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Adding math talk to story time at home is a winning factor for children's math achievement, according to a new research from the University of Chicago. The study from psychologists Sian Beilock and Susan Levine shows a marked increase in math achievement among children whose families used Bedtime Math, an iPad app that delivers engaging math story problems for parents and children to solve together.
Even children who used the app with their parents as little as once a week saw gains in math achievement by the end of the school year. The app's effect was especially strong for children whose parents tend to be anxious or uncomfortable with math.
Previous research from this group has demonstrated the importance of adults' attitudes about math for children's math success. For example, a recent study found that math-anxious parents who help their children with math homework actually weaken their children's math achievement.
The new findings demonstrate that structured, positive interactions around math at home can cut the link between parents' uneasiness about math and children's low math achievement.
"Many Americans experience high levels of anxiety when they have to solve a math problem, with a majority of adults feeling at least some worries about math," said Beilock, professor in Psychology and author of Choke, a book about stress and performance. "These math-anxious parents are probably less likely to talk about math at home, which affects how competent their children are in math. Bedtime Math encourages a dialogue between parents and kids about math, and offers a way to engage in high-quality math interactions in a low-effort, high-impact way."
Study participants included 587 first-grade students and their parents. Families were given an iPad installed with a version of the Bedtime Math app, with which parents and their children read stories and answer questions involving math, including topics like counting, shapes and problem-solving. A control group received a reading app that had similar stories without the math content and questions related to reading comprehension instead. Children's math achievement was assessed at the beginning and end of the school year. Parents completed a questionnaire about their nervousness with math.
The more times parents and children in the math group used the app, the higher children's achievement on a math assessment at the end of the school year. Indeed, children who frequently used the math app with their parents outperformed similar students in the reading group by almost three months in math achievement at year's end. | Bedtime Math is an iPad app that _ . | encourages children together with their parents to solve math story problems | ['requires parents and children to answer reading comprehension questions', "assesses children's math achievement and parents' nervousness with math", 'teaches children how to count, recognize shapes and solve practical problems'] |
The computer is fast, and never makes a mistake, while people are too slow, and full of mistakes sometimes. That's what people often say when they talk about computers. For over a quarter of a century, scientists have been making better and better computers. Now a computer can do a lot of everyday jobs wonderfully. It is widely used in factories, hospitals, post offices and airports. A computer can report, decide and control in almost every field. Many computer scientists are now thinking of making the computer "think" like a man. With the help of a person, a computer can draw pictures, write music, talk with people, play chess, recognize voices, translate languages and so on. Perhaps computers will one day really think and feel. Do you think the people will be afraid when they find that the computer is too clever to listen to and serve the people? | Which of the following can computers not do now? | Invent new things. | ['Draw pictures.', 'Talk.', 'Serve the people.'] |
There was a time when la langue Francais was much easier than it is now ... hahaha . At this point there are just so many verbs to learn ( which I guess is just memorization , so that 's ok ) but there are also so many subtleties that are kind of crazy hard to memorize ... Anyway , on top of everything else it just frightens me , hahaha . Of course , in order to allieviate all of that overwhelming work , I probably should be DOING some of it right now ... | Why am I not doing any of the overwhelming work to learn la langue Francais ? | I am a chronic procrastinator . | ['I have already completed the work .', "I do n't have a lot to do to learn it .", 'I already know how to speak Francais .'] |
"Hey, guy."
"No, this is Ray." He smiled, leaned back in his chair.
It was, of course, Pete. Pete was the night shift guy at Crossroads Detox across town. Ray called it the Jesus Shop because it was wholly supported by a contingent of local churches who saw addicts as a potential ministry.
Apparently Jesus saved--not only from sin and hell, but also from Dark Eyed Jim Beam.
Pete was a relatively innocuous born again fundie who volunteered his time two or three nights a week. When he was not saving the world, his Clark Kent was actually a steady CPA job with the local H&R Block. He'd been pulling shifts for about six months, knew nothing about drugs beyond that bad people used them to escape their problems and that they were tools of Satan, and he always needed Ray's advice about one thing or another. This arrangement was not problematic as Pete had long ago given up trying to convert him. Pete was also the only guy in the city who was, as Ray figured it, making less money than he was at such an hour. In return for Ray's magnanimity, Pete had done Ray's taxes for free last year.
They had never actually met, though Ray had faxed him the tax forms and Pete had faxed back a photo of his two pre-teen daughters and his geriatric Lab.
"What's the problem?" Ray asked.
"I have a recalcitrant."
That's what he called them, the drunk and definitely disorderly. Pete's vocabulary did not include the word shithead either in its singular or plural.
"Pete, they're all like that. Alcohol is bad medicine. That's why places like ours are in business. To make them calcitrant."
"I know that." Pete sounded a little annoyed.
There was some commotion in the background, a knocking on doors. | Pete says: | "I have a recalcitrant." | ['"Alcohol is bad medicine."', 'not enough information', '"I can\'t do your taxes"'] |
For several days I saw little of Mr. Rochester. In the morning he seemed very busy with business, and in the afternoon gentlemen from the neighborhood called and sometimes stayed to dine with him. When his foot was well enough,he rode out a great deal.
During this time,all my knowledge of him was limited to occasional meetings about the house, when he would sometimes pass me coldly,and sometimes bow and smile. His changes of manner did not offend me,because I saw that I had nothing to do with the cause of them.
One evening,several days later,I was invited to talk to Mr.Rochester after dinner. He was sitting in his armchair, and looked not quite so severe,and much less gloomy,There was a smile on his lips, and his eyes were bright, probably with wine. As I was looking at him,he suddenly turned,and asked me,"Do you think I am handsome,Miss Eyre?
The answer somehow slipped from my tongue before I realized it: "No,sir."
"Ah, you really are unusual! You are a quiet, serious little person, but you can be almost rude."
"Sir, I'm sorry. I should have said that beauty doesn't matter,or something like that,"
"No,you shouldn't! I see,you criticize my appearance,and then you stab me in the back! You have honesty and feeling. There are not many girls like you. But perhaps I go too fast. Perhaps you have awful faults to counterbalance your few good points.
I thought to myself that he might have too. He seemed to read my mind,and said quickly,"Yes,you're right. I have plenty of faults. I went the wrong way when I was twenty-one,and have never found the right path gain. I might have been very different. I might have been as good as you,and perhaps wiser. I am not a bad man,take my word for it,but I have done wrong. It wasn't my character,but circumstances which were to blame. Why do I tell you all this? Because you're the sort of person people tell their problems and secrets to,because you're sympathetic and give them hope."
It seemed he had quite a lot to talk to me. He didn't seem to like to finish the talk quickly,as was the case for the first time.
"Don't be afraid of me,Miss. Eyre,"He continued. "You don't relax or laugh very much,perhaps because of the effect Lowood school has had on you. But in time you will be more natural with me,and laugh,and speak freely. You're like a bird in a cage. When you get out of the cage,you'll fly very high. Good night." | From what Mr. Rochester told Miss Eyre,we can conclude that he wanted to _ . | tell her his life experience | ['tell her all his troubles', 'blame her for misunderstanding him', 'change his circumstances'] |
We often hear people talking about a generation gap . The name is new,but the idea is old. Young people and their parents don't understand each other. The world has always kept changing. During the second century after Christ a wise man said, "Bury me on my face because in a little while everything will be turned upside down." There has always been a gap between generations, but more people talk about it now. Old Mr. Ellis thinks he understands what has happened. "When I was a boy, I thought the world was a beautiful place. My life was very pleasant. But when I was older, I learned about people who were treated badly, people who didn't have enough to eat. I wanted to help them, and I married a girl who wanted to help them, too. We went to meetings and talked a lot, but it didn't seem to make much difference. ""Our children grew up in a world at war. They didn't know when the fighting would stop. They wanted their children to have nice clothes and toys. They didn't want to think about the future. They thought nothing could be done about it." "Now I have grandchildren, and they have their own ideas. They are trying to make the world better. They are trying to help other people. They're making people listen to them. I am proud of their generation." | Which generation did NOT want to do anything to make the world a better one? | His children's generation | ["Mr. Ellis' generation", "His grandchildren's generation", 'None of the above.'] |
Obama also chided McCain for another new commercial that promises " change that we need . " " Sound familiar ? " said Obama , who has made " change " the central theme of his campaign . " Let me tell you , instead of borrowing my lines he needs to borrow some of my ideas . Change is n't about slogans . It 's about substance . " He also took a little poke at McCain 's running mate , Gov. | Why would Obama be talking about McCain like that ? | Obama is hoping to throw shade that will help them get elected . | ['None of the above choices .', 'Obama is commending the usages of slogans .', 'Obama wants to memorialize McCain after his death .'] |
Holidays
Holiday News
Vacancies now and in the school holidays at a country hotel in Devon. This comfortable, friendly home-from-home lies near the beautiful quiet countryside, but just a drive away from the sea. The food is simple but good. Children and pets are welcome. Reduced prices for low season.
The Snowdonia Centre
The Snowdonia Centre for young mountain climbers has a mountain climbing lesson. The beginners' costs are PS57 for a week, including food and rooms. Equipment is included except walking shoes, which can be hired at a low cost. You must be in good health and prepared to go through a period of body exercises. This could be the beginning of a lifetime of mountain climbing adventure.
The World Sea Trip of a Lifetime
Our World Sea Trip of 2008 will be unlike any holiday you have ever been on before. Instead of one hotel after another, with all its packing and unpacking, waiting and traveling, you just go to bed in one country and wake up in another. On board the ship, you will be well taken care of. Every meal will be first-class and every cabin like your home. During the trip, you can rest on deck , enjoy yourself in the games rooms and in the evening dance to our musical team and watch our wonderful play. You will visit all the places most people only dream about -- from Acapulco and Hawaii to Tokyo and Hong Kong. For a few thousand pounds, all you've ever hoped for can be yours. | What can you do if you like to go on holidays with pets? | Choose the holiday in Devon. | ['Go to the Snowdonia Centre.', 'Join the World Sea Trip of 2008.', 'Visit Acapulco and Hawaii.'] |
The sound of the clacking grew unbearable, so we turned the volume down.
"Mute it."
We muted it.
"Turn it up; we might miss something."
It's a silent movie. We won't miss anything.
The sound of clacking gradually fills the room as my brother reluctantly turns up the volume. I can tell he's pressing hard on the button, jamming his thumb down in defiance or muted anger. He doesn't like for anyone to tell him what to do with the remote. But my grandmother wants the volume up, so we turn it up.
We're all sitting along the edges of the tiny living room, staring at the fuzzy black-and-white images as they hazily walk across the television screen. I can hear a siren outside, barely discernable and then gone entirely.
"Who's that?" my brother asks, evidently past his momentary and barely-noticeable indignation over the remote.
"Uncle Arehl, and maybe his sister, Edna," my grandmother says, leaning in closer. "I think it's Edna," she says, in the tone of a doctor diagnosing a disease, as if the verdict was somehow relevant to someone who has only the vaguest idea who Arehl's sister is, or was. Uncle Arehl (I don't know precisely whose uncle he is, or for what the two initials of his name once stood) saunters slowly across a dry, patchy lawn, and the camera follows him. For some reason I'm more interested in the lawn--if it can be called that--than in the people on it. The sun in the movie is blazing, and everyone filmed looks only briefly at the camera before averting their faces once again to look at the stubbly grass. The camera pans once again and I can see an incredibly rutted path leading from the porch to the fence at the edge of the yard, broken pieces of concrete amid deep tire tracks fossilized in sun-baked mud. The fence is low, wire like a chain-link, but lower, with metal stakes holding it up instead of tubes. | Whose sister is Edna? | Arehl | ['Grandmother', 'Brother', 'not enough information'] |
The pen is more powerful than the sword. There have been many writers who use their pens to write things that were wrong. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe was one of them.
She was born in the U. S. A. in 1811. One of her books not only made her famous but has been described as one that excited the world, and was helpful in causing a civil war and freeing the enslaved race. The civil war was the American Civil War of 1861, in which the Northern States fought the Southern States and finally won.
This book that shook the world was called Uncle Tom's Cabin. There was a time when every English-speaking man, woman, and child had read this novel that did so much to stop slavery. Not many people read it today, but it is still very interesting, if only to show how a warm-hearted writer can arouse people's sympathies. The author herself had neither been to the Southern States nor seen a slave. The Southern Americans were very angry at the book, which they said did not at all represent the true state of affairs, but the Northern Americans were widely excited over it, and were so inspired by it that they were ready to go to war to set the slaves free. | What do we learn about Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe from the passage? | Before the civil war she had lived in the north of America. | ['Before the civil war she had been a slave.', 'She had a good school education.', 'She was better at writing than swinging a sword.'] |
I normally do not post certain types of things on my blog or on social media, like political messages, but today I feel compelled. I’ve been thinking for the last few days about the most recent school shooting in Parkland, and my overwhelming emotion right after grief is rage. I am so angry it makes me cry and for those of you out there who know me, angry-cry is the end-stage, top-of-the-gauge level of angry for me.
I am angry that as a nation, we continue to wring our hands and bemoan each mass shooting but we don’t take any action to stop the next one.
I am angry that our elected officials have failed us in the most spectacular way possible by being unable to work together or to set aside special interests to protect the lives and safety of Americans, including our most vulnerable citizens, our children.
I am angry that time and time again, we the people and our elected officials weigh the value of human lives against countless other things (Second Amendment, special interests, party disagreements, inertia, whatever) and the value of human life comes up short in the calculations.
I am angry at myself for believing at any point in the last several years that I could trust lawmakers to address this epidemic and I am angry at myself for feeling so helpless that I have not personally taken action. This stops now.
I am angry that in 2012, 20 6-7 year old children and 6 adults were murdered in Sandy Hook and in the 5+ years since, we have done nothing meaningful to stop this. To me, this is tantamount to saying that we as a nation are OK with this.
I don’t think we are, but that’s the message we’re sending if we don’t force our government to do something. According to the New York Times, there have been 239 school shootings nationwide since Sandy Hook with 438 people shot, 138 who died. | What is probably true about the author? | They are caring and thoughtful. | ['not enough information', 'They like do not like kids.', 'They are trusting of the government.'] |
This time, it is to be worn on wrists. Having already changed the way we communicate with its smartphones, Apple Inc released its next big thing on March 9 in San Francisco, US.
The Apple Watch, according to CNN, is "a simple rectangular shape with a range of stylish and useful wristbands." "The style is classic... in those respects it's up there with the top quality Swiss watches," commented the news outlet.
The watch will be available in nine places, including the US, the UK and China, from April 24. The starting price is $349 (2,186 yuan).
With six different designs and 30 or so wristbands, the gadget "sets the standard for smartwatches, in style," agreed The Brisbane Times,"but more importantly, in functionality ." "With the built-in speaker and microphone, you can receive calls on your watch. I have been wanting to do this since I was 5 years old," said Apple's chief executive Tim Cook.
In fact, anything you can do on the iPhone is there on the watch - e-mails, text messages, airline boarding services, and directions from Apple Maps. Using a home security app, you can keep an eye on your home from afar, or even open a locked door.
There are some features that have made Cook sure the watch is "our most personal device yet; a new chapter in the way we relate to technology". According to NPR, the watch taps you on the wrist to draw your attention to a message or a calendar reminder, and it can send a tap on the wrist to another Apple Watch wearer.
However, the watch can also do things that are just plain fun. You can send a real-time display of your heartbeat to another Apple Watch to "let someone know you are thinking about them."
Patrick Moorhead, a leading technology analyst in the US, described the tech company as "a master in the art of persuasion". "The secret weapon is the ability to message each other by tapping on the watch," he told The Associated Press. "I think people, particularly kids, are going to go nuts over that."
So far, though, the most impressive part of this new device is "the monitoring of the wearer's health and fitness," said AFP. It will even tap you on the wrist if you have been sitting down for longer than is good for your health. | How does the Apple Watch let wearers know there is a new message? | The watch taps the wearer on the wrist. | ['The watch beeps.', 'The watch sends out music.', 'The watch changes its screen color.'] |
A Child's History of the World
Our Price: $28.00
Item #: 010821
ISBN: 978-8-8828-7028-7
Grades: 4--Adult
Product Description
V. M. Hillyer, the first headmaster of Calvert School, spent many of his school years studying only American history. Believing that studying world history would broaden children's horizons and give them a better understanding of the world and history in general, he set out to write an understandable and comprehensive world history children could enjoy. A Child's History of the World functions to familiarize young children with some historical events and people of significance while reading like a good story. The subjects are covered in chronological order, from the beginning of the world through the end of the Cold War. This gives the child a linear view of world history that allows the details to be filled in later. A Child's History of the World is a basic reader and is not intended to be used as a supplementary reader.
Customer Reviews
This is a must-have book. It is a complete and engaging curriculum that is easy to use and understand. My girls are so close in age I was able to use it with all three at once and they loved it. And it's inexpensive! Love the way it is written.
Katrena R. from Shingle Springs, CA
This is a great book. Everyone (elementary/primary aged) should have this book in their homeschooling library. My kids (ages 4-9) have all enjoyed this book. It is engaging and well written for young ones. There is a lot of information packed into this book and it is presented in a way that is not boring for kids. It is kind of like The Story of the World.
Patrice T. from Seattle | We can know that A Child's History of the World _ . | was first used as a history textbook at Calvert School | ['included many original historical pictures', 'included many interesting historical details', 'was introduced to Calvert School by V. M. Hillyer'] |
So there was this one time when I had a car for a week and now it needs a new transmission . Son of a fucking bitch . It was fun while I had a fucking car . One whole fucking week to make me wish I never had one because now all I want is to get my car back . | Why is the narrator so upset with the car ? | The transmission broke . | ['The car lasted only a year .', 'The car transmission only lasted six months .', 'The transmission was very expensive .'] |
A cobbler passed his time in singing from morning till night; it was wonderful to see, wonderful to hear him; he was more satisfied in making shoes than anyone else. His neighbor, on the contrary, who was rolling in wealth, sang but little, and slept less. He was a banker; when by chance he fell into a sleep at day-break, the cobbler awoke him with his song. The banker complained sadly that God had not made sleep a saleable product, like foods or drinks. Then he visited the cobbler and asked him, "How much a year do you earn, Master Gregory?"
"How much a year, sir?" said the merry cobbler laughing, "I never count my income in that way, living as what I like from one day to another; somehow I manage to make the ends meet throughout the year; each day brings its meals."
"Well then! How much a day do you earn, my friend?" asked the banker continuously.
"Sometimes more, sometimes less; but the worst of it is that a number of days occur in the year on which we are forbidden to work, so we won't earn any money during these days, without which our earnings would be better."
The banker, who was laughing at the cobbler's simplicity, said that "In the future, I will satisfy what you want. Take the hundred coins, preserve them carefully, and make use of them in time of need."
The cobbler was very delighted and fancied that he possessed all the wealth which the earth had produced in the past century for the use of mankind. Returning home, he buried his money and his happiness at the same time. No more singing; he lost his voice. The banker could now have a sound sleep. However, at that moment, the cobbler realized that what he acquired now was the source of sorrow. Sleep broke up with him; and cares, suspicions, and false alarms took its place. All day, his eye wandered in the direction of the treasure, even at night, if some naughty cats made noises, he would think somebody was robbing him. At last, the poor man ran to the house of his rich neighbor; "Give me back," said he, "sleep and my voice, and take your hundred coins." | Why did the banker visit the cobbler? | Because he wanted to stop the cobbler from disturbing his sleep by not singing. | ['Because he liked the cobbler very much.', 'Because he wanted to know how much did the cobbler earn per year.', 'Because he wanted to make the cobbler richer.'] |
Paul knew that the plan was insane and probably illegal. Certainly the stuff he'd been helping Chloe and her gang of followers do for the last few hours was technically illegal. He'd asked them why they were helping him, what did they hope to gain? They'd told him that this is what they did for fun. Chloe assured him that they "lived for this kinda shit." Ok, fine. He could sort of see that. Once he was there, helping them come up with the plan and then actually carrying it out, it sure as hell was exciting - probably the most exciting thing he'd ever done.
Now that he was home and alone with his misgivings and paranoia, it all seemed like a really stupid idea. If it weren't for Chloe and her mesmerizing enthusiasm, there's no doubt that he wouldn't be doing this at all. But it was too late now. Or was it?
It was five in the morning when Paul got back to his apartment. He'd told Chloe that he wanted to get a few hours sleep before the big meeting, but he now realized that there was no way he was going to be able to relax. When he'd stepped out the door twenty-two hours earlier he'd still had his job and was looking forward to a showing the rest of the art team his new designs for some of the higher-level monsters he wanted to add to the game. Screw that, he thought, they're my monsters now. I'll use them somewhere else.
It could never work. How could it? Right then and there Paul decided that he was going to call the whole thing off. It wasn't too late. They hadn't done anything yet that wasn't reversible. No one had been hurt. No money had changed hands. No one had been lied to. If he called it off right now he could just move on and try and put the whole, sorry state of affairs behind him. | Who,"lived for this kinda shit".? | Chloe's gang | ['not enough information', 'Paul', 'Pauls friends'] |
Albert was an ordinary worker in an oil company in America. His workmates gave a nickname "Four dollars a bucket " to him, for he was always used to leaving an advertisement of his company "Four dollars a bucket of oil" below his name whenever and wherever he wrote down his name.
As time went by, people forgot his real name. Later, when Rockefeller, the board chairman of the oil company, heard of it, he was very surprised, so he invited Albert to come to his office.
"Some people give you a nickname for 'Four dollars a bucket'. Why aren't you angry?" asked Rockefeller with some puzzlement in his eyes.
"Oh! Mr. Rockefeller! I like this nickname very much, because 'Four dollars a bucket' is our company's advertisement. As long as someone calls me 'Four dollars a bucket' once, I think it's a free advertisement for our company. I have no reason to get angry. Don't you think so, Mr. Rockefeller?"
"Oh! What a fantastic man!" Rockefeller said excitedly when hearing Albert's words. "Young man, work harder! You must succeed in the future! I believe in you!"
Five years later, Albert became the second board chairman after Rockefeller.
Later Albert said in one of his reports, "I don't think we should feel frustrated when we have no way to do the world-shaking things. We should treat every thing actively because maybe our future success will begin from a small thing!" | What would be the best title for this passage? | Four Dollars a Bucket. | ['A Clever Way to Make Advertisements.', 'Albert and Rockefeller.', 'The Second Board Chairman.'] |
And then the bungee cord pulled me back into the sky . The place gave us several options for jumping . The swan dive , they said , was the easiest . You just jump , where as a Titanic position where they hold onto the back of your cord and then drop you is supposed to be scary . I elected to swan dive , not because it was easier . I felt that either way this was going to be terrifying . | What may happen after I jump ? | I will be glad that it is over . | ['I will think that the other jump may not be as easy .', 'None of the above choices .', 'I will elect to try the other jump .'] |
I learned yesterday that she drinks from the hose . Silly beast . I took some pics of her . None are very good but once I get the chord to hook my camera up to the laptop I 'll load them up . | Why did the narrator take a photo of the girl ? | He found it humorous . | ['None of the above choices .', 'He found it a serious issue .', 'He found it relevant to the investigation into the hose .'] |
Our last day with the kids is always sentimental and bittersweet , even though we did n't have to say our final farewell until after Family Night . We still had about 160 kids because of the strike and enjoyed our extra time . It was a " hard " day , as we had 3 team members who were sick . | How do I feel about the kids I work with ? | I will miss seeing them everyday after our final farewell . | ['None of the above choices .', 'I enjoy saying farewell and going on strike .', 'I think working with kids is a hard day .'] |
I love our cat , and really hope he continues to get healthy . I ' m not sure we can afford another treatment like we did last week . The total bill including Friday is really close to 2000 dollars . It really kinda freaks me out because hopefully in February we will truly be a single income house hold ( other than my coaching ) . | Why does the narrator spend so much on the medical bill ? | None of the above choices . | ['They love their son .', 'They love their coach .', 'They love their husband .'] |
On Christmas Eve Slawek Przekosniak received an SMS with these wishes: Wishing yo good ping super new". He didn't know who sent him that surprisingly enigmatic message. And he doesn't know to this day. A pity, because thanks to that person he reached his current status and number 67 on the list of the wealthiest Poles.
Back then, during that beautiful, rusty white Christmas Eve night, Przekosniak, who was rudely kicked out from a social network for utopian fanatics of extreme phobias (www.ilovefobia.pl) just a few days earlier, got an idea.
It was a quite good idea too, and the next SMS ("All at cart by unintentionally only honest lamb") convinced him it was the best idea of his life.
Slawek Przekosniak, together with a friend from ilovefobia.pl - Czesiek Ciag, decided to set up an on-line service, through which one could send SMS greetings to mobile phones. And the most important feature of the service was that texts of the wishes were not going to be predetermined and there would be no set list of pre-selected options. Messages would be created by a special software program from random words provided by a customer. Such a system would allow for truly unique greetings, and after all, nobody said they had to be comprehensible.
Czesiek took care of the development of the software, which for now they named "John of the Disc". Czesiek had suitable experience in the matter. While on the forum for (select as appropriate) phobics he designed an application, which created slogans for street protests. The application, even though it produced phrases completely illogical and nonsensical, became quite popular, and some of its most unique catchphrases you could have seen on TV - "Out With There Harm Out!" or "To Them Bag Away Now Now!"
Two future men of success got to work and the SMS greeting portal bestbestbest.pl went live just before Easter. | When did Slawek Przekosniak get kicked out from a social network for utopian fanatics of extreme phobias? | before Christmas Eve | ['After Christmas Eve', 'on Christmas Eve', 'not enough information'] |
I feel much better now : I feel like I know the campus a little better , though I am still learning my way around , and also I know that I have a social network here . There are people here who are willing to help me when needed , hang out with , and just be around . I did nt have such at Tarleton and that was a main component for why I was so unhappy there . | What happened to make me feel better ? | I made new friends | ['I went to Tarleton', 'I got lost on campus', 'I felt unhappy'] |
Thanks Richard for asking. Yes. I have something to tell. We have record rainfall during 24 hours in Lahore, breaking previous one day record by more than 60%. Our drainage system is pathetic. Other systems such as telephone, electricity, cable etc. are no better. Poor planning has further been aggravated by extremely mismanaged maintenance and operational bugs.
This morning, when I was out for our fajr (morning prayers) in masjid, a neighbor told me that the pole laden with electricity meters was under fire. After that he buzzed off for complaint office.
When I returned after prayers, I saw fire reaching cable part after meter; one meter had caught fire and other meters (including ours) was in danger of catching fire. It was still dark. I waited for someone to come out. No one appeared. I came inside and told my wife about and went again out to see if I could find someone to go about extinguishing fire. IT WAS DAM RISKY AS DIGGING WAS DONE BY TELEPHONE COMPANY AND RAINS HAD MADE A MESS ON OUR STREET. No one was seen.
My wife came out; brought hose pipe. I managed to use it as water gun and there was some post-extinguishing sparking; fire was put out. I want to add here that hose pipe should only be used when someone knows how to send bursts of water so that electric current cannot build a circuit.
Later in day we heard about the most stupid thing; people were inside their houses, watching flames from pole but not knowing what to do. THEY DID NOT EVEN COME OUT TO SHARE THE ACTIVITY.
That has happened today. I am going to ask everyone about it one by one. Also, I am still looking for the guy who went to complaint office and was never seen thereafter this morning.
That can happen to anybody. | How did the fire start? | not enough information | ['Lightning', 'Sparks from the phone box', 'An animal chewed through the phone wire'] |
Have you ever wondered whether it’s worth your while to encourage an older person to start exercising?
In 2014, the top-notch journal JAMA published the results of a fantastic research project: a study in which 1635 sedentary older adults (aged 70-89) were assigned to get either a structured exercise program, or a program of “successful aging” health education. The researchers called it the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders (LIFE) study. (You can read the full study here.)
During the LIFE study, the two groups were followed for a little over 2.5 years. And by the end of the study, guess which group of volunteers was more likely to still walk a quarter of a mile (without a walker)?
That’s right. When it came to avoiding “major mobility disability” — which the researchers defined as becoming unable to walk 400 meters or more — a structured exercise program was better than a program of healthy aging education.
Specifically, the researchers found that 30% of the exercisers experienced a period of major disability, compared to 35.5% of the seniors enrolled in the healthy aging education program.
This is a very encouraging finding! That said, it’s also a bit sobering to realize that even with exercise, almost 1 in 3 older adults experienced a period of limited mobility, of which half lasted 6 months or more.
In this post, I’ll share some more details on this study, because the results provide a wonderful wealth of information that can be helpful to older adults, family caregivers, and even geriatricians such as myself.
Want to know how often the exercisers experienced “adverse events”? (Hint: often!) Wondering just what the structured exercise program involved? (Hint: more than walking!)
Let’s dig into the details! At the end of this post, I’ll share my list of key take-home points for older adults and family caregivers.
Who were the study volunteers? Whenever you read about a research study, it’s important to understand how the study volunteers compare to the older adults in *your* life. One of the many things I love about this study is that they purposefully enrolled older adults who were sedentary, and physically vulnerable. | Who probably performed the research on the elderly that was published in JAMA? | not enough information | ['probably exercise physiologists and healthcare providers', 'probably teachers', 'probably engineers'] |
The city was gray but the buildings contrasted with dirt red. The morning settled my nerves a bit more and before long the train pulled into the station. Boston had a slower feel, much slower than New York. The air was cool and peppered with moisture. I knew I was close to the ocean. Vision blurry, I wobbled out of the train depot and thought about the fact that I had never really done anything crazy in my life.
The colors meant something here. Green was the color of plants but it was also the color of money. Plants were good but money was bad. I didn't know what green meant. Blue and red were clear though. Blue was the color of ocean and sky, both good things. Red was the color of Mars and it was manly but mars meant aliens and aliens were bad so red was bad. This is how I navigated. I followed the colors.
I was lost in a daze of exhaustion and moved my feet slowly. They were dead and raw with pain and blisters, and I shuffled out into the city.
My eyes darted from color to color, sign to sign, connection to connection. I floated like a ghost and thought about crying. There were few people out so I found a relative ease in that but my mind still jumped around reckless. I needed to find Kim.
I saw a silent pay phone with a dangling phonebook and headed towards it until I remembered that phone books don't normally list cell phones. Kim wasn't the type of girl to list herself in the phonebook either. I had no leads but I knew I could go to a library and maybe find out her number if she had listed it on Facebook, so I kept walking. Stopping at benches, I would rest until I could muster more energy. | How long the narrator was probably looking for Kim? | Few hours | ['Few dys', 'not enough information', 'Few years'] |
Perhaps the most famous theory, the study of body movement, was suggested by Professor Ray Birdwhistell. He believes that physical appearance is often culturally programmed. In other words, we learn our looks ---- we are not born with them. A baby has generally informed face features. A baby, according to Birdwhistell, learns where to set the eyebrows by looking at those around-family and friends. This helps explain why the people of some areas of the United States look so much alike, new Englanders or Southerners have certain common face features that cannot be explained by genetics . The exact shape of the mouth is not set at birth, it is learned after. In fact, the final mouth shape is not formed until well after new teeth are set. For many, this can be well into grown-ups. A husband and wife together for a long time often come to look alike. We learn our looks from those around us. This is perhaps why in a single country area people smile more than those in other areas. In the United States, for example, the South is the part of the country where the people smile most frequently. In New England they smile less, and in the western part of New York State still less. Many southerners find cities such as New York cold and unfriendly, partly because people on Madison Avenue smile less than people on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia. People in largely populated areas also smile and greet each other in public less than people in small towns do. | Ray Birdwhistell believes that physical appearance _ . | has much to do with culture | ['has little to do with culture', 'is ever changing', 'is different from place to place'] |
That day, my mother picked me up from school, wearing the yellow sundress and shawl I remembered from our trip with Father the year before. She looked just like she did most days back then--a glamour queen, a movie star ("Just like Lena Horne," my friend Chloe had once said, "only darker--oh, sorry, Leah!"), but today her beauty somehow had a harder, more defiant edge to it. I could smell the expensive Dior perfume as soon as I opened the door, which surprised me, because my mom was usually fastidious about not getting perfume on her clothes. She was wearing her bug glasses--huge dark things with lenses that bulged out like fly eyes and reflected my face like a fun-house mirror. She had tied a yellow silk scarf around her hair and was taking deep pulls on a cigarette held between two immaculately manicured fingers. Only I knew about the nicotine stains she carefully covered with her special order "forest sable" cream each morning.
Tiffany, a stupid but vicious senator's daughter who I had the misfortune of sharing a classroom with, suddenly dashed from inside the school, her face flushed.
"Hello, Mrs. Wilson," she called. Before my mother could respond, she giggled and ran back to three of her friends waiting beyond the door. I could hear them laughing, but I was glad I couldn't understand their words. They were all fascinated with my mother--the black housekeeper who dressed like Katharine Hepburn and drove a Cadillac, whose daughter's "light toffee" skin indicated that she might just like her coffee with a lot of cream.
Sometimes I hated those girls.
"Get in the car, Leah," my mother said. Her already husky voice was pitched low, as though she'd been crying. That made me nervous. Why was she here?
"Ma, Chloe was going to show me her dad's new camera. Can't I go home on the bus?"
My mom pulled on the cigarette until it burned the filter, and then ground it into the car ashtray--already filled with forty or so butts. She always emptied out the ashtray each evening. | What did the mother wear on her head? | A scarf | ['Bandana', 'Head band', 'not enough information'] |
Since the time when the Romans first settled on the Danube River and built one of their most important central European forts , Vindobona, the city we now know as Vienna, has played a very important role in European history. Austria grew up around the city and developed into a strong empire . The capital became a famous place during the rule of the Habsburg dynasty.
Today, Vienna is one of the most popular tourist spots in Austria as well as a major center of modern business and culture. Many different cultures have _ their cultural identities to produce the amazing Viennese culture. It is said that the most beautiful German is spoken in this old city.
A city of music, cafes, waltzes, parks, cakes, and wine -- that's Vienna. Famous composers such as Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert made Vienna into a city of music. Vienna also has a lot to offer in art and architecture. Yet the bars and clubs make a trip to Vienna an unforgettable experience. Vienna's cooking diversity is also impressive. Dumpling soup, tender boiled beef and apple rolls are typical Austrian dishes.
The face of the city has changed time and again due to war, victory, defeat, the death of an empire and the birth of a republic, foreign occupation , and the passage of time. Fortunately, the Viennese character --a strict devotion to the good life -- has remained solid. | What can we know about Vienna in the past? | Austria developed around this city. | ['It used to be a business center.', 'People there had beautiful voices.', 'There were some forts in this city.'] |
Millions of American kids come home to or leave an empty house every day. However, parents are increasingly using an existing technology -- home security systems -- to keep an eye on their "home-alone" children. In the early days of home security, the systems were basically designed just to keep the bad guys out. Now, many parents are also using them to make their children safe when they are at home alone. Below are some simple rules for adults to teach their children:
Every child should memorize his or her own full name and address, and home, work and cellphone numbers of each parent. Also keep this information posted next to the phone at home. If your child is too young to memorize the information, he or she may be too young to be home alone -- for any time.
Teach your child to observe things around him or her when he or she returns to the house. If a door or window is slightly open, the child has any reason to suspect someone has been in the house that shouldn't be, have him or her call you, then wait at a safe house a neighbor offers.
Warn your child never to answer the doorbell or telephone when they are home alone. Besides, set a rule that he or she must never play outside the house when no one else is at home.
Be sure he or she knows how to disarm and arm your home security system. Program your control panel to give you a message when your child enters or leaves the house, and arms or disarms the system. If your child forgets to rearm the system, you can call him or her with a personal reminder.
To learn more about home security systems that can help parents protect their "home-alone" children, visit www.ProtectAmerica.com. | Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage? | Children and adults should work together to use the system. | ['Parents are taking less care of their children.', 'Children are easy to forget numbers recently.', 'People should know the dangers caused by their neighbors.'] |
Rocky Lyons was five years old when his mother,Kelly,was driving along the country road with him.He was asleep on the front seat of their truck,with his feet resting on her lap.As his mom drove carefully down the winding country road,she turned onto a narrow bridge.The truck hit a rock and slid off the road.She attempted to bring it back up onto the road by pressing hard on the gas pedal and turning the steering wheel to the left.But Rocky's foot got caught between her leg and the steering wheel and she lost control of the truck.
The truck fell into a 20foot ravine .When it hit bottom,Rocky woke up."What happened,Mama?" he asked."Our wheels are pointing toward the sky."
Kelly was seriously wounded and blinded by blood."I'll get you out,Mama,"announced Rocky,who had surprisingly escaped injury.He climbed out from under Kelly,slid through the open window and tried to _ his mother out.But she didn't move.
"Just let me sleep," begged Kelly,who was out of consciousness.Rocky insisted,"Mom,you can't go to sleep."
Rocky managed to push Kelly out of the truck and told her he'd climb up to the road and stop a car to get help.Fearing that no one would be able to see her little boy in the dark,Kelly refused to let him go alone.Instead they slowly moved up to the road.The pain was so great that Kelly wanted to give up,but Rocky wouldn't let her.
Rocky kept repeating the inspirational phrase,"I know you can,I know you can."When they finally reached the road,Rocky broke into tears seeing his mother's torn face clearly for the first time.Waving his arms and shouting, "Please stop!" the boy stopped a truck.His mother was sent to hospital.
It took 8 hours to rebuild Kelly's face.She looks quite different today--"I used to have a straight long nose,thin lips and high cheekbones;now I've got a flat cheeks and much bigger lips"--but she has few scars and has recovered from her injuries.
Rocky's heroics were big news.Everyone was surprised at this little boy's power."It's not like I wanted it to happen," the boy explained."I just did what anyone would have done." "If it weren't for Rocky,I'd have died," said his mother. | When he woke up,Rocky _ . | found the truck was turned over | ['found his mother had fallen asleep', 'was stuck against the door of the truck', "was frightened by his mother's blood"] |
The office smelled like money. Brand new carpet, somebody's expensive perfume still hanging in the air. The chairs in the waiting room are leather and the copy machine has a million attachments and there's pictures on the wall that I don't know what they're supposed to be. Made me ashamed of the shirt I was wearing, the cuffs all frayed and some of the buttons don't match. The secretary is a knockout and I figure Dennis has got to be getting in her pants. Red hair and freckles and shiny skin that looks like she just got out of a hot shower. A smile like she really means it. My name was in the book and she showed me right on in. Dennis shook my hand and put me in a chair that was slings and tube steel. The calendar next to his desk had a ski scene on it. Behind him was solid books, law books all in the same binding, also some biographies and political stuff. "Too bad you couldn't make the reunion," Dennis said. "It was a hoot." "I just felt weird about it," I said. I still did. It looked like he wanted me to go on, so I said, "I knew there'd be a bunch of y'all there that had really made good, and I guess I...I don't know. Didn't want to have to make excuses." "Hard to believe it's been twenty years. You look good. I still wouldn't want to run into you in a dark alley, but you look fit. In shape." "I got weights in the garage, I try to work out. When you're my size you can go to hell pretty quick. You look like you're doing pretty good yourself." Charlene is always pointing to people on TV and talking about the way they dress. With Dennis I could see for the first time what she's talking about. The gray suit he had on looked like part of him, like it was alive. When I think about him in grungy sweats back at Thomas Jefferson High School, bent double from trying to run laps, it doesn't seem like the same guy. | What color was Dennis's suit? | gray | ['black', 'blue', 'not enough information'] |
Two European Summer Must 'Seas'
When you think of summer,the beach,clear water, sunny skies, and relaxing days are a few things that come to mind, and two of the best places to experience these summer feels are two gorgeous European bodies of water: the Mediterranean Sea and the Adriatic Sea! These two incredible Seas hold some of my favorite travel memories and I would revisit each one in a heart beat!
The Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea can be accessed from various European countries as well as a few North African countries. And while many think of visiting Ibiza, Malta, or the Greek islands to experience the Mediterranean, my Mediterranean beach days came while visiting the seaside city of Marseille in the South of France! Marseille was a lovely city with easy access to the Sea, also with pretty sandy beaches. The gorgeous crystal clear blue water made it unlike any beach day in America! Not only were the beaches amazing, but the city of Marseille was adorable and filled with numerous cute shops and seaside restaurants. And the Mediterranean-style food was delicious!
The Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is equally as stunning and surely worth a visit! The Croatian coast has numerous beach clubs, some private and some public, that tourists are able to visit and you can experience the beauty of the Adriatic Sea there! Zrce Novalja, a Croatian seaside town I visited, was impressively featured by the rather rocky beach in place of sand. The rocks were small and smooth, making swimming in the sea and wading in the water just as easy as sandy beaches! Plus the locals in Croatia are also extremely friendly, making the experience even more memorable. | What makes Zrce Novalja so special? | Its rocky beach. | ['Its beach clubs.', 'Its beautiful sea.', 'Its friendly locals.'] |
The Weekly Radio Concert
Date / Time: Sept. 5th, 2010 10:30 (Sun.)
Venue : Shanghai Concert Hall
Ticket Price (RMB): 50, 40, 30
Ticket State: On Sale Now
Booking Office: No. 272 Fengxian Road
Booking Hotline: 62172426, 62173055
Conductor: Chen Shouchang
Programme
1. Jasmine (Jiangsu folk song) Arranged by Chen Dan
2. Under the Silver Light (Xinjiang folk song) Arranged by Yang Hua
3. Wish good luck (Tibetan folk song) Arranged by Shu Yong Gang
4. Arirang Theme and Variations (North Korean folk song) Arranged by John Barnes Jones
5. No.5 Wind Suite (Various countries Dance) Arranged by Alfred Reed
I. Square dance (USA)
II. Sarabande (France)
III. Yamabushi Kagura (Japan)
IV. Hora (Israel / Romania)
6. Red River Valley (American / Canadian folk song) Arranged by J. D. Proyhal
JAZZ STARS -- Cantaloup Island
Date / Time: Sept. 8th, 2010 19:30 (Wed.)
Venue: Shanghai Concert Hall
Ticket Price (RMB): 80, 50
Ticket State: On Sale Now
Booking Office: No. 272 Fengxian Road
Booking Hotline: 62172426, 62173055
Performance: Shanghai Jazz Orchestra | Sophie decides to buy two tickets for the second concert at a lower price. How much will she pay? | 100 | ['60', '80', '160'] |
My husband and I were trying to conceive . We believed we were successful . I was showing all the signs . The only thing we had not done was take a test . | Why or what were they trying to conceive ? | A child . | ['None of the above choices .', 'A test .', 'A new idea .'] |
Everyone has got two personalities-the one that is shown to the world and the other that is secret and real. You don't show your secret personality when you're awake because you can control your behavior, but when you're asleep, your sleeping position shows the real you. In a normal night, of course, people frequently change their positions. The important position is the one that you go to sleep in.
If you go to sleep on your back, you're a very open person. You normally trust people and you are easily influenced by fashion or new ideas. You don't like to displease people. So you never express your real feelings. You're quite shy and you aren't quite sure of yourself.
If you sleep on your stomach, you are a rather secretive person. You worry a lot and you're always easily upset. You always stick to your own opinions or judgment, but you don't raise your hopes too much. You usually live for today not tomorrow. This means that you enjoy having a good time.
If you sleep curled up, you are probably a very nervous person. You have a low opinion of yourself and so you're often defensive. You're shy and you don't normally like meeting people. You prefer to be on your own. You're easily hurt.
If you sleep on your side, you have usually got a well--balanced personality. You know your strengths and weakness. You're usually careful. You believe in yourself. You sometimes feel anxious, but you don't often get sad. You always insist on what you think even if it makes people rather angry. | According to the passage, a person, who is not willing to change his mind and hard to deal with, probably sleeps _ . | on his side | ['on his back', 'curled up', 'on his stomach'] |
You have a nice salary, but you still feel short of money. At the end of each month, you often ask yourself, "Where has all my money gone"? To help you better run your salary, here come some money-saving tips.
First, you need to set goals to encourage yourself to save money. For example, you plan to have a good dress in one year, to have a car in two years' time or to buy a house in five years.
Second, form money-saving habits and stay away from the ones that waste money. Learn to keep a diary of how much you spend and what it's for. Think twice before using money on expensive skin care products . The best way to keep your skin in good condition is enough sleep.
Third, pay attention to your daily things. Leave no more than one light on when you leave home. Buy vegetables from a market where vegetables are less expensive and fresher, not a supermarket. When going to a supermarket, take a notebook with you. Write down what you want to buy.
Fourth, save your social life. Take the dishes that haven't been eaten up away for next day when you have dinner in a restaurant. When it's your turn to offer a meal, invite your friends to your home, and cook the dinner yourself. If you are to attend a party and an expensive present is needed, ask several friends to go together to share a present. | Which of the following does the author favor? | Enough sleep does good to skin. | ['Have some good skin care products.', 'All things in supermarkets are expensive.', 'Vegetables in a market taste good.'] |
Luckily I was not the target or victim of this road rage, but I was a first hand witness.
Back in the mid 1990s when I worked in Southern California, I was returning from lunch one day with a coworker when we noticed two pickup trucks driving erratically. This was on Valley View Blvd in Cerritos which is a large roadway divided (by a large, planted median strip) with 3 lanes on either side.
One truck seemed to be chasing the other when suddenly the lead truck made a quick U-turn and was followed by the second truck. But the second truck came to stop just after making the turn. This was when the driver of that truck got out, walked to the front of his vehicle, raised his arm holding a semi-automatic handgun, paused, and then fired a single shot.
At this point, I was parallel with the shooter’s truck and only about 50–60 feet from where he was standing. I remember my coworker exclaiming, “Oh sh*t! Did he just shoot at the something?!”
I floored my accelerator and sped off to my workplace which was about a 1/2 mile down Valley View Blvd. I parked and my coworker and I got into the building as quickly as we could.
While he started telling our other coworkers about what we had just witnessed, I ran to my desk, called 911, and reported the shooting. The dispatcher kept me on the line after my initial report and then transferred me to a detective in order to take down my information.
As it turns out, my information and the fact that I called 911 immediately resulted in the arrest of the shooter.
I was later asked to testify in court which resulted in the shooters conviction.
I lived in Southern California for 10 years and now I drive a commercial truck several days a week so I have PLENTY of other “road rage stories”, but this is still the craziest one. | The driver called 911: | after the incident | ['before the incident', 'not enough information', 'during the incident'] |
His eyes were open and his head bobbed around at an impossible angle. He was sitting in about forty feet of water, stone dead, one arm pinned between the rocks. As best I could tell, he had been dead when he landed there. The mud and ooze around him were as serene and smooth as he was. The cop who was assisting me swam over and made a palms up gesture. I shrugged back at him and began to work the body loose. The corpse had only one leg, and as I worked I wondered what he had been doing in the lake. I got the arm free and kicked toward the quicksilver surface above me. The body turned bloated and heavy when I broke water with it, and it took three of us to load it into the police launch. I dried off and got a coke out of the cooler. It was getting to be another Texas scorcher, and the sunlight bouncing off the surface of the lake felt like it had needles in it. My mouth was dry from breathing canned air and the carbonation burned like fire. Winslow, from the sheriff's office, sat down next to me. 'I appreciate this, Dan,' he said. 'No problem.' Sam Winslow and I had grown up together about twenty miles outside Austin in a little town called Coupland. We'd fought a lot as kids, and there were still plenty of differences in our politics and educations. But being on the police and fire rescue squad had brought me closer to him again, and I was glad of it. A private detective needs all the friends he can get. 'What do you make of it?' I asked him. 'Accidental drowning, looks like.' I raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. 'He's got a bump on the head that could have come off a rock. We'll see what the coroner says.' 'Any idea who he is?' Winslow shook his head. He'd gained weight in his face recently and his jowls vibrated with the gesture. | When did the murder happen? | not enough information | ['Two weeks ago', 'Today', 'Yesterday'] |
The air exploded in a flash of bone and steel and blood. The clash of metal rang through the forest. An arrow pierced through the darkness, its barbed head tearing through flesh and muscle. A roar echoed off of the mountains far to the west. A cry broke through soon after. Then silence. Char stood over a pile of black fur and red blood. He held a curved sword, jagged half way down the wide blade and hilted in bone. He held a large thick bow in the other. Lorfel and Ranur stood behind him, panting. Lorfel, a short man of twenty six held a large axe in both hands and still prepared to swing it hard. Ranur, the largest of the three held a pike in one hand, its tip hanging low towards the ground. He buried his other hand in his gray tunic. "Did it get either of you?" Char's voice rasped low in the silence of the night. "No" Lorfel said. He planted his axe head on the ground with a thud and leaned on the tall handle. There was a pause. Char turned towards Ranur. "Are you hurt?" "Mm...My hand." Ranur took his hand out of his tunic. Moonlight gleamed red off of the ragged wound. Char thought he saw a glimmer of bone. "Did he claw you or bite you?" Char's voice held an urgency that set both Lorfel and Ranur on edge. Ranur paused and then spoke low. "He bit me." Char picked Lorfel and Ranur as his hunting partners for their speed and sharpness in battle. They had hunted beasts of the deep woods all of their lives. They hunted the beasts that hunted men. They all knew the risks of battling such creatures. The old man dropped his curved sword, drew his bow, and fired. The arrow hammered into Ranur's chest, burying itself in his heart. Lorfel saw the gleaming arrow head sticking almost a foot out of his companion's back. Ranur fell face first to the ground. | What was done with Ranur's body? | not enough information | ["left abandoned along with the beasts's corpse", 'burned to avoid spreading disease', 'buried in the ground'] |
One student started packing up at the beginning of a lab exercise. I asked him where he was going. He said “I’m going to fail this class anyway, so I have other things to do.” It was true that he wasn’t doing well, and we had addressed this previously, but his attitude was completely defeatist. He had given up.
So, there, in the middle of class, before he could get away, I said “Well, yeah. You will certainly fail if you don’t even try. I thought you were graduating at the end of this semester.”
“I’m supposed to, but I won’t, because I’m going to fail physics. All I need is a D.” (He was right; his major didn’t require knowing any physics but they put it in the curriculum as a kind of gatekeeper course. Most students took physics much earlier in their studies than he did.)
“If you have already decided to fail, I can’t stop you; you’re an adult. But you can make an appointment with me anytime. You already know that. You can email me. It’s my job to help you understand, but you have to come to me. You are an adult. It would be very inappropriate of me to follow you around, inviting you to office hours. And you must do the homework and the labs.”
He stayed for the lab. I notified his counselor about what was going on, and she called him in and said the same things that I said.
Next class he moved from the seat at the edge of my peripheral vision, to the middle, started working his ass off, and he passed. For a while I thought he was closing in on a C, but he got his D and graduated.
And I didn’t give him anymore of a grading break than I give any of my students. | Who is the teacher? | not enough information | ["The student's class supervisor", "The student's lab technician", "The student's physics teacher"] |
Market analysts in the United States have recently been quoted as saying that the biggest threat to the luxury industry in the US is the tech industry. This is according to an article by fellow journalist Ashley Lutz. Her suggestion is sound. The main idea of her article is that products from Tiffany & Co. find their biggest competition not from other luxury brands but from companies like Apple. Lutz points out that luxury products are often only for "show," while the attraction behind tech products is functionality.
You find few people in the United States today willing to purchase luxury goods at full price. It didn't use to be that way. Luxury goods used to be actually _ . That meant you needed to travel to the right store to purchase them, and you didn't even have the option of getting a deal.
Today, no one wants to pay full price for luxury goods. People have the unfortunate belief that fakes somehow are equal to originals, and if you can't get a deal on eBay, Amazon, or in an outlet store, purchasing a luxury product probably isn't worth it. Luxury brands struggle to remain high-end images despite the reality that the American consumer is motivated much more by discounts than they are by brand names or image.
Yet people stand in line to pay full price for a new product from Apple and crowds gather to hear about a new smart phone. While electronics are updating every day, people are purchasing technology at full prices much more than they are purchasing luxury goods. What are high-tech makers doing right that luxury makers are pitifully failing at?
Carefully looking at the situation, it would appear as if the Internet didn't hurt the luxury industry, expectation from the consumers did. What people want these days more than anything is stuff that does something. They want cars that drive, shoes that are comfortable, games that are fun to play, screens that are beautiful to look at, tools that are useful, and entertainment that is entertaining. Little of that fits into what the luxury industry has typically offered with its status, image, and fine materials. The sad reality is that luxury products aren't that luxury any more. | What do people pay most attention to nowadays? | The function of products. | ['The Internet service.', 'The images of luxuries.', 'The expectation from the consumers.'] |
ASK any group of teenagers in the UK what they most like to eat, and foods like pizzas, curries, pasta, burgers and chips are bound to get a mention - and many young people would probably also list hanging out at the local fast-food restaurant as one of their favorite pastimes.
But what teenagers like to eat is not necessarily what they should be eating. According to the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, far too many young people in the UK between the ages of four and 18 consume too much fat, sugar and salt in their diet and take in too many calories. Meanwhile their intake of starchy carbohydrates , fibre, iron, vitamins and calcium is too low.
For a growing body, eating foods containing plenty of calcium, such as milk, yoghurt and cheese, is particularly important as calcium is essential for the development of healthy, strong bones. Similarly, foods that are rich in iron are good for young, rapidly developing bodies, so red meat, bread, green vegetables, dried fruit and fortified breakfast cereals are also recommended.
It is during our teenage years that lifestyle habits can become entrenched , so it is important that young people are educated about what foods are good for them. In 2005, in an attempt to change eating habits and open teenagers' minds to new flavors and new tastes, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver launched a 'Feed Me Better' campaign. As part of a television series, 'Jamie's School Dinners', he worked with teachers and cooks in a number of schools across the UK to provide more healthy, nutritious school meal options. Although the campaign was rather resisted at the beginning, it was generally regarded as a huge success and helped to influence governmental policy on nutritional standards for school meals.
No one expects to end the teenage love affair with fast and junk food but, hopefully, if projects like 'Feed Me Better' and the Government's own 'Change4Life' campaign continue to give out the right messages, more young people will understand the importance of balancing occasional treats with healthier food options. | According to the article, Jamie Oliver launched a campaign at schools to _ . | improve the children's diet at school | ['show off his excellent cooking skills', 'teach students how to cook nutritious meals', 'make the public keep an eye on school food'] |
Dumped the ex , and well , his work schedule makes it so he gets 5 days off after 10 days of work , so I only get to see him then . He 's actually based in a city about 7 hours away . Still , he 's been back to see me , or met me in the middle every time , except this last one . | What may be the reason for seeing their ex after they broke up ? | They still love one another . | ['None of the above choices .', 'They need to get the child support .', 'They need to return their things to them .'] |
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These are special low-priced tickets on certain trains. Yon have to book in advance----- at the latest by 16:00 the day before you travel. It's first come, first served.
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Family Returns
For PS20 this railcard allows you to take a second adult and up to 4 children for only PS3 each when you buy single or return tickets. You can travel as often as you like until the card becomes out of date. (200 words.3min.) | A man bought himself a ticket of PS15 and three tickets for his family with a family railcard.How much did he pay? | PS24 | ['PS44', 'PS29', 'PS15'] |
My grandmother , who bought my sister 's car ( and every car she 's had previous [ about 4 ] ) , said she was tired of it and that she was going to sell the car since it was in her name anyway . Brittany initially told my mom " I do n't care , let her sell it . I ' ve been telling y ' all to sell it for the longest time anyway . | What 's going to happen in a few months ? | The automobile will be sold . | ['The grandmother will pass away .', 'The grandmother will leave .', 'The automobile will be bought .'] |
"Well, what did I say?Buck's a real fighter, all right," said Francois the next morning when he discovered that Spitz had disappeared and that Buck was covered in blood.
"Spitz fought like a wolf," said Perrault, as he looked at the bites all over Buck.
"And Buck fought like ten wolves," answered Francois. "And we'll travel faster now. No more Spitz,no more trouble."
Francois started to harness the dogs. He needed a new lead-dog, and decided that Solleks was the best dog that he had. But Buck jumped at Solleks and took his place.
"Look at Buck!" said Francois,laughing. "He's killed Spitz,and now he wants to be lead-dog.Go away, Buck!"
He pulled Buck away and tried to harness Solleks again.Solleks was unhappy too. He was frightened of Buck, and when Francois turned his back,Buck took Solleks' place again. Now Francois was angry.
"I'll show you! " he cried,and went to get a heavy club from the sledge.
Buck remembered _ ,and moved away. This time,when Solleks was harnessed as lead-dog,Buck did not try to move in.He kept a few meters away and circled around Francois carefully. But when Francois called him to his old place in front of Dave, Buck refused.He had won his fight with Spitz and he wanted to be lead-dog.
For an hour the two men tried to harness him.Buck did not run away,but he did not let them catch him.Finally,Francois sat down,and Perrault looked at his watch.It was getting late. The two men looked at one another and smiled. Francois walked up to Solleks,took off his harness, led him back and harnessed him in his old place.Then he called Buck. All the other dogs were harnessed and the only empty place was now the one at the front. But Buck did not move.
"Put down the club," said Perrault.
Francois dropped the club, and immediately Buck came up to the front of the team.Francois harnessed him, and in a minute the sledge was moving.
Buck was an excellent leader. He moved and thought quickly and led the other dogs well. A new leader made no difference to Dave and Solleks; they continued to pull hard.But the other dogs had had an easy life when Spitz was leading.They were surprised when Buck made them work hard and punished them for their mistakes. Pike,the second dog,was usually lazy;but by the end of the first day he was pulling harder than he had ever pulled in his life. The first night in camp Buck fought Joe,another difficult dog,and after that there were no more problems with him.The team started to pull together,and to move faster and faster.
"I've never seen a dog like Buck!" cried Francois, "Never! He's worth a thousand dollars. What do you think, Perrault? "
Perrault agreed.They were moving quickly,and covering more ground every day. The snow was good and hard,and no new snow fell.The temperature dropped to 45degC below zero, and didn't change.
This time there was more ice on the Thirty Mile River, and they crossed in a day.Some days they ran a hundred kilometers,or even more. They reached Skagway in fourteen days; the fastest time ever. | Which of the following is the best title for the passage? | The New Lead-dog | ['The Fight with Dogs', 'A Dog Called Buck', 'A Real Fighter'] |
I was doing a weekend seminar at the Deerhurst Lodge, north of Toronto. On Friday night a tornado swept through a town north of us called Barrie, killing dozens of people and doing millions of dollars worth of damage. Sunday night, as I was coming home, I stopped the car when I got to Barrie. I got out on the side of the highway and looked around. It was a mess. Everywhere I looked there were smashed houses and cars turned upside down.
That same night Bob Templeton was driving down the same highway. He stopped to look at the disaster just as I had; only his thoughts were different than my own. Bob was the vice-president of Telemedia Communications, which owns a string of radio stations in Ontario and Quebec. He thought there must be something we could do for these people with the radio stations they had.
The following night I was doing another seminar in Toronto. Bob Templeton and Bob Johnson, another vice-president from Telemedia, came in and stood in the back of the room. They shared their conviction that there had to be something they could do for the people in Barrie.
After the seminar we went back to Bob's office. He was now committed to the idea of helping the people who had been caught in the tornado.
The following Friday he called all the executives at Telemedia into his office. At the top of a flip chart he wrote three 3s. He said to his executives, "How would you like to raise 3 million dollars 3 days from now in just 3 hours and give the money to the people in Barrie?" There was nothing but silence in the room.
Finally someone said, "Templeton, you're crazy. There is no way we could do that."
Bob said, "Wait a minute. I didn't ask you if we could or even if we should. I just asked you if you'd like to."
They all said, "Sure we'd like to." He then drew a large 'T' underneath the 333. On one side he wrote, "Why we can't." On the other side he wrote, "How we can."
"I'm going to put a big X on the 'Why we can't' side. We're not going to spend any time on the ideas of why we can't. That's of no value. On the other side we're going to write down every idea that we can come up with on how we can. We're not going to leave the room until we figure it out." There was silence again.
Finally, someone said, "We could do a radio show across Canada."
Bob said, "That's a great idea," and wrote it down. Before he had it written, someone said, "You can't do a radio show across Canada. We don't have radio stations across Canada." That was a pretty valid objection. They only had stations in Ontario and Quebec.
Templeton replied, " _ ." But this was a real strong objection because radio stations are not very compatible . They usually don't work together. They are very cutthroat. They fight each other. To get them to work together would be virtually impossible according to the standard way of thinking.
All of a sudden someone said, "We could get Harvey Kirk and Lloyd Robertson, the biggest names in Canadian broadcasting, to anchor the show." (That would be like getting Tom Brokaw and Sam Donaldson to anchor the show. They are anchors on national TV. They are not going to go on radio.) At that point, it was absolutely amazing how fast and furious the creative ideas began to flow.
That was on a Friday. The following Tuesday they had a radiothon . They had fifty radio stations all across the country that agreed to broadcast it. It didn't matter who got the credit as long as the people in Barrie got the money. Harvey Kirk and Lloyd Robertson anchored the show and they succeeded in raising three million dollars in three hours within three business days!
You see, you can do anything if you put your focus on how to do it rather than on why you can't. | We can conclude from the passage that Bob Templeton is _ . | compassionate and determined | ['stubborn and simple-minded', 'independent and strong-willed', 'passionate and stubborn'] |
But I was n't . I worried about incompatible goals . Assume , for sake of discussion , that the business in question is doing very well right now , supporting the family , growing well , and keeping its owner involved and happy . I 'd thought he 'd at least want to continue doing that for a long time , nurturing his business baby , keeping it healthy but also keeping it his . | Why is the narrator seemingly content at the moment ? | Their business is growing . | ['None of the above choices .', 'They have no more goals to reach .', 'They accomplished all their goals .'] |
Of all the areas of learning the most important is the development of attitudes. Emotional reactions as well as logical thought processes affect the behavior of most people.
"The burnt child fears the fire" is one instance; another is the rise of figures like Hitler. Both these examples point up the fact that attitudes come from experience. In the one case the experience was direct and impressive; in the other it was indirect and gradual.
The classroom teacher in the elementary school is in strategic position to influence attitudes. This is true partly because children acquire attitudes from those adults whose word they respect.
Another reason it is true is that pupils often search somewhat deeply into a subject in school that has only been touched upon at home or has possibly never occurred to them before. To a child who has previously acquire little knowledge of Mexico, his teacher's method of handling such a unit would greatly affect his attitude toward Mexicans.
The teacher can develop proper attitudes through social studies, science matters, the very atmosphere of the classroom, etc. However, when children come to school with undesirable attitudes, it is unwise to attempt to change their feelings by criticizing them. The teacher can achieve the proper effect by helping them obtain constructive experience.
To illustrate, first-grade pupils, afraid of policemen will probably change their attitudes after a classroom talk with the neighborhood officer in which he explains how he protects them. In the same way, a class of older children can develop attitudes through discussion, research, outside reading and all-day trips.
Finally, a teacher must constantly evaluate her own attitudes, because her influence can be harmful she has personal prejudices. This is especially true in respect to controversial issues and questions of which children should be encouraged to reach their own decisions as result of objective analysis of all the facts. | The author uses the phrase "the burnt child fears the fire" in order to _ . | exemplify the opinion that attitudes come from experience | ['stress the importance of keeping child from the fire', 'illustrate the important role of attitudes towards study in the early childhood', 'none of the above'] |
The English, as a race, are very different in many ways from all other nationalities, including their closest neighbors, the French, the Belgians and the Dutch. It is claimed that living on an island separated from the rest of Europe has much to do with it. Whatever the reasons are, it may be fairly stated that the Englishman has developed many attitudes and habits which distinguish him from other nationalities.
Broadly speaking, the Englishman is a quiet, shy, reserved person who is fully relaxed only among people he knows well. In the presence of strangers or foreigners he often seems _ , even embarrassed. You have only to witness a city train any morning or evening to see the truth of this. Serious-looking businessmen and women sit reading their newspapers or having a light sleep in a corner, and no one speaks. In fact, to do so would seem most unusual. An Englishman, pretending to be giving advice to overseas visitors, once suggested, "On entering a railway carriage, shake hands with all the passengers." Needless to say, he was not being serious. There is an unwritten but clearly understood code of behavior which, if broken, makes the person immediately suspected.
In many parts of the world it is quite normal to show openly extremes of enthusiasm, emotion, excitement, etc, often accompanied by appropriate gesture. The Englishman is somewhat different. Of course, an Englishman feels no less deeply than anyone of a different nationality, but he tends to display his feelings far less. This is reflected in his use of language. Imagine a man commenting on the great beauty of a young girl. A more emotional man might describe her state "Oh, she is a goddess", whereas an Englishman might just say "Oh, she's all right." An Englishman who has seen a highly successful and enjoyable film recommends it to a friend by commenting, "It's not bad you know", or on seeing some very unusual scenery he might convey his pleasure by saying, "Nice, yes, very nice." The overseas visitor must not be disappointed by this apparent lack of interest and involvement. Instead, he must realize that "all right," "not bad," and "nice," very often have the sense of "first-class," "excellent," "beautiful". This unique style of language use is particularly common in England, and is known as restrained statement. | If an Englishman says "all right", it may mean " _ ". | wonderful | ['not bad', 'correct', 'quite right'] |
MUMBAI - Indian commandos battled into the early hours of Friday to end a multiple hostage crisis in Mumbai after suspected Islamic militants killed 125 people across the city.
Officials said they had almost totally cleared the luxury Taj Mahal hotel where gunmen had been held up for more than 24 hours.
Indian security forces personnel released hostages from Nariman House in Mumbai.Thirty-nine people were rescued from the five-star Oberoi hotel, where "mopping up " operations were still underway, police said.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the militants had come from "outside the country."
The Press Trust of India said one Pakistani militant had been arrested, although Pakistan's government fiercely denied any involvement.
Indian media reports said between six and nine foreign nationals were among the dead in Mumbai -- including a Japanese businessman, an Australian, a Briton , a German and an Italian.
At least five gunmen had been shot dead and one captured, police said.Fourteen security personnel were also killed, including the head of Mumbai's anti-terror squad.
To draw maximum international attention, the militants used small groups to attack a total of about a dozen targets in India's financial hub , including the main railway station, a hospital and a restaurant popular with tourists.
An unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahedeen claimed responsibility, with one gunman telling an Indian TV channel by phone that the outfit was of Indian origin and motivated by the treatment of Indian Muslims.
Up to 327 people were reported wounded.
The main Bombay Stock Exchange was closed until further notice, as were shops, schools and businesses.
Prime Minister Singh said the aim had clearly been to spread panic by choosing high profile targets and "indiscriminately killing foreigners."
Witnesses said the gunmen had been very particular in their choice of hotel hostages."They said they wanted anyone with British and American passports," said one British guest at the Taj Mahal hotel. | The following statements are NOT true except _ . | the target of the attack was obviously on Britons and Americans | ['thirty-nine hostages were rescued from the Taj Mahal Hotel', 'fourteen gunmen were killed in Nariman House', 'an American was among the killed foreigners'] |
Because everyone I know or have seen online says to play the Jill scenario first . Because she has more inventory space , or a grenade launcher from the start , or whatever . So , just to thwart what everyone 's said , I ' m going through the Chris one first . | Why are some wary of Jill ? | She has weapons . | ['She has a rivalry with Chris .', 'She has a rivalry with Claire .', 'None of the above choices .'] |
She 'd lost her mobile , & has n't yet given us her new number . Has she received the card ? Will she ever contact us about collecting / delivering this dress ? Will the weather ever be suitable for her to wear it ? | Why had we not heard from her ? | None of the above choices . | ['She was sleeping .', 'She was too busy to call .', 'She was mad and avoiding us .'] |
My doctor named them all yesterday and there are a lot of sinus cavities . Anyway , it appears as though my body has decided to GROW BACK SOME POLYPS . This has caused a persistent cough ( we 're talking off and on since FEBRUARY persistent ) and may be the reason for my behind - the - eyes headaches ( like the massive one I have right now ) . And so not only do I have to use a nasal spray ( ew ) , but I have to see my Ear , Nose , & Throat doctor again and see if I might need another scooping . | What part of my body may be currently sick ? | My nose | ['My eyes', 'My ears', 'My mouth'] |
A man named Smith was sitting on his roof during a flood, and the water was up to his feet. Before long a fellow in a canoe passed and shouted, "Can I give you a lift to higher ground?"
"No, thanks," said Smith. "I have faith in God and he will save me."
Soon the water rose to Smith's waist.(,) At this point a motor boat pulled up and someone called out, "Can I give you a lift to higher ground?"
"No, thanks, I have faith in God and he will save me."
Later a helicopter flew by, and Smith was now standing on the roof with water up to his neck. "Grab the rope, "shouted the pilot. "I'll pull you up."
"No, thanks," said Smith. "I have faith in God and he will save me. "But after hours of struggling with water, poor exhausted Smith drowned and went to his reward. As he arrived at the Pearly Gates, Smith met God and complained about this. "Tell me, God, "he said, "I had such faith in you to save me and you let me drown. What happened?"
To which God replied, "What do you want from me? I sent you two boats and a helicopter." | When the pilot asked Smith to grab the rope, _ . | Smith didn't do so | ['Smith pulled the pilot up', 'Smith did so', "Smith didn't hear him"] |
How to deal successfully with a child who shows outstanding musical ability?It's not always clear how best to develop and encourage his gift.Many parents may even fail to recognise and respond to their children's need until frustration explodes into difficult or uncooperative behaviour.And while most schools are equipped to deal with children who are specially able in academic subjects,the musically gifted require special understanding which may not always be available in an ordinary school--especially one where music is regarded as a secondary activity.Such children may well benefit from the education offered by a specialist music school.
The five music schools in Britain are a relatively recent introduction.They aim to provide an environment in which gifted children aged between seven and eighteen can develop their skills to the full under the guidance of professional musicians.
Children at specialist music schools spend between one third and one half of an average day on musical activities,for example,individual lessons,orchestras,chamber groups,voice training,conducting and theory.They also spend several hours a day practising in properly equipped private rooms,sometimes with a teacher.The rest of their time is taken up with the subjects:English,maths,basic sciences and languages.All five British specialist schools are independent,classes are small by normal school standards,with a high teacher/pupil ratio .Most children attending specialist schools tend to be boarders,leaving home to live,eat and sleep fulltime at school.
What are the disadvantages?An obvious problem is the cost;the fees are high(PS12,000PS17,000 a year for boarders).However,each school will make every effort with scholarships and other forms of financial assistance,to help parents of outstandingly gifted children to find the necessary fees.Secondly,not all parents want to send their children to boarding school,especially at a very early age.Almost all the directors of the specialist schools express doubts about the wisdom of admitting children as young as seven into such an intense and disciplined environment.They stress,however,that their main aim is to turn out "rounded and wellbalanced" individuals.
There is little doubt that setting musically gifted children apart from an early age can cause stress.Early signs of musical ability may disappear in their teenage years,while natural competitiveness and the pressure to succeed can lead to a deep sense of failure.But all specialist schools do keep a close watch on the progress of individual pupils,and offer help and advice if needed. | What do most school directors see as a possible disadvantage for pupils? | They may not be mature enough on arrival. | ['Poor children may not be included.', 'They may lose their individuality.', 'There may be a discipline problem.'] |
Some people were killed when a huge explosion hit an industrial area of China, injuring hundreds of people. The explosion is believed to have come from a shipment of explosive inside a warehouse at about 11:30 pm local time (5:30pm in Britain) in the north-eastern city of Tianjin.
Videos of the accident showed fires lighting up the night sky, raising dust dozens of feet into the air, and people nearby said the explosion had broken windows. Tianjin resident Zhang Siyu, who lives several miles away from the accident site, said, "I thought it was an earthquake, so I rushed downstairs without my shoes on. Only once I was outside did I realize it was an explosion. There was the huge fireball in the sky with thick clouds. Everybody could see it."
Post on Chinese social network Weibo showed a fireball shooting into the air and as least two separate explosions, while photos showed people in the street apparently covered in blood. Others image showed children being carried in blankets to safety.
It was reported that the two explosions happened within 30 seconds of each other and about 100 fire trucks were sent to the scene, with most of the injuries caused by broken glass and stones. The firm running the warehouse was named by local media as Ruihai Logistics. The company says on its website that it was set up in 2011. It says it handles one million tons of cargos per year.
The National Earthquake Bureau reported two major explosion before midnight local time---the first with an amount of 3 tons of TNT , and the second with an amount of 21 tons. Six thousand firefighters brought the terrible fire under control, although it was still buring . It was reported that the firefighters were combing the neighborhood for the possible injured. | When did the fire break out by Beijing time? | At 11:30 pm | ['At 11:30 am', 'At 5:30 pm', 'At 5:30 am'] |
Is a mouse that can speak acceptable? How about a dog with human hands or feet? Scientists, the people with the know-how to make such things happen, are now thinking about whether such experiments are morally right or not.
On Nov. 10, Britain's Academy of Medical Sciences launched a study on the use of animals with human materials in scientific research. The work is expected to take at least a year, but its leaders hope it will lead to guidelines for scientists in Britain and around the world on how far _ can go mixing human genes into animals in search of ways to fight human diseases.
"Do these constructs challenge our idea of what it is to be human?" asked Martin Bobrow, a professor of medical genetics at Cambridge University and chair of a 14-member group looking into the issue. "It is important that we consider these questions now so that appropriate boundaries are recognized."
Using human material in animals is not new. Scientists have already created monkeys that have a human form of the Huntingdon's gene so they can study how the disease develops; and mice with livers made from human cells are being used to study the effects of new drugs.
However, scientists say the technology to put ever greater amounts of human genetic material into animals is spreading quickly around the world --- raising the possibility that some scientists in some places may want to go further than is morally acceptable.
Last year in Britain there was a lively debate over new laws allowing the creation of human-animal embryos for experiments. On one side of the debate were religious groups, who claimed that such science interferes with nature. Opposing them were scientists who pointed out that such experiments were vital to research cures for diseases.
The experts will publish reports after the end of the study, in which they will give definitions for animal embryos with human genes or cells, look at safety and animal welfare issues, and consider the right legal framework to work within. | We can infer from the passage that _ . | the creation of human-animal embryos for experiments is legal in Britain | ['the experts will release reports after the study', 'scientists have never doubted the use of animals with human materials', 'religious groups hold that cures for diseases have to be done through experiments'] |
WHITE HOUSE — U.S. President Donald Trump told a group of Republican lawmakers at a meeting Tuesday he backs a pair of their immigration bills under consideration in the House of Representatives.
The meeting came as criticism continued over the Trump administration's policy of separating children from their parents and other adults at the southern border with Mexico as they illegally enter the United States.
In his remarks to lawmakers, according to White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah, Trump "endorsed both House immigration bills that build the wall, close legal loopholes, cancel the visa lottery, curb so-called "chain migration," and solve the border crisis and family separation issue by allowing for family detention and removal."
Republican Rep. Mark Meadows said Trump told the lawmakers they need to get something done on immigration "right away."
House Homeland Security chairman Michael McCaul described the meeting with Trump as excellent, and confirmed that the president embraced the bill he and Congressman Bob Goodlatte are pushing.
"The president is a thousand percent behind it," McCaul said.
Asked whether the legislation would end the family separations, he responded, "They will not be separated if the bill passes," which he explained includes $18 billion for a border wall Trump desires.
The House is set to vote later in the week on the two bills. It is not clear that either piece of legislation has enough votes to win passage.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday "all of the members of the Republican conference support a plan that keeps families together," adding he intends to ask Democrats to support the measure.
In a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday, 28 percent of people said they support the policy, while 57 percent opposed it and the other 15 percent said they did not know.
Trump administration officials have defended the policy. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen pushed back at the negative media coverage in a Monday briefing, asserting that what U.S. authorities are doing is properly enforcing the law.
"What has changed is that we no longer exempt entire classes of people who break the law," she said.
| What is probably true about House Homeland Security chairman Michael McCaul? | he agrees mostly with Trump on border issues | ['he disagrees mostly with Trump on border issues', 'he is not particularly backing Trump', 'not enough information'] |
Monday - 9:00 p.m. PT (11:00 p.m. CT) (Midnight ET)
I love to answer questions about children's health. Some questions and their answers become articles, FAQ's, Updates, Fast Facts, Top Tips, or Guidelines here on the site. I answer others in real time during chat. Either way, here is how to submit a question -
I am available live, for one hour, every weekday. No appointments are necessary! All you have to do is log on to Chat and ask your question. In most cases, you'll get your answer right there! Some of the questions from chat are selected for me to write about in greater depth. Even if you don't have time to stay at chat, come for a moment, and send your question to the chat host to be considered for a future article.
Please join me in chat, Monday - November 22, 2004 at 9:00 p.m. PT(11:00 p.m. CT) (Midnight ET)
I will be in the chat room for one hour to answer your children's health questions.
To ask your question please type a " ?" mark on the screen
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Click here for a complete chat schedule | The chat with the writer on the screen _ . | must be about children's health questions | ['lasts one hour', 'has to be called on Monday', 'must go on in a room'] |
Every day from the time we wake up until the time we go to bed, we are bombarded with information from all sides, from TV, radio, newspapers and books; from family, friends, and colleagues. As a new cable television subscriber, I am ly amazed at the quantity and varying levels of information quality on cable television. Including the networks, there are eight TV "news" organizations vying to provide us with all the information we can possibly absorb. Newspaper, magazines, books, radio, the Internet, email, snail mail, and the telephone all compete for our attention and our minds. At the office conversations around the water cooler and coffee maker serve to spread even more items of information.
There is valuable information out there about the world we live in, on topics as varied as health, safety, traffic, nutrition, business, finance, philosophy, nature, science, weather, history and the human condition. There is also a large amount of misleading and outright false information, not just on controversial subjects such as politics and religion but on any topic one can think of, including all of the topics mentioned above.
With all this information coming at us from all directions, how does one sift through it all to sort out the facts from the fiction, the truth from the lies, the more important from the less important? Should we turn off the TV, cancel our newspaper subscriptions, disconnect our phones and modems to become information "hermits"? Probably not.
A better method of sifting through the information wave without being overwhelmed and confused is to become a skeptical inquirer-or skeptic-with regard to the surrounding world. By "skeptic"-I do not mean a cynic-a person who rejects new ideas simply because they are new. A skeptic is one who questions the validity of a particular claim by calling for evidence to prove or disprove it. Skepticism is a method, not a position. It is a provisional approach to all factual claims. In terms of processing information, a skeptic needs to be able to grasp reality and acquire knowledge about the environment that agrees with reason, logic, and evidence. In other words, as skeptics, when we hear a claim that may or may not be fantastic, we should say, "That's nice, prove it." | What can we conclude from the difference between a skeptic and a cynic? | Skeptics are reasonable but cynics are too pessimistic(opposite of optimistic). | ['Skeptics are reasonable but cynics are too optimistic.', 'Skeptics take a position but cynics are extreme in their attitude.', 'Skeptics reject all new ideas but cynics only reject some of them.'] |
A story from the Bible tells of old Babylon, where the men decided to build a tower that would touch the sky.But God was unhappy, and he made them speak different languages.They couldn't understand each other, so their dream never came true.
Yet the dream remains alive: if all men speak the same language, they can do anything.L.L.Zamenhof from Poland was among the men who
this dream.He developed Esperanto between 1877 and 1885.
As the most successful man-made world language, it is spoken by over two million people around the world.Last month, the World Esperanto Congress , dealing with language rights, ended in Sweden.The 2004 conference will be held in Beijing.Most Esperanto speakers are in Central and Eastern Europe and in East Asia, particularly Chinese mainland.
Esperanto has two advantages.First, it's easy.Each letter has exactly one sound and there are just 16 basic grammar rules.The second advantage is that it belongs to no one country.But Esperanto has only reached a small number of people compared with natural languages widely used around the world-such as English or Chinese.While these languages are deeply connected with their nations and cultures, Esperanto doesn't have this background.
Will Esperanto really become a global language? It remains a question. | The writer tells us a story at the beginning to _ . | explain why men have been making the effort to create a language shared by all | ['explain why men now speak different languages', 'show the relationship between man and God', 'prove that language is very important'] |
A long time ago, there was a seed and because he was only a seed, nobody noticed him.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 under the sun.Later, he was given rain.
Years later he saw a traveler sitting by his side."Thank God for this.I really need 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 not a 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 before the traveler's words brought him pride.
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!" | Where does the passage most probably come from? | A storybook. | ['A history book.', 'A science book.', 'A novel.'] |
My daughter was away at college preparing for her final exams and nursing boards. I knew that my daughter’s cat, who has been part of our family since my daughter was in second grade, was dying of a fast growing cancer. I couldn’t tell my daughter because I didn’t want to upset her and take her mind off her studies and impending graduation. Once our Vet determined that there was nothing further that could be done she showed me how to give pain meds and fluids at home to keep her comfortable in hopes that she would live long enough to allow my daughter to say goodbye after her graduation. The entire week I stayed with our cat around the clock. She had completely stopped eating and drinking and was slowly dying before my eyes. She slept most of the time except when I had to put the needle in between her shoulder blades to give her fluids. Then she would cry quietly and look at me with pleading eyes. Her breathing was becoming so shallow that I had to get close to her and listen to see if she was still alive. After a week of this I began to realize that the most unselfish thing I could do for this beautiful creature was to let her go. I wrapped her in her favorite blanket and and drove her to our Vets office after they had closed for the day. She was so skinny and frail but when I held her close she still purred. I thanked her for the 14 years she had been one of my daughter’s closest companions and I held her as she took her last breath. I was afraid my daughter was going to be angry with me when I told her that i made the decision with out giving her time to say goodbye. She was sad but understood that I did the kindest thing I could have done for her kitty. | Who cared for the cat after its illness? | The vet and mother. | ['The vet and daughter.', 'not enough information', 'The mother and daughter.'] |
There is much discussion today about whether economic growth is desirable. At an earlier period, our desire for material wealth may have been justified. Now, however, this desire for more than we need is causing serious problems. Even though we have good intentions, we may be producing too much, too fast.
Those who criticize economic growth argue that we must slow down. They believe that society is approaching certain limits on growth. These include the fixed supply of natural resources, the possible negative effects of industry on the natural environment, and the continuing increase in the world's population. As society reaches these limits, economic growth can no longer continue, and the quality of life will decrease.
People who want more economic growth, on the other hand, argue that even at the present growth rate there are still many poor people in the world. These proponents of economic growth believe that only more growth can create the capital needed to improve the quality of life in the world. Furthermore, they argue that only continued growth can provide the financial resources required to protect our natural surroundings from industrialization.
This debate over the desirability of continued economic growth is of vital importance to business and industry. If those who argue against economic growth are correct, the problems they mention cannot be ignored. To find a solution, economists and business community must pay attention to these problems and discuss them with one another. | We may infer from the passage that _ . | the author describes the case as it is | ['the author is for economic growth', 'the author is against continued economic growth', 'the author is very much worried about the problems of continued economic growth'] |
The Republican Party is unrecognizable . Who are these people ? Heres what we have since they gained control of Congress and the White House . They had the power .... and they blew it . | Which presidency are they most likely referring to ? | Donald Trump | ['Richard Nixon', 'Barrack Obama', 'George Washington'] |
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to _ death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.
A-myo-trophic comes from the Greek language. "A" means no or negative. "Myo" refers to muscle, and "Trophic" means nourishment--"No muscle nourishment." When a muscle has no nourishment, it "atrophies" or wastes away. "Lateral" identifies the areas in a person's spinal cord where portions of the nerve cells that signal and control the muscles are located. As this area degenerates it leads to scarring or hardening ("sclerosis") in the region.
As motor neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibers that normally result in muscle movement. Early symptoms of ALS often include increasing muscle weakness, especially involving the arms and legs, speech, swallowing or breathing. When muscles no longer receive the messages from the motor neurons that they require to function, the muscles begin to atrophy (become smaller). Limbs begin to look "thinner" as muscle tissue atrophies.
What Types of Nerves Make Your Body Work Properly?
The body has many kinds of nerves. There are those involved in the process of thinking, memory, and of detecting sensations (such as hot/cold, sharp/dull), and others for vision, hearing, and other bodily functions. The nerves that are affected when you have ALS are the motor neurons that provide voluntary movements and muscle power. Examples of voluntary movements are your making the effort to reach for the phone or step off a curb; these actions are controlled by the muscles in the arms and legs.
The heart and the digestive system are also made of muscle but a different kind, and their movements are not under voluntary control. When your heart beats or a meal is digested, it all happens automatically. Therefore, the heart and digestive system are not involved in ALS. Breathing also may seem to be involuntary. Remember, though, while you cannot stop your heart, you can hold your breath-so be aware that ALS may eventually have an impact on breathing.
Although the cause of ALS is not completely understood, the recent years have brought a wealth of new scientific understanding regarding the physiology of this disease.
While there is not a cure or treatment today that halts or reverses ALS, there is one FDA approved drug, riluzole, that modestly slows the progression of ALS as well as several other drugs in clinical trials that hold promise.
Importantly, there are significant devices and therapies that can manage the symptoms of ALS that help people maintain as much independence as possible and prolong survival. It is important to remember that ALS is a quite variable disease; no two people will have the same journey or experiences. There are medically documented cases of people in whom ALS 'burns out,' stops progressing or progresses at a very slow rate. | What can we learn from the passage _ ? | If muscles can't receive the messages sent by motor neurons, limbs begin to look "thinner". | ['As motor neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibers.', 'The heart and the digestive system are also affected by ALS.', 'the cause of ALS has been completely understood.'] |
Computer games have been criticised for quite some time over a whole range of issues. Some people say they are overly violent and encourage violent behaviour particularly in children. Others say that they make children unsociable and are bad for their eyes. Some have even attributed falling standards of literacy and a lack of interest in reading on them. Now, however, it seems that computer games have also become a feminist issue.
Game manufacturers have, for some time, been looking to increase the number of female game players. The vast majority of computer games still sell to a mainly male market. Perhaps this is because the violent nature of many of the games appeals more to males or perhaps because many of the main characters in the games are male. Manufacturers' attempts to produce more female characters increase their share of the female gaming market which has met with serious criticism from many women's groups.
While heroines such as Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider game are seen as providing positive role models of strong women, many believe that the character's unrealistic Barbies are subconsciously setting unattainable standards in the minds of young women. Perhaps a stronger criticism is that although many games now include female characters, their role is often secondary and they support the main, male, action characters within the games. Of course the nature of many of the games remains violent and destructive and this in itself could well continue to put off female gamers.
There are now, however, a number of web sites springing up on the World Wide Web to help women deal with this issue. Sites such as Game Girlz, Women Gamers and Game Gal offer game reviews, articles, discussion forums and even employment opportunities for women interested in becoming part of the rapidly expanding games industry. The games are reviewed by women from a very female perspective. Some rate the games from one to ten across a range of criteria which include the appearance of the female characters, the degree of intelligence attributed to them in the game and even the marketing attitude adopted by the company. The sites are obviously looking for games that move away from the very male dominated and violent nature of the majority of computer games. Many of them review games that are more constructive and developmental. Although the common fantasy themes of knights, witches and goblins still exist within these games, the aims are often very different. Instead of destroying opposing armies,the aim of the game can be to make peace with them.
With this increased degree of awareness and involvement from women in the games industry many positive changes could be made that could encourage more women and young girls to become enthusiastic about technology. Perhaps we may even find more male gamers moving away from the traditional violent and destructive games towards the more positive values promoted by these more feminine role models, after all Tomb Raider is still one of the most popular computer games on the market, but perhaps that's too much to ask. | From the passage we know that Tomb Raider is _ . | a computer game which is very popular on the market | ['a film which provides positive role models of strong women', 'a site which helps women to deal with many issues', 'a female role which is secondary in many games'] |
not too bad , actually . i always get a sunburn no matter where i fucking go.so i got a truth today from one of my really good friends . well i ' m almost completely positive of who it is . | Why may the narrator be experiencing sunburns ? | They have pale skin . | ['None of the above choices .', "Their friends did n't have any sunscreen .", 'They have a stubbornness to be in the sun .'] |
Dark meat in the can--brown, oily, and flecked with mucus--gave off a repellent, fishy smell, and the taste of it rose in his throat, putrid and bitter, like something from a dead man's stomach. George Jordan sat on the kitchen floor and vomited, then pushed himself away from the shining pool, which looked very much like what remained in the can.
He thought, No, this won't do: I have wires in my head, and they make me eat cat food. The snake likes cat food
He needed help but know there was little point in calling the Air Force. He'd tried them, and there was no way they were going to admit responsibility for the monster in his head. What George called the snake, the Air Force called Effective Human Interface Technology and didn't want to hear about any postdischarge problems with it. They had their own problems with congressional committees investigating "the conduct of the war in Thailand."
He lay for a while with his cheek on the cold linoleum, got up and rinsed his mouth in the sink, then stuck his head under the faucet and ran cold water over it, thinking, Call the goddamned multicomp, then call SenTrax and say, "Is it true you can do something about this incubus that wants to take possession of my soul?" And if they ask you, "What's your problem?" you say "cat food," and maybe they'll say, "Hell, it just wants to take possession of your lunch"
A chair covered in brown corduroy stood in the middle of the barren living room, a white telephone on the floor beside it, a television flat against the opposite waIl--that was the whole thing, what might have been home, if it weren't for the snake.
He picked up the phone, called up the directory on its screen, and keyed TELECOM SENTRAX. | Who had a monster in his head? | George Jordan | ['not enough information', 'Air Force', 'Telecom Sentrax'] |
That summer I drank every day, everywhere I went. I had a bottle in my drawer next to me and a bottle next to my bed. I never did another drug, but I drank so much that my family finally asked a priest for help. My father gave me a bottle of medicine for alcoholism that produces unpleasant symptoms when users drink alcohol. I drank while taking it, which made me very sick. And I still drank.
When the priest came, he said, "Jimmy, doctors said that with your diseases and the amount of drinking you're doing, _ . So your choice is either to stop drinking and live or to continue drinking and die within six months."
I said, "I know I can't stop, so guess I'll have to die." The priest told my family what I said. My little brother-who is like my soul mate, looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "But we don't want you to die." All I could think of was how desperately I had to get out of that room at that moment and have a drink.
But I finally stopped drinking. I was on the care team of my dentist Russell. A lot of people in New York knew him. At the time he was the most famous dentist in the city. He drank heavily and was also with AIDS, so I was selected to be on his care team. Everybody on the team was sober but me. He went through dementia and died so quickly before my eyes. I stopped drinking and I've been with the disease for 35 years now. | What can we learn from the above story? | Drinking heavily increases AIDS patients' illness. | ["Priests can cure many AIDS patients' illnesses.", 'Drug taking and heavily drinking can cure AIDS patients.', 'Team work and patience can cure AIDS patients.'] |
Bali is a tiny island that is part of Indonesia today. It is a pretty island that has many mountains and a pleasant climate. For a long time, Bali was cut off from much of the world.
The people of Bali were happy and had a peaceful life. They were not allowed to fight. At one time there had been terrible wars on Bali. Then the people decided it was wrong to fight or have wars. They made rules to keep apart those people who wanted to fight.
Bali was divided into seven small kingdoms. The land around each kingdom was kept empty, and no one lived there. Since the kingdoms did not share the same borders , the people could not fight about them.
On Bali, even children were not allowed to fight. If two children started a fight over a toy, someone separated them. When two boys argued, they would agree not to speak to each other. Sometimes they did not talk together for months; this gave the boys a chance to forget their anger.
Families who were angry with each other also promised not to speak. Their promise was written down, and the whole village knew about it. If they broke their promise, they had to offer gifts to their gods. | Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage? | People had to offer gifts to the villagers if they broke their promise. | ['Bali is a beautiful island with many mountains and nice weather.', 'At one time there were terrible wars on the island.', "You'll hardly see children fighting on the island."] |
I received a call today asking if I would be willing to bring food to a family in need. The mother was having a major operation and would be lying down for several weeks. Of course, I responded with an immediate "Yes!". As I planned the meal in my head, I reflected on how many times over the years I had been asked to prepare food. I have done so countless times with a very open heart.
But the truly amazing thing is that I have received double over the course of my life. When my mother passed away, our house was filled with fresh dinners for weeks. A woman from the church of our community stopped by each evening with some food. The gift of food was her small way of trying to ease our pain.
Later in my life, when I was on bed rest during my pregnancy with twins, women of the church again stepped in to help. They arranged babysitting for my twoyearold daughter, and brought lovely dinners to our house. Even when I was put in the hospital, my husband would bring cooked meals to my hospital room. How we relied on these dinners to feed my tired husband and young daughter.
Food is all about comfort. It feeds our bodies, but it can also feed our souls. When you hear people talking about their favourite holidays, it usually includes their feelings connected with sharing food. I know that I will have many more opportunities in my lifetime to prepare food for others. It is truly a gift I want to prepare and deliver to someone in need. | What do we know about the author's family? | Her family lives not far from a church. | ['Her family is too poor to buy enough food.', 'Her husband is not good at cooking.', 'She has a babysitter taking care of her twins.'] |
At first , I found it difficult , but as I went through terms , I got used to it . From parties to " tambay " moments , I spent each moment of my college life with my new found friends . I ' m very happy to have them in my life . | What are some of the main reasons the narrator loves college ? | They love the parties . | ['None of the above choices .', 'They love studying instead of going to parties .', 'They love being in touch with old friends .'] |
An apprenticeship is a form of on-the-job training that combines workplace experience and classroom learning. It can last anywhere from one to six years, but four years is typical for most. An apprentice spends most of the time in a workplace environment learning the practical skills of a career from a journeyman--someone who has done the job for many years. The rest of the apprentice's time is spent in a classroom environment learning the theoretical skills the career requires. Being an apprentice is a full-time undertaking.
One of the advantages of apprenticeship is that it does not cost apprentices anything. The companies that hire them pay for school. What's more, it offers apprentices an "earn while you learn" opportunity. They usually start out at half the pay of a journeyman, and the pay increases gradually as they move further along in the job and studies. Near the end of the apprenticeship, their wages are usually 90 percent of what a journeyman would receive. Apprenticeship also pays off for employers. It can offer employers a pool of well-trained workers to draw from.
Despite the advantages, apprentices are usually required to work during the day and attend classes at night, which leaves little time for anything else. Sometimes, they might be laid off if business for the employers is slow.
Once they have completed the apprenticeship and become journeymen, they receive a nationally recognized and portable certification and their pay also increases again. Some journeymen continue employment with the companies they apprenticed with; others go onto different companies or become self-employed contractors. | Which of the following is NOT the advantage of apprenticeship? | It allows apprentices to earn the same wages as journeymen. | ['It saves lots of money for apprentices to learn the skills.', 'It brings apprentices some earnings before they get a job.', 'It helps employers take on more qualified workers.'] |
But then we were discussing about sports in China . It 's near imprisonment of the participants , not for the love of sports but for the country 's image . I mean , you do n't hear the kids saying their passion and dreams is to go to the Olympics like you often here the Americans or anyone else really say . You do n't really see China playing in other team sports outside the Olympics ( except badminton ) . | Why do n't the chinese athletes play sports outside the olympics ? | Most of the athletes are forced to do sports specifically to win the olympics | ["Many chinese people do n't know how to play sports", 'They are too busy playing badminton', 'They are imprisoned otherwise'] |
I can still remember the first day when I met my best friend. She had just moved into the neighborhood and her grandmother brought her down to meet me. I hid behind my mother and she hid behind her grandmother, scared to look at each other.
Soon, we lost the shyness and started playing with each other, bike riding to each other's house and having sleepovers. In 7thgrade she was going through family problems. However, every summer we would always sit at each other's house and watch movies on TV and talk about all the boys we liked.
It was last year when I noticed the problem. She suffered from clinical depression , and had to go to a hospital during the day. I was very sorry for her at first. But with the late night calls, and meeting each other halfway up the street at midnight, we still stayed in touch. I wanted to be there for her since her new best friend left her, and I knew I still cared about her like a sister.
Yesterday she came to me and said this. "I never knew what a best friend was until you were the only person that would stop me from cutting myself; the only person that ever made me feel better about myself and my problems. You didn't know this but I was trying to kill myself that very night you called me and I was crying. I owe you so much, and you didn't even know you were helping me. "
We both cried. And I guess a kind of lesson from my life so far is to never give up your friends. Even if they aren't as cool as others, or people think they are crazy, they need someone there. If you leave them, you will only be very sorry. So if friends need you, and you care for them, you should be always there for them. | What lesson does the author learn from the story? | Always care for your friends. | ["Don't care about others' opinions.", 'Never owe your friends too much.', 'Try to be as cool as others.'] |
My father' s response to the bank building at 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue in New York city was immediate and definite: "You won' t catch me putting my money in there!" he declared, "Not in that glass box. "
Of course, my father is a gentleman of the old school, a member of the generation to whom a good deal of modern architecture is upsetting, but I believe that his negative response was not so much to the architecture as to a violation of his concept of the nature of money.
In his generation money was thought of as a real commodity that could be carried, or stolen. Therefore, to attract the custom of a sensible man, a bank had to have heavy walls, barred windows, and bronze doors, to make sure of the fact, however, untrue, that money would be safe inside. If a building' s design made it appear strong, the institution was necessarily reliable, and the meaning of the heavy wall as an architecture symbol showed the general attitude toward money.
But the attitude toward money has, of course, changed. Except pocket money, cash of any kind is now rarely used; money as a tangible commodity has largely been replaced by credit. The banker no longer offers us a safe: he offers us a service in which the most valuable factor is the creativity for the invention of large numbers. It is in no way surprising, in view of this change in attitude, that we are witnessing the disappearance of the heavy-walled bank.
Just as the older bank emphasized its strength, this bank by its architecture is proud of imaginative powers. | What do the older generation and the younger one think about money? | To the former money is a real commodity but to the latter it is a means to produce more money. | ['The former thinks more of money than the latter.', 'The younger generation values money more than the older generation.', 'Both generations rely on the imaginative power of bankers to make money.'] |
Just , dear GOD do n't ever scare me like this again . " he said , smiling against Patrick 's hair . " God , I ' ve never been so scared . | Why may have the subject been scaring the narrator ? | The subject was looking to tease the narrator . | ['None of the above choices .', 'The subject was looking to protect the narrator .', 'The subject was looking to be serious .'] |
I was fortunate to begin my day camp career at Ramaquois as a four-year-old in 1984. I can clearly remember my first bus ride to camp, sitting next to my older sister. Stepping out of the bus, and into a new, strange world, there was no way I could comprehend how important that moment was for me. Ramaquois would become my summer home until this day.
My first summer at day camp was definitely a new experience for me. I had never had a "bunk " or a "cubby " before. My counselors sort of reminded me of my pre-school teachers, but they were...different somehow... I didn't usually enjoy new things and I was slow to warm up to camp. From what my parents tell me, my counselors were very patient with me. When I needed a friend, a counselor was there. When I needed words of encouragement, they got into conversation with me. When I was too shy to ask, they offered help.
I don't remember the specific moment when things changed, but I know that at some point that summer, things just became different. I couldn't wait for the bus to arrive in the morning. I feared the weekends. And on the last day of camp, I cried--just like the first day. I was attracted. Ramaquois was a part of my life.
I spent 11 summers as a camper at Ramaquois. I had no idea that those summers were just the beginning. I remained at camp for seven years as a counselor, five years a division leader and now I am lucky enough to be an assistant director working with the most unique and talented administrative team in the summer camp industry. I am one of the lucky people that truly enjoys going to work each and every day. | The author now is working as _ . | an assistant director | ['a camper', 'a bus driver', 'a counselor'] |
Attention STARBUCKS
Owners of Stainless Steel Travel Mug
Mug lid Recall---16 oz Stainless Steel Travel Mug
We've recognized a fault at the cup. The fault might cause some lids to lift slightly from the body of the mug, and could possibly result in injury from hot liquid leaking. So, we have given a lid recall notice immediately. The notice is only related to STARBUCKS 16 oz Stainless Steel Travel Mugs which were sold between November 2012 and February 2013. The bottom of the mug is stamped with "ThermoSServ", the distributor's name. There is not any printing on the mug handle.
At STARBUCKS, customers' safety is valued above anything else. Therefore, no matter whether your lid is leaking , in the interest of your safety, we request you bring your mug to your nearest STARBUCKS (excluding Esso STARBUCKS), where they are sure exchange the lid for a new lid that fits well and safely. The new lids are going to be available March 1, 2013.
Don't use your mug until you exchange the lid, please.
Here's what you do:
* Please do not use your mug until you have exchanged the lid for a new one.
* New lids will be available March 1, 2013.
* Return your travel mug to a STARBUCKS store.
* Your lid will be exchanged for a new lid.
If you'd like to return the entire mug, bring it back at any time for a full repayment.
If you have any questions regarding this recall, please don't hesitate to us at:
Toll Free Number: 1-999-701-1717
9:30 am - 6:00 pm Eastern Standard Time STARBUCKS | We can learn that STARBUCKS from the passage _ . | cares about the customers' safety | ['is a club for travelers', 'wants to make more money', 'is an organization helping customers'] |
But there 's no way , I just know . So I made a compromise in my head . Oh please just be taller than me . When he got up at the end of class I was right ! | Why did the writer want someone to be taller than her ? | Because she likes guys that are taller than her . | ["Because there 's no way .", 'Because she made a compromise in her head .', 'Because she just knows .'] |
Several days ago, a Beijing - based IT company fired about 400 people overnight. No one had expected the job cuts, which broke with traditional ways of letting go of workers in China. Moreover, what was special about this case was that the day before the 400 were fired, they all received from their boss a gift - the book "Who Moved My Cheese?".
The book - a bestseller in the US - is being used by men and women to deal with changes in their lives and work. Some large organizations, including Coca- Cola, Kodak and General Motors, ask their employees to read it in order to encourage them to be active towards changes.
Cheese is something related to everyone's livelihood - our jobs, the industries we work in, relationships and love as well.
With China's official entry into WTO, the whole nation will face up to more changes and challenges. So what should we do once this "cheese" on which we are so dependent is moved?
"Whatever challenges and changes we meet, we should face up to them bravely" Jiang Hengwei, a civil servant said after reading the book.
Professor Yang in Renmin University of China agrees. "We should change our way of thinking. The coming competitive foreign companies and products provide us with great chances to learn from them and improve our own products to meet international standards and be more competitive."
"With hard work and wisdom, we will create a much larger and better piece of cheese. "Zhang smiled confidently. | The whole passage is about _ . | people's attitude toward changes and challenges | ['a bestseller in the US', "what people think about China's entry into the WTO", 'how a book influences the Chinese workers'] |
But we were able to go out to dinner together ! Yes , an actual date in the midst of Yuri . We had our two best employees working and we were able to leave them for an hour or two . | What may be the reason they are the best employees ? | They have the best sales and rated highly by customers . | ['They do nt ask any questions and stick to themselves .', 'None of the above choices .', 'They do nt understand what their job duties is supposed to be .'] |
" Ngaahh ! " " Ohh ! It 's all coming out and leaking and - " " Get ... hands off ... " He tried to shove her away . " No , Manji ! Stop that ! " With all her strength Rin pressed down on the wound and tried to hold him to the ground as he thrashed and moaned . | What is the reason for it all coming out and leaking ? | Manji did n't want pressure applied to his wound and pushed her away . | ['Manji was spitting and drooling liquid .', 'Manji had jelly on his wound .', 'None of the above choices .'] |
I feel bad not having money all the time . So its something to consider atleast :) I do nt have to work a full 40 hours , anything would be good maybe even 20 to start . We shall see what happens though . Um anything else ? | Why is this person in their current situation ? | they lost their job | ['they worked a full week', 'they made money', 'they lost their wallet'] |
According to US research, it can take up to ten years to become a near-native English speaker. Asian and Spanish students took between five and ten years to reach native speaker performance in English-only schools. Fluency obviously doesn't happen overnight. But time can definitely make you a better speaker.
After testing his own memory, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus discovered that humans forget most of what they learn in the first 20 minutes.
So cramming right before a speaking exam is not likely to be as effective as practicing regularly over time. The more you practice, the more familiar new words will become. In the classroom, studies have also shown that repeating oral tasks improves a speaker's performance.
One of the best repetition exercises is the 4/3/2 technique. Speakers give the same talk to three different listeners with a progressive decrease in delivery time, starting at four minutes, then three, and finally two minutes. This exercise has been proven to help learners speak faster. It can also result in less hesitation and more grammatical accuracy. While time dose make a difference when it comes to speaking perfect English, it would not hurt to brush up on your other language skills.
Studies have also shown that reading can increase your speaking vocabulary. After one month of an extensive reading program, a 27-year-old student of French became more familiar with 65 percent of the new words.
Aside from choosing the right learning methods, having certain personality traits may also help. US
Stephen Krashen believes those with high motivation, self-confidence and a low level of anxiety are better equipped for speaking success.
Krashen says students who don't have these qualities are more likely to have a "mental block". "Even if they understand the message, the input will not reach the part of the brain responsible for language acquisition," he writes in his book Principles and Practice in second Language Acquisition. | The example of a 27-year-old student of French in the passage mainly means that _ . | reading can enlarge your vocabulary for your speaking | ['reading can make you memorize just 65 percent of the new words', 'the 27-year-old student of French is very clever', 'in one month, you can improve your speaking ability'] |
I am finally getting around to posting about the fabulous time grapefruitsoda and I had a few weeks ago . Our visits are n't as frequent as I wish they were .... she 's a really dear friend and I love her to pieces . I joke that she 's my twin , because we really have so much in common . | What will the narrator do next with " GrapeFruitSoda " ? | The narrator will go out with her . | ['The narrator will ignore her .', 'None of the above choices .', 'The narrator will ostracize her .'] |
The piano on which Mozart wrote all of his late works returned home to Vienna for the first time since his death in 1791.The piano will stand in his former Vienna home, now a museum, for two weeks, ending in a concert of the works by Mozart.
Mozart bought the instrument from Anton Walter, the most famous piano maker of his time, in 1782.He wrote more than 50 works for the piano on it, many of them in the apartment in Vienna.After Mozart's death, Constanze, Mozart's wife, gave the instrument to their elder surviving son, Carl Thomas, who donated it to the Mozarteum Salzburg on what would have been the composer's 100th birthday.The piano is now part of the permanent exhibition in the Austrian city of Salzburg.
" It was very hard to let it go," said Matthias Schulz, director of the Mozarteum Salzburg." If we didn' t know it was in the best hands, we wouldn' t have done it." The piano is much smaller and lighter than modern concert ones.Its sound is fresher and brighter than that of a modern piano, with lighter action and hammers .
Piano restorer Josef Meingast, who has looked after the Mozart piano since 1975, said it was superior to any of its surviving copies.Meingast said he had to fight to replace the existing strings , dating from a 1973 restoration, with softer ones that produce a rounder sound thought to be more similar to what Mozart would have produced.
Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov, who planned to give a concert of Mozart' s music on the piano on November 7, said he was privileged to play such an instrument.It's easily the biggest day of a musician' s life." | What is the main idea of this passage? | Mozart's piano returns home to Vinna. | ["Mozart's piano connects too many artists.", "Mozart's piano reflects all his wonderful life.", "Mozart's piano is restored to its original form."] |
I mean it : not one person said ANYTHING to me . They would have if I did something wrong , right ? But , this morning , I got a call from my guy at the temp agency and he said that I was no longer needed in that position , that I did n't need to go out there . | Why might have the temp agency tell me I am not needed at that position ? | The company hiring the temp workers might have had a change of mind . | ['The temp agency hiring the temp workers might have had a change of mind .', 'None of the above choices .', 'I might have had a change of mind working for the company .'] |
The sweet taste of cold and wood smoke hung in the air. Marlin rode low in the saddle, his shoulders curled against the hungry wind. His hat was pulled down tight and his eyes didn't move as he passed the crude shacks at the edge of town.
He tied his horse in front of the saloon, unwinding his long body as if a sudden movement might snap it. He turned down the collar of his greatcoat and checked to make sure his big Army Colt was loose in its holster. The saloon door was a single chunk of white pine, still oozing sap, and he had to put his shoulder to it to force it open.
The long room inside was quiet, and not much warmer than the street. Clusters of people sat nursing coffee and drinks, talking quietly if they talked at all. Marlin spotted a few farmers the railroad had brought in from Europe: rounded hats, nervous eyes, skin as red as blood. At the far end of the room a half-dozen cowboys turned over cards with patient boredom.
Marlin walked up to the bar. "Whiskey," he said, and when the drink came he tossed it straight down and felt it pull his lips into a grimace. He nodded for a refill.
When he turned to face the room they were all watching him. "I'm looking for a man named Kraamer," Marlin said. "Anybody here know of him?"
One of the cowboys turned casually and rang the spittoon with a stream of tobacco juice. Marlin knew the long, thin face from somewhere, the blond hair that fell limply to his shoulders. He smiled at Marlin and showed his brown-stained teeth.
Marlin felt the lines in his own face, the gray in his hair, the chill in his bones. He was too old for this. He set a half dollar on the bar and started for the door.
"Don't get in a huff," the bartender said. Marlin looked back. "Kraamer lives about a mile west of town. Follow the railroad and take the first trail south." | After feeling the chill in his bones, Marlin felt: | He was too old | ['not enough information', 'He should have worn a heavy coat', 'That snow was likely'] |
Women are still underrepresented in top academic positions. One of the possible explanations for this is the increasing importance of obtaining research funding. Women are often less successful in this than men. Psychology researchers Dr. Romyvan der Lee and professor Naomi Ellemers investigated whether this difference also occurs at the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and examined potential explanations.
The researchers were assigned by NWO to carry out this study as part of the broader evaluation of NWO's procedures and its gender diversity policy. The aim was to gain more insight into the causes of the differences in awarding rates for male and female applicants for research funding. The analysis addressed an important "talent programme" of NWO, the Veni grant. "Whoever receives this grant has a greater chance of obtaining an important appointment at a university,"says Naomi Ellemers.
Van der Lee and Ellemers investigated all the applications submitted by male and female researchers over a period of three years: a total of 2823 applications. Under the direction of NWO these applications were assessed by scientific committees consisting of men and women. The results demonstrate that the awarding rates for female applicants (14.9%) are systematically lower than those for male applicants (17.7%). "If we compare the proportion of women among the applicants with the proportion of women among those awarded funding, we see a loss of 4%," said Ellemers.
The study reveals that women are less positively evaluated for their qualities as researcher than men are. "Interestingly the research proposals of women and men are evaluated equally positively. In other words, the reviewers see no difference in the quality of the proposals that men and women submit," says Romy van der Lee.
In search for a possible cause for the differences in awarding rates and evaluations, the researchers also investigated the language use in the instructions and forms used to assess the quality of applications. This clearly revealed the occurrence of gendered language. The words that are used to indicate quality are frequently words that were established in previous research as referring mainly to the male gender stereotype (such as challenging and excellent). Romy van der Lee explains: "As a result, it appears that men more easily satisfy the assessment criteria, because these better fit the characteristics stereotypically associated with men."
In response to the results of this research, NWO will devote more attention to the gender awareness of reviewers in its methods and procedures. It will also be investigated which changes to the assessment procedures and criteria can most strongly contribute to more equal chances for men and women to obtain research funding. This will include an examination of the language used by NWO. NWO chair Jos Engelens said, "The research has yielded valuable results and insights. Based on the recommendations made by the researchers we will therefore focus in the coming period on the development of evidence-based measures to reduce the difference in awarding rates." | Van der Lee and Ellemers' study shows that _ . | the research proposals of women are equally treated with those of men | ['grant receivers were more likely to get appointments at universities', 'men applicants for research funding outnumbered women applicants', 'the reviewers have narrow, prejudiced conceptions of women candidates'] |
Someone thought I was going for a Christian concert , until I mentioned the band 's name was " Death Cab for Cutie " . Nothing very spiritual about that , although one could beg to differ . The four - piece band started with the first song " Bixby Canyon Bridge " , from their latest album , Narrow Stairs . Their next song was also the first entry " The New Year " from an older 2003 album , Transatlanticism . | What may be a fact about the speaker ? | They had went to a concert . | ['None of the above choices .', 'They went to a Christian concert .', 'They wanted to attend a Christian concert .'] |
Only reason you 're reading this now . As I mentioned I was feeling exhausted ... so Saturday night rolls around and at 7:00 p.m. I completely passed out in my armchair . Ended up NOT going to the party at the friend 's house that I 'd been looking forward to all week . | What may be the reason I did not go to the party ? | I was sleeping | ['I had to work', 'I forgot', 'I needed to study'] |
Meh .. He 'll get over it ... Secondly , years ago , my Mom told me a NASTY Dirty joke ... Which I used on Tuesday afternoon to get myself out of a speeding ticket . A speeding ticket I actually deserved , considering I was pushing 175 km / h in a 90 zone just outside of golden , however , I am distracting myself . | What is the reason a nasty dirty joke could get you out of a speeding ticket ? | You might tell the arresting officer a joke , make them laugh , and they would have pity on you . | ["Police do n't understand jokes .. and they will be confounded and afraid to ticket you .", "There is a legal clause that says if you can come up with a joke quickly you do n't have to pay your ticket .", 'None of the above choices .'] |
A survey by an international temporary service agency found that U. S. managers believe that people with a sense of humour do better at their jobs, compared with those who have little or no sense of humour. In fact, about 96 percent of those surveyed said people with a sense of humour do better.
The survey went on to point out that the results suggest that a sense of humour may help light-hearted employees keep their jobs during tough times. And, what's more, it may push them up the corporate ladder past their humourless colleagues. Why? It seems that those with a sense of humour are better communicators and better team players.
Studies have shown that happy workers are more productive. In fact, a researcher at California State University found that humour could help the employees to release tension.
Research done by psychologist Dr. Ashton Trice at Mary Baldwin College in Virginia showed that humour helps us think. When people feel stuck on important projects, they tend to feel angry or depressed. According to Dr. Trice's research, taking time out to laugh can help us to get rid of negative feelings and allow us to return to a task or move on to another project unaffected by past defeat.
If humour is really this important, then why don't we use it more often on the job? Most likely, the main reason is that many people are unaware of the positive effects of humour in the workplace. However, it is important to realize that some humour is not suitable for the workplace, and that it is often used at wrong times. | A person without a sense of humour is easier _ . | to be worried | ['to feel surprised', 'to get along with', 'to be successful'] |
He li- he enjoyed Eight . He was n't about to let that get away from him . Paiva swallowed to combat her nausea . Some impression she was making on her two Children , getting too sick to talk almost as soon as they had stepped on the train . Speaking of them , they were leaning close together , muttering like a pair of fluffy blonde - headed conspirators . | Why might Paiva have swallowed a pill to combat her nausea ? | She might have motion sickness . | ['She might have migraines .', 'She might have the flu .', 'She might have a headache .'] |
The prefix = st1 /Windsorboys' secondary school used its school founding to save its local arts centre and establish a learning support unit there.
Now expelled pupils and students who are likely to be expelled are studying a course at the unit in Windsor arts centre while also working with artists. One pupil was asked to show Naomi Jackson, the drama teacher at the unit, how he had acted in a fierce argument with a teacher on the rugby filed, which led to his expulsion . Then he showed her how to imitate his attitude.
Ms. Jackson said, "He saw that the teacher had to get him out. Until then, he didn't really understand because he didn't have that self-awareness."
"It gave him the chance to look at himself from the outside."
Students also work in groups, acting as the aggressor, the victim and an observer to help them develop more awareness and understanding.
A professional theatre group, Everyday Theatre, which consists of former pupils, is at the school and works in the learning support unit.
An arts therapist also helps students in the unit to express their problems and a street dancer builds up their discipline, concentration and capacity for hard work.
Jane Turner is the teacher in charge of the Starts Project, which stands for Supportive Training and Arts.
She said, "It's about using the arts to develop social skills as well as anger management, rather than just trying to make them good at drama or arts." | The artists at the Windsorboys' secondary school are working towards their goal by . | developing students' awareness of their error | ["getting rid of students' dissatisfaction", 'reducing the courses and making them easier', "encouraging students' imagination in subjects."] |
And I worry he survives just fine without me . Noah and Jared are planning to do some manual labor in the attic and I asked him if he wanted me to come up or if i d be in the way . And he said to me do what I want . Now I understand , I truly do , that he did n't mean to literally cause this huge plummet in me . | Why are Noah and Jared planning to do some manual labor in the attic ? | Because there is some work that needs to be done up there . | ['Because they survive just fine without the writer .', 'None of the above choices .', 'Because the writer would be in the way .'] |