user: Ques: More than 30 million kids buy school lunch each day. This year, many schools raised lunch prices to fight raising costs. Students pay about $2 a meal now. That is 27 cents more than last year. But they still get a good deal. The average cost for schools to produce one meal has gone up 30 cents, and is now $3. So, how do schools neither make money nor lose money? To start, the government pays for a small part of the difference. Schools have to make up the rest. Peggy Eller, a leader of school nutrition   service in Hudson, Wisconsin, said her district is cutting costs by using fewer paper products and serving smaller portion . Well, portion control is one key to healthful eating! The push for more healthful food has grown in recent years. One in five kids aged 6 to 19 is overweight. Being overweight can cause health problems. Many states passed laws that require schools to serve nutritious meals. Since 2004, more than 90% of all U.S. Schools have removed the fat from lunches. Foods high in fat, salt and sugar have been replaced by low-fat milk, fresh fruits and vegetables. These new items on lunch menus have encouraged kids to change their eating habits. "It makes easier to try new things at home, "said Savanna Mackey, a Florida fifth-grader. Students need healthful meals to grow strong and do well in school. "Rising prices won't stand in the way,"says school nutritionist Jane Thornton. "We'll just be more clever in how we do things." What can be inferred from the passage? A) American schools solve the problem of high food prices by themselves. B) American schools are very concerned about their students' health. C) Almost all schools are forced by the government to serve healthy foods. D) American childhood overweight is mainly caused by the present lunch foods.
Ans: B

Ques: Winter begins in the north on December 22nd. People and animals have been doing what they always do to prepare for the colder months. Squirrels  , for example, have been busy gathering nuts from trees. Well, scientists have been busy gathering information about what the squirrels do with the food they collect. They examined differences between red squirrels and gray squirrels in the American state of Indiana. The scientists wanted to know how these differences could affect the growth of black walnut   trees. The black walnut is the nut of choice for both kinds of squirrels. The black walnut tree is also a central part of some hardwood forests. Rob Swihart of Purdue University did the study with Jake Goheen, a former Purdue student now at the University of New Mexico. The two researchers estimate that several times as many walnuts grow when gathered by gray squirrels as compared to red squirrels. Gray squirrels and red squirrels do not store nuts and seeds in the same way. Gray squirrels bury nuts one at a time in a number of places. But they seldom remember where they buried every nut. So some nuts remain in the ground. Conditions are right for them to develop and grow the following spring. Red squirrels, however, store large groups of nuts above ground. Professor Swihart calls " _ ". Gray squirrels are native to Indiana. But Professor Swihart says their numbers began to decrease as more forests were cut for agriculture. Red squirrels began to spread through the state during the past century. The researchers say red squirrels are native to forests that stay green all year, unlike walnut trees. They say the cleaning of forest land for agriculture has helped red squirrels invade Indiana. Jake Goheen calls them a sign of an environmental problem more than a cause. When Professor Swihart says "death traps for seeds", he actually means that   _  . A) red squirrels eat more nuts than gray squirrels B) gray squirrels and red squirrels will have severe fights C) nuts above the ground will not develop into plants D) seeds can be traps for other animals in the forest
Ans: C

Ques: Roll over, sit and fetch aren't commands normally given to a robot, but the smart toy company WowWee has developed a new way of owning a puppy. CHIP (Canine Home Intelligent Pet) is a robotic dog with blue LED eyes and pointy ears and can sit, shake, dance and make all types of dog noises. It also has tracking capabilities to help locate its owner. "The beauty about CHIP is that it has its own thing going on," said Sufer, CTO at WowWee. "It has its own life and own kind of intelligence. Even if you're not around, it's always doing something." CHIP uses wheels to get around and is loaded with sensors  that give it a 360-degree view to find its ball. The pup is Bluetooth enabled, which connects to a wristband worn by its owner. The wristband, similar to a watch, displays icons for different commands such as a thumb-up, which allows you to give your pup a digital belly rub. With its owner wearing a smart wristband, it can even follow him around the room. "We worked on CHIP for about five to six months," Davin Sufer, told dailymail.com, "We typically come up with a concept, model and product and get it on shelves within a year." The company plans to start shipping units by next fall, which will allow them to load up the robotic dog with sensors and add many more animated responses per-owner interactivity. The high-tech toy company made its debut in 2004 by releasing the 1.5 foot RoboSapien, which sold millions of units. MiP, which hit shelves last year, is a seven inch tall robot covered in white with black accents. Users can direct it, change its emotions and make it dance to any song on your iPad. It's loud, fast and active. About 15 years ago, a company called ToyQuest developed the first ever electronic robotic dog---Tekno, the Robotic Puppy. The company sold over seven million units in the first season and 40 million more during its original four years of production. Tekno was built with over 160 emotions and instructions, but most importantly offered consumers a quick look into the future. From the passage, we can know  _  . A) CHIP can be bought in the store now B) WowWee introduced its first product last year C) Tekno provided the bright future of the robotic puppy D) MiP is the first company to develop the robotic puppy
Ans: C

Ques: Du Kun,a Chinese boy is called"the youngest writer in the world."He has written three books till now.Du Kun was born in Jiangsu in 1994.When he was 7 months old.his parents started working in over 30 different cities,such as xi'an and Shenzhen.This kind of life gave him things to think and write about.When he was 9 months old,he could speak and at the age of one,he could say five to six hundred words.At three,he could look up words in the dictionary.At four,his father taught him how to learn by himself.His parents like reading very much.So does he.At the age of 5,he began writing fairy tales.At the age of 6.he wrote a novel about his life in different cities with his parents.His fairy tales are all from his life.One day,he found many mice in the house.They not only ate their food but also hurt his mother's hand.So he thought,"If we give mice the stomach of cows,they will eat grass and they will be helpful to people."This was his first fairy tales Change Stomach for Mice.Now he studies well in a middle school. He has written his third book.The novel called Eyes of Children.He says," _ ,I just wrote several books." Du Kun began to use a dictionary,  _  . A) when he wrote fairy tales B) before his father taught him how to learn something C) after he went to school D) after his mother taught him how to learn something
Ans:

assistant: B