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[
"has correctly identified the financial problem in Asia",
"tries to manipulate anti-Western actions for political gains",
"detests the USA's controlling over the regional economies",
"believes in the effect of the ghostly influence from the west"
] | It is implied in the first paragraph that Dr. Mahathir _ . | In recent decades, there is a phenomenon which makes us give some attention; the so-called Southeast Asian "tigers" have rivaled the western "lions" for stock cliches that make economic headlines. The myth of American economic hegemony over Asia in the imposing and patriarchal figure of Uncle Sam has provided frequent political grist for Southeast Asian political leaders, particularly Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir. He has attempted to forge an international reputation as a snarling tiger, but lately sounds more like a barnyard dog groaning at shadows. Without demeaning in any way the remarkable achievements of the newly developing economies of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, these nations at times appear to be their own worst enemies. This is often exemplified by Dr. Mahathir, who rails at Western evil whenever an international or domestic crisis provides an opportunity.
To be more specific, the recent devaluation of the Philippine and Thai currencies, and the subsequent pressure on the Malaysian currency has inspired Dr. Mahathir to launch an all-out attack on the West as the source of the problem. He even alleges that the United States has deli-berately destabilized Southeast Asian economies in revenge for these nations, supporting the brutal military rule in Mahathir, an action which the United States seems to want inspected rather than rewarded. But by resorting to such scapegoat, instead of accepting even a bit responsibility, the Prime Minister may undermine the future success of the region and Malaysia in particular.
Upon further questioning, Dr. Mahathir narrowed his attack to one wealthy individual, the well-known philanthropist, Mr. George Soros, whose opposition to Myanmar's admission to ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Mahathir found particularity, irritating. The logical mistakes that underlie such conspiracy theories do not help Malaysia address the serious issues of economic overheating that experts have been warning about for all these difficult periods, which include large deficits and low savings to debt ratios. In fact, the recent dramatic drop in Malaysia's stock market and currency has led Dr. Mahathir to reverse his initial approach to the crisis. He even announces measures that at least imply he is quite aware of excesses in his own administration's spending policies that have contributed to this crisis of confidence. In the end, this kind of reaction undermines the esteem that Dr. Mahathir's enlightened leadership has justly earned. | 2726.txt | 1 |
[
"the devaluation of Malaysia's currency is due to the American plot",
"the Asian Crisis is the result of ASEAN pandering to terrorist governments",
"there is not a serious economic problems in Southeast Asia at all",
"the economic problems in some Asian countries is partly the result of their overheating economy"
] | The author of this essay seems to suggest that _ . | In recent decades, there is a phenomenon which makes us give some attention; the so-called Southeast Asian "tigers" have rivaled the western "lions" for stock cliches that make economic headlines. The myth of American economic hegemony over Asia in the imposing and patriarchal figure of Uncle Sam has provided frequent political grist for Southeast Asian political leaders, particularly Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir. He has attempted to forge an international reputation as a snarling tiger, but lately sounds more like a barnyard dog groaning at shadows. Without demeaning in any way the remarkable achievements of the newly developing economies of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, these nations at times appear to be their own worst enemies. This is often exemplified by Dr. Mahathir, who rails at Western evil whenever an international or domestic crisis provides an opportunity.
To be more specific, the recent devaluation of the Philippine and Thai currencies, and the subsequent pressure on the Malaysian currency has inspired Dr. Mahathir to launch an all-out attack on the West as the source of the problem. He even alleges that the United States has deli-berately destabilized Southeast Asian economies in revenge for these nations, supporting the brutal military rule in Mahathir, an action which the United States seems to want inspected rather than rewarded. But by resorting to such scapegoat, instead of accepting even a bit responsibility, the Prime Minister may undermine the future success of the region and Malaysia in particular.
Upon further questioning, Dr. Mahathir narrowed his attack to one wealthy individual, the well-known philanthropist, Mr. George Soros, whose opposition to Myanmar's admission to ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Mahathir found particularity, irritating. The logical mistakes that underlie such conspiracy theories do not help Malaysia address the serious issues of economic overheating that experts have been warning about for all these difficult periods, which include large deficits and low savings to debt ratios. In fact, the recent dramatic drop in Malaysia's stock market and currency has led Dr. Mahathir to reverse his initial approach to the crisis. He even announces measures that at least imply he is quite aware of excesses in his own administration's spending policies that have contributed to this crisis of confidence. In the end, this kind of reaction undermines the esteem that Dr. Mahathir's enlightened leadership has justly earned. | 2726.txt | 3 |
[
"prove that he has been a poor leader in general",
"are poor because they weaken his own credibility",
"are sharp in identifying the cause of the problem",
"reveal his keen insight into the complex issue"
] | The author suggests the Dr. Mahathir's comments on the currency problems _ . | In recent decades, there is a phenomenon which makes us give some attention; the so-called Southeast Asian "tigers" have rivaled the western "lions" for stock cliches that make economic headlines. The myth of American economic hegemony over Asia in the imposing and patriarchal figure of Uncle Sam has provided frequent political grist for Southeast Asian political leaders, particularly Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir. He has attempted to forge an international reputation as a snarling tiger, but lately sounds more like a barnyard dog groaning at shadows. Without demeaning in any way the remarkable achievements of the newly developing economies of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, these nations at times appear to be their own worst enemies. This is often exemplified by Dr. Mahathir, who rails at Western evil whenever an international or domestic crisis provides an opportunity.
To be more specific, the recent devaluation of the Philippine and Thai currencies, and the subsequent pressure on the Malaysian currency has inspired Dr. Mahathir to launch an all-out attack on the West as the source of the problem. He even alleges that the United States has deli-berately destabilized Southeast Asian economies in revenge for these nations, supporting the brutal military rule in Mahathir, an action which the United States seems to want inspected rather than rewarded. But by resorting to such scapegoat, instead of accepting even a bit responsibility, the Prime Minister may undermine the future success of the region and Malaysia in particular.
Upon further questioning, Dr. Mahathir narrowed his attack to one wealthy individual, the well-known philanthropist, Mr. George Soros, whose opposition to Myanmar's admission to ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Mahathir found particularity, irritating. The logical mistakes that underlie such conspiracy theories do not help Malaysia address the serious issues of economic overheating that experts have been warning about for all these difficult periods, which include large deficits and low savings to debt ratios. In fact, the recent dramatic drop in Malaysia's stock market and currency has led Dr. Mahathir to reverse his initial approach to the crisis. He even announces measures that at least imply he is quite aware of excesses in his own administration's spending policies that have contributed to this crisis of confidence. In the end, this kind of reaction undermines the esteem that Dr. Mahathir's enlightened leadership has justly earned. | 2726.txt | 1 |
[
"Sarcastic and prejudice",
"Objective and detached",
"Piercing and indifferent",
"Impassive and hostile"
] | Which of the following is the tone of this essay? | In recent decades, there is a phenomenon which makes us give some attention; the so-called Southeast Asian "tigers" have rivaled the western "lions" for stock cliches that make economic headlines. The myth of American economic hegemony over Asia in the imposing and patriarchal figure of Uncle Sam has provided frequent political grist for Southeast Asian political leaders, particularly Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir. He has attempted to forge an international reputation as a snarling tiger, but lately sounds more like a barnyard dog groaning at shadows. Without demeaning in any way the remarkable achievements of the newly developing economies of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, these nations at times appear to be their own worst enemies. This is often exemplified by Dr. Mahathir, who rails at Western evil whenever an international or domestic crisis provides an opportunity.
To be more specific, the recent devaluation of the Philippine and Thai currencies, and the subsequent pressure on the Malaysian currency has inspired Dr. Mahathir to launch an all-out attack on the West as the source of the problem. He even alleges that the United States has deli-berately destabilized Southeast Asian economies in revenge for these nations, supporting the brutal military rule in Mahathir, an action which the United States seems to want inspected rather than rewarded. But by resorting to such scapegoat, instead of accepting even a bit responsibility, the Prime Minister may undermine the future success of the region and Malaysia in particular.
Upon further questioning, Dr. Mahathir narrowed his attack to one wealthy individual, the well-known philanthropist, Mr. George Soros, whose opposition to Myanmar's admission to ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Mahathir found particularity, irritating. The logical mistakes that underlie such conspiracy theories do not help Malaysia address the serious issues of economic overheating that experts have been warning about for all these difficult periods, which include large deficits and low savings to debt ratios. In fact, the recent dramatic drop in Malaysia's stock market and currency has led Dr. Mahathir to reverse his initial approach to the crisis. He even announces measures that at least imply he is quite aware of excesses in his own administration's spending policies that have contributed to this crisis of confidence. In the end, this kind of reaction undermines the esteem that Dr. Mahathir's enlightened leadership has justly earned. | 2726.txt | 0 |
[
"theories",
"experts",
"periods",
"issues"
] | The relative pronoun "which" in the last paragraph (Line 5) refers to _ . | In recent decades, there is a phenomenon which makes us give some attention; the so-called Southeast Asian "tigers" have rivaled the western "lions" for stock cliches that make economic headlines. The myth of American economic hegemony over Asia in the imposing and patriarchal figure of Uncle Sam has provided frequent political grist for Southeast Asian political leaders, particularly Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir. He has attempted to forge an international reputation as a snarling tiger, but lately sounds more like a barnyard dog groaning at shadows. Without demeaning in any way the remarkable achievements of the newly developing economies of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, these nations at times appear to be their own worst enemies. This is often exemplified by Dr. Mahathir, who rails at Western evil whenever an international or domestic crisis provides an opportunity.
To be more specific, the recent devaluation of the Philippine and Thai currencies, and the subsequent pressure on the Malaysian currency has inspired Dr. Mahathir to launch an all-out attack on the West as the source of the problem. He even alleges that the United States has deli-berately destabilized Southeast Asian economies in revenge for these nations, supporting the brutal military rule in Mahathir, an action which the United States seems to want inspected rather than rewarded. But by resorting to such scapegoat, instead of accepting even a bit responsibility, the Prime Minister may undermine the future success of the region and Malaysia in particular.
Upon further questioning, Dr. Mahathir narrowed his attack to one wealthy individual, the well-known philanthropist, Mr. George Soros, whose opposition to Myanmar's admission to ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Mahathir found particularity, irritating. The logical mistakes that underlie such conspiracy theories do not help Malaysia address the serious issues of economic overheating that experts have been warning about for all these difficult periods, which include large deficits and low savings to debt ratios. In fact, the recent dramatic drop in Malaysia's stock market and currency has led Dr. Mahathir to reverse his initial approach to the crisis. He even announces measures that at least imply he is quite aware of excesses in his own administration's spending policies that have contributed to this crisis of confidence. In the end, this kind of reaction undermines the esteem that Dr. Mahathir's enlightened leadership has justly earned. | 2726.txt | 3 |
[
"All its courses are offered online.",
"Its online courses are of the best quality.",
"It boasts the largest number of students on campus",
"Anyone taking its online courses is sure to get a degree."
] | What is the most striking feature of the ? | By almost any measure , there is a boom in Internet-based instruction . In just a few years , 34 percent of American universities have begun offering some form of distance learning (DL), and among the larger schools , it's closer to 90 percent . If you doubt the popularity of the trend, you probably haven't . It enrolls 90,000 student , a statistic used to support its claim to be the largest private university in the country.
While the kinds of instruction offered in these programs will differ, DL usually signifies a course in which the instructions post syllabi, reading assignments , and schedules on Websites , and students send in their assignments by e-mail . Generally speaking , face-to-face communication with an instructor is minimized or eliminated altogether.
The attraction for students might at first seem obvious . Primarily , there's the convenience promised by courses on the Net: you can do the work, as they say , in your pajamas. But figures indicate that the reduced effort results in a reduced commitment to the course . While dropout rates for all freshmen at American universities is around 20 percent , the rate for online students is 35 percent . Students themselves seem to understand the weaknesses inherent in the setup . In a survey conducted for eCornell , the DL division of , less than a third of the respondents expected the quality of the online course to be as good as the classroom course.
Cleary form the schools perspective , there's a lot of money to be saved . Although some of the more ambitious programs require new investments in servers and networks to support collaborative software , most DL courses can run on existing or minimally upgradedsystems . The more students who enroll in a course but don't come to campus , the more the school saves on keeping the lights on in the classrooms , paying doorkeepers , and maintaining parking lots , And there's evindence that instructors must work harder to run a DL course for a variety of reasons , won't be paid any more , and might well be paid less. | 1479.txt | 0 |
[
"A considerable flexibility in its academic requirements",
"The great diversity of students' academic backgrounds",
"A minimum or total absence of face-to-face instruction",
"t the casual relationship between students and professors"
] | According to the passage , distance learning is basically characterized by _ | By almost any measure , there is a boom in Internet-based instruction . In just a few years , 34 percent of American universities have begun offering some form of distance learning (DL), and among the larger schools , it's closer to 90 percent . If you doubt the popularity of the trend, you probably haven't . It enrolls 90,000 student , a statistic used to support its claim to be the largest private university in the country.
While the kinds of instruction offered in these programs will differ, DL usually signifies a course in which the instructions post syllabi, reading assignments , and schedules on Websites , and students send in their assignments by e-mail . Generally speaking , face-to-face communication with an instructor is minimized or eliminated altogether.
The attraction for students might at first seem obvious . Primarily , there's the convenience promised by courses on the Net: you can do the work, as they say , in your pajamas. But figures indicate that the reduced effort results in a reduced commitment to the course . While dropout rates for all freshmen at American universities is around 20 percent , the rate for online students is 35 percent . Students themselves seem to understand the weaknesses inherent in the setup . In a survey conducted for eCornell , the DL division of , less than a third of the respondents expected the quality of the online course to be as good as the classroom course.
Cleary form the schools perspective , there's a lot of money to be saved . Although some of the more ambitious programs require new investments in servers and networks to support collaborative software , most DL courses can run on existing or minimally upgradedsystems . The more students who enroll in a course but don't come to campus , the more the school saves on keeping the lights on in the classrooms , paying doorkeepers , and maintaining parking lots , And there's evindence that instructors must work harder to run a DL course for a variety of reasons , won't be paid any more , and might well be paid less. | 1479.txt | 2 |
[
"Earn their academic degrees with much less effort",
"Save a great deal on traveling and boarding expenses",
"Select courses from various colleges and universities",
"Work on the required courses whenever and wherever"
] | Many students take Internet -based courses mainly because they can _ | By almost any measure , there is a boom in Internet-based instruction . In just a few years , 34 percent of American universities have begun offering some form of distance learning (DL), and among the larger schools , it's closer to 90 percent . If you doubt the popularity of the trend, you probably haven't . It enrolls 90,000 student , a statistic used to support its claim to be the largest private university in the country.
While the kinds of instruction offered in these programs will differ, DL usually signifies a course in which the instructions post syllabi, reading assignments , and schedules on Websites , and students send in their assignments by e-mail . Generally speaking , face-to-face communication with an instructor is minimized or eliminated altogether.
The attraction for students might at first seem obvious . Primarily , there's the convenience promised by courses on the Net: you can do the work, as they say , in your pajamas. But figures indicate that the reduced effort results in a reduced commitment to the course . While dropout rates for all freshmen at American universities is around 20 percent , the rate for online students is 35 percent . Students themselves seem to understand the weaknesses inherent in the setup . In a survey conducted for eCornell , the DL division of , less than a third of the respondents expected the quality of the online course to be as good as the classroom course.
Cleary form the schools perspective , there's a lot of money to be saved . Although some of the more ambitious programs require new investments in servers and networks to support collaborative software , most DL courses can run on existing or minimally upgradedsystems . The more students who enroll in a course but don't come to campus , the more the school saves on keeping the lights on in the classrooms , paying doorkeepers , and maintaining parking lots , And there's evindence that instructors must work harder to run a DL course for a variety of reasons , won't be paid any more , and might well be paid less. | 1479.txt | 3 |
[
"There is no strict control over the academic standards of the courses.",
"The evaluation system used by online universities is inherently weak.",
"There is no mechanism to ensure that they make the required effort.",
"Lack of classroom interaction reduces the effectiveness of instruction."
] | What accounts for the high drop-out rates for online students? | By almost any measure , there is a boom in Internet-based instruction . In just a few years , 34 percent of American universities have begun offering some form of distance learning (DL), and among the larger schools , it's closer to 90 percent . If you doubt the popularity of the trend, you probably haven't . It enrolls 90,000 student , a statistic used to support its claim to be the largest private university in the country.
While the kinds of instruction offered in these programs will differ, DL usually signifies a course in which the instructions post syllabi, reading assignments , and schedules on Websites , and students send in their assignments by e-mail . Generally speaking , face-to-face communication with an instructor is minimized or eliminated altogether.
The attraction for students might at first seem obvious . Primarily , there's the convenience promised by courses on the Net: you can do the work, as they say , in your pajamas. But figures indicate that the reduced effort results in a reduced commitment to the course . While dropout rates for all freshmen at American universities is around 20 percent , the rate for online students is 35 percent . Students themselves seem to understand the weaknesses inherent in the setup . In a survey conducted for eCornell , the DL division of , less than a third of the respondents expected the quality of the online course to be as good as the classroom course.
Cleary form the schools perspective , there's a lot of money to be saved . Although some of the more ambitious programs require new investments in servers and networks to support collaborative software , most DL courses can run on existing or minimally upgradedsystems . The more students who enroll in a course but don't come to campus , the more the school saves on keeping the lights on in the classrooms , paying doorkeepers , and maintaining parking lots , And there's evindence that instructors must work harder to run a DL course for a variety of reasons , won't be paid any more , and might well be paid less. | 1479.txt | 2 |
[
"building up their reputation",
"upgrading their teaching facilities",
"cutting down on their expenses",
"providing convenience for students"
] | According to the passage, universities show great enthusiasm for DL programs for the purpose of _ | By almost any measure , there is a boom in Internet-based instruction . In just a few years , 34 percent of American universities have begun offering some form of distance learning (DL), and among the larger schools , it's closer to 90 percent . If you doubt the popularity of the trend, you probably haven't . It enrolls 90,000 student , a statistic used to support its claim to be the largest private university in the country.
While the kinds of instruction offered in these programs will differ, DL usually signifies a course in which the instructions post syllabi, reading assignments , and schedules on Websites , and students send in their assignments by e-mail . Generally speaking , face-to-face communication with an instructor is minimized or eliminated altogether.
The attraction for students might at first seem obvious . Primarily , there's the convenience promised by courses on the Net: you can do the work, as they say , in your pajamas. But figures indicate that the reduced effort results in a reduced commitment to the course . While dropout rates for all freshmen at American universities is around 20 percent , the rate for online students is 35 percent . Students themselves seem to understand the weaknesses inherent in the setup . In a survey conducted for eCornell , the DL division of , less than a third of the respondents expected the quality of the online course to be as good as the classroom course.
Cleary form the schools perspective , there's a lot of money to be saved . Although some of the more ambitious programs require new investments in servers and networks to support collaborative software , most DL courses can run on existing or minimally upgradedsystems . The more students who enroll in a course but don't come to campus , the more the school saves on keeping the lights on in the classrooms , paying doorkeepers , and maintaining parking lots , And there's evindence that instructors must work harder to run a DL course for a variety of reasons , won't be paid any more , and might well be paid less. | 1479.txt | 1 |
[
"The customer was at home.",
"The customer was in a small fruit shop.",
"The customer was at a local supermarket.",
"The customer was at the railway station."
] | Where was the customer? | I bought some pears at my local supermarket. At the checkout counter the cashier commented, "Oh, dear, I've charged you for plums instead of pears."
"What's the difference?" I asked.
"Well," she said, "plums are smaller and round." | 3557.txt | 2 |
[
"some plums",
"some pears",
"some apples",
"The author bought nothing."
] | What did the customer buy? | I bought some pears at my local supermarket. At the checkout counter the cashier commented, "Oh, dear, I've charged you for plums instead of pears."
"What's the difference?" I asked.
"Well," she said, "plums are smaller and round." | 3557.txt | 1 |
[
"to say",
"to argue",
"to disagree",
"to permit"
] | What does " comment " in the sentence At the checkout counter the cashier commented" mean? | I bought some pears at my local supermarket. At the checkout counter the cashier commented, "Oh, dear, I've charged you for plums instead of pears."
"What's the difference?" I asked.
"Well," she said, "plums are smaller and round." | 3557.txt | 0 |
[
"the difference between the two prices",
"the difference between the appearances of pears and plums",
"the difference between the colors of the two kinds of fruits",
"the difference between the tastes of the two kinds of fruits"
] | What did the customer mean by saying "What's the difference? | I bought some pears at my local supermarket. At the checkout counter the cashier commented, "Oh, dear, I've charged you for plums instead of pears."
"What's the difference?" I asked.
"Well," she said, "plums are smaller and round." | 3557.txt | 0 |
[
"probably there is no price difference between the two kinds of fruits",
"there is a price difference between the two kinds of fruits",
"the cashier didn't know the price of pears",
"the customer was overcharged"
] | From the passage we can infer that _ . | I bought some pears at my local supermarket. At the checkout counter the cashier commented, "Oh, dear, I've charged you for plums instead of pears."
"What's the difference?" I asked.
"Well," she said, "plums are smaller and round." | 3557.txt | 0 |
[
"Because he doesn' t know what to do once schools are closed.",
"Because he is not sure about the practicability of those new tests.",
"Because he is concerned that many teachers will lose their jobs.",
"Because he is not in favor of the government' s reform efforts."
] | According to Paragraph 1,why does the author scratch his head? | Sometimes I scratch my head when I read about the government' s efforts to improve schools:new standards and tests to be applied, strict teacher evaluations, and threats of school closures and job losses. They frighten the school employees, not to mention the students. Instead of making people unable to solve problems or try new ideas--which is what fear does to us--research on
school reform strongly suggests that policy-makers should encourage school leaders to take a more humane approach. In their study on the reform efforts of twelve Chicago public schools, Bryk and Schneider found that enabling positive social relationships between the adults was the key to successful school improvement and that trust was at the heart of those relationships.
Trust in schools comes down to one thing:psychological safety or safety to speak one's mind,to discuss with openness and honesty what is and isn' t working,to make collective decisions.
Yet this kind of safety doesn' t come easily to schools. According to Bryk and Schneider, the
adults in school rely on each other to do their jobs correctly and with integrity . The
challeage is that our expectations are very diverse based on our unique backgrounds.
At one school where I taught, each teacher had different expectations about how much effort teachers should put into their work--a big difference between the teachers who left af~the last bell and those who worked into the evening. And when expectations are uncoasci or unspoken, it becomes impossible for others to live up to them.
We also make assumptions about the intentions behind a person' s behavior. As we all Imam,assumptions are often wrong. For example, parents and teachers my think the principal taml particular decision based on his career advancement rather than hat" s best for the studeata. don't feel psychologically safe to question our assumptions and e~aecmtiatm, trust itiea am the window and our relationships suffer. | 4264.txt | 3 |
[
"New standards and tests in schools.",
"Positive social relationships.",
"Strict teacher and student evaluations.",
"Assistance of the government."
] | According to Bryk and Schneider, what was most important for successful school improvemt? | Sometimes I scratch my head when I read about the government' s efforts to improve schools:new standards and tests to be applied, strict teacher evaluations, and threats of school closures and job losses. They frighten the school employees, not to mention the students. Instead of making people unable to solve problems or try new ideas--which is what fear does to us--research on
school reform strongly suggests that policy-makers should encourage school leaders to take a more humane approach. In their study on the reform efforts of twelve Chicago public schools, Bryk and Schneider found that enabling positive social relationships between the adults was the key to successful school improvement and that trust was at the heart of those relationships.
Trust in schools comes down to one thing:psychological safety or safety to speak one's mind,to discuss with openness and honesty what is and isn' t working,to make collective decisions.
Yet this kind of safety doesn' t come easily to schools. According to Bryk and Schneider, the
adults in school rely on each other to do their jobs correctly and with integrity . The
challeage is that our expectations are very diverse based on our unique backgrounds.
At one school where I taught, each teacher had different expectations about how much effort teachers should put into their work--a big difference between the teachers who left af~the last bell and those who worked into the evening. And when expectations are uncoasci or unspoken, it becomes impossible for others to live up to them.
We also make assumptions about the intentions behind a person' s behavior. As we all Imam,assumptions are often wrong. For example, parents and teachers my think the principal taml particular decision based on his career advancement rather than hat" s best for the studeata. don't feel psychologically safe to question our assumptions and e~aecmtiatm, trust itiea am the window and our relationships suffer. | 4264.txt | 1 |
[
"Freedom to express one' s views,",
"Extra effort teachers put into their work.",
"Independence of the teachers in schools.",
"Unconscious and unspoken expectations."
] | What is meant by trust in school? | Sometimes I scratch my head when I read about the government' s efforts to improve schools:new standards and tests to be applied, strict teacher evaluations, and threats of school closures and job losses. They frighten the school employees, not to mention the students. Instead of making people unable to solve problems or try new ideas--which is what fear does to us--research on
school reform strongly suggests that policy-makers should encourage school leaders to take a more humane approach. In their study on the reform efforts of twelve Chicago public schools, Bryk and Schneider found that enabling positive social relationships between the adults was the key to successful school improvement and that trust was at the heart of those relationships.
Trust in schools comes down to one thing:psychological safety or safety to speak one's mind,to discuss with openness and honesty what is and isn' t working,to make collective decisions.
Yet this kind of safety doesn' t come easily to schools. According to Bryk and Schneider, the
adults in school rely on each other to do their jobs correctly and with integrity . The
challeage is that our expectations are very diverse based on our unique backgrounds.
At one school where I taught, each teacher had different expectations about how much effort teachers should put into their work--a big difference between the teachers who left af~the last bell and those who worked into the evening. And when expectations are uncoasci or unspoken, it becomes impossible for others to live up to them.
We also make assumptions about the intentions behind a person' s behavior. As we all Imam,assumptions are often wrong. For example, parents and teachers my think the principal taml particular decision based on his career advancement rather than hat" s best for the studeata. don't feel psychologically safe to question our assumptions and e~aecmtiatm, trust itiea am the window and our relationships suffer. | 4264.txt | 0 |
[
"They should be trusted.",
"They are often bold.",
"They are often incorrect.",
"They should be encouraged."
] | What does the author say about the assumptions made about the intentions behind a person's behavior? | Sometimes I scratch my head when I read about the government' s efforts to improve schools:new standards and tests to be applied, strict teacher evaluations, and threats of school closures and job losses. They frighten the school employees, not to mention the students. Instead of making people unable to solve problems or try new ideas--which is what fear does to us--research on
school reform strongly suggests that policy-makers should encourage school leaders to take a more humane approach. In their study on the reform efforts of twelve Chicago public schools, Bryk and Schneider found that enabling positive social relationships between the adults was the key to successful school improvement and that trust was at the heart of those relationships.
Trust in schools comes down to one thing:psychological safety or safety to speak one's mind,to discuss with openness and honesty what is and isn' t working,to make collective decisions.
Yet this kind of safety doesn' t come easily to schools. According to Bryk and Schneider, the
adults in school rely on each other to do their jobs correctly and with integrity . The
challeage is that our expectations are very diverse based on our unique backgrounds.
At one school where I taught, each teacher had different expectations about how much effort teachers should put into their work--a big difference between the teachers who left af~the last bell and those who worked into the evening. And when expectations are uncoasci or unspoken, it becomes impossible for others to live up to them.
We also make assumptions about the intentions behind a person' s behavior. As we all Imam,assumptions are often wrong. For example, parents and teachers my think the principal taml particular decision based on his career advancement rather than hat" s best for the studeata. don't feel psychologically safe to question our assumptions and e~aecmtiatm, trust itiea am the window and our relationships suffer. | 4264.txt | 2 |
[
"to keep track of people who tend to forget things",
"to report their embarrassing lapses at random",
"to analyse their awkward experiences scientifically",
"to keep a record of what they did unintentionally"
] | In his study Professor Smith asked the subjects _ . | Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight. When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings, Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random .
One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. "the explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer," explains the professor. "People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman's custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme," About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these "programme assembly failures."
Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing-an average of twelve each, There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest . These are two hours some time between eight a.m. and noon,
between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. "Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain ‘programmes' occurs, as for instance between going to and from work." Women on average reported slightly more lapses-12.5 compared with 10.9 for men-probably because they were more reliable reporters.
A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse-even dangerous. | 1573.txt | 3 |
[
"certain patterns can be identified in the recorded incidents",
"many people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindedness",
"men tend to be more absent-minded than women",
"absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness"
] | Professor Smith discovered that _ . | Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight. When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings, Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random .
One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. "the explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer," explains the professor. "People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman's custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme," About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these "programme assembly failures."
Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing-an average of twelve each, There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest . These are two hours some time between eight a.m. and noon,
between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. "Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain ‘programmes' occurs, as for instance between going to and from work." Women on average reported slightly more lapses-12.5 compared with 10.9 for men-probably because they were more reliable reporters.
A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse-even dangerous. | 1573.txt | 0 |
[
"often fail to programme their routines beforehand",
"tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurry",
"unconsciously change the sequence of doing things",
"are likely to mess things up if they are too tired"
] | "Programme assembly failures" (Line 6, Para. 2) refers to the phenomenon that people _ . | Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight. When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings, Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random .
One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. "the explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer," explains the professor. "People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman's custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme," About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these "programme assembly failures."
Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing-an average of twelve each, There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest . These are two hours some time between eight a.m. and noon,
between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. "Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain ‘programmes' occurs, as for instance between going to and from work." Women on average reported slightly more lapses-12.5 compared with 10.9 for men-probably because they were more reliable reporters.
A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse-even dangerous. | 1573.txt | 2 |
[
"absent-mindedness tends to occur during certain hours of the day",
"women are very careful to perform actions during peak periods",
"women experience more peak periods of absent-mindedness",
"men's absent-mindedness often results in funny situations"
] | We learn from the third paragraph that _ . | Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight. When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings, Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random .
One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. "the explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer," explains the professor. "People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman's custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme," About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these "programme assembly failures."
Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing-an average of twelve each, There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest . These are two hours some time between eight a.m. and noon,
between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. "Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain ‘programmes' occurs, as for instance between going to and from work." Women on average reported slightly more lapses-12.5 compared with 10.9 for men-probably because they were more reliable reporters.
A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse-even dangerous. | 1573.txt | 0 |
[
"people should avoid doing important things during peak periods of lapses",
"hazards can be avoided when people do things they are good at",
"people should be careful when programming their actions",
"lapses cannot always be attributed to lack of concentration"
] | It can be concluded from the passage that _ . | Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight. When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings, Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random .
One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. "the explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer," explains the professor. "People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman's custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme," About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these "programme assembly failures."
Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing-an average of twelve each, There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest . These are two hours some time between eight a.m. and noon,
between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. "Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain ‘programmes' occurs, as for instance between going to and from work." Women on average reported slightly more lapses-12.5 compared with 10.9 for men-probably because they were more reliable reporters.
A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse-even dangerous. | 1573.txt | 3 |
[
"News reports.",
"Research papers.",
"Private e-mails.",
"Daily conversations."
] | What do the classic rules mentioned in the text apply to? | Bad news sells. If it bleeds, it leads. No news is good news, and good news is no news. Those are the classic rules for the evening broadcasts and the morning papers. But now that information is being spread and monitored in different ways, researchers are discovering new rules. By tracking people's e-mails and online posts, scientists have found that good news can spread faster and farther than disasters and sob stories.
"The ‘if it bleeds' rule works for mass media," says Jonah Berger, a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. "They want your eyeballs and don't care how you're feeling. But when you share a story with your friends, you care a lot more how they react. You don't want them to think of you as a Debbie Downer."
Researchers analyzing word-of-mouth communication-e-mails, Web posts and reviews, face-to-face conversations-found that it tended to be more positive than negative, but that didn't necessarily mean people preferred positive news. Was positive news shared more often simply because people experienced more good things than bad things? To test for that possibility, Dr. Berger looked at how people spread a particular set of news stories: thousands of articles on The New York Times' website. He and a Penn colleague analyzed the "most e-mailed" list for six months. One of his first findings was that articles in the science section were much more likely to make the list than non-science articles. He found that science amazed Times' readers and made them want to share this positive feeling with others.
Readers also tended to share articles that were exciting or funny, or that inspired negative feelings like anger or anxiety, but not articles that left them merely sad. They needed to be aroused one way or the other, and they preferred good news to bad. The more positive an article, the more likely it was to be shared, as Dr. Berger explains in his new book, "Contagious: Why Things Catch On." | 4164.txt | 0 |
[
"They're socially inactive.",
"They're good at telling stories.",
"They're inconsiderate of others.",
"They're careful with their words."
] | What can we infer about people like Debbie Downer? | Bad news sells. If it bleeds, it leads. No news is good news, and good news is no news. Those are the classic rules for the evening broadcasts and the morning papers. But now that information is being spread and monitored in different ways, researchers are discovering new rules. By tracking people's e-mails and online posts, scientists have found that good news can spread faster and farther than disasters and sob stories.
"The ‘if it bleeds' rule works for mass media," says Jonah Berger, a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. "They want your eyeballs and don't care how you're feeling. But when you share a story with your friends, you care a lot more how they react. You don't want them to think of you as a Debbie Downer."
Researchers analyzing word-of-mouth communication-e-mails, Web posts and reviews, face-to-face conversations-found that it tended to be more positive than negative, but that didn't necessarily mean people preferred positive news. Was positive news shared more often simply because people experienced more good things than bad things? To test for that possibility, Dr. Berger looked at how people spread a particular set of news stories: thousands of articles on The New York Times' website. He and a Penn colleague analyzed the "most e-mailed" list for six months. One of his first findings was that articles in the science section were much more likely to make the list than non-science articles. He found that science amazed Times' readers and made them want to share this positive feeling with others.
Readers also tended to share articles that were exciting or funny, or that inspired negative feelings like anger or anxiety, but not articles that left them merely sad. They needed to be aroused one way or the other, and they preferred good news to bad. The more positive an article, the more likely it was to be shared, as Dr. Berger explains in his new book, "Contagious: Why Things Catch On." | 4164.txt | 2 |
[
"Sports news.",
"Science articles.",
"Personal accounts.",
"Financial reviews."
] | Which tended to be the most e-mailed according to Dr. Berger's research? | Bad news sells. If it bleeds, it leads. No news is good news, and good news is no news. Those are the classic rules for the evening broadcasts and the morning papers. But now that information is being spread and monitored in different ways, researchers are discovering new rules. By tracking people's e-mails and online posts, scientists have found that good news can spread faster and farther than disasters and sob stories.
"The ‘if it bleeds' rule works for mass media," says Jonah Berger, a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. "They want your eyeballs and don't care how you're feeling. But when you share a story with your friends, you care a lot more how they react. You don't want them to think of you as a Debbie Downer."
Researchers analyzing word-of-mouth communication-e-mails, Web posts and reviews, face-to-face conversations-found that it tended to be more positive than negative, but that didn't necessarily mean people preferred positive news. Was positive news shared more often simply because people experienced more good things than bad things? To test for that possibility, Dr. Berger looked at how people spread a particular set of news stories: thousands of articles on The New York Times' website. He and a Penn colleague analyzed the "most e-mailed" list for six months. One of his first findings was that articles in the science section were much more likely to make the list than non-science articles. He found that science amazed Times' readers and made them want to share this positive feeling with others.
Readers also tended to share articles that were exciting or funny, or that inspired negative feelings like anger or anxiety, but not articles that left them merely sad. They needed to be aroused one way or the other, and they preferred good news to bad. The more positive an article, the more likely it was to be shared, as Dr. Berger explains in his new book, "Contagious: Why Things Catch On." | 4164.txt | 1 |
[
"Sad Stories Travel Far and Wide",
"Online News Attracts More People",
"Reading Habits Change with the Times",
"Good News Beats Bad on Social Networks"
] | What can be a suitable title for the text? | Bad news sells. If it bleeds, it leads. No news is good news, and good news is no news. Those are the classic rules for the evening broadcasts and the morning papers. But now that information is being spread and monitored in different ways, researchers are discovering new rules. By tracking people's e-mails and online posts, scientists have found that good news can spread faster and farther than disasters and sob stories.
"The ‘if it bleeds' rule works for mass media," says Jonah Berger, a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. "They want your eyeballs and don't care how you're feeling. But when you share a story with your friends, you care a lot more how they react. You don't want them to think of you as a Debbie Downer."
Researchers analyzing word-of-mouth communication-e-mails, Web posts and reviews, face-to-face conversations-found that it tended to be more positive than negative, but that didn't necessarily mean people preferred positive news. Was positive news shared more often simply because people experienced more good things than bad things? To test for that possibility, Dr. Berger looked at how people spread a particular set of news stories: thousands of articles on The New York Times' website. He and a Penn colleague analyzed the "most e-mailed" list for six months. One of his first findings was that articles in the science section were much more likely to make the list than non-science articles. He found that science amazed Times' readers and made them want to share this positive feeling with others.
Readers also tended to share articles that were exciting or funny, or that inspired negative feelings like anger or anxiety, but not articles that left them merely sad. They needed to be aroused one way or the other, and they preferred good news to bad. The more positive an article, the more likely it was to be shared, as Dr. Berger explains in his new book, "Contagious: Why Things Catch On." | 4164.txt | 3 |
[
"Using too much packaging.",
"Recycling too many wastes.",
"Making more products than necessary.",
"Having more material than is needed."
] | What does the phrase "over-consumption" refer to? | Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.
The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household's waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.
Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue , encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.
But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But is also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.
There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realise just how much unnecessary material are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb. | 3773.txt | 3 |
[
"the tendency of cutting household waste",
"the increase of packaging recycling",
"the rapid growth of super markets",
"the fact of packaging overuse"
] | The author uses figures in Paragraph 2 to show _ . | Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.
The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household's waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.
Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue , encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.
But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But is also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.
There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realise just how much unnecessary material are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb. | 3773.txt | 3 |
[
"helps control the greenhouse effect",
"means burning packaging for energy",
"is the solution to gas shortage",
"leads to a waste of land"
] | According to the text, recycling _ . | Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.
The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household's waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.
Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue , encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.
But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But is also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.
There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realise just how much unnecessary material are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb. | 3773.txt | 0 |
[
"Unpackaged products are of bad quality.",
"Supermarkets care more about packaging.",
"It is improper to judge quality by packaging.",
"Other products are better packaged than food."
] | What can be inferred from Paragraph 4? | Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.
The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household's waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.
Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue , encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.
But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But is also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.
There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realise just how much unnecessary material are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb. | 3773.txt | 2 |
[
"Fighting wastefulness is difficult.",
"Needless material is mostly recycled.",
"People like collecting recyclable waste.",
"The author is proud of their consumer culture."
] | What can we learn from the last paragraph? | Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.
The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household's waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.
Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue , encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.
But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But is also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.
There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realise just how much unnecessary material are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb. | 3773.txt | 0 |
[
"they dislike doing physical exercise",
"their owners suffer from similar problems",
"they are fed too much",
"their diet is poor in nutritions"
] | In Australia many pets are involved in obesity problem due to the fact that _ . | Australia is a nation of pet lovers but it may be loving its animals to death because pet owners pass on rising levels of obesity by overfeeding their cats and dogs, the country's main animals welfare body says. Despite its image as a sports - mad country full of fit, sun-bronzed youth, Australia in reality is battling the obesity and challenging the United States as the world's fattest nation. The problem now extends to household pets.
Obesity rates for Australia have doubled over the past 20 years, with 62 percent of men and 45 percent of women overweight. The same trend applies to household pets, with an increase in the number of overweight cats and dogs being dealt with by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals(RSPCA., and even one case of a fat pet mouse. "It's a big problem, and quite reflective of what's happening in the human situation," said Mark Lawrie, the RSPCA''s chief vet. Australia is a nation of 20 million people, almost 4 million dogs, 2.5 million cats, 8.7 million pet birds and more than 12 million pet fish. It has one of the world's highest rates of pet ownership at 64 percent of households, compared to 62 percent in the United States and 44 percent in Britain.
Lawrie said that surveys had found that between 40 and 44 percent of dogs and more than one in three household cats were now overweight, due to poor diet and a lack of exercises. Fat cats and dogs were much easier to suffer from heart problems and liver disease. The RSPCA said low levels of exercises had an impact on pet obesity, but the key problem was over-eating. | 968.txt | 2 |
[
"there are too many household pets in the country",
"more and more people are becoming over-weighted",
"they don't know how to deal with the overweight pets",
"their country is the world's fattest nation"
] | It is certainly a problem to Australians that _ . | Australia is a nation of pet lovers but it may be loving its animals to death because pet owners pass on rising levels of obesity by overfeeding their cats and dogs, the country's main animals welfare body says. Despite its image as a sports - mad country full of fit, sun-bronzed youth, Australia in reality is battling the obesity and challenging the United States as the world's fattest nation. The problem now extends to household pets.
Obesity rates for Australia have doubled over the past 20 years, with 62 percent of men and 45 percent of women overweight. The same trend applies to household pets, with an increase in the number of overweight cats and dogs being dealt with by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals(RSPCA., and even one case of a fat pet mouse. "It's a big problem, and quite reflective of what's happening in the human situation," said Mark Lawrie, the RSPCA''s chief vet. Australia is a nation of 20 million people, almost 4 million dogs, 2.5 million cats, 8.7 million pet birds and more than 12 million pet fish. It has one of the world's highest rates of pet ownership at 64 percent of households, compared to 62 percent in the United States and 44 percent in Britain.
Lawrie said that surveys had found that between 40 and 44 percent of dogs and more than one in three household cats were now overweight, due to poor diet and a lack of exercises. Fat cats and dogs were much easier to suffer from heart problems and liver disease. The RSPCA said low levels of exercises had an impact on pet obesity, but the key problem was over-eating. | 968.txt | 1 |
[
"dogs are the most popular household pets in Australia",
"all Australians love overwater sports exercises",
"there is a variety of households pets, mice included in Australia",
"nobody is really concerned about pet obesity"
] | We can infer from the passage that _ . | Australia is a nation of pet lovers but it may be loving its animals to death because pet owners pass on rising levels of obesity by overfeeding their cats and dogs, the country's main animals welfare body says. Despite its image as a sports - mad country full of fit, sun-bronzed youth, Australia in reality is battling the obesity and challenging the United States as the world's fattest nation. The problem now extends to household pets.
Obesity rates for Australia have doubled over the past 20 years, with 62 percent of men and 45 percent of women overweight. The same trend applies to household pets, with an increase in the number of overweight cats and dogs being dealt with by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals(RSPCA., and even one case of a fat pet mouse. "It's a big problem, and quite reflective of what's happening in the human situation," said Mark Lawrie, the RSPCA''s chief vet. Australia is a nation of 20 million people, almost 4 million dogs, 2.5 million cats, 8.7 million pet birds and more than 12 million pet fish. It has one of the world's highest rates of pet ownership at 64 percent of households, compared to 62 percent in the United States and 44 percent in Britain.
Lawrie said that surveys had found that between 40 and 44 percent of dogs and more than one in three household cats were now overweight, due to poor diet and a lack of exercises. Fat cats and dogs were much easier to suffer from heart problems and liver disease. The RSPCA said low levels of exercises had an impact on pet obesity, but the key problem was over-eating. | 968.txt | 2 |
[
"Loving Your Pets To Death",
"Love Me, Love My Dog",
"How to Keep Pets",
"More Exercises, More Happiness."
] | The passage is best titled with _ . | Australia is a nation of pet lovers but it may be loving its animals to death because pet owners pass on rising levels of obesity by overfeeding their cats and dogs, the country's main animals welfare body says. Despite its image as a sports - mad country full of fit, sun-bronzed youth, Australia in reality is battling the obesity and challenging the United States as the world's fattest nation. The problem now extends to household pets.
Obesity rates for Australia have doubled over the past 20 years, with 62 percent of men and 45 percent of women overweight. The same trend applies to household pets, with an increase in the number of overweight cats and dogs being dealt with by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals(RSPCA., and even one case of a fat pet mouse. "It's a big problem, and quite reflective of what's happening in the human situation," said Mark Lawrie, the RSPCA''s chief vet. Australia is a nation of 20 million people, almost 4 million dogs, 2.5 million cats, 8.7 million pet birds and more than 12 million pet fish. It has one of the world's highest rates of pet ownership at 64 percent of households, compared to 62 percent in the United States and 44 percent in Britain.
Lawrie said that surveys had found that between 40 and 44 percent of dogs and more than one in three household cats were now overweight, due to poor diet and a lack of exercises. Fat cats and dogs were much easier to suffer from heart problems and liver disease. The RSPCA said low levels of exercises had an impact on pet obesity, but the key problem was over-eating. | 968.txt | 0 |
[
"amazingly low",
"proper",
"too high",
"considerable"
] | According to CASH, the current salt levels of bread are _ . | A third of breads contain more salt than recommended under guidelines being introduced next year, a survey found.
Most breads were within the current guidelines of 1.1g of salt per 100g-but this is being cut to 1g per 100g.
Campaign for Action on Salt and Health (CASH), which looked at 300 breads, said it was "outrageous"that bread contained even the current level. The Department of Health said "considerable" salt reductions had already been made. Manufacturers said many loaves with the lowest salt levels were supermarket brands, which were the most popular.
Eating too much salt is linked to high blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of developing heart disease. Recommended dietary salt levels vary with age. Adults are meant to have no more than 6g of salt in their diet per day, while toddlers should have no more than 2g.
Salt levels in bread have fallen by about a third over the past decade, with some falling by up to 40%. But CASH says levels are still too high, and warns there is wide variation in the amount found in loaves. Most are within half a gram of the current target of 1.1g of salt per 100g of bread-about two thick slices. But Cash found some signifi cantly exceeded it.
CASH says consumers should look at nutrition labels, where possible, to see how much salt bread contains. But it warns fresh breads, from in-store or high-street bakeries have no nutritional labelling, meaning people cannot tell how much salt they contain. And it said bakery breads often had higher levels than their packaged products.
CASH chairman Prof. Graham MacGregor, of the Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine, said: "It is frankly outrageous that bread still contains so much salt. The Department of Health needs to ensure that all bread is clearly labelled and that all manufacturers reduce the salt of bread to less that the salt target of 1g per 100g. It is the very high levels of salt that is hidden in everyday food, such as bread, that puts up both adults' and children's blood pressure."
Victoria Taylor, senior dietician at the British Heart Foundation, said: "We know too many people are eating too much salt each day. Some manufacturers are working towards targets for salt reduction, but we need more action to cut the salt content in bread and make sure they provide colour-coded food labels to help their customers." But Federation of Bakers director Gordon Polson said: "The majority of wrapped, sliced bread available already meets the 2012 targets and our members are continuing to endeavour to reduce salt by contributing to ongoing research to establish which other means are available to reduce salt in bread. The vast majority of breads singled out in the CASH report as higher in salt are not the mainstream products produced by our members; which do produce around 80% of the nation's bread in a £3bn industry."
A Department of Health spokesman said the government welcomed the "considerable" salt reductions that bread makers had already made, and it was "very pleasing" that around 60% of the products met salt targets for 2012.
"This is an important step in helping to reduce salt intake, as well as lowering the risk of high blood pressure and resulting strokes and heart disease. We look forward to seeing further reductions as more companies meet the targets," he added.
British Retail Consortium food director Andrew Opie said retailers and manufacturers are to fund independent research to look for ways of meeting the 2012 target-"while still making foods which consumers want to buy". | 234.txt | 2 |
[
"Salt reductions are to be made.",
"The loaves in supermarkets are with the lowest salt levels.",
"Women can have more salt in their diet per day than men.",
"Recommended dietary salt levels are different with age."
] | According to the passage, which of the following statements is CORRECT? | A third of breads contain more salt than recommended under guidelines being introduced next year, a survey found.
Most breads were within the current guidelines of 1.1g of salt per 100g-but this is being cut to 1g per 100g.
Campaign for Action on Salt and Health (CASH), which looked at 300 breads, said it was "outrageous"that bread contained even the current level. The Department of Health said "considerable" salt reductions had already been made. Manufacturers said many loaves with the lowest salt levels were supermarket brands, which were the most popular.
Eating too much salt is linked to high blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of developing heart disease. Recommended dietary salt levels vary with age. Adults are meant to have no more than 6g of salt in their diet per day, while toddlers should have no more than 2g.
Salt levels in bread have fallen by about a third over the past decade, with some falling by up to 40%. But CASH says levels are still too high, and warns there is wide variation in the amount found in loaves. Most are within half a gram of the current target of 1.1g of salt per 100g of bread-about two thick slices. But Cash found some signifi cantly exceeded it.
CASH says consumers should look at nutrition labels, where possible, to see how much salt bread contains. But it warns fresh breads, from in-store or high-street bakeries have no nutritional labelling, meaning people cannot tell how much salt they contain. And it said bakery breads often had higher levels than their packaged products.
CASH chairman Prof. Graham MacGregor, of the Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine, said: "It is frankly outrageous that bread still contains so much salt. The Department of Health needs to ensure that all bread is clearly labelled and that all manufacturers reduce the salt of bread to less that the salt target of 1g per 100g. It is the very high levels of salt that is hidden in everyday food, such as bread, that puts up both adults' and children's blood pressure."
Victoria Taylor, senior dietician at the British Heart Foundation, said: "We know too many people are eating too much salt each day. Some manufacturers are working towards targets for salt reduction, but we need more action to cut the salt content in bread and make sure they provide colour-coded food labels to help their customers." But Federation of Bakers director Gordon Polson said: "The majority of wrapped, sliced bread available already meets the 2012 targets and our members are continuing to endeavour to reduce salt by contributing to ongoing research to establish which other means are available to reduce salt in bread. The vast majority of breads singled out in the CASH report as higher in salt are not the mainstream products produced by our members; which do produce around 80% of the nation's bread in a £3bn industry."
A Department of Health spokesman said the government welcomed the "considerable" salt reductions that bread makers had already made, and it was "very pleasing" that around 60% of the products met salt targets for 2012.
"This is an important step in helping to reduce salt intake, as well as lowering the risk of high blood pressure and resulting strokes and heart disease. We look forward to seeing further reductions as more companies meet the targets," he added.
British Retail Consortium food director Andrew Opie said retailers and manufacturers are to fund independent research to look for ways of meeting the 2012 target-"while still making foods which consumers want to buy". | 234.txt | 3 |
[
"salt levels in bread should be reduced by 40%",
"the amount found in loaves should vary with breads",
"consumers should fi gure out how much salt bread contains",
"only fresh breads should be labelled"
] | CASH suggests that _ . | A third of breads contain more salt than recommended under guidelines being introduced next year, a survey found.
Most breads were within the current guidelines of 1.1g of salt per 100g-but this is being cut to 1g per 100g.
Campaign for Action on Salt and Health (CASH), which looked at 300 breads, said it was "outrageous"that bread contained even the current level. The Department of Health said "considerable" salt reductions had already been made. Manufacturers said many loaves with the lowest salt levels were supermarket brands, which were the most popular.
Eating too much salt is linked to high blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of developing heart disease. Recommended dietary salt levels vary with age. Adults are meant to have no more than 6g of salt in their diet per day, while toddlers should have no more than 2g.
Salt levels in bread have fallen by about a third over the past decade, with some falling by up to 40%. But CASH says levels are still too high, and warns there is wide variation in the amount found in loaves. Most are within half a gram of the current target of 1.1g of salt per 100g of bread-about two thick slices. But Cash found some signifi cantly exceeded it.
CASH says consumers should look at nutrition labels, where possible, to see how much salt bread contains. But it warns fresh breads, from in-store or high-street bakeries have no nutritional labelling, meaning people cannot tell how much salt they contain. And it said bakery breads often had higher levels than their packaged products.
CASH chairman Prof. Graham MacGregor, of the Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine, said: "It is frankly outrageous that bread still contains so much salt. The Department of Health needs to ensure that all bread is clearly labelled and that all manufacturers reduce the salt of bread to less that the salt target of 1g per 100g. It is the very high levels of salt that is hidden in everyday food, such as bread, that puts up both adults' and children's blood pressure."
Victoria Taylor, senior dietician at the British Heart Foundation, said: "We know too many people are eating too much salt each day. Some manufacturers are working towards targets for salt reduction, but we need more action to cut the salt content in bread and make sure they provide colour-coded food labels to help their customers." But Federation of Bakers director Gordon Polson said: "The majority of wrapped, sliced bread available already meets the 2012 targets and our members are continuing to endeavour to reduce salt by contributing to ongoing research to establish which other means are available to reduce salt in bread. The vast majority of breads singled out in the CASH report as higher in salt are not the mainstream products produced by our members; which do produce around 80% of the nation's bread in a £3bn industry."
A Department of Health spokesman said the government welcomed the "considerable" salt reductions that bread makers had already made, and it was "very pleasing" that around 60% of the products met salt targets for 2012.
"This is an important step in helping to reduce salt intake, as well as lowering the risk of high blood pressure and resulting strokes and heart disease. We look forward to seeing further reductions as more companies meet the targets," he added.
British Retail Consortium food director Andrew Opie said retailers and manufacturers are to fund independent research to look for ways of meeting the 2012 target-"while still making foods which consumers want to buy". | 234.txt | 2 |
[
"Positive.",
"Critical.",
"Skeptical.",
"Indifferent."
] | What's Gordon Polson's attitude toward the majority of wrapped, sliced bread available? | A third of breads contain more salt than recommended under guidelines being introduced next year, a survey found.
Most breads were within the current guidelines of 1.1g of salt per 100g-but this is being cut to 1g per 100g.
Campaign for Action on Salt and Health (CASH), which looked at 300 breads, said it was "outrageous"that bread contained even the current level. The Department of Health said "considerable" salt reductions had already been made. Manufacturers said many loaves with the lowest salt levels were supermarket brands, which were the most popular.
Eating too much salt is linked to high blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of developing heart disease. Recommended dietary salt levels vary with age. Adults are meant to have no more than 6g of salt in their diet per day, while toddlers should have no more than 2g.
Salt levels in bread have fallen by about a third over the past decade, with some falling by up to 40%. But CASH says levels are still too high, and warns there is wide variation in the amount found in loaves. Most are within half a gram of the current target of 1.1g of salt per 100g of bread-about two thick slices. But Cash found some signifi cantly exceeded it.
CASH says consumers should look at nutrition labels, where possible, to see how much salt bread contains. But it warns fresh breads, from in-store or high-street bakeries have no nutritional labelling, meaning people cannot tell how much salt they contain. And it said bakery breads often had higher levels than their packaged products.
CASH chairman Prof. Graham MacGregor, of the Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine, said: "It is frankly outrageous that bread still contains so much salt. The Department of Health needs to ensure that all bread is clearly labelled and that all manufacturers reduce the salt of bread to less that the salt target of 1g per 100g. It is the very high levels of salt that is hidden in everyday food, such as bread, that puts up both adults' and children's blood pressure."
Victoria Taylor, senior dietician at the British Heart Foundation, said: "We know too many people are eating too much salt each day. Some manufacturers are working towards targets for salt reduction, but we need more action to cut the salt content in bread and make sure they provide colour-coded food labels to help their customers." But Federation of Bakers director Gordon Polson said: "The majority of wrapped, sliced bread available already meets the 2012 targets and our members are continuing to endeavour to reduce salt by contributing to ongoing research to establish which other means are available to reduce salt in bread. The vast majority of breads singled out in the CASH report as higher in salt are not the mainstream products produced by our members; which do produce around 80% of the nation's bread in a £3bn industry."
A Department of Health spokesman said the government welcomed the "considerable" salt reductions that bread makers had already made, and it was "very pleasing" that around 60% of the products met salt targets for 2012.
"This is an important step in helping to reduce salt intake, as well as lowering the risk of high blood pressure and resulting strokes and heart disease. We look forward to seeing further reductions as more companies meet the targets," he added.
British Retail Consortium food director Andrew Opie said retailers and manufacturers are to fund independent research to look for ways of meeting the 2012 target-"while still making foods which consumers want to buy". | 234.txt | 0 |
[
"The influence of art deco on the design of furniture and household accessories",
"Ways in which government programs encouraged the development of art deco",
"Architectural manifestations of art deco during the 1920's and 1930's",
"Reasons for the popularity of art deco in New York and California"
] | What aspect of "art deco" does the passage mainly discuss? | The term "art deco" has come to encompass three distinct but related design trends of the 1920's and 1930's. The first was what is frequently referred to as "zigzag moderne" - the exotically ornamental style of such skyscrapers as the Chrysler Building in New York City and related structures such as the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California. The word "zigzag" alludes to the geometric and stylized ornamentation of zigzags, angular patterns, abstracted plant and animal motifs, sunbursts, astrological imagery, formalized fountains, and related themes that were applied in mosaic relief, and mural form to the exterior and interior of the buildings. Many of these buildings were shaped in the ziggurat form, a design resembling an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower that recedes in progressively smaller stages to the summit, creating a staircase-like effect.
The second manifestation of art deco was the 1930's "streamlined moderne" style - a Futuristic-looking aerodynamic style of rounded corners and horizontal bands known as "speed stripes". In architecture, these elements were frequently accompanied by round windows, extensive use of glass block, and flat rooftops.
The third style, referred to as either "international stripped classicism," or simply "classical moderne," also came to the forefront during the Depression, a period of severe economic difficult in the 1930's. This was a more conservative style, blending a simplified modernistic style with a more austere form of geometric and stylized relief sculpture and other ornament, including interior murals. Many buildings in this style were erected nationwide through government programs during the Depression.
Although art deco in its many forms was largely perceived as thoroughly modern, it was strongly influenced by the decorative arts movements that immediately preceded it. For example, like "art nouveau" (1890-1910), art deco also used plant motifs, but regularized the forms into abstracted repetitive patterns rather than presenting them as flowing, asymmetrical foliage, like the Viennese craftspeople of the Wiener Werkstatte, art deco designers worked with exotic materials, geometricized shapes, and colorfully ornate patterns. Furthermore, like the artisans of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England and the United States, art deco practitioners considered it their mission to transform the domestic environment through well-designed furniture and household accessories. | 405.txt | 2 |
[
"separate",
"include",
"replace",
"enhance"
] | The word "encompass" in line 1 is closest in meaning to | The term "art deco" has come to encompass three distinct but related design trends of the 1920's and 1930's. The first was what is frequently referred to as "zigzag moderne" - the exotically ornamental style of such skyscrapers as the Chrysler Building in New York City and related structures such as the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California. The word "zigzag" alludes to the geometric and stylized ornamentation of zigzags, angular patterns, abstracted plant and animal motifs, sunbursts, astrological imagery, formalized fountains, and related themes that were applied in mosaic relief, and mural form to the exterior and interior of the buildings. Many of these buildings were shaped in the ziggurat form, a design resembling an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower that recedes in progressively smaller stages to the summit, creating a staircase-like effect.
The second manifestation of art deco was the 1930's "streamlined moderne" style - a Futuristic-looking aerodynamic style of rounded corners and horizontal bands known as "speed stripes". In architecture, these elements were frequently accompanied by round windows, extensive use of glass block, and flat rooftops.
The third style, referred to as either "international stripped classicism," or simply "classical moderne," also came to the forefront during the Depression, a period of severe economic difficult in the 1930's. This was a more conservative style, blending a simplified modernistic style with a more austere form of geometric and stylized relief sculpture and other ornament, including interior murals. Many buildings in this style were erected nationwide through government programs during the Depression.
Although art deco in its many forms was largely perceived as thoroughly modern, it was strongly influenced by the decorative arts movements that immediately preceded it. For example, like "art nouveau" (1890-1910), art deco also used plant motifs, but regularized the forms into abstracted repetitive patterns rather than presenting them as flowing, asymmetrical foliage, like the Viennese craftspeople of the Wiener Werkstatte, art deco designers worked with exotic materials, geometricized shapes, and colorfully ornate patterns. Furthermore, like the artisans of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England and the United States, art deco practitioners considered it their mission to transform the domestic environment through well-designed furniture and household accessories. | 405.txt | 1 |
[
"the term \"art deco\"",
"design trends",
"the 1920's and 1930's",
"skyscrapers"
] | The phrase "The first" in line 2 refers to | The term "art deco" has come to encompass three distinct but related design trends of the 1920's and 1930's. The first was what is frequently referred to as "zigzag moderne" - the exotically ornamental style of such skyscrapers as the Chrysler Building in New York City and related structures such as the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California. The word "zigzag" alludes to the geometric and stylized ornamentation of zigzags, angular patterns, abstracted plant and animal motifs, sunbursts, astrological imagery, formalized fountains, and related themes that were applied in mosaic relief, and mural form to the exterior and interior of the buildings. Many of these buildings were shaped in the ziggurat form, a design resembling an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower that recedes in progressively smaller stages to the summit, creating a staircase-like effect.
The second manifestation of art deco was the 1930's "streamlined moderne" style - a Futuristic-looking aerodynamic style of rounded corners and horizontal bands known as "speed stripes". In architecture, these elements were frequently accompanied by round windows, extensive use of glass block, and flat rooftops.
The third style, referred to as either "international stripped classicism," or simply "classical moderne," also came to the forefront during the Depression, a period of severe economic difficult in the 1930's. This was a more conservative style, blending a simplified modernistic style with a more austere form of geometric and stylized relief sculpture and other ornament, including interior murals. Many buildings in this style were erected nationwide through government programs during the Depression.
Although art deco in its many forms was largely perceived as thoroughly modern, it was strongly influenced by the decorative arts movements that immediately preceded it. For example, like "art nouveau" (1890-1910), art deco also used plant motifs, but regularized the forms into abstracted repetitive patterns rather than presenting them as flowing, asymmetrical foliage, like the Viennese craftspeople of the Wiener Werkstatte, art deco designers worked with exotic materials, geometricized shapes, and colorfully ornate patterns. Furthermore, like the artisans of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England and the United States, art deco practitioners considered it their mission to transform the domestic environment through well-designed furniture and household accessories. | 405.txt | 1 |
[
"describe the exterior shape of certain \"art deco\" buildings",
"explain the differences between ancient and modern architectural steles",
"emphasize the extent of architectural advances",
"argue for a return to more traditional architectural design"
] | In line 9, the author mentions "an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower " in order to | The term "art deco" has come to encompass three distinct but related design trends of the 1920's and 1930's. The first was what is frequently referred to as "zigzag moderne" - the exotically ornamental style of such skyscrapers as the Chrysler Building in New York City and related structures such as the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California. The word "zigzag" alludes to the geometric and stylized ornamentation of zigzags, angular patterns, abstracted plant and animal motifs, sunbursts, astrological imagery, formalized fountains, and related themes that were applied in mosaic relief, and mural form to the exterior and interior of the buildings. Many of these buildings were shaped in the ziggurat form, a design resembling an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower that recedes in progressively smaller stages to the summit, creating a staircase-like effect.
The second manifestation of art deco was the 1930's "streamlined moderne" style - a Futuristic-looking aerodynamic style of rounded corners and horizontal bands known as "speed stripes". In architecture, these elements were frequently accompanied by round windows, extensive use of glass block, and flat rooftops.
The third style, referred to as either "international stripped classicism," or simply "classical moderne," also came to the forefront during the Depression, a period of severe economic difficult in the 1930's. This was a more conservative style, blending a simplified modernistic style with a more austere form of geometric and stylized relief sculpture and other ornament, including interior murals. Many buildings in this style were erected nationwide through government programs during the Depression.
Although art deco in its many forms was largely perceived as thoroughly modern, it was strongly influenced by the decorative arts movements that immediately preceded it. For example, like "art nouveau" (1890-1910), art deco also used plant motifs, but regularized the forms into abstracted repetitive patterns rather than presenting them as flowing, asymmetrical foliage, like the Viennese craftspeople of the Wiener Werkstatte, art deco designers worked with exotic materials, geometricized shapes, and colorfully ornate patterns. Furthermore, like the artisans of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England and the United States, art deco practitioners considered it their mission to transform the domestic environment through well-designed furniture and household accessories. | 405.txt | 0 |
[
"animal motifs",
"flat roofs",
"round windows",
"\"speed stripes\""
] | The streamlined moderne style is characterized by all of the following EXCEPT | The term "art deco" has come to encompass three distinct but related design trends of the 1920's and 1930's. The first was what is frequently referred to as "zigzag moderne" - the exotically ornamental style of such skyscrapers as the Chrysler Building in New York City and related structures such as the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California. The word "zigzag" alludes to the geometric and stylized ornamentation of zigzags, angular patterns, abstracted plant and animal motifs, sunbursts, astrological imagery, formalized fountains, and related themes that were applied in mosaic relief, and mural form to the exterior and interior of the buildings. Many of these buildings were shaped in the ziggurat form, a design resembling an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower that recedes in progressively smaller stages to the summit, creating a staircase-like effect.
The second manifestation of art deco was the 1930's "streamlined moderne" style - a Futuristic-looking aerodynamic style of rounded corners and horizontal bands known as "speed stripes". In architecture, these elements were frequently accompanied by round windows, extensive use of glass block, and flat rooftops.
The third style, referred to as either "international stripped classicism," or simply "classical moderne," also came to the forefront during the Depression, a period of severe economic difficult in the 1930's. This was a more conservative style, blending a simplified modernistic style with a more austere form of geometric and stylized relief sculpture and other ornament, including interior murals. Many buildings in this style were erected nationwide through government programs during the Depression.
Although art deco in its many forms was largely perceived as thoroughly modern, it was strongly influenced by the decorative arts movements that immediately preceded it. For example, like "art nouveau" (1890-1910), art deco also used plant motifs, but regularized the forms into abstracted repetitive patterns rather than presenting them as flowing, asymmetrical foliage, like the Viennese craftspeople of the Wiener Werkstatte, art deco designers worked with exotic materials, geometricized shapes, and colorfully ornate patterns. Furthermore, like the artisans of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England and the United States, art deco practitioners considered it their mission to transform the domestic environment through well-designed furniture and household accessories. | 405.txt | 0 |
[
"grew in complexity",
"went through a process",
"changed its approach",
"became important"
] | The phrase "came to the forefront" in line 16 is closest in meaning to | The term "art deco" has come to encompass three distinct but related design trends of the 1920's and 1930's. The first was what is frequently referred to as "zigzag moderne" - the exotically ornamental style of such skyscrapers as the Chrysler Building in New York City and related structures such as the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California. The word "zigzag" alludes to the geometric and stylized ornamentation of zigzags, angular patterns, abstracted plant and animal motifs, sunbursts, astrological imagery, formalized fountains, and related themes that were applied in mosaic relief, and mural form to the exterior and interior of the buildings. Many of these buildings were shaped in the ziggurat form, a design resembling an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower that recedes in progressively smaller stages to the summit, creating a staircase-like effect.
The second manifestation of art deco was the 1930's "streamlined moderne" style - a Futuristic-looking aerodynamic style of rounded corners and horizontal bands known as "speed stripes". In architecture, these elements were frequently accompanied by round windows, extensive use of glass block, and flat rooftops.
The third style, referred to as either "international stripped classicism," or simply "classical moderne," also came to the forefront during the Depression, a period of severe economic difficult in the 1930's. This was a more conservative style, blending a simplified modernistic style with a more austere form of geometric and stylized relief sculpture and other ornament, including interior murals. Many buildings in this style were erected nationwide through government programs during the Depression.
Although art deco in its many forms was largely perceived as thoroughly modern, it was strongly influenced by the decorative arts movements that immediately preceded it. For example, like "art nouveau" (1890-1910), art deco also used plant motifs, but regularized the forms into abstracted repetitive patterns rather than presenting them as flowing, asymmetrical foliage, like the Viennese craftspeople of the Wiener Werkstatte, art deco designers worked with exotic materials, geometricized shapes, and colorfully ornate patterns. Furthermore, like the artisans of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England and the United States, art deco practitioners considered it their mission to transform the domestic environment through well-designed furniture and household accessories. | 405.txt | 3 |
[
"They were art forms that competed with each other for government support during the Depression era.",
"They were essentially the same art form.",
"Art nouveau preceded art deco and influenced it.",
"Art deco became important in the United States while art nouveau became popular in England."
] | According to the passage , which of the following statements most accurately describes the relationship between art deco and art nouveau? | The term "art deco" has come to encompass three distinct but related design trends of the 1920's and 1930's. The first was what is frequently referred to as "zigzag moderne" - the exotically ornamental style of such skyscrapers as the Chrysler Building in New York City and related structures such as the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California. The word "zigzag" alludes to the geometric and stylized ornamentation of zigzags, angular patterns, abstracted plant and animal motifs, sunbursts, astrological imagery, formalized fountains, and related themes that were applied in mosaic relief, and mural form to the exterior and interior of the buildings. Many of these buildings were shaped in the ziggurat form, a design resembling an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower that recedes in progressively smaller stages to the summit, creating a staircase-like effect.
The second manifestation of art deco was the 1930's "streamlined moderne" style - a Futuristic-looking aerodynamic style of rounded corners and horizontal bands known as "speed stripes". In architecture, these elements were frequently accompanied by round windows, extensive use of glass block, and flat rooftops.
The third style, referred to as either "international stripped classicism," or simply "classical moderne," also came to the forefront during the Depression, a period of severe economic difficult in the 1930's. This was a more conservative style, blending a simplified modernistic style with a more austere form of geometric and stylized relief sculpture and other ornament, including interior murals. Many buildings in this style were erected nationwide through government programs during the Depression.
Although art deco in its many forms was largely perceived as thoroughly modern, it was strongly influenced by the decorative arts movements that immediately preceded it. For example, like "art nouveau" (1890-1910), art deco also used plant motifs, but regularized the forms into abstracted repetitive patterns rather than presenting them as flowing, asymmetrical foliage, like the Viennese craftspeople of the Wiener Werkstatte, art deco designers worked with exotic materials, geometricized shapes, and colorfully ornate patterns. Furthermore, like the artisans of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England and the United States, art deco practitioners considered it their mission to transform the domestic environment through well-designed furniture and household accessories. | 405.txt | 2 |
[
"zigzag moderne",
"streamlined moderne",
"classical moderne",
"the Arts and Crafts Movement"
] | According to the passage , a building having an especially ornate appearance would most probably have been designed in the style of | The term "art deco" has come to encompass three distinct but related design trends of the 1920's and 1930's. The first was what is frequently referred to as "zigzag moderne" - the exotically ornamental style of such skyscrapers as the Chrysler Building in New York City and related structures such as the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California. The word "zigzag" alludes to the geometric and stylized ornamentation of zigzags, angular patterns, abstracted plant and animal motifs, sunbursts, astrological imagery, formalized fountains, and related themes that were applied in mosaic relief, and mural form to the exterior and interior of the buildings. Many of these buildings were shaped in the ziggurat form, a design resembling an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower that recedes in progressively smaller stages to the summit, creating a staircase-like effect.
The second manifestation of art deco was the 1930's "streamlined moderne" style - a Futuristic-looking aerodynamic style of rounded corners and horizontal bands known as "speed stripes". In architecture, these elements were frequently accompanied by round windows, extensive use of glass block, and flat rooftops.
The third style, referred to as either "international stripped classicism," or simply "classical moderne," also came to the forefront during the Depression, a period of severe economic difficult in the 1930's. This was a more conservative style, blending a simplified modernistic style with a more austere form of geometric and stylized relief sculpture and other ornament, including interior murals. Many buildings in this style were erected nationwide through government programs during the Depression.
Although art deco in its many forms was largely perceived as thoroughly modern, it was strongly influenced by the decorative arts movements that immediately preceded it. For example, like "art nouveau" (1890-1910), art deco also used plant motifs, but regularized the forms into abstracted repetitive patterns rather than presenting them as flowing, asymmetrical foliage, like the Viennese craftspeople of the Wiener Werkstatte, art deco designers worked with exotic materials, geometricized shapes, and colorfully ornate patterns. Furthermore, like the artisans of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England and the United States, art deco practitioners considered it their mission to transform the domestic environment through well-designed furniture and household accessories. | 405.txt | 0 |
[
"Zigzag moderne",
"Streamlined moderne",
"International stripped classicism",
"Arts and Crafts Movement"
] | According to the passage , which of the following design trends is known by more than one name? | The term "art deco" has come to encompass three distinct but related design trends of the 1920's and 1930's. The first was what is frequently referred to as "zigzag moderne" - the exotically ornamental style of such skyscrapers as the Chrysler Building in New York City and related structures such as the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California. The word "zigzag" alludes to the geometric and stylized ornamentation of zigzags, angular patterns, abstracted plant and animal motifs, sunbursts, astrological imagery, formalized fountains, and related themes that were applied in mosaic relief, and mural form to the exterior and interior of the buildings. Many of these buildings were shaped in the ziggurat form, a design resembling an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower that recedes in progressively smaller stages to the summit, creating a staircase-like effect.
The second manifestation of art deco was the 1930's "streamlined moderne" style - a Futuristic-looking aerodynamic style of rounded corners and horizontal bands known as "speed stripes". In architecture, these elements were frequently accompanied by round windows, extensive use of glass block, and flat rooftops.
The third style, referred to as either "international stripped classicism," or simply "classical moderne," also came to the forefront during the Depression, a period of severe economic difficult in the 1930's. This was a more conservative style, blending a simplified modernistic style with a more austere form of geometric and stylized relief sculpture and other ornament, including interior murals. Many buildings in this style were erected nationwide through government programs during the Depression.
Although art deco in its many forms was largely perceived as thoroughly modern, it was strongly influenced by the decorative arts movements that immediately preceded it. For example, like "art nouveau" (1890-1910), art deco also used plant motifs, but regularized the forms into abstracted repetitive patterns rather than presenting them as flowing, asymmetrical foliage, like the Viennese craftspeople of the Wiener Werkstatte, art deco designers worked with exotic materials, geometricized shapes, and colorfully ornate patterns. Furthermore, like the artisans of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England and the United States, art deco practitioners considered it their mission to transform the domestic environment through well-designed furniture and household accessories. | 405.txt | 2 |
[
"the historical chronology of a movement",
"a description of specific buildings that became famous for their unusual beauty",
"an analysis of various trends within an artistic movement",
"an argument of the advantages of one artistic form over another"
] | The passage is primarily developed as | The term "art deco" has come to encompass three distinct but related design trends of the 1920's and 1930's. The first was what is frequently referred to as "zigzag moderne" - the exotically ornamental style of such skyscrapers as the Chrysler Building in New York City and related structures such as the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California. The word "zigzag" alludes to the geometric and stylized ornamentation of zigzags, angular patterns, abstracted plant and animal motifs, sunbursts, astrological imagery, formalized fountains, and related themes that were applied in mosaic relief, and mural form to the exterior and interior of the buildings. Many of these buildings were shaped in the ziggurat form, a design resembling an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower that recedes in progressively smaller stages to the summit, creating a staircase-like effect.
The second manifestation of art deco was the 1930's "streamlined moderne" style - a Futuristic-looking aerodynamic style of rounded corners and horizontal bands known as "speed stripes". In architecture, these elements were frequently accompanied by round windows, extensive use of glass block, and flat rooftops.
The third style, referred to as either "international stripped classicism," or simply "classical moderne," also came to the forefront during the Depression, a period of severe economic difficult in the 1930's. This was a more conservative style, blending a simplified modernistic style with a more austere form of geometric and stylized relief sculpture and other ornament, including interior murals. Many buildings in this style were erected nationwide through government programs during the Depression.
Although art deco in its many forms was largely perceived as thoroughly modern, it was strongly influenced by the decorative arts movements that immediately preceded it. For example, like "art nouveau" (1890-1910), art deco also used plant motifs, but regularized the forms into abstracted repetitive patterns rather than presenting them as flowing, asymmetrical foliage, like the Viennese craftspeople of the Wiener Werkstatte, art deco designers worked with exotic materials, geometricized shapes, and colorfully ornate patterns. Furthermore, like the artisans of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England and the United States, art deco practitioners considered it their mission to transform the domestic environment through well-designed furniture and household accessories. | 405.txt | 2 |
[
"how to keep disease from pets",
"pets in Canada",
"how to take good care of pets",
"life of the old in Canada"
] | The passage mainly talks about _ . | In Canada you can find dogs, cats, horses, etc. in almost every family. These are their pets. People love these pets and have them as their good friends. Before they keep them in their houses, they take them to animal hospitals to give them injections so that they won't carry disease. They have special animal food stores, though they can get animal food in almost every kind of store. Some people spend around two hundred Canadian dollars a month on animal food. When you visit people's houses, they would be very glad to show you their pets and they are very proud of them. You will also find that almost every family has a feeding place for birds in their garden. All kinds of birds are welcomed to come and have a good meal. They are free to come and go and nobody is allowed to kill any animal in Canada. They have a law against killing wild animals. If you killed an animal, you would be punished. If an animal happened to get run over by a car, people would be very sad about it.
People in Canada have many reasons to like animals. One of them might be that their family ties are not as close as ours.When children grow up, they leave their parents and start their own life. Then the old will feel lonely, but pets can solve this problem. They can be good friends and never leave them alone. | 660.txt | 1 |
[
"the pets are sick",
"the pets are wild",
"they want to stop them from getting sick",
"they want them to sleep on the way home"
] | They give their pets injections before keeping them at their houses because _ . | In Canada you can find dogs, cats, horses, etc. in almost every family. These are their pets. People love these pets and have them as their good friends. Before they keep them in their houses, they take them to animal hospitals to give them injections so that they won't carry disease. They have special animal food stores, though they can get animal food in almost every kind of store. Some people spend around two hundred Canadian dollars a month on animal food. When you visit people's houses, they would be very glad to show you their pets and they are very proud of them. You will also find that almost every family has a feeding place for birds in their garden. All kinds of birds are welcomed to come and have a good meal. They are free to come and go and nobody is allowed to kill any animal in Canada. They have a law against killing wild animals. If you killed an animal, you would be punished. If an animal happened to get run over by a car, people would be very sad about it.
People in Canada have many reasons to like animals. One of them might be that their family ties are not as close as ours.When children grow up, they leave their parents and start their own life. Then the old will feel lonely, but pets can solve this problem. They can be good friends and never leave them alone. | 660.txt | 2 |
[
"they don't love their parents any more",
"they can only find jobs far from their parents",
"their parents' houses are too small",
"they wouldn't depend on their parents any more"
] | In Canada, children leave their parents when they grow up because _ . | In Canada you can find dogs, cats, horses, etc. in almost every family. These are their pets. People love these pets and have them as their good friends. Before they keep them in their houses, they take them to animal hospitals to give them injections so that they won't carry disease. They have special animal food stores, though they can get animal food in almost every kind of store. Some people spend around two hundred Canadian dollars a month on animal food. When you visit people's houses, they would be very glad to show you their pets and they are very proud of them. You will also find that almost every family has a feeding place for birds in their garden. All kinds of birds are welcomed to come and have a good meal. They are free to come and go and nobody is allowed to kill any animal in Canada. They have a law against killing wild animals. If you killed an animal, you would be punished. If an animal happened to get run over by a car, people would be very sad about it.
People in Canada have many reasons to like animals. One of them might be that their family ties are not as close as ours.When children grow up, they leave their parents and start their own life. Then the old will feel lonely, but pets can solve this problem. They can be good friends and never leave them alone. | 660.txt | 3 |
[
"People buy animal food only at the animal food stores.",
"Pets eat better than people.",
"Almost every family has a birdcage in his house.",
"Any bird can come to the bird feeders to eat."
] | Which of the following is TRUE？ | In Canada you can find dogs, cats, horses, etc. in almost every family. These are their pets. People love these pets and have them as their good friends. Before they keep them in their houses, they take them to animal hospitals to give them injections so that they won't carry disease. They have special animal food stores, though they can get animal food in almost every kind of store. Some people spend around two hundred Canadian dollars a month on animal food. When you visit people's houses, they would be very glad to show you their pets and they are very proud of them. You will also find that almost every family has a feeding place for birds in their garden. All kinds of birds are welcomed to come and have a good meal. They are free to come and go and nobody is allowed to kill any animal in Canada. They have a law against killing wild animals. If you killed an animal, you would be punished. If an animal happened to get run over by a car, people would be very sad about it.
People in Canada have many reasons to like animals. One of them might be that their family ties are not as close as ours.When children grow up, they leave their parents and start their own life. Then the old will feel lonely, but pets can solve this problem. They can be good friends and never leave them alone. | 660.txt | 3 |
[
"The origins of theater.",
"The role of ritual in modern dance.",
"The importance of storytelling.",
"The variety of early religious activities."
] | What does the passage mainly discuss? | There are many theories about the beginning of drama in ancient Greece. The one most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama evolved from ritual. The argument for this view goes as follows. In the beginning, human beings viewed the natural forces of the world, even the seasonal changes, as unpredictable, and they sought through various means, to control these unknown and feared powers. Those measures which appeared to bring the desired results were then retained and repeated until they hardened into fixed rituals. Eventually stories arose which explained or veiled the mysteries of the rites. As time passed some rituals were abandoned, but the stories, later called myths, persisted and provided material for art and drama.
Those who believed that drama evolved out of ritual also argue that those rites contained the seed of theater because music, dance, masks, and costumes were almost always used. Furthermore, a suitable site had to be provided for performances, and when the entire community did not participate, a clear division was usually made between the "acting area" and the "auditorium". In addition, there were performers, and, since considerable importance was attached to avoiding mistakes in the enactment of rites, religious leaders usually assumed that task. Wearing masks and costumes, they often impersonated other people, animals, or supernatural beings, and mimed the desired effect-success in hunt or battle, the coming rain, the revival of the Sun-as an actor might. Eventually such dramatic representations were separated from religious activities.
Another theory traces the theater's origin from the human interest in storytelling. According to this view, tales (about the hunt, war, or other feats) are gradually elaborated, at first through the use of impersonation, action, and dialogue by a narrator and then through the assumption of each of the roles by a different person. A closely related theory traces theater to those dances that are primarily rhythmical and gymnastic or that are imitations of animal movements and sounds. | 38.txt | 0 |
[
"The reason drama is often unpredictable.",
"The seasons in which dramas were performed.",
"The connection between myths and dramatic plots.",
"The importance of costumes in early drama."
] | What aspect of drama does the author discuss in the first paragraph? | There are many theories about the beginning of drama in ancient Greece. The one most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama evolved from ritual. The argument for this view goes as follows. In the beginning, human beings viewed the natural forces of the world, even the seasonal changes, as unpredictable, and they sought through various means, to control these unknown and feared powers. Those measures which appeared to bring the desired results were then retained and repeated until they hardened into fixed rituals. Eventually stories arose which explained or veiled the mysteries of the rites. As time passed some rituals were abandoned, but the stories, later called myths, persisted and provided material for art and drama.
Those who believed that drama evolved out of ritual also argue that those rites contained the seed of theater because music, dance, masks, and costumes were almost always used. Furthermore, a suitable site had to be provided for performances, and when the entire community did not participate, a clear division was usually made between the "acting area" and the "auditorium". In addition, there were performers, and, since considerable importance was attached to avoiding mistakes in the enactment of rites, religious leaders usually assumed that task. Wearing masks and costumes, they often impersonated other people, animals, or supernatural beings, and mimed the desired effect-success in hunt or battle, the coming rain, the revival of the Sun-as an actor might. Eventually such dramatic representations were separated from religious activities.
Another theory traces the theater's origin from the human interest in storytelling. According to this view, tales (about the hunt, war, or other feats) are gradually elaborated, at first through the use of impersonation, action, and dialogue by a narrator and then through the assumption of each of the roles by a different person. A closely related theory traces theater to those dances that are primarily rhythmical and gymnastic or that are imitations of animal movements and sounds. | 38.txt | 2 |
[
"Dance.",
"Costumes.",
"Music.",
"Magic."
] | Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a common element of theater and ritual? | There are many theories about the beginning of drama in ancient Greece. The one most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama evolved from ritual. The argument for this view goes as follows. In the beginning, human beings viewed the natural forces of the world, even the seasonal changes, as unpredictable, and they sought through various means, to control these unknown and feared powers. Those measures which appeared to bring the desired results were then retained and repeated until they hardened into fixed rituals. Eventually stories arose which explained or veiled the mysteries of the rites. As time passed some rituals were abandoned, but the stories, later called myths, persisted and provided material for art and drama.
Those who believed that drama evolved out of ritual also argue that those rites contained the seed of theater because music, dance, masks, and costumes were almost always used. Furthermore, a suitable site had to be provided for performances, and when the entire community did not participate, a clear division was usually made between the "acting area" and the "auditorium". In addition, there were performers, and, since considerable importance was attached to avoiding mistakes in the enactment of rites, religious leaders usually assumed that task. Wearing masks and costumes, they often impersonated other people, animals, or supernatural beings, and mimed the desired effect-success in hunt or battle, the coming rain, the revival of the Sun-as an actor might. Eventually such dramatic representations were separated from religious activities.
Another theory traces the theater's origin from the human interest in storytelling. According to this view, tales (about the hunt, war, or other feats) are gradually elaborated, at first through the use of impersonation, action, and dialogue by a narrator and then through the assumption of each of the roles by a different person. A closely related theory traces theater to those dances that are primarily rhythmical and gymnastic or that are imitations of animal movements and sounds. | 38.txt | 3 |
[
"Ritual uses music whereas drama does not.",
"Ritual is shorter than drama.",
"Ritual requires fewer performers than drama.",
"Ritual has a religious purpose and drama does not."
] | According to the passage, what is the main difference between ritual and drama? | There are many theories about the beginning of drama in ancient Greece. The one most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama evolved from ritual. The argument for this view goes as follows. In the beginning, human beings viewed the natural forces of the world, even the seasonal changes, as unpredictable, and they sought through various means, to control these unknown and feared powers. Those measures which appeared to bring the desired results were then retained and repeated until they hardened into fixed rituals. Eventually stories arose which explained or veiled the mysteries of the rites. As time passed some rituals were abandoned, but the stories, later called myths, persisted and provided material for art and drama.
Those who believed that drama evolved out of ritual also argue that those rites contained the seed of theater because music, dance, masks, and costumes were almost always used. Furthermore, a suitable site had to be provided for performances, and when the entire community did not participate, a clear division was usually made between the "acting area" and the "auditorium". In addition, there were performers, and, since considerable importance was attached to avoiding mistakes in the enactment of rites, religious leaders usually assumed that task. Wearing masks and costumes, they often impersonated other people, animals, or supernatural beings, and mimed the desired effect-success in hunt or battle, the coming rain, the revival of the Sun-as an actor might. Eventually such dramatic representations were separated from religious activities.
Another theory traces the theater's origin from the human interest in storytelling. According to this view, tales (about the hunt, war, or other feats) are gradually elaborated, at first through the use of impersonation, action, and dialogue by a narrator and then through the assumption of each of the roles by a different person. A closely related theory traces theater to those dances that are primarily rhythmical and gymnastic or that are imitations of animal movements and sounds. | 38.txt | 3 |
[
"No one really knows how the theater began.",
"Myths are no longer represented dramatically.",
"Storytelling is an important part of dance.",
"Dramatic activities require the use of costumes."
] | The passage supports which of the following statements? | There are many theories about the beginning of drama in ancient Greece. The one most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama evolved from ritual. The argument for this view goes as follows. In the beginning, human beings viewed the natural forces of the world, even the seasonal changes, as unpredictable, and they sought through various means, to control these unknown and feared powers. Those measures which appeared to bring the desired results were then retained and repeated until they hardened into fixed rituals. Eventually stories arose which explained or veiled the mysteries of the rites. As time passed some rituals were abandoned, but the stories, later called myths, persisted and provided material for art and drama.
Those who believed that drama evolved out of ritual also argue that those rites contained the seed of theater because music, dance, masks, and costumes were almost always used. Furthermore, a suitable site had to be provided for performances, and when the entire community did not participate, a clear division was usually made between the "acting area" and the "auditorium". In addition, there were performers, and, since considerable importance was attached to avoiding mistakes in the enactment of rites, religious leaders usually assumed that task. Wearing masks and costumes, they often impersonated other people, animals, or supernatural beings, and mimed the desired effect-success in hunt or battle, the coming rain, the revival of the Sun-as an actor might. Eventually such dramatic representations were separated from religious activities.
Another theory traces the theater's origin from the human interest in storytelling. According to this view, tales (about the hunt, war, or other feats) are gradually elaborated, at first through the use of impersonation, action, and dialogue by a narrator and then through the assumption of each of the roles by a different person. A closely related theory traces theater to those dances that are primarily rhythmical and gymnastic or that are imitations of animal movements and sounds. | 38.txt | 0 |
[
"speak for the majority",
"initiate a veto",
"criticize the government",
"argue for the value of the death penalty"
] | The principal purpose of this passage is to _ . | With the possible exception of equal rights, perhaps the most controversial issue across the United States today is the death penalty. Many argue that it is an effective deterrent to murder, while others maintain there is no convincing evidence that the death penalty reduces murders.
The principal argument advanced by those opposed to the death penalty, basically, is that it is cruel and inhuman punishment, which is the mark of a brutal society, and finally that it is of questionable effectiveness as a deterrent to crime anyway.
In our opinion, the death penalty is a necessary evil. Throughout recorded history there have always been those extreme individuals in every society who were capable of terribly violent crimes such as murder. But some are more extreme than others.
For example, it is one thing to take the life of another in a fit of blind rage, but quite another to coldly plot and carry out the murder of one or more people in the style of a butcher. Thus, murder, like all other crimes, is a matter of relative degree. While it could be argued with some conviction that the criminal in the first instance should be merely isolated from society, such should not be the fate of the latter type murderer.
The value of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime may be open to debate. But the overwhelming majority of citizens believe that the death penalty protects them. Their belief is reinforced by evidence which shows that the death penalty deters murder. For example, from 1954 to 1963, when the death penalty was consistently imposed in California, the murder rate remained between three and four murders for each 100,000 population. Since 1964 the death penalty has been imposed only once, and the murder rate has risen to 10.4 murders for each 100,000 population. The sharp climb in the state's murder rate, which began when executions stopped, is no coincidence. It is convincing evidence that the death penalty does deter many murderers. If the bill reestablishing the death penalty is vetoed, innocent people will be murdered-some whose lives may have been saved if the death penalty were in effect. This is literally a life or death matter. The lives of thousands of innocent people must be protected. | 788.txt | 3 |
[
"negative",
"friendly",
"supportive",
"hostile"
] | The author's response to those who urge the death penalty for all is likely to be _ . | With the possible exception of equal rights, perhaps the most controversial issue across the United States today is the death penalty. Many argue that it is an effective deterrent to murder, while others maintain there is no convincing evidence that the death penalty reduces murders.
The principal argument advanced by those opposed to the death penalty, basically, is that it is cruel and inhuman punishment, which is the mark of a brutal society, and finally that it is of questionable effectiveness as a deterrent to crime anyway.
In our opinion, the death penalty is a necessary evil. Throughout recorded history there have always been those extreme individuals in every society who were capable of terribly violent crimes such as murder. But some are more extreme than others.
For example, it is one thing to take the life of another in a fit of blind rage, but quite another to coldly plot and carry out the murder of one or more people in the style of a butcher. Thus, murder, like all other crimes, is a matter of relative degree. While it could be argued with some conviction that the criminal in the first instance should be merely isolated from society, such should not be the fate of the latter type murderer.
The value of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime may be open to debate. But the overwhelming majority of citizens believe that the death penalty protects them. Their belief is reinforced by evidence which shows that the death penalty deters murder. For example, from 1954 to 1963, when the death penalty was consistently imposed in California, the murder rate remained between three and four murders for each 100,000 population. Since 1964 the death penalty has been imposed only once, and the murder rate has risen to 10.4 murders for each 100,000 population. The sharp climb in the state's murder rate, which began when executions stopped, is no coincidence. It is convincing evidence that the death penalty does deter many murderers. If the bill reestablishing the death penalty is vetoed, innocent people will be murdered-some whose lives may have been saved if the death penalty were in effect. This is literally a life or death matter. The lives of thousands of innocent people must be protected. | 788.txt | 0 |
[
"the death penalty is the most controversial issue in the United States today",
"the second type of murderers should be sentenced to death",
"the veto of the bill reestablishing the death penalty is of little importance",
"the value of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime is not to be debated"
] | According to the Paragraph 4, it can be inferred that _ . | With the possible exception of equal rights, perhaps the most controversial issue across the United States today is the death penalty. Many argue that it is an effective deterrent to murder, while others maintain there is no convincing evidence that the death penalty reduces murders.
The principal argument advanced by those opposed to the death penalty, basically, is that it is cruel and inhuman punishment, which is the mark of a brutal society, and finally that it is of questionable effectiveness as a deterrent to crime anyway.
In our opinion, the death penalty is a necessary evil. Throughout recorded history there have always been those extreme individuals in every society who were capable of terribly violent crimes such as murder. But some are more extreme than others.
For example, it is one thing to take the life of another in a fit of blind rage, but quite another to coldly plot and carry out the murder of one or more people in the style of a butcher. Thus, murder, like all other crimes, is a matter of relative degree. While it could be argued with some conviction that the criminal in the first instance should be merely isolated from society, such should not be the fate of the latter type murderer.
The value of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime may be open to debate. But the overwhelming majority of citizens believe that the death penalty protects them. Their belief is reinforced by evidence which shows that the death penalty deters murder. For example, from 1954 to 1963, when the death penalty was consistently imposed in California, the murder rate remained between three and four murders for each 100,000 population. Since 1964 the death penalty has been imposed only once, and the murder rate has risen to 10.4 murders for each 100,000 population. The sharp climb in the state's murder rate, which began when executions stopped, is no coincidence. It is convincing evidence that the death penalty does deter many murderers. If the bill reestablishing the death penalty is vetoed, innocent people will be murdered-some whose lives may have been saved if the death penalty were in effect. This is literally a life or death matter. The lives of thousands of innocent people must be protected. | 788.txt | 1 |
[
"the murder rate and the imposition of the death penalty",
"the effects of execution and the effects of isolation",
"the importance of equal rights and that of the death penalty",
"executions and murders"
] | The passage attempts to establish a relationship between _ . | With the possible exception of equal rights, perhaps the most controversial issue across the United States today is the death penalty. Many argue that it is an effective deterrent to murder, while others maintain there is no convincing evidence that the death penalty reduces murders.
The principal argument advanced by those opposed to the death penalty, basically, is that it is cruel and inhuman punishment, which is the mark of a brutal society, and finally that it is of questionable effectiveness as a deterrent to crime anyway.
In our opinion, the death penalty is a necessary evil. Throughout recorded history there have always been those extreme individuals in every society who were capable of terribly violent crimes such as murder. But some are more extreme than others.
For example, it is one thing to take the life of another in a fit of blind rage, but quite another to coldly plot and carry out the murder of one or more people in the style of a butcher. Thus, murder, like all other crimes, is a matter of relative degree. While it could be argued with some conviction that the criminal in the first instance should be merely isolated from society, such should not be the fate of the latter type murderer.
The value of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime may be open to debate. But the overwhelming majority of citizens believe that the death penalty protects them. Their belief is reinforced by evidence which shows that the death penalty deters murder. For example, from 1954 to 1963, when the death penalty was consistently imposed in California, the murder rate remained between three and four murders for each 100,000 population. Since 1964 the death penalty has been imposed only once, and the murder rate has risen to 10.4 murders for each 100,000 population. The sharp climb in the state's murder rate, which began when executions stopped, is no coincidence. It is convincing evidence that the death penalty does deter many murderers. If the bill reestablishing the death penalty is vetoed, innocent people will be murdered-some whose lives may have been saved if the death penalty were in effect. This is literally a life or death matter. The lives of thousands of innocent people must be protected. | 788.txt | 0 |
[
"opposing",
"supporting",
"neutral",
"sarcastic"
] | The author's attitude towards " death penalty" is . | With the possible exception of equal rights, perhaps the most controversial issue across the United States today is the death penalty. Many argue that it is an effective deterrent to murder, while others maintain there is no convincing evidence that the death penalty reduces murders.
The principal argument advanced by those opposed to the death penalty, basically, is that it is cruel and inhuman punishment, which is the mark of a brutal society, and finally that it is of questionable effectiveness as a deterrent to crime anyway.
In our opinion, the death penalty is a necessary evil. Throughout recorded history there have always been those extreme individuals in every society who were capable of terribly violent crimes such as murder. But some are more extreme than others.
For example, it is one thing to take the life of another in a fit of blind rage, but quite another to coldly plot and carry out the murder of one or more people in the style of a butcher. Thus, murder, like all other crimes, is a matter of relative degree. While it could be argued with some conviction that the criminal in the first instance should be merely isolated from society, such should not be the fate of the latter type murderer.
The value of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime may be open to debate. But the overwhelming majority of citizens believe that the death penalty protects them. Their belief is reinforced by evidence which shows that the death penalty deters murder. For example, from 1954 to 1963, when the death penalty was consistently imposed in California, the murder rate remained between three and four murders for each 100,000 population. Since 1964 the death penalty has been imposed only once, and the murder rate has risen to 10.4 murders for each 100,000 population. The sharp climb in the state's murder rate, which began when executions stopped, is no coincidence. It is convincing evidence that the death penalty does deter many murderers. If the bill reestablishing the death penalty is vetoed, innocent people will be murdered-some whose lives may have been saved if the death penalty were in effect. This is literally a life or death matter. The lives of thousands of innocent people must be protected. | 788.txt | 1 |
[
"people forget how to use his legs.",
"people prefer cars, buses and trains.",
"lifts and escalators prevent people from walking.",
"there are a lot of transportation devices."
] | Anthorpologists label nowaday's men 'Legless' because | The past ages of man have all been carefully labeled by anthropologists. Descriptions like 'Palaeolithic Man', 'Neolithic Man', etc., neatly sum up whole periods. When the time comes for anthropologists to turn their attention to the twentieth century, they will surely choose the label'Legless Man'. Histories of the time will go something like this: 'in the twentieth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators in all large buildings to prevent people from walking. This situation was forced upon earth dwellers of that time because of miles each day. But the surprising thing is that they didn't use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable railways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of every huge mountain. All the beauty spots on earth were marred by the presence of large car parks.'
The future history books might also record that we were deprived of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we failed to see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird's-eye view of the world - or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the countryside constantly smears the windows. Car drivers, in particular, are forever obsessed with the urge to go on and on: they never want to stop. Is it the lure of the great motorways, or what? And as for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention. It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song: 'I joined the navy to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea.' The typical twentieth-century traveler is the man who always says 'I've been there.'You mention the remotest, most evocative place-names in the world like El Dorado, Kabul, Irkutsk and someone is bound to say 'I've been there'- meaning, 'I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else. '
When you travel at high speeds, the present means nothing: you live mainly in the future because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival, when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on again. By traveling like this, you suspend all experience; the present ceases to be a reality: you might just as well be dead. The traveler on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. For him traveling and arriving are one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with every step he makes. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical weariness. He knows that sound. Satisfying sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travellers. | 251.txt | 0 |
[
"people's focus on the future.",
"a pleasure.",
"satisfying drivers' great thrill.",
"a necessity of life."
] | Travelling at high speed means | The past ages of man have all been carefully labeled by anthropologists. Descriptions like 'Palaeolithic Man', 'Neolithic Man', etc., neatly sum up whole periods. When the time comes for anthropologists to turn their attention to the twentieth century, they will surely choose the label'Legless Man'. Histories of the time will go something like this: 'in the twentieth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators in all large buildings to prevent people from walking. This situation was forced upon earth dwellers of that time because of miles each day. But the surprising thing is that they didn't use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable railways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of every huge mountain. All the beauty spots on earth were marred by the presence of large car parks.'
The future history books might also record that we were deprived of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we failed to see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird's-eye view of the world - or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the countryside constantly smears the windows. Car drivers, in particular, are forever obsessed with the urge to go on and on: they never want to stop. Is it the lure of the great motorways, or what? And as for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention. It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song: 'I joined the navy to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea.' The typical twentieth-century traveler is the man who always says 'I've been there.'You mention the remotest, most evocative place-names in the world like El Dorado, Kabul, Irkutsk and someone is bound to say 'I've been there'- meaning, 'I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else. '
When you travel at high speeds, the present means nothing: you live mainly in the future because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival, when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on again. By traveling like this, you suspend all experience; the present ceases to be a reality: you might just as well be dead. The traveler on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. For him traveling and arriving are one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with every step he makes. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical weariness. He knows that sound. Satisfying sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travellers. | 251.txt | 0 |
[
"People won't use their eyes.",
"In traveling at high speed, eyes become useless.",
"People can't see anything on his way of travel.",
"People want to sleep during travelling."
] | Why does the author say 'we are deprived of the use of our eyes' ? | The past ages of man have all been carefully labeled by anthropologists. Descriptions like 'Palaeolithic Man', 'Neolithic Man', etc., neatly sum up whole periods. When the time comes for anthropologists to turn their attention to the twentieth century, they will surely choose the label'Legless Man'. Histories of the time will go something like this: 'in the twentieth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators in all large buildings to prevent people from walking. This situation was forced upon earth dwellers of that time because of miles each day. But the surprising thing is that they didn't use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable railways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of every huge mountain. All the beauty spots on earth were marred by the presence of large car parks.'
The future history books might also record that we were deprived of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we failed to see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird's-eye view of the world - or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the countryside constantly smears the windows. Car drivers, in particular, are forever obsessed with the urge to go on and on: they never want to stop. Is it the lure of the great motorways, or what? And as for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention. It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song: 'I joined the navy to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea.' The typical twentieth-century traveler is the man who always says 'I've been there.'You mention the remotest, most evocative place-names in the world like El Dorado, Kabul, Irkutsk and someone is bound to say 'I've been there'- meaning, 'I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else. '
When you travel at high speeds, the present means nothing: you live mainly in the future because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival, when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on again. By traveling like this, you suspend all experience; the present ceases to be a reality: you might just as well be dead. The traveler on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. For him traveling and arriving are one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with every step he makes. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical weariness. He knows that sound. Satisfying sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travellers. | 251.txt | 2 |
[
"Legs become weaker.",
"Modern means of transportation make the world a small place.",
"There is no need to use eyes.",
"The best way to travel is on foot."
] | What is the purpose of the author in writing this passage? | The past ages of man have all been carefully labeled by anthropologists. Descriptions like 'Palaeolithic Man', 'Neolithic Man', etc., neatly sum up whole periods. When the time comes for anthropologists to turn their attention to the twentieth century, they will surely choose the label'Legless Man'. Histories of the time will go something like this: 'in the twentieth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators in all large buildings to prevent people from walking. This situation was forced upon earth dwellers of that time because of miles each day. But the surprising thing is that they didn't use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable railways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of every huge mountain. All the beauty spots on earth were marred by the presence of large car parks.'
The future history books might also record that we were deprived of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we failed to see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird's-eye view of the world - or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the countryside constantly smears the windows. Car drivers, in particular, are forever obsessed with the urge to go on and on: they never want to stop. Is it the lure of the great motorways, or what? And as for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention. It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song: 'I joined the navy to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea.' The typical twentieth-century traveler is the man who always says 'I've been there.'You mention the remotest, most evocative place-names in the world like El Dorado, Kabul, Irkutsk and someone is bound to say 'I've been there'- meaning, 'I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else. '
When you travel at high speeds, the present means nothing: you live mainly in the future because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival, when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on again. By traveling like this, you suspend all experience; the present ceases to be a reality: you might just as well be dead. The traveler on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. For him traveling and arriving are one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with every step he makes. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical weariness. He knows that sound. Satisfying sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travellers. | 251.txt | 3 |
[
"See view with bird's eyes.",
"A bird looks at a beautiful view.",
"It is a general view from a high position looking down.",
"A scenic place."
] | What does 'a bird's-eye view' mean? | The past ages of man have all been carefully labeled by anthropologists. Descriptions like 'Palaeolithic Man', 'Neolithic Man', etc., neatly sum up whole periods. When the time comes for anthropologists to turn their attention to the twentieth century, they will surely choose the label'Legless Man'. Histories of the time will go something like this: 'in the twentieth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators in all large buildings to prevent people from walking. This situation was forced upon earth dwellers of that time because of miles each day. But the surprising thing is that they didn't use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable railways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of every huge mountain. All the beauty spots on earth were marred by the presence of large car parks.'
The future history books might also record that we were deprived of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we failed to see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird's-eye view of the world - or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the countryside constantly smears the windows. Car drivers, in particular, are forever obsessed with the urge to go on and on: they never want to stop. Is it the lure of the great motorways, or what? And as for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention. It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song: 'I joined the navy to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea.' The typical twentieth-century traveler is the man who always says 'I've been there.'You mention the remotest, most evocative place-names in the world like El Dorado, Kabul, Irkutsk and someone is bound to say 'I've been there'- meaning, 'I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else. '
When you travel at high speeds, the present means nothing: you live mainly in the future because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival, when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on again. By traveling like this, you suspend all experience; the present ceases to be a reality: you might just as well be dead. The traveler on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. For him traveling and arriving are one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with every step he makes. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical weariness. He knows that sound. Satisfying sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travellers. | 251.txt | 2 |
[
"problems of waste disposal",
"dangers of drinking from wells",
"turbidity of polluted water",
"outbreak of cholera"
] | This passage is concerned primarily with the _ . | The problem of municipal sewage disposal is complicated by the fact that, years ago, mostcities combined their storm and waste disposal sewers. Many of these combined systems work well, but others cannot cope with sudden heavy rains. When such storms occur, water mixed with sewage may flood and disable treatment plants unless bypassed, untreated, into a stream. In either case, the people may have little protection for several days from these wastes that may contain disease germs.Even if adequately treated to eliminate the health hazard, sewage is aesthetically undesirable because of odors and colors produced. Detergents have posed a particular disposal problem. Although there is no indication that they are injurious to health, they can cause foaming, which can clog treatment plants and, at the least, spoil the scenic beauty of streams.Rural and suburban residents should be aware that septic tanks and cesspools are a potential source of pollution to ground water supplies. This is especially true in the suburban areas with a high population density and with no municipal sewage disposal and treatment system available. In some areas, sewage disposal is accomplished by cesspools. Soil research is furnishing guidelines for more effective and safer use of systems such as these. | 115.txt | 0 |
[
"prove that the city refused to deal with pollution",
"prove that medical science once knew little about pollution",
"introduce the idea of contaminated water supplies",
"recall a historical fact"
] | The author mentions the London cholera epidemic to _ | The problem of municipal sewage disposal is complicated by the fact that, years ago, mostcities combined their storm and waste disposal sewers. Many of these combined systems work well, but others cannot cope with sudden heavy rains. When such storms occur, water mixed with sewage may flood and disable treatment plants unless bypassed, untreated, into a stream. In either case, the people may have little protection for several days from these wastes that may contain disease germs.Even if adequately treated to eliminate the health hazard, sewage is aesthetically undesirable because of odors and colors produced. Detergents have posed a particular disposal problem. Although there is no indication that they are injurious to health, they can cause foaming, which can clog treatment plants and, at the least, spoil the scenic beauty of streams.Rural and suburban residents should be aware that septic tanks and cesspools are a potential source of pollution to ground water supplies. This is especially true in the suburban areas with a high population density and with no municipal sewage disposal and treatment system available. In some areas, sewage disposal is accomplished by cesspools. Soil research is furnishing guidelines for more effective and safer use of systems such as these. | 115.txt | 2 |
[
"streams that do not flow directly to open bodies of water",
"cesspools and septic tanks that contaminate water supplies",
"storm and waste disposal sewers that have been combined",
"the undesirable odors of sewage"
] | In densely populated suburban areas, a danger exits from _ | The problem of municipal sewage disposal is complicated by the fact that, years ago, mostcities combined their storm and waste disposal sewers. Many of these combined systems work well, but others cannot cope with sudden heavy rains. When such storms occur, water mixed with sewage may flood and disable treatment plants unless bypassed, untreated, into a stream. In either case, the people may have little protection for several days from these wastes that may contain disease germs.Even if adequately treated to eliminate the health hazard, sewage is aesthetically undesirable because of odors and colors produced. Detergents have posed a particular disposal problem. Although there is no indication that they are injurious to health, they can cause foaming, which can clog treatment plants and, at the least, spoil the scenic beauty of streams.Rural and suburban residents should be aware that septic tanks and cesspools are a potential source of pollution to ground water supplies. This is especially true in the suburban areas with a high population density and with no municipal sewage disposal and treatment system available. In some areas, sewage disposal is accomplished by cesspools. Soil research is furnishing guidelines for more effective and safer use of systems such as these. | 115.txt | 1 |
[
"scientific arguments",
"convincing testimony",
"common sense observations",
"analogy"
] | In developing the main point, the author makes use of _ . | The problem of municipal sewage disposal is complicated by the fact that, years ago, mostcities combined their storm and waste disposal sewers. Many of these combined systems work well, but others cannot cope with sudden heavy rains. When such storms occur, water mixed with sewage may flood and disable treatment plants unless bypassed, untreated, into a stream. In either case, the people may have little protection for several days from these wastes that may contain disease germs.Even if adequately treated to eliminate the health hazard, sewage is aesthetically undesirable because of odors and colors produced. Detergents have posed a particular disposal problem. Although there is no indication that they are injurious to health, they can cause foaming, which can clog treatment plants and, at the least, spoil the scenic beauty of streams.Rural and suburban residents should be aware that septic tanks and cesspools are a potential source of pollution to ground water supplies. This is especially true in the suburban areas with a high population density and with no municipal sewage disposal and treatment system available. In some areas, sewage disposal is accomplished by cesspools. Soil research is furnishing guidelines for more effective and safer use of systems such as these. | 115.txt | 2 |
[
"they only cared for the Russian astronauts",
"they were not interested in their own astronauts",
"the Russian government invited them to do their research",
"the Russian astronauts worked in space for a long time"
] | French scientists did their research on Russian astronauts, because _ . | Space travel is definitely bad for astronauts' bones, reducing their bone density after only a month of weightlessness, according to French research published on Friday.
Laurence Vico and his fellow workers at St Etienne University called for more research into the effects of microgravity, after their study of 15 astronauts from the Russian MIR station showed bone loss continued throughout space flights.
"Bone loss was especially striking in four astronauts, " the scientists reported in the Lancet Medical Journal.
They measured the bone mineral density (BMD) of bones in the forearm and lower leg of the astronauts who had spent one to six months in space.
The BMD loss was significant in the tibia of the lower leg, a weight-bearing bone, but barely changed in the radius of the forearm. "Our results indicate the need to investigate not only different bones, but also different areas of the same bone since not all sites of the skeleton are similarly affected by space conditions, " they added.
Without gravity the body isn't bearing any weight so there is no need for calcium which makes bones strong, and it becomes empty into the bloodstream.
The research team suggested in future scientists should try to determine if the loss of bone density was only on weight-bearing bones on longer flights, also the possible recovery after returning to Earth. | 2839.txt | 3 |
[
"the BMD loss may cause serious illness to astronauts",
"the BMD loss may cause some change in astronauts' bodies",
"astronauts shouldn't care about the BMD loss",
"astronauts should take some calcium before space travel"
] | Scientists have found that _ . | Space travel is definitely bad for astronauts' bones, reducing their bone density after only a month of weightlessness, according to French research published on Friday.
Laurence Vico and his fellow workers at St Etienne University called for more research into the effects of microgravity, after their study of 15 astronauts from the Russian MIR station showed bone loss continued throughout space flights.
"Bone loss was especially striking in four astronauts, " the scientists reported in the Lancet Medical Journal.
They measured the bone mineral density (BMD) of bones in the forearm and lower leg of the astronauts who had spent one to six months in space.
The BMD loss was significant in the tibia of the lower leg, a weight-bearing bone, but barely changed in the radius of the forearm. "Our results indicate the need to investigate not only different bones, but also different areas of the same bone since not all sites of the skeleton are similarly affected by space conditions, " they added.
Without gravity the body isn't bearing any weight so there is no need for calcium which makes bones strong, and it becomes empty into the bloodstream.
The research team suggested in future scientists should try to determine if the loss of bone density was only on weight-bearing bones on longer flights, also the possible recovery after returning to Earth. | 2839.txt | 1 |
[
"The food they eat in space.",
"The drinks they take in space.",
"The temperature in space.",
"The gravity in space."
] | What cause the BMD loss to astronauts, according to this passage? | Space travel is definitely bad for astronauts' bones, reducing their bone density after only a month of weightlessness, according to French research published on Friday.
Laurence Vico and his fellow workers at St Etienne University called for more research into the effects of microgravity, after their study of 15 astronauts from the Russian MIR station showed bone loss continued throughout space flights.
"Bone loss was especially striking in four astronauts, " the scientists reported in the Lancet Medical Journal.
They measured the bone mineral density (BMD) of bones in the forearm and lower leg of the astronauts who had spent one to six months in space.
The BMD loss was significant in the tibia of the lower leg, a weight-bearing bone, but barely changed in the radius of the forearm. "Our results indicate the need to investigate not only different bones, but also different areas of the same bone since not all sites of the skeleton are similarly affected by space conditions, " they added.
Without gravity the body isn't bearing any weight so there is no need for calcium which makes bones strong, and it becomes empty into the bloodstream.
The research team suggested in future scientists should try to determine if the loss of bone density was only on weight-bearing bones on longer flights, also the possible recovery after returning to Earth. | 2839.txt | 3 |
[
"unusual",
"simple",
"weak",
"slow"
] | In the third paragraph, the word "striking" means _ . | Space travel is definitely bad for astronauts' bones, reducing their bone density after only a month of weightlessness, according to French research published on Friday.
Laurence Vico and his fellow workers at St Etienne University called for more research into the effects of microgravity, after their study of 15 astronauts from the Russian MIR station showed bone loss continued throughout space flights.
"Bone loss was especially striking in four astronauts, " the scientists reported in the Lancet Medical Journal.
They measured the bone mineral density (BMD) of bones in the forearm and lower leg of the astronauts who had spent one to six months in space.
The BMD loss was significant in the tibia of the lower leg, a weight-bearing bone, but barely changed in the radius of the forearm. "Our results indicate the need to investigate not only different bones, but also different areas of the same bone since not all sites of the skeleton are similarly affected by space conditions, " they added.
Without gravity the body isn't bearing any weight so there is no need for calcium which makes bones strong, and it becomes empty into the bloodstream.
The research team suggested in future scientists should try to determine if the loss of bone density was only on weight-bearing bones on longer flights, also the possible recovery after returning to Earth. | 2839.txt | 0 |
[
"Mrs. Jones would ask for more tests",
"the patient was being unreasonable",
"the nurse was joking with him",
"Mrs. Jones would call him"
] | The writer smiled while reading the patient message because he knew. | My first reaction was annoyance. It was Friday afternoon, and I was within an hour of finishing my work for the week. As I was leaving, a nurse brought me one more patient message. The statement read: "Mrs.Jones called to say that she has had blurred visionever since her medical test this morning."I smiled. Suddenly our tests were causing eye problems.
This week my patients had questioned everything. My patient with high blood pressure had stopped coming to her treatment on the advice of an Internet chat room. A woman who had a mental problem was substitutingSt. John's word for her medication. Now Mrs. Jones was imagining problems. I rolled my eyes.
My second reaction was worry. As I looked through her record, I tried to figure out why she would have blurred vision, but nothing in her record explained the new problem. She's probably just anxious, I thought. Still, she wouldn't have called if she had been all right. I picked up the phone.
What I next felt can only be described as delight. Before I made the call, the nurse ran in: Mrs. Jones called. Her vision is fine. Turns out she picked up the wrong glasses when she left the office. The X-raytechnician has been having the same problem. I let out a laugh. Mrs. Jones had been right. Her vision had been blurred. Now we know why.
Finally I felt shame. I came to realize what Mrs. Jones had taught me. I had first known she was wrong, that her anxiety had clouded her judgment. Instead, my medical training had clouded mine. Now I me for my help. They pay me to listen, diagnose，treat and talk. That suggests trust; I must remember that, and trust them too. | 2682.txt | 1 |
[
"Wrong glasses",
"Medical checkup.",
"Her own imagination",
"Chatting on the Internet"
] | What had caused Mrs. Jones' eye problem? | My first reaction was annoyance. It was Friday afternoon, and I was within an hour of finishing my work for the week. As I was leaving, a nurse brought me one more patient message. The statement read: "Mrs.Jones called to say that she has had blurred visionever since her medical test this morning."I smiled. Suddenly our tests were causing eye problems.
This week my patients had questioned everything. My patient with high blood pressure had stopped coming to her treatment on the advice of an Internet chat room. A woman who had a mental problem was substitutingSt. John's word for her medication. Now Mrs. Jones was imagining problems. I rolled my eyes.
My second reaction was worry. As I looked through her record, I tried to figure out why she would have blurred vision, but nothing in her record explained the new problem. She's probably just anxious, I thought. Still, she wouldn't have called if she had been all right. I picked up the phone.
What I next felt can only be described as delight. Before I made the call, the nurse ran in: Mrs. Jones called. Her vision is fine. Turns out she picked up the wrong glasses when she left the office. The X-raytechnician has been having the same problem. I let out a laugh. Mrs. Jones had been right. Her vision had been blurred. Now we know why.
Finally I felt shame. I came to realize what Mrs. Jones had taught me. I had first known she was wrong, that her anxiety had clouded her judgment. Instead, my medical training had clouded mine. Now I me for my help. They pay me to listen, diagnose，treat and talk. That suggests trust; I must remember that, and trust them too. | 2682.txt | 0 |
[
"indispensible",
"useful",
"ineffective",
"available"
] | To prevent headaches, watering eyes and blindness caused by the glare from snow, dark glasses are_ . | Many people believe the glare from snow causes snowblindnenss. Yet, dark glasses or not , they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes,and even snowblindness,when exposed to several hours of "snow light" .
The United States Army has now determined that glare from snow does not cause snowblindness in troops in a snow-covered country.Rather, a man's eyes frequently find nothing to foucs on in a broad expanse of barren snow-covered terrain. So his gaze continually shifts and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of tsomething to look at. Finding nothing, hour after hour, the eyes never sotp searching and the eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature offsets this irritation by producing more and fluid which covers the eyeball. The fluid coversthe eyeball in increasing quantity until vision blurs, then is obsured,and the result is total, even though temporary,snowblindness.
Experiments led the Army to a simple method of overcoming this problem. Scouts ahead of a main body of troops are trained to shake snow from evergreen bushes, creating a dotted line as they cross completely snow-covered landscape,Even the scouts themselves throw lightweight , dark colored objects ahead on which they too can focus . The men following can then see something.Their gaze is arrested. Their eyes focus on a bush and having found something to see,stop scouring the snow-blanketed lanscape. By focusing their attention on one object at a time,the men can cross the snow without becoming hopelessly snowblind or lost. In this way the problem of crossing a solid white terrain is overcome. | 1637.txt | 2 |
[
"clear the vision",
"remedy snowblindness",
"ease the irritation",
"loosen the muscles"
] | When the eyes are sore tears are produced to _ . | Many people believe the glare from snow causes snowblindnenss. Yet, dark glasses or not , they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes,and even snowblindness,when exposed to several hours of "snow light" .
The United States Army has now determined that glare from snow does not cause snowblindness in troops in a snow-covered country.Rather, a man's eyes frequently find nothing to foucs on in a broad expanse of barren snow-covered terrain. So his gaze continually shifts and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of tsomething to look at. Finding nothing, hour after hour, the eyes never sotp searching and the eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature offsets this irritation by producing more and fluid which covers the eyeball. The fluid coversthe eyeball in increasing quantity until vision blurs, then is obsured,and the result is total, even though temporary,snowblindness.
Experiments led the Army to a simple method of overcoming this problem. Scouts ahead of a main body of troops are trained to shake snow from evergreen bushes, creating a dotted line as they cross completely snow-covered landscape,Even the scouts themselves throw lightweight , dark colored objects ahead on which they too can focus . The men following can then see something.Their gaze is arrested. Their eyes focus on a bush and having found something to see,stop scouring the snow-blanketed lanscape. By focusing their attention on one object at a time,the men can cross the snow without becoming hopelessly snowblind or lost. In this way the problem of crossing a solid white terrain is overcome. | 1637.txt | 2 |
[
"concentrating to the solid white terrain",
"searching for something to look at in snow-covered terrain",
"providing the eyes with something to foucs on",
"covering the eyeballs with fluid"
] | Snowblindness may be avoided by_ . | Many people believe the glare from snow causes snowblindnenss. Yet, dark glasses or not , they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes,and even snowblindness,when exposed to several hours of "snow light" .
The United States Army has now determined that glare from snow does not cause snowblindness in troops in a snow-covered country.Rather, a man's eyes frequently find nothing to foucs on in a broad expanse of barren snow-covered terrain. So his gaze continually shifts and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of tsomething to look at. Finding nothing, hour after hour, the eyes never sotp searching and the eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature offsets this irritation by producing more and fluid which covers the eyeball. The fluid coversthe eyeball in increasing quantity until vision blurs, then is obsured,and the result is total, even though temporary,snowblindness.
Experiments led the Army to a simple method of overcoming this problem. Scouts ahead of a main body of troops are trained to shake snow from evergreen bushes, creating a dotted line as they cross completely snow-covered landscape,Even the scouts themselves throw lightweight , dark colored objects ahead on which they too can focus . The men following can then see something.Their gaze is arrested. Their eyes focus on a bush and having found something to see,stop scouring the snow-blanketed lanscape. By focusing their attention on one object at a time,the men can cross the snow without becoming hopelessly snowblind or lost. In this way the problem of crossing a solid white terrain is overcome. | 1637.txt | 2 |
[
"bive the men behind something to see",
"beautify the landscape",
"warm themselves in the cold",
"prevent the men behind from losing their way"
] | The scouts shake snow from evergreen bushes in order to _ . | Many people believe the glare from snow causes snowblindnenss. Yet, dark glasses or not , they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes,and even snowblindness,when exposed to several hours of "snow light" .
The United States Army has now determined that glare from snow does not cause snowblindness in troops in a snow-covered country.Rather, a man's eyes frequently find nothing to foucs on in a broad expanse of barren snow-covered terrain. So his gaze continually shifts and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of tsomething to look at. Finding nothing, hour after hour, the eyes never sotp searching and the eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature offsets this irritation by producing more and fluid which covers the eyeball. The fluid coversthe eyeball in increasing quantity until vision blurs, then is obsured,and the result is total, even though temporary,snowblindness.
Experiments led the Army to a simple method of overcoming this problem. Scouts ahead of a main body of troops are trained to shake snow from evergreen bushes, creating a dotted line as they cross completely snow-covered landscape,Even the scouts themselves throw lightweight , dark colored objects ahead on which they too can focus . The men following can then see something.Their gaze is arrested. Their eyes focus on a bush and having found something to see,stop scouring the snow-blanketed lanscape. By focusing their attention on one object at a time,the men can cross the snow without becoming hopelessly snowblind or lost. In this way the problem of crossing a solid white terrain is overcome. | 1637.txt | 0 |
[
"snowblindness and how to overcome it",
"natrue's cure for snowblindness",
"soldiers in the snow",
"snow vision"
] | A suitable title for this passage would be _ . | Many people believe the glare from snow causes snowblindnenss. Yet, dark glasses or not , they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes,and even snowblindness,when exposed to several hours of "snow light" .
The United States Army has now determined that glare from snow does not cause snowblindness in troops in a snow-covered country.Rather, a man's eyes frequently find nothing to foucs on in a broad expanse of barren snow-covered terrain. So his gaze continually shifts and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of tsomething to look at. Finding nothing, hour after hour, the eyes never sotp searching and the eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature offsets this irritation by producing more and fluid which covers the eyeball. The fluid coversthe eyeball in increasing quantity until vision blurs, then is obsured,and the result is total, even though temporary,snowblindness.
Experiments led the Army to a simple method of overcoming this problem. Scouts ahead of a main body of troops are trained to shake snow from evergreen bushes, creating a dotted line as they cross completely snow-covered landscape,Even the scouts themselves throw lightweight , dark colored objects ahead on which they too can focus . The men following can then see something.Their gaze is arrested. Their eyes focus on a bush and having found something to see,stop scouring the snow-blanketed lanscape. By focusing their attention on one object at a time,the men can cross the snow without becoming hopelessly snowblind or lost. In this way the problem of crossing a solid white terrain is overcome. | 1637.txt | 0 |
[
"the doubt that he owned too much clothes",
"the thought of having too much baggage",
"the miserable fate of his worn out clothes",
"the decline in his memory"
] | According to the passage，the anxiety of Becker was _ . | Becker had one occasional anxiety：the suspicion that he owned more than would fit comfortably into the case.The feeling，when it came，was the signal for him to throw something away or just leave it lying about.This was the automatic fate of his worn-out clothes for example.Having no use for choice or variety,he kept just a raincoat，a suit，a pair of shoes and a few shirts，socks and so on，no more in the clothing line.He bought and read many books，and left them wherever he happened to be sitting when he finished them.They quickly found new owners.
Becker was a professional traveler, interested and interestin9.He was not one t0 "do" a country in a week or a city in three days.He liked to get the feel of a place by living in it，reading its newspapers，watching its TV and discussing its affairs.He always tried to make a few friends，if necessary even by stopping a suitable-looking person in the street and talking to him.It worked well in about one case inten.Though Becker's health gave him no cause for alarm，he made.a point of seeing a doctor as soon as he arrived anywhere."A doctor knows a place and its people better than anyone，"he used to say.
He never went to see a doctor，he always sent for one，that，he found，was the quickest way to gain confidences，which came out freely as soon as he mentioned that he was a writer.
Becker was an artist as well.He painted pictures of his places and，when he had gathered enough information，he wrote about them.He sold his work，through an agent，to newspapers and magazines.It was an agreeable sort of life for a good social mixer, lived nearly always in fine weather, and as Becker never stayed anywhere for long，he enjoyed the satisfying advantage of paying very little in tax. | 1480.txt | 1 |
[
"They were kept in his case.",
"They were sent to his friends.",
"They were donated to others in need.",
"They were left anywhere."
] | What is the fate of Becker's books? | Becker had one occasional anxiety：the suspicion that he owned more than would fit comfortably into the case.The feeling，when it came，was the signal for him to throw something away or just leave it lying about.This was the automatic fate of his worn-out clothes for example.Having no use for choice or variety,he kept just a raincoat，a suit，a pair of shoes and a few shirts，socks and so on，no more in the clothing line.He bought and read many books，and left them wherever he happened to be sitting when he finished them.They quickly found new owners.
Becker was a professional traveler, interested and interestin9.He was not one t0 "do" a country in a week or a city in three days.He liked to get the feel of a place by living in it，reading its newspapers，watching its TV and discussing its affairs.He always tried to make a few friends，if necessary even by stopping a suitable-looking person in the street and talking to him.It worked well in about one case inten.Though Becker's health gave him no cause for alarm，he made.a point of seeing a doctor as soon as he arrived anywhere."A doctor knows a place and its people better than anyone，"he used to say.
He never went to see a doctor，he always sent for one，that，he found，was the quickest way to gain confidences，which came out freely as soon as he mentioned that he was a writer.
Becker was an artist as well.He painted pictures of his places and，when he had gathered enough information，he wrote about them.He sold his work，through an agent，to newspapers and magazines.It was an agreeable sort of life for a good social mixer, lived nearly always in fine weather, and as Becker never stayed anywhere for long，he enjoyed the satisfying advantage of paying very little in tax. | 1480.txt | 3 |
[
"his health was in danger",
"he wanted to make friends with the doctor",
"he intended to get confidences from the doctor",
"he wanted to know the place and its people through the doctor"
] | Becker would see a doctor as he arrived at a new place because _ . | Becker had one occasional anxiety：the suspicion that he owned more than would fit comfortably into the case.The feeling，when it came，was the signal for him to throw something away or just leave it lying about.This was the automatic fate of his worn-out clothes for example.Having no use for choice or variety,he kept just a raincoat，a suit，a pair of shoes and a few shirts，socks and so on，no more in the clothing line.He bought and read many books，and left them wherever he happened to be sitting when he finished them.They quickly found new owners.
Becker was a professional traveler, interested and interestin9.He was not one t0 "do" a country in a week or a city in three days.He liked to get the feel of a place by living in it，reading its newspapers，watching its TV and discussing its affairs.He always tried to make a few friends，if necessary even by stopping a suitable-looking person in the street and talking to him.It worked well in about one case inten.Though Becker's health gave him no cause for alarm，he made.a point of seeing a doctor as soon as he arrived anywhere."A doctor knows a place and its people better than anyone，"he used to say.
He never went to see a doctor，he always sent for one，that，he found，was the quickest way to gain confidences，which came out freely as soon as he mentioned that he was a writer.
Becker was an artist as well.He painted pictures of his places and，when he had gathered enough information，he wrote about them.He sold his work，through an agent，to newspapers and magazines.It was an agreeable sort of life for a good social mixer, lived nearly always in fine weather, and as Becker never stayed anywhere for long，he enjoyed the satisfying advantage of paying very little in tax. | 1480.txt | 3 |
[
"He was pleased he only had to pay little.",
"He felt ashamed of not paying taxes.",
"He worried about it，so he moved from one place to another.",
"He hated it so much that he broke the tax laws."
] | How did Becker feel about taxation? | Becker had one occasional anxiety：the suspicion that he owned more than would fit comfortably into the case.The feeling，when it came，was the signal for him to throw something away or just leave it lying about.This was the automatic fate of his worn-out clothes for example.Having no use for choice or variety,he kept just a raincoat，a suit，a pair of shoes and a few shirts，socks and so on，no more in the clothing line.He bought and read many books，and left them wherever he happened to be sitting when he finished them.They quickly found new owners.
Becker was a professional traveler, interested and interestin9.He was not one t0 "do" a country in a week or a city in three days.He liked to get the feel of a place by living in it，reading its newspapers，watching its TV and discussing its affairs.He always tried to make a few friends，if necessary even by stopping a suitable-looking person in the street and talking to him.It worked well in about one case inten.Though Becker's health gave him no cause for alarm，he made.a point of seeing a doctor as soon as he arrived anywhere."A doctor knows a place and its people better than anyone，"he used to say.
He never went to see a doctor，he always sent for one，that，he found，was the quickest way to gain confidences，which came out freely as soon as he mentioned that he was a writer.
Becker was an artist as well.He painted pictures of his places and，when he had gathered enough information，he wrote about them.He sold his work，through an agent，to newspapers and magazines.It was an agreeable sort of life for a good social mixer, lived nearly always in fine weather, and as Becker never stayed anywhere for long，he enjoyed the satisfying advantage of paying very little in tax. | 1480.txt | 0 |
[
"Becker was always worried about something that would not happen.",
"Becker kept a good many books.",
"Becker would talk to strangers in the street.",
"Becker often traveled through a country in a couple of days."
] | Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage? | Becker had one occasional anxiety：the suspicion that he owned more than would fit comfortably into the case.The feeling，when it came，was the signal for him to throw something away or just leave it lying about.This was the automatic fate of his worn-out clothes for example.Having no use for choice or variety,he kept just a raincoat，a suit，a pair of shoes and a few shirts，socks and so on，no more in the clothing line.He bought and read many books，and left them wherever he happened to be sitting when he finished them.They quickly found new owners.
Becker was a professional traveler, interested and interestin9.He was not one t0 "do" a country in a week or a city in three days.He liked to get the feel of a place by living in it，reading its newspapers，watching its TV and discussing its affairs.He always tried to make a few friends，if necessary even by stopping a suitable-looking person in the street and talking to him.It worked well in about one case inten.Though Becker's health gave him no cause for alarm，he made.a point of seeing a doctor as soon as he arrived anywhere."A doctor knows a place and its people better than anyone，"he used to say.
He never went to see a doctor，he always sent for one，that，he found，was the quickest way to gain confidences，which came out freely as soon as he mentioned that he was a writer.
Becker was an artist as well.He painted pictures of his places and，when he had gathered enough information，he wrote about them.He sold his work，through an agent，to newspapers and magazines.It was an agreeable sort of life for a good social mixer, lived nearly always in fine weather, and as Becker never stayed anywhere for long，he enjoyed the satisfying advantage of paying very little in tax. | 1480.txt | 2 |
[
"lower productivity, but a higher average income",
"higher productivity, but a lower average income",
"high productivity and a high income",
"higher productivity and a higher income"
] | A smaller population may suggest _ . | The advantages and disadvantages of a large population have long been a subject of discussion among economists. It has been argued that the supply of good land is limited. To feed a large population, inferior land must be cultivated and the good land worked intensively. Thus, each person produces less and this means a lower average income than could be obtained with a smaller population. Other economists have argued that a large population gives more scope for specialization and the development of facilities such as sports, roads and railways, which are not likely to be built unless there is a big demand to justify them.
One of the difficulties in carrying out a worldwide birth control program lies in the fact that official attitudes to population growth vary from country to country depending on the level of industrial development and the availability of food and raw materials. In the developing country where a vastly expanded population is pressing hard upon the limits of food, space and natural resources, it will be the first concern of government to place a limit on the birthrate, whatever the consequences may be. In a highly industrialized society the problem may be more complex. A decreasing birthrate may lead to unemployment because it results in a declining market for manufactured goods. When the pressure of population on housing declines, prices also decline and the building industry is weakened. Faced with considerations such as these, the government of a developed country may well prefer to see a slowly increasing population, rather than one which is stable or in decline. | 2816.txt | 3 |
[
"space exploration",
"transport system",
"genetic engineering",
"mobile communications systems"
] | According to the passage, a large population will offer an opportunity for developing _ . | The advantages and disadvantages of a large population have long been a subject of discussion among economists. It has been argued that the supply of good land is limited. To feed a large population, inferior land must be cultivated and the good land worked intensively. Thus, each person produces less and this means a lower average income than could be obtained with a smaller population. Other economists have argued that a large population gives more scope for specialization and the development of facilities such as sports, roads and railways, which are not likely to be built unless there is a big demand to justify them.
One of the difficulties in carrying out a worldwide birth control program lies in the fact that official attitudes to population growth vary from country to country depending on the level of industrial development and the availability of food and raw materials. In the developing country where a vastly expanded population is pressing hard upon the limits of food, space and natural resources, it will be the first concern of government to place a limit on the birthrate, whatever the consequences may be. In a highly industrialized society the problem may be more complex. A decreasing birthrate may lead to unemployment because it results in a declining market for manufactured goods. When the pressure of population on housing declines, prices also decline and the building industry is weakened. Faced with considerations such as these, the government of a developed country may well prefer to see a slowly increasing population, rather than one which is stable or in decline. | 2816.txt | 1 |
[
"goes down",
"exceeds death rate",
"rises",
"remains unchanged"
] | In a developed country, people will lose their jobs if the birthrate _ . | The advantages and disadvantages of a large population have long been a subject of discussion among economists. It has been argued that the supply of good land is limited. To feed a large population, inferior land must be cultivated and the good land worked intensively. Thus, each person produces less and this means a lower average income than could be obtained with a smaller population. Other economists have argued that a large population gives more scope for specialization and the development of facilities such as sports, roads and railways, which are not likely to be built unless there is a big demand to justify them.
One of the difficulties in carrying out a worldwide birth control program lies in the fact that official attitudes to population growth vary from country to country depending on the level of industrial development and the availability of food and raw materials. In the developing country where a vastly expanded population is pressing hard upon the limits of food, space and natural resources, it will be the first concern of government to place a limit on the birthrate, whatever the consequences may be. In a highly industrialized society the problem may be more complex. A decreasing birthrate may lead to unemployment because it results in a declining market for manufactured goods. When the pressure of population on housing declines, prices also decline and the building industry is weakened. Faced with considerations such as these, the government of a developed country may well prefer to see a slowly increasing population, rather than one which is stable or in decline. | 2816.txt | 0 |
[
"a developing nation",
"every nation with a big population",
"a developed nation",
"every nation with a small population"
] | According to this passage, a gradually rising birthrate perhaps is favorable to _ . | The advantages and disadvantages of a large population have long been a subject of discussion among economists. It has been argued that the supply of good land is limited. To feed a large population, inferior land must be cultivated and the good land worked intensively. Thus, each person produces less and this means a lower average income than could be obtained with a smaller population. Other economists have argued that a large population gives more scope for specialization and the development of facilities such as sports, roads and railways, which are not likely to be built unless there is a big demand to justify them.
One of the difficulties in carrying out a worldwide birth control program lies in the fact that official attitudes to population growth vary from country to country depending on the level of industrial development and the availability of food and raw materials. In the developing country where a vastly expanded population is pressing hard upon the limits of food, space and natural resources, it will be the first concern of government to place a limit on the birthrate, whatever the consequences may be. In a highly industrialized society the problem may be more complex. A decreasing birthrate may lead to unemployment because it results in a declining market for manufactured goods. When the pressure of population on housing declines, prices also decline and the building industry is weakened. Faced with considerations such as these, the government of a developed country may well prefer to see a slowly increasing population, rather than one which is stable or in decline. | 2816.txt | 2 |
[
"there are a large quantity of inferior land in underdeveloped nations",
"birth control programs are hard to carry out in developing nations",
"even developed nations may be faced with employment problems",
"different governments hold different opinions about population problem"
] | This passage tell us that _ . | The advantages and disadvantages of a large population have long been a subject of discussion among economists. It has been argued that the supply of good land is limited. To feed a large population, inferior land must be cultivated and the good land worked intensively. Thus, each person produces less and this means a lower average income than could be obtained with a smaller population. Other economists have argued that a large population gives more scope for specialization and the development of facilities such as sports, roads and railways, which are not likely to be built unless there is a big demand to justify them.
One of the difficulties in carrying out a worldwide birth control program lies in the fact that official attitudes to population growth vary from country to country depending on the level of industrial development and the availability of food and raw materials. In the developing country where a vastly expanded population is pressing hard upon the limits of food, space and natural resources, it will be the first concern of government to place a limit on the birthrate, whatever the consequences may be. In a highly industrialized society the problem may be more complex. A decreasing birthrate may lead to unemployment because it results in a declining market for manufactured goods. When the pressure of population on housing declines, prices also decline and the building industry is weakened. Faced with considerations such as these, the government of a developed country may well prefer to see a slowly increasing population, rather than one which is stable or in decline. | 2816.txt | 3 |
[
"How do individual ants adapt to specialized tasks",
"What are the differences between social and solitary insects",
"Why are ants predators",
"Why have ants been able to thrive for such a long time"
] | Which of the following questions does the passage primarily answer? | What unusual or unique biological trait led to the remarkable diversification and unchallenged success of the ants for ever 50 million years? The answer appears to be that they were the first group of predatory eusocial insects that both lived and foraged primarily in the soil and in rotting vegetation on the ground. Eusocial refers to a form of insect society characterized by specialization of tasks and cooperative care of the young; it is rare among insects. Richly organized colonies of the land made possible by eusociality enjoy several key advantages over solitary individuals.
Under most circumstances groups of workers are better able to forage for food and defend the nest, because they can switch from individual to group response and back again swiftly and according to need. When a food object or nest intruder is too large for one individual to handle, nestmates can be quickly assembled by alarm or recruitment signals. Equally important is the fact that the execution of multiple-step tasks is accomplished in a series-parallel sequence. That is, individual ants can specialize in particular steps, moving from one object (such as a larva to be feD. to another (a second larva to be feD. They do not need to carry each task to completion from start to finish - for example, to check the larva first, then collect the food, then feed the larva. Hence, if each link in the chain has many workers in attendance, a series directed at any particular object is less likely to fail. Moreover, ants specializing in particular labor categories typically constitute a caste specialized by age or body form or both. There has been some documentation of the superiority in performance and net energetic yield of various castes for their modal tasks, although careful experimental studies are still relatively few.
What makes ants unusual in the company of eusocial insects is the fact that they are the only eusocial predators (predators are animals that capture and feed on other animals) occupying the soil and ground litter. The eusocial termites live in the same places as ants and also have wingless workers, but they feed almost exclusively on dead vegetation. | 358.txt | 3 |
[
"inherited",
"habitual",
"singular",
"natural"
] | The word "unique" in line 1 is closest in meaning to | What unusual or unique biological trait led to the remarkable diversification and unchallenged success of the ants for ever 50 million years? The answer appears to be that they were the first group of predatory eusocial insects that both lived and foraged primarily in the soil and in rotting vegetation on the ground. Eusocial refers to a form of insect society characterized by specialization of tasks and cooperative care of the young; it is rare among insects. Richly organized colonies of the land made possible by eusociality enjoy several key advantages over solitary individuals.
Under most circumstances groups of workers are better able to forage for food and defend the nest, because they can switch from individual to group response and back again swiftly and according to need. When a food object or nest intruder is too large for one individual to handle, nestmates can be quickly assembled by alarm or recruitment signals. Equally important is the fact that the execution of multiple-step tasks is accomplished in a series-parallel sequence. That is, individual ants can specialize in particular steps, moving from one object (such as a larva to be feD. to another (a second larva to be feD. They do not need to carry each task to completion from start to finish - for example, to check the larva first, then collect the food, then feed the larva. Hence, if each link in the chain has many workers in attendance, a series directed at any particular object is less likely to fail. Moreover, ants specializing in particular labor categories typically constitute a caste specialized by age or body form or both. There has been some documentation of the superiority in performance and net energetic yield of various castes for their modal tasks, although careful experimental studies are still relatively few.
What makes ants unusual in the company of eusocial insects is the fact that they are the only eusocial predators (predators are animals that capture and feed on other animals) occupying the soil and ground litter. The eusocial termites live in the same places as ants and also have wingless workers, but they feed almost exclusively on dead vegetation. | 358.txt | 2 |
[
"decaying",
"collected",
"expanding",
"cultivated"
] | The word "rotting" in line 4 is closest in meaning to | What unusual or unique biological trait led to the remarkable diversification and unchallenged success of the ants for ever 50 million years? The answer appears to be that they were the first group of predatory eusocial insects that both lived and foraged primarily in the soil and in rotting vegetation on the ground. Eusocial refers to a form of insect society characterized by specialization of tasks and cooperative care of the young; it is rare among insects. Richly organized colonies of the land made possible by eusociality enjoy several key advantages over solitary individuals.
Under most circumstances groups of workers are better able to forage for food and defend the nest, because they can switch from individual to group response and back again swiftly and according to need. When a food object or nest intruder is too large for one individual to handle, nestmates can be quickly assembled by alarm or recruitment signals. Equally important is the fact that the execution of multiple-step tasks is accomplished in a series-parallel sequence. That is, individual ants can specialize in particular steps, moving from one object (such as a larva to be feD. to another (a second larva to be feD. They do not need to carry each task to completion from start to finish - for example, to check the larva first, then collect the food, then feed the larva. Hence, if each link in the chain has many workers in attendance, a series directed at any particular object is less likely to fail. Moreover, ants specializing in particular labor categories typically constitute a caste specialized by age or body form or both. There has been some documentation of the superiority in performance and net energetic yield of various castes for their modal tasks, although careful experimental studies are still relatively few.
What makes ants unusual in the company of eusocial insects is the fact that they are the only eusocial predators (predators are animals that capture and feed on other animals) occupying the soil and ground litter. The eusocial termites live in the same places as ants and also have wingless workers, but they feed almost exclusively on dead vegetation. | 358.txt | 0 |
[
"uncommon",
"important",
"incidental",
"temporary"
] | The word "key" in line 7 is closest in meaning to | What unusual or unique biological trait led to the remarkable diversification and unchallenged success of the ants for ever 50 million years? The answer appears to be that they were the first group of predatory eusocial insects that both lived and foraged primarily in the soil and in rotting vegetation on the ground. Eusocial refers to a form of insect society characterized by specialization of tasks and cooperative care of the young; it is rare among insects. Richly organized colonies of the land made possible by eusociality enjoy several key advantages over solitary individuals.
Under most circumstances groups of workers are better able to forage for food and defend the nest, because they can switch from individual to group response and back again swiftly and according to need. When a food object or nest intruder is too large for one individual to handle, nestmates can be quickly assembled by alarm or recruitment signals. Equally important is the fact that the execution of multiple-step tasks is accomplished in a series-parallel sequence. That is, individual ants can specialize in particular steps, moving from one object (such as a larva to be feD. to another (a second larva to be feD. They do not need to carry each task to completion from start to finish - for example, to check the larva first, then collect the food, then feed the larva. Hence, if each link in the chain has many workers in attendance, a series directed at any particular object is less likely to fail. Moreover, ants specializing in particular labor categories typically constitute a caste specialized by age or body form or both. There has been some documentation of the superiority in performance and net energetic yield of various castes for their modal tasks, although careful experimental studies are still relatively few.
What makes ants unusual in the company of eusocial insects is the fact that they are the only eusocial predators (predators are animals that capture and feed on other animals) occupying the soil and ground litter. The eusocial termites live in the same places as ants and also have wingless workers, but they feed almost exclusively on dead vegetation. | 358.txt | 1 |
[
"one type of food consumption to another",
"one environment to another",
"a solitary task to a group task",
"a defensive to an offensive stance"
] | According to the passage , one thing eusocial insects can do is rapidly switch from | What unusual or unique biological trait led to the remarkable diversification and unchallenged success of the ants for ever 50 million years? The answer appears to be that they were the first group of predatory eusocial insects that both lived and foraged primarily in the soil and in rotting vegetation on the ground. Eusocial refers to a form of insect society characterized by specialization of tasks and cooperative care of the young; it is rare among insects. Richly organized colonies of the land made possible by eusociality enjoy several key advantages over solitary individuals.
Under most circumstances groups of workers are better able to forage for food and defend the nest, because they can switch from individual to group response and back again swiftly and according to need. When a food object or nest intruder is too large for one individual to handle, nestmates can be quickly assembled by alarm or recruitment signals. Equally important is the fact that the execution of multiple-step tasks is accomplished in a series-parallel sequence. That is, individual ants can specialize in particular steps, moving from one object (such as a larva to be feD. to another (a second larva to be feD. They do not need to carry each task to completion from start to finish - for example, to check the larva first, then collect the food, then feed the larva. Hence, if each link in the chain has many workers in attendance, a series directed at any particular object is less likely to fail. Moreover, ants specializing in particular labor categories typically constitute a caste specialized by age or body form or both. There has been some documentation of the superiority in performance and net energetic yield of various castes for their modal tasks, although careful experimental studies are still relatively few.
What makes ants unusual in the company of eusocial insects is the fact that they are the only eusocial predators (predators are animals that capture and feed on other animals) occupying the soil and ground litter. The eusocial termites live in the same places as ants and also have wingless workers, but they feed almost exclusively on dead vegetation. | 358.txt | 2 |
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