the experience of taking great delight in the beauty and innocence of fairytales.May it be Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty...Fairytale is a word which cannot be new to us. But haveyou ever travelled ages back to the earliest of times and uncovered the fascinating facts about these stories?
The history of the fairytale is particularly difficult to track.The oral tradition of the fairytale came long before the written page.The oldest known fairytales date back to ancient Egypt around 1300B.C.and now, after travelling through various periods of time, they have grown and matured in various aspects and have become the most popular forms of stories for young children
The characters and themes of fairytales are simple and similar:Princesses and goose girls, youngest sons and brave princes, wicked, stepmothers, fairy godmothers, talking animals, glass mountains, witches, castles and the like. The tale goes into an unreal world and in this never-never land our heroes kill the enemy, succeed to kingdoms and marry the ever beautiful princesses. W. H Auden said, "The way to read a fairytale is to throw yourself in." It is very true indeed or you will not be able to feel the _ of reading a fairytale. So whenever you read a fairytale, imagine you arethe hero/heroine and you will be carried to a mysterious land where everything will be as you want.
Every child believes in fairies , dragons, etc. Yet, as we grow up we fail to believe in these fantasy-based characters.Fairytales are told to children when they are young. This is very essential indeed, for if in the beginning of our lives, our minds are touched by the beauty, innocence and the morals in these tales, we will be able to obtain the optimistic side of happenings.In life, sometimes, believing in such mystics can lead to greathappiness.
Well, I don't know about you, but I do believe in fairies...and who knows I may someday meet one because, after all, believing is just the beginning! And as J.M. Barries said, " _ ." And I wouldn't want anyone dead on my account, would you? | high8053.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "To make people aware of the importance of nature balance"
},
"options": [
"To tell the beauty and ugliness of Mexico City",
"To introduce the terrible change of Mexico City",
"To explain how Mexico City changed",
"To ma... | The heart of Mexico is a high, oval valley surrounded by mountains. Once, forests covered the mountainsides, and broad, shining lakes covered nearly all the valley floor. Now, the mountains are bare and scarred with erosion , and much of the valley floor is dry and dusty.
Cortez and his Spanish soldiers were the first Europeans to enter this valley. They saw the thriving Aztec city of Tenochtitlan rising from an island in one of the lakes. Surrounding it were green floating gardens. The Spaniards said it was as beautiful as a dream. Then the conquest began.
By 1521, when the Spaniards had conquered the fierce Aztecs, the island city was in ruins. Cortez decided to rebuild it after the pattern of European cities. Using the conquered Aztecs as slave laborers, Cortez built the new city, now Mexico City, in just four years.
"But a generation had scarcely passed after the conquest before a sad change came over these scenes so beautiful," writes one historian. The broad, shining lakes began to dry up.
Modern historians believe that Cortez began the destruction of the valley's lakes when be ordered the city rebuilt. A great deal of charcoal was needed to burn the limestone from which cement and mortar were made. Wood was needed to finish the interiors of the buildings.
The mountainside forests were destroyed to provide the charcoal and wood. Once the sloped were bare, rainfall o longer seeped slowly into the earth to feed the springs that filled the valley's lakes. Instead, rainfall poured off the mountainsides the city from floods, later rulers made a cut through the mountains so that the water drained away into another valley. Mexico City, once an island, had become a city of a dry plain. | high7360.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "There is no previous study related to the topic before."
},
"options": [
"The study was carried out in 103 universities.",
"The researchers drew the conclusion by interviewing students about their feelings in the writing process.",... | If you have ever been left wondering why your emails are riddled with grammatical errors, or why you can never quite find the right phrase, it may be because you are typing with both hands.
Our vocabulary becomes richer and our writing style becomes more fluent when we type using just one hand, scientists have found. "Typing can be too fluent or too fast, and _ can actually weaken the writing process," said Srdan Medimorec, the lead author of the study conducted at the department of psychology at the University of Waterloo, Canada. "It seems that what we write is a product of the interaction between our thoughts and the tools we use to express them."
Using text-analysis software, researchers asked 103 university students to write essays under different conditions, using one hand to type and using both hands to type. The software was used to analyze elements of the essays, such as range of vocabulary, sentence complexity and the cohesion of the writing.
Researchers found that participants' vocabulary became more advanced when they typed with one hand rather than two. The research team said that by slowing our writing down, typing one-handed allows more time for an internal word search, resulting in a larger variety of words.
In contrast, fast typists might just write the first word that comes to mind. However, it is important not to slow typing down too much. Those who typed essays one-handed in the current study slowed down to about the speed of handwriting.
This is the first study to show that changing people's typing can make their writing get better. The researchers suggested that the speed of writing could affect writing quality regardless of the tools used, whether they are computers, or pen and paper, although further research would be required to prove that idea. | high14539.txt |
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