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[
"rewarding",
"successful",
"fruitless",
"harmful"
]
| In the author's opinion, the absorption of immigrants into American society is . | In spite of "endless talk of difference," American society is an amazing machine for homogenizing people. There is "the democratizing uniformity of dress and discourse, and the casualness and absence of deference" characteristic of popular culture. People are absorbed into "a culture of consumption" launched by the 19th-century department stores that offered "vast arrays of goods in an elegant atmosphere. Instead of intimate shops catering to a knowledgeable elite," these were stores "anyone could enter, regardless of class or background. This turned shopping into a public and democratic act." The mass media, advertising and sports are other forces for homogenization.
Immigrants are quickly fitting into this common culture, which may not be altogether elevating but is hardly poisonous. Writing for the National Immigration Forum, Gregory Rodriguez reports that today's immigration is neither at unprecedented levels nor resistant to assimilation. In 1998 immigrants were 9.8 percent of population; in 1900, 13.6 percent. In the 10 years prior to 1990, 3.1 immigrants arrived for every 1,000 residents; in the 10 years prior to 1890, 9.2 for every 1,000. Now, consider three indices of assimilation -- language, home ownership and intermarriage.
The 1990 Census revealed that "a majority of immigrants from each of the fifteen most common countries of origin spoke English ‘well' or ‘very well' after ten years of residence." The children of immigrants tend to be bilingual and proficient in English. "By the third generation, the original language is lost in the majority of immigrant families." Hence the description of America as a "graveyard" for languages. By 1996 foreign-born immigrants who had arrived before 1970 had a home ownership rate of 75.6 percent, higher than the 69.8 percent rate among native-born Americans.
Foreign-born Asians and Hispanics "have higher rates of intermarriage than do U.S.-born whites and blacks." By the third generation, one third of Hispanic women are married to non-Hispanics, and 41 percent of Asian-American women are married to non-Asians.
Rodriguez notes that children in remote villages around the world are fans of superstars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Garth Brooks, yet "some Americans fear that immigrants living within the United States remain somehow immune to the nation's assimilative power."
Are there divisive issues and pockets of seething anger in America? Indeed. It is big enough to have a bit of everything. But particularly when viewed against America's turbulent past, today's social indices hardly suggest a dark and deteriorating social environment. | 2870.txt | 1 |
[
"because the soldiers were new.",
"with any of his soldiers, new or old.",
"because he was named Stone.",
"only when he was before soldiers."
]
| The officer was strict | A very strict officer was talking to some new soldiers whom he had to train. He had never seen them before, so began, "My name is Stone, and I'm even harder than stone, so do what I tell you or there'll be trouble. Don't try any tricks with me, and then we'll get on well together."
Then he went to each soldier one after the other and asked him his name, "Speak loudly so that everyone can hear you clearly,"he said, "and don't forget to call me ‘sir'."
Each soldier told him name, until he came to the last one. This man remained silent. and so Captain Stone shouted at him, "when I ask you a question, answer it! I'll ask you again： What's your name, soldier?"
The soldier was very unhappy, but at last he replied, "My name's Stonebreaker, sir," he said nervously . | 1600.txt | 1 |
[
"obeying his orders would sometimes bring no trouble.",
"trouble would come if anybody made tricks.",
"he always got on well with his soldiers.",
"he often had trouble with his soldiers."
]
| According to what the officer said, | A very strict officer was talking to some new soldiers whom he had to train. He had never seen them before, so began, "My name is Stone, and I'm even harder than stone, so do what I tell you or there'll be trouble. Don't try any tricks with me, and then we'll get on well together."
Then he went to each soldier one after the other and asked him his name, "Speak loudly so that everyone can hear you clearly,"he said, "and don't forget to call me ‘sir'."
Each soldier told him name, until he came to the last one. This man remained silent. and so Captain Stone shouted at him, "when I ask you a question, answer it! I'll ask you again： What's your name, soldier?"
The soldier was very unhappy, but at last he replied, "My name's Stonebreaker, sir," he said nervously . | 1600.txt | 1 |
[
"he didn't like the way the officer spoke to them.",
"he wanted to see what would happen if he disobeyed his order.",
"the question was difficult for him to answer.",
"he was afraid the officer would be angry when he heard his name."
]
| The last soldier remained silent because | A very strict officer was talking to some new soldiers whom he had to train. He had never seen them before, so began, "My name is Stone, and I'm even harder than stone, so do what I tell you or there'll be trouble. Don't try any tricks with me, and then we'll get on well together."
Then he went to each soldier one after the other and asked him his name, "Speak loudly so that everyone can hear you clearly,"he said, "and don't forget to call me ‘sir'."
Each soldier told him name, until he came to the last one. This man remained silent. and so Captain Stone shouted at him, "when I ask you a question, answer it! I'll ask you again： What's your name, soldier?"
The soldier was very unhappy, but at last he replied, "My name's Stonebreaker, sir," he said nervously . | 1600.txt | 3 |
[
"(sadly)Twenty, sir.",
"(clearly)Twenty.",
"(loudly)Twenty, sir",
"(quickly)Ten years younger than you, sir"
]
| According to the officer, how to answer the question,"How old are you ?" | A very strict officer was talking to some new soldiers whom he had to train. He had never seen them before, so began, "My name is Stone, and I'm even harder than stone, so do what I tell you or there'll be trouble. Don't try any tricks with me, and then we'll get on well together."
Then he went to each soldier one after the other and asked him his name, "Speak loudly so that everyone can hear you clearly,"he said, "and don't forget to call me ‘sir'."
Each soldier told him name, until he came to the last one. This man remained silent. and so Captain Stone shouted at him, "when I ask you a question, answer it! I'll ask you again： What's your name, soldier?"
The soldier was very unhappy, but at last he replied, "My name's Stonebreaker, sir," he said nervously . | 1600.txt | 2 |
[
"A Clever Answer",
"A Terrible Answer",
"A Sorry Answer",
"A Strange Answer"
]
| Which is the best title for the passage? | A very strict officer was talking to some new soldiers whom he had to train. He had never seen them before, so began, "My name is Stone, and I'm even harder than stone, so do what I tell you or there'll be trouble. Don't try any tricks with me, and then we'll get on well together."
Then he went to each soldier one after the other and asked him his name, "Speak loudly so that everyone can hear you clearly,"he said, "and don't forget to call me ‘sir'."
Each soldier told him name, until he came to the last one. This man remained silent. and so Captain Stone shouted at him, "when I ask you a question, answer it! I'll ask you again： What's your name, soldier?"
The soldier was very unhappy, but at last he replied, "My name's Stonebreaker, sir," he said nervously . | 1600.txt | 2 |
[
"It may leave knowledge \"in the cloud\".",
"It may misguide our everyday behavior.",
"It may cause a divide in the circles of education.",
"It may hinder the development of thinking skills."
]
| What is the author's concern about the use of technology? | Technology can make us smarter or stupider, and we need to develop a set of principles to guide our everyday behavior and make sure that tech is improving and not hindering our mental processes. One of the big questions being debated today is: What kind of information do we need to have stored in our heads, and what kind can we leave "in the cloud," to be accessed as necessary?
An increasingly powerful group within education are championing "digital literacy". In their view, skills beat knowledge, developing "digital literacy" is more important than learning mere content, and all facts are now Google-able and therclorc unworti~y of committing to memory. But even the most sophisticated digital literacy skills won't help students and workers navigate the world if the), don't havc broad base of knowledge about how the world actually operates. If you focus on the delivery mechanism and not the content, you're doing kids a disservice.
Indeed, evidence from cognitive science challenges the notion that skills can exist independent of factual knowledge. Data from the last thirty years leads to a conclusion that is not scientifically challengeable: thinking well requires knowing facts, and that's true not only because you need something to think about. The very processes that teachers care about most-critical thinking processes-areintimately intertwined with factual knowledge that is stored in long-term memory.
In other words, just because you can Google the date of Black Tuesday doesn't mean you understand why the Great Depression happened or how it compares to our recent economic slump. There is no doubt that the students of today, and the workers of tomorrow, will need to innovate, collaborate and evaluate. But such skills can't be separated from the knowledge that gives rise to them. To innovate, you have to know what came before. To collaborate, you have to contribute knowledge to the joint venture. And to evaluate, you have to compare new information against knowledge you've already mastered.
So here's a principle for thinking in a digital world, in two parts. First, acquire a base of factual knowledge in any domain in which you want to perform well. This base supplies the essential foundationfor building skills, and it can't be outsourced to a search engine. Second, take advantage of computers' invariable memory, but also the brain's elaborative memory.
Cqmputers are great when you want to store information that shouldn't change. But brains are the superior
choice when you want information to change, in interesting and useful ways: to connect up with other facts and ideas, to acquire successive layers of meaning, to steep for a while in your accumulated knowledge and experience and so produce a richer mental brew. | 1357.txt | 3 |
[
"It helps kids to navigate the virtual world at will.",
"It helps kids to broaden their scope of knowledge.",
"It increases kids' efficiency of acquiring knowledge.",
"It liberates kids from the burden of memorizing facts."
]
| What is the view of educators who advocate digital literacy? | Technology can make us smarter or stupider, and we need to develop a set of principles to guide our everyday behavior and make sure that tech is improving and not hindering our mental processes. One of the big questions being debated today is: What kind of information do we need to have stored in our heads, and what kind can we leave "in the cloud," to be accessed as necessary?
An increasingly powerful group within education are championing "digital literacy". In their view, skills beat knowledge, developing "digital literacy" is more important than learning mere content, and all facts are now Google-able and therclorc unworti~y of committing to memory. But even the most sophisticated digital literacy skills won't help students and workers navigate the world if the), don't havc broad base of knowledge about how the world actually operates. If you focus on the delivery mechanism and not the content, you're doing kids a disservice.
Indeed, evidence from cognitive science challenges the notion that skills can exist independent of factual knowledge. Data from the last thirty years leads to a conclusion that is not scientifically challengeable: thinking well requires knowing facts, and that's true not only because you need something to think about. The very processes that teachers care about most-critical thinking processes-areintimately intertwined with factual knowledge that is stored in long-term memory.
In other words, just because you can Google the date of Black Tuesday doesn't mean you understand why the Great Depression happened or how it compares to our recent economic slump. There is no doubt that the students of today, and the workers of tomorrow, will need to innovate, collaborate and evaluate. But such skills can't be separated from the knowledge that gives rise to them. To innovate, you have to know what came before. To collaborate, you have to contribute knowledge to the joint venture. And to evaluate, you have to compare new information against knowledge you've already mastered.
So here's a principle for thinking in a digital world, in two parts. First, acquire a base of factual knowledge in any domain in which you want to perform well. This base supplies the essential foundationfor building skills, and it can't be outsourced to a search engine. Second, take advantage of computers' invariable memory, but also the brain's elaborative memory.
Cqmputers are great when you want to store information that shouldn't change. But brains are the superior
choice when you want information to change, in interesting and useful ways: to connect up with other facts and ideas, to acquire successive layers of meaning, to steep for a while in your accumulated knowledge and experience and so produce a richer mental brew. | 1357.txt | 3 |
[
"Knowledge is better kept in long-term memory.",
"Critical thinking is based on factual knowledge.",
"Study skills are essential to knowledge acquisition.",
"Critical thinking means challenging existing facts."
]
| What does evidence from cognitive science show? | Technology can make us smarter or stupider, and we need to develop a set of principles to guide our everyday behavior and make sure that tech is improving and not hindering our mental processes. One of the big questions being debated today is: What kind of information do we need to have stored in our heads, and what kind can we leave "in the cloud," to be accessed as necessary?
An increasingly powerful group within education are championing "digital literacy". In their view, skills beat knowledge, developing "digital literacy" is more important than learning mere content, and all facts are now Google-able and therclorc unworti~y of committing to memory. But even the most sophisticated digital literacy skills won't help students and workers navigate the world if the), don't havc broad base of knowledge about how the world actually operates. If you focus on the delivery mechanism and not the content, you're doing kids a disservice.
Indeed, evidence from cognitive science challenges the notion that skills can exist independent of factual knowledge. Data from the last thirty years leads to a conclusion that is not scientifically challengeable: thinking well requires knowing facts, and that's true not only because you need something to think about. The very processes that teachers care about most-critical thinking processes-areintimately intertwined with factual knowledge that is stored in long-term memory.
In other words, just because you can Google the date of Black Tuesday doesn't mean you understand why the Great Depression happened or how it compares to our recent economic slump. There is no doubt that the students of today, and the workers of tomorrow, will need to innovate, collaborate and evaluate. But such skills can't be separated from the knowledge that gives rise to them. To innovate, you have to know what came before. To collaborate, you have to contribute knowledge to the joint venture. And to evaluate, you have to compare new information against knowledge you've already mastered.
So here's a principle for thinking in a digital world, in two parts. First, acquire a base of factual knowledge in any domain in which you want to perform well. This base supplies the essential foundationfor building skills, and it can't be outsourced to a search engine. Second, take advantage of computers' invariable memory, but also the brain's elaborative memory.
Cqmputers are great when you want to store information that shouldn't change. But brains are the superior
choice when you want information to change, in interesting and useful ways: to connect up with other facts and ideas, to acquire successive layers of meaning, to steep for a while in your accumulated knowledge and experience and so produce a richer mental brew. | 1357.txt | 1 |
[
"Gathering enough evidence before drawing conclusions.",
"Mastering the basic rules and principles for evaluation.",
"Connecting new information with one's accumulated knowledge.",
"Understanding both what has happened and why it has happened."
]
| What does the author think is key to making evaluations? | Technology can make us smarter or stupider, and we need to develop a set of principles to guide our everyday behavior and make sure that tech is improving and not hindering our mental processes. One of the big questions being debated today is: What kind of information do we need to have stored in our heads, and what kind can we leave "in the cloud," to be accessed as necessary?
An increasingly powerful group within education are championing "digital literacy". In their view, skills beat knowledge, developing "digital literacy" is more important than learning mere content, and all facts are now Google-able and therclorc unworti~y of committing to memory. But even the most sophisticated digital literacy skills won't help students and workers navigate the world if the), don't havc broad base of knowledge about how the world actually operates. If you focus on the delivery mechanism and not the content, you're doing kids a disservice.
Indeed, evidence from cognitive science challenges the notion that skills can exist independent of factual knowledge. Data from the last thirty years leads to a conclusion that is not scientifically challengeable: thinking well requires knowing facts, and that's true not only because you need something to think about. The very processes that teachers care about most-critical thinking processes-areintimately intertwined with factual knowledge that is stored in long-term memory.
In other words, just because you can Google the date of Black Tuesday doesn't mean you understand why the Great Depression happened or how it compares to our recent economic slump. There is no doubt that the students of today, and the workers of tomorrow, will need to innovate, collaborate and evaluate. But such skills can't be separated from the knowledge that gives rise to them. To innovate, you have to know what came before. To collaborate, you have to contribute knowledge to the joint venture. And to evaluate, you have to compare new information against knowledge you've already mastered.
So here's a principle for thinking in a digital world, in two parts. First, acquire a base of factual knowledge in any domain in which you want to perform well. This base supplies the essential foundationfor building skills, and it can't be outsourced to a search engine. Second, take advantage of computers' invariable memory, but also the brain's elaborative memory.
Cqmputers are great when you want to store information that shouldn't change. But brains are the superior
choice when you want information to change, in interesting and useful ways: to connect up with other facts and ideas, to acquire successive layers of meaning, to steep for a while in your accumulated knowledge and experience and so produce a richer mental brew. | 1357.txt | 2 |
[
"To warn against learning through memorizing facts.",
"To promote educational reform in the information age.",
"To explain human brains' function in storing information.",
"To challenge the prevailing overemphasis on digital literacy."
]
| What is the author's purpose in writing the passage? | Technology can make us smarter or stupider, and we need to develop a set of principles to guide our everyday behavior and make sure that tech is improving and not hindering our mental processes. One of the big questions being debated today is: What kind of information do we need to have stored in our heads, and what kind can we leave "in the cloud," to be accessed as necessary?
An increasingly powerful group within education are championing "digital literacy". In their view, skills beat knowledge, developing "digital literacy" is more important than learning mere content, and all facts are now Google-able and therclorc unworti~y of committing to memory. But even the most sophisticated digital literacy skills won't help students and workers navigate the world if the), don't havc broad base of knowledge about how the world actually operates. If you focus on the delivery mechanism and not the content, you're doing kids a disservice.
Indeed, evidence from cognitive science challenges the notion that skills can exist independent of factual knowledge. Data from the last thirty years leads to a conclusion that is not scientifically challengeable: thinking well requires knowing facts, and that's true not only because you need something to think about. The very processes that teachers care about most-critical thinking processes-areintimately intertwined with factual knowledge that is stored in long-term memory.
In other words, just because you can Google the date of Black Tuesday doesn't mean you understand why the Great Depression happened or how it compares to our recent economic slump. There is no doubt that the students of today, and the workers of tomorrow, will need to innovate, collaborate and evaluate. But such skills can't be separated from the knowledge that gives rise to them. To innovate, you have to know what came before. To collaborate, you have to contribute knowledge to the joint venture. And to evaluate, you have to compare new information against knowledge you've already mastered.
So here's a principle for thinking in a digital world, in two parts. First, acquire a base of factual knowledge in any domain in which you want to perform well. This base supplies the essential foundationfor building skills, and it can't be outsourced to a search engine. Second, take advantage of computers' invariable memory, but also the brain's elaborative memory.
Cqmputers are great when you want to store information that shouldn't change. But brains are the superior
choice when you want information to change, in interesting and useful ways: to connect up with other facts and ideas, to acquire successive layers of meaning, to steep for a while in your accumulated knowledge and experience and so produce a richer mental brew. | 1357.txt | 3 |
[
"Its validity was challenged by many communities.",
"It was considered discriminative against minority children.",
"It met with strong opposition from the majority of black parents.",
"It deprived the black children of their rights to a good education."
]
| Why did the intelligence test become unpopular in the past few decades? | About the time that schools and others quite reasonably became interested in seeing to it that all children, whatever their background, were fairly treated.intelligence testing became unpopular.
Some thought it was unfair to minority children. Through the past few decades such testing has gone out offashion and many communities have indeed forbidden it.
However. paradoxically. just recently a group of black parents filed lawsuitin California claimingthat the state's ban on IQ testing discriminates against their children by denying them the opportunity totake the test (They believed correctly, that IQ tests are a valid method of evaluating children for special education classes.) The judge, therefore. reversed, at least partially. his original decision.
And so the argument goes on and on. Does it benefit or harm children from minority groups to have their intelligence tested? We have always been on the side of permitting. even facilitating, such testing. If a child of any color or group is doing poorly in school it seems to us very important to know whether it is because he or she is of low intelligence. or whether some other factor is the cause.
What school and family can do to improve poor performance is influenced by its cause. It is not discriminative to evaluate either a child's physical condition or his intellectual level.
Unfortunately, intellectual level seems to be a sensitive subject, and what the law allows us to do variesfrom time to time. The same fluctuation back and forth occurs in areas other than intelligence. Thirty years or so ago. for instance, white families were encouraged co adopt black children. It was considered discriminative not to do so.
And then the style changed and this cross-racial adopting became generally unpopular, and social agencies felt that black children should go to black families only. It is hard to say what are the best procedures.But surely good will on the part of all of us is needed.
As to intelligence. in our opinion, the more we know about any child's intellectual level, the better for the child in question. | 183.txt | 1 |
[
"draw public attention to IQ testing",
"put an end to special education",
"remove the state's ban on intelligence tests",
"have their children enter white schools"
]
| The recent legal action taken by some black parents in California aimed to | About the time that schools and others quite reasonably became interested in seeing to it that all children, whatever their background, were fairly treated.intelligence testing became unpopular.
Some thought it was unfair to minority children. Through the past few decades such testing has gone out offashion and many communities have indeed forbidden it.
However. paradoxically. just recently a group of black parents filed lawsuitin California claimingthat the state's ban on IQ testing discriminates against their children by denying them the opportunity totake the test (They believed correctly, that IQ tests are a valid method of evaluating children for special education classes.) The judge, therefore. reversed, at least partially. his original decision.
And so the argument goes on and on. Does it benefit or harm children from minority groups to have their intelligence tested? We have always been on the side of permitting. even facilitating, such testing. If a child of any color or group is doing poorly in school it seems to us very important to know whether it is because he or she is of low intelligence. or whether some other factor is the cause.
What school and family can do to improve poor performance is influenced by its cause. It is not discriminative to evaluate either a child's physical condition or his intellectual level.
Unfortunately, intellectual level seems to be a sensitive subject, and what the law allows us to do variesfrom time to time. The same fluctuation back and forth occurs in areas other than intelligence. Thirty years or so ago. for instance, white families were encouraged co adopt black children. It was considered discriminative not to do so.
And then the style changed and this cross-racial adopting became generally unpopular, and social agencies felt that black children should go to black families only. It is hard to say what are the best procedures.But surely good will on the part of all of us is needed.
As to intelligence. in our opinion, the more we know about any child's intellectual level, the better for the child in question. | 183.txt | 2 |
[
"may ease racial confrontation in the United States",
"can encourage black children to keep up with white children",
"may seriously aggravate racial discrimination in the United States",
"can help black parents make decisions about their children's education"
]
| The author believes that intelligence testing _ . | About the time that schools and others quite reasonably became interested in seeing to it that all children, whatever their background, were fairly treated.intelligence testing became unpopular.
Some thought it was unfair to minority children. Through the past few decades such testing has gone out offashion and many communities have indeed forbidden it.
However. paradoxically. just recently a group of black parents filed lawsuitin California claimingthat the state's ban on IQ testing discriminates against their children by denying them the opportunity totake the test (They believed correctly, that IQ tests are a valid method of evaluating children for special education classes.) The judge, therefore. reversed, at least partially. his original decision.
And so the argument goes on and on. Does it benefit or harm children from minority groups to have their intelligence tested? We have always been on the side of permitting. even facilitating, such testing. If a child of any color or group is doing poorly in school it seems to us very important to know whether it is because he or she is of low intelligence. or whether some other factor is the cause.
What school and family can do to improve poor performance is influenced by its cause. It is not discriminative to evaluate either a child's physical condition or his intellectual level.
Unfortunately, intellectual level seems to be a sensitive subject, and what the law allows us to do variesfrom time to time. The same fluctuation back and forth occurs in areas other than intelligence. Thirty years or so ago. for instance, white families were encouraged co adopt black children. It was considered discriminative not to do so.
And then the style changed and this cross-racial adopting became generally unpopular, and social agencies felt that black children should go to black families only. It is hard to say what are the best procedures.But surely good will on the part of all of us is needed.
As to intelligence. in our opinion, the more we know about any child's intellectual level, the better for the child in question. | 183.txt | 3 |
[
"no rules whatsoever can be prescribed",
"white families should adopt black children",
"adoption should be based on IQ test results",
"cross-racial adoption is to be advocated"
]
| The author's opinion of child adoption seems to be that _ . | About the time that schools and others quite reasonably became interested in seeing to it that all children, whatever their background, were fairly treated.intelligence testing became unpopular.
Some thought it was unfair to minority children. Through the past few decades such testing has gone out offashion and many communities have indeed forbidden it.
However. paradoxically. just recently a group of black parents filed lawsuitin California claimingthat the state's ban on IQ testing discriminates against their children by denying them the opportunity totake the test (They believed correctly, that IQ tests are a valid method of evaluating children for special education classes.) The judge, therefore. reversed, at least partially. his original decision.
And so the argument goes on and on. Does it benefit or harm children from minority groups to have their intelligence tested? We have always been on the side of permitting. even facilitating, such testing. If a child of any color or group is doing poorly in school it seems to us very important to know whether it is because he or she is of low intelligence. or whether some other factor is the cause.
What school and family can do to improve poor performance is influenced by its cause. It is not discriminative to evaluate either a child's physical condition or his intellectual level.
Unfortunately, intellectual level seems to be a sensitive subject, and what the law allows us to do variesfrom time to time. The same fluctuation back and forth occurs in areas other than intelligence. Thirty years or so ago. for instance, white families were encouraged co adopt black children. It was considered discriminative not to do so.
And then the style changed and this cross-racial adopting became generally unpopular, and social agencies felt that black children should go to black families only. It is hard to say what are the best procedures.But surely good will on the part of all of us is needed.
As to intelligence. in our opinion, the more we know about any child's intellectual level, the better for the child in question. | 183.txt | 0 |
[
"good will may sometimes complicate racial problems",
"social surroundings are vital to the healthy growth of children",
"intelligence testing also applies to non-academic areas",
"American opinion can shift when it comes to sensitive issues"
]
| Child adoption is mentioned in the passage to show that _ . | About the time that schools and others quite reasonably became interested in seeing to it that all children, whatever their background, were fairly treated.intelligence testing became unpopular.
Some thought it was unfair to minority children. Through the past few decades such testing has gone out offashion and many communities have indeed forbidden it.
However. paradoxically. just recently a group of black parents filed lawsuitin California claimingthat the state's ban on IQ testing discriminates against their children by denying them the opportunity totake the test (They believed correctly, that IQ tests are a valid method of evaluating children for special education classes.) The judge, therefore. reversed, at least partially. his original decision.
And so the argument goes on and on. Does it benefit or harm children from minority groups to have their intelligence tested? We have always been on the side of permitting. even facilitating, such testing. If a child of any color or group is doing poorly in school it seems to us very important to know whether it is because he or she is of low intelligence. or whether some other factor is the cause.
What school and family can do to improve poor performance is influenced by its cause. It is not discriminative to evaluate either a child's physical condition or his intellectual level.
Unfortunately, intellectual level seems to be a sensitive subject, and what the law allows us to do variesfrom time to time. The same fluctuation back and forth occurs in areas other than intelligence. Thirty years or so ago. for instance, white families were encouraged co adopt black children. It was considered discriminative not to do so.
And then the style changed and this cross-racial adopting became generally unpopular, and social agencies felt that black children should go to black families only. It is hard to say what are the best procedures.But surely good will on the part of all of us is needed.
As to intelligence. in our opinion, the more we know about any child's intellectual level, the better for the child in question. | 183.txt | 3 |
[
"Female delinquents tend to commit victimless crimes more frequently than their male counterparts.",
"The predicament of male delinquents receives more attention than that of females because males are accused of more serious crimes.",
"Adults are frequently punished less severely than adolescents for committing more serious crimes.",
"The juvenile justice system cannot correct its biases because it does not even recognize them."
]
| Which of the following statements best expresses the irony pointed out by the authors in lines 17-21 of the passage? | Even as the number of females processed through juvenile courts climbs steadily, an implicit consensus remains among scholars in criminal justice that male adolescents define the delinquency problem in the United States. We suggest two reasons why this view persists. First, female adolescents are accused primarily of victimless crimes, such as truancy, that do not involve clear-cut damage to persons or property. If committed by adults, these actions are not even considered prosecutable; if committed by juvenile males, they have traditionally been looked on leniently by the courts. Thus ironically, the plight of female delinquents receives little scrutiny because they are accused of committing relatively minor offenses. Second, the courts have long unjustified so-called preventive intervention into the lives of young females viewed as antisocial with the rationale that women are especially vulnerable. Traditional stereotypes of women as the weaker and more dependent sex have led to earlier intervention and longer periods of misdirected supervision for female delinquents than for males. | 1943.txt | 1 |
[
"frequently challenged",
"persistently inexplicable",
"potentially harmful",
"rapidly changing"
]
| It can be inferred from the passage that the authors believe traditional stereotypes of women to be | Even as the number of females processed through juvenile courts climbs steadily, an implicit consensus remains among scholars in criminal justice that male adolescents define the delinquency problem in the United States. We suggest two reasons why this view persists. First, female adolescents are accused primarily of victimless crimes, such as truancy, that do not involve clear-cut damage to persons or property. If committed by adults, these actions are not even considered prosecutable; if committed by juvenile males, they have traditionally been looked on leniently by the courts. Thus ironically, the plight of female delinquents receives little scrutiny because they are accused of committing relatively minor offenses. Second, the courts have long unjustified so-called preventive intervention into the lives of young females viewed as antisocial with the rationale that women are especially vulnerable. Traditional stereotypes of women as the weaker and more dependent sex have led to earlier intervention and longer periods of misdirected supervision for female delinquents than for males. | 1943.txt | 2 |
[
"Underestimating the seriousness of juvenile crime",
"Rationalizing the distinction made between juveniles and adults in the legal system",
"Concerning themselves too little with the prevention of juvenile delinquency",
"Focusing on those whose crimes have involved damage to persons or property"
]
| The passage suggests that scholars in criminal justice could be criticized for which of the following? | Even as the number of females processed through juvenile courts climbs steadily, an implicit consensus remains among scholars in criminal justice that male adolescents define the delinquency problem in the United States. We suggest two reasons why this view persists. First, female adolescents are accused primarily of victimless crimes, such as truancy, that do not involve clear-cut damage to persons or property. If committed by adults, these actions are not even considered prosecutable; if committed by juvenile males, they have traditionally been looked on leniently by the courts. Thus ironically, the plight of female delinquents receives little scrutiny because they are accused of committing relatively minor offenses. Second, the courts have long unjustified so-called preventive intervention into the lives of young females viewed as antisocial with the rationale that women are especially vulnerable. Traditional stereotypes of women as the weaker and more dependent sex have led to earlier intervention and longer periods of misdirected supervision for female delinquents than for males. | 1943.txt | 3 |
[
"paperbased transactions are moved on to the Web",
"the efficiency of the existing process is improved by Internet",
"new buyers and sellers find each other on the Internet",
"a book site offers the books several bookstores have altogether"
]
| Electronic commerce becomes a new type of commerce when _ . | One great benefit of the Web is that it allows us tomove information online that now resides in paperform. Several states in America are using the Web ina profound way. You can apply for various permitsor submit applications for business licences. Some states are putting up listings of jobs-notjust state government jobs, but all the jobs available in the state. I believe, over time, that allthe information that governments print, and all those paper forms they now have, will bemoved on to the Internet.
Electronic commerce notches up month-by-month too. It is difficult to measure, because a lotof electronic commerce involves existing buyers and sellers who are simply moving paperbasedtransactions to the Web. That is not new business. Microsoft, for example, purchases millions ofdollars of PCs online instead of by paper. However, that is not a fundamental change; it hasjust improved the efficiency of an existing process. The biggest impact has occurred whereelectronic commerce matches buyers and sellers who would not previously have found eachother. When you go to a book site and find an obscure book that you never would have foundin a physical bookstore, that is a new type of commerce.
Today, about half of all PCs are still not connected to the Web. Getting communications costsdown and making all the software simpler will bring in those people. And that, in turn, willmove us closer to the critical mass that will make the Web lifestyle everyone's lifestyle. Oneelement that people underestimate is the degree to which the hardware and software willimprove. Just take one aspect: screen technology. I do my e-mail on a 20-inch liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) monitor. It is not available at a reasonable price yet, but in two years it willbe. In ten years, a 20-inch LCD with much higher resolution will be commonplace. Theboundary between a television set and a PC will be blurred because even the set-top box thatyou connect up to your cable or satellite will have a processor more powerful than what we havetoday in the most expensive PC. This will, in effect, make your television a computer.
Interaction with the Web also will improve, making it much easier for people to be involved.Today the keywords we use to search the Web often return to too many articles to sort through,many of them out of context. If you want to learn about the fastest computer chip available,you might end up getting responses instead about potato chips being delivered in fast trucks.In the future, we shall be either speaking or typing sentences into the computer. If you askabout the speed of chips, the result will be about computers, not potatoes. Speech recognitionalso means that you will be able to call in on a phone and ask if you have any new messages, orcheck on a flight, or check on the weather.
To predict that it will take over ten years for these changes to happen is probably pessimistic.We usually overestimate what we can do in two years and underestimate what we can do inten. It will not be too long before the Web becomes as much a way of life as the car.[558words] | 206.txt | 2 |
[
"governments begin to move administration on-line",
"electronic commerce causes a fundamental change",
"computer and communication become simpler and cheaper",
"the boundary between the computer and the TV disappears"
]
| The use of computer will be as common as the use of cars when _ . | One great benefit of the Web is that it allows us tomove information online that now resides in paperform. Several states in America are using the Web ina profound way. You can apply for various permitsor submit applications for business licences. Some states are putting up listings of jobs-notjust state government jobs, but all the jobs available in the state. I believe, over time, that allthe information that governments print, and all those paper forms they now have, will bemoved on to the Internet.
Electronic commerce notches up month-by-month too. It is difficult to measure, because a lotof electronic commerce involves existing buyers and sellers who are simply moving paperbasedtransactions to the Web. That is not new business. Microsoft, for example, purchases millions ofdollars of PCs online instead of by paper. However, that is not a fundamental change; it hasjust improved the efficiency of an existing process. The biggest impact has occurred whereelectronic commerce matches buyers and sellers who would not previously have found eachother. When you go to a book site and find an obscure book that you never would have foundin a physical bookstore, that is a new type of commerce.
Today, about half of all PCs are still not connected to the Web. Getting communications costsdown and making all the software simpler will bring in those people. And that, in turn, willmove us closer to the critical mass that will make the Web lifestyle everyone's lifestyle. Oneelement that people underestimate is the degree to which the hardware and software willimprove. Just take one aspect: screen technology. I do my e-mail on a 20-inch liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) monitor. It is not available at a reasonable price yet, but in two years it willbe. In ten years, a 20-inch LCD with much higher resolution will be commonplace. Theboundary between a television set and a PC will be blurred because even the set-top box thatyou connect up to your cable or satellite will have a processor more powerful than what we havetoday in the most expensive PC. This will, in effect, make your television a computer.
Interaction with the Web also will improve, making it much easier for people to be involved.Today the keywords we use to search the Web often return to too many articles to sort through,many of them out of context. If you want to learn about the fastest computer chip available,you might end up getting responses instead about potato chips being delivered in fast trucks.In the future, we shall be either speaking or typing sentences into the computer. If you askabout the speed of chips, the result will be about computers, not potatoes. Speech recognitionalso means that you will be able to call in on a phone and ask if you have any new messages, orcheck on a flight, or check on the weather.
To predict that it will take over ten years for these changes to happen is probably pessimistic.We usually overestimate what we can do in two years and underestimate what we can do inten. It will not be too long before the Web becomes as much a way of life as the car.[558words] | 206.txt | 2 |
[
"Too much information.",
"Lack of response.",
"Ineffective interaction.",
"Slowness of speed."
]
| What is the current problem with the Web according to the passage? | One great benefit of the Web is that it allows us tomove information online that now resides in paperform. Several states in America are using the Web ina profound way. You can apply for various permitsor submit applications for business licences. Some states are putting up listings of jobs-notjust state government jobs, but all the jobs available in the state. I believe, over time, that allthe information that governments print, and all those paper forms they now have, will bemoved on to the Internet.
Electronic commerce notches up month-by-month too. It is difficult to measure, because a lotof electronic commerce involves existing buyers and sellers who are simply moving paperbasedtransactions to the Web. That is not new business. Microsoft, for example, purchases millions ofdollars of PCs online instead of by paper. However, that is not a fundamental change; it hasjust improved the efficiency of an existing process. The biggest impact has occurred whereelectronic commerce matches buyers and sellers who would not previously have found eachother. When you go to a book site and find an obscure book that you never would have foundin a physical bookstore, that is a new type of commerce.
Today, about half of all PCs are still not connected to the Web. Getting communications costsdown and making all the software simpler will bring in those people. And that, in turn, willmove us closer to the critical mass that will make the Web lifestyle everyone's lifestyle. Oneelement that people underestimate is the degree to which the hardware and software willimprove. Just take one aspect: screen technology. I do my e-mail on a 20-inch liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) monitor. It is not available at a reasonable price yet, but in two years it willbe. In ten years, a 20-inch LCD with much higher resolution will be commonplace. Theboundary between a television set and a PC will be blurred because even the set-top box thatyou connect up to your cable or satellite will have a processor more powerful than what we havetoday in the most expensive PC. This will, in effect, make your television a computer.
Interaction with the Web also will improve, making it much easier for people to be involved.Today the keywords we use to search the Web often return to too many articles to sort through,many of them out of context. If you want to learn about the fastest computer chip available,you might end up getting responses instead about potato chips being delivered in fast trucks.In the future, we shall be either speaking or typing sentences into the computer. If you askabout the speed of chips, the result will be about computers, not potatoes. Speech recognitionalso means that you will be able to call in on a phone and ask if you have any new messages, orcheck on a flight, or check on the weather.
To predict that it will take over ten years for these changes to happen is probably pessimistic.We usually overestimate what we can do in two years and underestimate what we can do inten. It will not be too long before the Web becomes as much a way of life as the car.[558words] | 206.txt | 2 |
[
"the defect of computers at the present stage of development",
"the similarity between a computer chip and a potato chip",
"the richness of information available on the web",
"the irrelevant responses the web sometimes offers"
]
| The example of potato chips is used to illustrate _ . | One great benefit of the Web is that it allows us tomove information online that now resides in paperform. Several states in America are using the Web ina profound way. You can apply for various permitsor submit applications for business licences. Some states are putting up listings of jobs-notjust state government jobs, but all the jobs available in the state. I believe, over time, that allthe information that governments print, and all those paper forms they now have, will bemoved on to the Internet.
Electronic commerce notches up month-by-month too. It is difficult to measure, because a lotof electronic commerce involves existing buyers and sellers who are simply moving paperbasedtransactions to the Web. That is not new business. Microsoft, for example, purchases millions ofdollars of PCs online instead of by paper. However, that is not a fundamental change; it hasjust improved the efficiency of an existing process. The biggest impact has occurred whereelectronic commerce matches buyers and sellers who would not previously have found eachother. When you go to a book site and find an obscure book that you never would have foundin a physical bookstore, that is a new type of commerce.
Today, about half of all PCs are still not connected to the Web. Getting communications costsdown and making all the software simpler will bring in those people. And that, in turn, willmove us closer to the critical mass that will make the Web lifestyle everyone's lifestyle. Oneelement that people underestimate is the degree to which the hardware and software willimprove. Just take one aspect: screen technology. I do my e-mail on a 20-inch liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) monitor. It is not available at a reasonable price yet, but in two years it willbe. In ten years, a 20-inch LCD with much higher resolution will be commonplace. Theboundary between a television set and a PC will be blurred because even the set-top box thatyou connect up to your cable or satellite will have a processor more powerful than what we havetoday in the most expensive PC. This will, in effect, make your television a computer.
Interaction with the Web also will improve, making it much easier for people to be involved.Today the keywords we use to search the Web often return to too many articles to sort through,many of them out of context. If you want to learn about the fastest computer chip available,you might end up getting responses instead about potato chips being delivered in fast trucks.In the future, we shall be either speaking or typing sentences into the computer. If you askabout the speed of chips, the result will be about computers, not potatoes. Speech recognitionalso means that you will be able to call in on a phone and ask if you have any new messages, orcheck on a flight, or check on the weather.
To predict that it will take over ten years for these changes to happen is probably pessimistic.We usually overestimate what we can do in two years and underestimate what we can do inten. It will not be too long before the Web becomes as much a way of life as the car.[558words] | 206.txt | 3 |
[
"the web is becoming a way of conveying information",
"the web will bring about a new way of life",
"electronic commerce develops with the internet",
"interaction with the Web will become easier"
]
| The passage is mainly trying to show that _ . | One great benefit of the Web is that it allows us tomove information online that now resides in paperform. Several states in America are using the Web ina profound way. You can apply for various permitsor submit applications for business licences. Some states are putting up listings of jobs-notjust state government jobs, but all the jobs available in the state. I believe, over time, that allthe information that governments print, and all those paper forms they now have, will bemoved on to the Internet.
Electronic commerce notches up month-by-month too. It is difficult to measure, because a lotof electronic commerce involves existing buyers and sellers who are simply moving paperbasedtransactions to the Web. That is not new business. Microsoft, for example, purchases millions ofdollars of PCs online instead of by paper. However, that is not a fundamental change; it hasjust improved the efficiency of an existing process. The biggest impact has occurred whereelectronic commerce matches buyers and sellers who would not previously have found eachother. When you go to a book site and find an obscure book that you never would have foundin a physical bookstore, that is a new type of commerce.
Today, about half of all PCs are still not connected to the Web. Getting communications costsdown and making all the software simpler will bring in those people. And that, in turn, willmove us closer to the critical mass that will make the Web lifestyle everyone's lifestyle. Oneelement that people underestimate is the degree to which the hardware and software willimprove. Just take one aspect: screen technology. I do my e-mail on a 20-inch liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) monitor. It is not available at a reasonable price yet, but in two years it willbe. In ten years, a 20-inch LCD with much higher resolution will be commonplace. Theboundary between a television set and a PC will be blurred because even the set-top box thatyou connect up to your cable or satellite will have a processor more powerful than what we havetoday in the most expensive PC. This will, in effect, make your television a computer.
Interaction with the Web also will improve, making it much easier for people to be involved.Today the keywords we use to search the Web often return to too many articles to sort through,many of them out of context. If you want to learn about the fastest computer chip available,you might end up getting responses instead about potato chips being delivered in fast trucks.In the future, we shall be either speaking or typing sentences into the computer. If you askabout the speed of chips, the result will be about computers, not potatoes. Speech recognitionalso means that you will be able to call in on a phone and ask if you have any new messages, orcheck on a flight, or check on the weather.
To predict that it will take over ten years for these changes to happen is probably pessimistic.We usually overestimate what we can do in two years and underestimate what we can do inten. It will not be too long before the Web becomes as much a way of life as the car.[558words] | 206.txt | 1 |
[
"surprising",
"confusing",
"illogical",
"questionable"
]
| The author thinks that the conclusions of any research about people's state of mind are _ . | I'm usually fairly skeptical about any research that concludes that people are either happier or unhappier or more or less certain of themselves than they were 50 years ago. While any of these statements might be true, they are practically impossible to prove scientifically. Still, I was struck by a report which concluded that today's children are significantly more anxious than children in the 1950s. In fact, the analysis showed, normal children ages 9 to 17 exhibit a higher level of anxiety today than children who were treated for mental illness 50 years ago.
Why are 's kids so stressed? The report cites two main causes: increasing physical isolation -- brought on by high divorce rates and less involvement in community, among other things -- and a growing perception that the world is a more dangerous place.
Given that we can't turn the clock back, adults can still do plenty to help the next generation cope.
At the top of the list is nurturing a better appreciation of the limits of individualism. No child is an island. Strengthening social ties helps build communities and protect individuals against stress.
To help kids build stronger connections with others, you can pull the plug on TVs and computers. Your family will thank you later. They will have more time for face-to-face relationships, and they will get more sleep.
Limit the amount of virtual violence your children are exposed to. It's not just video games and movies; children see a lot of murder and crime on the local news.
Keep your expectations for your children reasonable. Many highly successful people never attended Harvard or Yale.
Make exercise part of your daily routine. It will help you cope with your own anxieties and provide a good model for your kids. Sometimes anxiety is unavoidable. But it doesn't have to ruin your life. | 536.txt | 3 |
[
"It's impossible to slow down the pace of change.",
"The social reality children are facing cannot be changed.",
"Lessons learned from the past should not be forgotten.",
"It's impossible to forget the past."
]
| What does the author mean when he says, "we can't turn the clock back" (Line 1, Para. 3)? | I'm usually fairly skeptical about any research that concludes that people are either happier or unhappier or more or less certain of themselves than they were 50 years ago. While any of these statements might be true, they are practically impossible to prove scientifically. Still, I was struck by a report which concluded that today's children are significantly more anxious than children in the 1950s. In fact, the analysis showed, normal children ages 9 to 17 exhibit a higher level of anxiety today than children who were treated for mental illness 50 years ago.
Why are 's kids so stressed? The report cites two main causes: increasing physical isolation -- brought on by high divorce rates and less involvement in community, among other things -- and a growing perception that the world is a more dangerous place.
Given that we can't turn the clock back, adults can still do plenty to help the next generation cope.
At the top of the list is nurturing a better appreciation of the limits of individualism. No child is an island. Strengthening social ties helps build communities and protect individuals against stress.
To help kids build stronger connections with others, you can pull the plug on TVs and computers. Your family will thank you later. They will have more time for face-to-face relationships, and they will get more sleep.
Limit the amount of virtual violence your children are exposed to. It's not just video games and movies; children see a lot of murder and crime on the local news.
Keep your expectations for your children reasonable. Many highly successful people never attended Harvard or Yale.
Make exercise part of your daily routine. It will help you cope with your own anxieties and provide a good model for your kids. Sometimes anxiety is unavoidable. But it doesn't have to ruin your life. | 536.txt | 1 |
[
"were less isolated physically",
"were probably less self-centered",
"probably suffered less from anxiety",
"were considered less individualistic"
]
| According to an analysis, compared with normal children today, children treated as mentally ill 50 years ago_ . | I'm usually fairly skeptical about any research that concludes that people are either happier or unhappier or more or less certain of themselves than they were 50 years ago. While any of these statements might be true, they are practically impossible to prove scientifically. Still, I was struck by a report which concluded that today's children are significantly more anxious than children in the 1950s. In fact, the analysis showed, normal children ages 9 to 17 exhibit a higher level of anxiety today than children who were treated for mental illness 50 years ago.
Why are 's kids so stressed? The report cites two main causes: increasing physical isolation -- brought on by high divorce rates and less involvement in community, among other things -- and a growing perception that the world is a more dangerous place.
Given that we can't turn the clock back, adults can still do plenty to help the next generation cope.
At the top of the list is nurturing a better appreciation of the limits of individualism. No child is an island. Strengthening social ties helps build communities and protect individuals against stress.
To help kids build stronger connections with others, you can pull the plug on TVs and computers. Your family will thank you later. They will have more time for face-to-face relationships, and they will get more sleep.
Limit the amount of virtual violence your children are exposed to. It's not just video games and movies; children see a lot of murder and crime on the local news.
Keep your expectations for your children reasonable. Many highly successful people never attended Harvard or Yale.
Make exercise part of your daily routine. It will help you cope with your own anxieties and provide a good model for your kids. Sometimes anxiety is unavoidable. But it doesn't have to ruin your life. | 536.txt | 2 |
[
"to provide them with a safer environment",
"to lower their expectations for them",
"to get them more involved socially",
"to set a good model for them to follow"
]
| The first and most important thing parents should do to help their children is _ . | I'm usually fairly skeptical about any research that concludes that people are either happier or unhappier or more or less certain of themselves than they were 50 years ago. While any of these statements might be true, they are practically impossible to prove scientifically. Still, I was struck by a report which concluded that today's children are significantly more anxious than children in the 1950s. In fact, the analysis showed, normal children ages 9 to 17 exhibit a higher level of anxiety today than children who were treated for mental illness 50 years ago.
Why are 's kids so stressed? The report cites two main causes: increasing physical isolation -- brought on by high divorce rates and less involvement in community, among other things -- and a growing perception that the world is a more dangerous place.
Given that we can't turn the clock back, adults can still do plenty to help the next generation cope.
At the top of the list is nurturing a better appreciation of the limits of individualism. No child is an island. Strengthening social ties helps build communities and protect individuals against stress.
To help kids build stronger connections with others, you can pull the plug on TVs and computers. Your family will thank you later. They will have more time for face-to-face relationships, and they will get more sleep.
Limit the amount of virtual violence your children are exposed to. It's not just video games and movies; children see a lot of murder and crime on the local news.
Keep your expectations for your children reasonable. Many highly successful people never attended Harvard or Yale.
Make exercise part of your daily routine. It will help you cope with your own anxieties and provide a good model for your kids. Sometimes anxiety is unavoidable. But it doesn't have to ruin your life. | 536.txt | 2 |
[
"Anxiety, though unavoidable, can be coped with.",
"Children's anxiety has been enormously exaggerated.",
"Children's anxiety can be eliminated with more parental care.",
"Anxiety, if properly controlled, may help children become mature."
]
| What conclusion can be drawn from the passage? | I'm usually fairly skeptical about any research that concludes that people are either happier or unhappier or more or less certain of themselves than they were 50 years ago. While any of these statements might be true, they are practically impossible to prove scientifically. Still, I was struck by a report which concluded that today's children are significantly more anxious than children in the 1950s. In fact, the analysis showed, normal children ages 9 to 17 exhibit a higher level of anxiety today than children who were treated for mental illness 50 years ago.
Why are 's kids so stressed? The report cites two main causes: increasing physical isolation -- brought on by high divorce rates and less involvement in community, among other things -- and a growing perception that the world is a more dangerous place.
Given that we can't turn the clock back, adults can still do plenty to help the next generation cope.
At the top of the list is nurturing a better appreciation of the limits of individualism. No child is an island. Strengthening social ties helps build communities and protect individuals against stress.
To help kids build stronger connections with others, you can pull the plug on TVs and computers. Your family will thank you later. They will have more time for face-to-face relationships, and they will get more sleep.
Limit the amount of virtual violence your children are exposed to. It's not just video games and movies; children see a lot of murder and crime on the local news.
Keep your expectations for your children reasonable. Many highly successful people never attended Harvard or Yale.
Make exercise part of your daily routine. It will help you cope with your own anxieties and provide a good model for your kids. Sometimes anxiety is unavoidable. But it doesn't have to ruin your life. | 536.txt | 0 |
[
"Play must be defined with concepts, not examples.",
"Play behavior often looks like nonplay behavior.",
"Play often occurs in the presence of animals that are not playing.",
"Play occurs independently of an animal's intentions."
]
| According to paragraph 1, why is play difficult to define? | Play is easier to define with examples than with concepts. In any case, in animals it consists of leaping, running, climbing, throwing, wrestling, and other movements, either along, with objects, or with other animals. Depending on the species, play may be primarily for social interaction, exercise, or exploration. One of the problems in providing a clear definition of play is that it involves the same behaviors that take place in other circumstancedominance, predation, competition, and real fighting. Thus, whether play occurs or not depends on the intention of the animals, and the intentions are not always clear from behaviors alone.
Play appears to be a developmental characteristic of animals with fairly sophisticated nervous systems, mainly birds and mammals. Play has been studied most extensively in primates and canids (dogs). Exactly why animals play is still a matter debated in the research literature, and the reasons may not be the same for every species that plays. Determining the functions of play is difficult because the functions may be long-term, with beneficial effects not showing up until the animal's adulthood.
Play is not without considerable costs to the individual animal. Play is usually very active, involving movement in space and, at times, noisemaking. Therefore, it results in the loss of fuel or energy that might better be used for growth or for building up fat stores in a young animal. Another potential cost of this activity is greater exposure to predators since play is attention-getting behavior. Great activities also increase the risk of injury in slipping or falling.
The benefits of play must outweigh costs, or play would not have evolved, according to Darwin' s theory. Some of the potential benefits relate directly to the healthy development of the brain and nervous system. In one research study, two groups of young rats were raised under different conditions. One group developed in an "enriched" environment, which allowed the rats to interact with other rats, play with toys, and receive maze training. The other group lived in an "impoverished" environment in individual cages in a dimly lit room with little stimulation. At the end of the experiments, the results showed that the actual weight of the brains of the impoverished rats was less than that of those raised in the enriched environment (though they were fed the same diets). Other studies have shown that greater stimulation not only affects the size of the brain but also increase the number of connections between the nerve cells. Thus, active play may provide necessary stimulation to the growth of synaptic connections in the brain, especially the cerebellum, which is responsible for motor functioning and movements.
Play also stimulates the development of the muscle tissues themselves and may provide the opportunities to practice those movements needed for survival. Prey species, like young deer or goats, for example, typically play by performing sudden flight movements and turns, whereas predator species, such as cats, practice stalking, pouncing, and biting.
Play allows a young animal to explore its environment and practice skill in comparative safety since the surrounding adults generally do not expect the young to deal with threats or predators. Play can also provide practice in social behaviors needed for courtship and mating. Learning appropriate social behaviors is especially important for species that live in groups, like young monkeys that needed to learn to control selfishness and aggression and to understand the give-and-take involved in social groups. They need to learn how to be dominant and submissive because each monkey might have to play either role in the future. Most of these things are learned in the long developmental periods that primates have, during which they engage in countless play experiences with their peers.
There is a danger, of course, that play may be misinterpreted or not recognized as play by others, potentially leading to aggression. This is especially true when play consists of practicing normal aggressive or predator behaviors. Thus, many species have evolved clear signals to delineate playfulness. Dogs, for example, will wag their tails, get down their front legs, and stick their behinds in the air to indicate "what follows is just for play." | 3863.txt | 1 |
[
"The delay between activities and the benefits the animal derives from them.",
"The difficulty in determining which animal species play and which do not.",
"The fact that for most animals, there is no clear transition from youth to full adulthood.",
"The lack of research on the play behavior of animals other than canids and primates."
]
| According to paragraph 2, which of the following presents a particular challenge to researchers who study play behavior in animals | Play is easier to define with examples than with concepts. In any case, in animals it consists of leaping, running, climbing, throwing, wrestling, and other movements, either along, with objects, or with other animals. Depending on the species, play may be primarily for social interaction, exercise, or exploration. One of the problems in providing a clear definition of play is that it involves the same behaviors that take place in other circumstancedominance, predation, competition, and real fighting. Thus, whether play occurs or not depends on the intention of the animals, and the intentions are not always clear from behaviors alone.
Play appears to be a developmental characteristic of animals with fairly sophisticated nervous systems, mainly birds and mammals. Play has been studied most extensively in primates and canids (dogs). Exactly why animals play is still a matter debated in the research literature, and the reasons may not be the same for every species that plays. Determining the functions of play is difficult because the functions may be long-term, with beneficial effects not showing up until the animal's adulthood.
Play is not without considerable costs to the individual animal. Play is usually very active, involving movement in space and, at times, noisemaking. Therefore, it results in the loss of fuel or energy that might better be used for growth or for building up fat stores in a young animal. Another potential cost of this activity is greater exposure to predators since play is attention-getting behavior. Great activities also increase the risk of injury in slipping or falling.
The benefits of play must outweigh costs, or play would not have evolved, according to Darwin' s theory. Some of the potential benefits relate directly to the healthy development of the brain and nervous system. In one research study, two groups of young rats were raised under different conditions. One group developed in an "enriched" environment, which allowed the rats to interact with other rats, play with toys, and receive maze training. The other group lived in an "impoverished" environment in individual cages in a dimly lit room with little stimulation. At the end of the experiments, the results showed that the actual weight of the brains of the impoverished rats was less than that of those raised in the enriched environment (though they were fed the same diets). Other studies have shown that greater stimulation not only affects the size of the brain but also increase the number of connections between the nerve cells. Thus, active play may provide necessary stimulation to the growth of synaptic connections in the brain, especially the cerebellum, which is responsible for motor functioning and movements.
Play also stimulates the development of the muscle tissues themselves and may provide the opportunities to practice those movements needed for survival. Prey species, like young deer or goats, for example, typically play by performing sudden flight movements and turns, whereas predator species, such as cats, practice stalking, pouncing, and biting.
Play allows a young animal to explore its environment and practice skill in comparative safety since the surrounding adults generally do not expect the young to deal with threats or predators. Play can also provide practice in social behaviors needed for courtship and mating. Learning appropriate social behaviors is especially important for species that live in groups, like young monkeys that needed to learn to control selfishness and aggression and to understand the give-and-take involved in social groups. They need to learn how to be dominant and submissive because each monkey might have to play either role in the future. Most of these things are learned in the long developmental periods that primates have, during which they engage in countless play experiences with their peers.
There is a danger, of course, that play may be misinterpreted or not recognized as play by others, potentially leading to aggression. This is especially true when play consists of practicing normal aggressive or predator behaviors. Thus, many species have evolved clear signals to delineate playfulness. Dogs, for example, will wag their tails, get down their front legs, and stick their behinds in the air to indicate "what follows is just for play." | 3863.txt | 0 |
[
"Initial.",
"Practical.",
"Eventually.",
"Significant."
]
| The word "considerable" in the passage paragraph 3 is closest in the meaning to | Play is easier to define with examples than with concepts. In any case, in animals it consists of leaping, running, climbing, throwing, wrestling, and other movements, either along, with objects, or with other animals. Depending on the species, play may be primarily for social interaction, exercise, or exploration. One of the problems in providing a clear definition of play is that it involves the same behaviors that take place in other circumstancedominance, predation, competition, and real fighting. Thus, whether play occurs or not depends on the intention of the animals, and the intentions are not always clear from behaviors alone.
Play appears to be a developmental characteristic of animals with fairly sophisticated nervous systems, mainly birds and mammals. Play has been studied most extensively in primates and canids (dogs). Exactly why animals play is still a matter debated in the research literature, and the reasons may not be the same for every species that plays. Determining the functions of play is difficult because the functions may be long-term, with beneficial effects not showing up until the animal's adulthood.
Play is not without considerable costs to the individual animal. Play is usually very active, involving movement in space and, at times, noisemaking. Therefore, it results in the loss of fuel or energy that might better be used for growth or for building up fat stores in a young animal. Another potential cost of this activity is greater exposure to predators since play is attention-getting behavior. Great activities also increase the risk of injury in slipping or falling.
The benefits of play must outweigh costs, or play would not have evolved, according to Darwin' s theory. Some of the potential benefits relate directly to the healthy development of the brain and nervous system. In one research study, two groups of young rats were raised under different conditions. One group developed in an "enriched" environment, which allowed the rats to interact with other rats, play with toys, and receive maze training. The other group lived in an "impoverished" environment in individual cages in a dimly lit room with little stimulation. At the end of the experiments, the results showed that the actual weight of the brains of the impoverished rats was less than that of those raised in the enriched environment (though they were fed the same diets). Other studies have shown that greater stimulation not only affects the size of the brain but also increase the number of connections between the nerve cells. Thus, active play may provide necessary stimulation to the growth of synaptic connections in the brain, especially the cerebellum, which is responsible for motor functioning and movements.
Play also stimulates the development of the muscle tissues themselves and may provide the opportunities to practice those movements needed for survival. Prey species, like young deer or goats, for example, typically play by performing sudden flight movements and turns, whereas predator species, such as cats, practice stalking, pouncing, and biting.
Play allows a young animal to explore its environment and practice skill in comparative safety since the surrounding adults generally do not expect the young to deal with threats or predators. Play can also provide practice in social behaviors needed for courtship and mating. Learning appropriate social behaviors is especially important for species that live in groups, like young monkeys that needed to learn to control selfishness and aggression and to understand the give-and-take involved in social groups. They need to learn how to be dominant and submissive because each monkey might have to play either role in the future. Most of these things are learned in the long developmental periods that primates have, during which they engage in countless play experiences with their peers.
There is a danger, of course, that play may be misinterpreted or not recognized as play by others, potentially leading to aggression. This is especially true when play consists of practicing normal aggressive or predator behaviors. Thus, many species have evolved clear signals to delineate playfulness. Dogs, for example, will wag their tails, get down their front legs, and stick their behinds in the air to indicate "what follows is just for play." | 3863.txt | 3 |
[
"exposure to predators.",
"a buildup of fat stores.",
"a loss of fuel that could be used for growth.",
"risk of injury from slipping or falling."
]
| According to paragraph 3, each of the following is a cost to animals that engage in play EXCEPT | Play is easier to define with examples than with concepts. In any case, in animals it consists of leaping, running, climbing, throwing, wrestling, and other movements, either along, with objects, or with other animals. Depending on the species, play may be primarily for social interaction, exercise, or exploration. One of the problems in providing a clear definition of play is that it involves the same behaviors that take place in other circumstancedominance, predation, competition, and real fighting. Thus, whether play occurs or not depends on the intention of the animals, and the intentions are not always clear from behaviors alone.
Play appears to be a developmental characteristic of animals with fairly sophisticated nervous systems, mainly birds and mammals. Play has been studied most extensively in primates and canids (dogs). Exactly why animals play is still a matter debated in the research literature, and the reasons may not be the same for every species that plays. Determining the functions of play is difficult because the functions may be long-term, with beneficial effects not showing up until the animal's adulthood.
Play is not without considerable costs to the individual animal. Play is usually very active, involving movement in space and, at times, noisemaking. Therefore, it results in the loss of fuel or energy that might better be used for growth or for building up fat stores in a young animal. Another potential cost of this activity is greater exposure to predators since play is attention-getting behavior. Great activities also increase the risk of injury in slipping or falling.
The benefits of play must outweigh costs, or play would not have evolved, according to Darwin' s theory. Some of the potential benefits relate directly to the healthy development of the brain and nervous system. In one research study, two groups of young rats were raised under different conditions. One group developed in an "enriched" environment, which allowed the rats to interact with other rats, play with toys, and receive maze training. The other group lived in an "impoverished" environment in individual cages in a dimly lit room with little stimulation. At the end of the experiments, the results showed that the actual weight of the brains of the impoverished rats was less than that of those raised in the enriched environment (though they were fed the same diets). Other studies have shown that greater stimulation not only affects the size of the brain but also increase the number of connections between the nerve cells. Thus, active play may provide necessary stimulation to the growth of synaptic connections in the brain, especially the cerebellum, which is responsible for motor functioning and movements.
Play also stimulates the development of the muscle tissues themselves and may provide the opportunities to practice those movements needed for survival. Prey species, like young deer or goats, for example, typically play by performing sudden flight movements and turns, whereas predator species, such as cats, practice stalking, pouncing, and biting.
Play allows a young animal to explore its environment and practice skill in comparative safety since the surrounding adults generally do not expect the young to deal with threats or predators. Play can also provide practice in social behaviors needed for courtship and mating. Learning appropriate social behaviors is especially important for species that live in groups, like young monkeys that needed to learn to control selfishness and aggression and to understand the give-and-take involved in social groups. They need to learn how to be dominant and submissive because each monkey might have to play either role in the future. Most of these things are learned in the long developmental periods that primates have, during which they engage in countless play experiences with their peers.
There is a danger, of course, that play may be misinterpreted or not recognized as play by others, potentially leading to aggression. This is especially true when play consists of practicing normal aggressive or predator behaviors. Thus, many species have evolved clear signals to delineate playfulness. Dogs, for example, will wag their tails, get down their front legs, and stick their behinds in the air to indicate "what follows is just for play." | 3863.txt | 1 |
[
"To show why rats living in impoverished environments need less food than those living in enriched environments.",
"To eliminate the possibility that differences in diet were responsibly for observed differences in brain weight.",
"To emphasize the point that rats were fed only the amount of food needed to keep them alive.",
"To suggest that rats fed the same diet have smaller brains than those fed a varied food."
]
| Why does the author include the comment "though they were fed the same diets"? | Play is easier to define with examples than with concepts. In any case, in animals it consists of leaping, running, climbing, throwing, wrestling, and other movements, either along, with objects, or with other animals. Depending on the species, play may be primarily for social interaction, exercise, or exploration. One of the problems in providing a clear definition of play is that it involves the same behaviors that take place in other circumstancedominance, predation, competition, and real fighting. Thus, whether play occurs or not depends on the intention of the animals, and the intentions are not always clear from behaviors alone.
Play appears to be a developmental characteristic of animals with fairly sophisticated nervous systems, mainly birds and mammals. Play has been studied most extensively in primates and canids (dogs). Exactly why animals play is still a matter debated in the research literature, and the reasons may not be the same for every species that plays. Determining the functions of play is difficult because the functions may be long-term, with beneficial effects not showing up until the animal's adulthood.
Play is not without considerable costs to the individual animal. Play is usually very active, involving movement in space and, at times, noisemaking. Therefore, it results in the loss of fuel or energy that might better be used for growth or for building up fat stores in a young animal. Another potential cost of this activity is greater exposure to predators since play is attention-getting behavior. Great activities also increase the risk of injury in slipping or falling.
The benefits of play must outweigh costs, or play would not have evolved, according to Darwin' s theory. Some of the potential benefits relate directly to the healthy development of the brain and nervous system. In one research study, two groups of young rats were raised under different conditions. One group developed in an "enriched" environment, which allowed the rats to interact with other rats, play with toys, and receive maze training. The other group lived in an "impoverished" environment in individual cages in a dimly lit room with little stimulation. At the end of the experiments, the results showed that the actual weight of the brains of the impoverished rats was less than that of those raised in the enriched environment (though they were fed the same diets). Other studies have shown that greater stimulation not only affects the size of the brain but also increase the number of connections between the nerve cells. Thus, active play may provide necessary stimulation to the growth of synaptic connections in the brain, especially the cerebellum, which is responsible for motor functioning and movements.
Play also stimulates the development of the muscle tissues themselves and may provide the opportunities to practice those movements needed for survival. Prey species, like young deer or goats, for example, typically play by performing sudden flight movements and turns, whereas predator species, such as cats, practice stalking, pouncing, and biting.
Play allows a young animal to explore its environment and practice skill in comparative safety since the surrounding adults generally do not expect the young to deal with threats or predators. Play can also provide practice in social behaviors needed for courtship and mating. Learning appropriate social behaviors is especially important for species that live in groups, like young monkeys that needed to learn to control selfishness and aggression and to understand the give-and-take involved in social groups. They need to learn how to be dominant and submissive because each monkey might have to play either role in the future. Most of these things are learned in the long developmental periods that primates have, during which they engage in countless play experiences with their peers.
There is a danger, of course, that play may be misinterpreted or not recognized as play by others, potentially leading to aggression. This is especially true when play consists of practicing normal aggressive or predator behaviors. Thus, many species have evolved clear signals to delineate playfulness. Dogs, for example, will wag their tails, get down their front legs, and stick their behinds in the air to indicate "what follows is just for play." | 3863.txt | 1 |
[
"The heavier the brain, the richer the environment in which the animal was raised.",
"The younger the animal, the harder it is to develop new connections between nerve cells.",
"The larger the animal, the harder it is to develop new connections between nerve cells.",
"The larger the animal's cerebellum, the larger will be the animal's nerve cells."
]
| Paragraph 4 supports which of the following statements about an animal's brain. | Play is easier to define with examples than with concepts. In any case, in animals it consists of leaping, running, climbing, throwing, wrestling, and other movements, either along, with objects, or with other animals. Depending on the species, play may be primarily for social interaction, exercise, or exploration. One of the problems in providing a clear definition of play is that it involves the same behaviors that take place in other circumstancedominance, predation, competition, and real fighting. Thus, whether play occurs or not depends on the intention of the animals, and the intentions are not always clear from behaviors alone.
Play appears to be a developmental characteristic of animals with fairly sophisticated nervous systems, mainly birds and mammals. Play has been studied most extensively in primates and canids (dogs). Exactly why animals play is still a matter debated in the research literature, and the reasons may not be the same for every species that plays. Determining the functions of play is difficult because the functions may be long-term, with beneficial effects not showing up until the animal's adulthood.
Play is not without considerable costs to the individual animal. Play is usually very active, involving movement in space and, at times, noisemaking. Therefore, it results in the loss of fuel or energy that might better be used for growth or for building up fat stores in a young animal. Another potential cost of this activity is greater exposure to predators since play is attention-getting behavior. Great activities also increase the risk of injury in slipping or falling.
The benefits of play must outweigh costs, or play would not have evolved, according to Darwin' s theory. Some of the potential benefits relate directly to the healthy development of the brain and nervous system. In one research study, two groups of young rats were raised under different conditions. One group developed in an "enriched" environment, which allowed the rats to interact with other rats, play with toys, and receive maze training. The other group lived in an "impoverished" environment in individual cages in a dimly lit room with little stimulation. At the end of the experiments, the results showed that the actual weight of the brains of the impoverished rats was less than that of those raised in the enriched environment (though they were fed the same diets). Other studies have shown that greater stimulation not only affects the size of the brain but also increase the number of connections between the nerve cells. Thus, active play may provide necessary stimulation to the growth of synaptic connections in the brain, especially the cerebellum, which is responsible for motor functioning and movements.
Play also stimulates the development of the muscle tissues themselves and may provide the opportunities to practice those movements needed for survival. Prey species, like young deer or goats, for example, typically play by performing sudden flight movements and turns, whereas predator species, such as cats, practice stalking, pouncing, and biting.
Play allows a young animal to explore its environment and practice skill in comparative safety since the surrounding adults generally do not expect the young to deal with threats or predators. Play can also provide practice in social behaviors needed for courtship and mating. Learning appropriate social behaviors is especially important for species that live in groups, like young monkeys that needed to learn to control selfishness and aggression and to understand the give-and-take involved in social groups. They need to learn how to be dominant and submissive because each monkey might have to play either role in the future. Most of these things are learned in the long developmental periods that primates have, during which they engage in countless play experiences with their peers.
There is a danger, of course, that play may be misinterpreted or not recognized as play by others, potentially leading to aggression. This is especially true when play consists of practicing normal aggressive or predator behaviors. Thus, many species have evolved clear signals to delineate playfulness. Dogs, for example, will wag their tails, get down their front legs, and stick their behinds in the air to indicate "what follows is just for play." | 3863.txt | 0 |
[
"Unlike predator species, prey species use play to prevent inappropriate social behaviors, such as biting.",
"Some prey species are physically incapable of certain types of predator movements.",
"The survival of each species type is linked to particular sets of muscular movements.",
"Predator species have more opportunities to practice play behaviors than prey species."
]
| According to paragraph 5, why might play behavior of prey species be different from those of predator species? | Play is easier to define with examples than with concepts. In any case, in animals it consists of leaping, running, climbing, throwing, wrestling, and other movements, either along, with objects, or with other animals. Depending on the species, play may be primarily for social interaction, exercise, or exploration. One of the problems in providing a clear definition of play is that it involves the same behaviors that take place in other circumstancedominance, predation, competition, and real fighting. Thus, whether play occurs or not depends on the intention of the animals, and the intentions are not always clear from behaviors alone.
Play appears to be a developmental characteristic of animals with fairly sophisticated nervous systems, mainly birds and mammals. Play has been studied most extensively in primates and canids (dogs). Exactly why animals play is still a matter debated in the research literature, and the reasons may not be the same for every species that plays. Determining the functions of play is difficult because the functions may be long-term, with beneficial effects not showing up until the animal's adulthood.
Play is not without considerable costs to the individual animal. Play is usually very active, involving movement in space and, at times, noisemaking. Therefore, it results in the loss of fuel or energy that might better be used for growth or for building up fat stores in a young animal. Another potential cost of this activity is greater exposure to predators since play is attention-getting behavior. Great activities also increase the risk of injury in slipping or falling.
The benefits of play must outweigh costs, or play would not have evolved, according to Darwin' s theory. Some of the potential benefits relate directly to the healthy development of the brain and nervous system. In one research study, two groups of young rats were raised under different conditions. One group developed in an "enriched" environment, which allowed the rats to interact with other rats, play with toys, and receive maze training. The other group lived in an "impoverished" environment in individual cages in a dimly lit room with little stimulation. At the end of the experiments, the results showed that the actual weight of the brains of the impoverished rats was less than that of those raised in the enriched environment (though they were fed the same diets). Other studies have shown that greater stimulation not only affects the size of the brain but also increase the number of connections between the nerve cells. Thus, active play may provide necessary stimulation to the growth of synaptic connections in the brain, especially the cerebellum, which is responsible for motor functioning and movements.
Play also stimulates the development of the muscle tissues themselves and may provide the opportunities to practice those movements needed for survival. Prey species, like young deer or goats, for example, typically play by performing sudden flight movements and turns, whereas predator species, such as cats, practice stalking, pouncing, and biting.
Play allows a young animal to explore its environment and practice skill in comparative safety since the surrounding adults generally do not expect the young to deal with threats or predators. Play can also provide practice in social behaviors needed for courtship and mating. Learning appropriate social behaviors is especially important for species that live in groups, like young monkeys that needed to learn to control selfishness and aggression and to understand the give-and-take involved in social groups. They need to learn how to be dominant and submissive because each monkey might have to play either role in the future. Most of these things are learned in the long developmental periods that primates have, during which they engage in countless play experiences with their peers.
There is a danger, of course, that play may be misinterpreted or not recognized as play by others, potentially leading to aggression. This is especially true when play consists of practicing normal aggressive or predator behaviors. Thus, many species have evolved clear signals to delineate playfulness. Dogs, for example, will wag their tails, get down their front legs, and stick their behinds in the air to indicate "what follows is just for play." | 3863.txt | 2 |
[
"relative.",
"temporary.",
"sufficient.",
"complete."
]
| The word "comparative" in the passage paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to | Play is easier to define with examples than with concepts. In any case, in animals it consists of leaping, running, climbing, throwing, wrestling, and other movements, either along, with objects, or with other animals. Depending on the species, play may be primarily for social interaction, exercise, or exploration. One of the problems in providing a clear definition of play is that it involves the same behaviors that take place in other circumstancedominance, predation, competition, and real fighting. Thus, whether play occurs or not depends on the intention of the animals, and the intentions are not always clear from behaviors alone.
Play appears to be a developmental characteristic of animals with fairly sophisticated nervous systems, mainly birds and mammals. Play has been studied most extensively in primates and canids (dogs). Exactly why animals play is still a matter debated in the research literature, and the reasons may not be the same for every species that plays. Determining the functions of play is difficult because the functions may be long-term, with beneficial effects not showing up until the animal's adulthood.
Play is not without considerable costs to the individual animal. Play is usually very active, involving movement in space and, at times, noisemaking. Therefore, it results in the loss of fuel or energy that might better be used for growth or for building up fat stores in a young animal. Another potential cost of this activity is greater exposure to predators since play is attention-getting behavior. Great activities also increase the risk of injury in slipping or falling.
The benefits of play must outweigh costs, or play would not have evolved, according to Darwin' s theory. Some of the potential benefits relate directly to the healthy development of the brain and nervous system. In one research study, two groups of young rats were raised under different conditions. One group developed in an "enriched" environment, which allowed the rats to interact with other rats, play with toys, and receive maze training. The other group lived in an "impoverished" environment in individual cages in a dimly lit room with little stimulation. At the end of the experiments, the results showed that the actual weight of the brains of the impoverished rats was less than that of those raised in the enriched environment (though they were fed the same diets). Other studies have shown that greater stimulation not only affects the size of the brain but also increase the number of connections between the nerve cells. Thus, active play may provide necessary stimulation to the growth of synaptic connections in the brain, especially the cerebellum, which is responsible for motor functioning and movements.
Play also stimulates the development of the muscle tissues themselves and may provide the opportunities to practice those movements needed for survival. Prey species, like young deer or goats, for example, typically play by performing sudden flight movements and turns, whereas predator species, such as cats, practice stalking, pouncing, and biting.
Play allows a young animal to explore its environment and practice skill in comparative safety since the surrounding adults generally do not expect the young to deal with threats or predators. Play can also provide practice in social behaviors needed for courtship and mating. Learning appropriate social behaviors is especially important for species that live in groups, like young monkeys that needed to learn to control selfishness and aggression and to understand the give-and-take involved in social groups. They need to learn how to be dominant and submissive because each monkey might have to play either role in the future. Most of these things are learned in the long developmental periods that primates have, during which they engage in countless play experiences with their peers.
There is a danger, of course, that play may be misinterpreted or not recognized as play by others, potentially leading to aggression. This is especially true when play consists of practicing normal aggressive or predator behaviors. Thus, many species have evolved clear signals to delineate playfulness. Dogs, for example, will wag their tails, get down their front legs, and stick their behinds in the air to indicate "what follows is just for play." | 3863.txt | 0 |
[
"Adults help their young learn to become dominant within the social group.",
"Young animals learn how to play from the adults within their social group.",
"Adults allow the young to engage in play behaviors within a protected, sage environment.",
"The long developmental period of some animals allows adults more time to teach their young how to deal with the threats of predators."
]
| What can be inferred from paragraph 6 about the role of adults in play activities of the young? | Play is easier to define with examples than with concepts. In any case, in animals it consists of leaping, running, climbing, throwing, wrestling, and other movements, either along, with objects, or with other animals. Depending on the species, play may be primarily for social interaction, exercise, or exploration. One of the problems in providing a clear definition of play is that it involves the same behaviors that take place in other circumstancedominance, predation, competition, and real fighting. Thus, whether play occurs or not depends on the intention of the animals, and the intentions are not always clear from behaviors alone.
Play appears to be a developmental characteristic of animals with fairly sophisticated nervous systems, mainly birds and mammals. Play has been studied most extensively in primates and canids (dogs). Exactly why animals play is still a matter debated in the research literature, and the reasons may not be the same for every species that plays. Determining the functions of play is difficult because the functions may be long-term, with beneficial effects not showing up until the animal's adulthood.
Play is not without considerable costs to the individual animal. Play is usually very active, involving movement in space and, at times, noisemaking. Therefore, it results in the loss of fuel or energy that might better be used for growth or for building up fat stores in a young animal. Another potential cost of this activity is greater exposure to predators since play is attention-getting behavior. Great activities also increase the risk of injury in slipping or falling.
The benefits of play must outweigh costs, or play would not have evolved, according to Darwin' s theory. Some of the potential benefits relate directly to the healthy development of the brain and nervous system. In one research study, two groups of young rats were raised under different conditions. One group developed in an "enriched" environment, which allowed the rats to interact with other rats, play with toys, and receive maze training. The other group lived in an "impoverished" environment in individual cages in a dimly lit room with little stimulation. At the end of the experiments, the results showed that the actual weight of the brains of the impoverished rats was less than that of those raised in the enriched environment (though they were fed the same diets). Other studies have shown that greater stimulation not only affects the size of the brain but also increase the number of connections between the nerve cells. Thus, active play may provide necessary stimulation to the growth of synaptic connections in the brain, especially the cerebellum, which is responsible for motor functioning and movements.
Play also stimulates the development of the muscle tissues themselves and may provide the opportunities to practice those movements needed for survival. Prey species, like young deer or goats, for example, typically play by performing sudden flight movements and turns, whereas predator species, such as cats, practice stalking, pouncing, and biting.
Play allows a young animal to explore its environment and practice skill in comparative safety since the surrounding adults generally do not expect the young to deal with threats or predators. Play can also provide practice in social behaviors needed for courtship and mating. Learning appropriate social behaviors is especially important for species that live in groups, like young monkeys that needed to learn to control selfishness and aggression and to understand the give-and-take involved in social groups. They need to learn how to be dominant and submissive because each monkey might have to play either role in the future. Most of these things are learned in the long developmental periods that primates have, during which they engage in countless play experiences with their peers.
There is a danger, of course, that play may be misinterpreted or not recognized as play by others, potentially leading to aggression. This is especially true when play consists of practicing normal aggressive or predator behaviors. Thus, many species have evolved clear signals to delineate playfulness. Dogs, for example, will wag their tails, get down their front legs, and stick their behinds in the air to indicate "what follows is just for play." | 3863.txt | 2 |
[
"undoubtedly.",
"possibly.",
"unfortunately.",
"quickly."
]
| The word "potentially" in the passage paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to | Play is easier to define with examples than with concepts. In any case, in animals it consists of leaping, running, climbing, throwing, wrestling, and other movements, either along, with objects, or with other animals. Depending on the species, play may be primarily for social interaction, exercise, or exploration. One of the problems in providing a clear definition of play is that it involves the same behaviors that take place in other circumstancedominance, predation, competition, and real fighting. Thus, whether play occurs or not depends on the intention of the animals, and the intentions are not always clear from behaviors alone.
Play appears to be a developmental characteristic of animals with fairly sophisticated nervous systems, mainly birds and mammals. Play has been studied most extensively in primates and canids (dogs). Exactly why animals play is still a matter debated in the research literature, and the reasons may not be the same for every species that plays. Determining the functions of play is difficult because the functions may be long-term, with beneficial effects not showing up until the animal's adulthood.
Play is not without considerable costs to the individual animal. Play is usually very active, involving movement in space and, at times, noisemaking. Therefore, it results in the loss of fuel or energy that might better be used for growth or for building up fat stores in a young animal. Another potential cost of this activity is greater exposure to predators since play is attention-getting behavior. Great activities also increase the risk of injury in slipping or falling.
The benefits of play must outweigh costs, or play would not have evolved, according to Darwin' s theory. Some of the potential benefits relate directly to the healthy development of the brain and nervous system. In one research study, two groups of young rats were raised under different conditions. One group developed in an "enriched" environment, which allowed the rats to interact with other rats, play with toys, and receive maze training. The other group lived in an "impoverished" environment in individual cages in a dimly lit room with little stimulation. At the end of the experiments, the results showed that the actual weight of the brains of the impoverished rats was less than that of those raised in the enriched environment (though they were fed the same diets). Other studies have shown that greater stimulation not only affects the size of the brain but also increase the number of connections between the nerve cells. Thus, active play may provide necessary stimulation to the growth of synaptic connections in the brain, especially the cerebellum, which is responsible for motor functioning and movements.
Play also stimulates the development of the muscle tissues themselves and may provide the opportunities to practice those movements needed for survival. Prey species, like young deer or goats, for example, typically play by performing sudden flight movements and turns, whereas predator species, such as cats, practice stalking, pouncing, and biting.
Play allows a young animal to explore its environment and practice skill in comparative safety since the surrounding adults generally do not expect the young to deal with threats or predators. Play can also provide practice in social behaviors needed for courtship and mating. Learning appropriate social behaviors is especially important for species that live in groups, like young monkeys that needed to learn to control selfishness and aggression and to understand the give-and-take involved in social groups. They need to learn how to be dominant and submissive because each monkey might have to play either role in the future. Most of these things are learned in the long developmental periods that primates have, during which they engage in countless play experiences with their peers.
There is a danger, of course, that play may be misinterpreted or not recognized as play by others, potentially leading to aggression. This is especially true when play consists of practicing normal aggressive or predator behaviors. Thus, many species have evolved clear signals to delineate playfulness. Dogs, for example, will wag their tails, get down their front legs, and stick their behinds in the air to indicate "what follows is just for play." | 3863.txt | 1 |
[
"By playing only with animals who are not predator.",
"By avoiding any aspects of the play behavior that are dangerous.",
"By practicing non-aggressive and non-predatory behaviors.",
"By using a set of signals that occurs only in play."
]
| According to paragraph 7, how do some animals ensure that other animals understand that they are just playing? | Play is easier to define with examples than with concepts. In any case, in animals it consists of leaping, running, climbing, throwing, wrestling, and other movements, either along, with objects, or with other animals. Depending on the species, play may be primarily for social interaction, exercise, or exploration. One of the problems in providing a clear definition of play is that it involves the same behaviors that take place in other circumstancedominance, predation, competition, and real fighting. Thus, whether play occurs or not depends on the intention of the animals, and the intentions are not always clear from behaviors alone.
Play appears to be a developmental characteristic of animals with fairly sophisticated nervous systems, mainly birds and mammals. Play has been studied most extensively in primates and canids (dogs). Exactly why animals play is still a matter debated in the research literature, and the reasons may not be the same for every species that plays. Determining the functions of play is difficult because the functions may be long-term, with beneficial effects not showing up until the animal's adulthood.
Play is not without considerable costs to the individual animal. Play is usually very active, involving movement in space and, at times, noisemaking. Therefore, it results in the loss of fuel or energy that might better be used for growth or for building up fat stores in a young animal. Another potential cost of this activity is greater exposure to predators since play is attention-getting behavior. Great activities also increase the risk of injury in slipping or falling.
The benefits of play must outweigh costs, or play would not have evolved, according to Darwin' s theory. Some of the potential benefits relate directly to the healthy development of the brain and nervous system. In one research study, two groups of young rats were raised under different conditions. One group developed in an "enriched" environment, which allowed the rats to interact with other rats, play with toys, and receive maze training. The other group lived in an "impoverished" environment in individual cages in a dimly lit room with little stimulation. At the end of the experiments, the results showed that the actual weight of the brains of the impoverished rats was less than that of those raised in the enriched environment (though they were fed the same diets). Other studies have shown that greater stimulation not only affects the size of the brain but also increase the number of connections between the nerve cells. Thus, active play may provide necessary stimulation to the growth of synaptic connections in the brain, especially the cerebellum, which is responsible for motor functioning and movements.
Play also stimulates the development of the muscle tissues themselves and may provide the opportunities to practice those movements needed for survival. Prey species, like young deer or goats, for example, typically play by performing sudden flight movements and turns, whereas predator species, such as cats, practice stalking, pouncing, and biting.
Play allows a young animal to explore its environment and practice skill in comparative safety since the surrounding adults generally do not expect the young to deal with threats or predators. Play can also provide practice in social behaviors needed for courtship and mating. Learning appropriate social behaviors is especially important for species that live in groups, like young monkeys that needed to learn to control selfishness and aggression and to understand the give-and-take involved in social groups. They need to learn how to be dominant and submissive because each monkey might have to play either role in the future. Most of these things are learned in the long developmental periods that primates have, during which they engage in countless play experiences with their peers.
There is a danger, of course, that play may be misinterpreted or not recognized as play by others, potentially leading to aggression. This is especially true when play consists of practicing normal aggressive or predator behaviors. Thus, many species have evolved clear signals to delineate playfulness. Dogs, for example, will wag their tails, get down their front legs, and stick their behinds in the air to indicate "what follows is just for play." | 3863.txt | 3 |
[
"73%",
"27%",
"25%",
"15%"
]
| The percentage of American companies that are in favor of keeping office pets is _ . | Pet owners are being encouraged to take their animals to work, a move scientists say can be
good for productivity, workplace morale , and the well-being of animals.
A study found that 25% of Australian women would like to keep an office pet. Sue Chaseling
of Petcare information Service said the practice of keeping office pets was good both for the people and the pets. "On the pets' side, They are not left on their own and won't feel lonely and unhappy," she said. A study of major US companies showed that 73% found office pets beneficial , while 27% experienced a drop in absenteeism .
Xarni Riggs has two cats walking around her Global Hair Salon in Paddington. "My customers love them. they are their favorites, " she said. "They are not troublesome. They know when to go and have a sleep in the sun. "
Little black BJ has spent nearly all his two years "working" at Punch Gallery in Balmain. Owner Iain Powell said he had had cats at the gallery for 15 years. "BJ often lies in the shop window and people walking past tap on the glass, " he said.
Ms Chaseling said cats were popular in service industries because they enabled a point of conversation. But she said owners had to make sure both their co-workers and the cats were comfortable. | 3266.txt | 0 |
[
"works in the Global Hair Salon",
"often greets the passers-by",
"likes to sleep in the sun",
"is a two-year-old cat"
]
| We know from the text that "BJ" _ . | Pet owners are being encouraged to take their animals to work, a move scientists say can be
good for productivity, workplace morale , and the well-being of animals.
A study found that 25% of Australian women would like to keep an office pet. Sue Chaseling
of Petcare information Service said the practice of keeping office pets was good both for the people and the pets. "On the pets' side, They are not left on their own and won't feel lonely and unhappy," she said. A study of major US companies showed that 73% found office pets beneficial , while 27% experienced a drop in absenteeism .
Xarni Riggs has two cats walking around her Global Hair Salon in Paddington. "My customers love them. they are their favorites, " she said. "They are not troublesome. They know when to go and have a sleep in the sun. "
Little black BJ has spent nearly all his two years "working" at Punch Gallery in Balmain. Owner Iain Powell said he had had cats at the gallery for 15 years. "BJ often lies in the shop window and people walking past tap on the glass, " he said.
Ms Chaseling said cats were popular in service industries because they enabled a point of conversation. But she said owners had to make sure both their co-workers and the cats were comfortable. | 3266.txt | 3 |
[
"Pets Help Attract Customers",
"Your Favorite Office Pets",
"Pets Join the Workforce",
"Busy Life for Pets"
]
| The best title for this text would be _ . | Pet owners are being encouraged to take their animals to work, a move scientists say can be
good for productivity, workplace morale , and the well-being of animals.
A study found that 25% of Australian women would like to keep an office pet. Sue Chaseling
of Petcare information Service said the practice of keeping office pets was good both for the people and the pets. "On the pets' side, They are not left on their own and won't feel lonely and unhappy," she said. A study of major US companies showed that 73% found office pets beneficial , while 27% experienced a drop in absenteeism .
Xarni Riggs has two cats walking around her Global Hair Salon in Paddington. "My customers love them. they are their favorites, " she said. "They are not troublesome. They know when to go and have a sleep in the sun. "
Little black BJ has spent nearly all his two years "working" at Punch Gallery in Balmain. Owner Iain Powell said he had had cats at the gallery for 15 years. "BJ often lies in the shop window and people walking past tap on the glass, " he said.
Ms Chaseling said cats were popular in service industries because they enabled a point of conversation. But she said owners had to make sure both their co-workers and the cats were comfortable. | 3266.txt | 2 |
[
"To illustrate how the climate of the Mayan homeland varied from region to region.",
"To explain how the climate of the Mayan homeland is similar to that of a jungle or tropical rainforest.",
"To emphasize the vast size of the area that comprised the Mayan homeland in ancient times.",
"To make the point that the Mayan homeland is climatically more complex than is generally assumed."
]
| Why does the author call the Mayan homeland both a "seasonal tropical forest" and "seasonal desert"(Paragraph 1)? | To understand the ancient Mayan people who lived in the area that is today southern Mexico and Central America and the ecological difficulties they faced, one must first consider their environment, which we think of as "jungle" or "tropical rainforest." This view is inaccurate, and the reason proves to be important. Properly speaking, tropical rainforests grow in high-rainfall equatorial areas that remain wet or humid all year round. But the Maya homeland lies more than sixteen hundred kilometers from the equator, at latitudes 17 to 22 degrees north, in a habitat termed a "seasonal tropical forest." That is, while there does tend to be a rainy season from May to October, there is also a dry season from January through April. If one focuses on the wet months, one calls the Maya homeland a "seasonal tropical forest"; if one focuses on the dry months, one could instead describe it as a "seasonal desert."
From north to south in the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Maya lived, rainfall ranges from 18 to 100 inches (457 to 2,540 millimeters) per year, and the soils become thicker, so that the southern peninsula was agriculturally more productive and supported denser populations. But rainfall in the Maya homeland is unpredictably variable between years; some recent years have had three or four times more rain than other years. As a result, modern farmers attempting to grow corn in the ancient Maya homelands have faced frequent crop failures, especially in the north. The ancient Maya were presumably more experienced and did better, but nevertheless they too must have faced risks of crop failures from droughts and hurricanes.
Although southern Maya areas received more rainfall than northern areas, problems of water were paradoxically more severe in the wet south. While that made things hard for ancient Maya living in the south, it has also made things hard for modern archaeologists who have difficulty understanding why ancient droughts caused bigger problems in the wet south than in the dry north. The likely explanation is that an area of underground freshwater underlies the Yucatan Peninsula, but surface elevation increases from north to south, so that as one moves south the land surface lies increasingly higher above the water table. In the northern peninsula the elevation is sufficiently low that the ancient Maya were able to reach the water table at deep sinkholes called cenotes, or at deep caves. In low-elevation north coastal areas without sinkholes, the Maya would have been able to get down to the water table by digging wells up to 75 feet (22 meters) deep. But much of the south lies too high above the water table for cenotes or wells to reach down to it. Making matters worse, most of the Yucatan Peninsula consists of karst, a porous sponge-like limestone terrain where rain runs straight into the ground and where little or no surface water remains available.
How did those dense southern Maya populations deal with the resulting water problem? It initially surprises us that many of their cities were not built next to the rivers but instead on high terrain in rolling uplands. The explanation is that the Maya excavated depressions, or modified natural depressions, and then plugged up leaks in the karst by plastering the bottoms of the depressions in order to create reservoirs, which collected rain from large plastered catchment basins and stored it for use in the dry season. For example, reservoirs at the Maya city of Tikal held enough water to meet the drinking water needs of about 10,000 people for a period of 18 months. At the city of Coba the Maya built dikes around a lake in order to raise its level and make their water supply more reliable. But the inhabitants of Tikal and other cities dependent on reservoirs for drinking water would still have been in deep trouble if 18 months passed without rain in a prolonged drought. A shorter drought in which they exhausted their stored food supplies might already have gotten them in deep trouble, because growing crops required rain rather than reservoirs. | 755.txt | 3 |
[
"The annual rainfall was greater in the south.",
"The population density was lower in the north.",
"Agricultural productivity was greater in the south.",
"Rainfall was more unpredictable and variable in the south."
]
| Which of the following is NOT mentioned in paragraph 2 as a difference between the northern and southern Yucatan Peninsula? | To understand the ancient Mayan people who lived in the area that is today southern Mexico and Central America and the ecological difficulties they faced, one must first consider their environment, which we think of as "jungle" or "tropical rainforest." This view is inaccurate, and the reason proves to be important. Properly speaking, tropical rainforests grow in high-rainfall equatorial areas that remain wet or humid all year round. But the Maya homeland lies more than sixteen hundred kilometers from the equator, at latitudes 17 to 22 degrees north, in a habitat termed a "seasonal tropical forest." That is, while there does tend to be a rainy season from May to October, there is also a dry season from January through April. If one focuses on the wet months, one calls the Maya homeland a "seasonal tropical forest"; if one focuses on the dry months, one could instead describe it as a "seasonal desert."
From north to south in the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Maya lived, rainfall ranges from 18 to 100 inches (457 to 2,540 millimeters) per year, and the soils become thicker, so that the southern peninsula was agriculturally more productive and supported denser populations. But rainfall in the Maya homeland is unpredictably variable between years; some recent years have had three or four times more rain than other years. As a result, modern farmers attempting to grow corn in the ancient Maya homelands have faced frequent crop failures, especially in the north. The ancient Maya were presumably more experienced and did better, but nevertheless they too must have faced risks of crop failures from droughts and hurricanes.
Although southern Maya areas received more rainfall than northern areas, problems of water were paradoxically more severe in the wet south. While that made things hard for ancient Maya living in the south, it has also made things hard for modern archaeologists who have difficulty understanding why ancient droughts caused bigger problems in the wet south than in the dry north. The likely explanation is that an area of underground freshwater underlies the Yucatan Peninsula, but surface elevation increases from north to south, so that as one moves south the land surface lies increasingly higher above the water table. In the northern peninsula the elevation is sufficiently low that the ancient Maya were able to reach the water table at deep sinkholes called cenotes, or at deep caves. In low-elevation north coastal areas without sinkholes, the Maya would have been able to get down to the water table by digging wells up to 75 feet (22 meters) deep. But much of the south lies too high above the water table for cenotes or wells to reach down to it. Making matters worse, most of the Yucatan Peninsula consists of karst, a porous sponge-like limestone terrain where rain runs straight into the ground and where little or no surface water remains available.
How did those dense southern Maya populations deal with the resulting water problem? It initially surprises us that many of their cities were not built next to the rivers but instead on high terrain in rolling uplands. The explanation is that the Maya excavated depressions, or modified natural depressions, and then plugged up leaks in the karst by plastering the bottoms of the depressions in order to create reservoirs, which collected rain from large plastered catchment basins and stored it for use in the dry season. For example, reservoirs at the Maya city of Tikal held enough water to meet the drinking water needs of about 10,000 people for a period of 18 months. At the city of Coba the Maya built dikes around a lake in order to raise its level and make their water supply more reliable. But the inhabitants of Tikal and other cities dependent on reservoirs for drinking water would still have been in deep trouble if 18 months passed without rain in a prolonged drought. A shorter drought in which they exhausted their stored food supplies might already have gotten them in deep trouble, because growing crops required rain rather than reservoirs. | 755.txt | 3 |
[
"Modern agricultural methods have solved many of the ancient problems of farming in the Yucatan Peninsula.",
"Ancient Mayan farmers may have been somewhat more successful at farming in the Yucatan Peninsula than farmers are today.",
"Farming today is easier than in the past because environmental changes in the Yucatan Peninsula have increased available rainfall.",
"The Yucatan soils in which ancient farmers worked were richer, more productive, and thicker than they are today."
]
| Which of the following statements about ancient and modem agriculture in the Yucatan Peninsula is supported by paragraph 2? | To understand the ancient Mayan people who lived in the area that is today southern Mexico and Central America and the ecological difficulties they faced, one must first consider their environment, which we think of as "jungle" or "tropical rainforest." This view is inaccurate, and the reason proves to be important. Properly speaking, tropical rainforests grow in high-rainfall equatorial areas that remain wet or humid all year round. But the Maya homeland lies more than sixteen hundred kilometers from the equator, at latitudes 17 to 22 degrees north, in a habitat termed a "seasonal tropical forest." That is, while there does tend to be a rainy season from May to October, there is also a dry season from January through April. If one focuses on the wet months, one calls the Maya homeland a "seasonal tropical forest"; if one focuses on the dry months, one could instead describe it as a "seasonal desert."
From north to south in the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Maya lived, rainfall ranges from 18 to 100 inches (457 to 2,540 millimeters) per year, and the soils become thicker, so that the southern peninsula was agriculturally more productive and supported denser populations. But rainfall in the Maya homeland is unpredictably variable between years; some recent years have had three or four times more rain than other years. As a result, modern farmers attempting to grow corn in the ancient Maya homelands have faced frequent crop failures, especially in the north. The ancient Maya were presumably more experienced and did better, but nevertheless they too must have faced risks of crop failures from droughts and hurricanes.
Although southern Maya areas received more rainfall than northern areas, problems of water were paradoxically more severe in the wet south. While that made things hard for ancient Maya living in the south, it has also made things hard for modern archaeologists who have difficulty understanding why ancient droughts caused bigger problems in the wet south than in the dry north. The likely explanation is that an area of underground freshwater underlies the Yucatan Peninsula, but surface elevation increases from north to south, so that as one moves south the land surface lies increasingly higher above the water table. In the northern peninsula the elevation is sufficiently low that the ancient Maya were able to reach the water table at deep sinkholes called cenotes, or at deep caves. In low-elevation north coastal areas without sinkholes, the Maya would have been able to get down to the water table by digging wells up to 75 feet (22 meters) deep. But much of the south lies too high above the water table for cenotes or wells to reach down to it. Making matters worse, most of the Yucatan Peninsula consists of karst, a porous sponge-like limestone terrain where rain runs straight into the ground and where little or no surface water remains available.
How did those dense southern Maya populations deal with the resulting water problem? It initially surprises us that many of their cities were not built next to the rivers but instead on high terrain in rolling uplands. The explanation is that the Maya excavated depressions, or modified natural depressions, and then plugged up leaks in the karst by plastering the bottoms of the depressions in order to create reservoirs, which collected rain from large plastered catchment basins and stored it for use in the dry season. For example, reservoirs at the Maya city of Tikal held enough water to meet the drinking water needs of about 10,000 people for a period of 18 months. At the city of Coba the Maya built dikes around a lake in order to raise its level and make their water supply more reliable. But the inhabitants of Tikal and other cities dependent on reservoirs for drinking water would still have been in deep trouble if 18 months passed without rain in a prolonged drought. A shorter drought in which they exhausted their stored food supplies might already have gotten them in deep trouble, because growing crops required rain rather than reservoirs. | 755.txt | 1 |
[
"usually.",
"surprisingly.",
"understandably.",
"predictably."
]
| The word "paradoxically"(Paragraph 3)in the passage is closest in meaning to | To understand the ancient Mayan people who lived in the area that is today southern Mexico and Central America and the ecological difficulties they faced, one must first consider their environment, which we think of as "jungle" or "tropical rainforest." This view is inaccurate, and the reason proves to be important. Properly speaking, tropical rainforests grow in high-rainfall equatorial areas that remain wet or humid all year round. But the Maya homeland lies more than sixteen hundred kilometers from the equator, at latitudes 17 to 22 degrees north, in a habitat termed a "seasonal tropical forest." That is, while there does tend to be a rainy season from May to October, there is also a dry season from January through April. If one focuses on the wet months, one calls the Maya homeland a "seasonal tropical forest"; if one focuses on the dry months, one could instead describe it as a "seasonal desert."
From north to south in the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Maya lived, rainfall ranges from 18 to 100 inches (457 to 2,540 millimeters) per year, and the soils become thicker, so that the southern peninsula was agriculturally more productive and supported denser populations. But rainfall in the Maya homeland is unpredictably variable between years; some recent years have had three or four times more rain than other years. As a result, modern farmers attempting to grow corn in the ancient Maya homelands have faced frequent crop failures, especially in the north. The ancient Maya were presumably more experienced and did better, but nevertheless they too must have faced risks of crop failures from droughts and hurricanes.
Although southern Maya areas received more rainfall than northern areas, problems of water were paradoxically more severe in the wet south. While that made things hard for ancient Maya living in the south, it has also made things hard for modern archaeologists who have difficulty understanding why ancient droughts caused bigger problems in the wet south than in the dry north. The likely explanation is that an area of underground freshwater underlies the Yucatan Peninsula, but surface elevation increases from north to south, so that as one moves south the land surface lies increasingly higher above the water table. In the northern peninsula the elevation is sufficiently low that the ancient Maya were able to reach the water table at deep sinkholes called cenotes, or at deep caves. In low-elevation north coastal areas without sinkholes, the Maya would have been able to get down to the water table by digging wells up to 75 feet (22 meters) deep. But much of the south lies too high above the water table for cenotes or wells to reach down to it. Making matters worse, most of the Yucatan Peninsula consists of karst, a porous sponge-like limestone terrain where rain runs straight into the ground and where little or no surface water remains available.
How did those dense southern Maya populations deal with the resulting water problem? It initially surprises us that many of their cities were not built next to the rivers but instead on high terrain in rolling uplands. The explanation is that the Maya excavated depressions, or modified natural depressions, and then plugged up leaks in the karst by plastering the bottoms of the depressions in order to create reservoirs, which collected rain from large plastered catchment basins and stored it for use in the dry season. For example, reservoirs at the Maya city of Tikal held enough water to meet the drinking water needs of about 10,000 people for a period of 18 months. At the city of Coba the Maya built dikes around a lake in order to raise its level and make their water supply more reliable. But the inhabitants of Tikal and other cities dependent on reservoirs for drinking water would still have been in deep trouble if 18 months passed without rain in a prolonged drought. A shorter drought in which they exhausted their stored food supplies might already have gotten them in deep trouble, because growing crops required rain rather than reservoirs. | 755.txt | 1 |
[
"the southern Maya areas received more rainfall than the northern areas.",
"modern archaeologists have difficulty understanding ancient droughts.",
"water problems were most severe in the wet south.",
"land surface in the south is so high above the water table."
]
| The phrase "The likely explanation"(Paragraph 3)in the passage refers to the explanation for why | To understand the ancient Mayan people who lived in the area that is today southern Mexico and Central America and the ecological difficulties they faced, one must first consider their environment, which we think of as "jungle" or "tropical rainforest." This view is inaccurate, and the reason proves to be important. Properly speaking, tropical rainforests grow in high-rainfall equatorial areas that remain wet or humid all year round. But the Maya homeland lies more than sixteen hundred kilometers from the equator, at latitudes 17 to 22 degrees north, in a habitat termed a "seasonal tropical forest." That is, while there does tend to be a rainy season from May to October, there is also a dry season from January through April. If one focuses on the wet months, one calls the Maya homeland a "seasonal tropical forest"; if one focuses on the dry months, one could instead describe it as a "seasonal desert."
From north to south in the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Maya lived, rainfall ranges from 18 to 100 inches (457 to 2,540 millimeters) per year, and the soils become thicker, so that the southern peninsula was agriculturally more productive and supported denser populations. But rainfall in the Maya homeland is unpredictably variable between years; some recent years have had three or four times more rain than other years. As a result, modern farmers attempting to grow corn in the ancient Maya homelands have faced frequent crop failures, especially in the north. The ancient Maya were presumably more experienced and did better, but nevertheless they too must have faced risks of crop failures from droughts and hurricanes.
Although southern Maya areas received more rainfall than northern areas, problems of water were paradoxically more severe in the wet south. While that made things hard for ancient Maya living in the south, it has also made things hard for modern archaeologists who have difficulty understanding why ancient droughts caused bigger problems in the wet south than in the dry north. The likely explanation is that an area of underground freshwater underlies the Yucatan Peninsula, but surface elevation increases from north to south, so that as one moves south the land surface lies increasingly higher above the water table. In the northern peninsula the elevation is sufficiently low that the ancient Maya were able to reach the water table at deep sinkholes called cenotes, or at deep caves. In low-elevation north coastal areas without sinkholes, the Maya would have been able to get down to the water table by digging wells up to 75 feet (22 meters) deep. But much of the south lies too high above the water table for cenotes or wells to reach down to it. Making matters worse, most of the Yucatan Peninsula consists of karst, a porous sponge-like limestone terrain where rain runs straight into the ground and where little or no surface water remains available.
How did those dense southern Maya populations deal with the resulting water problem? It initially surprises us that many of their cities were not built next to the rivers but instead on high terrain in rolling uplands. The explanation is that the Maya excavated depressions, or modified natural depressions, and then plugged up leaks in the karst by plastering the bottoms of the depressions in order to create reservoirs, which collected rain from large plastered catchment basins and stored it for use in the dry season. For example, reservoirs at the Maya city of Tikal held enough water to meet the drinking water needs of about 10,000 people for a period of 18 months. At the city of Coba the Maya built dikes around a lake in order to raise its level and make their water supply more reliable. But the inhabitants of Tikal and other cities dependent on reservoirs for drinking water would still have been in deep trouble if 18 months passed without rain in a prolonged drought. A shorter drought in which they exhausted their stored food supplies might already have gotten them in deep trouble, because growing crops required rain rather than reservoirs. | 755.txt | 2 |
[
"The construction of wells was an uncommon practice in both the north and the south because it was too difficult to dig through the karst.",
"In most areas in the north and the south, rainwater was absorbed directly into the porous karst.",
"The water table was an important resource for agriculture in both the north and the south of the Yucatan Peninsula.",
"The lack of surface water in both the north and the south was probably due to the fact that most of it was quickly used up for agricultural purposes."
]
| Which of the following statements about the availability of water in the Mayan homeland is supported by paragraph 3? | To understand the ancient Mayan people who lived in the area that is today southern Mexico and Central America and the ecological difficulties they faced, one must first consider their environment, which we think of as "jungle" or "tropical rainforest." This view is inaccurate, and the reason proves to be important. Properly speaking, tropical rainforests grow in high-rainfall equatorial areas that remain wet or humid all year round. But the Maya homeland lies more than sixteen hundred kilometers from the equator, at latitudes 17 to 22 degrees north, in a habitat termed a "seasonal tropical forest." That is, while there does tend to be a rainy season from May to October, there is also a dry season from January through April. If one focuses on the wet months, one calls the Maya homeland a "seasonal tropical forest"; if one focuses on the dry months, one could instead describe it as a "seasonal desert."
From north to south in the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Maya lived, rainfall ranges from 18 to 100 inches (457 to 2,540 millimeters) per year, and the soils become thicker, so that the southern peninsula was agriculturally more productive and supported denser populations. But rainfall in the Maya homeland is unpredictably variable between years; some recent years have had three or four times more rain than other years. As a result, modern farmers attempting to grow corn in the ancient Maya homelands have faced frequent crop failures, especially in the north. The ancient Maya were presumably more experienced and did better, but nevertheless they too must have faced risks of crop failures from droughts and hurricanes.
Although southern Maya areas received more rainfall than northern areas, problems of water were paradoxically more severe in the wet south. While that made things hard for ancient Maya living in the south, it has also made things hard for modern archaeologists who have difficulty understanding why ancient droughts caused bigger problems in the wet south than in the dry north. The likely explanation is that an area of underground freshwater underlies the Yucatan Peninsula, but surface elevation increases from north to south, so that as one moves south the land surface lies increasingly higher above the water table. In the northern peninsula the elevation is sufficiently low that the ancient Maya were able to reach the water table at deep sinkholes called cenotes, or at deep caves. In low-elevation north coastal areas without sinkholes, the Maya would have been able to get down to the water table by digging wells up to 75 feet (22 meters) deep. But much of the south lies too high above the water table for cenotes or wells to reach down to it. Making matters worse, most of the Yucatan Peninsula consists of karst, a porous sponge-like limestone terrain where rain runs straight into the ground and where little or no surface water remains available.
How did those dense southern Maya populations deal with the resulting water problem? It initially surprises us that many of their cities were not built next to the rivers but instead on high terrain in rolling uplands. The explanation is that the Maya excavated depressions, or modified natural depressions, and then plugged up leaks in the karst by plastering the bottoms of the depressions in order to create reservoirs, which collected rain from large plastered catchment basins and stored it for use in the dry season. For example, reservoirs at the Maya city of Tikal held enough water to meet the drinking water needs of about 10,000 people for a period of 18 months. At the city of Coba the Maya built dikes around a lake in order to raise its level and make their water supply more reliable. But the inhabitants of Tikal and other cities dependent on reservoirs for drinking water would still have been in deep trouble if 18 months passed without rain in a prolonged drought. A shorter drought in which they exhausted their stored food supplies might already have gotten them in deep trouble, because growing crops required rain rather than reservoirs. | 755.txt | 1 |
[
"The presence of numerous sinkholes and wells interfered with farming.",
"Southern soil lacked the depth crops needed for growth.",
"Underground water was too far below the surface to reach.",
"The presence of karst caused frequent flooding."
]
| According to paragraph 3, why was the southern Mayan homeland hard to farm? | To understand the ancient Mayan people who lived in the area that is today southern Mexico and Central America and the ecological difficulties they faced, one must first consider their environment, which we think of as "jungle" or "tropical rainforest." This view is inaccurate, and the reason proves to be important. Properly speaking, tropical rainforests grow in high-rainfall equatorial areas that remain wet or humid all year round. But the Maya homeland lies more than sixteen hundred kilometers from the equator, at latitudes 17 to 22 degrees north, in a habitat termed a "seasonal tropical forest." That is, while there does tend to be a rainy season from May to October, there is also a dry season from January through April. If one focuses on the wet months, one calls the Maya homeland a "seasonal tropical forest"; if one focuses on the dry months, one could instead describe it as a "seasonal desert."
From north to south in the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Maya lived, rainfall ranges from 18 to 100 inches (457 to 2,540 millimeters) per year, and the soils become thicker, so that the southern peninsula was agriculturally more productive and supported denser populations. But rainfall in the Maya homeland is unpredictably variable between years; some recent years have had three or four times more rain than other years. As a result, modern farmers attempting to grow corn in the ancient Maya homelands have faced frequent crop failures, especially in the north. The ancient Maya were presumably more experienced and did better, but nevertheless they too must have faced risks of crop failures from droughts and hurricanes.
Although southern Maya areas received more rainfall than northern areas, problems of water were paradoxically more severe in the wet south. While that made things hard for ancient Maya living in the south, it has also made things hard for modern archaeologists who have difficulty understanding why ancient droughts caused bigger problems in the wet south than in the dry north. The likely explanation is that an area of underground freshwater underlies the Yucatan Peninsula, but surface elevation increases from north to south, so that as one moves south the land surface lies increasingly higher above the water table. In the northern peninsula the elevation is sufficiently low that the ancient Maya were able to reach the water table at deep sinkholes called cenotes, or at deep caves. In low-elevation north coastal areas without sinkholes, the Maya would have been able to get down to the water table by digging wells up to 75 feet (22 meters) deep. But much of the south lies too high above the water table for cenotes or wells to reach down to it. Making matters worse, most of the Yucatan Peninsula consists of karst, a porous sponge-like limestone terrain where rain runs straight into the ground and where little or no surface water remains available.
How did those dense southern Maya populations deal with the resulting water problem? It initially surprises us that many of their cities were not built next to the rivers but instead on high terrain in rolling uplands. The explanation is that the Maya excavated depressions, or modified natural depressions, and then plugged up leaks in the karst by plastering the bottoms of the depressions in order to create reservoirs, which collected rain from large plastered catchment basins and stored it for use in the dry season. For example, reservoirs at the Maya city of Tikal held enough water to meet the drinking water needs of about 10,000 people for a period of 18 months. At the city of Coba the Maya built dikes around a lake in order to raise its level and make their water supply more reliable. But the inhabitants of Tikal and other cities dependent on reservoirs for drinking water would still have been in deep trouble if 18 months passed without rain in a prolonged drought. A shorter drought in which they exhausted their stored food supplies might already have gotten them in deep trouble, because growing crops required rain rather than reservoirs. | 755.txt | 2 |
[
"They depended upon water and food that had been stored for use during the dry season.",
"They obtained drinking water and water for crop irrigation from Coba dikes.",
"They located their population centers near a lake where water was available for drinking and watering crops.",
"They moved locations every 18 months to find new croplands and water sources."
]
| What can be inferred from paragraph 4 about how residents of Tikal met their needs for water and food during most periods of drought? | To understand the ancient Mayan people who lived in the area that is today southern Mexico and Central America and the ecological difficulties they faced, one must first consider their environment, which we think of as "jungle" or "tropical rainforest." This view is inaccurate, and the reason proves to be important. Properly speaking, tropical rainforests grow in high-rainfall equatorial areas that remain wet or humid all year round. But the Maya homeland lies more than sixteen hundred kilometers from the equator, at latitudes 17 to 22 degrees north, in a habitat termed a "seasonal tropical forest." That is, while there does tend to be a rainy season from May to October, there is also a dry season from January through April. If one focuses on the wet months, one calls the Maya homeland a "seasonal tropical forest"; if one focuses on the dry months, one could instead describe it as a "seasonal desert."
From north to south in the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Maya lived, rainfall ranges from 18 to 100 inches (457 to 2,540 millimeters) per year, and the soils become thicker, so that the southern peninsula was agriculturally more productive and supported denser populations. But rainfall in the Maya homeland is unpredictably variable between years; some recent years have had three or four times more rain than other years. As a result, modern farmers attempting to grow corn in the ancient Maya homelands have faced frequent crop failures, especially in the north. The ancient Maya were presumably more experienced and did better, but nevertheless they too must have faced risks of crop failures from droughts and hurricanes.
Although southern Maya areas received more rainfall than northern areas, problems of water were paradoxically more severe in the wet south. While that made things hard for ancient Maya living in the south, it has also made things hard for modern archaeologists who have difficulty understanding why ancient droughts caused bigger problems in the wet south than in the dry north. The likely explanation is that an area of underground freshwater underlies the Yucatan Peninsula, but surface elevation increases from north to south, so that as one moves south the land surface lies increasingly higher above the water table. In the northern peninsula the elevation is sufficiently low that the ancient Maya were able to reach the water table at deep sinkholes called cenotes, or at deep caves. In low-elevation north coastal areas without sinkholes, the Maya would have been able to get down to the water table by digging wells up to 75 feet (22 meters) deep. But much of the south lies too high above the water table for cenotes or wells to reach down to it. Making matters worse, most of the Yucatan Peninsula consists of karst, a porous sponge-like limestone terrain where rain runs straight into the ground and where little or no surface water remains available.
How did those dense southern Maya populations deal with the resulting water problem? It initially surprises us that many of their cities were not built next to the rivers but instead on high terrain in rolling uplands. The explanation is that the Maya excavated depressions, or modified natural depressions, and then plugged up leaks in the karst by plastering the bottoms of the depressions in order to create reservoirs, which collected rain from large plastered catchment basins and stored it for use in the dry season. For example, reservoirs at the Maya city of Tikal held enough water to meet the drinking water needs of about 10,000 people for a period of 18 months. At the city of Coba the Maya built dikes around a lake in order to raise its level and make their water supply more reliable. But the inhabitants of Tikal and other cities dependent on reservoirs for drinking water would still have been in deep trouble if 18 months passed without rain in a prolonged drought. A shorter drought in which they exhausted their stored food supplies might already have gotten them in deep trouble, because growing crops required rain rather than reservoirs. | 755.txt | 0 |
[
"unusual.",
"unexpected.",
"extended.",
"disastrous."
]
| The word "prolonged" in the passage(paragraph 4)is closest in meaning to | To understand the ancient Mayan people who lived in the area that is today southern Mexico and Central America and the ecological difficulties they faced, one must first consider their environment, which we think of as "jungle" or "tropical rainforest." This view is inaccurate, and the reason proves to be important. Properly speaking, tropical rainforests grow in high-rainfall equatorial areas that remain wet or humid all year round. But the Maya homeland lies more than sixteen hundred kilometers from the equator, at latitudes 17 to 22 degrees north, in a habitat termed a "seasonal tropical forest." That is, while there does tend to be a rainy season from May to October, there is also a dry season from January through April. If one focuses on the wet months, one calls the Maya homeland a "seasonal tropical forest"; if one focuses on the dry months, one could instead describe it as a "seasonal desert."
From north to south in the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Maya lived, rainfall ranges from 18 to 100 inches (457 to 2,540 millimeters) per year, and the soils become thicker, so that the southern peninsula was agriculturally more productive and supported denser populations. But rainfall in the Maya homeland is unpredictably variable between years; some recent years have had three or four times more rain than other years. As a result, modern farmers attempting to grow corn in the ancient Maya homelands have faced frequent crop failures, especially in the north. The ancient Maya were presumably more experienced and did better, but nevertheless they too must have faced risks of crop failures from droughts and hurricanes.
Although southern Maya areas received more rainfall than northern areas, problems of water were paradoxically more severe in the wet south. While that made things hard for ancient Maya living in the south, it has also made things hard for modern archaeologists who have difficulty understanding why ancient droughts caused bigger problems in the wet south than in the dry north. The likely explanation is that an area of underground freshwater underlies the Yucatan Peninsula, but surface elevation increases from north to south, so that as one moves south the land surface lies increasingly higher above the water table. In the northern peninsula the elevation is sufficiently low that the ancient Maya were able to reach the water table at deep sinkholes called cenotes, or at deep caves. In low-elevation north coastal areas without sinkholes, the Maya would have been able to get down to the water table by digging wells up to 75 feet (22 meters) deep. But much of the south lies too high above the water table for cenotes or wells to reach down to it. Making matters worse, most of the Yucatan Peninsula consists of karst, a porous sponge-like limestone terrain where rain runs straight into the ground and where little or no surface water remains available.
How did those dense southern Maya populations deal with the resulting water problem? It initially surprises us that many of their cities were not built next to the rivers but instead on high terrain in rolling uplands. The explanation is that the Maya excavated depressions, or modified natural depressions, and then plugged up leaks in the karst by plastering the bottoms of the depressions in order to create reservoirs, which collected rain from large plastered catchment basins and stored it for use in the dry season. For example, reservoirs at the Maya city of Tikal held enough water to meet the drinking water needs of about 10,000 people for a period of 18 months. At the city of Coba the Maya built dikes around a lake in order to raise its level and make their water supply more reliable. But the inhabitants of Tikal and other cities dependent on reservoirs for drinking water would still have been in deep trouble if 18 months passed without rain in a prolonged drought. A shorter drought in which they exhausted their stored food supplies might already have gotten them in deep trouble, because growing crops required rain rather than reservoirs. | 755.txt | 2 |
[
"used up.",
"reduced.",
"wasted.",
"relied upon."
]
| The word "exhausted" in the passage(paragraph 4)is closest in meaning to | To understand the ancient Mayan people who lived in the area that is today southern Mexico and Central America and the ecological difficulties they faced, one must first consider their environment, which we think of as "jungle" or "tropical rainforest." This view is inaccurate, and the reason proves to be important. Properly speaking, tropical rainforests grow in high-rainfall equatorial areas that remain wet or humid all year round. But the Maya homeland lies more than sixteen hundred kilometers from the equator, at latitudes 17 to 22 degrees north, in a habitat termed a "seasonal tropical forest." That is, while there does tend to be a rainy season from May to October, there is also a dry season from January through April. If one focuses on the wet months, one calls the Maya homeland a "seasonal tropical forest"; if one focuses on the dry months, one could instead describe it as a "seasonal desert."
From north to south in the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Maya lived, rainfall ranges from 18 to 100 inches (457 to 2,540 millimeters) per year, and the soils become thicker, so that the southern peninsula was agriculturally more productive and supported denser populations. But rainfall in the Maya homeland is unpredictably variable between years; some recent years have had three or four times more rain than other years. As a result, modern farmers attempting to grow corn in the ancient Maya homelands have faced frequent crop failures, especially in the north. The ancient Maya were presumably more experienced and did better, but nevertheless they too must have faced risks of crop failures from droughts and hurricanes.
Although southern Maya areas received more rainfall than northern areas, problems of water were paradoxically more severe in the wet south. While that made things hard for ancient Maya living in the south, it has also made things hard for modern archaeologists who have difficulty understanding why ancient droughts caused bigger problems in the wet south than in the dry north. The likely explanation is that an area of underground freshwater underlies the Yucatan Peninsula, but surface elevation increases from north to south, so that as one moves south the land surface lies increasingly higher above the water table. In the northern peninsula the elevation is sufficiently low that the ancient Maya were able to reach the water table at deep sinkholes called cenotes, or at deep caves. In low-elevation north coastal areas without sinkholes, the Maya would have been able to get down to the water table by digging wells up to 75 feet (22 meters) deep. But much of the south lies too high above the water table for cenotes or wells to reach down to it. Making matters worse, most of the Yucatan Peninsula consists of karst, a porous sponge-like limestone terrain where rain runs straight into the ground and where little or no surface water remains available.
How did those dense southern Maya populations deal with the resulting water problem? It initially surprises us that many of their cities were not built next to the rivers but instead on high terrain in rolling uplands. The explanation is that the Maya excavated depressions, or modified natural depressions, and then plugged up leaks in the karst by plastering the bottoms of the depressions in order to create reservoirs, which collected rain from large plastered catchment basins and stored it for use in the dry season. For example, reservoirs at the Maya city of Tikal held enough water to meet the drinking water needs of about 10,000 people for a period of 18 months. At the city of Coba the Maya built dikes around a lake in order to raise its level and make their water supply more reliable. But the inhabitants of Tikal and other cities dependent on reservoirs for drinking water would still have been in deep trouble if 18 months passed without rain in a prolonged drought. A shorter drought in which they exhausted their stored food supplies might already have gotten them in deep trouble, because growing crops required rain rather than reservoirs. | 755.txt | 0 |
[
"Garro and Duplisea used to live a comfortable and easy life",
"Duplisea's boss is so considerate as to allow him to keep his job",
"Garro can earn more money so she should go back to work",
"the couple have made a lot of sacrifices to take care of their children"
]
| From the first paragraph, we learn that _ . | When Gina Garro and Brian Duplisea adopted 4-month-old Andres from Colombia last month, they were determined to take time off from work to care for him. Six years ago, after their daughter, Melina, was born, the family scraped by on Duplisea's $36,000 salary as a construction worker so Garro, a special-education teacher, could stay home. Now, since Garro's job furnishes the family health insurance, she'll head back to work this fall while Duplisea juggles diapers and baby bottles. His boss agreed to the time off-but he will have to forgo his $18-an-hour pay. It won't be easy. Though Garro's $40,000 salary will cover their mortgage, the couple will have to freeze their retirement accounts, scale back on Melina's after-school activities-and pray that nothing goes wrong with the car. " It takes away from your cushion and your security," says Garro. " Things will be tight."
The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act was supposed to help families like Garro's, offering a safety net to employees who want to take time off to nurture newborns, tend to their own major illnesses or care for sick relatives. But while the law guarantees that workers won't lose their jobs, it doesn't cover their paychecks. One survey last year showed that while 24 million Americans had taken leaves since 1999, 2.7 million more wanted to, but couldn't afford it. That may change soon. In response to increasing demands from voters, at least 25 states are now exploring new ways to offer paid leave. One possibility: tapping state disability funds. A handful of states-New York, New Jersey, California, Rhode Island and Hawaii-already dip into disability money to offer partial pay for women on maternity leave. But that doesn't help dads or people caring for elderly parents. New Jersey and New York may soon expand disability programs to cover leave for fathers and other caretakers. Thirteen states, including Arizona, Illinois and Florida, have proposed using unemployment funds to pay for leave.
Massachusetts has been especially creative. When the state's acting governor, Jane Swift, gave birth to twin daughters in May, she drew attention to the issue with her own" working maternity leave" : she telecommuted part-time but earned her usual full-time salary. Even before Swift returned to work last week, the state Senate unanimously passed a pilot plan that would use surplus funds from a health-insurance program for the unemployed to give new parents 12 weeks off at half pay. Another plan, proposed in the House, would require employers to kick in $20 per worker to set up a" New Families Trust Fund." Businesses would get tax credits in return. This week Swift is expected to announce her own paid-leave plan for lower-income mothers and fathers. Polls show widespread public support-another reason Swift and other politicians across the country have embraced the issue.
Still, not everyone's wild about the idea. People without children question why new parents-the first group to get paid leave under many of the proposed plans-should get more government perks than they do. Business groups are resistant to proposals that would raid unemployment funds; several have already filed suit to block them. As the economy slows, many companies say they can't afford to contribute to proposed new benefit funds either. Business lobbyists say too many employees already abuse existing federal family-leave laws by taking time off for dubious reasons or in tiny time increments. The proposed laws, they say, would only make matters worse.
For Garro and Duplisea, though, the new laws could make all the difference. As Melina fixes a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, Duplisea hugs a snoozing Andres against his T T-shirt. " We're trying to do the right thing by two kids, and we have to sacrifice," Duplisea says. In Massachusetts and plenty of other states, help may be on the way. | 545.txt | 3 |
[
"it exhausts her family savings",
"it plunges her family into financial trouble",
"it deprives her children of health insurance",
"it makes her feel insecure"
]
| When Garro says" It takes away from your cushion and your security" （Lines 8～9, Paragraph 1）, she means _ . | When Gina Garro and Brian Duplisea adopted 4-month-old Andres from Colombia last month, they were determined to take time off from work to care for him. Six years ago, after their daughter, Melina, was born, the family scraped by on Duplisea's $36,000 salary as a construction worker so Garro, a special-education teacher, could stay home. Now, since Garro's job furnishes the family health insurance, she'll head back to work this fall while Duplisea juggles diapers and baby bottles. His boss agreed to the time off-but he will have to forgo his $18-an-hour pay. It won't be easy. Though Garro's $40,000 salary will cover their mortgage, the couple will have to freeze their retirement accounts, scale back on Melina's after-school activities-and pray that nothing goes wrong with the car. " It takes away from your cushion and your security," says Garro. " Things will be tight."
The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act was supposed to help families like Garro's, offering a safety net to employees who want to take time off to nurture newborns, tend to their own major illnesses or care for sick relatives. But while the law guarantees that workers won't lose their jobs, it doesn't cover their paychecks. One survey last year showed that while 24 million Americans had taken leaves since 1999, 2.7 million more wanted to, but couldn't afford it. That may change soon. In response to increasing demands from voters, at least 25 states are now exploring new ways to offer paid leave. One possibility: tapping state disability funds. A handful of states-New York, New Jersey, California, Rhode Island and Hawaii-already dip into disability money to offer partial pay for women on maternity leave. But that doesn't help dads or people caring for elderly parents. New Jersey and New York may soon expand disability programs to cover leave for fathers and other caretakers. Thirteen states, including Arizona, Illinois and Florida, have proposed using unemployment funds to pay for leave.
Massachusetts has been especially creative. When the state's acting governor, Jane Swift, gave birth to twin daughters in May, she drew attention to the issue with her own" working maternity leave" : she telecommuted part-time but earned her usual full-time salary. Even before Swift returned to work last week, the state Senate unanimously passed a pilot plan that would use surplus funds from a health-insurance program for the unemployed to give new parents 12 weeks off at half pay. Another plan, proposed in the House, would require employers to kick in $20 per worker to set up a" New Families Trust Fund." Businesses would get tax credits in return. This week Swift is expected to announce her own paid-leave plan for lower-income mothers and fathers. Polls show widespread public support-another reason Swift and other politicians across the country have embraced the issue.
Still, not everyone's wild about the idea. People without children question why new parents-the first group to get paid leave under many of the proposed plans-should get more government perks than they do. Business groups are resistant to proposals that would raid unemployment funds; several have already filed suit to block them. As the economy slows, many companies say they can't afford to contribute to proposed new benefit funds either. Business lobbyists say too many employees already abuse existing federal family-leave laws by taking time off for dubious reasons or in tiny time increments. The proposed laws, they say, would only make matters worse.
For Garro and Duplisea, though, the new laws could make all the difference. As Melina fixes a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, Duplisea hugs a snoozing Andres against his T T-shirt. " We're trying to do the right thing by two kids, and we have to sacrifice," Duplisea says. In Massachusetts and plenty of other states, help may be on the way. | 545.txt | 1 |
[
"have 12 weeks off at half pay",
"telecommute part-time but earn full-time salary",
"leave her job without pay to take care of her kids",
"get $20 from her employer for her leave"
]
| If Garro lives in Massachusetts, she will _ . | When Gina Garro and Brian Duplisea adopted 4-month-old Andres from Colombia last month, they were determined to take time off from work to care for him. Six years ago, after their daughter, Melina, was born, the family scraped by on Duplisea's $36,000 salary as a construction worker so Garro, a special-education teacher, could stay home. Now, since Garro's job furnishes the family health insurance, she'll head back to work this fall while Duplisea juggles diapers and baby bottles. His boss agreed to the time off-but he will have to forgo his $18-an-hour pay. It won't be easy. Though Garro's $40,000 salary will cover their mortgage, the couple will have to freeze their retirement accounts, scale back on Melina's after-school activities-and pray that nothing goes wrong with the car. " It takes away from your cushion and your security," says Garro. " Things will be tight."
The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act was supposed to help families like Garro's, offering a safety net to employees who want to take time off to nurture newborns, tend to their own major illnesses or care for sick relatives. But while the law guarantees that workers won't lose their jobs, it doesn't cover their paychecks. One survey last year showed that while 24 million Americans had taken leaves since 1999, 2.7 million more wanted to, but couldn't afford it. That may change soon. In response to increasing demands from voters, at least 25 states are now exploring new ways to offer paid leave. One possibility: tapping state disability funds. A handful of states-New York, New Jersey, California, Rhode Island and Hawaii-already dip into disability money to offer partial pay for women on maternity leave. But that doesn't help dads or people caring for elderly parents. New Jersey and New York may soon expand disability programs to cover leave for fathers and other caretakers. Thirteen states, including Arizona, Illinois and Florida, have proposed using unemployment funds to pay for leave.
Massachusetts has been especially creative. When the state's acting governor, Jane Swift, gave birth to twin daughters in May, she drew attention to the issue with her own" working maternity leave" : she telecommuted part-time but earned her usual full-time salary. Even before Swift returned to work last week, the state Senate unanimously passed a pilot plan that would use surplus funds from a health-insurance program for the unemployed to give new parents 12 weeks off at half pay. Another plan, proposed in the House, would require employers to kick in $20 per worker to set up a" New Families Trust Fund." Businesses would get tax credits in return. This week Swift is expected to announce her own paid-leave plan for lower-income mothers and fathers. Polls show widespread public support-another reason Swift and other politicians across the country have embraced the issue.
Still, not everyone's wild about the idea. People without children question why new parents-the first group to get paid leave under many of the proposed plans-should get more government perks than they do. Business groups are resistant to proposals that would raid unemployment funds; several have already filed suit to block them. As the economy slows, many companies say they can't afford to contribute to proposed new benefit funds either. Business lobbyists say too many employees already abuse existing federal family-leave laws by taking time off for dubious reasons or in tiny time increments. The proposed laws, they say, would only make matters worse.
For Garro and Duplisea, though, the new laws could make all the difference. As Melina fixes a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, Duplisea hugs a snoozing Andres against his T T-shirt. " We're trying to do the right thing by two kids, and we have to sacrifice," Duplisea says. In Massachusetts and plenty of other states, help may be on the way. | 545.txt | 0 |
[
"grant",
"policy",
"encouragement",
"reward"
]
| The word" perk" （Line 2, Paragraph 4）most probably means _ . | When Gina Garro and Brian Duplisea adopted 4-month-old Andres from Colombia last month, they were determined to take time off from work to care for him. Six years ago, after their daughter, Melina, was born, the family scraped by on Duplisea's $36,000 salary as a construction worker so Garro, a special-education teacher, could stay home. Now, since Garro's job furnishes the family health insurance, she'll head back to work this fall while Duplisea juggles diapers and baby bottles. His boss agreed to the time off-but he will have to forgo his $18-an-hour pay. It won't be easy. Though Garro's $40,000 salary will cover their mortgage, the couple will have to freeze their retirement accounts, scale back on Melina's after-school activities-and pray that nothing goes wrong with the car. " It takes away from your cushion and your security," says Garro. " Things will be tight."
The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act was supposed to help families like Garro's, offering a safety net to employees who want to take time off to nurture newborns, tend to their own major illnesses or care for sick relatives. But while the law guarantees that workers won't lose their jobs, it doesn't cover their paychecks. One survey last year showed that while 24 million Americans had taken leaves since 1999, 2.7 million more wanted to, but couldn't afford it. That may change soon. In response to increasing demands from voters, at least 25 states are now exploring new ways to offer paid leave. One possibility: tapping state disability funds. A handful of states-New York, New Jersey, California, Rhode Island and Hawaii-already dip into disability money to offer partial pay for women on maternity leave. But that doesn't help dads or people caring for elderly parents. New Jersey and New York may soon expand disability programs to cover leave for fathers and other caretakers. Thirteen states, including Arizona, Illinois and Florida, have proposed using unemployment funds to pay for leave.
Massachusetts has been especially creative. When the state's acting governor, Jane Swift, gave birth to twin daughters in May, she drew attention to the issue with her own" working maternity leave" : she telecommuted part-time but earned her usual full-time salary. Even before Swift returned to work last week, the state Senate unanimously passed a pilot plan that would use surplus funds from a health-insurance program for the unemployed to give new parents 12 weeks off at half pay. Another plan, proposed in the House, would require employers to kick in $20 per worker to set up a" New Families Trust Fund." Businesses would get tax credits in return. This week Swift is expected to announce her own paid-leave plan for lower-income mothers and fathers. Polls show widespread public support-another reason Swift and other politicians across the country have embraced the issue.
Still, not everyone's wild about the idea. People without children question why new parents-the first group to get paid leave under many of the proposed plans-should get more government perks than they do. Business groups are resistant to proposals that would raid unemployment funds; several have already filed suit to block them. As the economy slows, many companies say they can't afford to contribute to proposed new benefit funds either. Business lobbyists say too many employees already abuse existing federal family-leave laws by taking time off for dubious reasons or in tiny time increments. The proposed laws, they say, would only make matters worse.
For Garro and Duplisea, though, the new laws could make all the difference. As Melina fixes a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, Duplisea hugs a snoozing Andres against his T T-shirt. " We're trying to do the right thing by two kids, and we have to sacrifice," Duplisea says. In Massachusetts and plenty of other states, help may be on the way. | 545.txt | 0 |
[
"opposition",
"suspicion",
"approval",
"indifference"
]
| The author's attitude towards paid leave seems to be that of _ . | When Gina Garro and Brian Duplisea adopted 4-month-old Andres from Colombia last month, they were determined to take time off from work to care for him. Six years ago, after their daughter, Melina, was born, the family scraped by on Duplisea's $36,000 salary as a construction worker so Garro, a special-education teacher, could stay home. Now, since Garro's job furnishes the family health insurance, she'll head back to work this fall while Duplisea juggles diapers and baby bottles. His boss agreed to the time off-but he will have to forgo his $18-an-hour pay. It won't be easy. Though Garro's $40,000 salary will cover their mortgage, the couple will have to freeze their retirement accounts, scale back on Melina's after-school activities-and pray that nothing goes wrong with the car. " It takes away from your cushion and your security," says Garro. " Things will be tight."
The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act was supposed to help families like Garro's, offering a safety net to employees who want to take time off to nurture newborns, tend to their own major illnesses or care for sick relatives. But while the law guarantees that workers won't lose their jobs, it doesn't cover their paychecks. One survey last year showed that while 24 million Americans had taken leaves since 1999, 2.7 million more wanted to, but couldn't afford it. That may change soon. In response to increasing demands from voters, at least 25 states are now exploring new ways to offer paid leave. One possibility: tapping state disability funds. A handful of states-New York, New Jersey, California, Rhode Island and Hawaii-already dip into disability money to offer partial pay for women on maternity leave. But that doesn't help dads or people caring for elderly parents. New Jersey and New York may soon expand disability programs to cover leave for fathers and other caretakers. Thirteen states, including Arizona, Illinois and Florida, have proposed using unemployment funds to pay for leave.
Massachusetts has been especially creative. When the state's acting governor, Jane Swift, gave birth to twin daughters in May, she drew attention to the issue with her own" working maternity leave" : she telecommuted part-time but earned her usual full-time salary. Even before Swift returned to work last week, the state Senate unanimously passed a pilot plan that would use surplus funds from a health-insurance program for the unemployed to give new parents 12 weeks off at half pay. Another plan, proposed in the House, would require employers to kick in $20 per worker to set up a" New Families Trust Fund." Businesses would get tax credits in return. This week Swift is expected to announce her own paid-leave plan for lower-income mothers and fathers. Polls show widespread public support-another reason Swift and other politicians across the country have embraced the issue.
Still, not everyone's wild about the idea. People without children question why new parents-the first group to get paid leave under many of the proposed plans-should get more government perks than they do. Business groups are resistant to proposals that would raid unemployment funds; several have already filed suit to block them. As the economy slows, many companies say they can't afford to contribute to proposed new benefit funds either. Business lobbyists say too many employees already abuse existing federal family-leave laws by taking time off for dubious reasons or in tiny time increments. The proposed laws, they say, would only make matters worse.
For Garro and Duplisea, though, the new laws could make all the difference. As Melina fixes a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, Duplisea hugs a snoozing Andres against his T T-shirt. " We're trying to do the right thing by two kids, and we have to sacrifice," Duplisea says. In Massachusetts and plenty of other states, help may be on the way. | 545.txt | 2 |
[
"Heathrow airport does not like international students as much as university undergraduates",
"the unavailability of visa may force many students to lose their admission into UK universities",
"students feel lucky to wait for only six hours in the airport to get into Britain",
"many students will arrive at the universities much later than expected because they cannot receive the visa"
]
| We can learn from the first paragraph that _ . | On campuses, cheerful undergraduates are pressing leaflets into freshers' hands. At Heathrow airport, where many foreign students enter Britain, the welcome has been less warm. Officials herded recent arrivals into a separate queue that at times took six hours to get through-and those were the lucky ones. Many potential students are languishing at home, and will miss out on university places this autumn unless they receive visas in the next few days.
Universities had seen trouble looming since March, when a new student-visa system was introduced. By insisting that potential students prove their academic credentials and show that they have enough money to support themselves, the Home Office intended to deter those who were actually coming to Britain to work. It also hoped the reforms would keep out potential terrorists. But the advice it issued to applicants was poor （it has since been revised）and staff at many visa-processing centres were not properly trained.
The result has been a backlog at many centres-in Los Angeles, for example, students waited up to 40 days for a visa. But the problem has been particularly acute in the Indian subcontinent. In Pakistan, 5,000 aspiring students have yet to have their applications processed and 9,000 more are appealing against outright refusals.
The logjam affects mostly wealthy, well-educated folk in strategically important countries. The elite universities, some of which have long had a cosmopolitan clientele, are concerned. " We are all extremely worried about the damage that this could do to the reputation of British higher education overseas, particularly in the Indian subcontinent. It comes at a time when universities' finances are under enormous pressure," says Simeon Underwood, head of admissions policy at the London School of Economics.
International students are vital to British universities. Although British and European students pay tuition fees of up to ￡3,225 a year, the cost of educating them is far higher. The state partially plugs the gap and, for that reason, it also caps the number of these students. Fees from overseas students, who pay around ￡12,000 a year, contribute more than ￡1.5 billion annually, 8% of universities' total income.
To attract these crucial customers, universities offer to meet them at airports, run events to settle them in and arrange for police to visit campuses to expedite visa controls. But if students cannot make it into Britain, such canny marketing is in vain. This year, even though a weak pound makes British universities a cheap option, some have seen the number of new students from outside the European Union fall by a fifth because of difficulties in getting visas.
On a visit to Islamabad on October 5th Alan Johnson, the home secretary, promised to cut the time it takes to process a visa from 60 days to 15 by hiring more staff, and to help Pakistan establish a national anti-terrorism agency, which would relieve the pressure on the visa system. But his intervention will not help this year's blocked students. And if problems persist, more foreign students may plump for universities in America or Australia in future. | 547.txt | 1 |
[
"he should have adequate financial resources",
"he should meet the bottom requirements set by the universities",
"he should provide his birth certificate showing he is not from a terrorist country",
"he should convince the visa official that his purpose of coming to UK is to study"
]
| According to the new student-visa system, an international student should prove all of the following EXCEPT _ . | On campuses, cheerful undergraduates are pressing leaflets into freshers' hands. At Heathrow airport, where many foreign students enter Britain, the welcome has been less warm. Officials herded recent arrivals into a separate queue that at times took six hours to get through-and those were the lucky ones. Many potential students are languishing at home, and will miss out on university places this autumn unless they receive visas in the next few days.
Universities had seen trouble looming since March, when a new student-visa system was introduced. By insisting that potential students prove their academic credentials and show that they have enough money to support themselves, the Home Office intended to deter those who were actually coming to Britain to work. It also hoped the reforms would keep out potential terrorists. But the advice it issued to applicants was poor （it has since been revised）and staff at many visa-processing centres were not properly trained.
The result has been a backlog at many centres-in Los Angeles, for example, students waited up to 40 days for a visa. But the problem has been particularly acute in the Indian subcontinent. In Pakistan, 5,000 aspiring students have yet to have their applications processed and 9,000 more are appealing against outright refusals.
The logjam affects mostly wealthy, well-educated folk in strategically important countries. The elite universities, some of which have long had a cosmopolitan clientele, are concerned. " We are all extremely worried about the damage that this could do to the reputation of British higher education overseas, particularly in the Indian subcontinent. It comes at a time when universities' finances are under enormous pressure," says Simeon Underwood, head of admissions policy at the London School of Economics.
International students are vital to British universities. Although British and European students pay tuition fees of up to ￡3,225 a year, the cost of educating them is far higher. The state partially plugs the gap and, for that reason, it also caps the number of these students. Fees from overseas students, who pay around ￡12,000 a year, contribute more than ￡1.5 billion annually, 8% of universities' total income.
To attract these crucial customers, universities offer to meet them at airports, run events to settle them in and arrange for police to visit campuses to expedite visa controls. But if students cannot make it into Britain, such canny marketing is in vain. This year, even though a weak pound makes British universities a cheap option, some have seen the number of new students from outside the European Union fall by a fifth because of difficulties in getting visas.
On a visit to Islamabad on October 5th Alan Johnson, the home secretary, promised to cut the time it takes to process a visa from 60 days to 15 by hiring more staff, and to help Pakistan establish a national anti-terrorism agency, which would relieve the pressure on the visa system. But his intervention will not help this year's blocked students. And if problems persist, more foreign students may plump for universities in America or Australia in future. | 547.txt | 2 |
[
"a negative influence on UK's strategic relations with some important countries",
"more governmental subsidies to British universities",
"an increasing pressure on Britain's governmental finance",
"the damage of the reputation of British higher education"
]
| According to the text, the new student-visa system may lead to _ . | On campuses, cheerful undergraduates are pressing leaflets into freshers' hands. At Heathrow airport, where many foreign students enter Britain, the welcome has been less warm. Officials herded recent arrivals into a separate queue that at times took six hours to get through-and those were the lucky ones. Many potential students are languishing at home, and will miss out on university places this autumn unless they receive visas in the next few days.
Universities had seen trouble looming since March, when a new student-visa system was introduced. By insisting that potential students prove their academic credentials and show that they have enough money to support themselves, the Home Office intended to deter those who were actually coming to Britain to work. It also hoped the reforms would keep out potential terrorists. But the advice it issued to applicants was poor （it has since been revised）and staff at many visa-processing centres were not properly trained.
The result has been a backlog at many centres-in Los Angeles, for example, students waited up to 40 days for a visa. But the problem has been particularly acute in the Indian subcontinent. In Pakistan, 5,000 aspiring students have yet to have their applications processed and 9,000 more are appealing against outright refusals.
The logjam affects mostly wealthy, well-educated folk in strategically important countries. The elite universities, some of which have long had a cosmopolitan clientele, are concerned. " We are all extremely worried about the damage that this could do to the reputation of British higher education overseas, particularly in the Indian subcontinent. It comes at a time when universities' finances are under enormous pressure," says Simeon Underwood, head of admissions policy at the London School of Economics.
International students are vital to British universities. Although British and European students pay tuition fees of up to ￡3,225 a year, the cost of educating them is far higher. The state partially plugs the gap and, for that reason, it also caps the number of these students. Fees from overseas students, who pay around ￡12,000 a year, contribute more than ￡1.5 billion annually, 8% of universities' total income.
To attract these crucial customers, universities offer to meet them at airports, run events to settle them in and arrange for police to visit campuses to expedite visa controls. But if students cannot make it into Britain, such canny marketing is in vain. This year, even though a weak pound makes British universities a cheap option, some have seen the number of new students from outside the European Union fall by a fifth because of difficulties in getting visas.
On a visit to Islamabad on October 5th Alan Johnson, the home secretary, promised to cut the time it takes to process a visa from 60 days to 15 by hiring more staff, and to help Pakistan establish a national anti-terrorism agency, which would relieve the pressure on the visa system. But his intervention will not help this year's blocked students. And if problems persist, more foreign students may plump for universities in America or Australia in future. | 547.txt | 3 |
[
"the new student-visa system may undermine the competitiveness of British higher education",
"the new student-visa system will soon achieve a much better efficiency by hiring more staff",
"the new student-visa system aims to send students to other countries such as Australia and America",
"the new student-visa system will help Pakistan establish a national anti-terrorism agency"
]
| It can be inferred from the last paragraph that _ . | On campuses, cheerful undergraduates are pressing leaflets into freshers' hands. At Heathrow airport, where many foreign students enter Britain, the welcome has been less warm. Officials herded recent arrivals into a separate queue that at times took six hours to get through-and those were the lucky ones. Many potential students are languishing at home, and will miss out on university places this autumn unless they receive visas in the next few days.
Universities had seen trouble looming since March, when a new student-visa system was introduced. By insisting that potential students prove their academic credentials and show that they have enough money to support themselves, the Home Office intended to deter those who were actually coming to Britain to work. It also hoped the reforms would keep out potential terrorists. But the advice it issued to applicants was poor （it has since been revised）and staff at many visa-processing centres were not properly trained.
The result has been a backlog at many centres-in Los Angeles, for example, students waited up to 40 days for a visa. But the problem has been particularly acute in the Indian subcontinent. In Pakistan, 5,000 aspiring students have yet to have their applications processed and 9,000 more are appealing against outright refusals.
The logjam affects mostly wealthy, well-educated folk in strategically important countries. The elite universities, some of which have long had a cosmopolitan clientele, are concerned. " We are all extremely worried about the damage that this could do to the reputation of British higher education overseas, particularly in the Indian subcontinent. It comes at a time when universities' finances are under enormous pressure," says Simeon Underwood, head of admissions policy at the London School of Economics.
International students are vital to British universities. Although British and European students pay tuition fees of up to ￡3,225 a year, the cost of educating them is far higher. The state partially plugs the gap and, for that reason, it also caps the number of these students. Fees from overseas students, who pay around ￡12,000 a year, contribute more than ￡1.5 billion annually, 8% of universities' total income.
To attract these crucial customers, universities offer to meet them at airports, run events to settle them in and arrange for police to visit campuses to expedite visa controls. But if students cannot make it into Britain, such canny marketing is in vain. This year, even though a weak pound makes British universities a cheap option, some have seen the number of new students from outside the European Union fall by a fifth because of difficulties in getting visas.
On a visit to Islamabad on October 5th Alan Johnson, the home secretary, promised to cut the time it takes to process a visa from 60 days to 15 by hiring more staff, and to help Pakistan establish a national anti-terrorism agency, which would relieve the pressure on the visa system. But his intervention will not help this year's blocked students. And if problems persist, more foreign students may plump for universities in America or Australia in future. | 547.txt | 0 |
[
"biased",
"indifferent",
"concerned",
"pessimistic"
]
| The author's attitude towards the new student-visa system seems to be _ . | On campuses, cheerful undergraduates are pressing leaflets into freshers' hands. At Heathrow airport, where many foreign students enter Britain, the welcome has been less warm. Officials herded recent arrivals into a separate queue that at times took six hours to get through-and those were the lucky ones. Many potential students are languishing at home, and will miss out on university places this autumn unless they receive visas in the next few days.
Universities had seen trouble looming since March, when a new student-visa system was introduced. By insisting that potential students prove their academic credentials and show that they have enough money to support themselves, the Home Office intended to deter those who were actually coming to Britain to work. It also hoped the reforms would keep out potential terrorists. But the advice it issued to applicants was poor （it has since been revised）and staff at many visa-processing centres were not properly trained.
The result has been a backlog at many centres-in Los Angeles, for example, students waited up to 40 days for a visa. But the problem has been particularly acute in the Indian subcontinent. In Pakistan, 5,000 aspiring students have yet to have their applications processed and 9,000 more are appealing against outright refusals.
The logjam affects mostly wealthy, well-educated folk in strategically important countries. The elite universities, some of which have long had a cosmopolitan clientele, are concerned. " We are all extremely worried about the damage that this could do to the reputation of British higher education overseas, particularly in the Indian subcontinent. It comes at a time when universities' finances are under enormous pressure," says Simeon Underwood, head of admissions policy at the London School of Economics.
International students are vital to British universities. Although British and European students pay tuition fees of up to ￡3,225 a year, the cost of educating them is far higher. The state partially plugs the gap and, for that reason, it also caps the number of these students. Fees from overseas students, who pay around ￡12,000 a year, contribute more than ￡1.5 billion annually, 8% of universities' total income.
To attract these crucial customers, universities offer to meet them at airports, run events to settle them in and arrange for police to visit campuses to expedite visa controls. But if students cannot make it into Britain, such canny marketing is in vain. This year, even though a weak pound makes British universities a cheap option, some have seen the number of new students from outside the European Union fall by a fifth because of difficulties in getting visas.
On a visit to Islamabad on October 5th Alan Johnson, the home secretary, promised to cut the time it takes to process a visa from 60 days to 15 by hiring more staff, and to help Pakistan establish a national anti-terrorism agency, which would relieve the pressure on the visa system. But his intervention will not help this year's blocked students. And if problems persist, more foreign students may plump for universities in America or Australia in future. | 547.txt | 2 |
[
"At any time only one female clown fish can be reproductively active",
"The mature clown fish are monogamous",
"The growth of clown fish is synchronized",
"The maximum number of clown fish is fixed"
]
| The author mentions all of the following as characteristic of the "rigidly defined hierarchy" (line 8) of the clown-fish community EXCEPT: | Comparing designs in music with visual designs raises interesting questions. We are familiar with the easy transfers of terms denoting qualities from one field to another. The basic problem can be put this way: can music sound the way a design looks? The elements of music are not the same as those of painting. They may be analogous, but to be analogous is not to be identical. Is it possible, then, for the same broad characteristics to emerge from different perceptual conditions? Two facts about the relation between broad characteristics of a work and their perceptual conditions must be kept distinct. First, the global characteristics of a visual or auditory complex are determined by the discernible parts and their relationships. Thus, any notable change in the parts or their relationships produces a change in some of the global characteristics. Second, a change in the parts or their relationships may leave other global characteristics unchanged. logies. | 1928.txt | 2 |
[
"They develop rapidly",
"They remain close to the sea anemone occupied by their parents",
"They are more sensitive to chemical signals than are adult clown fish.",
"They are not protected by their parents"
]
| Which of the following statements about newly hatched clown fish can be inferred from the passage? | Comparing designs in music with visual designs raises interesting questions. We are familiar with the easy transfers of terms denoting qualities from one field to another. The basic problem can be put this way: can music sound the way a design looks? The elements of music are not the same as those of painting. They may be analogous, but to be analogous is not to be identical. Is it possible, then, for the same broad characteristics to emerge from different perceptual conditions? Two facts about the relation between broad characteristics of a work and their perceptual conditions must be kept distinct. First, the global characteristics of a visual or auditory complex are determined by the discernible parts and their relationships. Thus, any notable change in the parts or their relationships produces a change in some of the global characteristics. Second, a change in the parts or their relationships may leave other global characteristics unchanged. logies. | 1928.txt | 2 |
[
"The number of individuals in a clown-fish community fluctuates significantly",
"Adult clown fish frequently cannibalize their young",
"The sea anemone tolerates clown fish only during a specific stage of the anemone's life cycle.",
"Juvenile clown fish rarely reach maturity"
]
| Which of the following, if true, would be LEAST consistent with the author's explanation of the advantage of hermaphroditism for clown fish? | Comparing designs in music with visual designs raises interesting questions. We are familiar with the easy transfers of terms denoting qualities from one field to another. The basic problem can be put this way: can music sound the way a design looks? The elements of music are not the same as those of painting. They may be analogous, but to be analogous is not to be identical. Is it possible, then, for the same broad characteristics to emerge from different perceptual conditions? Two facts about the relation between broad characteristics of a work and their perceptual conditions must be kept distinct. First, the global characteristics of a visual or auditory complex are determined by the discernible parts and their relationships. Thus, any notable change in the parts or their relationships produces a change in some of the global characteristics. Second, a change in the parts or their relationships may leave other global characteristics unchanged. logies. | 1928.txt | 0 |
[
"comparisons are not equations",
"auditory phenomena are not visual phenomena",
"frequently used comparisons are usually inaccurate",
"careless perceptions result from careless thought"
]
| In the first paragraph, the author is primarily concerned with establishing the fact that | Comparing designs in music with visual designs raises interesting questions. We are familiar with the easy transfers of terms denoting qualities from one field to another. The basic problem can be put this way: can music sound the way a design looks? The elements of music are not the same as those of painting. They may be analogous, but to be analogous is not to be identical. Is it possible, then, for the same broad characteristics to emerge from different perceptual conditions? Two facts about the relation between broad characteristics of a work and their perceptual conditions must be kept distinct. First, the global characteristics of a visual or auditory complex are determined by the discernible parts and their relationships. Thus, any notable change in the parts or their relationships produces a change in some of the global characteristics. Second, a change in the parts or their relationships may leave other global characteristics unchanged. logies. | 1928.txt | 1 |
[
"distinguishing mutually exclusive categories",
"clarifying an apparent contradiction",
"supporting new ideas",
"analyzing a problem"
]
| In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with | Comparing designs in music with visual designs raises interesting questions. We are familiar with the easy transfers of terms denoting qualities from one field to another. The basic problem can be put this way: can music sound the way a design looks? The elements of music are not the same as those of painting. They may be analogous, but to be analogous is not to be identical. Is it possible, then, for the same broad characteristics to emerge from different perceptual conditions? Two facts about the relation between broad characteristics of a work and their perceptual conditions must be kept distinct. First, the global characteristics of a visual or auditory complex are determined by the discernible parts and their relationships. Thus, any notable change in the parts or their relationships produces a change in some of the global characteristics. Second, a change in the parts or their relationships may leave other global characteristics unchanged. logies. | 1928.txt | 2 |
[
"different global characteristics of a work result from the same discernible parts",
"the parts of a work of art influence the total perception of the work",
"visual and auditory characteristics can be combined",
"the visual complexes in a work of art influence the work's auditory complexes"
]
| The second paragraph is primarily concerned with establishing the idea that | Comparing designs in music with visual designs raises interesting questions. We are familiar with the easy transfers of terms denoting qualities from one field to another. The basic problem can be put this way: can music sound the way a design looks? The elements of music are not the same as those of painting. They may be analogous, but to be analogous is not to be identical. Is it possible, then, for the same broad characteristics to emerge from different perceptual conditions? Two facts about the relation between broad characteristics of a work and their perceptual conditions must be kept distinct. First, the global characteristics of a visual or auditory complex are determined by the discernible parts and their relationships. Thus, any notable change in the parts or their relationships produces a change in some of the global characteristics. Second, a change in the parts or their relationships may leave other global characteristics unchanged. logies. | 1928.txt | 3 |
[
"The search for broad similarities thus begins by understanding and distinguishing these two facts.",
"The search for musical-visual analogies thus depends on the complexity of the works being compared.",
"The search for music and art of the highest quality thus depends on very different assumptions",
"Thus music and painting exist in mutually exclusive worlds"
]
| Which of the following statements is most likely be a continuation of the passage? | Comparing designs in music with visual designs raises interesting questions. We are familiar with the easy transfers of terms denoting qualities from one field to another. The basic problem can be put this way: can music sound the way a design looks? The elements of music are not the same as those of painting. They may be analogous, but to be analogous is not to be identical. Is it possible, then, for the same broad characteristics to emerge from different perceptual conditions? Two facts about the relation between broad characteristics of a work and their perceptual conditions must be kept distinct. First, the global characteristics of a visual or auditory complex are determined by the discernible parts and their relationships. Thus, any notable change in the parts or their relationships produces a change in some of the global characteristics. Second, a change in the parts or their relationships may leave other global characteristics unchanged. logies. | 1928.txt | 3 |
[
"it makes people more confident",
"it can pick up people' s spirits",
"it can help get rid of the cruelty in the world",
"it can help people get on well with others"
]
| According to the author, humor is useful in the aspect that _ . | With all the wars, fighting and sadness in the world today, it's not only necessary, but also essential to have a good sense of humor just to help us get through each and every day of our lives.Putting a smile on someone's face when you know they are feeling down in the dumps ( ), as the saying goes, makes me feel good and warms my heart.
How would you feel if you could not joke around with your wife, husband, child, co-worker neighbor, close friend, or even just someone that you are standing in line with at your comer store? I am always saying things that make others smile or laugh, even if I don't know the person I'm joking around with.My Grandma always found humor in everything she did, even if it was the hardest job anyone could imagine.This not only relieves stress in any situation, but also is common courtesy to speak to others that are around you.
I know of a few people that don't have a funny bone in their bodies, as they say.Everyone around them could be rolling on the floor after hearing a great joke and they would sit there without the slightest smile on their face.They don't get the joke that makes others laugh.I am busting a gut while they just sit there, looking at me as if I were from outer space.How can people not get a really funny joke?
Laughing is essential to keep your stress levels under control.Without humor we would find ourselves with a lot of psychological problems, or on a lot of medications to keep us from going crazy.There is too much sadness in this present world.It drives people crazy.We all need to find a way to bypass the sadness and bring a little light into our lives.So, I believe our best medicine is to get together and tell some jokes and have some fun laughing together. | 3151.txt | 1 |
[
"facts and descriptions",
"evidence and argument",
"examples and conclusion",
"stories and persuasion"
]
| The author answers the question in the second paragraph with _ . | With all the wars, fighting and sadness in the world today, it's not only necessary, but also essential to have a good sense of humor just to help us get through each and every day of our lives.Putting a smile on someone's face when you know they are feeling down in the dumps ( ), as the saying goes, makes me feel good and warms my heart.
How would you feel if you could not joke around with your wife, husband, child, co-worker neighbor, close friend, or even just someone that you are standing in line with at your comer store? I am always saying things that make others smile or laugh, even if I don't know the person I'm joking around with.My Grandma always found humor in everything she did, even if it was the hardest job anyone could imagine.This not only relieves stress in any situation, but also is common courtesy to speak to others that are around you.
I know of a few people that don't have a funny bone in their bodies, as they say.Everyone around them could be rolling on the floor after hearing a great joke and they would sit there without the slightest smile on their face.They don't get the joke that makes others laugh.I am busting a gut while they just sit there, looking at me as if I were from outer space.How can people not get a really funny joke?
Laughing is essential to keep your stress levels under control.Without humor we would find ourselves with a lot of psychological problems, or on a lot of medications to keep us from going crazy.There is too much sadness in this present world.It drives people crazy.We all need to find a way to bypass the sadness and bring a little light into our lives.So, I believe our best medicine is to get together and tell some jokes and have some fun laughing together. | 3151.txt | 2 |
[
"explaining carefully",
"speaking loud",
"keeping silent",
"laughing hard"
]
| The phrase "busting a gut" in the third paragraph can be replaced by _ . | With all the wars, fighting and sadness in the world today, it's not only necessary, but also essential to have a good sense of humor just to help us get through each and every day of our lives.Putting a smile on someone's face when you know they are feeling down in the dumps ( ), as the saying goes, makes me feel good and warms my heart.
How would you feel if you could not joke around with your wife, husband, child, co-worker neighbor, close friend, or even just someone that you are standing in line with at your comer store? I am always saying things that make others smile or laugh, even if I don't know the person I'm joking around with.My Grandma always found humor in everything she did, even if it was the hardest job anyone could imagine.This not only relieves stress in any situation, but also is common courtesy to speak to others that are around you.
I know of a few people that don't have a funny bone in their bodies, as they say.Everyone around them could be rolling on the floor after hearing a great joke and they would sit there without the slightest smile on their face.They don't get the joke that makes others laugh.I am busting a gut while they just sit there, looking at me as if I were from outer space.How can people not get a really funny joke?
Laughing is essential to keep your stress levels under control.Without humor we would find ourselves with a lot of psychological problems, or on a lot of medications to keep us from going crazy.There is too much sadness in this present world.It drives people crazy.We all need to find a way to bypass the sadness and bring a little light into our lives.So, I believe our best medicine is to get together and tell some jokes and have some fun laughing together. | 3151.txt | 3 |
[
"talk about his own understanding of humor",
"encourage people to be humorous in daily life",
"introduce a practical way to get through daily life",
"convince people of the power of being optimistic about life"
]
| In writing the passage, the author mainly intends to _ . | With all the wars, fighting and sadness in the world today, it's not only necessary, but also essential to have a good sense of humor just to help us get through each and every day of our lives.Putting a smile on someone's face when you know they are feeling down in the dumps ( ), as the saying goes, makes me feel good and warms my heart.
How would you feel if you could not joke around with your wife, husband, child, co-worker neighbor, close friend, or even just someone that you are standing in line with at your comer store? I am always saying things that make others smile or laugh, even if I don't know the person I'm joking around with.My Grandma always found humor in everything she did, even if it was the hardest job anyone could imagine.This not only relieves stress in any situation, but also is common courtesy to speak to others that are around you.
I know of a few people that don't have a funny bone in their bodies, as they say.Everyone around them could be rolling on the floor after hearing a great joke and they would sit there without the slightest smile on their face.They don't get the joke that makes others laugh.I am busting a gut while they just sit there, looking at me as if I were from outer space.How can people not get a really funny joke?
Laughing is essential to keep your stress levels under control.Without humor we would find ourselves with a lot of psychological problems, or on a lot of medications to keep us from going crazy.There is too much sadness in this present world.It drives people crazy.We all need to find a way to bypass the sadness and bring a little light into our lives.So, I believe our best medicine is to get together and tell some jokes and have some fun laughing together. | 3151.txt | 1 |
[
"Positive.",
"Critical.",
"Satisfied.",
"Indifferent."
]
| What is the author' s attitude towards the present world? | With all the wars, fighting and sadness in the world today, it's not only necessary, but also essential to have a good sense of humor just to help us get through each and every day of our lives.Putting a smile on someone's face when you know they are feeling down in the dumps ( ), as the saying goes, makes me feel good and warms my heart.
How would you feel if you could not joke around with your wife, husband, child, co-worker neighbor, close friend, or even just someone that you are standing in line with at your comer store? I am always saying things that make others smile or laugh, even if I don't know the person I'm joking around with.My Grandma always found humor in everything she did, even if it was the hardest job anyone could imagine.This not only relieves stress in any situation, but also is common courtesy to speak to others that are around you.
I know of a few people that don't have a funny bone in their bodies, as they say.Everyone around them could be rolling on the floor after hearing a great joke and they would sit there without the slightest smile on their face.They don't get the joke that makes others laugh.I am busting a gut while they just sit there, looking at me as if I were from outer space.How can people not get a really funny joke?
Laughing is essential to keep your stress levels under control.Without humor we would find ourselves with a lot of psychological problems, or on a lot of medications to keep us from going crazy.There is too much sadness in this present world.It drives people crazy.We all need to find a way to bypass the sadness and bring a little light into our lives.So, I believe our best medicine is to get together and tell some jokes and have some fun laughing together. | 3151.txt | 1 |
[
"40 years",
"21 years",
"10 years",
"9 years"
]
| The first games for the desabled were held _ after Sir Ludwig Guttmann arrived in England. | 40 Years ago the idea of disabled people doing sport was never heard of.But when the annual games for the disabled were started at Stoke Mandeville,England in 1984 by Sir Ludwig Guttmann,the situation began to change.
Sir Ludwig Guttmann,who had been driven to England in 1939 from Nazi Gernamy,had been asked by the British government to set up an injuries centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital near London.His ideas about treating injuries included sport for the disabled.
In the first games just tow teams of injured soldiers took part.The next year,1949,five teams took part.From those beginnings,things have developed fast.Teams now come from abroad to Stoke Mandeville every year.In 1960 the first Olympics for the Disabled were held in Rome,in the same place as the normal Olympic Games,although they are organized separately.In other years Games for the Disabled are still held at Stoke Mandeville.In the 1984 wheelchair Olympic Games,1064 wheelchair athletes from about 40 countries took part.Unfortunately,they were held at Stoke Mandeville and not in Los Angeles,along with the other Olympics.
The Games have been a great success in promoting international friendshiop and understanding,and in proving that being disabled does not mean you can't enjoy sport.One small source of disappointment for those who organize and take part in the games,however,has been the unwillingness of the International Olympic Committee to include disabled events at the Olympic Games for the able-bodied.Perhaps a few more years are still needed to convince those fortunate enough not to be disabled that their disabled fellow athlets should not be excluded. | 2951.txt | 2 |
[
"New York",
"London",
"Rome",
"Los Angeles"
]
| Besides Stoke Mandeville,surely the games for the disabled were once held in _ . | 40 Years ago the idea of disabled people doing sport was never heard of.But when the annual games for the disabled were started at Stoke Mandeville,England in 1984 by Sir Ludwig Guttmann,the situation began to change.
Sir Ludwig Guttmann,who had been driven to England in 1939 from Nazi Gernamy,had been asked by the British government to set up an injuries centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital near London.His ideas about treating injuries included sport for the disabled.
In the first games just tow teams of injured soldiers took part.The next year,1949,five teams took part.From those beginnings,things have developed fast.Teams now come from abroad to Stoke Mandeville every year.In 1960 the first Olympics for the Disabled were held in Rome,in the same place as the normal Olympic Games,although they are organized separately.In other years Games for the Disabled are still held at Stoke Mandeville.In the 1984 wheelchair Olympic Games,1064 wheelchair athletes from about 40 countries took part.Unfortunately,they were held at Stoke Mandeville and not in Los Angeles,along with the other Olympics.
The Games have been a great success in promoting international friendshiop and understanding,and in proving that being disabled does not mean you can't enjoy sport.One small source of disappointment for those who organize and take part in the games,however,has been the unwillingness of the International Olympic Committee to include disabled events at the Olympic Games for the able-bodied.Perhaps a few more years are still needed to convince those fortunate enough not to be disabled that their disabled fellow athlets should not be excluded. | 2951.txt | 1 |
[
"people who support the games",
"people who watch the games",
"people who organize the games",
"people who compete in the games"
]
| In Paragraph 3,the word "athletes" means _ . | 40 Years ago the idea of disabled people doing sport was never heard of.But when the annual games for the disabled were started at Stoke Mandeville,England in 1984 by Sir Ludwig Guttmann,the situation began to change.
Sir Ludwig Guttmann,who had been driven to England in 1939 from Nazi Gernamy,had been asked by the British government to set up an injuries centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital near London.His ideas about treating injuries included sport for the disabled.
In the first games just tow teams of injured soldiers took part.The next year,1949,five teams took part.From those beginnings,things have developed fast.Teams now come from abroad to Stoke Mandeville every year.In 1960 the first Olympics for the Disabled were held in Rome,in the same place as the normal Olympic Games,although they are organized separately.In other years Games for the Disabled are still held at Stoke Mandeville.In the 1984 wheelchair Olympic Games,1064 wheelchair athletes from about 40 countries took part.Unfortunately,they were held at Stoke Mandeville and not in Los Angeles,along with the other Olympics.
The Games have been a great success in promoting international friendshiop and understanding,and in proving that being disabled does not mean you can't enjoy sport.One small source of disappointment for those who organize and take part in the games,however,has been the unwillingness of the International Olympic Committee to include disabled events at the Olympic Games for the able-bodied.Perhaps a few more years are still needed to convince those fortunate enough not to be disabled that their disabled fellow athlets should not be excluded. | 2951.txt | 2 |
[
"Sir Ludwig Guttmann is an early organizer of the games for the disabled.",
"Sir Ludwig Guttmann is an injured soldier.",
"Sir Ludwig Guttmann is from Germany.",
"Sir Ludwig Guttmann is welcomed by the British government."
]
| Which of the following statements in NOT true? | 40 Years ago the idea of disabled people doing sport was never heard of.But when the annual games for the disabled were started at Stoke Mandeville,England in 1984 by Sir Ludwig Guttmann,the situation began to change.
Sir Ludwig Guttmann,who had been driven to England in 1939 from Nazi Gernamy,had been asked by the British government to set up an injuries centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital near London.His ideas about treating injuries included sport for the disabled.
In the first games just tow teams of injured soldiers took part.The next year,1949,five teams took part.From those beginnings,things have developed fast.Teams now come from abroad to Stoke Mandeville every year.In 1960 the first Olympics for the Disabled were held in Rome,in the same place as the normal Olympic Games,although they are organized separately.In other years Games for the Disabled are still held at Stoke Mandeville.In the 1984 wheelchair Olympic Games,1064 wheelchair athletes from about 40 countries took part.Unfortunately,they were held at Stoke Mandeville and not in Los Angeles,along with the other Olympics.
The Games have been a great success in promoting international friendshiop and understanding,and in proving that being disabled does not mean you can't enjoy sport.One small source of disappointment for those who organize and take part in the games,however,has been the unwillingness of the International Olympic Committee to include disabled events at the Olympic Games for the able-bodied.Perhaps a few more years are still needed to convince those fortunate enough not to be disabled that their disabled fellow athlets should not be excluded. | 2951.txt | 2 |
[
"one of the organizers of the games for the disabled",
"a disabled person who once took part in the games",
"against holding the games for the disabled",
"in favour of holding the games for the disabled"
]
| From the passage,we may conclude that the writer is _ . | 40 Years ago the idea of disabled people doing sport was never heard of.But when the annual games for the disabled were started at Stoke Mandeville,England in 1984 by Sir Ludwig Guttmann,the situation began to change.
Sir Ludwig Guttmann,who had been driven to England in 1939 from Nazi Gernamy,had been asked by the British government to set up an injuries centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital near London.His ideas about treating injuries included sport for the disabled.
In the first games just tow teams of injured soldiers took part.The next year,1949,five teams took part.From those beginnings,things have developed fast.Teams now come from abroad to Stoke Mandeville every year.In 1960 the first Olympics for the Disabled were held in Rome,in the same place as the normal Olympic Games,although they are organized separately.In other years Games for the Disabled are still held at Stoke Mandeville.In the 1984 wheelchair Olympic Games,1064 wheelchair athletes from about 40 countries took part.Unfortunately,they were held at Stoke Mandeville and not in Los Angeles,along with the other Olympics.
The Games have been a great success in promoting international friendshiop and understanding,and in proving that being disabled does not mean you can't enjoy sport.One small source of disappointment for those who organize and take part in the games,however,has been the unwillingness of the International Olympic Committee to include disabled events at the Olympic Games for the able-bodied.Perhaps a few more years are still needed to convince those fortunate enough not to be disabled that their disabled fellow athlets should not be excluded. | 2951.txt | 1 |
[
"The electric lamp.",
"The Community Book Club.",
"Great books of the Western world.",
"Thomas Alva Edison's love for books."
]
| What is the main topic of this talk? | When I was asked to speak at the Community Book Club luncheon,I thought about several topics that might be of interests to a group of readers,and I considered doing a book review or discussing the life of a well known literary figure,but Ithought I would break with tradition today in order to share some anecdotes from the life of a man,who,like you,enjoyed reading.
In spite of the fact that Thomas Alva Edison had almost no formal education,spending only three months in school,his mother taught him to read at quite an earlyage.Between the ages of nine and twelve,he read such difficult volumes as Humes' History of England,Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,and Neon's Principia.
As a young man,Mr Edison decided to read all of the books in the Detroit public library,systematically shelf by shelf.After finishing the first fifteen feet,he decided to reconsider the task.
A few years later,in Cincinnati,his love for reading almost cost him his life.Having stayed at the library until very late,Mr Edison started home with a pile o
f old magaines for which he had paid the large sum of two dollars.Suspectin
g that he might be a thief,a policeman ordered him to stop.But Mr Edison was too deaf to hear the order.The policeman shot,and missed.
Inadditiontotheelectriclight,ThomasEdisonisknownforinventingthephotograph,microphone,mi meograph,electric storage battery,and photographic film.Whenever he was paid for an invention,he used the money for his two loves-more experiments and more books.
A friend described Edison's life in those busy days."I went to visit Tom,"he said,"and I found him sitting behind a pile of books five feet high which he had ordered from New York,London,and Paris.He studied them night and day,eating at his desk and sleeping in his chair.In six weeks he had read all of the books and had performed more than two thousand experiments using the formulas that he had studied." | 4198.txt | 3 |
[
"Thomas Edison was a famous man",
"Thomas Edison was a well known literary figure",
"Thomas Edison liked to read very much",
"he chose to review a book about Thomas Edison"
]
| The reason why the speaker chose to talk about Thomas Edison is that _ | When I was asked to speak at the Community Book Club luncheon,I thought about several topics that might be of interests to a group of readers,and I considered doing a book review or discussing the life of a well known literary figure,but Ithought I would break with tradition today in order to share some anecdotes from the life of a man,who,like you,enjoyed reading.
In spite of the fact that Thomas Alva Edison had almost no formal education,spending only three months in school,his mother taught him to read at quite an earlyage.Between the ages of nine and twelve,he read such difficult volumes as Humes' History of England,Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,and Neon's Principia.
As a young man,Mr Edison decided to read all of the books in the Detroit public library,systematically shelf by shelf.After finishing the first fifteen feet,he decided to reconsider the task.
A few years later,in Cincinnati,his love for reading almost cost him his life.Having stayed at the library until very late,Mr Edison started home with a pile o
f old magaines for which he had paid the large sum of two dollars.Suspectin
g that he might be a thief,a policeman ordered him to stop.But Mr Edison was too deaf to hear the order.The policeman shot,and missed.
Inadditiontotheelectriclight,ThomasEdisonisknownforinventingthephotograph,microphone,mi meograph,electric storage battery,and photographic film.Whenever he was paid for an invention,he used the money for his two loves-more experiments and more books.
A friend described Edison's life in those busy days."I went to visit Tom,"he said,"and I found him sitting behind a pile of books five feet high which he had ordered from New York,London,and Paris.He studied them night and day,eating at his desk and sleeping in his chair.In six weeks he had read all of the books and had performed more than two thousand experiments using the formulas that he had studied." | 4198.txt | 2 |
[
"He used the money for travel.",
"He bought books and equipment for more experiments.",
"He gave the money to the public library.",
"He offered the money to his mother."
]
| What did Mr Edison do with the money that he earned from his invention? | When I was asked to speak at the Community Book Club luncheon,I thought about several topics that might be of interests to a group of readers,and I considered doing a book review or discussing the life of a well known literary figure,but Ithought I would break with tradition today in order to share some anecdotes from the life of a man,who,like you,enjoyed reading.
In spite of the fact that Thomas Alva Edison had almost no formal education,spending only three months in school,his mother taught him to read at quite an earlyage.Between the ages of nine and twelve,he read such difficult volumes as Humes' History of England,Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,and Neon's Principia.
As a young man,Mr Edison decided to read all of the books in the Detroit public library,systematically shelf by shelf.After finishing the first fifteen feet,he decided to reconsider the task.
A few years later,in Cincinnati,his love for reading almost cost him his life.Having stayed at the library until very late,Mr Edison started home with a pile o
f old magaines for which he had paid the large sum of two dollars.Suspectin
g that he might be a thief,a policeman ordered him to stop.But Mr Edison was too deaf to hear the order.The policeman shot,and missed.
Inadditiontotheelectriclight,ThomasEdisonisknownforinventingthephotograph,microphone,mi meograph,electric storage battery,and photographic film.Whenever he was paid for an invention,he used the money for his two loves-more experiments and more books.
A friend described Edison's life in those busy days."I went to visit Tom,"he said,"and I found him sitting behind a pile of books five feet high which he had ordered from New York,London,and Paris.He studied them night and day,eating at his desk and sleeping in his chair.In six weeks he had read all of the books and had performed more than two thousand experiments using the formulas that he had studied." | 4198.txt | 1 |
[
"he received most of his education from reading",
"he never attended school",
"he learned to read as a young man",
"he read only science and technology books"
]
| From the passage about Edison we can infer _ . | When I was asked to speak at the Community Book Club luncheon,I thought about several topics that might be of interests to a group of readers,and I considered doing a book review or discussing the life of a well known literary figure,but Ithought I would break with tradition today in order to share some anecdotes from the life of a man,who,like you,enjoyed reading.
In spite of the fact that Thomas Alva Edison had almost no formal education,spending only three months in school,his mother taught him to read at quite an earlyage.Between the ages of nine and twelve,he read such difficult volumes as Humes' History of England,Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,and Neon's Principia.
As a young man,Mr Edison decided to read all of the books in the Detroit public library,systematically shelf by shelf.After finishing the first fifteen feet,he decided to reconsider the task.
A few years later,in Cincinnati,his love for reading almost cost him his life.Having stayed at the library until very late,Mr Edison started home with a pile o
f old magaines for which he had paid the large sum of two dollars.Suspectin
g that he might be a thief,a policeman ordered him to stop.But Mr Edison was too deaf to hear the order.The policeman shot,and missed.
Inadditiontotheelectriclight,ThomasEdisonisknownforinventingthephotograph,microphone,mi meograph,electric storage battery,and photographic film.Whenever he was paid for an invention,he used the money for his two loves-more experiments and more books.
A friend described Edison's life in those busy days."I went to visit Tom,"he said,"and I found him sitting behind a pile of books five feet high which he had ordered from New York,London,and Paris.He studied them night and day,eating at his desk and sleeping in his chair.In six weeks he had read all of the books and had performed more than two thousand experiments using the formulas that he had studied." | 4198.txt | 0 |
[
"Because it has recently made some movies about different ancient tribes.",
"Because it has recently moved from Hollywood to Bollywood for development.",
"Because it lately has seen many ups and downs when cooperating with peer companies.",
"Because it eventually reached its promised land of partnership with Disneyland."
]
| Why is DreamWorks SKG described at the beginning of the article as a wandering tribe? | Lately DreamWorks SKG has been a wandering tribe. The would-be studio, which made films such as" American Beauty" and" War of the Worlds" , sold itself to Paramount in 2005. When that arrangement fell apart it found new partners in Reliance Big Entertainment, a Bollywood outfit, and Universal Studios. Then it fell out with Universal. So it was rather a surprise when, on February 9th, DreamWorks abruptly found itself in the promised land. Disney, the world's foremost purveyor of wholesome entertainment, lent it money and agreed to market and distribute its films.
It is a good illustration of how the economic downturn is affecting Hollywood. Until recently executives were boasting that the film business was resistant, perhaps even immune, to recession. The number of cinema tickets sold actually increased during three out of the past four recessions. Box-office receipts so far this year are higher than last year. Admittedly, the share prices of media companies have tumbled-but that is because of the collapse in television and print advertising, and has little to do with Tinseltown.
Yet the downturn has profoundly affected the art of dealmaking. Although the breakdown of negotiations between DreamWorks and Universal has been followed by a storm of recriminations, the heart of the problem was that DreamWorks was finding it unexpectedly hard to raise debt. It is hardly alone in that. Two years ago investors were lubricating all sorts of strange alliances and start-ups-Tom Cruise wants to resurrect United Artists? Why not? But now the outside money has all but disappeared. The big studios, the primacy of which was never exactly threatened during the boom years, are now almost the only game in town.
The alliance with DreamWorks is something of an about-turn for Disney. Under Bob Iger, who took over as chief executive in 2005, Disney has culled films that are a less than perfect fit for its family-friendly brand and has concentrated on turning those that are into amusement-park rides, lunch boxes and other spin-offs. This week's deal will add as many as six films a year to Disney's pipeline, swelling it by about half. The surge will not happen at once, however: DreamWorks will have to raise more money before it is capable of producing that many.
These days DreamWorks is largely Steven Spielberg's outfit. Jeffrey Katzenberg （the" K" in SKG）runs DreamWorks Animation, a separate, publicly owned company. David Geffen （the" G" ）has retired from the studio. The remaining founder spoke warmly of Disney this week, calling it the" birthplace of imagination" . He is said to be looking forward to making more family films. Perhaps, but he still looks a little out of place in the magic kingdom.
Mr. Spielberg became America's best-known, and perhaps best, film director by fusing blockbuster spectacle with an unflinching take on family life. The households even in his PG-rated films are almost uniformly dysfunctional. Think of Richard Dreyfuss flinging plants through the window in" Close Encounters of the Third Kind" , Frances O'Connor abandoning her adopted robot son by the roadside in" A.I." or the defeated, self-deluding Christopher Walken in" Catch Me If You Can" . It is hard to imagine any of them donning Mickey Mouse ears. | 457.txt | 2 |
[
"Companies' operation and other business activities are profoundly affected.",
"Hollywood provides the services that are resistant to economic crisis.",
"The recession has promoted the movie industry as more people watch movies.",
"Most movie companies are sunk in debt crisis because of the economic recession."
]
| According to the text, which is the influence of economic downturn on Hollywood's entertainment business? | Lately DreamWorks SKG has been a wandering tribe. The would-be studio, which made films such as" American Beauty" and" War of the Worlds" , sold itself to Paramount in 2005. When that arrangement fell apart it found new partners in Reliance Big Entertainment, a Bollywood outfit, and Universal Studios. Then it fell out with Universal. So it was rather a surprise when, on February 9th, DreamWorks abruptly found itself in the promised land. Disney, the world's foremost purveyor of wholesome entertainment, lent it money and agreed to market and distribute its films.
It is a good illustration of how the economic downturn is affecting Hollywood. Until recently executives were boasting that the film business was resistant, perhaps even immune, to recession. The number of cinema tickets sold actually increased during three out of the past four recessions. Box-office receipts so far this year are higher than last year. Admittedly, the share prices of media companies have tumbled-but that is because of the collapse in television and print advertising, and has little to do with Tinseltown.
Yet the downturn has profoundly affected the art of dealmaking. Although the breakdown of negotiations between DreamWorks and Universal has been followed by a storm of recriminations, the heart of the problem was that DreamWorks was finding it unexpectedly hard to raise debt. It is hardly alone in that. Two years ago investors were lubricating all sorts of strange alliances and start-ups-Tom Cruise wants to resurrect United Artists? Why not? But now the outside money has all but disappeared. The big studios, the primacy of which was never exactly threatened during the boom years, are now almost the only game in town.
The alliance with DreamWorks is something of an about-turn for Disney. Under Bob Iger, who took over as chief executive in 2005, Disney has culled films that are a less than perfect fit for its family-friendly brand and has concentrated on turning those that are into amusement-park rides, lunch boxes and other spin-offs. This week's deal will add as many as six films a year to Disney's pipeline, swelling it by about half. The surge will not happen at once, however: DreamWorks will have to raise more money before it is capable of producing that many.
These days DreamWorks is largely Steven Spielberg's outfit. Jeffrey Katzenberg （the" K" in SKG）runs DreamWorks Animation, a separate, publicly owned company. David Geffen （the" G" ）has retired from the studio. The remaining founder spoke warmly of Disney this week, calling it the" birthplace of imagination" . He is said to be looking forward to making more family films. Perhaps, but he still looks a little out of place in the magic kingdom.
Mr. Spielberg became America's best-known, and perhaps best, film director by fusing blockbuster spectacle with an unflinching take on family life. The households even in his PG-rated films are almost uniformly dysfunctional. Think of Richard Dreyfuss flinging plants through the window in" Close Encounters of the Third Kind" , Frances O'Connor abandoning her adopted robot son by the roadside in" A.I." or the defeated, self-deluding Christopher Walken in" Catch Me If You Can" . It is hard to imagine any of them donning Mickey Mouse ears. | 457.txt | 0 |
[
"adding more movies to the company's pipeline",
"switching from movie-making to amusement park",
"raising more money to expand the size of the company",
"further clarifying the company's brand"
]
| Bob Iger's strategy for Disneyland centers on _ . | Lately DreamWorks SKG has been a wandering tribe. The would-be studio, which made films such as" American Beauty" and" War of the Worlds" , sold itself to Paramount in 2005. When that arrangement fell apart it found new partners in Reliance Big Entertainment, a Bollywood outfit, and Universal Studios. Then it fell out with Universal. So it was rather a surprise when, on February 9th, DreamWorks abruptly found itself in the promised land. Disney, the world's foremost purveyor of wholesome entertainment, lent it money and agreed to market and distribute its films.
It is a good illustration of how the economic downturn is affecting Hollywood. Until recently executives were boasting that the film business was resistant, perhaps even immune, to recession. The number of cinema tickets sold actually increased during three out of the past four recessions. Box-office receipts so far this year are higher than last year. Admittedly, the share prices of media companies have tumbled-but that is because of the collapse in television and print advertising, and has little to do with Tinseltown.
Yet the downturn has profoundly affected the art of dealmaking. Although the breakdown of negotiations between DreamWorks and Universal has been followed by a storm of recriminations, the heart of the problem was that DreamWorks was finding it unexpectedly hard to raise debt. It is hardly alone in that. Two years ago investors were lubricating all sorts of strange alliances and start-ups-Tom Cruise wants to resurrect United Artists? Why not? But now the outside money has all but disappeared. The big studios, the primacy of which was never exactly threatened during the boom years, are now almost the only game in town.
The alliance with DreamWorks is something of an about-turn for Disney. Under Bob Iger, who took over as chief executive in 2005, Disney has culled films that are a less than perfect fit for its family-friendly brand and has concentrated on turning those that are into amusement-park rides, lunch boxes and other spin-offs. This week's deal will add as many as six films a year to Disney's pipeline, swelling it by about half. The surge will not happen at once, however: DreamWorks will have to raise more money before it is capable of producing that many.
These days DreamWorks is largely Steven Spielberg's outfit. Jeffrey Katzenberg （the" K" in SKG）runs DreamWorks Animation, a separate, publicly owned company. David Geffen （the" G" ）has retired from the studio. The remaining founder spoke warmly of Disney this week, calling it the" birthplace of imagination" . He is said to be looking forward to making more family films. Perhaps, but he still looks a little out of place in the magic kingdom.
Mr. Spielberg became America's best-known, and perhaps best, film director by fusing blockbuster spectacle with an unflinching take on family life. The households even in his PG-rated films are almost uniformly dysfunctional. Think of Richard Dreyfuss flinging plants through the window in" Close Encounters of the Third Kind" , Frances O'Connor abandoning her adopted robot son by the roadside in" A.I." or the defeated, self-deluding Christopher Walken in" Catch Me If You Can" . It is hard to imagine any of them donning Mickey Mouse ears. | 457.txt | 3 |
[
"the founder of DreamWorks",
"good at combing grand scenes with details in reality",
"the best director in American movie history",
"a major advocator of family movies"
]
| Steven Spielberg, according to the text, is said to be _ . | Lately DreamWorks SKG has been a wandering tribe. The would-be studio, which made films such as" American Beauty" and" War of the Worlds" , sold itself to Paramount in 2005. When that arrangement fell apart it found new partners in Reliance Big Entertainment, a Bollywood outfit, and Universal Studios. Then it fell out with Universal. So it was rather a surprise when, on February 9th, DreamWorks abruptly found itself in the promised land. Disney, the world's foremost purveyor of wholesome entertainment, lent it money and agreed to market and distribute its films.
It is a good illustration of how the economic downturn is affecting Hollywood. Until recently executives were boasting that the film business was resistant, perhaps even immune, to recession. The number of cinema tickets sold actually increased during three out of the past four recessions. Box-office receipts so far this year are higher than last year. Admittedly, the share prices of media companies have tumbled-but that is because of the collapse in television and print advertising, and has little to do with Tinseltown.
Yet the downturn has profoundly affected the art of dealmaking. Although the breakdown of negotiations between DreamWorks and Universal has been followed by a storm of recriminations, the heart of the problem was that DreamWorks was finding it unexpectedly hard to raise debt. It is hardly alone in that. Two years ago investors were lubricating all sorts of strange alliances and start-ups-Tom Cruise wants to resurrect United Artists? Why not? But now the outside money has all but disappeared. The big studios, the primacy of which was never exactly threatened during the boom years, are now almost the only game in town.
The alliance with DreamWorks is something of an about-turn for Disney. Under Bob Iger, who took over as chief executive in 2005, Disney has culled films that are a less than perfect fit for its family-friendly brand and has concentrated on turning those that are into amusement-park rides, lunch boxes and other spin-offs. This week's deal will add as many as six films a year to Disney's pipeline, swelling it by about half. The surge will not happen at once, however: DreamWorks will have to raise more money before it is capable of producing that many.
These days DreamWorks is largely Steven Spielberg's outfit. Jeffrey Katzenberg （the" K" in SKG）runs DreamWorks Animation, a separate, publicly owned company. David Geffen （the" G" ）has retired from the studio. The remaining founder spoke warmly of Disney this week, calling it the" birthplace of imagination" . He is said to be looking forward to making more family films. Perhaps, but he still looks a little out of place in the magic kingdom.
Mr. Spielberg became America's best-known, and perhaps best, film director by fusing blockbuster spectacle with an unflinching take on family life. The households even in his PG-rated films are almost uniformly dysfunctional. Think of Richard Dreyfuss flinging plants through the window in" Close Encounters of the Third Kind" , Frances O'Connor abandoning her adopted robot son by the roadside in" A.I." or the defeated, self-deluding Christopher Walken in" Catch Me If You Can" . It is hard to imagine any of them donning Mickey Mouse ears. | 457.txt | 1 |
[
"It will result in Spielberg's concentration shift onto more family movies.",
"They will add cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse to real-life movies.",
"The combination looks somewhat weird and the prospect is not cheerful.",
"The two companies will definitely find themselves incompatible with each others."
]
| What does the author think of the partnership between Disneyland and DreamWorks? | Lately DreamWorks SKG has been a wandering tribe. The would-be studio, which made films such as" American Beauty" and" War of the Worlds" , sold itself to Paramount in 2005. When that arrangement fell apart it found new partners in Reliance Big Entertainment, a Bollywood outfit, and Universal Studios. Then it fell out with Universal. So it was rather a surprise when, on February 9th, DreamWorks abruptly found itself in the promised land. Disney, the world's foremost purveyor of wholesome entertainment, lent it money and agreed to market and distribute its films.
It is a good illustration of how the economic downturn is affecting Hollywood. Until recently executives were boasting that the film business was resistant, perhaps even immune, to recession. The number of cinema tickets sold actually increased during three out of the past four recessions. Box-office receipts so far this year are higher than last year. Admittedly, the share prices of media companies have tumbled-but that is because of the collapse in television and print advertising, and has little to do with Tinseltown.
Yet the downturn has profoundly affected the art of dealmaking. Although the breakdown of negotiations between DreamWorks and Universal has been followed by a storm of recriminations, the heart of the problem was that DreamWorks was finding it unexpectedly hard to raise debt. It is hardly alone in that. Two years ago investors were lubricating all sorts of strange alliances and start-ups-Tom Cruise wants to resurrect United Artists? Why not? But now the outside money has all but disappeared. The big studios, the primacy of which was never exactly threatened during the boom years, are now almost the only game in town.
The alliance with DreamWorks is something of an about-turn for Disney. Under Bob Iger, who took over as chief executive in 2005, Disney has culled films that are a less than perfect fit for its family-friendly brand and has concentrated on turning those that are into amusement-park rides, lunch boxes and other spin-offs. This week's deal will add as many as six films a year to Disney's pipeline, swelling it by about half. The surge will not happen at once, however: DreamWorks will have to raise more money before it is capable of producing that many.
These days DreamWorks is largely Steven Spielberg's outfit. Jeffrey Katzenberg （the" K" in SKG）runs DreamWorks Animation, a separate, publicly owned company. David Geffen （the" G" ）has retired from the studio. The remaining founder spoke warmly of Disney this week, calling it the" birthplace of imagination" . He is said to be looking forward to making more family films. Perhaps, but he still looks a little out of place in the magic kingdom.
Mr. Spielberg became America's best-known, and perhaps best, film director by fusing blockbuster spectacle with an unflinching take on family life. The households even in his PG-rated films are almost uniformly dysfunctional. Think of Richard Dreyfuss flinging plants through the window in" Close Encounters of the Third Kind" , Frances O'Connor abandoning her adopted robot son by the roadside in" A.I." or the defeated, self-deluding Christopher Walken in" Catch Me If You Can" . It is hard to imagine any of them donning Mickey Mouse ears. | 457.txt | 2 |
[
"before adolescence",
"during institutional treatment",
"during adolescence",
"when the problem becomes acute"
]
| According to the author, delinquency should be tackled _ . | It being not only possible but even easy to predict which ten-year-old boys are at greatest risk of growing up to be persistent offenders, what are we doing with the information? Just about the last thing that we should do is to wait until their troubles have escalated in adolescence and then attack them with the provisions of the new Criminal Justice Bill.
If this bill becomes law, magistrates will have the power to impose residential care orders. More young people will be drawn into institutional life when all the evidence shows that this worsens rather than improves their prospects. The introduction of short sharp shocks in detention centers will simply give more young people a taste of something else they don't need; the whole regime of detention centers is one of toughening delinquents, and if you want to train someone to be anti-establishment, "I can't think of a better way to do it," says the writer of this report.
The Cambridge Institute of Criminology comes up with five key factors that are likely to make for delinquency: a low income family a large family, parents deemed by social workers to be bad at raising children, parents who themselves have a criminal record, and low intelligence in the child. Not surprisingly, the factors tend to overlap. Of the 63 boys in the sample who had at least three of them when they were ten, half became juvenile delinquents-compared with only a fifth of the sample as a whole.
Three more factors make the prediction more accurate: being judged troublesome by teachers at the age of ten, having a father with at least two criminal convictions and having another member of the family with a criminal record. Of the 35 men who had at least two of these factors in their background 18 became persistent delinquents and 8 more were in trouble with the law.
Among those key factors, far and away the most important was having a parent with a criminal record, even if that had been acquired in the distant past, even though very few parents did other than condemn delinquent behavior in their children.
The role of the schools emerges as extremely important. The most reliable prediction of all on the futures of boys came from teachers' ratings of how troublesome they were at the age of ten. If the information is there in the classroom there must be a response that brings more attention to those troublesome children: a search for things to give them credit for other than academic achievement, a refusal to allow them to go on playing truant, and a fostering of ambition and opportunity which should start early in their school careers. | 1789.txt | 0 |
[
"new legal measures",
"better residential care",
"brief periods of harsh punishment",
"examination of their backgrounds"
]
| The number of young offenders could be reduced by the way of _ . | It being not only possible but even easy to predict which ten-year-old boys are at greatest risk of growing up to be persistent offenders, what are we doing with the information? Just about the last thing that we should do is to wait until their troubles have escalated in adolescence and then attack them with the provisions of the new Criminal Justice Bill.
If this bill becomes law, magistrates will have the power to impose residential care orders. More young people will be drawn into institutional life when all the evidence shows that this worsens rather than improves their prospects. The introduction of short sharp shocks in detention centers will simply give more young people a taste of something else they don't need; the whole regime of detention centers is one of toughening delinquents, and if you want to train someone to be anti-establishment, "I can't think of a better way to do it," says the writer of this report.
The Cambridge Institute of Criminology comes up with five key factors that are likely to make for delinquency: a low income family a large family, parents deemed by social workers to be bad at raising children, parents who themselves have a criminal record, and low intelligence in the child. Not surprisingly, the factors tend to overlap. Of the 63 boys in the sample who had at least three of them when they were ten, half became juvenile delinquents-compared with only a fifth of the sample as a whole.
Three more factors make the prediction more accurate: being judged troublesome by teachers at the age of ten, having a father with at least two criminal convictions and having another member of the family with a criminal record. Of the 35 men who had at least two of these factors in their background 18 became persistent delinquents and 8 more were in trouble with the law.
Among those key factors, far and away the most important was having a parent with a criminal record, even if that had been acquired in the distant past, even though very few parents did other than condemn delinquent behavior in their children.
The role of the schools emerges as extremely important. The most reliable prediction of all on the futures of boys came from teachers' ratings of how troublesome they were at the age of ten. If the information is there in the classroom there must be a response that brings more attention to those troublesome children: a search for things to give them credit for other than academic achievement, a refusal to allow them to go on playing truant, and a fostering of ambition and opportunity which should start early in their school careers. | 1789.txt | 3 |
[
"They become more violent",
"They receive useful training",
"They become used to institutions",
"They turn against society"
]
| What is the outcome result of putting young offenders into detention centers? | It being not only possible but even easy to predict which ten-year-old boys are at greatest risk of growing up to be persistent offenders, what are we doing with the information? Just about the last thing that we should do is to wait until their troubles have escalated in adolescence and then attack them with the provisions of the new Criminal Justice Bill.
If this bill becomes law, magistrates will have the power to impose residential care orders. More young people will be drawn into institutional life when all the evidence shows that this worsens rather than improves their prospects. The introduction of short sharp shocks in detention centers will simply give more young people a taste of something else they don't need; the whole regime of detention centers is one of toughening delinquents, and if you want to train someone to be anti-establishment, "I can't think of a better way to do it," says the writer of this report.
The Cambridge Institute of Criminology comes up with five key factors that are likely to make for delinquency: a low income family a large family, parents deemed by social workers to be bad at raising children, parents who themselves have a criminal record, and low intelligence in the child. Not surprisingly, the factors tend to overlap. Of the 63 boys in the sample who had at least three of them when they were ten, half became juvenile delinquents-compared with only a fifth of the sample as a whole.
Three more factors make the prediction more accurate: being judged troublesome by teachers at the age of ten, having a father with at least two criminal convictions and having another member of the family with a criminal record. Of the 35 men who had at least two of these factors in their background 18 became persistent delinquents and 8 more were in trouble with the law.
Among those key factors, far and away the most important was having a parent with a criminal record, even if that had been acquired in the distant past, even though very few parents did other than condemn delinquent behavior in their children.
The role of the schools emerges as extremely important. The most reliable prediction of all on the futures of boys came from teachers' ratings of how troublesome they were at the age of ten. If the information is there in the classroom there must be a response that brings more attention to those troublesome children: a search for things to give them credit for other than academic achievement, a refusal to allow them to go on playing truant, and a fostering of ambition and opportunity which should start early in their school careers. | 1789.txt | 3 |
[
"spoilt children from small families.",
"bright children in a poor family.",
"dull children with many brothers and sisters.",
"children whose parents have acquired wealth dishonestly."
]
| Ten-year-old children likely to become offenders are usually_ . | It being not only possible but even easy to predict which ten-year-old boys are at greatest risk of growing up to be persistent offenders, what are we doing with the information? Just about the last thing that we should do is to wait until their troubles have escalated in adolescence and then attack them with the provisions of the new Criminal Justice Bill.
If this bill becomes law, magistrates will have the power to impose residential care orders. More young people will be drawn into institutional life when all the evidence shows that this worsens rather than improves their prospects. The introduction of short sharp shocks in detention centers will simply give more young people a taste of something else they don't need; the whole regime of detention centers is one of toughening delinquents, and if you want to train someone to be anti-establishment, "I can't think of a better way to do it," says the writer of this report.
The Cambridge Institute of Criminology comes up with five key factors that are likely to make for delinquency: a low income family a large family, parents deemed by social workers to be bad at raising children, parents who themselves have a criminal record, and low intelligence in the child. Not surprisingly, the factors tend to overlap. Of the 63 boys in the sample who had at least three of them when they were ten, half became juvenile delinquents-compared with only a fifth of the sample as a whole.
Three more factors make the prediction more accurate: being judged troublesome by teachers at the age of ten, having a father with at least two criminal convictions and having another member of the family with a criminal record. Of the 35 men who had at least two of these factors in their background 18 became persistent delinquents and 8 more were in trouble with the law.
Among those key factors, far and away the most important was having a parent with a criminal record, even if that had been acquired in the distant past, even though very few parents did other than condemn delinquent behavior in their children.
The role of the schools emerges as extremely important. The most reliable prediction of all on the futures of boys came from teachers' ratings of how troublesome they were at the age of ten. If the information is there in the classroom there must be a response that brings more attention to those troublesome children: a search for things to give them credit for other than academic achievement, a refusal to allow them to go on playing truant, and a fostering of ambition and opportunity which should start early in their school careers. | 1789.txt | 2 |
[
"spending more time at school",
"more encouragement at school",
"more activities outside school",
"stricter treatment from teachers"
]
| The writer concludes that potential offenders could be helped by _ . | It being not only possible but even easy to predict which ten-year-old boys are at greatest risk of growing up to be persistent offenders, what are we doing with the information? Just about the last thing that we should do is to wait until their troubles have escalated in adolescence and then attack them with the provisions of the new Criminal Justice Bill.
If this bill becomes law, magistrates will have the power to impose residential care orders. More young people will be drawn into institutional life when all the evidence shows that this worsens rather than improves their prospects. The introduction of short sharp shocks in detention centers will simply give more young people a taste of something else they don't need; the whole regime of detention centers is one of toughening delinquents, and if you want to train someone to be anti-establishment, "I can't think of a better way to do it," says the writer of this report.
The Cambridge Institute of Criminology comes up with five key factors that are likely to make for delinquency: a low income family a large family, parents deemed by social workers to be bad at raising children, parents who themselves have a criminal record, and low intelligence in the child. Not surprisingly, the factors tend to overlap. Of the 63 boys in the sample who had at least three of them when they were ten, half became juvenile delinquents-compared with only a fifth of the sample as a whole.
Three more factors make the prediction more accurate: being judged troublesome by teachers at the age of ten, having a father with at least two criminal convictions and having another member of the family with a criminal record. Of the 35 men who had at least two of these factors in their background 18 became persistent delinquents and 8 more were in trouble with the law.
Among those key factors, far and away the most important was having a parent with a criminal record, even if that had been acquired in the distant past, even though very few parents did other than condemn delinquent behavior in their children.
The role of the schools emerges as extremely important. The most reliable prediction of all on the futures of boys came from teachers' ratings of how troublesome they were at the age of ten. If the information is there in the classroom there must be a response that brings more attention to those troublesome children: a search for things to give them credit for other than academic achievement, a refusal to allow them to go on playing truant, and a fostering of ambition and opportunity which should start early in their school careers. | 1789.txt | 1 |
[
"About 70%",
"Almost 50%",
"Nearly 60%",
"More than 12%"
]
| According to the passage, what was the percentage of American adults doing regular physical exercises two years ago? | America is a country on the move. In unheard-of numbers, people of all ages are exercising their way to better health. According to the latest figures, 59 percent of American adults exercise regularly-up 12 percent from just two years ago and more than double the figure of 25 years ago. Even non-exercisers believe they would be more attractive and confident if they were more active.
It is hard not to get the message. The virtues of physical fitness are shown on magazine covers, postage stamps, and television ads for everything from beauty soaps to travel books.
Exercise as a part of daily life did not catch on until the late 1960s when research by military doctors began to show the health benefits of doing regular physical exercises. Growing publicity for races held in American cities helped fuel a strong interest in the ancient sport of running. Although running has leveled off in recent years as Americans have discovered equally rewarding-and sometimes safer-forms of exercise, such as walking and swimming, running, remaining the most popular form of exercise.
As the popularity of exercise continues to mount, so does scientific evidence of its health benefits. The key to fitness is exercising the major muscle groups vigorously enough to approximately double the heart rate and keep it doubled for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. Doing such physical exercises three times or more a week will produce considerable improvements in physical health in about three months. | 3197.txt | 2 |
[
"research showed their health benefits",
"people got the message from magazine covers and postage stamps",
"scientific evidence of health benefits was shown on TV ads",
"an increasing number of races were held in American cities"
]
| A growing interest in sports developed after _ . | America is a country on the move. In unheard-of numbers, people of all ages are exercising their way to better health. According to the latest figures, 59 percent of American adults exercise regularly-up 12 percent from just two years ago and more than double the figure of 25 years ago. Even non-exercisers believe they would be more attractive and confident if they were more active.
It is hard not to get the message. The virtues of physical fitness are shown on magazine covers, postage stamps, and television ads for everything from beauty soaps to travel books.
Exercise as a part of daily life did not catch on until the late 1960s when research by military doctors began to show the health benefits of doing regular physical exercises. Growing publicity for races held in American cities helped fuel a strong interest in the ancient sport of running. Although running has leveled off in recent years as Americans have discovered equally rewarding-and sometimes safer-forms of exercise, such as walking and swimming, running, remaining the most popular form of exercise.
As the popularity of exercise continues to mount, so does scientific evidence of its health benefits. The key to fitness is exercising the major muscle groups vigorously enough to approximately double the heart rate and keep it doubled for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. Doing such physical exercises three times or more a week will produce considerable improvements in physical health in about three months. | 3197.txt | 0 |
[
"\"become very popular\"",
"\"stopped being popular\"",
"\"stopped increasing in popularity\"",
"\"reached its lowest level in popularity\""
]
| Which of the following is closest in meaning to the phrase "leveled off" (Para. 2, Line 8)? | America is a country on the move. In unheard-of numbers, people of all ages are exercising their way to better health. According to the latest figures, 59 percent of American adults exercise regularly-up 12 percent from just two years ago and more than double the figure of 25 years ago. Even non-exercisers believe they would be more attractive and confident if they were more active.
It is hard not to get the message. The virtues of physical fitness are shown on magazine covers, postage stamps, and television ads for everything from beauty soaps to travel books.
Exercise as a part of daily life did not catch on until the late 1960s when research by military doctors began to show the health benefits of doing regular physical exercises. Growing publicity for races held in American cities helped fuel a strong interest in the ancient sport of running. Although running has leveled off in recent years as Americans have discovered equally rewarding-and sometimes safer-forms of exercise, such as walking and swimming, running, remaining the most popular form of exercise.
As the popularity of exercise continues to mount, so does scientific evidence of its health benefits. The key to fitness is exercising the major muscle groups vigorously enough to approximately double the heart rate and keep it doubled for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. Doing such physical exercises three times or more a week will produce considerable improvements in physical health in about three months. | 3197.txt | 3 |
[
"are yet to be proved",
"are to be further studied",
"are self-evident",
"are supported by scientific evidence"
]
| It can be learnt from the passage that the health benefits of exercise _ . | America is a country on the move. In unheard-of numbers, people of all ages are exercising their way to better health. According to the latest figures, 59 percent of American adults exercise regularly-up 12 percent from just two years ago and more than double the figure of 25 years ago. Even non-exercisers believe they would be more attractive and confident if they were more active.
It is hard not to get the message. The virtues of physical fitness are shown on magazine covers, postage stamps, and television ads for everything from beauty soaps to travel books.
Exercise as a part of daily life did not catch on until the late 1960s when research by military doctors began to show the health benefits of doing regular physical exercises. Growing publicity for races held in American cities helped fuel a strong interest in the ancient sport of running. Although running has leveled off in recent years as Americans have discovered equally rewarding-and sometimes safer-forms of exercise, such as walking and swimming, running, remaining the most popular form of exercise.
As the popularity of exercise continues to mount, so does scientific evidence of its health benefits. The key to fitness is exercising the major muscle groups vigorously enough to approximately double the heart rate and keep it doubled for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. Doing such physical exercises three times or more a week will produce considerable improvements in physical health in about three months. | 3197.txt | 2 |
[
"Exercise-The Road to Health.",
"Different Forms of Exercise.",
"Scientific Evidence of Health Benefits.",
"Running A Popular Form of Sport."
]
| Which of the following would be the best TITLE for the passage? | America is a country on the move. In unheard-of numbers, people of all ages are exercising their way to better health. According to the latest figures, 59 percent of American adults exercise regularly-up 12 percent from just two years ago and more than double the figure of 25 years ago. Even non-exercisers believe they would be more attractive and confident if they were more active.
It is hard not to get the message. The virtues of physical fitness are shown on magazine covers, postage stamps, and television ads for everything from beauty soaps to travel books.
Exercise as a part of daily life did not catch on until the late 1960s when research by military doctors began to show the health benefits of doing regular physical exercises. Growing publicity for races held in American cities helped fuel a strong interest in the ancient sport of running. Although running has leveled off in recent years as Americans have discovered equally rewarding-and sometimes safer-forms of exercise, such as walking and swimming, running, remaining the most popular form of exercise.
As the popularity of exercise continues to mount, so does scientific evidence of its health benefits. The key to fitness is exercising the major muscle groups vigorously enough to approximately double the heart rate and keep it doubled for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. Doing such physical exercises three times or more a week will produce considerable improvements in physical health in about three months. | 3197.txt | 1 |
[
"India's withdrawal from the market",
"the credit crunch",
"the irregular global distribution of rain",
"the industrial consolidation"
]
| The main reason for the boom of sugar futures in Brazil is _ . | Since the start of the year the price of sugar futures has almost doubled. This is welcome news for Brazil, the world's largest producer of the stuff. The price spike is mainly explained by unfavourable weather-too little rain in India and too much in Brazil. India's sugar production fell by almost half last year, turning the country from the second-biggest producer to the biggest importer. For Brazil's big sugar companies the timing is perfect: the credit crunch set off a wave of consolidation in an industry that had been resistant to it. The firms that have survived now have more scale and lots of cash.
Louis Dreyfus, a French commodities giant, bought Santelisa Vale, a large processor of sugar cane, in April. Santelisa had expanded fast and taken on too much debt, a common mistake in an industry that had the highest levels of investment of any industry in Brazil before the crunch. Dreyfus, which already trades sugar, soya beans and other Brazilian agricultural goods, wanted to bolster its position. At the other end of the spectrum is Copersucar, a giant cooperative that unites lots of small growers in Sao Paulo state.
The biggest of the lot is Cosan, which alone produces 2.5% of the world's sugar. Last year it bought Exon Mobil's distribution and retailing business in Brazil to help it sell its ethanol. This year it bought Nova America, a smaller sugar company. Like many of Brazil's big companies Cosan mixes family ownership with capital from BNDES, Brazil's government-owned development bank. And like many other Brazilian giants, it has suffered a vicious feud within the founding family over who should run the business.
Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello fought the other members of his family for ten years in Brazil's courts before winning control of Cosan. In 2007 he strengthened his grip by setting up Cosan Limited, a company with a dual share structure that accords some of Mr Mello's shares ten times the voting weight of ordinary ones. To do this, he listed Cosan Limited on the New York Stock Exchange, since Brazil's Novo Mercado, where Cosan was listed at the time, does not allow such arrangements.
Mr Mello, who is splendidly forthright, did not let the subsequent controversy bother him overly. " You're pissing on sludge and you don't know what's under your feet," he once told Dilma Rousseff, one of the front-runners for next year's presidential election, during a discussion of the government's energy policy. Marcos Lutz, an executive at Cosan, argues that the fuss about corporate governance is a distraction. The firm is professionally managed, he insists, and it was no surprise to shareholders that Mr Mello wanted to preserve an outsize say in the firm's strategy.
The market for ethanol has been growing at 17% a year, much faster than that for sugar, points out Luiz Pereira de Araújo of ETH Bioenergia, another fast-growing sugar firm. Such growth is likely to persist, thanks to increased sales of flex-fuel cars, which can run on petrol or ethanol. What is more, the Brazilian sugar-cane growers' association is optimistic that Europe and America will eventually reduce tariffs on Brazilian ethanol. If that happens, Brazil's growers, crushers and distillers will be even happier than they are already. | 428.txt | 2 |
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