questions list | article stringlengths 9 6.44k | id stringlengths 9 14 |
|---|---|---|
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "It helps them to protect themselves from danger."
},
"options": [
"It helps them to protect themselves from danger.",
"It makes it easier for them to move through the mud.",
"It makes them attractive to fish.",
"It help... | Certainly no creature in the sea is stranger than the common sea cucumber . All living creatures, especially human beings, have their features, but everything about the little sea cucumber seems unusual. What else can be said about an unusual animal that eats mud, feeds almost continuously day and night but can live without eating for long periods, and can be poisonous but is considered eatable?
For some fifty million years, in spite of all its strange features, the sea cucumber has lived on its diet of mud. It is adaptable enough to live attached to rocks by its tube feet, under rocks in shallow water, or on the surface of mud flats. Common in cool water on both Atlantic and Pacific shores, it has the ability to suck up mud or sand and digest whatever nutrients are present.
Sea cucumbers come in a variety of color1s, ranging from black to reddish-brown to sand-color1 and nearly white. One form even has brilliant purple tentacles . Usually the creature are cucumber-shaped--where their name comes from--and because they live in rocks, this shape, combined with flexibility, enables them to press into crevices where they are safe from animal eater and ocean currents.
Although they have greedy desire for food, eating day and night, sea cucumbers have the ability to become still and live at a low metabolic rate--feeding a little or not at all for long periods, so that the living things in the ocean that provide their food have a chance to increase by a large amount. If it were not for this natural ability, they would swallow all the food available in a short time and would probably starve themselves out of existence. But the most impressive thing about the sea cucumber is the way it defends itself. Its major enemies are fish and crabs. When attacked, it forces all its internal organs in its body out into water. It also removes attached structures such as tentacles. The sea cucumber will get rid of its organs and grow itself again if it is attacked or even touched; it will do the same if the surrounding water temperature is too high or if the water becomes too polluted. | high22292.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "work out marketing plans"
},
"options": [
"promote its production",
"work out marketing plans",
"speed up its life cycle",
"increase its popularity"
],
"question": "Marketers need to know which of the four stage... | We can see how the product life cycle works by looking at the introduction of instant coffee. When it was introduced, most people did not like it as well as "regular" coffee, and it took several years to gain general acceptance(introduction stage).At one point, though, instant coffee grew rapidly in popularity, and many brands were introduced(stage of rapid growth). After a while, people became attached to one brand and sales leveled off(stage of maturity). Sales went into a slight decrease when freeze-dried coffees were introduced(stage of decline).
The importance of the product life cycle to marketers is this: Different stages in the product life cycle call for different strategies. The goal is to extend product life so that sales and profits do not drop. One strategy is called market modification. It means that marketing managers look for new users and market sections. Did you know, for example, that the backpacks that so many students carry today were originally designed for the soldiers?
Market modification also means searching for increased usage among present customers or going for a different market, such as senior citizens. A marketer may re-position the product to appeal to new market sections.
Another product extension strategy is called product modification. It involves changing product quality, features, or style to attract new users or more usage from present users. American auto manufacturers are using quality improvement as one way to regain world markets. Note, also, how auto manufacturers once changed styles eagerly from year to year to keep demand from falling. | high16137.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Great imagination."
},
"options": [
"Firm determination.",
"Great imagination.",
"Rich knowledge.",
"Different personalities."
],
"question": "What matters when people are making some automatic responses?",
... | Do you often find yourself crying in arguments? Does it feel like you just can't stop your emotions defeating you completely when you are in the middle of a heated discussion with someone, and you particularly want to make clear strong points and express yourself effectively?
Many people think that someone who bursts into tears during an argument or a quarrel is 9 / 17 trying to handle the situation by bringing emotion into it. But the person who wells up tears during some heated discussion is not in control of those tears. They just can't control blushing or stop themselves breaking out in a sweat if they feel nervous.
The body has a number of such automatic responses that switch on without your decision that you want to respond like this. These instinctive behaviors have evolved over millions of years to protect us. Basically, our brains make associations between things that seem similar, which is important for automatic responses. For example, a snake is a potentially dangerous creature, and you can see why it might be useful if, whenever you see a snake, you will run like crazy. And you can see why it might still be useful if you see a flexible stick and get the same reaction.
However, these very simple associations can sometimes be really unhelpful. It's not useful to try to calmly argue an important point with someone, and suddenly find tears running down your cheeks. Tears can generally make you seem weak, or foolish, and less credible. Who's going to take what you say seriously if you're crying?
But if these reactions are not under your control, what can you do about it? The good news is that although you can't control automatic reactions directly, you can unlink unhelpful associations. And that means that an unwanted reaction won't get started, and so won't happen. Besides, you can try the following: Begin to notice a change in how you feel about previous times when you were defeated by emotion; Develop a growing sense of confidence and optimism about how things will go in the future. | high19204.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Workers pick and package strawberries."
},
"options": [
"Farmers work hard on a corn field.",
"Workers pick and package strawberries.",
"Scientists test machines in strawberry fields.",
"Farmers operate strawberry-picki... | Strawberry fields dotted with hunched-over workers picking and packaging, then pushing the delicate red fruit to waiting trucks -- it is a typical winter scene embedded in the patchwork of homes and farms that make up eastern Hillsborough County.
That scene is changing, though, as the labor pool shrinks and technology comes knocking. Wish Farms owner Gary Wishnatzki and his engineer partner Bob Pitzer are banking on technology.
As strawberry season wrapped up in February, their driverless strawberry-picking machine drove into the fields for some test runs. The results were impressive and enlightening , Wishnatzki said.
For some three years now, farmers have been forced to abandon millions of dollars worth of strawberries in fields, mostly in Hillsborough and Manatee counties, because they lacked laborers, industry experts say. The problem has been just as serious in California, Arizona and other farm communities.
The reasons for the shrinking worker pool are numerous. Migrant workers who have picked the fields for years are aging. Young adults in migrant families already in the United States are getting better educations and have more choices these days, including the construction industry, which again is on the upswing. Stricter security is allowing fewer undocumented workers to cross the border from Mexico. And Mexicans are having much smaller families now -- just over two children per family, compared with 7.3 per family in 1960, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report released in 2012.
And since Mexico's economy bounced back faster than that of the U.S., more Mexicans have been able to find work closer to home, according to the study.
"We came up with a concept we perceive as a necessity," Wishnatzki said. "The labor pool has been shrinking for over 10 years now. It has been pretty harmful." So in 2012, he and Pitzer formed their partnership, Harvest CROO Robotics, to develop a mechanical picker.
The Harvest CROO design has multiple picking heads that will move across a field, picking 25 acres over a three-day period, the typical time for picking fruit as it ripens. It has a "vision system" to distinguish between red and green strawberries and is able to get under the leaves to find and pick the ripe berries.
Picking strawberries is nothing like using a combine on a corn field, coming through and thrashing down the plants. Strawberries are delicate and ripen in various intervals, which Harvest CROO is taking into account in developing its machine.
A strawberry-picking machine will never completely replace the need for human labor in the fields, Wishnatzki said, but if the machines can supplement labor enough to keep the industry profitable, he and Pitzer will have met their goal. | high11658.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "How an unsuccessful person became famous."
},
"options": [
"Sometimes an idol behaves quite foolishly.",
"Hung's performance attracted the public eye.",
"How an unsuccessful person became famous.",
"Success sometimes do... | In the age of reality television, success isn't the only way to the public eye. Failure can also create fame, just like William Hung, 21, a native of Hong Kong.
Hung recently has made an agreement with US-based entertainment firms Koch Records and Fuse Music Network. They will publish a full-length record, titled "The True Idol" on April 6.
The idol is a civil engineering student at the University of California at Berkeley. He did a version of Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" on the television show "American Idol 3", on January 27. The Fox TV singing contest searches for pop stars among ordinary people. In the case of Hung, however, his act was so bad that the judges cut him off in mid-act.
Hung's response? "I already gave my best, so I have no regrets at all." That's good, because any common person would have found plenty to regret: The off-key singing. The blue Hawaiian shirt worn with pants pulled up too high. The terrible dancing. The hips jerking to a beat that did not belong to the song, maybe not even to this planet. It was, by all accounts, bad.
But, it was this very bad act that sold well.
Marc Juries, president of Fuse, explained it this way: "Every one of us is happily guilty of singing our favorite song at the top of our lungs with complete freedom, completely off-key and completely unworried. That's what William did and immediately won the hearts of America."
Whatever _ is, for the moment it's big. Three websites devoted to Hung have gone up on the Internet in the past few weeks. Versions of his performance have been remixed with hip hop and techno-music and have made it to the top 10 request list at a Chicago radio station.
So, what does Hung think of this?
"There were all these people saying things about me. A lot were saying I was very courageous and that I was great on the show, but some didn't have much respect for me and some were kind of mean."
Now he says he's not so sure whether to distance himself from the glamour or to accept it. Returning to normal hasn't been easy. | high2001.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "An old phone - a new phone - a laptop - a street bike - a Porsche."
},
"options": [
"An old phone - a new phone - a street bike - a laptop - a Porsche.",
"An old phone - a new phone - a laptop - a street bike - a Porsche.",
"... | For most teenagers, swapping an old mobile phone with a friend for the latest album or movie ticket might be considered a good trade.But 17-year-old Steven Ortiz set his sights a little higher, and -- after a series of swaps -- is now driving himself to school in a Porsche.The youngster started exchanging items two years ago after a schoolmate gave him an unwanted phone.Through a series of online swaps, Steven worked his way up through newer phones, laptop computers, and street bikes before landing the prized Porsche.
Steven developed a love for online trading long before taking up the swaps that led to the Porsche.As a young teenager, he would buy his friends' unwanted mobile phones for around PS20, clean them up and sell them over the Internet for three times that amount.
His father, Esteban Ortiz, said Steven was also useful to have around when the family needed something like a new washing machine, as he would use his nose for a bargain to pick up somebody's discarded appliance for next to nothing and fix it up cheaply."I think this is teaching him something.I want him to go to college, and make something of his life.He is learning the value of things, responsibility and negotiation skills."
Steven got his first car at 15, but he was too young to drive, so he traded for a golf cart before moving back into cars when he got his license a year ago.Steven said swapping the Bronco, worth about PS10,000 at the time, for the Porsche was actually a trade down because the car was valued at PS6,000.Another downside is the running costs.He must pay PS100 every time the Porsche needs an oil change, and $1,000 for a routine service.
Steven, however, still has some way to go before matching the achievement of Canadian Kyle MacDonald, who became famous four years ago for turning a single red paperclip into a two-storey farmhouse through a series of trade. | high21943.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Telephoning."
},
"options": [
"Text messaging,",
"Net chatting.",
"Telephoning.",
"Letter writing."
],
"question": "Which of the following may Mark Bauerlein encourage children to use more?",
"question_type"... | Directions: Read the following four passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are 4 choices marked A,B,C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage.
I've always known that my son uses his cellphone a lot, but his cellphone bill last month really got my attention, He had received nearly 2,000 text messages ,and had sent nearly as many. Of course, he was out of school for the summer, and communicating more with friends who were far away. However ,I had to wonder how he found time to keep a summer job and complete a summer course in between all that typing with his thumb.
I was even more surprised to learn that my son is normal. Teenagers with cellphones send and receive an average of 2. 272 text messages a month, Nielsen Mobile says, author of a book called The Dumbest Geheraiion: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes( ) Our Future
Some experts say that all that text messaging is making our children stupid, and unable to read nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, gestures, postures and other silent signals of mood and attitude. "Unlike telephoning, text messaging doesn't even allow tones or pauses to be sent to others," says Mark Bauerlein
Beyond that ,though, I'm not sure I see as much harm as critics of the trend do. I've written before on how I initially tried to control my sons texting. But over time, I've seen that my son suffers no apparent bad effects, and that he gains a big benefit of easy and continuing contact with many friends. Also, the time he spends texting replaces the hours teenagers used to spend on the phone; he dislikes talking on the phone ,and says he really doesn't need to do so to stay in touch.
I don't think texting makes children stupid. It may make them annoying, when they try to text and talk to you. And it may distract them from math problems or what they have to do for school.
I don't see that texting harms the ability of teenagers to communicate, either. My son is as good at interpreting nonverbal cues as any of the older members of our family. If anything , I've found him more engaged and easier to communicate with from a distance ,since he's constantly available through texting, and responds with faithfulness and speed that any mother would find reassuring . | high20485.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "People take the holiday on a place without any basic living facilities."
},
"options": [
"People take the holiday to avoid modern entertainment.",
"People go on an adventurous sailing like Robinson Crusoe.",
"People take the ... | What's life like on a deserted island? Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona decided to find out.
The adventurous senator took a vacation from Capitol Hill and went on a four-day Robinson Crusoe style holiday with his two teenage sons to a remote, uninhabited island in the North Pacific Ocean.
The senator and his sons, 15-year-old Tanner and 13-year-old Dallin, traveled 5,200 miles from Phoenix, Arizona to the island of Biggarenn. They didn't carry any food or water.
The island is part of the Marshall Islands. It offered no basic facilities, so the Flakes had to catch and cook their own food and purify their water. Their diet was made up of coconuts, crab and fish. They captured the crab and fish themselves and cooked the food over an open fire started with a magnifying glass .
The Flakes brought along a lobster trap in hopes of having some delicious treats, but lost it within the first few hours after it was attacked by a shark. They also carried two pumps to remove salt from ocean water. It took them hours each night pumping for just a few gallons of fresh water.
One of the most memorable moments of the trip, the father said, was when he and his 15-year-old son were chased by sharks after spearing a fish in the ocean.
Still, it was quite an enjoyable holiday for the senator. "For a dad it was a wonderful thing. No video games around, no television, no distractions, no texting," Flake recalled. | high17229.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Because three or four is better than six or seven."
},
"options": [
"Because he can help to solve crime.",
"Because three or four is better than six or seven.",
"Because the young criminals have a hard life on the road.",
... | Americans think that travel is good for you. Some even think it can help to solve one of the country ' s worst problems ~: crime .
Crime worries a lot of people. Every year, the number of crimes is up and up. And many criminals are young. They often come from sad homes, with only one parent or no parents at all.
There are many young criminals in prison,but prison doesn ' t change them. Six or seven in ten will go back to crime when they come out of prison.
One man ,Bob Burton, thought of a new idea. In the old days, young men had to live a difficult life on the road. They learned to be strong and brave, and to help their friends to be strong and brave, and to help their friends in time of danger. This helped them grow into men. So Bob Burton started "Vision Quest. " He takes young criminals on a long ,long journey with horses and wagons , 3,000 miles through seven states. They are on the road for more than a year.
The young people in Vision Quest all have bad problems. Most of them have already spent time in prison. This is their last chance.
It's hard work on the road. The day starts before the sun comes up. The boys and girls have to feed the horses. Some of them have never loved anyone before but they love their horses. That love can help them to live a new life.
Not all the young people on Vision Quest will leave crime behind them. Three or four in ten will one day be in prison again. Bob Burton is right. Travel can be good for you. Even today, Americans still say, " Go west, young men. " | high11880.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "There are nostrils at the end of its beak."
},
"options": [
"It has no tail at all.",
"It has a long beak.",
"Its feathers are thick and brown.",
"There are nostrils at the end of its beak."
],
"question": "Whic... | The kiwi bird
The kiwi bird is a flightless bird,about the size of a chicken. It sleeps during the day and is active at nighttime. It has a long beak that is onethird the length of its body, and its beak actually has nostrils at the end. The kiwi is the only bird with this feature. Another unique feature of the kiwi is that it has no tail. It has thick brown hairlike feathers. This bird has many physical features unlike any other bird on earth.
Kiwi birds have been called a genetic leftover. Their characteristics seem very odd to us probably due to the fact that they haven't evolved much at all. They are suspected to be about 8 million years old. That's 7 million years older than humans. Due to New Zealand's isolated environment, it has been safe from predators and hasn't needed to do much adapting. They just hang around.
With its long beak, the kiwi digs up and chows down on worms. A kiwi is almost blind; it can see about six feet at night and around two feet during the day,so when it comes to hunting the kiwi is not well equipped.It uses the nostrils on its beak to find its food and then picks up the worms with its beak.
The kiwi bird is native of New Zealand.It is the island country's national bird, and is rare anywhere but here and a few Pacific island neighbors. Of course,it is available for viewing at certain zoos.It has stayed in its native land due to the facts that it is an isolated island and that kiwis can't fly.
Kiwi birds are extremely unique in the bird world. Though they are the size of chickens, they lay eggs the size of ostrich eggs, weighing around a pound each.Their enormous eggs are the largest in the bird world, compared to their bodies. These birds were named after their distinctive shrill cry "keewee keewee". | high5785.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "They wanted their son to receive the best treatment."
},
"options": [
"They wanted to give their son the best education.",
"They wanted their son to receive the best treatment.",
"They weren't used to life in India or Austral... | When Siva Kalyan was born, his backbone was deformed resulting in a lifelong difficulty in walking. But that hasn't stopped the nine-year-old from becoming a prodigy .
Until he was three-and-a-half years old, Siva could not even crawl. Wanting the best treatment for their son, Siva's parents moved with him from India to Australia and later to the USA.
In the USA, his parents enrolled him in the second grade based on his age. But his teachers soon realized they had a genius. Siva was then tested for the eighth grade, but it was soon found out that he was actually qualified for college courses. As one advanced course was not enough, the brilliant boy is now taking two courses from Stanford University. Due to the treatment he received, Siva's physical condition has improved as well.
But none of _ "just happened". It was his parents' understanding and correct guidance, and the loving care of his grandparents that contributed to the growth of the genius. Siva's highly educated and hardworking family has brought him up on the basis of certain principles.
The family believes that once a strong foundation is built for the child in English and mathematics, the child is equipped to master any other subject, law, history, or engineering. It is equally important to recognize the strengths of a child rather than forcing the child to do things that he may not want to do.
Siva's parents helped. Siva focus his energies on his strength, which is mathematics. At the same time they took care to see that he had friends to play with and enjoyed a few recreational activities. The only activity that's restricted for Siva is viewing television. Siva watches TV only for 30 minutes a day and video games are a bonus for special occasions.
Thanks to his mother who is a singer, Siva has also learned music and even won the first and second prize at two competitions. In sports, he likes to swim. He began to learn swimming to strengthen his muscles, and by the age of eight he was able to swim a kilometer in both the backstroke and the freestyle. | high21770.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "they were suspected to carry dangerous objects"
},
"options": [
"their suitcases were too heavy",
"the agents wanted to play a joke on them",
"they were suspected to carry dangerous objects",
"the agents wanted to admir... | As jewelry designers,my sister Jodie and I are always traveling for work.We need to go to a lot of shows,so we can't pack lightly and usually bring about four suitcases filled with our work.
Most of our stuff is made from heavy materials and metals.So part of the routine for us when we fly is getting stopped by security.Our jewelry sets off the alarms,and we've become accustomed to arriving early to go through private screenings.Most of the time,it's not troublesome.
However,on our recent trip to a Paris trade show,we were stopped at security and asked to empty our bags. One of the agents walked over to another agent and they started whispering to each other.Both gentlemen came back,and one of them then told us that it seemed that we were carrying a very dangerous object.
My sister and I just said,"Huh?"Of course,we were a little concerned,thinking that maybe someone put something dangerous in one of our bags when we weren't looking.
One of the agents then started to unpack our bags.I kept asking what he was 1ooking for and then the object in question finally appeared.It was our Cosima necklace.It's a piece of jewelry,with large,metal triangular spikes.
My sister and I 1ooked at each other and breathed a huge sigh of relief.We started laughing and explained to the two male agents that it was just a necklace from our collection.not a weapon of mass destruction.They thought we were lying,and one agent kept repeating that he believed it was a weapon.
I tried to explain that we were jewelry designers going to a trade show,and this was simply a piece from our collection.But the agents didn't _ it.Then a few women guards came over to assist.One of the women guards was holding an earring up to her ear and another was trying on a ring.Apparently,they liked our stuff.
It was only at this point that the male guards gave up.And I think they also got tired of listening to a bunch of women talk about jewelry.They let us through.
We took the names of the women agents and sent them a piece of jewelry when we got back to say thanks. | high14913.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "dogs live in groups"
},
"options": [
"dogs like to live with people",
"dogs are easier to be trained",
"few dogs can be leaders",
"dogs live in groups"
],
"question": "By saying \"dogs are pack animals\"(in Para... | A typical day at work for Cesar Millan might include putting on his running shoes and taking a fourhour jog with 40 dogs--large and small, young and old. Amazingly, most of those dogs belong to him. The rest are at the heart of his work; they are troubled dogs sent to Millan to learn good behavior.
Obviously Millan, star of the TV show "Dog Whisperer" and author of the bestselling book Cesar's Way,has a special gift for working with these animals.
Growing up on a farm in Mexico, Millan knew he wanted to work with dogs. His first job, at age 15,was helping a veterinarian .He was so good at calming scared dogs and handling all kinds of situations that people started calling him "el perrero", Spanish for "the dog boy".Since then, he has built a rewarding career around his favorite animal.
"My grandfather taught me at an early age not to work against nature,"he explains. In nature, _ . They form a group and follow one leader. Millan's specialty is teaching people to be pack leaders for their dogs.
Studying dogs on the farm where he grew up,Millan realized they need lots of exercise to be calm. He explains his approach,"Exercise and discipline first,and then affection!"He says a lot of people get it backwards because they don't realize what dogs really need. Therefore, while he trains dogs, he teaches owners to understand that their pets need rules. He's helped famous people like Oprah Winfrey and movie star Will Smith and everyday people too.
To find the right career, Millan encourages kids to do what they enjoy. "A lot of people don't realize I've been working with dogs for more than 20 years--long before my TV show or book. Success followed me because I was following my dream of being the best dog trainer in the world." | high7192.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "showing body temperature"
},
"options": [
"blocking unwanted calls",
"sensing the caller's mood",
"showing body temperature",
"detecting the owner's mood"
],
"question": "According to the passage, the \"Sensay\"... | American scientists are developing an "intelligent" mobile phone capable of blocking incoming calls depending on the owner's mood. Using "context aware" technology, the "Sensay" phone will monitor calls and send back polite messages saying the user may be contacted later.
A research team at the Institute for Complex Engineering Systems at Carragie Mellon University in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, are developing body temperature and electrical skin monitors to help the device understand the emotional state of its user. If the phone senses that the user is busy -- for instance, involved in a conversation -- it might block an incoming call and turn it onto voicemail. The phone would send back a text message saying the user is unavailable, but advising that if the matter is urgent the caller can try again in three minutes. If a call from the same person came in again, the phone would put it through.
The researchers are interested in four basic different states -- busy and not to be interrupted, physically active, idle, and "normal." Most people are said to change between these states, an average of 6 to 12 times a day.
Professor Asim Smailagic, a leading member of the Carnegic Mellon team, told The Engineer magazine, "Today's computers are pretty dumb compared with the device. We got to work at the beginning of May and since then have been improving it. The next stage is to make it smarter, adding various intelligence systems so it can learn about the user. The phone also employs four primary sensors -- two microphones to pick up conversations and monitor local noise, a light detector and an accelerometer .The light sensor shows if the phone is being carried in a bag or pocket, while the accelerometer determines whether the user is walking, running or standing still. In the future, the sensor box, phone and personal organizer will be combined into one device." | high23167.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Weather forecasting is a way of telling what the weather will be like."
},
"options": [
"Weather forecasting is a way of telling what the weather will be like.",
"Weather forecasting is a report about the weather.",
"Weather ... | No one can change the weather. Nobody can control the weather. But if we read correctly the signs around us, we can tell what the more important changes in the weather will be. This way of telling what the weather will be like on the following day or two is called weather forecasting .
For many centuries and in all countries, people have studied the weather and tried to make weather forecasting. Rings around the sun are a sign of coming rain. That many people feel their joints hurt is a sign of wet weather. Some birds fly high if fine weather is coming, but they fly near the ground if rainy or stormy weather is on the way. If you see a rainbow during rainy weather, this is a sign that the weather will become clear and fine. Such rainbows come in the evening. If the stars twinkle clearly at night, then fine weather will continue. If a fog appears in the morning just above a river, then the day will be warm. If the sunset is mostly red in colour, then the following day will be fine. If a rainbow appears in the morning, rainy weather will probably come.
Most of the above sayings have been made by the people who have used their eyes and brains to make weather forecasting. | high1285.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "seek solutions to the world economic crisis"
},
"options": [
"seek solutions to the world economic crisis",
"remove the misunderstanding between world leaders",
"build up new regulatory systems in each country",
"streng... | prefix = st1 /London
01 April 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown are calling for global unity as world leaders gather in London for an emergency economic summit .
The president says no one country can fix the economic crisis.
Mr. Obama stressed the need for all participants to seek common ground to deal with the economic crisis. "I am ly confident that this meeting will reflect enormous consensus about the need to work together to deal with these problems," said Mr. Obama.
There are signs of tension, as the G20 summit prepares to begin its work in London. Some countries are blaming the United States for sparking the economic crisis through the deregulation of its financial scene - a move that sparked an economic recession . The president says the United Stateshas made mistakes, but so did other countries whose regulatory systems could not keep pace with a changing financial sector. He says it is time to look for solutions. "At this point, I am less interested in identifying blame, than in fixing the problem," he said.
President says differences are overstated.
France and Germanysay the emphasis should be on regulatory reform. French President Nicholas Sarkozy even told an interviewer that he might walk out of the summit, if nations fail to agree on stricter regulation of global financial markets. Brown predicts no walkouts. President Obama says reports of differences are overstated. And, Prime Minister Brown predicts no one will walk away from the summit and its important work." I am confident President Sarkozy will not be here for the first course of our dinner, but will still be sitting as we complete our dinner this evening," said Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown says "Never before has the world come together in this way to talk about an economic crisis," he said. "Any of the crises we have seen since the second World War, you have not had this level of international cooperation." | high23601.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Leaders should be good at making right decisions."
},
"options": [
"Leaders should be good at making right decisions.",
"Leaders should be good at doing things right.",
"Leaders should be good at ignoring distinctions.",
... | Leadership is the most significant word in today's competitive business environment because it directs the manager of a business to focus inward on their personal abilities and style.Experts on leadership will quickly point out that"how things get done" influences the success of the outcomes and indicates a right way and a wrong way to do things.When a noted leader on the art of management,Peter Drucker,coined the phrase"Management is doing things right;leadership is doing the right things,"he was seeking to clarify the distinctions he associates with the terms.
When Stephen Covey, founder and director of the Leadership Institute,explored leadership styles in the past decade,he focused on the habits of a great number of highly effective individuals.His Seven Habits of Highly Effective People became a popular bestseller very quickly. His ideas forced a reexamination of the early leadership example,which centered on the feature that was found in the character ethic and the personality ethic.The former ethic suggested success was founded on modesty, loyalty, courage, patience, and so on. The personality ethic suggested it was one's attitude, not behavior, that inspired success, and this ethic was founded on a belief of positive mental attitude. In contrast to each of these ideas, Covey advocates that leaders need to understand universal principles of effectiveness, and he highlights how vital it is for leaders to first personally manage themselves if they are to enjoy any hope of outstanding success in their work environments; To achieve a desired _ for your business, it is essential that you have a personal vision of where you are headed and what you value. Business leadership means that managers need to"put first things first," which implies that before leading others, you need to be clear on your own values, abilities, and strengths and be seen as trustworthy. | high9801.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The business is not promising."
},
"options": [
"It still uses chopsticks.",
"It is well decorated.",
"The business hour is long.",
"The business is not promising."
],
"question": "What can we infer about the re... | When we walked into Papillon Bleu, a Chinese restaurant around the corner from Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal's Old Port, the sole waiter on duty looked surprised to see us. At 7:45 on a Saturday night, at the height of tourist season, just one young white family sat in the dining room. We walked past them to a table in the back, Chopin drifting quietly from the speakers into the certain shade of dim light that only Chinese restaurants seem to have. At our seats, bright yellow napkins, folded into fans, rested on a blue tablecloth next to cutlery . Sometime in the last 18 years of operation, Papillon Bleu stopped bothering with chopsticks.
"How did you find out about us?"our waiter politely asked. I told him that my family used to own a Chinese restaurant that served peanut butter dumplings and I wanted to taste them again. Papillon Bleu came up when I googled"Best Peanut Butter Dumplings in Montreal". He shook his head and told us that while it might have been the case a few years ago, they had switched peanut butter brands to cut costs.
But the significance for me wasn't which brand they used, it was that they served peanut butter dumplings. Commonly known as Hunan dumplings, this specialty exists neither in China, nor anywhere else in North America. Instead, Hunan dumplings are a unique Quebecois tradition, and a slowly dying one, found in the second-generation Chinese family restaurants.
Peanut butter dumplings taste exactly how they sound, but also unlike anything else. It is a kind of dumpling that coats your mouth with a distinct store-brand quality, a little too sweet, but buttery, and luxuriously warm, perfectly suited to resist the bone-chilling effects of the Montreal winter. | high19589.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the deeper one dives into the ocean, the more gas is dissolved in the water"
},
"options": [
"the less pressure it is, the less carbon dioxide gas is dissolved in the liquid",
"the deeper one dives into the ocean, the less gas is d... | Alan Izhar-Bodner, an Israeli inventor, has developed a swimming suit for divers to breathe underwater without carrying heavy oxygen tanks. His suit makes use of the air that is dissolved in water, just like fish do.
The system uses the Henry Law which states that the amount of gas that can be dissolved in a liquid is proportional to the pressure on the liquid. Raise the pressure ---more gas can be dissolved in the liquid. Decrease the pressure --- less gas dissolved in the liquid releases the gas. This is exactly what happens when you open a can of soda; carbon dioxide gas is dissolved in the liquid and is under pressure in the can. Open the can, releasing the pressure, and the gas fizzes out.
Bodner's System obviously uses a special machine to lower pressure in part of a small amount of seawater taken into the system; dissolved gas is taken out. The patent reads: A self-contained open-circuit breathing instrument for use within a body of water naturally containing dissolved air. The instrument is adapted to provide breathable air. The instrument contains an inlet for taking out a quantity of water from the body of water. It further contains a separator for separating the dissolved air from the quantity of water, thus gaining the breathable air. The instrument further contains an outlet for expelling the separated water back into the body of water, and another outlet for removing the breathable air and supplying it for breathing. The air is supplied so as to enable it to be expelled back into the body of water after it has been breathed .
Human beings have been thinking about how to breathe underwater since they started swimming. This long-held desire plays an important part in one of the first great science fiction novels, Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. | high2954.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "They can be listened to anywhere you like."
},
"options": [
"They can be found in most big bookstores.",
"They are much cheaper than printed books.",
"They can be listened to anywhere you like.",
"They can be borrowed f... | Reading books has long been a way to relax.However,in this modern age of computers,the Internet,DVD movies and MP3 players,the simple act of reading a book has taken a back seat.People want something more interactive than just pages to turn.We seem to be turning away from the joy of reading a good book,but there is an answer.
Audio books have been around for a long time.But most people think that audio books are just for people with eyesight problems.This is one of their uses,of course,but it is far from the full story.
Audio books are in the form of either cassette tapes or CDs.The beauty of them is that the whole story is read often by well-known actors and actresses.It is like having your own play.There are many kinds of audio books,so you are sure to find one that suits your tastes.The really good thing of listening to an audio book is that you can listen to it wherever you want to.
Audio books do not just tell stories--they also provide language lessons.Imagine learning to speak a number of key Japanese phrases while you do the ironing,or learning basic French while doing the housework.Audio books can be found in most big bookstores,as well as over the Internet.There are books for people of all ages,including kids.If you are a member of a local library,you will also find audio books to borrow,so you can try one and decide if you really want to buy one. | high18697.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "to cheer for their favorite teams"
},
"options": [
"to take part in competitions",
"to cheer for their favorite teams",
"to be quick and strong",
"to be good high jumpers"
],
"question": "Whatcheerleaders should... | Cheerleaders arc part of athletic competitions throughout the United States. As their name says they lead the crowd in cheering for the team it likes best.
About five years ago. cheerleaders were considered to be simply entertainers. Today there is much more Cheerleading in America which has become another form of athletic competition. Cheerleaders today are expected to be gymnasts and dancers. They 'are expected to be quick and strong. Many .
cheerleaders are better athletes than the boys and girls on sports teams. High school cheerleading especially has become more difficult. The students must be in top physical shape. They must be able to jump high, turn circles in the air and lift each other. Teachers say this is the result of the influence of college cheerleaders. High school students watch college football and basketball games on TV. They see how the cheerleaders throw each other into the air and perform difficult athletic movements. They want to do the same thing. There is one big difference between the two groups. however. College cheerleaders in America are young men and women. The men do most of the lifting. At most high schools only girls are cheerleaders. It's very difficult for them to hold others on their shoulders and throw them into the air. There are a number of ways high school cheerleaders are improving their skills. They are exercising and lifting weights to increase their strength. And they are attending camps during the summer holidays to learn new techniques. Cheerleaders test their skills by taking part in competitions against cheerleaders from other schools. just like other athletes. Coaches at some high schools say this new kind of athletic cheer leading has caused some problems .
They say girls who were soccer and basketball players are now competing for places on a cheer leading team. As more girls attempt to become cheerleaders, sports teams suffer from a lack of good players. | high20308.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "stay at home to raise her children"
},
"options": [
"start her own company",
"teach her children at home",
"stay at home to raise her children",
"help her husband with his business"
],
"question": "If some one i... | Cherie Blair has attacked "yummy mummies" who focus on raising their children at the expense of their careers, suggesting their children lack a sense of independence. The wife of the then British Prime Minister also accused some young women of seeking to "marry a rich husband and retire" instead of working.
Mrs Blair, a QC and mother of four, criticized women who "put all their effort into their children" instead of working. Mothers who go out to work are setting a better example for their children, she said.
Some women regard motherhood as an acceptable alternative to a career. Instead, women should strive for both. "Every woman needs to be self-sufficient and in that way you really don't have a choice-for your own satisfaction; you hear these yummy mummies talk about being the best possible mother and they put all their effort into their children. I also want to be the best possible mother, but I know that my job as a mother includes bringing my children up so actually they can live without me."
The term "yummy mummy" is generally used to refer to a woman whose husband's wealth allows her to devote herself full-time to her children and her appearance.
In fact, despite Mrs Blair's worries about non-working mothers, official statistics show that the proportion of mothers who work has actually risen steadily in recent years. According to the Office for National Statistics, 66 percent of mothers are now in some form of paid work. In 1996, the figure was 61 percent. The number of working mothers is now around 5.3 million, up from 4.5 million in 1996.
Speaking to Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women event in Claridge's, Mrs Blair appeared to accuse some young women of lacking professional ambition, focusing on their prospective partner's career instead of their own. Mrs Blair said her view was informed by her own experience of her father abandoning her mother when she was a child. But she insisted that all women should make sure they can provide for themselves: "Even good men could have an accident or die and you're left holding the baby."
Often in the headlines during her husband's premiership, Mrs Blair has taken a more active public role since he left office in 2007, setting up a charitable foundation to support women setting up their own firms in developing countries. | high16862.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "drinking alcohol and smoking"
},
"options": [
"drinking hot tea and smoking",
"drinking alcohol and smoking",
"working in the kitchen and smoking",
"taking sunbaths and drinking alcohol"
],
"question": "Accordin... | Residents of Golestan Province in northern Iran have one of the highest rates of esophageal cancer in the world. They don't drink alcohol or smoke--the two primary risk factors for the disease in the west--but they do consume tea, nearly 1.2 liters per day, on average. So local researchers set out looking for a connection.
They employed 300 esophageal cancer patients who were diagnosed in the eastern part of Golestan and matched them up with 571 healthy controls who shared their age, gender and place of residence. All but one of them drank tea, and they gave interviewers information about their tea consumption and brewing habits.
Teaming up with investigators from the U.S., England, France and Sweden, the researchers calculated that people who said they drank "hot" tea (149 to 156 degrees Fahrenheit) were more than twice as likely to develop esophageal cancer as people who said they drank the beverage "warm" or "lukewarm" (less than 140 degrees). Those who said they took their tea "very hot" (at least 158 degrees) were more than eight times as likely to get esophageal cancer, according to the study, published online Thursday in the British Medical Journal.
The scientists have now connected it with esophageal cancer. The problem doesn't appear to be the tea itself, but the temperature at which it is consumed, their study found.
The researchers also asked people how long they waited to drink their tea after pouring it. Those who said they waited two to three minutes were nearly 2.5 times more likely to develop the cancer compared with people who said they waited at least four minutes. Impatient tea drinkers who waited less than two minutes were 5.4 times as likely to be diagnosed with esophageal cancer, the study found.
The study didn't assess the mechanism linking hot tea to esophageal cancer, but the researchers said the temperature of the liquid was almost certainly to blame rather than the compounds in the tea itself. | high16876.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Interracial lodging may have diverse outcomes."
},
"options": [
"Conflicts between students of different races are unavoidable.",
"Students of different races are prejudiced against each other.",
"Interracial lodging does mor... | Several recent studies have found that being randomly assigned to a roommate of another race can lead to increased tolerance but also to a greater likelihood of conflict.
Recent reports found that lodging with a student of a different race may decrease prejudice and compel students to engage in more ethnically diverse friendships.
An Ohio State University study also found that black students living with a white roommate saw higher academic success throughout their college careers. Researchers believe this may be caused by social pressure.
In a New York Times article, Sam Boakye - the only black student on his freshman year floor -said that "if you're surrounded by whites, you have something to prove."
Researchers also observed problems resulting from pairing interracial students in residences.
According to two recent studies, randomly assigned roommates of different races are more likely to experience conflicts so strained that one roommate will move out.
An Indiana University study found that interracial roommates were three times as likely as two white roommates to no longer live together by the end of the semester.
Grace Kao, a professor at Penn said she was not surprised by the findings. "This may be the first time that some of these students have interacted, and lived, with someone of a different race," she said.
At Penn, students are not asked to indicate race when applying for housing.
"One of the great things about freshman housing is that, with some exceptions, the process throws you together randomly," said Undergraduate Assembly chairman Alec Webley. "This is the definition of integration."
"I've experienced roommate conflicts between interracial students that have both broken down stereotypes and reinforced stereotypes," said one Penn resident advisor (RA). The RA of two years added that while some conflicts "provided more multicultural acceptance and melding ," there were also "jarring cultural confrontations."
The RA said that these conflicts have also occurred among roommates of the same race.
Kao said she cautions against forming any generalizations based on any one of the studies, noting that more background characteristics of the students need to be studied and explained. | high1291.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "suffer problems from being left alone"
},
"options": [
"are growing in numbers",
"are also found in middle-class neighborhoods",
"watch too much television during the day",
"suffer problems from being left alone"
],... | For more than six million American children, coming home after school means coming home to an empty house. Some deal with the situation by watching TV. Some may hide. But all of them have something in common. They spend part of each day alone. They are called latchkey children. They're children who look after themselves while their parents work. And their bad condition has become a subject of concern.
Lynette Long was once the headmaster of an elementary school. She said, "We had a school rule against wearing jewelry. A lot of kids had chains around their necks with keys attached. I was constantly telling them to put them inside shirts. There were so many keys, it never came to my mind what they meant." Slowly, she learned they were house keys.
She and her husband began talking to the children who had them. They learned of the impact working couples and single parents were having on their children. Fear is the biggest problem faced by children at home alone. One in each three latchkey children the Longs talked to reported being scared. Many had nightmares and were worried about their own safety.
The most common way latchkey children deal with their fears is by hiding. It might be in a shower stall, under a bed in a closet. The second is TV. They'll often play it at high volume. It's hard to get statistics on latchkey children, the Longs learned. Most parents are slow to admit they leave their children alone. | high705.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "It was because of her strong determination and constant efforts that she got walking again."
},
"options": [
"The girl got over her disease just by imagining.",
"It was because of her strong determination and constant efforts that ... | Eleven-year-old Angela was stricken with a debilitating disease involving her nervous system.She was unable to walk and her movement was restricted in other ways as well.The doctors did not hold out much hope of her ever recovering from this illness.They predicted she'd spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.They said that few,if any,were able to come back to normal after contracting this disease.The little girl was _ .There,lying in her hospital bed,she would vow to anyone who'd listen that she was definitely going to be walking again someday.
She was transferred to a specialized hospital in the San Francisco Bay area.Whatever therapies could be applied to her case were used.The therapists were charmed by her undefeatable spirit.They taught her about imaging--about seeing herself walking.If it would do nothing else,it would at least give her hope and something positive to do in the long waking hours in her bed.Angela would work as hard as possible in physical therapy,in whirlpools and in exercise sessions.But she worked just as hard lying there faithfully doing her imaging;visualizing herself moving,moving,moving!
One day,as she was staining with all her might to imagine her legs moving again,it seemed as though a miracle happened:The bed moved!It began to move around the room!She screamed out,"Look what I'm doing!Look!Look!I can do it!I moved,I moved!"
Of course,at this very moment everyone else in the hospital was screaming,too,and running for cover.People were screaming,equipment was falling and glass was breaking.You see,it was the recent San Francisco earthquake.But don't tell that to Angela.She's convinced that she did it.And now only a few years later,she's back in school. _ | high7838.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "when she was just a little child"
},
"options": [
"when she was just a little child",
"when she was at school four years ago",
"after she was at school four years ago",
"when she began to study in a big hospital"
],... | My friend Alice decided to be a nurse when she was four years old. She always to play at "doctors and nurses" with her playmates. When she left school last year, she still wanted to be a real nurse.
Late September she started her studies in a big hospital in Newcastle. She had to work very hard. She went to classes every day and studied late at night. Then a really important day came: her first day in a ward . At last she was really helping sick people, not just sitting in classes or learning from books.
At first, student nurses do lots of odd jobs in the ward. They help to serve meals, or wash the patients. They also keep the ward tidy and make the beds. But they cannot give injections or help the doctors.
One of Alice's first jobs was in a ward of old people. She was told to clean all the patients' false teeth. She collected all the teeth and took them to the bathroom. Instead of cleaning each set of teeth one by one, she put them all into a big bowl.
"It'll be quicker this way," she said to herself. "Then I can give back everyone's teeth in a few minutes."
Give back everyone's teeth! Alice stood in the middle of the ward with her big bowl of teeth. She had no idea which teeth belonged to which old man! You can imagine the confusion of the next half-hour when each patient came to find his own teeth! | high23615.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "fast growing registered users"
},
"options": [
"the announcement",
"media conference",
"fast growing registered users",
"the benefits of Facebook"
],
"question": "What is Joanna Shields content with?",
"ques... | Facebook is now used by 30 million people in the UK,about half the population.
Joanna Shields,vice president of Facebook Europe,made the announcement this morning at a media conference in London.
She said: "We can announce today that we have reached 30 million in the UK,which we are really excited about."
Globally,Facebook has more than 500 million registered users,a milestone it hit last summer.Last July,it also revealed that it had 26 million registered UK users.In the last eight months,it has attracted four million extra UK users,bringing the UK total to 30 million,while in January 2009,Facebook had only 150 million registered users.
Last year,Zuckerberg,Facebook's founder,said it was "almost a guarantee" that the site would hit one billion users.He explained: "If we succeed in innovating,there is a good chance of bringing this to a billion people...it will be interesting to see how it comes true."
One third of women aged 18 to 34 check Facebook when they first wake up,before even going to the toilet,according to research.Twenty-one per cent of women aged between 18 to 34 check Facebook in the middle of the night,while 42 per cent of the same group think it is fine to post drunken photos of themselves onto the social network,a study by Oxygen Media found.
Shields was speaking this morning at the Financial Times Digital Media and Broadcasting Conference about the power Facebook's referrals can bring to media sites,such as newspapers and TV services.
She explained that the average Facebook user has 130 friends who they share links to media sites with on a regular basis."Media companies which take advantage of that are really seeing the benefits",Shields said.
Shields refused to say whether Facebook would develop its own mobile phone operating system and also said it was "silly" that Google had recently disabled the feature which allowed Google users to sync their contacts with Facebook friends. | high9815.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "have a good exercise for their brain"
},
"options": [
"have a good exercise for their brain",
"lose their short memory of its plots",
"are willing to pay a high price for tickets",
"react the same way as those watching ... | Paying a higher price than usual for a ticket to see a film in 3D is the annoyance of many a cinema-goer's life.
But there may be a benefit to doing so, as a study has found that 3D films exercise the brain and improve short-term functioning in a similar way to brain-training tests.
The research found that people who watched a movie in 3D improved cognitive skills, compared to those who watched it in 2D.
The research was led by neuroscientist Dr Patrick Fagan from Goldsmiths University in London. More than 100 people took part in the experiment, where participants watched Disney filmBig Hero 6in either standard format or RealD 3D.
They also carried out a brain-training-style test before and after seeing a section from the film. The test covered memory, reaction times and cognitive function and the results were compared later.
According to the research, which was carried out in partnership with science group Thrill Laboratory, participants experienced a 23 percent increase in cognitive processing, as well as an 11 percent increase in reaction times.
Dr Fagan said that the results showed enough of an improvement in brain function to suggest that 3D could play a part in improving brain power in the future.
"These findings are more significant than you might think," he said. "It is a fact that people are living longer and there is a noticeable decline in cognitive brain function in old age which can worsen future quality of life. There has never been a better time to look at ways to improve brain function. The initial results of this study show that 3D films may potentially play a role in slowing this decline."
A second part of the experiment involved those watching the film being fitted with headsets that scanned brain activity and this too showed heightened activity when watching 3D. According to the results, participants were seven percent more engaged with what they were watching, adding to argument that 3D movies are more like watching real-life--something Professor Brendan Walker from Thrill Laboratory agreed with.
"As Professor Brendan Walker's test concluded, 3D films are more attractive and heighten the senses -- this, in turn, makes the brain run at quicker speeds," Dr Fagan said. | high14907.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "offers specific examples of the ways people deal with disappointment"
},
"options": [
"analyzes the cause of disappointment",
"describes his personal experience in dealing with disappointment",
"criticizes Helen and Kevin's n... | No one gets through life without experiencing many disappointments. Strangely, though, most people seem unprepared for disappointment and react to it in negative ways. They feel depressed or try to escape from their troubles instead of using disappointment as an opportunity for growth.
One negative reaction to disappointment is depression. A woman trying to win a promotion, for example, works hard for over a year in her department. Helen is so sure she will get the promotion. However, the boss names one of Helen's co-workers for the spot. Deeply depressed, Helen loses her enthusiasm for her job and can barely force herself to show up every day. Helen tells herself that she is a failure and that doing a good job just isn't worth the work.
Another negative reaction to disappointment is the desire to escape. Kevin fails to get into the college his brother is attending, the college that was the focus of all his dreams, and decides to escape his disappointment. Why worry about college at all? Instead, he covers up his real feelings by giving up on his school-work and getting completely involved with friends, parties, and "good times".
The positive way to react to disappointment is to use it as a chance for growth. This isn't easy, but it's the only useful way to deal with an inevitable part of life. Helen, the woman who was not promoted, could have handled her disappointment by looking at other options. If her boss did not recognize her talent and hard work, perhaps she could transfer to another department. Or she could ask the boss how to improve her performance so that she could prepare for the next promotion. Kevin, the boy who didn't get into the college of his choice, should look into other schools. Going to another college may encourage him to be his own person, step out of his brother's shadow, and realize that being turned down by one college isn't a final judgment on his abilities or potential.
Disappointments are unwelcome, but regular visitors to everyone's life. We can feel depressed about them or we can try to escape from them. The best thing, though, is to accept a disappointment and then try to use it somehow: Step over the unwelcome visitor on the doorstep and get on with life. | high7186.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "He told her to write down all that her\" enemy\" had said about her and payattention only to the things that were true."
},
"options": [
"He told her not to pay any attention to what her\" enemy\" had said.",
"He criticized her a... | When I was 11, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings . Week by week her list grew: I was very thin, I wasn't a good student, I talked too much, I was too proud, and so on. I tried to hear all this as long as I could. In the end, I became so angry that I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.
He listened to me quietly, then he asked. "Are the things she says true or not? Janet, didn't you ever wonder what you're really like? Well, you now have that girl's opinion. Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are true. Pay no attention to the other things she said." I did as he told me. To my great surprise, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn't change (like being very thin), but a good number I could--and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I go to fairly clear picture of myself.
I brought the list back to Dad. He refused to take it." That's just for you," he said.
"You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to listen, not just close your ears in anger and feeling hurt. When something said about you is true, you'll find it will be of help to you. Our world is full of people who think they know your duty. Don't shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you know is the right thing to do."
Daddy's advice has returned to me at many important moments. In my life, I'veneverhadabetterpieceofadvice. | high23173.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Emotions Affect Our Bodies"
},
"options": [
"Emotions Affect Our Bodies",
"What Happens to A Frightened Cat",
"What Happens to An Excited Person",
"Feelings That People Have"
],
"question": "The best title for t... | Sometimes people call each other "freaked-cat", but have you ever thought about this expression? When a cat is frightened, its heart starts beating faster, its muscles get tense, and there are changes in the chemicals in its bloodstream.Although the cat doesn't realize this, its body is getting ready for action.If the danger continues, the animal will do one of two things.It will defend itself, or it will run away as fast as it can.
Something like this also happens to people.When we are excited, angry, scared, or aroused by other emotions (feelings), our bodies go through many physical changes.Our hearts beat faster, and our muscles get tense.All of these changes make us more alert and ready to react.We, too.get ready to defend ourselves or run.
Human beings, however, have a problem that animals never face.If we give way to our feelings and let them take over, we can get into trouble.Have you ever said something in anger --or hit somebody--and regretted it later? Have you ever shouted at a teacher, told somebody you were lonely, or said you were in love, and then wished later you had kept your mouth shut?
It isn't always clever to express your feelings freely.
Does this mean that it's smarter always to hide our feelings? No! If you keep feelings of anger, sadness, and bitterness hidden away or bottled up inside, your body stays tense.Physical illness can develop.It can actually be bad for your health.(It isn't good to keep pleasant feelings inside either; all feelings need to be expressed.)
Feelings that you keep all bottled up inside don't just go away.It's as if you bought some bananas and stuck them in a cupboard.You might not be able to see them.but before long you' d smell them.And if you opened the cupboard, chances are that you'd see little fruit flies flying all over them.They'd be rotten.
You can try to treat emotions as if they were bananas in the cupboard.You can hide them and you can pretend they don't exist, but they'll still be around.And at last you'll have to deal with them.just like those bananas. | high5949.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "high school students"
},
"options": [
"parents",
"high school students",
"university students",
"teachers"
],
"question": "The potential readers of the text are _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
... | Thinking about taking a year out before going to university?Check out your gap year choices here and decide if it's the right decision for you...
What is it?
It's a year out between finishing senior high school and starting university in which you can travel, work and generally do mind-broadening stuff you will never forget.
I don't want to travel, but I don't know what I want to do at university.
You will have a good three months between finishing your A Levels and university Clearing (when last-minute vacancies on courses for the coming academic year are advertised): surely enough time to decide what to do. You don't need to take a year for that.
I need to take some money before starting university.
Fair enough. But don't get comfortable and decide not to get a full-time job. Spending a year on income support will be depressing; you'll have nothing to say when future employers ask what you did in your gap year, and you'll have to put up with smug post-gap year students comparing notes when you start university.
I'd love to travel, but I can't afford it.
Most gap year students work for the first six months and then travel, using the money they've earned in the second six months.
I'm scared.
Try not to let fear of the unknown put you off seeing the world. Earth is a big planet, but when you travel it seems much smaller (even the remotest countries have email access). | high12386.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "others' trust"
},
"options": [
"his neighbor's donation",
"his community",
"having got the job",
"others' trust"
],
"question": "The writer was grateful mainly for _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"... | The choice to adopt and hold gratefulness is the one that is different from those who suffer misfortune and those who enjoy a full life.
My mother died when I was 24. It was a very difficult time in my life -- everything seemed to fall apart. I lost my job, and then my _ were turned off. I had to take cold showers for six months. A neighbor who knew about my situation came to my house and made me an offer. I took care of her children as a job, and I no longer went hungry. I was surprised that someone would trust me -- a young woman -- with her children. And it was with the very confidence that before long I began taking care of other people's children, too. I have since moved 300 miles fromprefix = st1 /Boise,Idaho. For more than 23 years I have made every effort to reach out to all the kind-hearted people who helped me when I was down and out. Without their trust, I don't know what I would have done. I am very involved in my community and volunteer at the local food bank, and I help out whenever I can. I'd like to owe what I am to whoever has offered me generosity.
If you are grateful for what you already have, the world will work together to give you more to be grateful for. Otherwise, the world will give you more to complain about.
Moreover, the true master learns to be grateful, in advance, for the things that are desired, because, being grateful in advance for some attainment or accomplishment does two very important things: one...it tricks your subconscious into believing that the goal is certain and two...it convinces other people, with whom you must interact to achieve your desires, that you know what you are about, that you are a winner, not a whiner . | high22245.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "we have to read faster to get more information"
},
"options": [
"we rely on e-mails and tweets too much.",
"we are busier than before",
"we have to read faster to get more information",
"we do not enjoy reading any more... | Speed-reading is an indispensable skill in the Internet age. We skim over articles, e-mails and tweets to try to grasp key words and the essential meaning of a certain text. Bombarded with information from our electronic devices, it would be impossible to cope if we read word by word, line by line.
But a new trend calls on people to unplug and enjoy reading slowly, listing benefits beyond intellectual stimulation.
A recent story from The Wall Street Journal reported on a book club in Wellington, New Zealand, where members meet in a cafe and turn off their smart phones. They sink into cozy chairs and read in silence for an hour.
Unlike traditional book clubs, the point of the Slow Reading Club isn't exchanging ideas about a certain book, but to get away from electronic devices and read in a quiet, relaxed environment. According to the Journal, the Wellington book club is just one example of a movement initiated by book lovers who miss the old-fashioned way of reading before the Internet and smart phones.
Slow readers, such as The Atlantic's Maura Kelly, say a regular reading habit sharpens the mind, improves concentration, reduces stress levels and deepens the ability to empathize.
Some of these benefits have been backed up by science. For example, a study of 300 elderly people published by the journal Neurology last year showed that regular engagement in intellectually strenuous activities like reading slowed the rate of memory loss later in life.
Slow reading means a return to an uninterrupted pattern in a quiet environment free of distractions. "Aim for 30 minutes a day," advises Kelly from The Atlantic. "You can squeeze in that half hour pretty easily if only during your free moments - whenever you find yourself automatically firing up your laptop to check your favorite site, or scanning Twitter for something to pass the time - you pick up a meaningful work of literature," Kelly said. "Reach for your e-reader, if you like. Kindles make books like War and Peace less heavy, not less substantive , and also ensure you'll never lose your place." | high9183.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Confused."
},
"options": [
"Confused.",
"Angry.",
"Satisfied.",
"Proud."
],
"question": "How did Annie feel about her parents' relationship at the beginning of the article?",
"question_type": "factiod_questi... | Annie sometimes felt puzzled by the relationship between her parents.
They never seemed to show much love for each other. Annie believed that people who were in love would show it. They would hold hands, speak sweet words to each other and give each other nice gifts. Annie's parents did none of these things. So, she doubted whether they really loved each other.
It was Annie's plan to ask her parents about their feelings for each other. But it was hard to find the right moment. One Saturday afternoon, she noticed that her dad was in the garage, doing some work on the engine of his sports car.
Annie's dad was always in a good mood when he was near his sports car, so she decided to ask him the question that had been bothering her." Dad, do you and Mom really love each other?"
"Of course," her father replied. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, you never seem to show it."
Annie's father was silent for a while, he spoke again. "Look at the engine of this car," he said. "It is oily and messy, and the car looks much better when the hood is down. Don't you agree?" Without waiting for a reply, he went on. "If I took out the engine and put the hood back down, the car would look just as beautiful, right? But it wouldn't be a car anymore. The engine is its beating heart. You don't usually see it, but it has to be there. It's the same with your Mom and me. Our love for each other is the beating heart of this family. Don't worry just because it isn't on show all the time. "
About six months later, Annie's father lost his job. The family had to cut back on many things to make ends meet. And he had to sell his beloved sports car. But Annie noticed another change. Because he had more free time, her father spent more of it with her mother. They seemed to grow closer together, and showed their love more often. Their love, which Annie had been afraid did not exist, was plain to see. Annie was sad that the sports car had gone, but at least she understood what her father had told her that day. | high13098.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "how he can meet their needs"
},
"options": [
"how he can meet their needs",
"why they have such demands",
"what problems the hotels has",
"who is the best person to go to"
],
"question": "When guests ask for som... | You get all sorts of demands, and the mark of a good hotel is to supply whatever is asked for without sounding surprised. If a guest asks for rubbers gloves, you don't ask why. You say, "No problem. What color1 do you want?"
There have been some demands which, much as I would have liked to fill, I couldn't. A Japanese businessman, for example, thought the manager of a hotel was like his girlfriend so he asked me to marry him to the woman he loved. There was one time, however, _ . A young man thought that if he asked his girlfriend to marry him at the Ritz she would say yes. He asked us to put the ring in a cake, and she accepted.
Top hotels are used more and more to impress. They are used for doing business. If you've got something to sell, take your clients to the best hotel where the surroundings are quite helpful. A friend of mine working at Savoy Hotel tells the story about a man who gave him 5 pounds to say "Good morning, Mr. Smith saying, "I do wish they would leave me alone at this place."
According to Julian Payne, the most powerful people in any hotel are the porters, who carry bags for hotel guests. "Porters can do almost anything. They can get you tables at the best restaurants or tickets for a popular concert. Don't ask me how they do it or what their deal is because I don't know. Most of them have been there for years. They know more about the history of the hotel and the guests than anyone else. They are invaluable. A head porter will come in even on his day off so he can say hello to someone he remembers visiting the hotel years ago." | high21994.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "To see whether one's feeling can be unconsciously affected."
},
"options": [
"To see whether one's feeling can be unconsciously affected.",
"To see whether one's facial expressions can be altered.",
"To see whether laughter c... | "Does my smile look big in this?" Future fitting-room mirrors in clothing stores could subtly adjust your reflection to make you look - and hence feel - happier, encouraging you to like what you see.
That's the idea behind the Emotion Evoking System developed by Shigeo Yoshida and colleagues at the University of Tokyo in Japan. The system can manipulate, or in other word, control your emotions and personal preferences by presenting you with an image of your own smiling or frowning face.
The principle that physiological changes can drive emotional ones - that laughter comes before happiness, rather than the other way around - is a well-established idea.
The researchers wanted to see if this idea could be used to build a computer system that manipulates how you feel. The system works by presenting the user with a web-camera image of his or her face - as if they were looking in a mirror. The image is then subtly altered with software, turning the corners of the mouth up or down and changing the area around the eyes, so that the person appears to smile or frown .
Without telling them the aim of the study, the team recruited 21 volunteers and asked them to sit in front of the screen while performing an unrelated task. When the task was complete the participants rated how they felt. When the faces on screen appeared to smile, people reported that they felt happier. On the other hand, when the image was given a sad expression, they reported feeling less happy.
Yoshida and his colleagues tested whether manipulating the volunteers' emotional state would influence their preferences. Each person was given a scarf to wear and again presented with the altered webcam image. The volunteers that saw themselves smiling while wearing the scarf were more likely to report that they liked it, and those that saw themselves not smiling were less likely.
The system could be used to manipulate consumers' impressions of products, say the researchers. For example, mirrors in clothing-store fitting rooms could be replaced with screens showing altered reflections. They also suggest people may be more likely to find clothes attractive if they see themselves looking happy while trying them on.
"It's certainly an interesting area," says Chris Creed at the University of Birmingham, UK. But he notes that using such technology in a shop would be harder than in the lab, because people will use a wide range of expressions. "Attempting to make slight differences to these and ensuring that the reflected image looks believable would be much more challenging," he says.
Of course, there are also important moral questions surrounding such subtly manipulative technology. "You could argue that if it makes people happy what harm is it doing?" says Creed. "But I can imagine that many people may feel manipulated, uncomfortable and cheated if they found out." | high10591.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "to save water and electricity"
},
"options": [
"to stop the drought in 1967",
"to support government officials",
"to pass a special law in the state",
"to save water and electricity"
],
"question": "Daylight Sav... | Today about 70 countries use Daylight Saving Time (DST). Daylight Saving was first introduced during World War I in Australia. During the world wars, DST was used for the late summers beginning January 1917 and 1942, and the full summers beginning September 1942 and 1943.
In 1967, Tasmania experienced a drought . The State Government introduced one hour of daylight saving that summer as a way of saving power and water. Tasmanians liked the idea of daylight saving and the Tasmanian Government has declared daylight saving each summer since 1968. Persuaded by the Tasmanian Government, all states except two passed a law in 1971, for a test use of daylight saving. In 1972, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria joined Tasmania for regular daylight saving, but Queensland did not do so until 1989.
Tasmania, Queensland and South Australia have had irregular plans, often changing their dates due to politics or festivals . For example, in 1992, Tasmania extended daylight saving by an extra month while South Australia began extending daylight saving by two weeks for the Adelaide Festival. Special daylight saving plans were made during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
The differences in daylight saving in Australia continue to cause serious problems in transport and many other social activities. It also reduces the number of hours in the working day that are common to all centers in the country. In particular, time differences along the east coast cause major differences, especially for the broadcasters of national radio and television. | high20452.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "No one in the writer's family is good at telling jokes."
},
"options": [
"No one in the writer's family is good at telling jokes.",
"Mark is the best at telling jokes in his family.",
"Mitch is very sensitive to all kinds of ... | A classic joke goes like this: A nurse rushes into an exam room and says, "Doctor, doctor, there's an invisible man in the waiting room." The doctor says, "Tell him I can't see him."
Pretty simple, right?
Here's how I tell it: "A nurse--her name is Joyce--feels a presence in the waiting room. She looks around but sees nothing. She jumps up from her desk, carefully replaces her chair, and runs down the lavender-hued hallway to the doctor's office. She knocks on the door. No response. He's not there. Where can he be? She continues down the hall, admiring a lithograph of an 18th-century Mississippi paddleboat along the way." By this time, my audience has left, but I soldier on. "She bursts into the exam room and says, 'Doctor, doctor!' The doctor, I should mention, is a urologist with a degree from Ohio State, which is where my nephew ..."
You get the idea. I'm an embellisher. I can't leave a simple gag alone.
I'm not the only joke-challenged member of the family. My sister's worse than I am. Her problem: She can't remember them. "'A nurse rushes into an exam room and says...'Uh, let me start all over again. 'A nurse rushes into a waiting...'No, it's not the waiting room. She just came from the waiting room. Let me start all over again. 'A doctor rushes into...' No, wait..."
My uncle's different. He's guilty of taking a perfectly fine joke and selling it as the second coming of Oscar Wilde, "Okay, this is a good one. Ready? No, really, ready? Okay, fasten your seat belts. Ready?'A nurse...'Got it? A nurse? Okay, ready?'A nurse rushes into an exam room and says, "Doctor, doctor, there's an invisible man in the waiting room."' Now, this is where it gets funny. Ready?"
No one is ever ready, so they leave before he gets to the punch line.
My father's on Wall Street, so he hears all the jokes before they hit the Web. And he lets you know he knows them all by telling you all of them. He also knows that most people don't like jokes. So he slips them in under the radar: "I was chatting with Ben Bernanke the other day. You know Ben, don't you? The Fed chief? Anyway, we were reviewing the Fed's policy on long-term interest rates, and he told me it had evolved into its current iteration only after a nurse rushed into an exam room and said, 'Doctor, doctor, there's...' Hey, where are you going?"
My brother Mark understands that the secret to good joke telling is to know your audience. When he entertained my grandmother's bridge club one evening, he made it a point to adapt the joke to them: "A beautiful blonde nurse rushes into a consulting room..."
No one in my family has ever finished this joke.
But as bad as it is not to be able to tell a joke, there's something worse: not being able to listen to one. Take my cousin Mitch for example.
"Why couldn't the doctor see him?" he asked.
"Because he's invisible," I said.
"Now, I didn't get that. I thought the doctor couldn't see him because he was with a patient."
"Well, yeah, okay, but the fact that the guy was invisible..."
"Could the nurse see him?"
"No. She's the one who said he was invisible..."
"How'd she know he was there?"
"Because he..."
"When you say he was invisible, does that mean his clothes were invisible too?" Here's where I tried to walk away.
"Because if his clothes weren't invisible," Mitch said, stepping between me and the exit, "then the doctor could see him, right?"
"Yeah, but ..."
"At least his clothes."
"I guess..."
"Unless he was naked."
"Okay, he was naked!"
"Why would he go to his doctor naked?"
Next time you see my family and someone is telling a joke, do yourself a favor: Make yourself invisible. | high11857.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Finland"
},
"options": [
"the UK",
"Finland",
"the USA",
"Korea"
],
"question": "The students spend the least time in school in _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"ans... | Whenever anyone measures educational success, East Asian countries are always top scorers. But in a recent league table, a European country, Finland, was top of the class. South Korea was still in second place, though. Britain was at number 6.
In Korea the school day is long--typically 7 or 8 hours, followed by hours of private tutoring in the evenings. _ leaves Korean students so tired, they sometimes fall asleep in class next day. Worries about the effects of late night cramming led the government to force cramming schools to close by 10 p.m. Finnish children spend the least time in class in the developed world, often finishing just after lunch, with about one hour of homework a day. Private tuition is uncommon. The British and American school day is quite long in comparison, around 6 hours, and secondary school pupils do 2 or 3 hours of selfstudy a night.
The Korean education system, like many in Asia, is intensely competitive, with students even competing to get into the best cramming schools, to help them get ahead. Finnish education is far less cutthroat. Classes are all mixed ability, and there are no league tables. British schools again occupy the middle ground, with quite high levels of competition for places at university, and schools and universities battling to come top of league tables for everything from exam results to student satisfaction. Korea and Finland both do well, yet their education systems are so different.
However, there are some similarities between Korea and Finland. In those countries, teachers have high status in society, and education is very highly valued. Those attitudes can't change quickly. But it can be done. They might be the star pupils now, but until the 1970s, Finland's education system was poor. Their thoroughly different approach to schooling has taken them to the top in just a generation. | high5961.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Nearly sixty percent of the population."
},
"options": [
"Less than a quarter of the population.",
"About forty percent of the population.",
"Only half of the population.",
"Nearly sixty percent of the population."
... | Singapore is a country with 42% of its population foreign born. Singaporeans, even those of the same ethnic group , have many different first languages and cultures. For example, within the Singaporean Chinese group, nearly a third speak English as their home language while almost half speak Standard Chinese as their home language and the rest speak various Chinese dialects as their home language. Due to these reasons, the English fluency level of people in Singapore varies vastly from person to person.
Most reasonably educated Singaporeans do speak Singapore Standard English, alternatively known as Educated Singapore English, which, grammatically, is not different from standard British English, with changes being limited to accent and a few borrowed words, causing few challenges to any native Britons.
Singapore English derives its roots from the 146 years of British colonial rule over Singapore until its independence in 1965. Before 1965, the standard form of English in Singapore had always been British English. After Singapore declared independence, English in Singapore began to take a life of its own, leading to the development of modern Singapore English.
English had been the official language of the colonial government, and when Singapore gained self-government in 1959, the local government decided to keep English as the main language in order to help develop economy. The use of English as the nation's first language serves to bridge the gap between different ethnic groups in Singapore. English is the global language for commerce, technology and science, and improvement of English also helps to expedite Singapore's development and it becomes important part of the global economy.
There is an increasing trend of Singaporeans speaking English at home. For children who started primary school in 2009, 60% of Chinese along with 60% Indian pupils and 35% of Malay pupils mainly speak English at home. Because many Singaporeans grew up with English as their first language in school, some Singaporean Chinese may not be able to speak Standard Chinese. | high18873.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "keep walking in the snow"
},
"options": [
"go home alone first",
"keep walking in the snow",
"draw pictures in the snow",
"light a fire on the ice"
],
"question": "When the author's feet felt cold, her father ad... | When I was a kid, I always used to wonder how in the world my father work outside in the winter without a coat. It could be minus 20 degrees centigrade and there'd be Dad, removing snow, or perhaps chopping some wood --- his coat thrown aside--- wearing a shirt , a cap, and a pair of gloves.
"Aren't you cold, Dad?" I'd ask. "No," Dad would reply. "I'm not cold--- working too hard to be cold."
Many times I wondered whether my father was an extremely tough man, or whether he was foolish.
One time when I was quite young, perhaps five or so, I went ice fishing with Dad. It was a bright, clear day--and bitterly cold.
After we'd been out on the ice for a little while, my feet started getting cold.
"Daddy, my feet are cold." I said.
"Yeah, it's cold out here today," he replied.
"Tell you what," he said. "Walk around. Make some circles in the snow. See how many different patterns you can make. That will get your feet warm."
Now, I was just a little girl at the time but I remember thinking, "How in the world will walking around in the snow make my feet warm? Dad must be out of mind.
But he was my father, after all. I made circles in the snow. I made squares. Pretty soon I was having so much fun making patterns in the snow. I forgot about my feet being cold.
Now, all these years later, I know, too, from personal experience how my father was able to take his coat off and work outside in the winter wearing just a shirt, a cap and gloves. Because I do it, too. "Aren't you cold?" my husband asked one winter day. "No," I replied. "I'm not cold--working too hard to be cold."
I hope my husband has decided I'm both tough and smart. But I guess quite a bit of the time he thinks I'm foolish.
Wherever Dad is in that great big farm in the sky--I'm sure he can't help but smile whenever I take my coat off while I'm working outside in the winter. | high2968.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "A teenager."
},
"options": [
"A liar.",
"A teenager.",
"A stranger.",
"An honest person."
],
"question": "Who is most likely to be a victim online?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer... | Targeting teens
Using the Web makes teens a target. Posting too much personal information for those millions of cyber eyes to see can cause some big problems and can even invite a threat to your life.
As Mary learned, not everyone on the Internet is who he or she says they are. Adults will sometimes pose as other teens, posting fake photos and nice messages to gain trust. They use their fake identity to access the personal information of others, such as home address, phone number, or school name.
"That's not the most common scenario ", says David Finkelhor, a sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire. "Only 3 percent of teens aged 10 to 18 who use the Internet report being asked to meet offline. But the danger is real.
Safety measures
Mary's My Space profile is set to "private", which means that only the people she adds under the "friend" category can access her page. She also doesn't have any pictures of herself on her site. The only self-identifying material she has posted is her name, grade, and a list of hobbies.
"People can only add me if they know my last name or my e-mail, "Mary says. " I don't want random people to see my profile. I just go online to talk to my friends."
Stay safe and have fun online
Experts say almost 90 percent of U.S. teens are online. But not everyone knows how to surf the Web in a smart way. With these tips, you can have fun, stay safe, and avoid embarrassment!
Pick a safe password. Make sure your password is something that other people won't be able to guess. Use numbers in between letters. "spar123ky" is better than "sparky 123."
Pick a safe username. Make sure yours doesn't say too much about you, "Happygirl13" is better than "AliceWaters13." Don't include your name, age, or where you are from. Never tell a stranger your name, school, address, age, birthday, phone number, or friends' names. | high20334.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "The documentary usually lasts fifty minutes."
},
"options": [
"The documentary has many different characteristics.",
"The documentary is not only about food making.",
"The documentary also involves social problems.",
"T... | Recently, the documentary "A Bite of China", which takes the fine foods as the theme, has beaten many TV series, becoming extremely popular on the microblog and turning into the hottest topic. Chinese people are proud of the great food culture of China and some even praise the documentary by saying that "it is a best video that arouses our great love of our country".
Produced by Chen Xiaoqing, an award-winning documentary maker, "A Bite of China" is filled with mouthwatering images of food ranging from royal cooking to local specialties. It focuses on the beautiful and simplified process of food making and attracts food lovers and ordinary audiences.
"Television is filled with food these days, especially introductions by some professional cooks, even famous TV hosts. We also have some scenes of food-making, but how to create dishes is only one aspect of food culture," Chen says.
"The program tries to bring something new by presenting more cultural elements related to dishes, such as eating habits and eating principles," be adds.
Each series lasts 50 minutes. Every series will focus on different people, who will tell stories about their adventures with food. "A Bite of China" also focuses on social changes while presenting food cultures, such as the dispersion of families that leave the elderly in their hometowns while other members work outside. In such cases food serves as reminders of happy times and expectations of reunions. | high17598.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Russia will co - operate closely with China"
},
"options": [
"Russia will co - operate closely with China",
"There are many differences between Russia and China",
"Put in knew little of the new generation of Chinese leaders",... | The leaders of Russia and China vowed to support each other's fight against Muslim separatists and urged peaceful solutions in Iraq, during a meeting in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on December 2, 2002.
Russian President Vladimir Put in and China's Jiang Zemin signed a joint declaration calling for a "multipolar world".
His two - day visit comes shortly after the conclusion of the 16th Patry Cogress which elected the new CPC leadership. Put in said that Russia wants to "work hard" with the new generation of Chinese leaders.
The Treaty of Good =" Neighbourliness" and Friendly Cooperation, signed in July last year, has provided a solid legal foundation for lasting friendship for generations to come, according to Jiang, "China and Russia will be good neighbours, friends and partners forever."
The Russian Government, in return, said it would continue to give priority to relations with China in its foreign policies.
Put in spoke on the morning of Dec. 3rd at Peking University and took questions from students on his understanding of Chinese literature, Russian reform and NATO enlargement.
He said a growing number of young people in Russia are interested in Chinese literature and one of his daughters is learning Chinese. | high7810.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "by myself"
},
"options": [
"with my grandma",
"with my Daddy",
"by myself",
"with my friend"
],
"question": "I went out for a walk _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"a... | One day Daddy and I went out for a walk. On the way we saw a lot of people. We went up and had a look. Oh dear What did we see There was a donkey in the middle of the road. It would not move. The cars and buses could not get past. Then a policeman came. "Whose donkey is this" he asked. "Its mine" said a farmer "but I cant move it." The policeman and the farmer did their best to move the donkey but it would not move. We laughed but the drivers of cars and buses were worried. "We cant move the donkey" the farmer and the policeman said."What shall we do?""Give him a carrot" my father said. "That's a good idea" said the farmer. Soon he found a carrot and showed it to the donkey. When the donkey saw the carrot it jumped up and walked after the farmer. All the cars and buses could get past at last | high24152.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "In 2002"
},
"options": [
"In 2001",
"In 2002",
"In 2003",
"In 2005"
],
"question": "A collection of his prose \" On the Edge of Love and Hurt\" was published _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
... | Guo Jingming is a best-selling author in China. He was born in Zigong, Sichuan Province on June 6, 1983. He is well-known for his essays and fictions, such as On the Edge of Love and Hurt, City of Fantasy, and Tiny Times. His essays and fictions are especially popular with teenagers.
He is also a director and once directed his movie Tiny Times successfully. In June 2013, Guo was awarded the Best New Director at the Shanghai International Film Festival for his first movie Tiny Times. The movie has sold 6.7 million copies.
In 2001, Guo Jingming started to gain _ after winning the New Concept Writing Competition's top award. Lots of young people got to know Guo Jingming little by little.
A year later, Guo entered the writing competition again and won the top prize for the second time. At the same time, a collection of his prose On the Edge of Love and Hurt was published.
In 2003, his first novel City of Fantasy came out. It was the novel that made Guo Jingming famous all over the country.
In 2008, Guo was elected to the Chinese Writers' Association. He became the youngest member of the association. Guo's Tiny Times series was published between 2008 and 2012. | high14091.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "The U.S.Department of Education."
},
"options": [
"The leaders of all the schools.",
"All the state government officials.",
"The U.S.Department of Education.",
"The U.S.Domestic Policy Council."
],
"question": "... | School leaders from around the country gathered at the White House on November 19 for"Connected to the Future," a conference about digital technology in education.Connected is the Obama Government's five-year plan to support the growth of digital learning in schools.This growth includes equipping America's schools with high-speed broadband Internet .
At the conference,President Barack Obama said the U.S.Department of Education is taking steps to help educators and school districts as they change to digital learning.The department created new guidelines to help schools work to improve their technological infrastructure .The guidelines are also designed to help schools choose the right digital devices and set up policies for their proper use.
"We have to do more to offer our children a world-class education,"Obama told the crowd of school leaders."We have to improve our education level if we are going to make sure that every child in America can go as far as their dreams and talents will take them."
According to Cecilia Muoz,director of the Domestic Policy Council,less than 40% of public schools in America have high-speed Internet access in their classrooms.She believes that Connected will make America a leader in using technology to educate students.
Muoz mentioned the Mooresville school district as a success story.Mooresville provides each student in grades 3 through 12 with a device,and uses a mostly digital subject.Muoz said Mooresville now ranks third in test scores and second in graduation rates in the state.
At the end of the president's speech,1,200 school leaders attending the event signed the Future Ready District Pledge on their iPads.It promises the education leaders to help develop a culture of learning through technology at their schools,and to support teachers and students in using technology.
"Every child deserves a chance at a world-class education,"Obama added."That's what makes our nation great." | high13926.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "have a good driving record"
},
"options": [
"learn how to drive",
"have a good driving record",
"get a driver's license",
"learn some special driving skills"
],
"question": "According to this passage, people cho... | If you have been pulled over by the police, then you would have got a traffic ticket because of breaking some law. In some states, you can reduce the mistakes on your driving record by choosing to attend a traffic school. Here is what to expect if you make up your mind to start taking the traffic school classes.
People who break certain rules when driving such as speeding, running red lights, or causing an accident will receive a ticket. The ticket comes with many consequences to force you to _ the law. The consequences include a certain increase to the money you pay to the insurance company. For example, a traffic ticket will increase your charge by about 15%.
Many states have a regulation that attending a traffic school can eliminate a bad record from your driving records. Different states have different methods. Many have a wide variety of ways that allow you to attend the classes in the most convenient way. You do not have to attend classes physically, as you can take courses online or watch a DVD.
Many schools will give the basic level, middle level and advanced level courses for a driver. Others are about alcohol and traffic awareness. The courses lasts 4- 12 hours. The subjects being covered will determine the length of the course.
The main aim of the traffic classes is not about punishing you for the mistakes you have made in driving. The person undergoing the classes learns to care about road safety. It is more than just his own safety to consider. | high22523.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "are ready to change when situations change"
},
"options": [
"are ready to change when situations change",
"are better able to deal with difficulties",
"are equally good at computer skills",
"are likely to give others pr... | If you are a recent social science graduate who has had to listen to jokes about unemployment from your computer major classmates, you may have had the last laugh. There are many advantages for the social science major because this high-tech "Information Age" demands people who are flexible and who have good communication skills.
There are many social science majors in large companies who fill important positions. For example, a number of research studies found that social science majors had achieved greater managerial success than those who had technical training or pre-professional courses. Studies show that social science majors are most suited for change, which is the leading feature of the kind of high-speed, high-pressure, high-tech world we now live in.
Social science majors are not only experiencing success in their long-term company jobs, but they are also finding jobs more easily. A study showed that many companies had filled a large percentage of their entry-level positions with social science graduates. The study also showed that the most sought-after quality in a person who was looking for a job was communication skills, noted as "very important", by 92 percent of the companies. Social science majors have these skills, often without knowing how important they are. It is probably due to these skills that they have been offered a wide variety of positions.
Finally, although some social science majors may still find it more difficult than their technically trained classmates to land the first job, recent graduates report that they don't regret their choice of study. | high7804.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "throw light on the charm of the movie \"\nGone with the Wind\""
},
"options": [
"celebrate the anniversary of Margaret Mitchell",
"introduce how the film was directed and filmed",
"throw light on the charm of the movie \"\nGo... | "Tomorrow is another day"---- this line has impressed various people at various times. It's now 70 years after _ appeared in the film, but it still seems to hold its power especially during an economic downturn.
The phrase comes from a film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's successful 1936 novelGone With the Wind. It's set in the American South and tells the story of a strong heroine, Scarlett O' Hara, who struggles to find love during the Civil War and, afterwards, of her strength in surviving the war and its hardships.
Love story
In a moment of despair, Scarlett finally realizes that her love belongs to Rhett Butler. For many audiences, it is the theme of love and struggle that has kept the movie alive. While the burning of Atlanta might seem irrelevant to today's viewers, the timeless theme of love keeps its ability to touch people.
With a promise to her lover still in her mind, Scarlett chooses to stay in the midst of war and take care of Melanie. But her heart is broken when Rhett just walks away, leaving the woman that he once loved with cruel words, "Frankly, dear, I don' t give a damn."
Great epic
The film shows the love-hate relationship of these characters, but also American history, the fall of the Confederacy and the following period of Reconstruction in the South. The background made this film a true classic in the epic genre.
When the film opened after World War II, French viewers loved it, and it reminded them of their fight against the Nazis. In 1940 Shanghai, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, people stood in line for hours to watch this film, and saw the same suffering they were having as well as the hope and possibility of building a new homeland from the ruins.
Each nationality could identify with the story and see it as a victory. In fact,Gone With the Windnever lost its charm and ability to inspire and amaze.
Biggest of all time
The film had five directors, 15-plus screenwriters, and an unexpected $3.9 million budget. The film brought in $ 200 million, which makes it the biggest selling film of all times in North America. It also won 10 Academy awards in 1940. | high739.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "he wanted to be like a cowboy"
},
"options": [
"he was easy to get sick",
"he wanted to be like a cowboy",
"he hoped to be respected by cowboys",
"he didn't want his mother to worry about him"
],
"question": "Th... | When I was a boy I always wanted to be a cowboy. I remember my Mom worrying about me getting sick from the heat in the summer, because I wore a thick blue sweater all the time. No respectable cowboy, however, would wear short sleeves so I sweated while I played.
One day my parents gave me a bb gun. It looked just like a gun that all the cowboys used in the movies. I spent hours each day during those summer months shooting at stumps and pretending to be John Wayne (film actor who played tough heroes). As I was coming into the house one afternoon, though, I tried it one time too many. The gun that I thought was empty let out a soft pop and a bullet flew across the room and parted the hair of my Dad who was asleep on the couch. My Dad took one look at the bb hole a half inch above his head, walked over to me, took my gun, walked outside, and calmly broke it in half.
I didn't cry too much over this. I knew how close I had come to hurting my Dad with my stupidity. I didn't expect to ever get another bb gun either. That is why I was so surprised when my Dad bought me another one the next year. I guess he thought I had wised up enough to know how to use it this time. I never put a single bb in the new gun, but in my imagination John Wayne rode again.
I eventually outgrew my cowboy stage, but I never did outgrow my appreciation for my Father's forgiveness. He showed me that even when I messed up in the worse way I was still loved. He gave me another chance and let me know that I was forgiven whether I deserved it or not. He shared with me some of the unconditional love and forgiveness. May we always embrace and share that love and forgiveness as well. | high23629.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "To respond to climate change."
},
"options": [
"To take special kinds of food.",
"To respond to climate change.",
"To lose weight.",
"To improve their health."
],
"question": "Why did the author and his wife try... | We already know the fastest,least expensive way to slow down climate change:use less energy.With a little effort,and not much money,most of us could reduce our energy diets by 25 percent or more--doing the Earth a favor while also helping our wallets.
Not long ago,my wife,PJ,and I tried a new diet--not to lose a little weight but to answer an annoying question about climate change.Scientists have reported recently that the world is heating up even faster than predicted only a few years ago,and that the consequences could be severe if we don't keep reducing emission of carbon dioxide(CO2)and other greenhouse gases that are trapping heat in our atmosphere.
We decided to try an experiment.For one month we recorded our personal emission of CO2.We wanted to see how much we could cut back,so we went on a strict diet.The average US household produces about 150 pounds of CO2a day by doing common things like turning on air conditioning or driving cars.That's more than twice the European average and almost five times the global average,mostly because Americans drive more and have bigger houses.But how much should we try to reduce?
For an answer,I checked with Tim Flannery,author of The Weather Makers:How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth.In his book,he had challenged readers to make deep cuts in personal emission to keep the world from reaching extremely important _ ,such as the melting of the ice sheets in Greenland or West Antarctica."To stay below that point,we need to reduce CO2emission by 80 percent,"he said.
Good advice,I thought.I'd opened our bedroom windows to let in the wind.We'd gotten so used to keeping our air-conditioning going around the clock.I'd almost forgotten the windows even opened.We should not let this happen again.It's time for us to change our habits if necessary. | high13932.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "was mixed with various feelings"
},
"options": [
"felt doubtful",
"was too astonished",
"was full of sadness",
"was mixed with various feelings"
],
"question": "When Chang's talent was recognized, she _ .",
... | Angela Chang didn't know it would be so hard to turn her singing hobby into a career. Her agent used to take her to lots of auditions at different recording studios but the Taiwanese girl was always turned down for looking too young and small.
Chang' s talent was finally recognized in 2002 by the Decca Record Company. When she was offered a contract she burst into tears. Two years later Chang, 21, is a star. With the release of her debut album "Over the Rainbow" this year, she won the "Most Promising New Artist in Taiwan" at the CCTV-MTV Music Awards in July. In September she won the "Best New Artist" in the Fourth Chinese Music Billboard Awards.
"You just can't believe that such an amazingly powerful voice comes form such a small body," said musicians after hearing Chang sing "Over the Rainbow." "It's such a special voice. You cannot forget it." Chang can hit very high motes clearly and beautifully.
Her tunes make Chang stand out from the numerous newcomers in the music world. But mainland fans also know her for her girl-next-door performances in Taiwanese TV dramas, "My MVP Valentine" and "At Dolphin Bay".
But few people know that while filming her first TV series, Chang acted so badly that the director wanted to fire her. _
"I cried my heart out when I went back home." Change said, "But I know that defeat is often a temporary condition. By giving up you remain defeated."
Though she looks very girlish, Chang said she has a boy's personality. "The way I release pressure is to have a sound sleep. When I wake up, everything is new." | high22537.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "he didn't believe in himself"
},
"options": [
"nobody looked after him",
"he didn't believe in himself",
"he was such a small seed",
"he was thrown into the open air"
],
"question": "The seed didn't realize the ... | Long long ago, there was a small seed . Because it was only a seed, nobody noticed it. Thus, feeling inferior , the seed gave no importance to his existence. Then one day, a wind picked him up and threw him on an open field in the sun. Later, he was given rain. Years later he saw a traveler sitting by his side. "Thank you God for this. I really needed some rest," he heard the traveler say. "What are you talking about?" the seed quickly asked. He thought the man was making fun of him. No one ever spoke to him like that. "Who just spoke?" the shocked man asked. "It is me, a seed." "A seed?" the man looked at the big tree. "Are you joking? You are no seed. You are a big tree!" "Really?" "Yes! Why else do you think people come here?" "What do they come here for?" "To feel your shade ! Don't tell me you didn't know you had grown over time. "A moment passed. The seed thought and smiled for the first time in his life. The years of torture by the sun and the rain finally helped him grow up. "Oh! That means I'm not a little seed anymore! I was actually born to make people feel comfortable. Wow! That's great! " | high9829.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "They can help keep the balance of nature"
},
"options": [
"They are very mean in real life.",
"The last wolf disappeared 50 years ago.",
"They can help keep the balance of nature",
"They are under protection in Colorado... | The gray wolf used to live in most of the northern United States, including Colorado. In fairy tales, wolves can be pretty mean, but in real life, wolves are shy animals that are afraid of people. They are predators of deer, elk and antelope. But as more people settled in the country, they killed off many of them, so wolves started eating the cattle and sheep that the settlers brought with them. Because the settlers needed those cattle and sheep for their own families, and because many people are afraid of wolves, people started killing wolves until they became endangered. Many places would even offer money to anyone who would kill a wolf. The last wolf in Colorado was shot 50 years ago.
Now, the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife would like to see wolves reintroduced into their natural homes. This is happening already in Minnesota, but not in Colorado yet. There are lots of deer and elk in the Colorado mountains for them to eat now. In fact, many people feel that having the wolves back would be a help to the deer and elk herds . Without enough natural enemies, the herds get too big. Also, wolves and other predators usually catch the oldest or the sickest deer, so maybe they could help keep the other deer from getting sick and dying, too. But for ranchers , will the wolves come after cattle if there are plenty of deer to eat? It's hard to know. In Minnesota, they offer ranchers money to pay for animals that are known to have been killed by wolves. That way, the wolves have a chance, but the ranchers don't lose too much money. www.ks5u.com
If you want to find out more about how to help wolves come home, click here. | high16692.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "began to perform silently because of larger audiences"
},
"options": [
"became silent to avoid annoying people",
"began to perform silently because of larger audiences",
"realized audience members often spoke another language... | Throughout history there have always been people who can make other people laugh. Early clowns often both annoyed and delighted listeners with their comments and songs. They were not the silent performers seen in today's circus rings. Clowns _ when the big three-ring circuses made it impossible for the audience to hear them.
Circus clowns give performances in various ways. Walk-around clowns use an animal or something, like a huge rubber hammer, as part of their performance. A carpet clown moves around, talking with the audience and performing while the acts change in the rings. Then there are acrobatic clowns, riding clowns, juggling clowns and others.
Everything a clown does looks easy, but it is not. Making people laugh can be hard work. Clowns must be in good physical condition to prevent injuries. Each funny move is carefully timed and well-rehearsed . Most clowns have also been trained as acrobats, jugglers or aerial artists, and many include such skills into their acts.
Generally, there are three types of circus clowns--whiteface, auguste and character. Each has a special makeup and clothes. Each has a typical act as well.
The neat whiteface is usually a strict, in-charge character who sets up the punch line (the point of a joke) with a partner who is typically an auguste. His facial makeup is neatly detailed in red or black, and his clothes look so loose with a ruffle around the neck.
Old circus stories have it that the auguste clown got his name from a German nickname for someone who is clumsy, acting in a careless and stupid way. The auguste wears light-coloured makeup, but white is used around the mouth and eyes, and there's a big red nose. This clown performs a great deal of humour. An oversized suit or baggy trousers allow freedom of movement for all the clumsy acts. He also wears big shoes.
Character clowns perform as different characters--cowboys, grandmothers or concert conductors. The most famous character clown, however, is the tramp . Tramps wear different styles of makeup and torn clothes. Some tramp clowns are happy-go-lucky. Others are extremely sad. Still others act like gentlemen who just happen to be out of money. | high20320.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "going 50 to 100 miles between charges"
},
"options": [
"going 50 to 100 miles between charges",
"recharging quickly and conveniently",
"reducing environmental pollution",
"driving farther between refueling"
],
"... | Have you pulled your car up to the gas pump lately and been shocked by the high price of gas? As the pump clicked past $50, $60, $70 or even $80, maybe you thought about trading in your car for something that gets better mileage . Or maybe you're worried that your car is contributing to the greenhouse effect.
The car industry has the technology to address these concerns. It's the hybrid car. There are a lot of hybrid models on the market these days, and most automobile factories have announced plans to produce their own versions.
To be useful to you, a car must meet certain requirements. The ear should be able to drive at least 300 miles (482 km) between refueling, be refueled quickly and easily, and keep up with the other traffic on the road.
A gasoline car meets these requirements, but produces a ly large amount of pollution and generally gets poor gas mileage. An electric car, however, produces almost no pollution, but it can only go 50 to 100 miles (80 to 161 km) between charges, and the problem has been that the electric car is very slow and inconvenient to recharge.
The hybrid is a _ . It significantly increases the mileage and reduce the emissions of a gas-powered car while overcoming the shortcomings of an electric car.
Most hybrid cars on the road right now are gasoline-electric hybrids, although French car maker Citroen has two diesel-electric hybrid cars in the works.
In fact, hybrid vehicles are all around us, For example, an electric bike is a type of hybrid because it combines the power of electricity with the pedal power of its rider. Most of the locomotives we see pulling trains are diesel-electric hybrids. Cities like Seattle have diesel-electric buses---these can draw electric power from overhead wires or run on diesel when they are away from the wires. Submarines are also hybrid vehicles---some are nuclear-electric and some are diesel-electric. Any vehicle that combines two or more sources of power that can directly or indirectly provide propulsion power is a hybrid. | high21980.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Different religions and cultures often result in some conflicts."
},
"options": [
"Native people and immigrants fight for the same job opportunities.",
"Native people always leave the worst jobs to the immigrants.",
"Differen... | In the past years a lot of people migrated from one country to another in Europe. They had to leave their countries with their traditions, their cultures and sometimes also their families. People migrate because they think that they will have a better life, they will find a job and they will make a lot of money for their families to survive. Sometimes it's true, and they find a job, they make a lot of money and then they go back to their families to help them. But sometimes they are not that lucky.
The problem that those people create is that a lot of people from Europe are unemployed and they don't have jobs because immigrants have taken so many jobs. But the question is also: Would European people want a job such as cleaning or hard labor? I think that most of them wouldn't. So we should stop criticizing for a moment and think. We would then maybe realize that it's not that bad to have immigrants at home.
The only problem is that it's not right that immigrants want to impose( )their religion on other countries by leading and building mosques ( ). Because if they had done that in other countries they would have caused trouble. Phenomena like these happened a few years ago in Great Britain: It was forbidden to switch on Christmas lights outside, because Christmas is a Catholic ( ) recurrence and it was offensive for the Islamic people who lived there. That is not right. The country that gives hospitality to immigrants has the task to allow them to enter society, to be free to believe in their religion and their culture, but every country does not have to forget its tradition and culture. This is one of the many facts which happened in the past years, and I think that many others are going to happen because this phenomenon is developing every day more and more. | high10585.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "funny books"
},
"options": [
"fairy tales",
"non-fiction",
"funny books",
"traditional literature"
],
"question": "Before going to sleep children like to enjoy _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
}... | Children's books or children's literature is very hard to define and categorize, because there is no set genre for children to enjoy. All in all they can be categorized into six major classes, namely early childhood picture books, traditional literature, fiction, non-fiction, biography and poetry.
Children have unique taste and interest. Although Harry Potter may be an all-time favourite for children all over the globe, they prefer funny books to fairy tales when it comes to bedtime. The top three favourite books in bedtime stories are The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and The BFG by Roald Dahl.
There are many writers who popularized the children's literature or children's Books through their brilliant works. John Amos Comenius, the author of Orbis Pictus which is considered to be the first picture book specifically for children. Charles Perrault is believed to be the one who laid the foundations of the fairy tales. Perrault's stories include Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and so on. Hans Christian Anderson is best known for his fairy tales, such as The Snow Queen, The Little Mermaid, and The Emperor's New Clothes.
Many Children's Books have been made into feature films and are equally successful in this medium. Like Alice in Wonderland, the BFG series and the Harry Porter series. These series collected a huge amount of money when released worldwide in cinema halls. All these movies based on popular children's books are not only popular among children but also popular among adult audiences.
Children's books are in demand all over the world and more writers and authors are coming up with some new books. The potential market is immense because children are more into reading in this era than previous and they are enjoying it to the fullest. | high20446.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "American"
},
"options": [
"English",
"American",
"Russian",
"Australian"
],
"question": "Archibald A. Hill was _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
... | I'm sure you know the song "Happy Birthday". But do you know who wrote the song and for whom it was written?
The retired professor, Archibald A. Hill in Lucasville, USA could tell us the story. Ninety-seven years ago, two of Mr. Archibald Hill's aunts, Miss Patty Hill and Miss Mildred Hill were asked to write some songs for a book called "Song Storied for the Sunday Morning". Miss Patty Hill and Miss Mildred Hill were both kindergarten teachers then. They loved children very much and wrote many beautiful songs for the book. One of them was the famous "Good Morning to You." The song said, "Good morning to you, good morning to you, children, good morning to all." This song was very popular at that time among kindergarten children. But not many grown-ups knew it. A few years later little Archibald was born. As his aunt, Miss Patty Hill sang the song "Happy Birthday" to the melody of "Good Morning to you" to her little nephew . She sang the song like this: Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, Archie! Happy birthday to you!
Miss Patty Hill and her sister had never expected that this song would become so popular, but it really did. People all over the world like the song because of its simplicity in tune and friendliness in words. | high11843.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "$ 1750"
},
"options": [
"$ 1550",
"$ 1650",
"$ 1750",
"$ 1850"
],
"question": "If you want to stay in a hotel in New York City for a week and enjoy designer details, memorable allowances, you need to get prepare... | Affordable Boutique Hotels in New York City
By STEPHEN HEYMAN June 20, 2010
A new breed of hotels is trying to stand out from the masses with designer details, memorable allowances and prices around $250 a night.
Welcome to Boutique Hotel.
To Get Those Summer Tickets in New York, Strategize
By FELICIA R. LEE May 28, 2010
"The Merchant of Venice" is on show. Tickets can now be requested online, Most New Yorkers know the drill: on the day of the show, line up outside the Theater in Central Park several hours before 1 p.m., when free tickets start being handed out.
Climbing the Walls in Brooklyn
By LOUISE STORY May 28, 2010
Since opening last fall, Brooklyn Boulders, an 18,000-square-foot gym, has become a destination for New York rock climbers of all levels.
Hotel Review: Ace Hotel, New York
By FRED A. BERNSTEIN September 27, 2009
The owners are hoping that guests will enjoy the spacious accommodations, but that depends on whether they find the hotel's oddities off-putting or endearing.
Tent City: A Child's Urban Adventure
By ERIC KONIGSBERG July 24, 2009
One of the better-kept secrets of the city is the series of one-night family campouts that the Parks & Recreation Department has every summer weekend. | high21758.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "he would get into trouble"
},
"options": [
"he could make a lot of money",
"he had chosen the wrong place",
"he would get into trouble",
"people would stop and listen to him"
],
"question": "When the writer bega... | I got up and dressed, stuck my violin under my jacket, and went out into the street. I wandered about for an hour, looking for a likely place, feeling as if I were about to commit a crime. Then I stopped at last under a bridge near the station and decided to _ .
I felt tense and shaking. I drew my violin from under my coat like a gun. It was here, in Southampton, with trains passing overhead, that I was about to prove myself.
The first notes I played were loud and raw, and then they settled down and began to run more smoothly and to stay more or less in tune. To my surprise I was neither arrested nor told to shut up. Indeed, nobody took any notice at all.
I walked the streets of Southampton for several days, gradually knowing how to try and get money by being a street artist. It was not a good thing, for instance, to let the hat fill up with money -- the sight could discourage the people; nor was it wise to empty it completely, which could also confuse them, giving them no hint as to where to drop his money. Placing a couple of pennies in the hat to start the thing going soon became a good idea. Before I played another tune, I took off the big money, but always left two pennies behind.
Old ladies were most generous, and so were women with children, shop girls, and typists. As for the men: Heavy drinkers were always generous too and so were big young with muscles. But never a man with a hat, briefcase or dog; respectable types were the meanest of all, except retired army officers, who would bark "Why aren't you working, young man?" and then threw much money into the hat to hide their confusion. | high5975.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "are not so magical as people expect"
},
"options": [
"were used to conscript people",
"are usually faster than human beings",
"are not so magical as people expect",
"were not easily controlled and always fooled human be... | There were two interesting pieces of news items in the paper a few years ago. One was about a man who received a bill from the telephone company for $ 2,000 a month for doing nothing.
The connection between the two news items is simple; computers-the best invention of the 20th century. The telephone bill came from a computer which made a terrifying mistake; that man's bill was only $ 23.26. The other item was not as amusing. A man walked into the unguarded computer room of a large packaged food company and expertly programmed the computer to pay him $ 2,000 a month for raw meat which he "supplied " to the company. Of course he never sent the meat, but he certainly received the money . The computer wrote out a bill, and even "signed " it. It was only a random check that uncovered the trick. It could be happening in thousands of other companies all over the world.
Computers are not the magical workers that some people say they are. They make mistakes, they're sometimes slower than human beings and they're easily fooled.
The US used to conscript people with the help of a computer. The army sent out a card, which had to be filled in and sent back. It was easy to avoid being called up simply by spreading candle-wax on the card. The computer couldn't read the card, and did nothing with it.
It's in our everyday life that computers cause many problems. Let's get back to using people instead of computers, before a mistake that we can't put right. | high12392.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Celtic and Old English."
},
"options": [
"Welsh and Scottish!",
"Nordic and Germanic",
"Celtic and Old English.",
"Anglo-Saxon and Germanic"
],
"question": "The two major languages spoken in what is now called G... | If you ask people to name the one person who had the greatest effect on the English language, you will get answers like "Shakespeare," "Samuel Johnson," and "Webster," but none of these men had any effect at all compared to a man who didn't even speak English--William the Conqueror .
Before 1066, in the land we now call Great Britain lived people belonging to two major language groups. In the west-central region lived the Welsh, who spoke a Celtic language, and in the north lived the Scots, whose language, though not the same as Welsh, was also Celtic. In the rest of the country lived the Saxons, actually a mixture of Anglos, Saxons, and other Germanic and Nordic peoples, who spoke what we now call Anglo-Saxon (or Old English), a Germanic language. If this state of affairs had lasted, English today would be close to German.
But this state of affairs did not last. In l066 the Normans led by William defeated the Saxons and began their rule over England. For about a century, French became the official language of England while Old English became the language of peasants. As a result, English words of politics and the law come from French rather than German. In some cases, modern English even shows a distinction between upper-class French and lower-class Anglo-Saxon in its words. We even have different words for some foods, meat in particular, depending on whether it is still out in the fields or at home ready to be cooked, which shows the fact that the Saxon peasants were doing the farming, while the upper-class Normans were doing most of the eating.
When Americans visit Europe for the first time, they usually find Germany more "foreign" than France because the German they see on signs and advertisements seems much more different from English than French does. Few realize that the English language is actually Germanic in its beginning and that the French influences are all the result of one man's ambition . | high9197.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "some other natural disasters happening"
},
"options": [
"300 prisoners being trapped",
"five people being crushed",
"many cars being damaged",
"some other natural disasters happening"
],
"question": "The earthqu... | A 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northern Chile late on Tuesday, cutting power and leading to small landslides and a tsunami . Four men and one woman died --two who suffered heart attacks and three who were crushed . About 300 prisoners escaped from the northern port city of Iquique in the immediate aftershock .
The quake struck at about 8:46 p.m. local time, some 60 miles northwest of Iquique. It had a depth of 12.5 miles. Chile's National Emergency Office asked coastal residents to leave for safe places. "The fact is, we will know the extent of the damage as time goes by and when we inspect the areas in the light of day," Chile's President Michelle Bachelet said early on Wednesday. "The country has faced these first emergency hours very well."
Residents in the port city of Antofagasta walked calmly through the streets to higher ground as traffic became heavy in some places. "Many people are fearful after experiencing the powerful earthquake in 2010, so they immediately rushed to higher ground when they heard the tsunami warning," said a government official."There have been lots of aftershocks and communications have been cut off in many of the affected areas. So people are waiting in the dark hills, not knowing what is to come, and hoping they will be able to return to their homes safely."
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center sent our several tsunami warnings, but called off all of them by early Wednesday.
Tsunami waves of more than six feet caused by the earthquake washed ashore on the coast of Pisagua. Iquique, with a population of more than 200,000, saw seven-foot waves. | high8316.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Martin was able to learn how to drive very quickly."
},
"options": [
"Martin would go to college and it was far from home.",
"Martin preferred living at home to living at college.",
"Martin didn't want to take the public tran... | Martin had just finished high school. He would go to college at the far end of the city. He didn't want to live there, and he didn't want to take the bus either. So his father agreed to buy him a car.
His father spent all his summer teaching him how to drive, from the ABC to the XYZ. Thinking of the great feeling of driving a new car, Martin learned very quickly, and received his driver's license just before his eighteenth birthday.
The second day, all the family, and their dog, went to a car shop. Martin spent almost all the morning going from one car to another. Finally he saw a red Blue Bird. He had a test drive on the open ground, and called out, "This is what I want, Dad!" When everything was done, they were ready to leave.
Martin climbed into the front seat. He said excitedly, "It's my first day driving alone. Dad, Mom, and Poo! Enjoy it!"
His dad immediately took the back seat, right behind the new driver. Martin wondered why his father chose that seat, for his father always enjoyed looking in front.
So he said, smiling, "I'm sure you're back there to have a change after all those weeks of sitting in the front seat teaching me how to drive."
"No," Dad replied, "Do you remember what you did to me all those years when I took you to and from school? I am sitting here to hit and kick the back of your seat all the way!" | high7025.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Mumtaz"
},
"options": [
"Mumtaz",
"Shah",
"Either Mumtaz or Shah",
"Both Mumtaz and Shah"
],
"question": "The Taj Mahal was built for _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions"
},
{
"answer": {
... | The Taj Mahal is considered to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and the finest example of the late style of Indian architecture . It is at Agra in northern India. It lies beside the River Jumna in the middle of gardens with quiet pools.
The Taj Mahal was built by the Mogul emperor Shah Jehan, who ruled India in the 17th century. It is used to honour his favorite wife, known as Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631. The building, which was completed between 1632 and 1638, was designed by a local Muslim architect , Ustad Ahmad Lahori. The whole building, with gardens and gateway structures, was completed in 1643. The Taj Mahal stands at one end of the garden tomb with marble path. The room is softly lighted by the light that passes through double screens of carved marble set high in the walls. The building now is kept in good condition.
The Taj Mahal took 22 years to build. Shah Jehan planned a similar building, but in black instead of white, to lie on the other side of the river. But before it could be built, Shah Jehan was imprisoned by his son and buried next to his wife in the Taj Mahal. | high1454.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "They are too fat"
},
"options": [
"They are too slim",
"They work too hard",
"They are too fat",
"They lose too much body fat."
],
"question": "What kind of physical problem do many adult Americans have?",
"... | In the United States, 30 percent of the adult population has a "weight problem.". To many people, the cause is clear: We eat too much. But scientific evidence does little to support this idea. Going back to the America of 1910, we find that people were slimmer than today, yet they ate more food. In those days people worked harder physically, walked more, used machines much less, and didn't watch television.
Several modern studies, moreover, have shown that fatter people don't eat more on average than thinner people. In fact, some investigations (researches), such as a 1970 study of 3,545 London office workers, report that, on balance, fat people eat less than slimmer people.
Studies show that slim people are more active than fat people. A study by a research group at Stanford University School of Medicine found the following interesting facts.
The more the men ran, the greater loss of body fat.
The more they ran, the greater their increase in food intake .
Thus those who ran the most ate the most, yet lost greatest amount of body fat. | high13113.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "rewarding"
},
"options": [
"troublesome",
"rewarding",
"labor-saving",
"expensive"
],
"question": "The author argues that educating girls in developing countries is _ .",
"question_type": "cloze_questions... | Educating girls quite possibly outputs a higher rate of return than any other investment available in the developing world. Women's education may be an unusual field for economists, but raising women's contribution to development is actually as much an economic as a social problem. And economics, with its emphasis on motivation, provides an explanation for why so many girls can't receive education.
Parents in low-income countries fail to invest in their daughters because they do not expect them to make an economic contribution to the family: girls grow up only to marry into somebody else's family and bear children. Girls are thus seen as less valuable than boys and are kept at home to do housework while their brothers are sent to school-- _ , trapping women in a vicious circle of neglect.
An educated mother, on the other hand, has greater earning abilities outside the home and faces an entirely different set of choices. She is likely to have fewer but healthier children and can insist on the development of all her children, ensuring that her daughters are given a fair chance. The education of her daughters then makes it much more likely that the next generation of girls, as well as of boys, will be educated and healthy. The vicious circle is thus transformed into a good circle.
Few will disagree with it that educating women has great social benefits. But it has enormous economic advantages as well. Most obviously, there is the direct effect of education on the wages of female workers. Wages rise by 10 to 20 per cent for each additional year of schooling. Such big returns are impressive by the standard of other available investments, but they are just the beginning. Educating women also has a significant influence on health practices, including family planning. | high9008.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "WEN(r) contains natural herbs and botanicals."
},
"options": [
"WEN(r) contains natural herbs and botanicals.",
"You cann't use WEN(r) without bubble.",
"WEN(r) hasn't been tested before selling.",
"WEN(r) is accessible... | It's the dirty little secret many shampoo companies don't want you to know. When you wash your hair with certain traditional chemical shampoos, you may actually be removing your hair and scalp of their natural oils. These shampoos generate a thick bubble to clean hair, they can also create dryness, curl, dullness, and color fade. We then spend a lot of time and money on products that are effectively repairing the damage caused by shampoo.
Chaz Dean got tired of clients leaving his salon _ t their color and the feeling of their hair---brassy and dull. He knew the main cause was likely their shampoo, so he started experimenting with various ingredients, including natural herbs and botanicals, that he knew had cleansing and hydrating properties.
The result was a totally new approach to the way we cleanse our hair. It's called WEN(r) Cleansing Conditioner. WEN(r) contains a super-hydrating natural herbs and botanicals mixture of glycerin, chamomile , rosemary, calendula, and Cherry bark, which when combined, will both cleanse the hair as well as give shine and softness, even to damaged hair.
WEN(r) is a 5-in-1 formula that takes the place of your shampoo, And the most amazing thing about it is that it cleanses without bubble. Instead, when mixed with water, it creates a smooth bubble for shiny, healthy-looking, manageable results. The first time you try it certainly feels strange, but the results speak for themselves.
Before being marketed, WEN(r) went through extensive consumer tests, and the results were impressive. More than 90 percent of the participants in the studies reported that their hair was more shiny, less frizzy, and had more bounce.
WEN(r) is recommended for all hair types, and once you start using it, it will become the only cleanser/conditioner you will want to include in your daily routine.
Right now, WEN(r) is offering an easy way for online shoppers to try the product. Now you just pay less than $30 and have a 60 day money back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied. Click here to learn more about WEN(r) and try this revolutionary new approach yourself. | high5632.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "he contributed his gift of fantasy to reading fairy-tales"
},
"options": [
"he was just joking with the mother",
"he contributed his gift of fantasy to reading fairy-tales",
"he got some scientific ideas from fairy-tales",
... | Once upon a time, a doting mother asked Albert Einstein what she should read to her son to help him grow up as brilliant and intelligent as the famous scientist.
"Fairy-tales," he said, wisely nodding his head.
Why? Why would Albert Einstein -- the Nobel Prizes winning physicist recommend reading fairy-tales? Was he joking? All the evidence suggests he was deadly serious. He also said, "When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking."
Childhood is one of the factors that blur the distinctions between the self and other objects. Thus fantasy stories appeal to children and appear to make sense to them.
There are several commonly accepted genres of fantasy, "Animal Fantasy" which centers around the lives of lovable talking animals and "Modern Fantasy" which focuses on adventures in other worlds and magical events. I am inclined to add a third genre "Human and Animal Fantasy", which mixes human and animal characters. Another genre of fantasy may be "High Fantasy" which features heroes who combat evil and save the world from destruction.
Fantasy feeds a child's imagination and encourages creativity. The enjoyment that the genre engenders promotes reading and enhances literacy. Moreover, the fantasy genre may be used for teaching purposes. For example: A story about cruelty to animals would limit appeal to a child; however a fantasy celebration of closeness between the children and their pets may give an element of excitement as the children are able to save animals from someone with cruel intentions.
Children love the Harry Potter series, and if they only see the movies they miss a great opportunity to develop their reading skills by spending time with the lovable young wizards and witches of the Hogwarts community. | high17375.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "a person training horses for some purpose"
},
"options": [
"a person wearing a woolen hat",
"a position requiring clean clothes",
"a person training horses for some purpose",
"a person riding a carriage with horses"
... | Papa's Straw Hat
Papa was a ranger. He worked with horses. He always wore clean clothes with a hat even when he worked. His hat was always the same kind of a cowboy hat- large black hat of heavy wool. He wore his hat full and high. I think he wanted to look taller than he really was.
Mama was proud of the way he looked when he wore his hat and his best clothes. But in some way she got the idea that papa would lose his hair if he kept wearing a heavy wool cowboy hat in the hot weather. She began to talk about his hats.
"Papa," she said one day, "why don't you get a nice cool straw hat? That heavy wool cowboy hat may cause losing hair!" Papa laughed at her and explained that the horses wouldn't recognize him if he changed the hat. But she didn't believe him.
Mama talked and talked about the hat all summer long. At last papa answered, a little angry, "It would not the cowboy hat but a wife's talking about the hat that makes me lose my hair."
Mama had a very serious look on her face. She went straight out and later came home with a straw hat. It was a bad year for ranger and we didn't have much money. She thought that if she spent the money for a straw hat, papa would wear it. When papa saw the hat, his face got red. Without a word, he pulled the straw hat down over his head until it hid his eyes and went on to train the horses.
He was a good ranger and gentle to his horses. But as papa got close to the horses this time, they jumped high into the air, raising their front feet. All of them ran around in the rounded field and then raced toward the barn. Papa began to shout "Woo boys. Steady boys, steady." But there was nothing equal to.
Papa walked back straight to the stove in the kitchen, pushed the straw hat deep down into the fire then turned to mama, in a way that even frightened me. "Now listen to me, mama. Understand this I will never wear a straw hat or any other kind of hat my horses do not like." Then he put on his wool cowboy hat and walked out of the house.
I never heard mama talk any more about hats. Perhaps, that is why when papa died many years later, there was a round spot on the top of his head where there was no hair. | high11704.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "the countries of Africa and south--east Asia"
},
"options": [
"different parts of the world",
"the cold countries",
"South America and Africa",
"the countries of Africa and south--east Asia"
],
"question": "Apes... | An ape has a larger brain than any animal except man, though it is much smaller than a man's brain. Apes all belong to the hot countries of the world--tropical Africa and South--east Asia.
The gorilla is the largest of the apes. He is as tall as six feet when standing upright. Many people think that gorillas are very fierce. They are often described as standing upright like a man, beating their fists and roaring. In their home, in the forests of Central Africa, however, they are not at all like this, They are peaceful animals and never use their great strength unless attacked. Even then, they retreat if they can.
Gorillas have black faces and long, black, hairy coats. They feed during the day on plants and fruit. At night the old male often sleeps on the ground at the foot of a tree, while the others each make a sleeping platform in the tree bending the leafy branches. Besides this, gorillas climb trees very seldom. | high19358.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "don't care much about money when buying things"
},
"options": [
"don't care much about money when buying things",
"will try their best to stay healthy",
"often stay up late to finish their job",
"prefer to ask others ab... | If you don't want people to know too much about you, then you had better keep your fridge contents secret, according to a British market research document released last week.
Researchers peered into the fridges of 400 people in Britain and compared the contents with the owners' lifestyles. They claim to be able to classify the nation's people by fridge contents.
They say those people can be separated into five categories:nutrition nerds (no social sense), food faddiest (whatever's in style), martyr mums, fast food fanatics and restaurant regulars.
Nutrition nerds care much about what they put into their bodies. Their fridges are stocked with fruit, vegetables and healthy meat.
People in this category tend to be highly organized and usually work in law or accountancy. The vast majority is single, but if they have a partner, that person will be similar.
A fridge full of vitamins -- enriched juices implies its owner works in media or fashion. They tend not to eat the foods they buy. Known as the food faddiest, they just want to be seen as purchasing the latest important things.
A fridge filled with everything from steak to frozen fish suggests the martyr mum. Her fridge tends to be stocked with every kind of product, except what she herself would want. This fridge hints at difficulty balancing family and work life.
Fast food fanatics always buy mineral water or soda pop. The nearest they will get to fresh fruit is tomato sauce. Their fridges hint at someone who works hard and plays hard, also, someone who is not into long term planning.
Finally, a fridge filled with nothing more than a bottle of white wine and some sparkling mineral water implies an owner who is single, lives in a big city and enjoys the finer things in life. The fridge is empty because this person regularly eats in restaurants. | high3525.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "occupation"
},
"options": [
"self-rule",
"occupation",
"peace and friendship",
"independence"
],
"question": "Before the War of Independence the flags of various European nations flown over the land were symbols... | The basic flag of the United States is one of the world's oldest national flags. Only the basic flags of Austria, Denmark, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland are older.
During the discovery and settlement of what is now the United States, the flags of various European nations were flown over the land, as symbols of possession. Later, in the Colonial and Revolutionary War periods, flags representing famous persons, places, and events were flown in the American Colonies.
The first official flag of the United States was created by Congress on June 14,1777. It consisted of 13 alternate red and white stripes and 13 white stars in a field of blue, representing the 13colonies that had declared their independence in 1776. Congress adopted a new flag of 15 stars and 15 stripes in 1795, to give representation to the two new states admitted into the Union, Vermont and Kentucky.
By 1817 there were 20 states in the Union, and it became apparent that adding one stripe for each new state would destroy the shape of the flag. As a result, Congress in 1818 restored the original design of 13 stripes and provided that each state was to be represented by one star. In 1921 Preside William H. Taft made the first official provision for the arrangement of the stars. He ordered that there be six even rows of eight stars each. Previously the arrangement of the stars had been left to the flag- maker's fancy.
The evolution of the stars and stripes reflects the growth of the United States. After the admission of Hawaii into the Union in 1959, the flag was officially changed for the 26th time since its creation.
There are many government flags flown in the United States in addition to the national flag. Among them are the president's and vice-president's flags and those of the federal departments and some federal agencies. Each state in the Union has an official flag. The United States Navy uses special flags for signaling. | high18720.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Amir"
},
"options": [
"Hassan",
"Ali",
"Baba",
"Amir"
],
"question": "Who is the author of the passage?",
"question_type": null
},
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "tried t... | Something roared like thunder. The earth shook a little and we heard the rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire. "Father!" Hassan cried. We sprung to our feet and raced out of the living room.
"Father! What's that sound? Hassan screamed, his hands outstretched toward Ali. Ali wrapped his arms around us. A white light flashed and lit the sky in silver. It flashed again and was followed by rapid sharp sounds of gunfire. "They're hunting ducks." Ali said in a hoarse voice. "They hunt ducks at night, you know." Don't be afraid.
A siren went off in the distance. Somewhere glass broke and someone shouted. I heard people on the street, jolted from sleep and probably still in their pajamas, with ruffled hair and puffy eyes. Hassan was crying. Ali pulled him close, clutched him with tenderness.
We stayed huddled that way until the early hours of the morning. The shootings and explosions had lasted less than an hour, but they had frightened us badly, because none of us had ever heard gunshots in the streets. They were foreign sounds to us then. The generation of Afghan children whose ears would know nothing but the sounds of bombs and gunfire was not yet born. Huddled together in the dining room and waiting for the sun to rise, none of us had any notion that a way of life had ended. The end came when Russian tanks were rolling into the very same streets where Hassan and I played, bringing the death of the Afghanistan I knew and marking the start of a still ongoing era of bloodletting.
Just before sunrise, Baba's car peeled into the driveway. His door slammed shut and his running footsteps pounded the stairs. Then he appeared in the doorway and I saw something on his face. Something I didn't recognize right away because I'd never seen it before: fear. "Amir! Hassan!" He cried as he ran to us, opening his arms wide. "They blocked all the roads and the telephone didn't work. I was so worried!"
We let him wrap us in his arms and, for a brief moment, I was glad about whatever had happened that night. | high5154.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "the Chinese culture is popular with the local people"
},
"options": [
"people will have a running race in March",
"the Chinese culture is popular with the local people",
"the Chinese culture has no effect on the local people"... | Tile Spring Festival is almost over,but the celebrations are continuing.The Chinese embassy in Sydney have devoted a day to celebrating the Spring Festival and Chinese culture.
Tile carnival features a series of cultural performances and demonstrations,bringing the Spring Festival fun to Sydney.Over the past four years,the annual event has become popular not only with tile Chinese community but also with locals.And some have even set up their own stalls to allow more people to learn about China and the country's culture.
This is my second time to have a stand here,but I've been here many times before."said
Carole Kyle from Sydney.Carole has brought along some brochures about Project Hope which
supports Chinese students who drop out of school due to poverty.
China's Ambassador to Australia Ma Zhao xu hopes that this kind of event will facilitate a
dialogue between people from the two countries.
"In Chinese culture,we appreciate unity without uniformity,and harmony in diversity.
Australian culture welcomes cultural diversity,so that is a good foundation for Sino-Australian
relations,to further our understandings and strengthen our friendship."Ma said.
Sydney's mayor Clover Moore was also present and echoed Ma's view.
"In fact we have Chinese living in Australia since the middle of the 19th century,so it
goes way back and there has been a strong link between China and Australia for many many
years.We have a very ancient culture here,the aboriginal culture.You have a very ancient
culture in China.We'd like to marry those two and celebrate them."Moore said.
A centre about Chinese culture in Sydney is also set to have a test run in March,and will
be the biggest of its kind in the Oceania region. | high17413.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "a tree grows faster when it has a lot of water"
},
"options": [
"a tree grows faster when it has a lot of water",
"scientists cut down trees to study tree rings",
"pine trees form rings of he same width every year",
"th... | How much rain has fallen on the earth in the past? Man has not always kept weather records. Because scientists need a way to learn about past rainfall, they study the tree rings.
A tree's trunk keeps growing year by year. Under its bark , a tree adds a layer of new wood each year it lives. If you look at a tree stump, you can see the layers. They are called annual ring .
On some trees, all of the rings are of the same width. But the ponderosa that grows in the American southwest have rings in different withes. The soil in he southwest is dry. The pines depend on rainfall for water. In a year of good rainfall, they form wide rings. In a dry year, they form narrow ones.
Scientists do not have to cut down a pine to study its rings. With a special tool, they remove a narrow piece of wood from the trunk without harming the tree. Then they look at the width of each ring to see how much rain fell in the year it formed.
Some pines are hundreds of years old and have hundreds of rings. These rings are from an annual record o0f past rainfall in the southwest. | high1332.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "Comedians often use their sad experience."
},
"options": [
"Comedians like to get along with kids.",
"Comedians' life is full of jokes.",
"Comedians often use their sad experience.",
"Comedians often cry in their daily ... | 1 always figured that comedians were the best kind of people to hang around with as a kid. They tell funny stories, make joke after joke, and happiness seems never to leave them. But time goes on, and we come to see these same people as clowns on the outside, but crying a river in the inside. Comedy from these people comes from a deep pain and sadness in their lives, or out of a deep-seated anger they have at the world around them.
Look at Richard Pryor, need I say more? Richard seemed to have everything. For Superman m , he ended up getting more money than Christopher Reeve did. Yet he said while he was in his forties that the last truly happy moment he remembered in his life was when he was jumping around in the dirt while pretending to be a cowboy at the age of 10. This guy set himself on fire, and he played that for laugh while performing live at the Sunset Strip ! Comedy was his constant weapon against pain, and he never held anything back.
The movie Funny People understand very well this gloomy field many comedians have to survive in. It stars Adam Sandler as George Simmons, a famous comedian in the movie. Simmons has it all: a beautiful mansion overlooking the sea, a swimming pool,great cars, and so on. But in his eyes, we see that he is a sad man who has come to truly look down upon himself for what he has become. All the wealth he has collected only serves to separate him from the rest of the world and it makes him defensive when around total strangers who cannot see him as a normal person. But now, he hears from his doctor that he has a terminal disease and has only months left to live. Simmons reacts to this news as if someone took away his blood in the heart, and it makes him clearly see just how much he hates his life. So now he has to make every minute count.
Then come a series of funny stories.
Comedy is just life as it is, isn't it? | high13675.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "is not celebrated on the same dates each year"
},
"options": [
"has a very long history in North Africa",
"is not celebrated on the same dates each year",
"is attended mainly by the people in the Sahara",
"is celebrated... | The Sahara Festival is a three-day African celebration of the very recent past, which takes place every year either in November or December. It is part military display and part competition. The military display comes first. It is very popular with tourists and local people and especially with government leaders.
During the opening ceremonies, the government leaders first make speeches. They welcome everybody to the display and hope that everyone will enjoy themselves. Then there is a display of soldiers who march very smartly in front of the place where the government leaders sit. Then horsemen from several different countries show off their beautiful clothes and their good riding skills. One after another they come and dancers from all over the Sahara take their turns to show off their wonderful traditional clothes and dances. They are accompanied by men playing drums and beating strong rhythms for the dancers.
The highlight of the opening ceremony are the races which take place in the evening. It is the grand _ of the day. Men ride their horses very fast. Some ride with their legs in the air, others ride in pairs on different horses. It is so fast and so wonderful! | high8470.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "how Starbucks has grown"
},
"options": [
"how Starbucks has grown",
"Starbucks' customers",
"what Starbucks makes",
"how Starbucks makes its coffee"
],
"question": "What is the main topic of the reading?",
"... | The first Starbucks coffee shop opened in 1971 in downtown Seattle, Washington, in the United States. It was a small coffee shop that roasted its own coffee beans. The coffee shop's business did well, and by 1981 there were three more Starbucks stores in Seattle.
Things really began to change for the company in 1981. That year, Howard Schultz met the three men who ran Starbucks. Schultz worked in New York for a company that made kitchen equipment. He noticed that Starbucks ordered a large number of special coffee makers, and he was curious about the company. Schultz went to Seattle to see what Starbucks did , and he liked what he saw. He wanted to become part of the company. In 1982, the original Starbucks owners hired Schultz as the company's head of marketing.
In 1983, Schultz traveled to Italy. The unique atmosphere of the espresso bars there caught his eye. To Schultz it seemed that Italians spent their daily lives in three places: home, work , and coffee bars . His experience in Italy gave Schultz a new idea for Starbucks back in Seattle.
Schultz created an atmosphere for Starbucks coffee shops that was comfortable and casual, and customers everywhere seemed to like it. Between 1987 and 1992, Starbucks opened 150 new stores---and that was only the beginning. As a matter of fact, by the year 2000, three new Starbucks stores opened somewhere around the world every day!
Today, Starbucks has thousands of stores, including stores in twenty-six countries. One thing that helps make Starbucks succeed in cities outside the United Stateds is the way Starbucks works with local stores and restaurants. By working together with a store already in the city, Starbucks gains an understanding of customers in the city. This understanding helps Starbucks open stores in the right locations for their customers. | high15204.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "both B and C"
},
"options": [
"it is very interesting to have a name",
"it is very easy to be remembered",
"it is very easy to be told from others",
"both B and C"
],
"question": "Why does everything have a name... | Everything has a name. All people, places and things have names. For example, Jenny is the name of a student from England. England is the name of her country. Cities and towns have names, too. Schools and office building also have names. All things have names. Names are important.
Names are different all over the world. In Jenny's class, Jenny must learn the names of students from all over the world. This is very difficult because the names are different. www.
In the USA, most people have a first name, a middle name, and a last name. Parents choose the first and middle names for their baby. There are names for boys and names for girls. For example, John, Peter, Tom and Mike are all names for boys. Elizabeth, Betty, Susan, and Mary are all names for girls. The last name is the family name. Usually it is the father's family name. In a family, the mother, the father, and the children usually have the same last name.
Names are different all over the world. They can be long or short, but they are always very important. | high7743.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "think children's achievement largely depends on schools"
},
"options": [
"spend a lot of time with their children",
"like to buy a variety of books for their children",
"think children's achievement largely depends on schools... | On countless mornings over the past year, I stood with my son, James, in our driveway, watching our neighbor hurry off to kindergarten.My wife and I wanted to give James the best education, but that meant we'd have to change our jobs and spend less time with our kid.I asked myself, "Would this trade-off be worth it?" When I look at the research on child development, I think it might not.Where our kids go to school might matter less than most American parents think.
Social scientists have long tried to determine why some children grow up to be successful.In a 2001 study, Greg Duncan, a professor of education at the University of California, measured the influence that the people in a child's life have on how well the child does in school.Duncan and his team found almost no relationship between how students did on the test and whom they sat beside in class, whom they hung out with after school and who lived in their block.The only meaningful link they found was between siblings and twins in particular.
For a long time, scholars thought that a family's income heavily affected how well kids did in life.But that might not be the case.When Susan Mayer at the University of Chicago looked at the relationship between family income and lifetime achievement, she ran a series of experiments to measure it, finding such outcomes weren't caused by income.She argued that the things that make a difference are relatively inexpensive: the number of books a kid has or how often his family goes to museums.
Lareau, another scholar began one of the most in-depth observations of American parenting.He concluded that success is much more related to the amount of time parents spend with their children.He said "Many parents I interviewed are anxious about their children's futures.But they have exaggerated the sense of the risks involved if they don't give their children 'the best' of everything."
So at last, we decided to leave things as it were.More time with our kid is the best we can provide. | high6449.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Club members buy BabyCare products for free childcare advice."
},
"options": [
"Club members buy BabyCare products for free childcare advice.",
"Doctors in Beijing help in making BabyCare products.",
"Parents are encouraged... | BEUING (Associated Press ) --China has a growing middle class, a tradition of expecting education and 21 million new babies every year. Selling educational toys should be easy.
While China may be the world's biggest toymaker, many of the best are exported . Department stores here do not have enough high quality toys. It is said that the demand for educational toys is low.
A US company, BabyCare, is trying to change that with a new way to sell toys in China.
BabyCare works basically together with doctors in Beijing hospitals. People who join the company's "mother club"can get lectures and newsletters on baby and child development at no extra cost, if they agree to spend 18 dollars a month on the company's educational toys and childcare books.
"We want to build a sevenyear relationship with those people," said Matthew J. Estes, BabyCare's president. "It starts during pregnancy , when the anxiety and needs are highest." BabyCare works on a onetoone basis. Doctors, nurses, and teachers paid by BabyCare advise parents, explain toys that are designed for children at each stage of development to age six.
BabyCare opened its first store in China last June in a shopping center in central Beijing and another near Beijing Zoo. It plans to have 80 stores in China within six years.
It is a new model for China and develops a market in young children's education and health that no other companies are in. | high15210.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "underground"
},
"options": [
"bus",
"underground",
"boat",
"bicycle"
],
"question": "What kind of transportation does Doctor Mason usually take?",
"question_type": "factiod_questions"
},
{
"answer": ... | Doctor Mason has held a clinic for ten years. He is an expert doctor. He usually gets up at 7:00 a.m. and commutes to work by subway. It's always very crowded with people and he tries to keep his distance from them. In the winter he notices the stress on the faces of the commuters and knows that some of these people will come to him for advice. He always solves their problems and returns to the comfort of his home a satisfied man.
Martin is a gifted artist. He knows that he has an unusual occupation , but he actually treats it as a disciplined career. He gets up at the same time every day and works for nine hours with a break for lunch. His new project uses metal but his designs use pencil and paper. In nine months' time, his work will be on display outside the local library, and he will be very proud of it. | high8464.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "we can easily get infected by the dusty air"
},
"options": [
"sandstorms result in the fall of temperature",
"we can easily get infected by the dusty air",
"it is usually warmer before sandstorms come",
"sandstorms usua... | After several days' warm weather around the New Year's Day,a strong cold wave with a sandstorm from Mongolia attacked Tianjin Sunday afternoon.
From 3 o'clock p.m.,the strong cold wave from Mongolia engulfed most areas of North China and the biggest wind-force was 7.Tianjin also suffered this year's first sandstorm with the cold wind whistling.The sky became dusky and the air was permeated with sand.By 11 o'clock at night,the wind became weaker and the sandstorm died down.From Monday morning,the northern areas had a big drop in temperature.It is learned that flu and the infection of the upper respiratory tract are easy to be infected due to the severe pollution by dust in the air.Relevant experts remind residents to pay attention to their health care. | high7757.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "on a trip to visit his family"
},
"options": [
"on a trip to visit his family",
"waiting for someone in the airport",
"having a rest on the plane",
"calling his family on the phone"
],
"question": "When the writ... | Last week I was in the boarding area of the airport, very excited about my trip home to see my parents .I had many plans for the weekend. But my daydream was interrupted by an elderly woman talking loudly into her cell phone. She kept asking the person to meet her where she was and was repeating the gate number into the phone. With each repeat she got a little louder. All the people around were trying to avoid laughing.
Then I heard her say, "I' m sorry, I can't hear you .There seems to be something wrong with my hearing aid." As I waited for my turn to board ,I noticed her tone was becoming increasingly frantic as she tried to understand the person on the other end of the phone.
It was almost my turn to board. I couldn't stop looking back at the woman .It made me think how lucky I was to have my hearing .Then I realized I could do something to help.
I walked over to the woman and shouted ,"Let me help you hear .I'll tell you what the person is saying." The doubt that flickered across her face was quickly replaced with understanding ,then relief .
I took the phone from her, listen for a moment, and then told the woman that her husband was waiting for her in the baggage area as he could not enter the gate area. Then I pointed her in the right direction.
It took me less than two minutes to help the woman, but my pride in having been able to help her remains strong. | high16719.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "Sea creatures flee from oil spill, gathering near seashore."
},
"options": [
"Birds crawl deep into caves.",
"Dolphins and sharks show up in deep water.",
"Tens of thousands of marine animals are found dead.",
"Sea crea... | Dolphins and sharks are showing up in surprisingly shallow
water just off the Florida coast. Mullets, crabs, rays and small
fish gather by the thousands off an Alabama pirer. Birds covered in
oil are crawling deep into marshes , never to be seen again.
Marine scientists studying the effects of the BP disaster are seeing
some strange phenomena. Fish and other wildlife seem to be fleeing the oil out in the Gulf and clustering in cleaner waters along the coast in a trend that some researchers see as a potentially troubling sign. The animals' presence close to shore means their usual habitat is badly polluted, and the crowding could result in mass die-offs as fish run out of oxygen. Also, the animals could easily be captured by their enemies.
The nearly two-month-old spill has created an environmental disaster in US history as tens of millions of gallons have flown into the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. Scientists are seeing some unusual things as they try to understand the effects on thousands of species of marine life.
For nearly four hours Monday, a three-person crew with Greenpeace cruised past delicate
islands and mangrove-dotted inlets in Barataria Bay off southern Louisiana. They saw dolphins by the dozen frolicking in the oily sheen and oil-tinged pelicans feeding their young. But they spotted no dead animals.
"I think part of the reason why we're not seeing more yet is that the impacts of this crisis are
really just beginning," Greenpeace marine biologist John Hocevar said.
The counting of dead wildlife in the Gulf is more than an academic exercise; the deaths will
help determine how much BP pays in damages. | high11076.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "the butterflies in a certain part of Brazil can kill men"
},
"options": [
"butterflies are living in the mountains",
"all butterflies like sucking blood and eating fish",
"the butterflies in a certain part of Brazil can kill ... | In a mountainous area of Brazil, there is a kind of beautiful butterfly which can kill men. If people meet them, they will come down in great quantities to bite and kill, sucking blood and flesh through the wounds they cause.
In June, 1966, a boy named Marl Andre who went into the mountains in search of butterfly specimens was killed by these butterflies. A country boy saw him when he was just about to catch a butterfly. Suddenly thousands of butterflies came down upon him, covering him all over. The boy struggled and cried as he tried to free himself from their attack. Finally he fell senseless to the ground. Police examined his body and proved that he had died of bites by butterflies.
In New Guinea, there is a kind of needlefish which also kills men. Needlefish likes light. At night, it will swim near the lights of fishing boats, then suddenly shoot out of water like an arrow to its target, and force its 3-inch sharp mouth into a human body. Of-ten people are thrust in the eye, or through the chest or stomach, resulting in death. Sometimes it will even attack the people in a fishing boat in broad daylight.
About 10 persons in the world are killed by sharks every year, yet more than 240 people are killed by needlefish every year. | high3531.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "He determined his people shouldn't be subjected to Malaya anymore."
},
"options": [
"He intended to act as a kind of conscience to leaders around the globe.",
"He determined his people shouldn't be subjected to Malaya anymore.",
... | Lee Kuan Yew emerged onto the international stage as the founding father of the state of Singapore, then a city of about 1 million. He developed into a world statesman who acted as a kind of conscience to leaders around the globe.
Fate initially seemed not to have provided him with a stage on which to achieve more than modest local success. In the first phase of decolonization, Singapore emerged as a part of Malaya. It was cut loose because of tensions between Singapore's largely Chinese population and the Malay majority and, above all, to teach the city a lesson of dependency, _
But great men become such through visions beyond material calculations. Lee challenged conventional wisdom by opting for statehood. The choice reflected a deep faith in the virtues of his people. He asserted that a city located on a sandbar with no economic resource to draw upon, and whose major industry as a colonial naval base had disappeared, could nevertheless thrive and achieve international reputation by building on its principal asset : the intelligence, industry and dedication of its people.
A great leader takes his or her society from where it is to where it has never been ---- indeed, where it as yet cannot imagine being. By insisting on quality education, by suppressing corruption and by basing governance on merit. Lee and his colleagues raised the annual per capita income of their population from $500 at the time of independence in 1965 to roughly $55,000 today. In a generation, Singapore became an international financial center., the leading intellectual metropolis of Southeast Asia, the location of the region's major hospitals and a favored site for conferences on international affairs. It did so by adhering to an extraordinary pragmatism: by opening careers to the best talents and encouraging them to adopt the best practices from all over the world..
Superior performance was one component of that achievement. Superior leadership was even more important. As the decades went by, it was moving ---- and inspirational ---- to see Lee., the mayor of a medium-size city, become a mentor of global strategic order.
The great tragedy of Lee's life was that his beloved wife was felled by a stroke that left her a prisoner in her body, unable to communicate or receive communication. Through all that time, Lee sat by her bedside in the evening reading to her. He had faith that she understood despite the evidence to the contrary.
Perhaps this was Lee Kuan Yew's role in his era. He had the same hope for our world. He fought for its better instincts even when the evidence was ambiguous. But many of us heard him and will never forget him. | high10368.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "people think it important to know the time"
},
"options": [
"people in the stores want to sell these clocks",
"people think it important to know the time",
"bosses want to make their stores beautiful",
"they needn't wea... | When you walk along a street in a big city in the United States, you may see clocks in most stores. Radio announcers give the correct time during the day. People there think that it is important to know the time. Most Americans have watches. They want to do certain things at certain times. They do not want to be late. Not all people all over the world value time. Suppose you visit a certain country in South America. You would find that people living there do not like to rush. If you had an appointment with someone, he would probably be late. He would not care for arriving on time. In some countries in South America, even the radio programs may not begin right on time, nor do the radio announcers think it important to announce the right time. Many people regard a clock as a machine. It seems to them that a person who does everything on time is controlled by a machine. They do not want a clock or any machine to have that much power over their lives. | high5140.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 3,
"answer_text": "gets along well with his family"
},
"options": [
"first met his wife in Chicago",
"has a sister three years younger",
"got married at a very old age",
"gets along well with his family"
],
"question": "According ... | My dad is very unique because of his personality and lifestyle.For instance,he put his watch on his left hand,even though he's a lefty,and parking his car only in the garage is just his thing and doesn't change.
My father only wears suits during the week because it's something very professional and formal. He loves to teach what he knows,from teaching my mother,aunt,and sisters driving skills to teaching his kids vocabulary. Also,whenever he is asked to do something at work,whatever it is,he will always complete the task on time.
My mother buys most of his clothes,as he hates big crowds. In his house,children watch TV only after finishing all homework,which he believes is the best,because the child does his homework and still stays happy.
One of my father's main focuses in life is making sure his children grow up the right way,like he did.He grew up with one sister in Chicago. As he got older,he got married to my mother who is three years younger than him.
My dad is an individual with numerous qualities. His personality is just very wonderful to live with. The manners he shows are so refined and probably much better than most people. I admire my father and want to be just like him when I grow up. | high18734.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "Cholesterol"
},
"options": [
"High-quality protein",
"Cholesterol",
"Canola oil",
"Minerals"
],
"question": "According to this passage,which of the following is a cause of heart disease?",
"question_type": n... | Although they are an inexpensive supplier of vitamins,minerals,and high--quality protein,eggs also contain a high level of blood cholesterol ,one of the major causes of heart disease.One egg yolk,in fact,contains a little more than two--thirds of the suggested daily cholesterol limit.
This knowledge has caused egg sales to drop in recent years,which in turn has brought about the development of several alternatives to eating regular eggs.One alternative is to eat substitute eggs. These egg substitutes are not real eggs, but they look somewhat like eggs when they are cooked.They have the advantage of having lower cholesterol rates,and they can be scrambled or used in baking.One disadvantage, however,is that they are not good for frying,poaching,or boiling.A second alternative to regular eggs is a new type of eggs,sometimes called"designer''eggs.These eggs are produced by hens that are fed low-fat diets consisting of ingredients such as canola oil,flax,and rice bran.In spite of their diets,however,these hens produce eggs that contain the same amount of cholesterol as regular eggs.Yet,producers of these eggs claim that eating their eggs will not raise the blood cholesterol in humans.
Egg producers claim that their product has been described unfairly.They use scientific studies to back up their claim.And in tact studies on the relationship between eggs and human cholesterol levels have brought mixed results.It may be that it is not the type of egg that is the main determinant of cholesterol but the person who is eating the eggs.Some people may be more sensitive to cholesterol from food than other people.In fact,there is evidence that certain dietary fats stimulate the body's production of blood cholesterol.Consequently,while it still makes sense to limit one's intake of eggs,even designer eggs,it seems that doing this without regulating dietary fat will probably not help reduce the blood cholesterol level. | high17407.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 1,
"answer_text": "animals' response to music"
},
"options": [
"the change of music over time",
"animals' response to music",
"special music for animals",
"the origin of music"
],
"question": "The research mentioned in the passage... | Monkeys prefer heavy metal to classical music, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin whose findings are published this week in Biology Letters.
Scientists played a selection of music to a group of South American cotton-top monkeys but the only sound that got a reaction were from the heavy metal band Metallica. They were seemingly disinterested in Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis and Bach, but after the beautiful sound of Master of Puppets by Metallica was played the monkeys calmed down.
"Monkeys interpret rising and falling sounds differently than humans. Oddly, their only response to several samples of human music was a calming response to the heavy-metal band Metallica," said Professor Charles Snowdon, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Rather than making them excited or aggressive, the heavy metal tracks had a comforting effect. Dr Snowdon, who teamed up with National Symphony Orchestra musican David Teie, also played the monkeys music composed specifically for them. Although they enjoyed Metallica, they were much more interested in these pieces.
A melody based on the short calls of scared monkeys led to anxiety levels rapidly growing, researchers found, while one based on long calls the creatures make when they are happy had a calming effect.
Frans B.M. de Waal, a professor of psychology at Emory University who studies animals, said the findings appear to say more about how monkeys respond to the sounds they make than they do about music or the evolution of music.
Dr Snowdon no longer has a monkey colony to use in his research, but he said his co-author David Teie is exploring the concept of music for cats.
"If we understand how we can affect their emotional states through using musical sound and aspects of our speech, maybe those of us living with companion animals can have a better relationship with them, too," Snowdon said. | high5626.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "In order to introduce a topic"
},
"options": [
"In order to introduce a topic",
"Because the story is funny",
"Because the little girl thought her father would buy a car",
"Because author likes to tell stories"
],
... | A man was cleaning car with a special brush when a little girl who had been watching him said,"My daddy has a brush like that to clean his car too.""Really!"said the man."What kind of car does your daddy have"The little girl answered,"Oh, he hasn't got the car yet, but he's got the brush to clean it."Well, I suppose you have to start somewhere! The important thing is that you do get started. And to do that, we first have to decide what kind of life we want. It's strange how many of us want to live forever, when we can't even decide what to do with our life now! Like the guy who said,"I'm going to stop putting things off, starting tomorrow."
You see, even if others have made decisions for you, you can still decide how you'll respond and handle the life that's been handed to you. You still have control of your own attitudes. Happiness is an attitude and choice, no matter what situation you're in. Remember, you can always find someone worse off than you whom you can help. It's only when we stop looking at our own problems and reach out to make others happy that we ourselves can be truly happy. But if you choose not to make a decision that also is your decision you'll live with. There are many smart, talented people who have never enjoyed the success they could have, simply because they could not make a decision and discipline themselves to follow through with it.
Remember, if your life doesn't change, it's going to stay the same! It's that simple. So to move on from where you are, you must first decide where you'd rather be. If you can't change your mind, you can't change your life. The great writer Tolstoy said,"Everyone wants to change the world, but no one wants to change himself."So ask yourself right now: What's the one decision I need to make to change my life? Think a minute! | high18052.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 2,
"answer_text": "It can help us to take control of the doomsday."
},
"options": [
"It can allow us to be free from thick coats by wearing clothes made of nanocloth.",
"It can allow us to create more new materials to meet the need of our modern soci... | Nanotechnology is a fashionable word these days. The name "nano" comes from the size of molecules, which are measured in nanometers--or one billionth of a meter. Through operating the atoms and molecules, scientists can change the nature of common materials and even create new materials that have new properties.
But scientists are concerned about its possible risks to our daily lives.
Clothing merchants claim their nanocloth keeps our bodies warmer in winter, saving us from needing thick coats. Vitamin companies boast their nanopills are easier to absorb. Home decoration companies suggest you use their nanopaint, which has no smell, is waterproof, and free from poisonous substances.
Nanomaterials are making our lives better, its creators say. The US National Science Foundation predicts nanotechnology research will grow into a US $-trillion industry over the next 10 years.
But ly little is known about the potential health and environmental effects of the tiny particles. Just atoms wide, they are small enough to penetrate cells easily in lungs, brains and other organs. US bestseller "Prey", written by Michael Crichton, paints a doomsday in which a group of tiny nanomachines escapes the lab and threatens to take control of humanity.
Studies have shown that some nanoparticles can be poisonous to animal cells. There are fears that exposure can cause breathing problems, since nanoparticles could be taken in through the nose, causing unknown problems to brain cells. Scientists also fear that nanoparticles placed on the skin could damage DNA. "No one knows, and that's the problem," said Pat Mooney, director of the ETC Group. "People are rubbing them on the skin as sunscreens and as cosmetics."
Mooney's group is calling for products such as sunscreen, that are directly absorbed into the body to be _ taken _ off _ the _ shelf until they're proved safe. | high17361.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "Sense of smell."
},
"options": [
"Sense of smell.",
"Sense of touch.",
"Sense of sight.",
"Smart brains."
],
"question": "What do mosquitoes mainly use to find their targets?",
"question_type": null
},
{... | Mosquitoes have an extraordinary ability to target humans far away and fly straight to their unprotected skin. Regrettably,mosquitoes can do more than cause an itchy wound. Some mosquitoes spread several serious diseases,including Dengue,yellow fever and malaria.
Over one million people worldwide die from these diseases each year. New research now shows how mosquitoes choose who to bite.
Mosquitoes need blood to survive. They are attracted to human skin and breath. They smell the carbon dioxide gas,which all mammals breathe out. This gas is the main way for mosquitoes to know that a warm-blooded creature is nearby.
But mosquitoes also use their eyes and sense of touch. Michael Dickinson is a professor at the California Institute of Technology. His research shows how these small insects,with even smaller brains,use three senses to find a blood meal.
Michael Dickinson's team used plumes--a material that rises into the air of carbon dioxide gas into a wind tunnel. They then used cameras to record the mosquitoes. The insects followed the plume.
Then,the scientists placed dark objects on the lighter colored floor and walls of the tunnel. Mr. Dickinson said,at first,the mosquitoes showed no interest in the objects at all. "What was quite striking and quite surprising is that the mosquitoes fly back and forth for hours. These are hungry females and they completely ignore the objects on the floor and wall of the tunnel. But the moment they get a hit of CO2,they change their behavior quite obviously and now would become attracted to these little visual blobs ."
This suggested to the researchers that a mosquito's sense of smell is more important in the search for food. Once mosquitoes catch a smell of a human or animal,they also follow visual signals. | high11710.txt |
[
{
"answer": {
"answer_index": 0,
"answer_text": "his son was not as excited by the roller coasters ride as expected"
},
"options": [
"his son was not as excited by the roller coasters ride as expected",
"his songs enjoyed turns and circles with his face stretched",
"his son... | Every summer, no matter how urgent work schedule is, I take off one day exclusively for my son. We call it dad-son day. This year our third stop was the amusement panic, where we discovered that he was tall enough to ride one of the fastest roller coasters in the world. We experienced through face-stretching turns and circles for ninety seconds. Then, as we stepped off the ride, in a calm voice, he remarked that it was not as exciting as other rides he'd been on. As I listened, I began to sense something seriously out of balance.
Throughout the season, I noticed similar events all around me. Parents found it hard to find new stimulations for cold kids. Surrounded by ever-greater stimulation, their young feces were looking disappointed and bored
Facing their children's complaints of "nothing to do", parents were spending large numbers of dollars for various forms of entertainment In many cases the money seemed to do little more than buy relief from the terrible complaint of their bored children. This set me thinking the obvious question: "How can it be so hard for kids to find something to do when there's been such a range of stimulating entertainment available to them?"
What really worries me is the strength of the stimulation. I watch my little daughter's &ce as she absorbs bloody special effects in movies.
Why do children facing such excitement seem starved for more? Thai was, I realized, the point I discovered during my own adolescence that what creates excitement is not going fast, but going faster. Excitement has less to do with speed than changes in speed.
I am concerned about the increasing effect of years at these levels of feverish activity. It is no mystery to me why many teenagers appear uninterested and burned out, with a "been there, done that" air of indifference toward much of life. As increasing numbers of friends' children are advised to take medicine to deal with inattentiveness at school or anti-depressants to help with the loss of interest and joy in their lives--I question the role of kids' boredom in some of the diagnoses .
My own work is focused on the chemical imbalances and biological factors related to behavioral and emotional disorders. These are complex problems. Yet I've been reflecting more and more on how lie pace of life and the strength of stimulation may be contributing to the rising rates of psychological problems among children and adolescents in our society. | high3257.txt |
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