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[
"regular art exhibitions in hospitals",
"transformations of older hospitals",
"exhibitions of paintings in galleries",
"establishment of studios in northeast England"
] | The phrase "these recent initiatives" (Line 1, Para .3) in this context refers to _ . | The medical world is gradually realizing that the quality of the environment in hospitals may play a significant role in the process of recovery from illness.
As part of a nationwide effort in Britain to bring art out of the galleries and into public places, some of the country's most talented artists have been called in to transform older hospitals and to soften the hard edges of modern buildings. Of the 2,500 National Health Service hospitals in Britain, almost 100 now have significant collections of contemporary art in corridors, waiting areas and treatment rooms.
These recent initiatives owe a great deal to one artist, Peter Senior, who set up his studio at a Manchester Hospital in northeastern England during the early 1970s. He felt the artist had lost his place in modern society, and that art should be enjoyed by a wider audience.
A typical hospital waiting room might have as many as 5,000 visitors each week. What a better place to hold regular exhibitions of art! Senior held the first exhibition of his own paintings in the outpatients waiting are of the Manchester Royal Hospital in 1975. Believed to be Britain's first hospital artist, Senior was so much in demand that he was soon joined by a team of six young art school graduates,
The effect is striking. Now in the corridors and waiting rooms the visitor experiences a full view of fresh colors, playful images and restful courtyards.
The quality of the environment may reduce the need for expensive drugs when a patient is recovering from an illness. A study has shown that patients who had a view onto a garden needed half the number of strong painkillers compared with patients who had no view at all or only a brick wall to look at. | 2807.txt | 0 |
[
"visitors to hospitals are warmly received",
"the role of the hospital environment is being recognized",
"the contribution of Peter Senior is highly appreciated",
"the hard edges of hospitals are being restored"
] | The writer mentions the six young art school graduates in order to show _ . | The medical world is gradually realizing that the quality of the environment in hospitals may play a significant role in the process of recovery from illness.
As part of a nationwide effort in Britain to bring art out of the galleries and into public places, some of the country's most talented artists have been called in to transform older hospitals and to soften the hard edges of modern buildings. Of the 2,500 National Health Service hospitals in Britain, almost 100 now have significant collections of contemporary art in corridors, waiting areas and treatment rooms.
These recent initiatives owe a great deal to one artist, Peter Senior, who set up his studio at a Manchester Hospital in northeastern England during the early 1970s. He felt the artist had lost his place in modern society, and that art should be enjoyed by a wider audience.
A typical hospital waiting room might have as many as 5,000 visitors each week. What a better place to hold regular exhibitions of art! Senior held the first exhibition of his own paintings in the outpatients waiting are of the Manchester Royal Hospital in 1975. Believed to be Britain's first hospital artist, Senior was so much in demand that he was soon joined by a team of six young art school graduates,
The effect is striking. Now in the corridors and waiting rooms the visitor experiences a full view of fresh colors, playful images and restful courtyards.
The quality of the environment may reduce the need for expensive drugs when a patient is recovering from an illness. A study has shown that patients who had a view onto a garden needed half the number of strong painkillers compared with patients who had no view at all or only a brick wall to look at. | 2807.txt | 1 |
[
"to alter the appearance of older buildings",
"to reduce the need for expensive drugs",
"to appeal to a larger audience",
"to improve the quality of the hospital environment"
] | The aim of art exhibitions British hospitals encouraged was _ . | The medical world is gradually realizing that the quality of the environment in hospitals may play a significant role in the process of recovery from illness.
As part of a nationwide effort in Britain to bring art out of the galleries and into public places, some of the country's most talented artists have been called in to transform older hospitals and to soften the hard edges of modern buildings. Of the 2,500 National Health Service hospitals in Britain, almost 100 now have significant collections of contemporary art in corridors, waiting areas and treatment rooms.
These recent initiatives owe a great deal to one artist, Peter Senior, who set up his studio at a Manchester Hospital in northeastern England during the early 1970s. He felt the artist had lost his place in modern society, and that art should be enjoyed by a wider audience.
A typical hospital waiting room might have as many as 5,000 visitors each week. What a better place to hold regular exhibitions of art! Senior held the first exhibition of his own paintings in the outpatients waiting are of the Manchester Royal Hospital in 1975. Believed to be Britain's first hospital artist, Senior was so much in demand that he was soon joined by a team of six young art school graduates,
The effect is striking. Now in the corridors and waiting rooms the visitor experiences a full view of fresh colors, playful images and restful courtyards.
The quality of the environment may reduce the need for expensive drugs when a patient is recovering from an illness. A study has shown that patients who had a view onto a garden needed half the number of strong painkillers compared with patients who had no view at all or only a brick wall to look at. | 2807.txt | 3 |
[
"making it unnecessary to give drugs to patients",
"helping the modern artists regain their status in society",
"helping patients recovering from illnesses",
"calling in more talented artists to hospitals"
] | The improvement of the hospital environment seems to be effective in _ . | The medical world is gradually realizing that the quality of the environment in hospitals may play a significant role in the process of recovery from illness.
As part of a nationwide effort in Britain to bring art out of the galleries and into public places, some of the country's most talented artists have been called in to transform older hospitals and to soften the hard edges of modern buildings. Of the 2,500 National Health Service hospitals in Britain, almost 100 now have significant collections of contemporary art in corridors, waiting areas and treatment rooms.
These recent initiatives owe a great deal to one artist, Peter Senior, who set up his studio at a Manchester Hospital in northeastern England during the early 1970s. He felt the artist had lost his place in modern society, and that art should be enjoyed by a wider audience.
A typical hospital waiting room might have as many as 5,000 visitors each week. What a better place to hold regular exhibitions of art! Senior held the first exhibition of his own paintings in the outpatients waiting are of the Manchester Royal Hospital in 1975. Believed to be Britain's first hospital artist, Senior was so much in demand that he was soon joined by a team of six young art school graduates,
The effect is striking. Now in the corridors and waiting rooms the visitor experiences a full view of fresh colors, playful images and restful courtyards.
The quality of the environment may reduce the need for expensive drugs when a patient is recovering from an illness. A study has shown that patients who had a view onto a garden needed half the number of strong painkillers compared with patients who had no view at all or only a brick wall to look at. | 2807.txt | 2 |
[
"suspicious",
"positive",
"neutral",
"unfavorable"
] | The writer's attitude towards the effect of art exhibitions in hospitals is _ . | The medical world is gradually realizing that the quality of the environment in hospitals may play a significant role in the process of recovery from illness.
As part of a nationwide effort in Britain to bring art out of the galleries and into public places, some of the country's most talented artists have been called in to transform older hospitals and to soften the hard edges of modern buildings. Of the 2,500 National Health Service hospitals in Britain, almost 100 now have significant collections of contemporary art in corridors, waiting areas and treatment rooms.
These recent initiatives owe a great deal to one artist, Peter Senior, who set up his studio at a Manchester Hospital in northeastern England during the early 1970s. He felt the artist had lost his place in modern society, and that art should be enjoyed by a wider audience.
A typical hospital waiting room might have as many as 5,000 visitors each week. What a better place to hold regular exhibitions of art! Senior held the first exhibition of his own paintings in the outpatients waiting are of the Manchester Royal Hospital in 1975. Believed to be Britain's first hospital artist, Senior was so much in demand that he was soon joined by a team of six young art school graduates,
The effect is striking. Now in the corridors and waiting rooms the visitor experiences a full view of fresh colors, playful images and restful courtyards.
The quality of the environment may reduce the need for expensive drugs when a patient is recovering from an illness. A study has shown that patients who had a view onto a garden needed half the number of strong painkillers compared with patients who had no view at all or only a brick wall to look at. | 2807.txt | 1 |
[
"Only a few people are really proficient.",
"No one is really an expert in the skill.",
"There aren't many people who are even fairly good.",
"There are even some people who are moderately proficient."
] | What does the writer actually say about pronouncing foreign languages? | Pronouncing a language is a skill. Every normal person is expert in the skill of pronouncing his own language; but few people are even moderately proficient at pronouncing foreign languages. Now there are many reasons for this, some obvious, some perhaps not so obvious. But I suggest that the fundamental reason why people in general do not speak foreign languages very much better than they do is that they fail to grasp the true nature of the problem of learning to pronounce, and consequently never set about tackling it in the right way. Far too many people fail to realize that pronouncing a foreign language is a skill-one that needs careful training of a special kind, and one that cannot be acquired by just leaving it to take care of itself. I think even teachers of language, while recognizing the importance of good accent, tend to neglect, in their practical teaching, the branch of study concerned with speaking the language. So the first point I want to make is that English pronunciation must be taught; the teacher should be prepared to devote some of the lesson time to this, and by his whole attitude to the subject should get the student feel that there is a matter worthy of receiving his close attention. So, there should be occasions when other aspects of English, such as grammar or spelling, are allowed for the moment to take second place.
Apart from this question of the time given to pronunciation, there are two other requirements for the teacher: the first, knowledge; the second, technique.
It is important that the teacher should be in possession of the necessary information. This can generally be obtained from books. It is possible to get from books some idea of the mechanics of speech, and of what we call general phonetic theory. It is also possible in this way to get a clear mental picture of the relationship between the sounds of different languages, between the speech habits of English people and those, say, of your students. Unless the teacher has such a picture, any comments he may make on his students pronunciation are unlikely to be of much use, and lesson time spent on pronunciation may well be time wasted. | 1412.txt | 2 |
[
"an obvious cause of not grasping the problem correctly",
"a fundamental consequence of not speaking well",
"a consequence of not grasping the problem correctly",
"not an obvious cause of speaking poorly"
] | The writer argues that going about the problem of pronunciation in the wrong ways _ . | Pronouncing a language is a skill. Every normal person is expert in the skill of pronouncing his own language; but few people are even moderately proficient at pronouncing foreign languages. Now there are many reasons for this, some obvious, some perhaps not so obvious. But I suggest that the fundamental reason why people in general do not speak foreign languages very much better than they do is that they fail to grasp the true nature of the problem of learning to pronounce, and consequently never set about tackling it in the right way. Far too many people fail to realize that pronouncing a foreign language is a skill-one that needs careful training of a special kind, and one that cannot be acquired by just leaving it to take care of itself. I think even teachers of language, while recognizing the importance of good accent, tend to neglect, in their practical teaching, the branch of study concerned with speaking the language. So the first point I want to make is that English pronunciation must be taught; the teacher should be prepared to devote some of the lesson time to this, and by his whole attitude to the subject should get the student feel that there is a matter worthy of receiving his close attention. So, there should be occasions when other aspects of English, such as grammar or spelling, are allowed for the moment to take second place.
Apart from this question of the time given to pronunciation, there are two other requirements for the teacher: the first, knowledge; the second, technique.
It is important that the teacher should be in possession of the necessary information. This can generally be obtained from books. It is possible to get from books some idea of the mechanics of speech, and of what we call general phonetic theory. It is also possible in this way to get a clear mental picture of the relationship between the sounds of different languages, between the speech habits of English people and those, say, of your students. Unless the teacher has such a picture, any comments he may make on his students pronunciation are unlikely to be of much use, and lesson time spent on pronunciation may well be time wasted. | 1412.txt | 2 |
[
"picking it up naturally as a child",
"learning from a native speaker",
"not concentrating on pronunciation much",
"undertaking systematic work"
] | The best way of learning to speak a foreign language, he suggests, is by _ . | Pronouncing a language is a skill. Every normal person is expert in the skill of pronouncing his own language; but few people are even moderately proficient at pronouncing foreign languages. Now there are many reasons for this, some obvious, some perhaps not so obvious. But I suggest that the fundamental reason why people in general do not speak foreign languages very much better than they do is that they fail to grasp the true nature of the problem of learning to pronounce, and consequently never set about tackling it in the right way. Far too many people fail to realize that pronouncing a foreign language is a skill-one that needs careful training of a special kind, and one that cannot be acquired by just leaving it to take care of itself. I think even teachers of language, while recognizing the importance of good accent, tend to neglect, in their practical teaching, the branch of study concerned with speaking the language. So the first point I want to make is that English pronunciation must be taught; the teacher should be prepared to devote some of the lesson time to this, and by his whole attitude to the subject should get the student feel that there is a matter worthy of receiving his close attention. So, there should be occasions when other aspects of English, such as grammar or spelling, are allowed for the moment to take second place.
Apart from this question of the time given to pronunciation, there are two other requirements for the teacher: the first, knowledge; the second, technique.
It is important that the teacher should be in possession of the necessary information. This can generally be obtained from books. It is possible to get from books some idea of the mechanics of speech, and of what we call general phonetic theory. It is also possible in this way to get a clear mental picture of the relationship between the sounds of different languages, between the speech habits of English people and those, say, of your students. Unless the teacher has such a picture, any comments he may make on his students pronunciation are unlikely to be of much use, and lesson time spent on pronunciation may well be time wasted. | 1412.txt | 3 |
[
"how closely he attends to the matter",
"whether it is English that is being taught",
"his teacher's approach to pronunciation",
"the importance normally given to grammar and spelling"
] | The value the student puts on correct speech habits depends upon _ . | Pronouncing a language is a skill. Every normal person is expert in the skill of pronouncing his own language; but few people are even moderately proficient at pronouncing foreign languages. Now there are many reasons for this, some obvious, some perhaps not so obvious. But I suggest that the fundamental reason why people in general do not speak foreign languages very much better than they do is that they fail to grasp the true nature of the problem of learning to pronounce, and consequently never set about tackling it in the right way. Far too many people fail to realize that pronouncing a foreign language is a skill-one that needs careful training of a special kind, and one that cannot be acquired by just leaving it to take care of itself. I think even teachers of language, while recognizing the importance of good accent, tend to neglect, in their practical teaching, the branch of study concerned with speaking the language. So the first point I want to make is that English pronunciation must be taught; the teacher should be prepared to devote some of the lesson time to this, and by his whole attitude to the subject should get the student feel that there is a matter worthy of receiving his close attention. So, there should be occasions when other aspects of English, such as grammar or spelling, are allowed for the moment to take second place.
Apart from this question of the time given to pronunciation, there are two other requirements for the teacher: the first, knowledge; the second, technique.
It is important that the teacher should be in possession of the necessary information. This can generally be obtained from books. It is possible to get from books some idea of the mechanics of speech, and of what we call general phonetic theory. It is also possible in this way to get a clear mental picture of the relationship between the sounds of different languages, between the speech habits of English people and those, say, of your students. Unless the teacher has such a picture, any comments he may make on his students pronunciation are unlikely to be of much use, and lesson time spent on pronunciation may well be time wasted. | 1412.txt | 2 |
[
"By spending lesson time on pronunciation.",
"By making ill-informed comments upon pronunciation.",
"By not using books on phonetics in the classroom.",
"By not giving students a clear mental picture of the different between sounds."
] | How might the teacher find himself wasting lesson time? | Pronouncing a language is a skill. Every normal person is expert in the skill of pronouncing his own language; but few people are even moderately proficient at pronouncing foreign languages. Now there are many reasons for this, some obvious, some perhaps not so obvious. But I suggest that the fundamental reason why people in general do not speak foreign languages very much better than they do is that they fail to grasp the true nature of the problem of learning to pronounce, and consequently never set about tackling it in the right way. Far too many people fail to realize that pronouncing a foreign language is a skill-one that needs careful training of a special kind, and one that cannot be acquired by just leaving it to take care of itself. I think even teachers of language, while recognizing the importance of good accent, tend to neglect, in their practical teaching, the branch of study concerned with speaking the language. So the first point I want to make is that English pronunciation must be taught; the teacher should be prepared to devote some of the lesson time to this, and by his whole attitude to the subject should get the student feel that there is a matter worthy of receiving his close attention. So, there should be occasions when other aspects of English, such as grammar or spelling, are allowed for the moment to take second place.
Apart from this question of the time given to pronunciation, there are two other requirements for the teacher: the first, knowledge; the second, technique.
It is important that the teacher should be in possession of the necessary information. This can generally be obtained from books. It is possible to get from books some idea of the mechanics of speech, and of what we call general phonetic theory. It is also possible in this way to get a clear mental picture of the relationship between the sounds of different languages, between the speech habits of English people and those, say, of your students. Unless the teacher has such a picture, any comments he may make on his students pronunciation are unlikely to be of much use, and lesson time spent on pronunciation may well be time wasted. | 1412.txt | 1 |
[
"The instructors taught the students how to work out a marketing plan.",
"The programme was started, designed and carried out by Motorola University.",
"The programme is very common in Tianjin",
"The programme aims at developing the children‘s ability to solve practical problems."
] | Which statement is true according to the passage? | Motorola set out a special training planprogramme for children last week with the aim ofdeveloping children‘s business skills and preparingthem for a future as entrepreneurs.
Eighty-seven children aged between 12 and 16from Beijing and Tianjin attended the one-weektraining programme called ―Youth Discovery‖directed by Motorola University‘s (MU) instructors and marketing specialists. The childrenlearned about dealing with a practical problem-marketing and worked out a marketing plan bythemselves. Last week 26 children of Motorola employees in Tianjin completed their training inthe MU-Tianjin Learning Center.
Through the training programme, children learnt how to get information through differentkinds of sources, determine end-user needs, make up messages of value to customers, andcommunicate using various means and equipment.
Educators acted only as team‖ directors‖ ,providing children to discover their own answers.The children gave their solutions to Motorola‘s management and their parents on the last day ofthe programme.
The children, most of whom were primary and middle school students, presentedthemselves freely.
The students said that they preferred the open and practical way of learning.
―Youth Discovery‖ ,started by Motorola‘s former president Robert Galvin, designed andcarried out by Motorola University, aimed to bring the talents of young people into fullplay and encouraged them to discover how their skills can contribute to a team to help it reachan aim. | 2576.txt | 3 |
[
"Presidents.",
"Directors.",
"Businessmen.",
"Employees."
] | What role do the educators play in the programme? | Motorola set out a special training planprogramme for children last week with the aim ofdeveloping children‘s business skills and preparingthem for a future as entrepreneurs.
Eighty-seven children aged between 12 and 16from Beijing and Tianjin attended the one-weektraining programme called ―Youth Discovery‖directed by Motorola University‘s (MU) instructors and marketing specialists. The childrenlearned about dealing with a practical problem-marketing and worked out a marketing plan bythemselves. Last week 26 children of Motorola employees in Tianjin completed their training inthe MU-Tianjin Learning Center.
Through the training programme, children learnt how to get information through differentkinds of sources, determine end-user needs, make up messages of value to customers, andcommunicate using various means and equipment.
Educators acted only as team‖ directors‖ ,providing children to discover their own answers.The children gave their solutions to Motorola‘s management and their parents on the last day ofthe programme.
The children, most of whom were primary and middle school students, presentedthemselves freely.
The students said that they preferred the open and practical way of learning.
―Youth Discovery‖ ,started by Motorola‘s former president Robert Galvin, designed andcarried out by Motorola University, aimed to bring the talents of young people into fullplay and encouraged them to discover how their skills can contribute to a team to help it reachan aim. | 2576.txt | 1 |
[
"its way agrees with children‘s characters of interest",
"it‘s designed by Motorola University",
"the children‘s parents took part in it",
"the children come from Beijing and Tianjin."
] | Youth Discovery is a great success because _ . | Motorola set out a special training planprogramme for children last week with the aim ofdeveloping children‘s business skills and preparingthem for a future as entrepreneurs.
Eighty-seven children aged between 12 and 16from Beijing and Tianjin attended the one-weektraining programme called ―Youth Discovery‖directed by Motorola University‘s (MU) instructors and marketing specialists. The childrenlearned about dealing with a practical problem-marketing and worked out a marketing plan bythemselves. Last week 26 children of Motorola employees in Tianjin completed their training inthe MU-Tianjin Learning Center.
Through the training programme, children learnt how to get information through differentkinds of sources, determine end-user needs, make up messages of value to customers, andcommunicate using various means and equipment.
Educators acted only as team‖ directors‖ ,providing children to discover their own answers.The children gave their solutions to Motorola‘s management and their parents on the last day ofthe programme.
The children, most of whom were primary and middle school students, presentedthemselves freely.
The students said that they preferred the open and practical way of learning.
―Youth Discovery‖ ,started by Motorola‘s former president Robert Galvin, designed andcarried out by Motorola University, aimed to bring the talents of young people into fullplay and encouraged them to discover how their skills can contribute to a team to help it reachan aim. | 2576.txt | 0 |
[
"value of allelomimetic behavior in vertebrate and invertebrate species",
"definition and distribution of allelomimetic behavior",
"relationship of allelomimetic behavior to the survival of the fittest",
"personality factors that determine when an individual animal will show allelomimetic behavior"
] | The main topic of the passage is the _ . | A llelomimetic behavior may be defined as behavior in which two or more individual animals do the same thing, with some degree of mutual simulation and coordination. It can only involve in species with sense organs that are well enough developed so that continuous sensory contact can be maintained. It is found primarily in vertebrates, in those species that are diurnal, and usually in those that spend much of their lives in the air, in open water or on open plains.
In birds, allelomimetic behavior is the rule rather than the exception, though it may occasionally be limited to particular seasons of the year as it is in the redwing blackbird. Its principal function is that of providing safety from predators, partly because the flock can rely on many pairs of eyes to watch for enemies, and partly because if one bird reacts to danger, the whole flock is warned.
Among mammals, allelomimetic behavior is very rare in rodents, which almost never move in flocks or herds. Even when they are artificially crowded together, they do not conform in their movements. On the other hand, such behavior is a major system among large?hoofed mammals,such as sheep.
In the pack?hunting carnivores, allelomimetic behavior has another function of cooperative hunting for large prey animals,such as moose. Wolves also defend their dens as a group against larger predators, such as bears.
Finally, allelomimetic behavior is highly developed among most primate groups, where it has the principal function of providing warning against predators,as though combined defensive behavior is also seen in troops of baboons. | 861.txt | 1 |
[
"A lake.",
"A cave.",
"An underground tunnel.",
"A thick forest."
] | Which of the following places is the most likely setting for allelomimetic behavior? | A llelomimetic behavior may be defined as behavior in which two or more individual animals do the same thing, with some degree of mutual simulation and coordination. It can only involve in species with sense organs that are well enough developed so that continuous sensory contact can be maintained. It is found primarily in vertebrates, in those species that are diurnal, and usually in those that spend much of their lives in the air, in open water or on open plains.
In birds, allelomimetic behavior is the rule rather than the exception, though it may occasionally be limited to particular seasons of the year as it is in the redwing blackbird. Its principal function is that of providing safety from predators, partly because the flock can rely on many pairs of eyes to watch for enemies, and partly because if one bird reacts to danger, the whole flock is warned.
Among mammals, allelomimetic behavior is very rare in rodents, which almost never move in flocks or herds. Even when they are artificially crowded together, they do not conform in their movements. On the other hand, such behavior is a major system among large?hoofed mammals,such as sheep.
In the pack?hunting carnivores, allelomimetic behavior has another function of cooperative hunting for large prey animals,such as moose. Wolves also defend their dens as a group against larger predators, such as bears.
Finally, allelomimetic behavior is highly developed among most primate groups, where it has the principal function of providing warning against predators,as though combined defensive behavior is also seen in troops of baboons. | 861.txt | 0 |
[
"prey on other animals",
"are less intelligent than their enemies",
"move in groups",
"have one sense organ that dominates perception"
] | The author implies that allelomimetic behavior occurs most often among animals that _ . | A llelomimetic behavior may be defined as behavior in which two or more individual animals do the same thing, with some degree of mutual simulation and coordination. It can only involve in species with sense organs that are well enough developed so that continuous sensory contact can be maintained. It is found primarily in vertebrates, in those species that are diurnal, and usually in those that spend much of their lives in the air, in open water or on open plains.
In birds, allelomimetic behavior is the rule rather than the exception, though it may occasionally be limited to particular seasons of the year as it is in the redwing blackbird. Its principal function is that of providing safety from predators, partly because the flock can rely on many pairs of eyes to watch for enemies, and partly because if one bird reacts to danger, the whole flock is warned.
Among mammals, allelomimetic behavior is very rare in rodents, which almost never move in flocks or herds. Even when they are artificially crowded together, they do not conform in their movements. On the other hand, such behavior is a major system among large?hoofed mammals,such as sheep.
In the pack?hunting carnivores, allelomimetic behavior has another function of cooperative hunting for large prey animals,such as moose. Wolves also defend their dens as a group against larger predators, such as bears.
Finally, allelomimetic behavior is highly developed among most primate groups, where it has the principal function of providing warning against predators,as though combined defensive behavior is also seen in troops of baboons. | 861.txt | 2 |
[
"Bears hunting for carnivores.",
"Cattle fleeing from a fire.",
"Horses running at a racetrack.",
"Dogs working with police officers."
] | Which of the following is the most clear example of allelomimetic? | A llelomimetic behavior may be defined as behavior in which two or more individual animals do the same thing, with some degree of mutual simulation and coordination. It can only involve in species with sense organs that are well enough developed so that continuous sensory contact can be maintained. It is found primarily in vertebrates, in those species that are diurnal, and usually in those that spend much of their lives in the air, in open water or on open plains.
In birds, allelomimetic behavior is the rule rather than the exception, though it may occasionally be limited to particular seasons of the year as it is in the redwing blackbird. Its principal function is that of providing safety from predators, partly because the flock can rely on many pairs of eyes to watch for enemies, and partly because if one bird reacts to danger, the whole flock is warned.
Among mammals, allelomimetic behavior is very rare in rodents, which almost never move in flocks or herds. Even when they are artificially crowded together, they do not conform in their movements. On the other hand, such behavior is a major system among large?hoofed mammals,such as sheep.
In the pack?hunting carnivores, allelomimetic behavior has another function of cooperative hunting for large prey animals,such as moose. Wolves also defend their dens as a group against larger predators, such as bears.
Finally, allelomimetic behavior is highly developed among most primate groups, where it has the principal function of providing warning against predators,as though combined defensive behavior is also seen in troops of baboons. | 861.txt | 1 |
[
"defend nests against predators",
"look at each other",
"locate prey",
"warn against predators"
] | According to the passage the primary function of allelomimetic behavior in bird is to _ . | A llelomimetic behavior may be defined as behavior in which two or more individual animals do the same thing, with some degree of mutual simulation and coordination. It can only involve in species with sense organs that are well enough developed so that continuous sensory contact can be maintained. It is found primarily in vertebrates, in those species that are diurnal, and usually in those that spend much of their lives in the air, in open water or on open plains.
In birds, allelomimetic behavior is the rule rather than the exception, though it may occasionally be limited to particular seasons of the year as it is in the redwing blackbird. Its principal function is that of providing safety from predators, partly because the flock can rely on many pairs of eyes to watch for enemies, and partly because if one bird reacts to danger, the whole flock is warned.
Among mammals, allelomimetic behavior is very rare in rodents, which almost never move in flocks or herds. Even when they are artificially crowded together, they do not conform in their movements. On the other hand, such behavior is a major system among large?hoofed mammals,such as sheep.
In the pack?hunting carnivores, allelomimetic behavior has another function of cooperative hunting for large prey animals,such as moose. Wolves also defend their dens as a group against larger predators, such as bears.
Finally, allelomimetic behavior is highly developed among most primate groups, where it has the principal function of providing warning against predators,as though combined defensive behavior is also seen in troops of baboons. | 861.txt | 3 |
[
"Their allelomimetic behavior increases.",
"Continuous cooperation between them is maintained.",
"They become aggressive and attack each other.",
"They show little allelomimetic behavior."
] | According to the passage, what happens to the behavior of rodents when they are artificially crowded together | A llelomimetic behavior may be defined as behavior in which two or more individual animals do the same thing, with some degree of mutual simulation and coordination. It can only involve in species with sense organs that are well enough developed so that continuous sensory contact can be maintained. It is found primarily in vertebrates, in those species that are diurnal, and usually in those that spend much of their lives in the air, in open water or on open plains.
In birds, allelomimetic behavior is the rule rather than the exception, though it may occasionally be limited to particular seasons of the year as it is in the redwing blackbird. Its principal function is that of providing safety from predators, partly because the flock can rely on many pairs of eyes to watch for enemies, and partly because if one bird reacts to danger, the whole flock is warned.
Among mammals, allelomimetic behavior is very rare in rodents, which almost never move in flocks or herds. Even when they are artificially crowded together, they do not conform in their movements. On the other hand, such behavior is a major system among large?hoofed mammals,such as sheep.
In the pack?hunting carnivores, allelomimetic behavior has another function of cooperative hunting for large prey animals,such as moose. Wolves also defend their dens as a group against larger predators, such as bears.
Finally, allelomimetic behavior is highly developed among most primate groups, where it has the principal function of providing warning against predators,as though combined defensive behavior is also seen in troops of baboons. | 861.txt | 3 |
[
"A group of students taking a test.",
"Tennis players competing in a tournament.",
"A patrol of soldiers scouting for the enemy.",
"Drivers waiting for a traffic light to change."
] | Which of the following groups of human beings would probably show the greatest amount of allelomimetic behavior | A llelomimetic behavior may be defined as behavior in which two or more individual animals do the same thing, with some degree of mutual simulation and coordination. It can only involve in species with sense organs that are well enough developed so that continuous sensory contact can be maintained. It is found primarily in vertebrates, in those species that are diurnal, and usually in those that spend much of their lives in the air, in open water or on open plains.
In birds, allelomimetic behavior is the rule rather than the exception, though it may occasionally be limited to particular seasons of the year as it is in the redwing blackbird. Its principal function is that of providing safety from predators, partly because the flock can rely on many pairs of eyes to watch for enemies, and partly because if one bird reacts to danger, the whole flock is warned.
Among mammals, allelomimetic behavior is very rare in rodents, which almost never move in flocks or herds. Even when they are artificially crowded together, they do not conform in their movements. On the other hand, such behavior is a major system among large?hoofed mammals,such as sheep.
In the pack?hunting carnivores, allelomimetic behavior has another function of cooperative hunting for large prey animals,such as moose. Wolves also defend their dens as a group against larger predators, such as bears.
Finally, allelomimetic behavior is highly developed among most primate groups, where it has the principal function of providing warning against predators,as though combined defensive behavior is also seen in troops of baboons. | 861.txt | 2 |
[
"can be avoided",
"is universal among parents",
"sets up dangerous states of worry in the child",
"will make him lose interest in learning new things"
] | Eagerly watching the child's acquisition of new skill _ . | In bringing up children, every parent watches eagerly the child's acquisition of each new skill- the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing. It is often tempting to hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of worry in the child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads. On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural enthusiasm for life and his desire to find out new things for himself.
Parents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children. Some may be especially strict in money matters. Others are sever over times of coming home at night or punctuality for meals. In general,the controls imposed represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child's own happiness.
As regard the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency is very important in parental teaching. To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality. Also, parents should realize that " example is better than precept ". If they are not sincere and do not practice what they preach, their children may grow confused and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled.
A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents' principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment. | 2167.txt | 1 |
[
"should encourage them to read before they know the meaning of the words they read",
"should not expect too much of them",
"should achieve a balance between pushing them too hard and leaving them on their own",
"should creative as many learning opportunities as possible"
] | In the process of children's learning new skills parents _ . | In bringing up children, every parent watches eagerly the child's acquisition of each new skill- the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing. It is often tempting to hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of worry in the child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads. On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural enthusiasm for life and his desire to find out new things for himself.
Parents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children. Some may be especially strict in money matters. Others are sever over times of coming home at night or punctuality for meals. In general,the controls imposed represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child's own happiness.
As regard the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency is very important in parental teaching. To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality. Also, parents should realize that " example is better than precept ". If they are not sincere and do not practice what they preach, their children may grow confused and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled.
A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents' principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment. | 2167.txt | 2 |
[
"parents should be strict with their children",
"parental controls reflect only the needs of the parents and the values of the community.",
"parental restrictions vary, and are not always enforced for the benefit of the children alone.",
"parental vary in their strictness towards their children according to the situation."
] | The second paragraph mainly tells us that _ . | In bringing up children, every parent watches eagerly the child's acquisition of each new skill- the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing. It is often tempting to hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of worry in the child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads. On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural enthusiasm for life and his desire to find out new things for himself.
Parents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children. Some may be especially strict in money matters. Others are sever over times of coming home at night or punctuality for meals. In general,the controls imposed represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child's own happiness.
As regard the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency is very important in parental teaching. To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality. Also, parents should realize that " example is better than precept ". If they are not sincere and do not practice what they preach, their children may grow confused and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled.
A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents' principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment. | 2167.txt | 2 |
[
"Idea",
"punishment",
"behavior",
"instruction"
] | The word "precept" (Line3, Para.3) probably means " _ " | In bringing up children, every parent watches eagerly the child's acquisition of each new skill- the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing. It is often tempting to hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of worry in the child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads. On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural enthusiasm for life and his desire to find out new things for himself.
Parents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children. Some may be especially strict in money matters. Others are sever over times of coming home at night or punctuality for meals. In general,the controls imposed represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child's own happiness.
As regard the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency is very important in parental teaching. To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality. Also, parents should realize that " example is better than precept ". If they are not sincere and do not practice what they preach, their children may grow confused and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled.
A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents' principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment. | 2167.txt | 3 |
[
"observe the rules themselves",
"be aware of the marked difference between adults and children",
"forbid things which have no foundation in morality",
"consistently ensure the security of their children"
] | In moral matters, parents should _ . | In bringing up children, every parent watches eagerly the child's acquisition of each new skill- the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing. It is often tempting to hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of worry in the child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads. On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural enthusiasm for life and his desire to find out new things for himself.
Parents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children. Some may be especially strict in money matters. Others are sever over times of coming home at night or punctuality for meals. In general,the controls imposed represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child's own happiness.
As regard the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency is very important in parental teaching. To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality. Also, parents should realize that " example is better than precept ". If they are not sincere and do not practice what they preach, their children may grow confused and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled.
A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents' principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment. | 2167.txt | 0 |
[
"parts",
"bodies",
"combinations",
"characteristics"
] | The word "components" in the passage is closest in meaning to | The creation of life requires a set of chemical elements for making the components of cells. Life on Earth uses about 25 of the 92 naturally occurring chemical elements, although just 4 of these elements-oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen-make up about 96 percent of the mass of living organisms. Thus, a first requirement for life might be the presence of most or all of the elements used by life.
Interestingly, this requirement can probably be met by almost any world. Scientists have determined that all chemical elements in the universe besides hydrogen and helium (and a trace amount of lithium) were produced by stars. These are known as heavy elements because they are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Although all of these heavy elements are quite rare compared to hydrogen and helium, they are found just about everywhere.
Heavy elements are continually being manufactured by stars and released into space by stellar deaths, so their amount compared to hydrogen and helium gradually rises with time. Heavy elements make up about 2 percent of the chemical content (by mass) of our solar system, the other 98 percent is hydrogen and helium. In some very old star systems, which formed before many heavy elements were produced, the heavy-element share may be less than 0.1 percent. Nevertheless, every star system studied has at least some amount of all the elements used by life. Moreover, when planetesimals-small, solid objects formed in the early solar system that may accumulate to become planets-condense within a forming star system, they are inevitably made from heavy elements because the more common hydrogen and helium remain gaseous. Thus, planetesimals everywhere should contain the elements needed for life, which means that objects built from planetesimals-planets, moons, asteroids, and comets-also contain these elements. The nature of solar-system formation explains why Earth contains all the elements needed for life, and it is why we expect these elements to be present on other worlds throughout our solar system, galaxy, and universe.
Note that this argument does not change, even if we allow for life very different from life on Earth. Life on Earth is carbon based, and most biologists believe that life elsewhere is likely to be carbon based as well. However, we cannot absolutely rule out the possibility of life with another chemical basis, such as silicon or nitrogen. The set of elements (or their relative proportions) used by life based on some other element might be somewhat different from that used by carbon-based life on Earth. But the elements are still products of stars and would still be present in planetesimals everywhere. No matter what kinds of life we are looking for, we are likely to find the necessary elements on almost every planet, moon, asteroid, and comet in the universe.
A somewhat stricter requirement is the presence of these elements in molecules that can be used as ready-made building blocks for life, just as early Earth probably had an organic soup of amino acids and other complex molecules. Earth's organic molecules likely came from some combination of three sources: chemical reactions in the atmosphere, chemical reactions near deep-sea vents in the oceans, and molecules carried to Earth by asteroids and comets. The first two sources can occur only on worlds with atmospheres or oceans, respectively. But the third source should have brought similar molecules to nearly all worlds in our solar system.
Studies of meteorites and comets suggest that organic molecules are widespread among both asteroids and comets. Because each body in the solar system was repeatedly struck by asteroids and comets during the period known as the heavy bombardment (about 4 billion years ago), each body should have received at least some organic molecules. However, these molecules tend to be destroyed by solar radiation on surfaces unprotected by atmospheres. Moreover, while these molecules might stay intact beneath the surface (as they evidently do on asteroids and comets), they probably cannot react with each other unless some kind of liquid or gas is available to move them about. Thus, if we limit our search to worlds on which organic molecules are likely to be involved in chemical reactions, we can probably rule out any world that lacks both an atmosphere and a surface or subsurface liquid medium, such as water. | 3205.txt | 0 |
[
"All chemical elements in the universe except lithium",
"About 25 different elements",
"About 96 percent of all known elements",
"Ninety-two naturally occurring elements"
] | According to paragraphs 1 and 2, living cells contain which of the following? | The creation of life requires a set of chemical elements for making the components of cells. Life on Earth uses about 25 of the 92 naturally occurring chemical elements, although just 4 of these elements-oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen-make up about 96 percent of the mass of living organisms. Thus, a first requirement for life might be the presence of most or all of the elements used by life.
Interestingly, this requirement can probably be met by almost any world. Scientists have determined that all chemical elements in the universe besides hydrogen and helium (and a trace amount of lithium) were produced by stars. These are known as heavy elements because they are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Although all of these heavy elements are quite rare compared to hydrogen and helium, they are found just about everywhere.
Heavy elements are continually being manufactured by stars and released into space by stellar deaths, so their amount compared to hydrogen and helium gradually rises with time. Heavy elements make up about 2 percent of the chemical content (by mass) of our solar system, the other 98 percent is hydrogen and helium. In some very old star systems, which formed before many heavy elements were produced, the heavy-element share may be less than 0.1 percent. Nevertheless, every star system studied has at least some amount of all the elements used by life. Moreover, when planetesimals-small, solid objects formed in the early solar system that may accumulate to become planets-condense within a forming star system, they are inevitably made from heavy elements because the more common hydrogen and helium remain gaseous. Thus, planetesimals everywhere should contain the elements needed for life, which means that objects built from planetesimals-planets, moons, asteroids, and comets-also contain these elements. The nature of solar-system formation explains why Earth contains all the elements needed for life, and it is why we expect these elements to be present on other worlds throughout our solar system, galaxy, and universe.
Note that this argument does not change, even if we allow for life very different from life on Earth. Life on Earth is carbon based, and most biologists believe that life elsewhere is likely to be carbon based as well. However, we cannot absolutely rule out the possibility of life with another chemical basis, such as silicon or nitrogen. The set of elements (or their relative proportions) used by life based on some other element might be somewhat different from that used by carbon-based life on Earth. But the elements are still products of stars and would still be present in planetesimals everywhere. No matter what kinds of life we are looking for, we are likely to find the necessary elements on almost every planet, moon, asteroid, and comet in the universe.
A somewhat stricter requirement is the presence of these elements in molecules that can be used as ready-made building blocks for life, just as early Earth probably had an organic soup of amino acids and other complex molecules. Earth's organic molecules likely came from some combination of three sources: chemical reactions in the atmosphere, chemical reactions near deep-sea vents in the oceans, and molecules carried to Earth by asteroids and comets. The first two sources can occur only on worlds with atmospheres or oceans, respectively. But the third source should have brought similar molecules to nearly all worlds in our solar system.
Studies of meteorites and comets suggest that organic molecules are widespread among both asteroids and comets. Because each body in the solar system was repeatedly struck by asteroids and comets during the period known as the heavy bombardment (about 4 billion years ago), each body should have received at least some organic molecules. However, these molecules tend to be destroyed by solar radiation on surfaces unprotected by atmospheres. Moreover, while these molecules might stay intact beneath the surface (as they evidently do on asteroids and comets), they probably cannot react with each other unless some kind of liquid or gas is available to move them about. Thus, if we limit our search to worlds on which organic molecules are likely to be involved in chemical reactions, we can probably rule out any world that lacks both an atmosphere and a surface or subsurface liquid medium, such as water. | 3205.txt | 1 |
[
"To explain how it is that the elements required for life can be found everywhere.",
"To provide evidence that our solar system is relatively young.",
"To argue that some solar systems are more likely to support life than others.",
"To explain why heavy elements have greater mass than hydrogen and helium."
] | Why does the author provide the information that "Heavy elements are continually being manufactured by stars and released into space by stellar deaths"? | The creation of life requires a set of chemical elements for making the components of cells. Life on Earth uses about 25 of the 92 naturally occurring chemical elements, although just 4 of these elements-oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen-make up about 96 percent of the mass of living organisms. Thus, a first requirement for life might be the presence of most or all of the elements used by life.
Interestingly, this requirement can probably be met by almost any world. Scientists have determined that all chemical elements in the universe besides hydrogen and helium (and a trace amount of lithium) were produced by stars. These are known as heavy elements because they are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Although all of these heavy elements are quite rare compared to hydrogen and helium, they are found just about everywhere.
Heavy elements are continually being manufactured by stars and released into space by stellar deaths, so their amount compared to hydrogen and helium gradually rises with time. Heavy elements make up about 2 percent of the chemical content (by mass) of our solar system, the other 98 percent is hydrogen and helium. In some very old star systems, which formed before many heavy elements were produced, the heavy-element share may be less than 0.1 percent. Nevertheless, every star system studied has at least some amount of all the elements used by life. Moreover, when planetesimals-small, solid objects formed in the early solar system that may accumulate to become planets-condense within a forming star system, they are inevitably made from heavy elements because the more common hydrogen and helium remain gaseous. Thus, planetesimals everywhere should contain the elements needed for life, which means that objects built from planetesimals-planets, moons, asteroids, and comets-also contain these elements. The nature of solar-system formation explains why Earth contains all the elements needed for life, and it is why we expect these elements to be present on other worlds throughout our solar system, galaxy, and universe.
Note that this argument does not change, even if we allow for life very different from life on Earth. Life on Earth is carbon based, and most biologists believe that life elsewhere is likely to be carbon based as well. However, we cannot absolutely rule out the possibility of life with another chemical basis, such as silicon or nitrogen. The set of elements (or their relative proportions) used by life based on some other element might be somewhat different from that used by carbon-based life on Earth. But the elements are still products of stars and would still be present in planetesimals everywhere. No matter what kinds of life we are looking for, we are likely to find the necessary elements on almost every planet, moon, asteroid, and comet in the universe.
A somewhat stricter requirement is the presence of these elements in molecules that can be used as ready-made building blocks for life, just as early Earth probably had an organic soup of amino acids and other complex molecules. Earth's organic molecules likely came from some combination of three sources: chemical reactions in the atmosphere, chemical reactions near deep-sea vents in the oceans, and molecules carried to Earth by asteroids and comets. The first two sources can occur only on worlds with atmospheres or oceans, respectively. But the third source should have brought similar molecules to nearly all worlds in our solar system.
Studies of meteorites and comets suggest that organic molecules are widespread among both asteroids and comets. Because each body in the solar system was repeatedly struck by asteroids and comets during the period known as the heavy bombardment (about 4 billion years ago), each body should have received at least some organic molecules. However, these molecules tend to be destroyed by solar radiation on surfaces unprotected by atmospheres. Moreover, while these molecules might stay intact beneath the surface (as they evidently do on asteroids and comets), they probably cannot react with each other unless some kind of liquid or gas is available to move them about. Thus, if we limit our search to worlds on which organic molecules are likely to be involved in chemical reactions, we can probably rule out any world that lacks both an atmosphere and a surface or subsurface liquid medium, such as water. | 3205.txt | 0 |
[
"Older star systems are likely to have fewer planets, moons, asteroids, and comets than newer star systems.",
"Newer star systems probably contain more hydrogen and helium than older star systems.",
"Newer star systems probably contain more heavy elements than older star systems.",
"The process of solar-system formation may have been fundamentally different in older star systems than in newer star systems."
] | Paragraph 3 suggests that which of the following may be a difference between very old star systems and newer star systems? | The creation of life requires a set of chemical elements for making the components of cells. Life on Earth uses about 25 of the 92 naturally occurring chemical elements, although just 4 of these elements-oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen-make up about 96 percent of the mass of living organisms. Thus, a first requirement for life might be the presence of most or all of the elements used by life.
Interestingly, this requirement can probably be met by almost any world. Scientists have determined that all chemical elements in the universe besides hydrogen and helium (and a trace amount of lithium) were produced by stars. These are known as heavy elements because they are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Although all of these heavy elements are quite rare compared to hydrogen and helium, they are found just about everywhere.
Heavy elements are continually being manufactured by stars and released into space by stellar deaths, so their amount compared to hydrogen and helium gradually rises with time. Heavy elements make up about 2 percent of the chemical content (by mass) of our solar system, the other 98 percent is hydrogen and helium. In some very old star systems, which formed before many heavy elements were produced, the heavy-element share may be less than 0.1 percent. Nevertheless, every star system studied has at least some amount of all the elements used by life. Moreover, when planetesimals-small, solid objects formed in the early solar system that may accumulate to become planets-condense within a forming star system, they are inevitably made from heavy elements because the more common hydrogen and helium remain gaseous. Thus, planetesimals everywhere should contain the elements needed for life, which means that objects built from planetesimals-planets, moons, asteroids, and comets-also contain these elements. The nature of solar-system formation explains why Earth contains all the elements needed for life, and it is why we expect these elements to be present on other worlds throughout our solar system, galaxy, and universe.
Note that this argument does not change, even if we allow for life very different from life on Earth. Life on Earth is carbon based, and most biologists believe that life elsewhere is likely to be carbon based as well. However, we cannot absolutely rule out the possibility of life with another chemical basis, such as silicon or nitrogen. The set of elements (or their relative proportions) used by life based on some other element might be somewhat different from that used by carbon-based life on Earth. But the elements are still products of stars and would still be present in planetesimals everywhere. No matter what kinds of life we are looking for, we are likely to find the necessary elements on almost every planet, moon, asteroid, and comet in the universe.
A somewhat stricter requirement is the presence of these elements in molecules that can be used as ready-made building blocks for life, just as early Earth probably had an organic soup of amino acids and other complex molecules. Earth's organic molecules likely came from some combination of three sources: chemical reactions in the atmosphere, chemical reactions near deep-sea vents in the oceans, and molecules carried to Earth by asteroids and comets. The first two sources can occur only on worlds with atmospheres or oceans, respectively. But the third source should have brought similar molecules to nearly all worlds in our solar system.
Studies of meteorites and comets suggest that organic molecules are widespread among both asteroids and comets. Because each body in the solar system was repeatedly struck by asteroids and comets during the period known as the heavy bombardment (about 4 billion years ago), each body should have received at least some organic molecules. However, these molecules tend to be destroyed by solar radiation on surfaces unprotected by atmospheres. Moreover, while these molecules might stay intact beneath the surface (as they evidently do on asteroids and comets), they probably cannot react with each other unless some kind of liquid or gas is available to move them about. Thus, if we limit our search to worlds on which organic molecules are likely to be involved in chemical reactions, we can probably rule out any world that lacks both an atmosphere and a surface or subsurface liquid medium, such as water. | 3205.txt | 2 |
[
"additionally",
"however",
"in particular",
"on the contrary"
] | The word "Nevertheless" in the passage is closest in meaning to | The creation of life requires a set of chemical elements for making the components of cells. Life on Earth uses about 25 of the 92 naturally occurring chemical elements, although just 4 of these elements-oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen-make up about 96 percent of the mass of living organisms. Thus, a first requirement for life might be the presence of most or all of the elements used by life.
Interestingly, this requirement can probably be met by almost any world. Scientists have determined that all chemical elements in the universe besides hydrogen and helium (and a trace amount of lithium) were produced by stars. These are known as heavy elements because they are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Although all of these heavy elements are quite rare compared to hydrogen and helium, they are found just about everywhere.
Heavy elements are continually being manufactured by stars and released into space by stellar deaths, so their amount compared to hydrogen and helium gradually rises with time. Heavy elements make up about 2 percent of the chemical content (by mass) of our solar system, the other 98 percent is hydrogen and helium. In some very old star systems, which formed before many heavy elements were produced, the heavy-element share may be less than 0.1 percent. Nevertheless, every star system studied has at least some amount of all the elements used by life. Moreover, when planetesimals-small, solid objects formed in the early solar system that may accumulate to become planets-condense within a forming star system, they are inevitably made from heavy elements because the more common hydrogen and helium remain gaseous. Thus, planetesimals everywhere should contain the elements needed for life, which means that objects built from planetesimals-planets, moons, asteroids, and comets-also contain these elements. The nature of solar-system formation explains why Earth contains all the elements needed for life, and it is why we expect these elements to be present on other worlds throughout our solar system, galaxy, and universe.
Note that this argument does not change, even if we allow for life very different from life on Earth. Life on Earth is carbon based, and most biologists believe that life elsewhere is likely to be carbon based as well. However, we cannot absolutely rule out the possibility of life with another chemical basis, such as silicon or nitrogen. The set of elements (or their relative proportions) used by life based on some other element might be somewhat different from that used by carbon-based life on Earth. But the elements are still products of stars and would still be present in planetesimals everywhere. No matter what kinds of life we are looking for, we are likely to find the necessary elements on almost every planet, moon, asteroid, and comet in the universe.
A somewhat stricter requirement is the presence of these elements in molecules that can be used as ready-made building blocks for life, just as early Earth probably had an organic soup of amino acids and other complex molecules. Earth's organic molecules likely came from some combination of three sources: chemical reactions in the atmosphere, chemical reactions near deep-sea vents in the oceans, and molecules carried to Earth by asteroids and comets. The first two sources can occur only on worlds with atmospheres or oceans, respectively. But the third source should have brought similar molecules to nearly all worlds in our solar system.
Studies of meteorites and comets suggest that organic molecules are widespread among both asteroids and comets. Because each body in the solar system was repeatedly struck by asteroids and comets during the period known as the heavy bombardment (about 4 billion years ago), each body should have received at least some organic molecules. However, these molecules tend to be destroyed by solar radiation on surfaces unprotected by atmospheres. Moreover, while these molecules might stay intact beneath the surface (as they evidently do on asteroids and comets), they probably cannot react with each other unless some kind of liquid or gas is available to move them about. Thus, if we limit our search to worlds on which organic molecules are likely to be involved in chemical reactions, we can probably rule out any world that lacks both an atmosphere and a surface or subsurface liquid medium, such as water. | 3205.txt | 1 |
[
"typically",
"unsurprisingly",
"necessarily",
"naturally"
] | The word "inevitably" in the passage is closest in meaning to | The creation of life requires a set of chemical elements for making the components of cells. Life on Earth uses about 25 of the 92 naturally occurring chemical elements, although just 4 of these elements-oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen-make up about 96 percent of the mass of living organisms. Thus, a first requirement for life might be the presence of most or all of the elements used by life.
Interestingly, this requirement can probably be met by almost any world. Scientists have determined that all chemical elements in the universe besides hydrogen and helium (and a trace amount of lithium) were produced by stars. These are known as heavy elements because they are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Although all of these heavy elements are quite rare compared to hydrogen and helium, they are found just about everywhere.
Heavy elements are continually being manufactured by stars and released into space by stellar deaths, so their amount compared to hydrogen and helium gradually rises with time. Heavy elements make up about 2 percent of the chemical content (by mass) of our solar system, the other 98 percent is hydrogen and helium. In some very old star systems, which formed before many heavy elements were produced, the heavy-element share may be less than 0.1 percent. Nevertheless, every star system studied has at least some amount of all the elements used by life. Moreover, when planetesimals-small, solid objects formed in the early solar system that may accumulate to become planets-condense within a forming star system, they are inevitably made from heavy elements because the more common hydrogen and helium remain gaseous. Thus, planetesimals everywhere should contain the elements needed for life, which means that objects built from planetesimals-planets, moons, asteroids, and comets-also contain these elements. The nature of solar-system formation explains why Earth contains all the elements needed for life, and it is why we expect these elements to be present on other worlds throughout our solar system, galaxy, and universe.
Note that this argument does not change, even if we allow for life very different from life on Earth. Life on Earth is carbon based, and most biologists believe that life elsewhere is likely to be carbon based as well. However, we cannot absolutely rule out the possibility of life with another chemical basis, such as silicon or nitrogen. The set of elements (or their relative proportions) used by life based on some other element might be somewhat different from that used by carbon-based life on Earth. But the elements are still products of stars and would still be present in planetesimals everywhere. No matter what kinds of life we are looking for, we are likely to find the necessary elements on almost every planet, moon, asteroid, and comet in the universe.
A somewhat stricter requirement is the presence of these elements in molecules that can be used as ready-made building blocks for life, just as early Earth probably had an organic soup of amino acids and other complex molecules. Earth's organic molecules likely came from some combination of three sources: chemical reactions in the atmosphere, chemical reactions near deep-sea vents in the oceans, and molecules carried to Earth by asteroids and comets. The first two sources can occur only on worlds with atmospheres or oceans, respectively. But the third source should have brought similar molecules to nearly all worlds in our solar system.
Studies of meteorites and comets suggest that organic molecules are widespread among both asteroids and comets. Because each body in the solar system was repeatedly struck by asteroids and comets during the period known as the heavy bombardment (about 4 billion years ago), each body should have received at least some organic molecules. However, these molecules tend to be destroyed by solar radiation on surfaces unprotected by atmospheres. Moreover, while these molecules might stay intact beneath the surface (as they evidently do on asteroids and comets), they probably cannot react with each other unless some kind of liquid or gas is available to move them about. Thus, if we limit our search to worlds on which organic molecules are likely to be involved in chemical reactions, we can probably rule out any world that lacks both an atmosphere and a surface or subsurface liquid medium, such as water. | 3205.txt | 2 |
[
"It cannot be based on silicon or nitrogen.",
"It could not survive on Earth.",
"It probably would not be made of elements produced by stars.",
"It is likely to have carbon as its chemical basis."
] | According to paragraph 4, which of the following is true about possible life on other planets? | The creation of life requires a set of chemical elements for making the components of cells. Life on Earth uses about 25 of the 92 naturally occurring chemical elements, although just 4 of these elements-oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen-make up about 96 percent of the mass of living organisms. Thus, a first requirement for life might be the presence of most or all of the elements used by life.
Interestingly, this requirement can probably be met by almost any world. Scientists have determined that all chemical elements in the universe besides hydrogen and helium (and a trace amount of lithium) were produced by stars. These are known as heavy elements because they are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Although all of these heavy elements are quite rare compared to hydrogen and helium, they are found just about everywhere.
Heavy elements are continually being manufactured by stars and released into space by stellar deaths, so their amount compared to hydrogen and helium gradually rises with time. Heavy elements make up about 2 percent of the chemical content (by mass) of our solar system, the other 98 percent is hydrogen and helium. In some very old star systems, which formed before many heavy elements were produced, the heavy-element share may be less than 0.1 percent. Nevertheless, every star system studied has at least some amount of all the elements used by life. Moreover, when planetesimals-small, solid objects formed in the early solar system that may accumulate to become planets-condense within a forming star system, they are inevitably made from heavy elements because the more common hydrogen and helium remain gaseous. Thus, planetesimals everywhere should contain the elements needed for life, which means that objects built from planetesimals-planets, moons, asteroids, and comets-also contain these elements. The nature of solar-system formation explains why Earth contains all the elements needed for life, and it is why we expect these elements to be present on other worlds throughout our solar system, galaxy, and universe.
Note that this argument does not change, even if we allow for life very different from life on Earth. Life on Earth is carbon based, and most biologists believe that life elsewhere is likely to be carbon based as well. However, we cannot absolutely rule out the possibility of life with another chemical basis, such as silicon or nitrogen. The set of elements (or their relative proportions) used by life based on some other element might be somewhat different from that used by carbon-based life on Earth. But the elements are still products of stars and would still be present in planetesimals everywhere. No matter what kinds of life we are looking for, we are likely to find the necessary elements on almost every planet, moon, asteroid, and comet in the universe.
A somewhat stricter requirement is the presence of these elements in molecules that can be used as ready-made building blocks for life, just as early Earth probably had an organic soup of amino acids and other complex molecules. Earth's organic molecules likely came from some combination of three sources: chemical reactions in the atmosphere, chemical reactions near deep-sea vents in the oceans, and molecules carried to Earth by asteroids and comets. The first two sources can occur only on worlds with atmospheres or oceans, respectively. But the third source should have brought similar molecules to nearly all worlds in our solar system.
Studies of meteorites and comets suggest that organic molecules are widespread among both asteroids and comets. Because each body in the solar system was repeatedly struck by asteroids and comets during the period known as the heavy bombardment (about 4 billion years ago), each body should have received at least some organic molecules. However, these molecules tend to be destroyed by solar radiation on surfaces unprotected by atmospheres. Moreover, while these molecules might stay intact beneath the surface (as they evidently do on asteroids and comets), they probably cannot react with each other unless some kind of liquid or gas is available to move them about. Thus, if we limit our search to worlds on which organic molecules are likely to be involved in chemical reactions, we can probably rule out any world that lacks both an atmosphere and a surface or subsurface liquid medium, such as water. | 3205.txt | 3 |
[
"Some of them were probably brought to Earth by asteroids or comets.",
"Some of them probably formed in the atmosphere and oceans.",
"They were probably significantly different from the organic molecules present on other planets in the solar system.",
"They included complex molecules."
] | According to paragraph 5, all of the following are true of the organic molecules on early Earth EXCEPT: | The creation of life requires a set of chemical elements for making the components of cells. Life on Earth uses about 25 of the 92 naturally occurring chemical elements, although just 4 of these elements-oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen-make up about 96 percent of the mass of living organisms. Thus, a first requirement for life might be the presence of most or all of the elements used by life.
Interestingly, this requirement can probably be met by almost any world. Scientists have determined that all chemical elements in the universe besides hydrogen and helium (and a trace amount of lithium) were produced by stars. These are known as heavy elements because they are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Although all of these heavy elements are quite rare compared to hydrogen and helium, they are found just about everywhere.
Heavy elements are continually being manufactured by stars and released into space by stellar deaths, so their amount compared to hydrogen and helium gradually rises with time. Heavy elements make up about 2 percent of the chemical content (by mass) of our solar system, the other 98 percent is hydrogen and helium. In some very old star systems, which formed before many heavy elements were produced, the heavy-element share may be less than 0.1 percent. Nevertheless, every star system studied has at least some amount of all the elements used by life. Moreover, when planetesimals-small, solid objects formed in the early solar system that may accumulate to become planets-condense within a forming star system, they are inevitably made from heavy elements because the more common hydrogen and helium remain gaseous. Thus, planetesimals everywhere should contain the elements needed for life, which means that objects built from planetesimals-planets, moons, asteroids, and comets-also contain these elements. The nature of solar-system formation explains why Earth contains all the elements needed for life, and it is why we expect these elements to be present on other worlds throughout our solar system, galaxy, and universe.
Note that this argument does not change, even if we allow for life very different from life on Earth. Life on Earth is carbon based, and most biologists believe that life elsewhere is likely to be carbon based as well. However, we cannot absolutely rule out the possibility of life with another chemical basis, such as silicon or nitrogen. The set of elements (or their relative proportions) used by life based on some other element might be somewhat different from that used by carbon-based life on Earth. But the elements are still products of stars and would still be present in planetesimals everywhere. No matter what kinds of life we are looking for, we are likely to find the necessary elements on almost every planet, moon, asteroid, and comet in the universe.
A somewhat stricter requirement is the presence of these elements in molecules that can be used as ready-made building blocks for life, just as early Earth probably had an organic soup of amino acids and other complex molecules. Earth's organic molecules likely came from some combination of three sources: chemical reactions in the atmosphere, chemical reactions near deep-sea vents in the oceans, and molecules carried to Earth by asteroids and comets. The first two sources can occur only on worlds with atmospheres or oceans, respectively. But the third source should have brought similar molecules to nearly all worlds in our solar system.
Studies of meteorites and comets suggest that organic molecules are widespread among both asteroids and comets. Because each body in the solar system was repeatedly struck by asteroids and comets during the period known as the heavy bombardment (about 4 billion years ago), each body should have received at least some organic molecules. However, these molecules tend to be destroyed by solar radiation on surfaces unprotected by atmospheres. Moreover, while these molecules might stay intact beneath the surface (as they evidently do on asteroids and comets), they probably cannot react with each other unless some kind of liquid or gas is available to move them about. Thus, if we limit our search to worlds on which organic molecules are likely to be involved in chemical reactions, we can probably rule out any world that lacks both an atmosphere and a surface or subsurface liquid medium, such as water. | 3205.txt | 2 |
[
"buried",
"whole",
"confined",
"active"
] | The word "intact" in the passage is closest in meaning to | The creation of life requires a set of chemical elements for making the components of cells. Life on Earth uses about 25 of the 92 naturally occurring chemical elements, although just 4 of these elements-oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen-make up about 96 percent of the mass of living organisms. Thus, a first requirement for life might be the presence of most or all of the elements used by life.
Interestingly, this requirement can probably be met by almost any world. Scientists have determined that all chemical elements in the universe besides hydrogen and helium (and a trace amount of lithium) were produced by stars. These are known as heavy elements because they are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Although all of these heavy elements are quite rare compared to hydrogen and helium, they are found just about everywhere.
Heavy elements are continually being manufactured by stars and released into space by stellar deaths, so their amount compared to hydrogen and helium gradually rises with time. Heavy elements make up about 2 percent of the chemical content (by mass) of our solar system, the other 98 percent is hydrogen and helium. In some very old star systems, which formed before many heavy elements were produced, the heavy-element share may be less than 0.1 percent. Nevertheless, every star system studied has at least some amount of all the elements used by life. Moreover, when planetesimals-small, solid objects formed in the early solar system that may accumulate to become planets-condense within a forming star system, they are inevitably made from heavy elements because the more common hydrogen and helium remain gaseous. Thus, planetesimals everywhere should contain the elements needed for life, which means that objects built from planetesimals-planets, moons, asteroids, and comets-also contain these elements. The nature of solar-system formation explains why Earth contains all the elements needed for life, and it is why we expect these elements to be present on other worlds throughout our solar system, galaxy, and universe.
Note that this argument does not change, even if we allow for life very different from life on Earth. Life on Earth is carbon based, and most biologists believe that life elsewhere is likely to be carbon based as well. However, we cannot absolutely rule out the possibility of life with another chemical basis, such as silicon or nitrogen. The set of elements (or their relative proportions) used by life based on some other element might be somewhat different from that used by carbon-based life on Earth. But the elements are still products of stars and would still be present in planetesimals everywhere. No matter what kinds of life we are looking for, we are likely to find the necessary elements on almost every planet, moon, asteroid, and comet in the universe.
A somewhat stricter requirement is the presence of these elements in molecules that can be used as ready-made building blocks for life, just as early Earth probably had an organic soup of amino acids and other complex molecules. Earth's organic molecules likely came from some combination of three sources: chemical reactions in the atmosphere, chemical reactions near deep-sea vents in the oceans, and molecules carried to Earth by asteroids and comets. The first two sources can occur only on worlds with atmospheres or oceans, respectively. But the third source should have brought similar molecules to nearly all worlds in our solar system.
Studies of meteorites and comets suggest that organic molecules are widespread among both asteroids and comets. Because each body in the solar system was repeatedly struck by asteroids and comets during the period known as the heavy bombardment (about 4 billion years ago), each body should have received at least some organic molecules. However, these molecules tend to be destroyed by solar radiation on surfaces unprotected by atmospheres. Moreover, while these molecules might stay intact beneath the surface (as they evidently do on asteroids and comets), they probably cannot react with each other unless some kind of liquid or gas is available to move them about. Thus, if we limit our search to worlds on which organic molecules are likely to be involved in chemical reactions, we can probably rule out any world that lacks both an atmosphere and a surface or subsurface liquid medium, such as water. | 3205.txt | 1 |
[
"Organic molecules must be protected from solar radiation by a surface layer of liquid.",
"Planets that lack both of these features are probably too small to have been hit by many asteroids or comets carrying organic matter.",
"Organic molecules need a liquid or gaseous environment to bring them together so they can interact.",
"An atmosphere is needed to protect organic molecules from being destroyed by asteroids and comets."
] | According to paragraph 6, why is life unlikely to be found on any planet that lacks both an atmosphere and a surface or subsurface liquid medium? | The creation of life requires a set of chemical elements for making the components of cells. Life on Earth uses about 25 of the 92 naturally occurring chemical elements, although just 4 of these elements-oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen-make up about 96 percent of the mass of living organisms. Thus, a first requirement for life might be the presence of most or all of the elements used by life.
Interestingly, this requirement can probably be met by almost any world. Scientists have determined that all chemical elements in the universe besides hydrogen and helium (and a trace amount of lithium) were produced by stars. These are known as heavy elements because they are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Although all of these heavy elements are quite rare compared to hydrogen and helium, they are found just about everywhere.
Heavy elements are continually being manufactured by stars and released into space by stellar deaths, so their amount compared to hydrogen and helium gradually rises with time. Heavy elements make up about 2 percent of the chemical content (by mass) of our solar system, the other 98 percent is hydrogen and helium. In some very old star systems, which formed before many heavy elements were produced, the heavy-element share may be less than 0.1 percent. Nevertheless, every star system studied has at least some amount of all the elements used by life. Moreover, when planetesimals-small, solid objects formed in the early solar system that may accumulate to become planets-condense within a forming star system, they are inevitably made from heavy elements because the more common hydrogen and helium remain gaseous. Thus, planetesimals everywhere should contain the elements needed for life, which means that objects built from planetesimals-planets, moons, asteroids, and comets-also contain these elements. The nature of solar-system formation explains why Earth contains all the elements needed for life, and it is why we expect these elements to be present on other worlds throughout our solar system, galaxy, and universe.
Note that this argument does not change, even if we allow for life very different from life on Earth. Life on Earth is carbon based, and most biologists believe that life elsewhere is likely to be carbon based as well. However, we cannot absolutely rule out the possibility of life with another chemical basis, such as silicon or nitrogen. The set of elements (or their relative proportions) used by life based on some other element might be somewhat different from that used by carbon-based life on Earth. But the elements are still products of stars and would still be present in planetesimals everywhere. No matter what kinds of life we are looking for, we are likely to find the necessary elements on almost every planet, moon, asteroid, and comet in the universe.
A somewhat stricter requirement is the presence of these elements in molecules that can be used as ready-made building blocks for life, just as early Earth probably had an organic soup of amino acids and other complex molecules. Earth's organic molecules likely came from some combination of three sources: chemical reactions in the atmosphere, chemical reactions near deep-sea vents in the oceans, and molecules carried to Earth by asteroids and comets. The first two sources can occur only on worlds with atmospheres or oceans, respectively. But the third source should have brought similar molecules to nearly all worlds in our solar system.
Studies of meteorites and comets suggest that organic molecules are widespread among both asteroids and comets. Because each body in the solar system was repeatedly struck by asteroids and comets during the period known as the heavy bombardment (about 4 billion years ago), each body should have received at least some organic molecules. However, these molecules tend to be destroyed by solar radiation on surfaces unprotected by atmospheres. Moreover, while these molecules might stay intact beneath the surface (as they evidently do on asteroids and comets), they probably cannot react with each other unless some kind of liquid or gas is available to move them about. Thus, if we limit our search to worlds on which organic molecules are likely to be involved in chemical reactions, we can probably rule out any world that lacks both an atmosphere and a surface or subsurface liquid medium, such as water. | 3205.txt | 2 |
[
"the grandfather",
"the grandmother",
"the father",
"the mother"
] | The child had never met _ . | Although I had never met him, I knew that my grandfather had been five feet, six inches tall, while my stately grandmother stood five feet, eleven inches. As a teen-ager leafing through old photographs with Grandma, I finally realized how unusual they must have looked together.
"Grandma, " I asked, "how could you have fallen in love with a man five inches shorter than you?"
She turned to me. "Honey," she said, "we fell in love sitting down, and when I stood up, it was too late." | 3555.txt | 0 |
[
"five feet",
"six inches",
"four inches",
"five inches"
] | The grandmother was _ taller than the grandfather. | Although I had never met him, I knew that my grandfather had been five feet, six inches tall, while my stately grandmother stood five feet, eleven inches. As a teen-ager leafing through old photographs with Grandma, I finally realized how unusual they must have looked together.
"Grandma, " I asked, "how could you have fallen in love with a man five inches shorter than you?"
She turned to me. "Honey," she said, "we fell in love sitting down, and when I stood up, it was too late." | 3555.txt | 3 |
[
"to turn page by page",
"to put leaves in an album",
"to took for",
"to take out from"
] | "Leafing through" in "leafing through old photographs" means _ . | Although I had never met him, I knew that my grandfather had been five feet, six inches tall, while my stately grandmother stood five feet, eleven inches. As a teen-ager leafing through old photographs with Grandma, I finally realized how unusual they must have looked together.
"Grandma, " I asked, "how could you have fallen in love with a man five inches shorter than you?"
She turned to me. "Honey," she said, "we fell in love sitting down, and when I stood up, it was too late." | 3555.txt | 0 |
[
"how strange they must have looked together",
"how wonderful they must have looked together",
"how shameful they must have looked together",
"how unusual they must have looked together"
] | The child realized _ . | Although I had never met him, I knew that my grandfather had been five feet, six inches tall, while my stately grandmother stood five feet, eleven inches. As a teen-ager leafing through old photographs with Grandma, I finally realized how unusual they must have looked together.
"Grandma, " I asked, "how could you have fallen in love with a man five inches shorter than you?"
She turned to me. "Honey," she said, "we fell in love sitting down, and when I stood up, it was too late." | 3555.txt | 0 |
[
"the grandmother loved her husband deeply",
"the grandmother regretted to have married her husband",
"the grandfather had been out for at least ten years",
"the grandfather had been dead for nearly eight years"
] | From the passage we can see that _ . | Although I had never met him, I knew that my grandfather had been five feet, six inches tall, while my stately grandmother stood five feet, eleven inches. As a teen-ager leafing through old photographs with Grandma, I finally realized how unusual they must have looked together.
"Grandma, " I asked, "how could you have fallen in love with a man five inches shorter than you?"
She turned to me. "Honey," she said, "we fell in love sitting down, and when I stood up, it was too late." | 3555.txt | 0 |
[
"curious",
"tired",
"awful",
"funny"
] | After realising an email accident, you are likely to feel _ . | Realisation will probably set in seconds after you've clicked "send". You freeze in horrors and burn with shame.
What to do? Here are four common email accidents, and how to recover.
Clicking "send" too soon
Don't waste your time trying to find out if the receivers has read it yet. Write another email as swiftly as you can and send it with a brief explaining that this is the correct version and the previous version should be ignored.
Writing the wrong time
The sooner you notice, the better. Respond quickly and briefly, apologizing for your mistake. Keep the tone measured: don't handle it too lightly, as people can be offered, zx@xk especially if your error suggests a misunderstanding of their culture(i.e. incorrect ordering of Chinese names).
Clicking "reply all" unintentionally
You accidentally revealto entire company what menu choices you would prefer at the staff Christmas dinner, or what holiday you'd like to take. In this instance, the best solution is to send a quick, light-hearted apology to explain your awkwardness. But it can quickly rise to something worse, when everyone starts hitting "reply all" to join in a long and unpleasant conversation. In this instance, step away from your keyboard to allow everyone to calm down.
Sending an offensive message to its subject
The most awkward email mistake is usually committed in anger. You write an unkind message about someone, intending to send it to a friend, but accidentally send it to the person you're discussing. In that case, ask to speak in person as soon as possible and say sorry. Explain your frustrations calmly and sensibly-see it as an opportunity toclear up any difficulties you may have with this person. | 3906.txt | 2 |
[
"apologise in a serious manner",
"tell the receiver to ignore the error",
"learn to write the name correctly",
"send a short notice to everyone"
] | If you have written the wrong name in an email, it is best to _ . | Realisation will probably set in seconds after you've clicked "send". You freeze in horrors and burn with shame.
What to do? Here are four common email accidents, and how to recover.
Clicking "send" too soon
Don't waste your time trying to find out if the receivers has read it yet. Write another email as swiftly as you can and send it with a brief explaining that this is the correct version and the previous version should be ignored.
Writing the wrong time
The sooner you notice, the better. Respond quickly and briefly, apologizing for your mistake. Keep the tone measured: don't handle it too lightly, as people can be offered, zx@xk especially if your error suggests a misunderstanding of their culture(i.e. incorrect ordering of Chinese names).
Clicking "reply all" unintentionally
You accidentally revealto entire company what menu choices you would prefer at the staff Christmas dinner, or what holiday you'd like to take. In this instance, the best solution is to send a quick, light-hearted apology to explain your awkwardness. But it can quickly rise to something worse, when everyone starts hitting "reply all" to join in a long and unpleasant conversation. In this instance, step away from your keyboard to allow everyone to calm down.
Sending an offensive message to its subject
The most awkward email mistake is usually committed in anger. You write an unkind message about someone, intending to send it to a friend, but accidentally send it to the person you're discussing. In that case, ask to speak in person as soon as possible and say sorry. Explain your frustrations calmly and sensibly-see it as an opportunity toclear up any difficulties you may have with this person. | 3906.txt | 0 |
[
"Try offering other choices.",
"Avoid further involvement.",
"Meet other staff members.",
"Make a light-hearted apology."
] | What should you do when an unpleasant conversation is started by your "reply all" email? | Realisation will probably set in seconds after you've clicked "send". You freeze in horrors and burn with shame.
What to do? Here are four common email accidents, and how to recover.
Clicking "send" too soon
Don't waste your time trying to find out if the receivers has read it yet. Write another email as swiftly as you can and send it with a brief explaining that this is the correct version and the previous version should be ignored.
Writing the wrong time
The sooner you notice, the better. Respond quickly and briefly, apologizing for your mistake. Keep the tone measured: don't handle it too lightly, as people can be offered, zx@xk especially if your error suggests a misunderstanding of their culture(i.e. incorrect ordering of Chinese names).
Clicking "reply all" unintentionally
You accidentally revealto entire company what menu choices you would prefer at the staff Christmas dinner, or what holiday you'd like to take. In this instance, the best solution is to send a quick, light-hearted apology to explain your awkwardness. But it can quickly rise to something worse, when everyone starts hitting "reply all" to join in a long and unpleasant conversation. In this instance, step away from your keyboard to allow everyone to calm down.
Sending an offensive message to its subject
The most awkward email mistake is usually committed in anger. You write an unkind message about someone, intending to send it to a friend, but accidentally send it to the person you're discussing. In that case, ask to speak in person as soon as possible and say sorry. Explain your frustrations calmly and sensibly-see it as an opportunity toclear up any difficulties you may have with this person. | 3906.txt | 1 |
[
"By promising not to offend the receiver again.",
"By seeking support from the receiver's friends.",
"By asking the receiver to control his anger.",
"By talking to the receiver face to face."
] | How should you deal with the problem caused by an offensive email? | Realisation will probably set in seconds after you've clicked "send". You freeze in horrors and burn with shame.
What to do? Here are four common email accidents, and how to recover.
Clicking "send" too soon
Don't waste your time trying to find out if the receivers has read it yet. Write another email as swiftly as you can and send it with a brief explaining that this is the correct version and the previous version should be ignored.
Writing the wrong time
The sooner you notice, the better. Respond quickly and briefly, apologizing for your mistake. Keep the tone measured: don't handle it too lightly, as people can be offered, zx@xk especially if your error suggests a misunderstanding of their culture(i.e. incorrect ordering of Chinese names).
Clicking "reply all" unintentionally
You accidentally revealto entire company what menu choices you would prefer at the staff Christmas dinner, or what holiday you'd like to take. In this instance, the best solution is to send a quick, light-hearted apology to explain your awkwardness. But it can quickly rise to something worse, when everyone starts hitting "reply all" to join in a long and unpleasant conversation. In this instance, step away from your keyboard to allow everyone to calm down.
Sending an offensive message to its subject
The most awkward email mistake is usually committed in anger. You write an unkind message about someone, intending to send it to a friend, but accidentally send it to the person you're discussing. In that case, ask to speak in person as soon as possible and say sorry. Explain your frustrations calmly and sensibly-see it as an opportunity toclear up any difficulties you may have with this person. | 3906.txt | 3 |
[
"Defining email errors.",
"Reducing email mistakes.",
"Handling email accidents.",
"Improving email writing."
] | What is the passage mainly about? | Realisation will probably set in seconds after you've clicked "send". You freeze in horrors and burn with shame.
What to do? Here are four common email accidents, and how to recover.
Clicking "send" too soon
Don't waste your time trying to find out if the receivers has read it yet. Write another email as swiftly as you can and send it with a brief explaining that this is the correct version and the previous version should be ignored.
Writing the wrong time
The sooner you notice, the better. Respond quickly and briefly, apologizing for your mistake. Keep the tone measured: don't handle it too lightly, as people can be offered, zx@xk especially if your error suggests a misunderstanding of their culture(i.e. incorrect ordering of Chinese names).
Clicking "reply all" unintentionally
You accidentally revealto entire company what menu choices you would prefer at the staff Christmas dinner, or what holiday you'd like to take. In this instance, the best solution is to send a quick, light-hearted apology to explain your awkwardness. But it can quickly rise to something worse, when everyone starts hitting "reply all" to join in a long and unpleasant conversation. In this instance, step away from your keyboard to allow everyone to calm down.
Sending an offensive message to its subject
The most awkward email mistake is usually committed in anger. You write an unkind message about someone, intending to send it to a friend, but accidentally send it to the person you're discussing. In that case, ask to speak in person as soon as possible and say sorry. Explain your frustrations calmly and sensibly-see it as an opportunity toclear up any difficulties you may have with this person. | 3906.txt | 2 |
[
"has been striving to expand its market",
"intended to follow a fanciful fashion",
"tried but in vain to control the market",
"has been booming for one year or so"
] | We learn from the beginning of the passage that Web business . | In the first year or so of Web business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market. More recently, as the Web proved to be more than a fashion, companies have started to buy and sell products and services with one another. Such business-to-business sales make sense because businesspeople typically know what product they're looking for.
Nonetheless, many companies still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its reliability. "Businesses need to feel they can trust the pathway between them and the supplier," says senior analyst Blane Erwin of Forrester Research. Some companies are limiting the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business partners who are given access to the company's private intranet.
Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce concerns the technology available for marketing. Until recently, Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to "pull" customers into sites. In the past year, however, software companies have developed tools that allow companies to "push" information directly out to consumers, transmitting marketing messages directly to targeted customers. Most notably, the Pointcast Network uses a screen saver to deliver a continually updated stream of news and advertisements to subscribers' computer monitors. Subscribers can customize the information they want to receive and proceed directly to a company's Web site. Companies such as Virtual Vineyards are already starting to use similar technologies to push messages to customers about special sales, product offerings, or other events. But push technology has earned the contempt of many Web users. Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific request. Once commercial promotion begins to fill the screen uninvited, the distinction between the Web and television fades. That's a prospect that horrifies Net purists.
But it is hardly inevitable that companies on the Web will need to resort to push strategies to make money. The examples of Virtual Vineyards, Amazon.com, and other pioneers show that a Web site selling the right kind of products with the right mix of interactivity, hospitality, and security will attract online customers. And the cost of computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprise setting up shop in silicon. People looking back 5 or 10 years from now may well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge. | 994.txt | 0 |
[
"the technology is popular with many Web users",
"businesses have faith in the reliability of online transactions",
"there is a radical change in strategy",
"it is accessible limitedly to established partners"
] | Speaking of the online technology available for marketing, the author implies that . | In the first year or so of Web business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market. More recently, as the Web proved to be more than a fashion, companies have started to buy and sell products and services with one another. Such business-to-business sales make sense because businesspeople typically know what product they're looking for.
Nonetheless, many companies still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its reliability. "Businesses need to feel they can trust the pathway between them and the supplier," says senior analyst Blane Erwin of Forrester Research. Some companies are limiting the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business partners who are given access to the company's private intranet.
Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce concerns the technology available for marketing. Until recently, Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to "pull" customers into sites. In the past year, however, software companies have developed tools that allow companies to "push" information directly out to consumers, transmitting marketing messages directly to targeted customers. Most notably, the Pointcast Network uses a screen saver to deliver a continually updated stream of news and advertisements to subscribers' computer monitors. Subscribers can customize the information they want to receive and proceed directly to a company's Web site. Companies such as Virtual Vineyards are already starting to use similar technologies to push messages to customers about special sales, product offerings, or other events. But push technology has earned the contempt of many Web users. Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific request. Once commercial promotion begins to fill the screen uninvited, the distinction between the Web and television fades. That's a prospect that horrifies Net purists.
But it is hardly inevitable that companies on the Web will need to resort to push strategies to make money. The examples of Virtual Vineyards, Amazon.com, and other pioneers show that a Web site selling the right kind of products with the right mix of interactivity, hospitality, and security will attract online customers. And the cost of computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprise setting up shop in silicon. People looking back 5 or 10 years from now may well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge. | 994.txt | 2 |
[
"there should be no marketing messages in online culture",
"money making should be given priority to on the Web",
"the Web should be able to function as the television set",
"there should be no online commercial information without requests"
] | In the view of Net purists, . | In the first year or so of Web business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market. More recently, as the Web proved to be more than a fashion, companies have started to buy and sell products and services with one another. Such business-to-business sales make sense because businesspeople typically know what product they're looking for.
Nonetheless, many companies still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its reliability. "Businesses need to feel they can trust the pathway between them and the supplier," says senior analyst Blane Erwin of Forrester Research. Some companies are limiting the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business partners who are given access to the company's private intranet.
Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce concerns the technology available for marketing. Until recently, Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to "pull" customers into sites. In the past year, however, software companies have developed tools that allow companies to "push" information directly out to consumers, transmitting marketing messages directly to targeted customers. Most notably, the Pointcast Network uses a screen saver to deliver a continually updated stream of news and advertisements to subscribers' computer monitors. Subscribers can customize the information they want to receive and proceed directly to a company's Web site. Companies such as Virtual Vineyards are already starting to use similar technologies to push messages to customers about special sales, product offerings, or other events. But push technology has earned the contempt of many Web users. Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific request. Once commercial promotion begins to fill the screen uninvited, the distinction between the Web and television fades. That's a prospect that horrifies Net purists.
But it is hardly inevitable that companies on the Web will need to resort to push strategies to make money. The examples of Virtual Vineyards, Amazon.com, and other pioneers show that a Web site selling the right kind of products with the right mix of interactivity, hospitality, and security will attract online customers. And the cost of computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprise setting up shop in silicon. People looking back 5 or 10 years from now may well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge. | 994.txt | 3 |
[
"pushing information on the Web is essential to Internet commerce",
"interactivity, hospitality and security are important to online customers",
"leading companies began to take the online plunge decades ago",
"setting up shops in silicon is independent of the cost of computing power"
] | We learn from the last paragraph that . | In the first year or so of Web business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market. More recently, as the Web proved to be more than a fashion, companies have started to buy and sell products and services with one another. Such business-to-business sales make sense because businesspeople typically know what product they're looking for.
Nonetheless, many companies still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its reliability. "Businesses need to feel they can trust the pathway between them and the supplier," says senior analyst Blane Erwin of Forrester Research. Some companies are limiting the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business partners who are given access to the company's private intranet.
Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce concerns the technology available for marketing. Until recently, Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to "pull" customers into sites. In the past year, however, software companies have developed tools that allow companies to "push" information directly out to consumers, transmitting marketing messages directly to targeted customers. Most notably, the Pointcast Network uses a screen saver to deliver a continually updated stream of news and advertisements to subscribers' computer monitors. Subscribers can customize the information they want to receive and proceed directly to a company's Web site. Companies such as Virtual Vineyards are already starting to use similar technologies to push messages to customers about special sales, product offerings, or other events. But push technology has earned the contempt of many Web users. Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific request. Once commercial promotion begins to fill the screen uninvited, the distinction between the Web and television fades. That's a prospect that horrifies Net purists.
But it is hardly inevitable that companies on the Web will need to resort to push strategies to make money. The examples of Virtual Vineyards, Amazon.com, and other pioneers show that a Web site selling the right kind of products with the right mix of interactivity, hospitality, and security will attract online customers. And the cost of computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprise setting up shop in silicon. People looking back 5 or 10 years from now may well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge. | 994.txt | 1 |
[
"Interactive television advertising will become popular in 10-12 years.",
"Interactive television advertising has been under debate for the last decade or so.",
"Interactive television advertising is successful when incorporated into situation comedies.",
"Interactive television advertising has not achieved the anticipated results."
] | What does Colin Dixon mean by saying"It's been the year of interactive television advertising for the last ten or twelve years"(Lines 4-5, Para.1)? | Interactive television advertising, which allows viewers to use their remote controls to click on advertisements, has been pushed for years. Nearly a decade ago it was predicted that viewers of "Friends", a popular situation comedy, would soon be able to purchase a sweater like Jennifer Aniston's with a few taps on their remote control."It's been the year of interactive television advertising for the last ten or twelve years,"says Colin Dixon of a digital-media consultancy.
So the news that Cablevision, and American cable company, was rolling out interactive advertisements to all its customers on October 6th was greeted with some skepticism. During commercials, an overlay will appear at the bottom of the screen, prompting viewers to press a button to request a free sample or order a catalogue. Cablevision hopes to allow customers to buy things with their remote controls early next year.
Television advertising could do with a boost. Spending fell by 10% in the first half of the year. The popularization of digital video recorders has caused advertisers to worry that their commercials will be skipped. Some are turning to the Internet, which is cheaper and offers concrete measurements like click-through rates-especially important at a time when marketing budgets are tight. With the launch of interactive advertising,"many of the dollars that went to the Internet will come back to the TV,"says David Kline of Cablevision. Or so the industry hopes.
In theory, interactive advertising can engage viewers in a way that 30-second spots do not. Unilever recently ran an interactive campaign for its Axe deodorant，which kept viewers engaged for more than three minutes on average.
The amount spent on interactive advertising on television is still small. Magna, an advertising agency, reckons it will be worth about $138 million this year. That falls far short of the billions of dollars people once expected it to generate. But DirecTV, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have all invested in it. A new effort led by Canoe Ventures, a coalition of leading cable providers, aims to make interactive advertising available across America later this year. BrightLine iTV, Which designs and sells interactive ads, says interest has surged: it expects its revenues almost to triple this year. BSkyB, Britain's biggest satellite-television service, already provides 9 million customers with interactive ads.
Yet there are doubts whether people watching television, a"lean back"medium, crave interaction. Click-through rates have been high so far(around 3-4%, compared with less than 0.3% online), but that may be a result of the novelty. Interactive ads and viewers might not go well together. | 1716.txt | 2 |
[
"Pretty positive.",
"Totally indifferent.",
"Somewhat doubtful.",
"Rather critical."
] | What is the public's response to Cablevision's planned interactive TV advertising program? | Interactive television advertising, which allows viewers to use their remote controls to click on advertisements, has been pushed for years. Nearly a decade ago it was predicted that viewers of "Friends", a popular situation comedy, would soon be able to purchase a sweater like Jennifer Aniston's with a few taps on their remote control."It's been the year of interactive television advertising for the last ten or twelve years,"says Colin Dixon of a digital-media consultancy.
So the news that Cablevision, and American cable company, was rolling out interactive advertisements to all its customers on October 6th was greeted with some skepticism. During commercials, an overlay will appear at the bottom of the screen, prompting viewers to press a button to request a free sample or order a catalogue. Cablevision hopes to allow customers to buy things with their remote controls early next year.
Television advertising could do with a boost. Spending fell by 10% in the first half of the year. The popularization of digital video recorders has caused advertisers to worry that their commercials will be skipped. Some are turning to the Internet, which is cheaper and offers concrete measurements like click-through rates-especially important at a time when marketing budgets are tight. With the launch of interactive advertising,"many of the dollars that went to the Internet will come back to the TV,"says David Kline of Cablevision. Or so the industry hopes.
In theory, interactive advertising can engage viewers in a way that 30-second spots do not. Unilever recently ran an interactive campaign for its Axe deodorant，which kept viewers engaged for more than three minutes on average.
The amount spent on interactive advertising on television is still small. Magna, an advertising agency, reckons it will be worth about $138 million this year. That falls far short of the billions of dollars people once expected it to generate. But DirecTV, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have all invested in it. A new effort led by Canoe Ventures, a coalition of leading cable providers, aims to make interactive advertising available across America later this year. BrightLine iTV, Which designs and sells interactive ads, says interest has surged: it expects its revenues almost to triple this year. BSkyB, Britain's biggest satellite-television service, already provides 9 million customers with interactive ads.
Yet there are doubts whether people watching television, a"lean back"medium, crave interaction. Click-through rates have been high so far(around 3-4%, compared with less than 0.3% online), but that may be a result of the novelty. Interactive ads and viewers might not go well together. | 1716.txt | 2 |
[
"It has made TV advertising easily accessible to viewers.",
"It helps advertisers to measure the click-through rates.",
"It has placed TV advertising at a great disadvantage.",
"It enables viewers to check the sales items with ease."
] | What is the impact of the wide use of digital video recorders on TV advertising? | Interactive television advertising, which allows viewers to use their remote controls to click on advertisements, has been pushed for years. Nearly a decade ago it was predicted that viewers of "Friends", a popular situation comedy, would soon be able to purchase a sweater like Jennifer Aniston's with a few taps on their remote control."It's been the year of interactive television advertising for the last ten or twelve years,"says Colin Dixon of a digital-media consultancy.
So the news that Cablevision, and American cable company, was rolling out interactive advertisements to all its customers on October 6th was greeted with some skepticism. During commercials, an overlay will appear at the bottom of the screen, prompting viewers to press a button to request a free sample or order a catalogue. Cablevision hopes to allow customers to buy things with their remote controls early next year.
Television advertising could do with a boost. Spending fell by 10% in the first half of the year. The popularization of digital video recorders has caused advertisers to worry that their commercials will be skipped. Some are turning to the Internet, which is cheaper and offers concrete measurements like click-through rates-especially important at a time when marketing budgets are tight. With the launch of interactive advertising,"many of the dollars that went to the Internet will come back to the TV,"says David Kline of Cablevision. Or so the industry hopes.
In theory, interactive advertising can engage viewers in a way that 30-second spots do not. Unilever recently ran an interactive campaign for its Axe deodorant，which kept viewers engaged for more than three minutes on average.
The amount spent on interactive advertising on television is still small. Magna, an advertising agency, reckons it will be worth about $138 million this year. That falls far short of the billions of dollars people once expected it to generate. But DirecTV, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have all invested in it. A new effort led by Canoe Ventures, a coalition of leading cable providers, aims to make interactive advertising available across America later this year. BrightLine iTV, Which designs and sells interactive ads, says interest has surged: it expects its revenues almost to triple this year. BSkyB, Britain's biggest satellite-television service, already provides 9 million customers with interactive ads.
Yet there are doubts whether people watching television, a"lean back"medium, crave interaction. Click-through rates have been high so far(around 3-4%, compared with less than 0.3% online), but that may be a result of the novelty. Interactive ads and viewers might not go well together. | 1716.txt | 0 |
[
"It proves the advantage of TV advertising.",
"It has done well in engaging the viewers.",
"It helps attract investments in the company.",
"it has boosted the TV advertising industry."
] | What do we learn about Unilever's interactive campaign? | Interactive television advertising, which allows viewers to use their remote controls to click on advertisements, has been pushed for years. Nearly a decade ago it was predicted that viewers of "Friends", a popular situation comedy, would soon be able to purchase a sweater like Jennifer Aniston's with a few taps on their remote control."It's been the year of interactive television advertising for the last ten or twelve years,"says Colin Dixon of a digital-media consultancy.
So the news that Cablevision, and American cable company, was rolling out interactive advertisements to all its customers on October 6th was greeted with some skepticism. During commercials, an overlay will appear at the bottom of the screen, prompting viewers to press a button to request a free sample or order a catalogue. Cablevision hopes to allow customers to buy things with their remote controls early next year.
Television advertising could do with a boost. Spending fell by 10% in the first half of the year. The popularization of digital video recorders has caused advertisers to worry that their commercials will be skipped. Some are turning to the Internet, which is cheaper and offers concrete measurements like click-through rates-especially important at a time when marketing budgets are tight. With the launch of interactive advertising,"many of the dollars that went to the Internet will come back to the TV,"says David Kline of Cablevision. Or so the industry hopes.
In theory, interactive advertising can engage viewers in a way that 30-second spots do not. Unilever recently ran an interactive campaign for its Axe deodorant，which kept viewers engaged for more than three minutes on average.
The amount spent on interactive advertising on television is still small. Magna, an advertising agency, reckons it will be worth about $138 million this year. That falls far short of the billions of dollars people once expected it to generate. But DirecTV, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have all invested in it. A new effort led by Canoe Ventures, a coalition of leading cable providers, aims to make interactive advertising available across America later this year. BrightLine iTV, Which designs and sells interactive ads, says interest has surged: it expects its revenues almost to triple this year. BSkyB, Britain's biggest satellite-television service, already provides 9 million customers with interactive ads.
Yet there are doubts whether people watching television, a"lean back"medium, crave interaction. Click-through rates have been high so far(around 3-4%, compared with less than 0.3% online), but that may be a result of the novelty. Interactive ads and viewers might not go well together. | 1716.txt | 1 |
[
"They may be due to the novel way of advertising.",
"They signify the popularity of interactive advertising.",
"They point to the growing curiosity ofTV viewers.",
"They indicate the future direction of media reform."
] | How does the author view the hitherto high click-through rates? | Interactive television advertising, which allows viewers to use their remote controls to click on advertisements, has been pushed for years. Nearly a decade ago it was predicted that viewers of "Friends", a popular situation comedy, would soon be able to purchase a sweater like Jennifer Aniston's with a few taps on their remote control."It's been the year of interactive television advertising for the last ten or twelve years,"says Colin Dixon of a digital-media consultancy.
So the news that Cablevision, and American cable company, was rolling out interactive advertisements to all its customers on October 6th was greeted with some skepticism. During commercials, an overlay will appear at the bottom of the screen, prompting viewers to press a button to request a free sample or order a catalogue. Cablevision hopes to allow customers to buy things with their remote controls early next year.
Television advertising could do with a boost. Spending fell by 10% in the first half of the year. The popularization of digital video recorders has caused advertisers to worry that their commercials will be skipped. Some are turning to the Internet, which is cheaper and offers concrete measurements like click-through rates-especially important at a time when marketing budgets are tight. With the launch of interactive advertising,"many of the dollars that went to the Internet will come back to the TV,"says David Kline of Cablevision. Or so the industry hopes.
In theory, interactive advertising can engage viewers in a way that 30-second spots do not. Unilever recently ran an interactive campaign for its Axe deodorant，which kept viewers engaged for more than three minutes on average.
The amount spent on interactive advertising on television is still small. Magna, an advertising agency, reckons it will be worth about $138 million this year. That falls far short of the billions of dollars people once expected it to generate. But DirecTV, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have all invested in it. A new effort led by Canoe Ventures, a coalition of leading cable providers, aims to make interactive advertising available across America later this year. BrightLine iTV, Which designs and sells interactive ads, says interest has surged: it expects its revenues almost to triple this year. BSkyB, Britain's biggest satellite-television service, already provides 9 million customers with interactive ads.
Yet there are doubts whether people watching television, a"lean back"medium, crave interaction. Click-through rates have been high so far(around 3-4%, compared with less than 0.3% online), but that may be a result of the novelty. Interactive ads and viewers might not go well together. | 1716.txt | 0 |
[
"studying abroad cost almost the same as staying in U.S. for higher education.",
"American students were encouraged to study overseas to enrich their experience.",
"the cost of living at abroad was moderate for American students.",
"the U.S. dollar was the strongest currency in the world."
] | The fact that American students blithely flocked overseas to nibble on affordable sconesa and croissants implies that _ | Once upon a time-when the U.S. dollar was king-American students blithely flocked overseas to nibble on affordable scones and croissants between classes. How times have changed.As the dollar dips to all-time lows, college students are feeling the pinch. Especially in the United Kingdom and countries that use the euro-which currently is at 68 cents to the dollar-the cost of living has skyrocketed. "Years ago we could say studying abroad was the same price as staying on campus," says Daeya Malboeuf, an associate director at Syracuse University. "There's no way we can say that anymore."
Yet this unfavorable economic environment hasn't stopped students from scrambling overseas. According to the Institute of International Education, study-abroad programs have grown 144 percent in the past decade and continue to increase around 8 percent each year. Considering the rising costs, "it's surprising how little the students haven't been deterred," says Natalie Bartush, who handles the study-abroad program at the University of Texas.
Where the real change appears to be happening as a result of rising prices is in the length and location of students' foreign study choices. The number of participants in short-term summer programs has swelled, as has the interest in courses at more exotic locales. For Middlebury College students, for example, a year in Florence costs around $37,000; at Santiago, Chile, it's $27,000. Such price differences have contributed to modest or flat growth at traditionally popular programs in western Europe and Australia, whereas schools in Chile, Argentina, South Africa, and China (particularly Hong Kong) are aggressively expanding to meet rising demand.
Program directors are quick to point out that the shift is not just about money. "You can't understand the United States today without understanding what's going on outside our borders, and that's not just Europe anymore," says Rebecca Hovey, dean of the study-abroad program at the School for International Training. Interest in nontraditional locales spiked even before the dollar began dropping, and foreign countries are marketing themselves to American students. A surge of support from education nonprofits and the State Department also has fueled the trend.
Study-abroad costs also vary wildly based on the way colleges structure their programs. Schools that effectively swap students with a foreign college are less affected by the falling dollar, but American schools that operate their own student centers often end up paying more for rent, utilities, and faculty salaries as the U.S. currency falters. The dollar's slide also means that trying to set student fees in advance is a tiresome guessing game for college officials. Most of these educators' energy, however, is spent scrounging up extra financial aid for needy travelers. Students already getting help can usually transfer their aid to tuition and fees abroad, but basics like housing and food are often at the mercy of the fluctuating dollar. Airfare, which can exceed $1,000 round trip, is not generally included in school fees, and whirlwind trips across continents are rarely cheap.
The emphasis on student financial responsibility is especially evident at private schools like Syracuse, which charges the same pricey tuition abroad as at home. Even at more affordable public universities and private colleges like Middlebury-which charges U.S. students the often cheaper tuition of the international host schools-counselors are quick to peddle the virtue of thrift, a lesson no longer lost between those on safety and culture shock. | 3660.txt | 2 |
[
"students' enthusiasm of studying abroad in short period does not disappear but vice versa.",
"students become hesitant when considering long-term overseas programs.",
"programmes in western Europe and Australia suffer declining popularity.",
"students who chose to study at certain continents are at a rapid growth."
] | The changes of study-abroad caused by the dollar's depreciation are the following ones except _ | Once upon a time-when the U.S. dollar was king-American students blithely flocked overseas to nibble on affordable scones and croissants between classes. How times have changed.As the dollar dips to all-time lows, college students are feeling the pinch. Especially in the United Kingdom and countries that use the euro-which currently is at 68 cents to the dollar-the cost of living has skyrocketed. "Years ago we could say studying abroad was the same price as staying on campus," says Daeya Malboeuf, an associate director at Syracuse University. "There's no way we can say that anymore."
Yet this unfavorable economic environment hasn't stopped students from scrambling overseas. According to the Institute of International Education, study-abroad programs have grown 144 percent in the past decade and continue to increase around 8 percent each year. Considering the rising costs, "it's surprising how little the students haven't been deterred," says Natalie Bartush, who handles the study-abroad program at the University of Texas.
Where the real change appears to be happening as a result of rising prices is in the length and location of students' foreign study choices. The number of participants in short-term summer programs has swelled, as has the interest in courses at more exotic locales. For Middlebury College students, for example, a year in Florence costs around $37,000; at Santiago, Chile, it's $27,000. Such price differences have contributed to modest or flat growth at traditionally popular programs in western Europe and Australia, whereas schools in Chile, Argentina, South Africa, and China (particularly Hong Kong) are aggressively expanding to meet rising demand.
Program directors are quick to point out that the shift is not just about money. "You can't understand the United States today without understanding what's going on outside our borders, and that's not just Europe anymore," says Rebecca Hovey, dean of the study-abroad program at the School for International Training. Interest in nontraditional locales spiked even before the dollar began dropping, and foreign countries are marketing themselves to American students. A surge of support from education nonprofits and the State Department also has fueled the trend.
Study-abroad costs also vary wildly based on the way colleges structure their programs. Schools that effectively swap students with a foreign college are less affected by the falling dollar, but American schools that operate their own student centers often end up paying more for rent, utilities, and faculty salaries as the U.S. currency falters. The dollar's slide also means that trying to set student fees in advance is a tiresome guessing game for college officials. Most of these educators' energy, however, is spent scrounging up extra financial aid for needy travelers. Students already getting help can usually transfer their aid to tuition and fees abroad, but basics like housing and food are often at the mercy of the fluctuating dollar. Airfare, which can exceed $1,000 round trip, is not generally included in school fees, and whirlwind trips across continents are rarely cheap.
The emphasis on student financial responsibility is especially evident at private schools like Syracuse, which charges the same pricey tuition abroad as at home. Even at more affordable public universities and private colleges like Middlebury-which charges U.S. students the often cheaper tuition of the international host schools-counselors are quick to peddle the virtue of thrift, a lesson no longer lost between those on safety and culture shock. | 3660.txt | 1 |
[
"the United States are now more readily influenced by the other countries than before.",
"shift in the mainland may also be caused by factors outside of America.",
"Europe can no longer influnece the United States as before.",
"the United States are extending its influence beyond its boraders."
] | Rebecca Hover's statement implies that _ | Once upon a time-when the U.S. dollar was king-American students blithely flocked overseas to nibble on affordable scones and croissants between classes. How times have changed.As the dollar dips to all-time lows, college students are feeling the pinch. Especially in the United Kingdom and countries that use the euro-which currently is at 68 cents to the dollar-the cost of living has skyrocketed. "Years ago we could say studying abroad was the same price as staying on campus," says Daeya Malboeuf, an associate director at Syracuse University. "There's no way we can say that anymore."
Yet this unfavorable economic environment hasn't stopped students from scrambling overseas. According to the Institute of International Education, study-abroad programs have grown 144 percent in the past decade and continue to increase around 8 percent each year. Considering the rising costs, "it's surprising how little the students haven't been deterred," says Natalie Bartush, who handles the study-abroad program at the University of Texas.
Where the real change appears to be happening as a result of rising prices is in the length and location of students' foreign study choices. The number of participants in short-term summer programs has swelled, as has the interest in courses at more exotic locales. For Middlebury College students, for example, a year in Florence costs around $37,000; at Santiago, Chile, it's $27,000. Such price differences have contributed to modest or flat growth at traditionally popular programs in western Europe and Australia, whereas schools in Chile, Argentina, South Africa, and China (particularly Hong Kong) are aggressively expanding to meet rising demand.
Program directors are quick to point out that the shift is not just about money. "You can't understand the United States today without understanding what's going on outside our borders, and that's not just Europe anymore," says Rebecca Hovey, dean of the study-abroad program at the School for International Training. Interest in nontraditional locales spiked even before the dollar began dropping, and foreign countries are marketing themselves to American students. A surge of support from education nonprofits and the State Department also has fueled the trend.
Study-abroad costs also vary wildly based on the way colleges structure their programs. Schools that effectively swap students with a foreign college are less affected by the falling dollar, but American schools that operate their own student centers often end up paying more for rent, utilities, and faculty salaries as the U.S. currency falters. The dollar's slide also means that trying to set student fees in advance is a tiresome guessing game for college officials. Most of these educators' energy, however, is spent scrounging up extra financial aid for needy travelers. Students already getting help can usually transfer their aid to tuition and fees abroad, but basics like housing and food are often at the mercy of the fluctuating dollar. Airfare, which can exceed $1,000 round trip, is not generally included in school fees, and whirlwind trips across continents are rarely cheap.
The emphasis on student financial responsibility is especially evident at private schools like Syracuse, which charges the same pricey tuition abroad as at home. Even at more affordable public universities and private colleges like Middlebury-which charges U.S. students the often cheaper tuition of the international host schools-counselors are quick to peddle the virtue of thrift, a lesson no longer lost between those on safety and culture shock. | 3660.txt | 1 |
[
"The international exchange students.",
"The students who have got scholarships.",
"The students at costly private schools.",
"The students at public universities."
] | Who are probably most affected by the dollar's dip? | Once upon a time-when the U.S. dollar was king-American students blithely flocked overseas to nibble on affordable scones and croissants between classes. How times have changed.As the dollar dips to all-time lows, college students are feeling the pinch. Especially in the United Kingdom and countries that use the euro-which currently is at 68 cents to the dollar-the cost of living has skyrocketed. "Years ago we could say studying abroad was the same price as staying on campus," says Daeya Malboeuf, an associate director at Syracuse University. "There's no way we can say that anymore."
Yet this unfavorable economic environment hasn't stopped students from scrambling overseas. According to the Institute of International Education, study-abroad programs have grown 144 percent in the past decade and continue to increase around 8 percent each year. Considering the rising costs, "it's surprising how little the students haven't been deterred," says Natalie Bartush, who handles the study-abroad program at the University of Texas.
Where the real change appears to be happening as a result of rising prices is in the length and location of students' foreign study choices. The number of participants in short-term summer programs has swelled, as has the interest in courses at more exotic locales. For Middlebury College students, for example, a year in Florence costs around $37,000; at Santiago, Chile, it's $27,000. Such price differences have contributed to modest or flat growth at traditionally popular programs in western Europe and Australia, whereas schools in Chile, Argentina, South Africa, and China (particularly Hong Kong) are aggressively expanding to meet rising demand.
Program directors are quick to point out that the shift is not just about money. "You can't understand the United States today without understanding what's going on outside our borders, and that's not just Europe anymore," says Rebecca Hovey, dean of the study-abroad program at the School for International Training. Interest in nontraditional locales spiked even before the dollar began dropping, and foreign countries are marketing themselves to American students. A surge of support from education nonprofits and the State Department also has fueled the trend.
Study-abroad costs also vary wildly based on the way colleges structure their programs. Schools that effectively swap students with a foreign college are less affected by the falling dollar, but American schools that operate their own student centers often end up paying more for rent, utilities, and faculty salaries as the U.S. currency falters. The dollar's slide also means that trying to set student fees in advance is a tiresome guessing game for college officials. Most of these educators' energy, however, is spent scrounging up extra financial aid for needy travelers. Students already getting help can usually transfer their aid to tuition and fees abroad, but basics like housing and food are often at the mercy of the fluctuating dollar. Airfare, which can exceed $1,000 round trip, is not generally included in school fees, and whirlwind trips across continents are rarely cheap.
The emphasis on student financial responsibility is especially evident at private schools like Syracuse, which charges the same pricey tuition abroad as at home. Even at more affordable public universities and private colleges like Middlebury-which charges U.S. students the often cheaper tuition of the international host schools-counselors are quick to peddle the virtue of thrift, a lesson no longer lost between those on safety and culture shock. | 3660.txt | 2 |
[
"Impact of the Dollar's Devaluation.",
"American Students at Abroad.",
"Study-abroad Costs for American Students.",
"Shift of American Students' Foreign Study."
] | The best title for this passage is _ | Once upon a time-when the U.S. dollar was king-American students blithely flocked overseas to nibble on affordable scones and croissants between classes. How times have changed.As the dollar dips to all-time lows, college students are feeling the pinch. Especially in the United Kingdom and countries that use the euro-which currently is at 68 cents to the dollar-the cost of living has skyrocketed. "Years ago we could say studying abroad was the same price as staying on campus," says Daeya Malboeuf, an associate director at Syracuse University. "There's no way we can say that anymore."
Yet this unfavorable economic environment hasn't stopped students from scrambling overseas. According to the Institute of International Education, study-abroad programs have grown 144 percent in the past decade and continue to increase around 8 percent each year. Considering the rising costs, "it's surprising how little the students haven't been deterred," says Natalie Bartush, who handles the study-abroad program at the University of Texas.
Where the real change appears to be happening as a result of rising prices is in the length and location of students' foreign study choices. The number of participants in short-term summer programs has swelled, as has the interest in courses at more exotic locales. For Middlebury College students, for example, a year in Florence costs around $37,000; at Santiago, Chile, it's $27,000. Such price differences have contributed to modest or flat growth at traditionally popular programs in western Europe and Australia, whereas schools in Chile, Argentina, South Africa, and China (particularly Hong Kong) are aggressively expanding to meet rising demand.
Program directors are quick to point out that the shift is not just about money. "You can't understand the United States today without understanding what's going on outside our borders, and that's not just Europe anymore," says Rebecca Hovey, dean of the study-abroad program at the School for International Training. Interest in nontraditional locales spiked even before the dollar began dropping, and foreign countries are marketing themselves to American students. A surge of support from education nonprofits and the State Department also has fueled the trend.
Study-abroad costs also vary wildly based on the way colleges structure their programs. Schools that effectively swap students with a foreign college are less affected by the falling dollar, but American schools that operate their own student centers often end up paying more for rent, utilities, and faculty salaries as the U.S. currency falters. The dollar's slide also means that trying to set student fees in advance is a tiresome guessing game for college officials. Most of these educators' energy, however, is spent scrounging up extra financial aid for needy travelers. Students already getting help can usually transfer their aid to tuition and fees abroad, but basics like housing and food are often at the mercy of the fluctuating dollar. Airfare, which can exceed $1,000 round trip, is not generally included in school fees, and whirlwind trips across continents are rarely cheap.
The emphasis on student financial responsibility is especially evident at private schools like Syracuse, which charges the same pricey tuition abroad as at home. Even at more affordable public universities and private colleges like Middlebury-which charges U.S. students the often cheaper tuition of the international host schools-counselors are quick to peddle the virtue of thrift, a lesson no longer lost between those on safety and culture shock. | 3660.txt | 3 |
[
"It varies from person to person.",
"It weakens in one's later years.",
"It gradually expands with age.",
"It indicates one's health condition."
] | What is the common view of mental function? | Declining mental function is often seen as a problem of old age, but certain aspects of brain function actually begin their decline in young adulthood, a new study suggests.
The study, which followed more than 2,000 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 60, found that certain mental functions-including measures of abstract reasoning, mental speed and puzzle-solving-started to dull as early as age 27.
Dips in memory, meanwhile, generally became apparent around age 37.
On the other hand, indicators of a person's accumulated knowledge-like performance on tests of vocabulary and general knowledge-kept improving with age, according to findings published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.
The results do not mean that young adults need to start worrying about their memories. Most people's minds function at a high level even in their later years, according to researcher Timothy Salthouse.
"These patterns suggest that some types of mental flexibility decrease relatively early in adulthood, but that the amount of knowledge one has, and the effectiveness of integrating it with one's abilities, may increase throughout all of adulthood if there are no diseases," Salthouse said in a news release.
The study included healthy, educated adults who took standard tests of memory, reasoning and perception at the outset and at some point over the next seven years.
The tests are designed to detect subtle changes in mental function, and involve solving puzzles, recalling words and details from stories, and identifying patterns in collections of letters and symbols.
In general, Salthouse and his colleagues found, certain aspects of cognition generally started to decline in the late 20s to 30s.
The findings shed light on normal age-related changes in mental function, which could aid in understanding the process of dementia , according to the researchers.
"By following individuals over time," Salthouse said, "we gain insight in cognition changes, and may possibly discover ways to slow the rate of decline."
The researchers are currently analyzing the study participants' health and lifestyle to see which factors might influence age-related cognitive changes. | 2241.txt | 1 |
[
"Some diseases inevitably lead to their decline.",
"They reach a peak at the age of 20 for most people.",
"They are closely related to physical and mental exercise.",
"Some of them begin to decline when people are still young."
] | What does the new study find about mental functions? | Declining mental function is often seen as a problem of old age, but certain aspects of brain function actually begin their decline in young adulthood, a new study suggests.
The study, which followed more than 2,000 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 60, found that certain mental functions-including measures of abstract reasoning, mental speed and puzzle-solving-started to dull as early as age 27.
Dips in memory, meanwhile, generally became apparent around age 37.
On the other hand, indicators of a person's accumulated knowledge-like performance on tests of vocabulary and general knowledge-kept improving with age, according to findings published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.
The results do not mean that young adults need to start worrying about their memories. Most people's minds function at a high level even in their later years, according to researcher Timothy Salthouse.
"These patterns suggest that some types of mental flexibility decrease relatively early in adulthood, but that the amount of knowledge one has, and the effectiveness of integrating it with one's abilities, may increase throughout all of adulthood if there are no diseases," Salthouse said in a news release.
The study included healthy, educated adults who took standard tests of memory, reasoning and perception at the outset and at some point over the next seven years.
The tests are designed to detect subtle changes in mental function, and involve solving puzzles, recalling words and details from stories, and identifying patterns in collections of letters and symbols.
In general, Salthouse and his colleagues found, certain aspects of cognition generally started to decline in the late 20s to 30s.
The findings shed light on normal age-related changes in mental function, which could aid in understanding the process of dementia , according to the researchers.
"By following individuals over time," Salthouse said, "we gain insight in cognition changes, and may possibly discover ways to slow the rate of decline."
The researchers are currently analyzing the study participants' health and lifestyle to see which factors might influence age-related cognitive changes. | 2241.txt | 3 |
[
"They tend to decline in people's later years.",
"Their flexibility determines one's abilities.",
"They function quite well even in old age.",
"Their functioning is still a puzzle to be solved."
] | What does Timothy Salthouse say about people's minds in most cases? | Declining mental function is often seen as a problem of old age, but certain aspects of brain function actually begin their decline in young adulthood, a new study suggests.
The study, which followed more than 2,000 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 60, found that certain mental functions-including measures of abstract reasoning, mental speed and puzzle-solving-started to dull as early as age 27.
Dips in memory, meanwhile, generally became apparent around age 37.
On the other hand, indicators of a person's accumulated knowledge-like performance on tests of vocabulary and general knowledge-kept improving with age, according to findings published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.
The results do not mean that young adults need to start worrying about their memories. Most people's minds function at a high level even in their later years, according to researcher Timothy Salthouse.
"These patterns suggest that some types of mental flexibility decrease relatively early in adulthood, but that the amount of knowledge one has, and the effectiveness of integrating it with one's abilities, may increase throughout all of adulthood if there are no diseases," Salthouse said in a news release.
The study included healthy, educated adults who took standard tests of memory, reasoning and perception at the outset and at some point over the next seven years.
The tests are designed to detect subtle changes in mental function, and involve solving puzzles, recalling words and details from stories, and identifying patterns in collections of letters and symbols.
In general, Salthouse and his colleagues found, certain aspects of cognition generally started to decline in the late 20s to 30s.
The findings shed light on normal age-related changes in mental function, which could aid in understanding the process of dementia , according to the researchers.
"By following individuals over time," Salthouse said, "we gain insight in cognition changes, and may possibly discover ways to slow the rate of decline."
The researchers are currently analyzing the study participants' health and lifestyle to see which factors might influence age-related cognitive changes. | 2241.txt | 2 |
[
"may be better at solving puzzles",
"can memorize things with more ease",
"may have greater facility in abstract reasoning",
"can put what they have learnt into more effective use"
] | Although people's minds may function less flexibly as they age, they _ . | Declining mental function is often seen as a problem of old age, but certain aspects of brain function actually begin their decline in young adulthood, a new study suggests.
The study, which followed more than 2,000 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 60, found that certain mental functions-including measures of abstract reasoning, mental speed and puzzle-solving-started to dull as early as age 27.
Dips in memory, meanwhile, generally became apparent around age 37.
On the other hand, indicators of a person's accumulated knowledge-like performance on tests of vocabulary and general knowledge-kept improving with age, according to findings published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.
The results do not mean that young adults need to start worrying about their memories. Most people's minds function at a high level even in their later years, according to researcher Timothy Salthouse.
"These patterns suggest that some types of mental flexibility decrease relatively early in adulthood, but that the amount of knowledge one has, and the effectiveness of integrating it with one's abilities, may increase throughout all of adulthood if there are no diseases," Salthouse said in a news release.
The study included healthy, educated adults who took standard tests of memory, reasoning and perception at the outset and at some point over the next seven years.
The tests are designed to detect subtle changes in mental function, and involve solving puzzles, recalling words and details from stories, and identifying patterns in collections of letters and symbols.
In general, Salthouse and his colleagues found, certain aspects of cognition generally started to decline in the late 20s to 30s.
The findings shed light on normal age-related changes in mental function, which could aid in understanding the process of dementia , according to the researchers.
"By following individuals over time," Salthouse said, "we gain insight in cognition changes, and may possibly discover ways to slow the rate of decline."
The researchers are currently analyzing the study participants' health and lifestyle to see which factors might influence age-related cognitive changes. | 2241.txt | 3 |
[
"find ways to slow down our mental decline",
"find ways to boost our memories",
"understand the complex process of mental functioning",
"understand the relation between physical and mental health"
] | According to Salthouse, their study may help us _ . | Declining mental function is often seen as a problem of old age, but certain aspects of brain function actually begin their decline in young adulthood, a new study suggests.
The study, which followed more than 2,000 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 60, found that certain mental functions-including measures of abstract reasoning, mental speed and puzzle-solving-started to dull as early as age 27.
Dips in memory, meanwhile, generally became apparent around age 37.
On the other hand, indicators of a person's accumulated knowledge-like performance on tests of vocabulary and general knowledge-kept improving with age, according to findings published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.
The results do not mean that young adults need to start worrying about their memories. Most people's minds function at a high level even in their later years, according to researcher Timothy Salthouse.
"These patterns suggest that some types of mental flexibility decrease relatively early in adulthood, but that the amount of knowledge one has, and the effectiveness of integrating it with one's abilities, may increase throughout all of adulthood if there are no diseases," Salthouse said in a news release.
The study included healthy, educated adults who took standard tests of memory, reasoning and perception at the outset and at some point over the next seven years.
The tests are designed to detect subtle changes in mental function, and involve solving puzzles, recalling words and details from stories, and identifying patterns in collections of letters and symbols.
In general, Salthouse and his colleagues found, certain aspects of cognition generally started to decline in the late 20s to 30s.
The findings shed light on normal age-related changes in mental function, which could aid in understanding the process of dementia , according to the researchers.
"By following individuals over time," Salthouse said, "we gain insight in cognition changes, and may possibly discover ways to slow the rate of decline."
The researchers are currently analyzing the study participants' health and lifestyle to see which factors might influence age-related cognitive changes. | 2241.txt | 0 |
[
"people might become lazy as a result of too much sleep",
"there were signs of hibernation in human sleeping habits",
"people tended to sleep more peacefully in cold weather",
"winter was a season for people to sleep for months on end"
] | The example of the French peasants shows the fact that _ . | Have you winterized your horse yet? Even though global warming may have made our climate more mild, many animals are still hibernating.It's too bad that humans can't hibernate. In fact, as a species, we almost did.
Apparently, at times in the past , peasants in France liked a semi-state of human hibernation. So writes Graham Robb, a British scholar who has studied the sleeping habits of the French peasants. As soon as the weather turned cold people all over France shut themselves away and practiced the forgotten art of doing nothing at all for months on end.
In line with this, Jeff Warren, a producer at CBC Radio's The Current, tells us that the way we sleep has changed fundamentally since the invention of artificial lighting and the electric bulb.
When historians began studying texts of the Middle Ages, they noticed something referred to as "first sleep", which was not clarified, though. Now scientists are telling us our ancestors most likely slept in separate periods. The business of eight hours' uninterrupted sleep is a modern invention.
In the past , without the artificial light of the city to bathe in, humans went to sleep when it became dark and then woke themselves around midnight. The late night period was known as "The Watch" It was when people actually kept watch against wild animals ,although many of them simply moved around or visited family and neighbours.
According to some sleep researchers, a short period of insomnia at midnight is not a disorder.It is normal. Humans can experience another state of consciousness around their sleeping, which occurs in the brief period before we fall asleep or wake ourselves in the morning.This period can be an extraordinarily creative time for some people.The impressive inventor, Thomas Edison , used this state to hit upon many of his new ideas.
Playing with your sleep rhythms can be adventurous ,as anxiety may set in. Medical science doesn't help much in this case. It offers us medicines for a full night's continuous sleep, which sounds natural ; however, according to Warren's theory，it is really the opposite of what we need. | 3786.txt | 1 |
[
"to set traps to catch animals",
"to wake up their family and neighbours",
"to remind others of the time",
"to guard against possible dangers"
] | The late night was called "The Watch"because it was a time for people _ . | Have you winterized your horse yet? Even though global warming may have made our climate more mild, many animals are still hibernating.It's too bad that humans can't hibernate. In fact, as a species, we almost did.
Apparently, at times in the past , peasants in France liked a semi-state of human hibernation. So writes Graham Robb, a British scholar who has studied the sleeping habits of the French peasants. As soon as the weather turned cold people all over France shut themselves away and practiced the forgotten art of doing nothing at all for months on end.
In line with this, Jeff Warren, a producer at CBC Radio's The Current, tells us that the way we sleep has changed fundamentally since the invention of artificial lighting and the electric bulb.
When historians began studying texts of the Middle Ages, they noticed something referred to as "first sleep", which was not clarified, though. Now scientists are telling us our ancestors most likely slept in separate periods. The business of eight hours' uninterrupted sleep is a modern invention.
In the past , without the artificial light of the city to bathe in, humans went to sleep when it became dark and then woke themselves around midnight. The late night period was known as "The Watch" It was when people actually kept watch against wild animals ,although many of them simply moved around or visited family and neighbours.
According to some sleep researchers, a short period of insomnia at midnight is not a disorder.It is normal. Humans can experience another state of consciousness around their sleeping, which occurs in the brief period before we fall asleep or wake ourselves in the morning.This period can be an extraordinarily creative time for some people.The impressive inventor, Thomas Edison , used this state to hit upon many of his new ideas.
Playing with your sleep rhythms can be adventurous ,as anxiety may set in. Medical science doesn't help much in this case. It offers us medicines for a full night's continuous sleep, which sounds natural ; however, according to Warren's theory，it is really the opposite of what we need. | 3786.txt | 3 |
[
"Sleep in the way animals do.",
"Consult a doctor if they can't sleep.",
"Follow their natural sleep rhythm.",
"Keep to the eight-hour sleep pattern."
] | What does the author advise people to do ? | Have you winterized your horse yet? Even though global warming may have made our climate more mild, many animals are still hibernating.It's too bad that humans can't hibernate. In fact, as a species, we almost did.
Apparently, at times in the past , peasants in France liked a semi-state of human hibernation. So writes Graham Robb, a British scholar who has studied the sleeping habits of the French peasants. As soon as the weather turned cold people all over France shut themselves away and practiced the forgotten art of doing nothing at all for months on end.
In line with this, Jeff Warren, a producer at CBC Radio's The Current, tells us that the way we sleep has changed fundamentally since the invention of artificial lighting and the electric bulb.
When historians began studying texts of the Middle Ages, they noticed something referred to as "first sleep", which was not clarified, though. Now scientists are telling us our ancestors most likely slept in separate periods. The business of eight hours' uninterrupted sleep is a modern invention.
In the past , without the artificial light of the city to bathe in, humans went to sleep when it became dark and then woke themselves around midnight. The late night period was known as "The Watch" It was when people actually kept watch against wild animals ,although many of them simply moved around or visited family and neighbours.
According to some sleep researchers, a short period of insomnia at midnight is not a disorder.It is normal. Humans can experience another state of consciousness around their sleeping, which occurs in the brief period before we fall asleep or wake ourselves in the morning.This period can be an extraordinarily creative time for some people.The impressive inventor, Thomas Edison , used this state to hit upon many of his new ideas.
Playing with your sleep rhythms can be adventurous ,as anxiety may set in. Medical science doesn't help much in this case. It offers us medicines for a full night's continuous sleep, which sounds natural ; however, according to Warren's theory，it is really the opposite of what we need. | 3786.txt | 2 |
[
"To give a prescription for insomnia.",
"To urge people to sleep less.",
"To analyze the sleep pattern of modern people.",
"To throw new light on human sleep."
] | What is the author's purpose in writing the passage? | Have you winterized your horse yet? Even though global warming may have made our climate more mild, many animals are still hibernating.It's too bad that humans can't hibernate. In fact, as a species, we almost did.
Apparently, at times in the past , peasants in France liked a semi-state of human hibernation. So writes Graham Robb, a British scholar who has studied the sleeping habits of the French peasants. As soon as the weather turned cold people all over France shut themselves away and practiced the forgotten art of doing nothing at all for months on end.
In line with this, Jeff Warren, a producer at CBC Radio's The Current, tells us that the way we sleep has changed fundamentally since the invention of artificial lighting and the electric bulb.
When historians began studying texts of the Middle Ages, they noticed something referred to as "first sleep", which was not clarified, though. Now scientists are telling us our ancestors most likely slept in separate periods. The business of eight hours' uninterrupted sleep is a modern invention.
In the past , without the artificial light of the city to bathe in, humans went to sleep when it became dark and then woke themselves around midnight. The late night period was known as "The Watch" It was when people actually kept watch against wild animals ,although many of them simply moved around or visited family and neighbours.
According to some sleep researchers, a short period of insomnia at midnight is not a disorder.It is normal. Humans can experience another state of consciousness around their sleeping, which occurs in the brief period before we fall asleep or wake ourselves in the morning.This period can be an extraordinarily creative time for some people.The impressive inventor, Thomas Edison , used this state to hit upon many of his new ideas.
Playing with your sleep rhythms can be adventurous ,as anxiety may set in. Medical science doesn't help much in this case. It offers us medicines for a full night's continuous sleep, which sounds natural ; however, according to Warren's theory，it is really the opposite of what we need. | 3786.txt | 3 |
[
"large animal were vulnerable to the changing environment",
"small species survived as large animals disappeared",
"large sea animals may face the same threat today",
"slow-growing fish outlive fast-growing ones"
] | The extinction of large prehistoric animals is noted to suggest that _. | When prehistoric man arrived in new parts of the world, something strange happened to the large animals. They suddenly became extinct. Smaller species survived. The large, slow-growing animals were easy game, and were quickly hunted to extinction. Now something similar could be happening in the oceans.
That the seas are being overfished has been known for years. What researchers such as Ransom Myers and Boris Worm have shown is just how fast things are changing. They have looked at half a century of data from fisheries around the world. Their methods do not attempt to estimate the actual biomass (the amount of living biological matter) of fish species in particular parts of the ocean, but rather changes in that biomass over time. According to their latest paper published in Nature, the biomass of large predators (animals that kill and eat other animals) in a new fishery is reduced on average by 80% within 15 years of the start of exploitation. In some long-fished areas, it has halved again since then.
Dr. Worm acknowledges that these figures are conservative. One reason for this is that fishing technology has improved. Today's vessels can find their prey using satellites and sonar, which were not available 50 years ago. That means a higher proportion of what is in the sea is being caught, so the real difference between present and past is likely to be worse than the one recorded by changes in catch sizes. In the early days, too, longlines would have been more saturated with fish. Some individuals would therefore not have been caught, since no baited hooks would have been available to trap them, leading to an underestimate of fish stocks in the past. Furthermore, in the early days of longline fishing, a lot of fish were lost to sharks after they had been hooked. That is no longer a problem, because there are fewer sharks around now.
Dr. Myers and Dr. Worm argue that their work gives a correct baseline, which future management efforts must take into account. They believe the data support an idea current among marine biologists, that of the "shifting baseline." The notion is that people have failed to detect the massive changes which have happened in the ocean because they have been looking back only a relatively short time into the past. That matters because theory suggests that the maximum sustainable yield that can be cropped from a fishery comes when the biomass of a target species is about 50% of its original levels. Most fisheries are well below that, which is a bad way to do business. | 2943.txt | 2 |
[
"the stock of large predators in some old fisheries has reduced by 90%",
"there are only half as many fisheries as there were 15 years ago",
"the catch sizes in new fisheries are only 20% of the original amount",
"the number of larger predators dropped faster in new fisheries than in the old"
] | We can infer from Dr. Myers and Dr. Worm's paper that . | When prehistoric man arrived in new parts of the world, something strange happened to the large animals. They suddenly became extinct. Smaller species survived. The large, slow-growing animals were easy game, and were quickly hunted to extinction. Now something similar could be happening in the oceans.
That the seas are being overfished has been known for years. What researchers such as Ransom Myers and Boris Worm have shown is just how fast things are changing. They have looked at half a century of data from fisheries around the world. Their methods do not attempt to estimate the actual biomass (the amount of living biological matter) of fish species in particular parts of the ocean, but rather changes in that biomass over time. According to their latest paper published in Nature, the biomass of large predators (animals that kill and eat other animals) in a new fishery is reduced on average by 80% within 15 years of the start of exploitation. In some long-fished areas, it has halved again since then.
Dr. Worm acknowledges that these figures are conservative. One reason for this is that fishing technology has improved. Today's vessels can find their prey using satellites and sonar, which were not available 50 years ago. That means a higher proportion of what is in the sea is being caught, so the real difference between present and past is likely to be worse than the one recorded by changes in catch sizes. In the early days, too, longlines would have been more saturated with fish. Some individuals would therefore not have been caught, since no baited hooks would have been available to trap them, leading to an underestimate of fish stocks in the past. Furthermore, in the early days of longline fishing, a lot of fish were lost to sharks after they had been hooked. That is no longer a problem, because there are fewer sharks around now.
Dr. Myers and Dr. Worm argue that their work gives a correct baseline, which future management efforts must take into account. They believe the data support an idea current among marine biologists, that of the "shifting baseline." The notion is that people have failed to detect the massive changes which have happened in the ocean because they have been looking back only a relatively short time into the past. That matters because theory suggests that the maximum sustainable yield that can be cropped from a fishery comes when the biomass of a target species is about 50% of its original levels. Most fisheries are well below that, which is a bad way to do business. | 2943.txt | 0 |
[
"fishing technology has improved rapidly",
"the catch-sizes are actually smaller than recorded",
"the marine biomass has suffered a greater loss",
"the data collected so far are out of date"
] | By saying "these figures are conservative" (Line 1, paragraph 3), Dr. Worm means that. | When prehistoric man arrived in new parts of the world, something strange happened to the large animals. They suddenly became extinct. Smaller species survived. The large, slow-growing animals were easy game, and were quickly hunted to extinction. Now something similar could be happening in the oceans.
That the seas are being overfished has been known for years. What researchers such as Ransom Myers and Boris Worm have shown is just how fast things are changing. They have looked at half a century of data from fisheries around the world. Their methods do not attempt to estimate the actual biomass (the amount of living biological matter) of fish species in particular parts of the ocean, but rather changes in that biomass over time. According to their latest paper published in Nature, the biomass of large predators (animals that kill and eat other animals) in a new fishery is reduced on average by 80% within 15 years of the start of exploitation. In some long-fished areas, it has halved again since then.
Dr. Worm acknowledges that these figures are conservative. One reason for this is that fishing technology has improved. Today's vessels can find their prey using satellites and sonar, which were not available 50 years ago. That means a higher proportion of what is in the sea is being caught, so the real difference between present and past is likely to be worse than the one recorded by changes in catch sizes. In the early days, too, longlines would have been more saturated with fish. Some individuals would therefore not have been caught, since no baited hooks would have been available to trap them, leading to an underestimate of fish stocks in the past. Furthermore, in the early days of longline fishing, a lot of fish were lost to sharks after they had been hooked. That is no longer a problem, because there are fewer sharks around now.
Dr. Myers and Dr. Worm argue that their work gives a correct baseline, which future management efforts must take into account. They believe the data support an idea current among marine biologists, that of the "shifting baseline." The notion is that people have failed to detect the massive changes which have happened in the ocean because they have been looking back only a relatively short time into the past. That matters because theory suggests that the maximum sustainable yield that can be cropped from a fishery comes when the biomass of a target species is about 50% of its original levels. Most fisheries are well below that, which is a bad way to do business. | 2943.txt | 2 |
[
"people should look for a baseline that can work for a longer time",
"fisheries should keep their yields below 50% of the biomass",
"the ocean biomass should be restored to its original level",
"people should adjust the fishing baseline to the changing situation"
] | Dr. Myers and other researchers hold that . | When prehistoric man arrived in new parts of the world, something strange happened to the large animals. They suddenly became extinct. Smaller species survived. The large, slow-growing animals were easy game, and were quickly hunted to extinction. Now something similar could be happening in the oceans.
That the seas are being overfished has been known for years. What researchers such as Ransom Myers and Boris Worm have shown is just how fast things are changing. They have looked at half a century of data from fisheries around the world. Their methods do not attempt to estimate the actual biomass (the amount of living biological matter) of fish species in particular parts of the ocean, but rather changes in that biomass over time. According to their latest paper published in Nature, the biomass of large predators (animals that kill and eat other animals) in a new fishery is reduced on average by 80% within 15 years of the start of exploitation. In some long-fished areas, it has halved again since then.
Dr. Worm acknowledges that these figures are conservative. One reason for this is that fishing technology has improved. Today's vessels can find their prey using satellites and sonar, which were not available 50 years ago. That means a higher proportion of what is in the sea is being caught, so the real difference between present and past is likely to be worse than the one recorded by changes in catch sizes. In the early days, too, longlines would have been more saturated with fish. Some individuals would therefore not have been caught, since no baited hooks would have been available to trap them, leading to an underestimate of fish stocks in the past. Furthermore, in the early days of longline fishing, a lot of fish were lost to sharks after they had been hooked. That is no longer a problem, because there are fewer sharks around now.
Dr. Myers and Dr. Worm argue that their work gives a correct baseline, which future management efforts must take into account. They believe the data support an idea current among marine biologists, that of the "shifting baseline." The notion is that people have failed to detect the massive changes which have happened in the ocean because they have been looking back only a relatively short time into the past. That matters because theory suggests that the maximum sustainable yield that can be cropped from a fishery comes when the biomass of a target species is about 50% of its original levels. Most fisheries are well below that, which is a bad way to do business. | 2943.txt | 3 |
[
"management efficiency",
"biomass level",
"catch-size limits",
"technological application"
] | The author seems to be mainly concerned with most fisheries' . | When prehistoric man arrived in new parts of the world, something strange happened to the large animals. They suddenly became extinct. Smaller species survived. The large, slow-growing animals were easy game, and were quickly hunted to extinction. Now something similar could be happening in the oceans.
That the seas are being overfished has been known for years. What researchers such as Ransom Myers and Boris Worm have shown is just how fast things are changing. They have looked at half a century of data from fisheries around the world. Their methods do not attempt to estimate the actual biomass (the amount of living biological matter) of fish species in particular parts of the ocean, but rather changes in that biomass over time. According to their latest paper published in Nature, the biomass of large predators (animals that kill and eat other animals) in a new fishery is reduced on average by 80% within 15 years of the start of exploitation. In some long-fished areas, it has halved again since then.
Dr. Worm acknowledges that these figures are conservative. One reason for this is that fishing technology has improved. Today's vessels can find their prey using satellites and sonar, which were not available 50 years ago. That means a higher proportion of what is in the sea is being caught, so the real difference between present and past is likely to be worse than the one recorded by changes in catch sizes. In the early days, too, longlines would have been more saturated with fish. Some individuals would therefore not have been caught, since no baited hooks would have been available to trap them, leading to an underestimate of fish stocks in the past. Furthermore, in the early days of longline fishing, a lot of fish were lost to sharks after they had been hooked. That is no longer a problem, because there are fewer sharks around now.
Dr. Myers and Dr. Worm argue that their work gives a correct baseline, which future management efforts must take into account. They believe the data support an idea current among marine biologists, that of the "shifting baseline." The notion is that people have failed to detect the massive changes which have happened in the ocean because they have been looking back only a relatively short time into the past. That matters because theory suggests that the maximum sustainable yield that can be cropped from a fishery comes when the biomass of a target species is about 50% of its original levels. Most fisheries are well below that, which is a bad way to do business. | 2943.txt | 1 |
[
"a news item",
"part of an introduction of a book",
"part of a lecture",
"an advertisement"
] | This passage is most probably ________. | As supplier of most of the food we eat and of raw materials for many industrial processes, agriculture is clearly an important area of the economy. But the industrial performance of agriculture is even more important than this. For in nations where the productivity of farmers is low, most of the working population is needed to raise food and few people are available for production of investment goods or for other activities required for economic growth. Indeed, one of the factors related most closely to the per capital income of a nation is the fraction of its population engaged in farming. In the poorest nations of the world more than half of the population lives on farms. This compares sharply with less than 10 per cent in Western Europe and less than 4 per cent in the United States.
In short, the course of economic development in general depends in a fundamental way on the performance of farmers. This performance in turn, depends on how agriculture is organized and on the economic environment, or market structure, within which it function. In the following pages the performance of American agriculture is examined. It is appropriate to begin with a conversation of its market structure. | 2565.txt | 1 |
[
"the amount of food it produces",
"the per capital income of farmers",
"its industrial performance",
"the production of investment goods"
] | What is most important to agriculture is ________. | As supplier of most of the food we eat and of raw materials for many industrial processes, agriculture is clearly an important area of the economy. But the industrial performance of agriculture is even more important than this. For in nations where the productivity of farmers is low, most of the working population is needed to raise food and few people are available for production of investment goods or for other activities required for economic growth. Indeed, one of the factors related most closely to the per capital income of a nation is the fraction of its population engaged in farming. In the poorest nations of the world more than half of the population lives on farms. This compares sharply with less than 10 per cent in Western Europe and less than 4 per cent in the United States.
In short, the course of economic development in general depends in a fundamental way on the performance of farmers. This performance in turn, depends on how agriculture is organized and on the economic environment, or market structure, within which it function. In the following pages the performance of American agriculture is examined. It is appropriate to begin with a conversation of its market structure. | 2565.txt | 2 |
[
"the provision of food and raw materials",
"the productivity of farmers",
"the production of investment goods",
"the economy as a whole"
] | The word "this" in Line 4 refers to ________. | As supplier of most of the food we eat and of raw materials for many industrial processes, agriculture is clearly an important area of the economy. But the industrial performance of agriculture is even more important than this. For in nations where the productivity of farmers is low, most of the working population is needed to raise food and few people are available for production of investment goods or for other activities required for economic growth. Indeed, one of the factors related most closely to the per capital income of a nation is the fraction of its population engaged in farming. In the poorest nations of the world more than half of the population lives on farms. This compares sharply with less than 10 per cent in Western Europe and less than 4 per cent in the United States.
In short, the course of economic development in general depends in a fundamental way on the performance of farmers. This performance in turn, depends on how agriculture is organized and on the economic environment, or market structure, within which it function. In the following pages the performance of American agriculture is examined. It is appropriate to begin with a conversation of its market structure. | 2565.txt | 0 |
[
"the size of the working population",
"the organization of agriculture",
"the market structure",
"the general development of economy"
] | The performance of farmers essentially determines ________. | As supplier of most of the food we eat and of raw materials for many industrial processes, agriculture is clearly an important area of the economy. But the industrial performance of agriculture is even more important than this. For in nations where the productivity of farmers is low, most of the working population is needed to raise food and few people are available for production of investment goods or for other activities required for economic growth. Indeed, one of the factors related most closely to the per capital income of a nation is the fraction of its population engaged in farming. In the poorest nations of the world more than half of the population lives on farms. This compares sharply with less than 10 per cent in Western Europe and less than 4 per cent in the United States.
In short, the course of economic development in general depends in a fundamental way on the performance of farmers. This performance in turn, depends on how agriculture is organized and on the economic environment, or market structure, within which it function. In the following pages the performance of American agriculture is examined. It is appropriate to begin with a conversation of its market structure. | 2565.txt | 3 |
[
"the structure of American farming population",
"the market structure of American agriculture",
"the various functions of American agriculture",
"the organization of American agriculture"
] | This passage will most probably be followed by a discussion of ________. | As supplier of most of the food we eat and of raw materials for many industrial processes, agriculture is clearly an important area of the economy. But the industrial performance of agriculture is even more important than this. For in nations where the productivity of farmers is low, most of the working population is needed to raise food and few people are available for production of investment goods or for other activities required for economic growth. Indeed, one of the factors related most closely to the per capital income of a nation is the fraction of its population engaged in farming. In the poorest nations of the world more than half of the population lives on farms. This compares sharply with less than 10 per cent in Western Europe and less than 4 per cent in the United States.
In short, the course of economic development in general depends in a fundamental way on the performance of farmers. This performance in turn, depends on how agriculture is organized and on the economic environment, or market structure, within which it function. In the following pages the performance of American agriculture is examined. It is appropriate to begin with a conversation of its market structure. | 2565.txt | 1 |
[
"find out the role taste preference plays in a person's drinking",
"reveal which cola is more to the liking of the drinkers",
"show that a person's opinion about taste is mere guess-work",
"compare the ability of the participants in choosing their drinks"
] | According to the passage the preference test was conducted in order to _ . | Taste is such a subjective matter that we don't usually conduct preference tests for food. The most you can say about anyone's preference, is that it's one person's opinion. But because the two big cola companies-Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola are marketed so aggressively, we've wondered how big a role taste preference actually plays in brand loyalty. We set up a taste test that challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-Cola or Pepsi fans: Find your brand in a blind tasting.
We invited staff volunteers who had a strong liking for either Coca-Cola Classic or Pepsi, Diet Coke, or Diet Pepsi. These were people who thought they'd have no trouble telling their brand from the other brand.
We eventually located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers. Then we fed them four unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group, diet versions for the other. We asked them to tell us whether each sample was Coke or Pepsi; then we analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants' choices with what mere guess-work could have accomplished.
Getting all four samples right was a tough test, but not too tough, we thought, for people who believed they could recognize their brand. In the end, only 7 out of 19 regular cola drinkers correctly identified their brand of choice in all four trials. The diet-cola drinkers did a little worse-only 7 of 27 identified all four samples correctly.
While both groups did better than chance would predict, nearly half the participants in each group made the wrong choice two or more times. Two people go all four samples wrong. Overall, half the participants did about as well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so fatigue, or taste burnout, was not a factor. Our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi participants and Coke fans may really be able to tell their favorite brand by taste and price. | 3112.txt | 0 |
[
"Coca-Cola and Pepsi are people's two most favorite drinks",
"there is not much difference in taste between Coca-Cola and Pepsi",
"few people had trouble telling Coca-Cola from Pepsi",
"people's tastes differ from one another"
] | The statistics recorded in the preference tests show _ . | Taste is such a subjective matter that we don't usually conduct preference tests for food. The most you can say about anyone's preference, is that it's one person's opinion. But because the two big cola companies-Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola are marketed so aggressively, we've wondered how big a role taste preference actually plays in brand loyalty. We set up a taste test that challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-Cola or Pepsi fans: Find your brand in a blind tasting.
We invited staff volunteers who had a strong liking for either Coca-Cola Classic or Pepsi, Diet Coke, or Diet Pepsi. These were people who thought they'd have no trouble telling their brand from the other brand.
We eventually located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers. Then we fed them four unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group, diet versions for the other. We asked them to tell us whether each sample was Coke or Pepsi; then we analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants' choices with what mere guess-work could have accomplished.
Getting all four samples right was a tough test, but not too tough, we thought, for people who believed they could recognize their brand. In the end, only 7 out of 19 regular cola drinkers correctly identified their brand of choice in all four trials. The diet-cola drinkers did a little worse-only 7 of 27 identified all four samples correctly.
While both groups did better than chance would predict, nearly half the participants in each group made the wrong choice two or more times. Two people go all four samples wrong. Overall, half the participants did about as well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so fatigue, or taste burnout, was not a factor. Our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi participants and Coke fans may really be able to tell their favorite brand by taste and price. | 3112.txt | 1 |
[
"the purpose of taste tests is to promote the sale of colas",
"the improvement of quality is the chief concern of the two cola companies",
"the competition between the two colas is very strong",
"blind tasting is necessary for identifying fans"
] | It is implied in the first paragraph that _ . | Taste is such a subjective matter that we don't usually conduct preference tests for food. The most you can say about anyone's preference, is that it's one person's opinion. But because the two big cola companies-Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola are marketed so aggressively, we've wondered how big a role taste preference actually plays in brand loyalty. We set up a taste test that challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-Cola or Pepsi fans: Find your brand in a blind tasting.
We invited staff volunteers who had a strong liking for either Coca-Cola Classic or Pepsi, Diet Coke, or Diet Pepsi. These were people who thought they'd have no trouble telling their brand from the other brand.
We eventually located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers. Then we fed them four unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group, diet versions for the other. We asked them to tell us whether each sample was Coke or Pepsi; then we analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants' choices with what mere guess-work could have accomplished.
Getting all four samples right was a tough test, but not too tough, we thought, for people who believed they could recognize their brand. In the end, only 7 out of 19 regular cola drinkers correctly identified their brand of choice in all four trials. The diet-cola drinkers did a little worse-only 7 of 27 identified all four samples correctly.
While both groups did better than chance would predict, nearly half the participants in each group made the wrong choice two or more times. Two people go all four samples wrong. Overall, half the participants did about as well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so fatigue, or taste burnout, was not a factor. Our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi participants and Coke fans may really be able to tell their favorite brand by taste and price. | 3112.txt | 2 |
[
"being seriously burnt in the skin",
"being unable to burn for lack of fuel",
"being badly damaged by fire",
"being unable to function because of excessive use"
] | The word "burnout" (Line 4, Para. 5) here refers to the state of _ . | Taste is such a subjective matter that we don't usually conduct preference tests for food. The most you can say about anyone's preference, is that it's one person's opinion. But because the two big cola companies-Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola are marketed so aggressively, we've wondered how big a role taste preference actually plays in brand loyalty. We set up a taste test that challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-Cola or Pepsi fans: Find your brand in a blind tasting.
We invited staff volunteers who had a strong liking for either Coca-Cola Classic or Pepsi, Diet Coke, or Diet Pepsi. These were people who thought they'd have no trouble telling their brand from the other brand.
We eventually located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers. Then we fed them four unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group, diet versions for the other. We asked them to tell us whether each sample was Coke or Pepsi; then we analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants' choices with what mere guess-work could have accomplished.
Getting all four samples right was a tough test, but not too tough, we thought, for people who believed they could recognize their brand. In the end, only 7 out of 19 regular cola drinkers correctly identified their brand of choice in all four trials. The diet-cola drinkers did a little worse-only 7 of 27 identified all four samples correctly.
While both groups did better than chance would predict, nearly half the participants in each group made the wrong choice two or more times. Two people go all four samples wrong. Overall, half the participants did about as well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so fatigue, or taste burnout, was not a factor. Our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi participants and Coke fans may really be able to tell their favorite brand by taste and price. | 3112.txt | 3 |
[
"show that taste preference is highly subjective",
"argue that taste testing is an important marketing strategy",
"emphasize that taste and price are closely related to each other",
"recommend that blind tasting be introduced in the quality control of colas"
] | The author's purpose in writing this passage is to _ . | Taste is such a subjective matter that we don't usually conduct preference tests for food. The most you can say about anyone's preference, is that it's one person's opinion. But because the two big cola companies-Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola are marketed so aggressively, we've wondered how big a role taste preference actually plays in brand loyalty. We set up a taste test that challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-Cola or Pepsi fans: Find your brand in a blind tasting.
We invited staff volunteers who had a strong liking for either Coca-Cola Classic or Pepsi, Diet Coke, or Diet Pepsi. These were people who thought they'd have no trouble telling their brand from the other brand.
We eventually located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers. Then we fed them four unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group, diet versions for the other. We asked them to tell us whether each sample was Coke or Pepsi; then we analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants' choices with what mere guess-work could have accomplished.
Getting all four samples right was a tough test, but not too tough, we thought, for people who believed they could recognize their brand. In the end, only 7 out of 19 regular cola drinkers correctly identified their brand of choice in all four trials. The diet-cola drinkers did a little worse-only 7 of 27 identified all four samples correctly.
While both groups did better than chance would predict, nearly half the participants in each group made the wrong choice two or more times. Two people go all four samples wrong. Overall, half the participants did about as well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so fatigue, or taste burnout, was not a factor. Our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi participants and Coke fans may really be able to tell their favorite brand by taste and price. | 3112.txt | 0 |
[
"arrogant",
"frank",
"self-centered",
"impulsive"
] | When McGee announced his departure, his manner can best be described as being . | When Liam McGee departed as president of Bank of America in August, his explanation was surprisingly straight up. Rather than cloaking his exit in the usual vague excuses, he came right out and said he was leaving "to pursue my goal of running a company." Broadcasting his ambition was "very much my decision," McGee says. Within two weeks, he was talking for the first time with the board of Hartford Financial Services Group, which named him CEO and chairman on September 29.
McGee says leaving without a position lined up gave him time to reflect on what kind of company he wanted to run. It also sent a clear message to the outside world about his aspirations. And McGee isn't alone. In recent weeks the No.2 executives at Avon and American Express quit with the explanation that they were looking for a CEO post. As boards scrutinize succession plans in response to shareholder pressure, executives who don't get the nod also may wish to move on. A turbulent business environment also has senior managers cautious of letting vague pronouncements cloud their reputations.
As the first signs of recovery begin to take hold, deputy chiefs may be more willing to make the jump without a net. In the third quarter, CEO turnover was down 23% from a year ago as nervous boards stuck with the leaders they had, according to Liberum Research. As the economy picks up, opportunities will abound for aspiring leaders.
The decision to quit a senior position to look for a better one is unconventional. For years executives and headhunters have adhered to the rule that the most attractive CEO candidates are the ones who must be poached. Says Korn/Ferry senior partner Dennis Carey:"I can't think of a single search I've done where a board has not instructed me to look at sitting CEOs first."
Those who jumped without a job haven't always landed in top positions quickly. Ellen Marram quit as chief of Tropicana a decade age, saying she wanted to be a CEO. It was a year before she became head of a tiny Internet-based commodities exchange. Robert Willumstad left Citigroup in 2005 with ambitions to be a CEO. He finally took that post at a major financial institution three years later.
Many recruiters say the old disgrace is fading for top performers. The financial crisis has made it more acceptable to be between jobs or to leave a bad one. "The traditional rule was it's safer to stay where you are, but that's been fundamentally inverted," says one headhunter. "The people who've been hurt the worst are those who've stayed too long." | 2123.txt | 1 |
[
"their expectation of better financial status",
"their need to reflect on their private life",
"their strained relations with the boards",
"their pursuit of new career goals"
] | According to Paragraph 2, senior executives' quitting may be spurred by . | When Liam McGee departed as president of Bank of America in August, his explanation was surprisingly straight up. Rather than cloaking his exit in the usual vague excuses, he came right out and said he was leaving "to pursue my goal of running a company." Broadcasting his ambition was "very much my decision," McGee says. Within two weeks, he was talking for the first time with the board of Hartford Financial Services Group, which named him CEO and chairman on September 29.
McGee says leaving without a position lined up gave him time to reflect on what kind of company he wanted to run. It also sent a clear message to the outside world about his aspirations. And McGee isn't alone. In recent weeks the No.2 executives at Avon and American Express quit with the explanation that they were looking for a CEO post. As boards scrutinize succession plans in response to shareholder pressure, executives who don't get the nod also may wish to move on. A turbulent business environment also has senior managers cautious of letting vague pronouncements cloud their reputations.
As the first signs of recovery begin to take hold, deputy chiefs may be more willing to make the jump without a net. In the third quarter, CEO turnover was down 23% from a year ago as nervous boards stuck with the leaders they had, according to Liberum Research. As the economy picks up, opportunities will abound for aspiring leaders.
The decision to quit a senior position to look for a better one is unconventional. For years executives and headhunters have adhered to the rule that the most attractive CEO candidates are the ones who must be poached. Says Korn/Ferry senior partner Dennis Carey:"I can't think of a single search I've done where a board has not instructed me to look at sitting CEOs first."
Those who jumped without a job haven't always landed in top positions quickly. Ellen Marram quit as chief of Tropicana a decade age, saying she wanted to be a CEO. It was a year before she became head of a tiny Internet-based commodities exchange. Robert Willumstad left Citigroup in 2005 with ambitions to be a CEO. He finally took that post at a major financial institution three years later.
Many recruiters say the old disgrace is fading for top performers. The financial crisis has made it more acceptable to be between jobs or to leave a bad one. "The traditional rule was it's safer to stay where you are, but that's been fundamentally inverted," says one headhunter. "The people who've been hurt the worst are those who've stayed too long." | 2123.txt | 3 |
[
"approved of",
"attended to",
"hunted for",
"guarded against"
] | The word "poached" (Line 3, Paragraph 4) most probably means . | When Liam McGee departed as president of Bank of America in August, his explanation was surprisingly straight up. Rather than cloaking his exit in the usual vague excuses, he came right out and said he was leaving "to pursue my goal of running a company." Broadcasting his ambition was "very much my decision," McGee says. Within two weeks, he was talking for the first time with the board of Hartford Financial Services Group, which named him CEO and chairman on September 29.
McGee says leaving without a position lined up gave him time to reflect on what kind of company he wanted to run. It also sent a clear message to the outside world about his aspirations. And McGee isn't alone. In recent weeks the No.2 executives at Avon and American Express quit with the explanation that they were looking for a CEO post. As boards scrutinize succession plans in response to shareholder pressure, executives who don't get the nod also may wish to move on. A turbulent business environment also has senior managers cautious of letting vague pronouncements cloud their reputations.
As the first signs of recovery begin to take hold, deputy chiefs may be more willing to make the jump without a net. In the third quarter, CEO turnover was down 23% from a year ago as nervous boards stuck with the leaders they had, according to Liberum Research. As the economy picks up, opportunities will abound for aspiring leaders.
The decision to quit a senior position to look for a better one is unconventional. For years executives and headhunters have adhered to the rule that the most attractive CEO candidates are the ones who must be poached. Says Korn/Ferry senior partner Dennis Carey:"I can't think of a single search I've done where a board has not instructed me to look at sitting CEOs first."
Those who jumped without a job haven't always landed in top positions quickly. Ellen Marram quit as chief of Tropicana a decade age, saying she wanted to be a CEO. It was a year before she became head of a tiny Internet-based commodities exchange. Robert Willumstad left Citigroup in 2005 with ambitions to be a CEO. He finally took that post at a major financial institution three years later.
Many recruiters say the old disgrace is fading for top performers. The financial crisis has made it more acceptable to be between jobs or to leave a bad one. "The traditional rule was it's safer to stay where you are, but that's been fundamentally inverted," says one headhunter. "The people who've been hurt the worst are those who've stayed too long." | 2123.txt | 2 |
[
"top performers used to cling to their posts",
"loyalty of top performers is getting out-dated",
"top performers care more about reputations",
"it's safer to stick to the traditional rules"
] | It can be inferred from the last paragraph that . | When Liam McGee departed as president of Bank of America in August, his explanation was surprisingly straight up. Rather than cloaking his exit in the usual vague excuses, he came right out and said he was leaving "to pursue my goal of running a company." Broadcasting his ambition was "very much my decision," McGee says. Within two weeks, he was talking for the first time with the board of Hartford Financial Services Group, which named him CEO and chairman on September 29.
McGee says leaving without a position lined up gave him time to reflect on what kind of company he wanted to run. It also sent a clear message to the outside world about his aspirations. And McGee isn't alone. In recent weeks the No.2 executives at Avon and American Express quit with the explanation that they were looking for a CEO post. As boards scrutinize succession plans in response to shareholder pressure, executives who don't get the nod also may wish to move on. A turbulent business environment also has senior managers cautious of letting vague pronouncements cloud their reputations.
As the first signs of recovery begin to take hold, deputy chiefs may be more willing to make the jump without a net. In the third quarter, CEO turnover was down 23% from a year ago as nervous boards stuck with the leaders they had, according to Liberum Research. As the economy picks up, opportunities will abound for aspiring leaders.
The decision to quit a senior position to look for a better one is unconventional. For years executives and headhunters have adhered to the rule that the most attractive CEO candidates are the ones who must be poached. Says Korn/Ferry senior partner Dennis Carey:"I can't think of a single search I've done where a board has not instructed me to look at sitting CEOs first."
Those who jumped without a job haven't always landed in top positions quickly. Ellen Marram quit as chief of Tropicana a decade age, saying she wanted to be a CEO. It was a year before she became head of a tiny Internet-based commodities exchange. Robert Willumstad left Citigroup in 2005 with ambitions to be a CEO. He finally took that post at a major financial institution three years later.
Many recruiters say the old disgrace is fading for top performers. The financial crisis has made it more acceptable to be between jobs or to leave a bad one. "The traditional rule was it's safer to stay where you are, but that's been fundamentally inverted," says one headhunter. "The people who've been hurt the worst are those who've stayed too long." | 2123.txt | 0 |
[
"CEOs: Where to Go",
"CEOs: All the Way Up",
"Top Managers Jump without a Net",
"The Only Way Out for Top Performers"
] | Which of the following is the best title for the text? | When Liam McGee departed as president of Bank of America in August, his explanation was surprisingly straight up. Rather than cloaking his exit in the usual vague excuses, he came right out and said he was leaving "to pursue my goal of running a company." Broadcasting his ambition was "very much my decision," McGee says. Within two weeks, he was talking for the first time with the board of Hartford Financial Services Group, which named him CEO and chairman on September 29.
McGee says leaving without a position lined up gave him time to reflect on what kind of company he wanted to run. It also sent a clear message to the outside world about his aspirations. And McGee isn't alone. In recent weeks the No.2 executives at Avon and American Express quit with the explanation that they were looking for a CEO post. As boards scrutinize succession plans in response to shareholder pressure, executives who don't get the nod also may wish to move on. A turbulent business environment also has senior managers cautious of letting vague pronouncements cloud their reputations.
As the first signs of recovery begin to take hold, deputy chiefs may be more willing to make the jump without a net. In the third quarter, CEO turnover was down 23% from a year ago as nervous boards stuck with the leaders they had, according to Liberum Research. As the economy picks up, opportunities will abound for aspiring leaders.
The decision to quit a senior position to look for a better one is unconventional. For years executives and headhunters have adhered to the rule that the most attractive CEO candidates are the ones who must be poached. Says Korn/Ferry senior partner Dennis Carey:"I can't think of a single search I've done where a board has not instructed me to look at sitting CEOs first."
Those who jumped without a job haven't always landed in top positions quickly. Ellen Marram quit as chief of Tropicana a decade age, saying she wanted to be a CEO. It was a year before she became head of a tiny Internet-based commodities exchange. Robert Willumstad left Citigroup in 2005 with ambitions to be a CEO. He finally took that post at a major financial institution three years later.
Many recruiters say the old disgrace is fading for top performers. The financial crisis has made it more acceptable to be between jobs or to leave a bad one. "The traditional rule was it's safer to stay where you are, but that's been fundamentally inverted," says one headhunter. "The people who've been hurt the worst are those who've stayed too long." | 2123.txt | 1 |
[
"Doctors usually have a poor eye sight.",
"Moviegoers often wear 3D glasses to watch films.",
"Some doctors are moviegoers.",
"Moviegoers know how to perform surgery."
] | What can be inferred about 3D glasses from the second paragraph? | 3D glasses help doctors perform invasive surgery when their hands are obscured from view.
Moviegoers aren't the only ones wearing 3D glasses nowadays-doctors could benefit from them, too, a new study suggests.
In the past, doctors have been skeptical of using 3D technology in their work, preferring to rely on their own experience. But that may change, thanks to improved 3D glasses and even glasses-free systems .Funded by industry sponsors, the study of 50 surgeons using the new technology showed improvements in surgical precision and speed.
"While the technology still requires some free-tuning, technology without the need to wear special glasses will increase the popularity of 3D systems in operating rooms," study leader Ulrich Leiner of the Fratmhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) in Berlin said in a statement.
Improvements to screens are driving developments in 3D technology. High-definition screens are already available. The next step is ultra-high definition, with a sixteen fold improvement in resolution, according to study co-author Michael Witte of HHI.
To evaluate whether new 3D technology was ready for hospital applications, researchers invited surgeons from the Klinikum rechts der Isar's surgical hospital to test it out. A leading endoscope manufacturer and an international display company funded the study.
The surgeons tested four different systems: 2D, 3D with glasses, 3D without glasses and a mirror-based 3D system. The glasses-free model relied on an eye-tracking camera system that delivered separate images to each eye, creating a 3D effect in the brain.
The images came from endoscopic cameras used in surgery. The doctors practiced a simulated, routine surgical procedure in which they sewed up a wound in a model patient's stomach using a needle and thread. Just as in a minimally invasive surgery, their hands were obscured from view and they relied on the screen to see what they were doing.
"The results were astonishing," Hubertus Feuner, of the Klinikum rechts der Isar university hospital in Munich, said in a statement. The winning surgeon performed the procedure in 15 percent less time and with considerably increased precision, Feuner said.
The most surprising thing was that not only young surgeons benefited, but experienced surgeons also, according to the researchers. The winning doctor has worked at the hospital for more than 30 years and has conducted thousands of operations.
The surgeons in the study rated the 3D glasses system the highest, and the glasses-free system as comparable to the 2D one.
Once the technology is widely available, will doctors begin using it. "There's no doubt that 3D will be a commodity in the future." Witte said.
The study's findings will be presented at a congress of the Association of German. Surgeons in Berlin in April. The findings have not been published in a scientific peer-reviewed journal. | 894.txt | 1 |
[
"Apathetic.",
"Positive.",
"Disappointed.",
"Doubtful."
] | What was the doctors' attitude toward 3D technology in the past? | 3D glasses help doctors perform invasive surgery when their hands are obscured from view.
Moviegoers aren't the only ones wearing 3D glasses nowadays-doctors could benefit from them, too, a new study suggests.
In the past, doctors have been skeptical of using 3D technology in their work, preferring to rely on their own experience. But that may change, thanks to improved 3D glasses and even glasses-free systems .Funded by industry sponsors, the study of 50 surgeons using the new technology showed improvements in surgical precision and speed.
"While the technology still requires some free-tuning, technology without the need to wear special glasses will increase the popularity of 3D systems in operating rooms," study leader Ulrich Leiner of the Fratmhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) in Berlin said in a statement.
Improvements to screens are driving developments in 3D technology. High-definition screens are already available. The next step is ultra-high definition, with a sixteen fold improvement in resolution, according to study co-author Michael Witte of HHI.
To evaluate whether new 3D technology was ready for hospital applications, researchers invited surgeons from the Klinikum rechts der Isar's surgical hospital to test it out. A leading endoscope manufacturer and an international display company funded the study.
The surgeons tested four different systems: 2D, 3D with glasses, 3D without glasses and a mirror-based 3D system. The glasses-free model relied on an eye-tracking camera system that delivered separate images to each eye, creating a 3D effect in the brain.
The images came from endoscopic cameras used in surgery. The doctors practiced a simulated, routine surgical procedure in which they sewed up a wound in a model patient's stomach using a needle and thread. Just as in a minimally invasive surgery, their hands were obscured from view and they relied on the screen to see what they were doing.
"The results were astonishing," Hubertus Feuner, of the Klinikum rechts der Isar university hospital in Munich, said in a statement. The winning surgeon performed the procedure in 15 percent less time and with considerably increased precision, Feuner said.
The most surprising thing was that not only young surgeons benefited, but experienced surgeons also, according to the researchers. The winning doctor has worked at the hospital for more than 30 years and has conducted thousands of operations.
The surgeons in the study rated the 3D glasses system the highest, and the glasses-free system as comparable to the 2D one.
Once the technology is widely available, will doctors begin using it. "There's no doubt that 3D will be a commodity in the future." Witte said.
The study's findings will be presented at a congress of the Association of German. Surgeons in Berlin in April. The findings have not been published in a scientific peer-reviewed journal. | 894.txt | 3 |
[
"enabled each eye to receive separate images",
"separated images for each eye",
"delivered images of each eye through a camera",
"delivered to each glass separate images"
] | To create a 3D effect in the brain, an eye-tracking camera system | 3D glasses help doctors perform invasive surgery when their hands are obscured from view.
Moviegoers aren't the only ones wearing 3D glasses nowadays-doctors could benefit from them, too, a new study suggests.
In the past, doctors have been skeptical of using 3D technology in their work, preferring to rely on their own experience. But that may change, thanks to improved 3D glasses and even glasses-free systems .Funded by industry sponsors, the study of 50 surgeons using the new technology showed improvements in surgical precision and speed.
"While the technology still requires some free-tuning, technology without the need to wear special glasses will increase the popularity of 3D systems in operating rooms," study leader Ulrich Leiner of the Fratmhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) in Berlin said in a statement.
Improvements to screens are driving developments in 3D technology. High-definition screens are already available. The next step is ultra-high definition, with a sixteen fold improvement in resolution, according to study co-author Michael Witte of HHI.
To evaluate whether new 3D technology was ready for hospital applications, researchers invited surgeons from the Klinikum rechts der Isar's surgical hospital to test it out. A leading endoscope manufacturer and an international display company funded the study.
The surgeons tested four different systems: 2D, 3D with glasses, 3D without glasses and a mirror-based 3D system. The glasses-free model relied on an eye-tracking camera system that delivered separate images to each eye, creating a 3D effect in the brain.
The images came from endoscopic cameras used in surgery. The doctors practiced a simulated, routine surgical procedure in which they sewed up a wound in a model patient's stomach using a needle and thread. Just as in a minimally invasive surgery, their hands were obscured from view and they relied on the screen to see what they were doing.
"The results were astonishing," Hubertus Feuner, of the Klinikum rechts der Isar university hospital in Munich, said in a statement. The winning surgeon performed the procedure in 15 percent less time and with considerably increased precision, Feuner said.
The most surprising thing was that not only young surgeons benefited, but experienced surgeons also, according to the researchers. The winning doctor has worked at the hospital for more than 30 years and has conducted thousands of operations.
The surgeons in the study rated the 3D glasses system the highest, and the glasses-free system as comparable to the 2D one.
Once the technology is widely available, will doctors begin using it. "There's no doubt that 3D will be a commodity in the future." Witte said.
The study's findings will be presented at a congress of the Association of German. Surgeons in Berlin in April. The findings have not been published in a scientific peer-reviewed journal. | 894.txt | 0 |
[
"less precision and less time",
"improved precision and less time",
"improved precision and more time",
"obscured views"
] | The benefits that 3D technology may bring to surgeons are | 3D glasses help doctors perform invasive surgery when their hands are obscured from view.
Moviegoers aren't the only ones wearing 3D glasses nowadays-doctors could benefit from them, too, a new study suggests.
In the past, doctors have been skeptical of using 3D technology in their work, preferring to rely on their own experience. But that may change, thanks to improved 3D glasses and even glasses-free systems .Funded by industry sponsors, the study of 50 surgeons using the new technology showed improvements in surgical precision and speed.
"While the technology still requires some free-tuning, technology without the need to wear special glasses will increase the popularity of 3D systems in operating rooms," study leader Ulrich Leiner of the Fratmhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) in Berlin said in a statement.
Improvements to screens are driving developments in 3D technology. High-definition screens are already available. The next step is ultra-high definition, with a sixteen fold improvement in resolution, according to study co-author Michael Witte of HHI.
To evaluate whether new 3D technology was ready for hospital applications, researchers invited surgeons from the Klinikum rechts der Isar's surgical hospital to test it out. A leading endoscope manufacturer and an international display company funded the study.
The surgeons tested four different systems: 2D, 3D with glasses, 3D without glasses and a mirror-based 3D system. The glasses-free model relied on an eye-tracking camera system that delivered separate images to each eye, creating a 3D effect in the brain.
The images came from endoscopic cameras used in surgery. The doctors practiced a simulated, routine surgical procedure in which they sewed up a wound in a model patient's stomach using a needle and thread. Just as in a minimally invasive surgery, their hands were obscured from view and they relied on the screen to see what they were doing.
"The results were astonishing," Hubertus Feuner, of the Klinikum rechts der Isar university hospital in Munich, said in a statement. The winning surgeon performed the procedure in 15 percent less time and with considerably increased precision, Feuner said.
The most surprising thing was that not only young surgeons benefited, but experienced surgeons also, according to the researchers. The winning doctor has worked at the hospital for more than 30 years and has conducted thousands of operations.
The surgeons in the study rated the 3D glasses system the highest, and the glasses-free system as comparable to the 2D one.
Once the technology is widely available, will doctors begin using it. "There's no doubt that 3D will be a commodity in the future." Witte said.
The study's findings will be presented at a congress of the Association of German. Surgeons in Berlin in April. The findings have not been published in a scientific peer-reviewed journal. | 894.txt | 1 |
[
"3D glasses system has the highest technology.",
"3D glasses system is no better than 2D one.",
"The glasses-free system is superior to the 2D one.",
"3D glasses system is more helpful than the glasses-free system."
] | What can be inferred from the feedbacks of the surgeons? | 3D glasses help doctors perform invasive surgery when their hands are obscured from view.
Moviegoers aren't the only ones wearing 3D glasses nowadays-doctors could benefit from them, too, a new study suggests.
In the past, doctors have been skeptical of using 3D technology in their work, preferring to rely on their own experience. But that may change, thanks to improved 3D glasses and even glasses-free systems .Funded by industry sponsors, the study of 50 surgeons using the new technology showed improvements in surgical precision and speed.
"While the technology still requires some free-tuning, technology without the need to wear special glasses will increase the popularity of 3D systems in operating rooms," study leader Ulrich Leiner of the Fratmhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) in Berlin said in a statement.
Improvements to screens are driving developments in 3D technology. High-definition screens are already available. The next step is ultra-high definition, with a sixteen fold improvement in resolution, according to study co-author Michael Witte of HHI.
To evaluate whether new 3D technology was ready for hospital applications, researchers invited surgeons from the Klinikum rechts der Isar's surgical hospital to test it out. A leading endoscope manufacturer and an international display company funded the study.
The surgeons tested four different systems: 2D, 3D with glasses, 3D without glasses and a mirror-based 3D system. The glasses-free model relied on an eye-tracking camera system that delivered separate images to each eye, creating a 3D effect in the brain.
The images came from endoscopic cameras used in surgery. The doctors practiced a simulated, routine surgical procedure in which they sewed up a wound in a model patient's stomach using a needle and thread. Just as in a minimally invasive surgery, their hands were obscured from view and they relied on the screen to see what they were doing.
"The results were astonishing," Hubertus Feuner, of the Klinikum rechts der Isar university hospital in Munich, said in a statement. The winning surgeon performed the procedure in 15 percent less time and with considerably increased precision, Feuner said.
The most surprising thing was that not only young surgeons benefited, but experienced surgeons also, according to the researchers. The winning doctor has worked at the hospital for more than 30 years and has conducted thousands of operations.
The surgeons in the study rated the 3D glasses system the highest, and the glasses-free system as comparable to the 2D one.
Once the technology is widely available, will doctors begin using it. "There's no doubt that 3D will be a commodity in the future." Witte said.
The study's findings will be presented at a congress of the Association of German. Surgeons in Berlin in April. The findings have not been published in a scientific peer-reviewed journal. | 894.txt | 3 |
[
"offering senior citizens discounts has become routine commercial practice",
"senior citizen discounts have enabled many old people to live a decent life",
"giving senior citizens discounts has boosted the market for the elderly",
"senior citizens have to show their birth certificates to get a discount"
] | We learn from the first paragraph that ________. | Age has its privileges in America. And one of the more prominent of them is the senior citizen discount. Anyone who has reached a certain age-in some cases as low as 55-is automatically entitled to a dazzling array of price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life. Eligibility is determined not by one's need but by the date on one's birth certificate. Practically unheard of a generation ago, the discounts have become a routine part of many businesses-as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.
People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them；yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent . Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that "elderly" and "needy" are synonymous . Perhaps that once was true, but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor, But most of them aren't.
It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.
Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involves a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point, Buoyed by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job-thereby lessening employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.
Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become a formidable economic privilege to a group with millions of members who don't need them.
It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can't take care of themselves and need special treatment； and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against-discrimination by age. | 706.txt | 0 |
[
"Businesses, having made a lot of profits, should do something for society in return.",
"Old people are entitled to special treatment for the contribution they made to society.",
"The elderly, being financially underprivileged, need humane help from society.",
"Senior citizen discounts can make up for the inadequacy of the Social Security system."
] | What assumption lies behind the practice of senior citizen discounts? | Age has its privileges in America. And one of the more prominent of them is the senior citizen discount. Anyone who has reached a certain age-in some cases as low as 55-is automatically entitled to a dazzling array of price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life. Eligibility is determined not by one's need but by the date on one's birth certificate. Practically unheard of a generation ago, the discounts have become a routine part of many businesses-as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.
People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them；yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent . Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that "elderly" and "needy" are synonymous . Perhaps that once was true, but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor, But most of them aren't.
It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.
Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involves a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point, Buoyed by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job-thereby lessening employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.
Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become a formidable economic privilege to a group with millions of members who don't need them.
It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can't take care of themselves and need special treatment； and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against-discrimination by age. | 706.txt | 2 |
[
"make old people even more dependent on society",
"intensify conflicts between the young and the old",
"have adverse financial impact on business companies",
"bring a marked increase in the companies revenues"
] | According to some politicians and scholars, senior citizen discounts will ________. | Age has its privileges in America. And one of the more prominent of them is the senior citizen discount. Anyone who has reached a certain age-in some cases as low as 55-is automatically entitled to a dazzling array of price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life. Eligibility is determined not by one's need but by the date on one's birth certificate. Practically unheard of a generation ago, the discounts have become a routine part of many businesses-as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.
People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them；yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent . Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that "elderly" and "needy" are synonymous . Perhaps that once was true, but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor, But most of them aren't.
It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.
Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involves a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point, Buoyed by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job-thereby lessening employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.
Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become a formidable economic privilege to a group with millions of members who don't need them.
It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can't take care of themselves and need special treatment； and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against-discrimination by age. | 706.txt | 1 |
[
"It encourages elderly people to retire in time.",
"It opens up broad career prospects for young people.",
"It benefits the old at the expense of the young.",
"It should be reinforced by laws and court decisions."
] | How does the author view the Social Security system? | Age has its privileges in America. And one of the more prominent of them is the senior citizen discount. Anyone who has reached a certain age-in some cases as low as 55-is automatically entitled to a dazzling array of price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life. Eligibility is determined not by one's need but by the date on one's birth certificate. Practically unheard of a generation ago, the discounts have become a routine part of many businesses-as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.
People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them；yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent . Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that "elderly" and "needy" are synonymous . Perhaps that once was true, but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor, But most of them aren't.
It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.
Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involves a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point, Buoyed by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job-thereby lessening employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.
Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become a formidable economic privilege to a group with millions of members who don't need them.
It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can't take care of themselves and need special treatment； and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against-discrimination by age. | 706.txt | 2 |
[
"Senior citizens should fight hard against age discrimination.",
"The elderly are selfish and taking senior discounts for granted.",
"Priority should be given to the economic needs of senior citizens.",
"Senior citizen discounts may well be a type of age discrimination."
] | Which of the following best summarizes the author's main argument? | Age has its privileges in America. And one of the more prominent of them is the senior citizen discount. Anyone who has reached a certain age-in some cases as low as 55-is automatically entitled to a dazzling array of price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life. Eligibility is determined not by one's need but by the date on one's birth certificate. Practically unheard of a generation ago, the discounts have become a routine part of many businesses-as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.
People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them；yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent . Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that "elderly" and "needy" are synonymous . Perhaps that once was true, but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor, But most of them aren't.
It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.
Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involves a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point, Buoyed by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job-thereby lessening employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.
Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become a formidable economic privilege to a group with millions of members who don't need them.
It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can't take care of themselves and need special treatment； and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against-discrimination by age. | 706.txt | 3 |
[
"wouldsurprise the brightest minds of the 18th century Enlightenment",
"willproduce results which cannot be foreseen",
"will helppeople to make the right choice in advance",
"willbring about disturbing results"
] | According to the author, really good science _ . | It is hard to predict howscience is going to turn out, and if it is really good science it is impossibleto predict. If the things to be found are actually new, they are by definitionunknown in advance. You cannot make choices in this matter. You either havescience or you don't, and if you have it you are obliged to accept thesurprising and disturbing pieces of information, along with the neat andpromptly useful bits.
The only solid piece ofscientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundlyignorant about nature. Indeed, I regard this as the major discovery of the pasthundred years of biology. It is, in its way, an illuminating piece of news.It would have amazed the brightest minds of the 18th century Enlightenment to be told byany of us how little we know and how bewildering seems the wayahead. It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scopeof ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of the 20th centuryscience to the human intellect. In earlier times, we either pretended tounderstand how things worked or ignored the problem, or simply made up storiesto fill the gaps. Now that we have begun exploring in earnest, we are gettingglimpses of how huge the questions are, and how far from being answered.Because of this, we are depressed. It is not so bad being ignorant if you aretotally ignorant; the hard thing is knowing in some detail the reality ofignorance, the worst spots and here and there the not-so-bad spots, but no truelight at the end of the tunnel nor even any tunnels that can yet be trusted.
But we are making abeginning, and there ought to be some satisfaction. There are probably noquestions we can think up that can't be answered, sooner or later, includingeven the matter of consciousness. To be sure, there may well be questions wecan't think up, ever, and therefore limits to the reach of human intellect, butthat is another matter. Within our limits, we should be able to work our waythrough to all our answers, if we keep at it long enough, and pay attention. | 1715.txt | 1 |
[
"thought that they knew a great deal andcould solve most problems of science",
"wereafraid of facing up to the realities of scientific research",
"knew thatthey were ignorant and wanted to know more about nature",
"did moreharm than good in promoting man's understanding of nature"
] | It can be inferred from the passage thatscientists of the 18th century . | It is hard to predict howscience is going to turn out, and if it is really good science it is impossibleto predict. If the things to be found are actually new, they are by definitionunknown in advance. You cannot make choices in this matter. You either havescience or you don't, and if you have it you are obliged to accept thesurprising and disturbing pieces of information, along with the neat andpromptly useful bits.
The only solid piece ofscientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundlyignorant about nature. Indeed, I regard this as the major discovery of the pasthundred years of biology. It is, in its way, an illuminating piece of news.It would have amazed the brightest minds of the 18th century Enlightenment to be told byany of us how little we know and how bewildering seems the wayahead. It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scopeof ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of the 20th centuryscience to the human intellect. In earlier times, we either pretended tounderstand how things worked or ignored the problem, or simply made up storiesto fill the gaps. Now that we have begun exploring in earnest, we are gettingglimpses of how huge the questions are, and how far from being answered.Because of this, we are depressed. It is not so bad being ignorant if you aretotally ignorant; the hard thing is knowing in some detail the reality ofignorance, the worst spots and here and there the not-so-bad spots, but no truelight at the end of the tunnel nor even any tunnels that can yet be trusted.
But we are making abeginning, and there ought to be some satisfaction. There are probably noquestions we can think up that can't be answered, sooner or later, includingeven the matter of consciousness. To be sure, there may well be questions wecan't think up, ever, and therefore limits to the reach of human intellect, butthat is another matter. Within our limits, we should be able to work our waythrough to all our answers, if we keep at it long enough, and pay attention. | 1715.txt | 0 |
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