Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: No one not even its creators-thought that the world would care about the interwoven lives, loves and sufferings of a group of attractive and witty New Yorkers. But there's no doubt that Friends has become more than just a successful situation comedy--it has established itself as one of the last great television phenomena of the last century. Along the way, it has made its half-dozen lead actors famous. Looking back the strong friendship between the group of three men and three women who frequently gather at each other's apartments and at Greenwich Village's Central Perk coffee house, Friends was created by television producers, David Crane and Marta Kauffman. In 1993, the pair met producer Kevin S. Bright. Then the three became partners and got a deal to produce a new comedy for Warner Brothers. What they came up with was based on Crane and Kauffman's after-college years, when they hung out at the local coffee house and involved themselves in every aspect of each other's lives. It didn't take long for viewers to make friends with Friends. The sitcom quickly became a top ten hit. Critics loved it as well. Entertainment Weekly said the show operate like a Broadway show, with twisty plots and unique jokes. The television theme song has also been a success with the public. The song's success helped save the television theme song. An ABC executive was ready to order very short music intros on his network's shows, thinking that viewers would hit the remote control as soon as the opening started. But the success of the Friends theme song led the ABC executive to change his mind---remote controls or not, the TV theme song would stay. Years have gone by, but Friends remains and will remain an example of a modern day US sitcom that is both hugely entertaining television and nothing short o a genuine latter-day social phenomenon. Question: What might the author think of Friends? - Its merits outweigh its shortcomings. - Its success lies in the lack of good sitcoms. - He/she has a reserved attitude towards its success. - He/she shows great affection towards it .
He/she shows great affection towards it .
------
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: If you are looking for an animal to take the title of "most violent fish in the sea", then the tiger puffer fish would have to be a strong contestant. Not only is it deadly poisonous --- though that doesn't stop people trying to eat it --- but it is also able to scare off enemies by inflating itself to become much larger than normal, when it is young it even chews on its own brothers and sisters. Tiger puffer fish attach their eggs to rocks near the bottom of the sea, often at the mouths of bays. Then the larvae move to the entries of rivers and lakes once they have grown a little. Then, having put on a lot of weight, they head out to sea. There's no innocent childhood for the puffer fish, as Shin Oikawa of Kyushu University in Japan and his colleagues found out when they put the larvae of tiger puffer fish in the lab and monitored them for two months. They found that the larvae went through three steps in which their metabolic rates increased dramatically when they reached body weights of 0.002g, 0.01g, and 0.1g. When a larva went through one of these steps, its behavior also changed. For instance, once a larva had passed the first level it would have grown its first tooth and could start attacking larvae that had not yet reached that stage. Similarly, any larva that had reached the 0.01g or 0.1g levels would start attacking lighter larvae. The researchers noted that the baby fish had a "relatively small mouth", so rather than swallowing their brothers and sisters whole, they would bite pieces out of them. Despite this limitation, the fish caused plenty of deaths --- up to 12 per cent of the deaths that happened in the lab each day. Those fish that grew fast enough to be able to chew on their fellows had an advantage. The extra food accelerated their growth and development. Tiger puffer fish are likely to be faster and swifter, so they can deal better with enemies. As the name suggests, puffer fish can inflate to make themselves seem much larger than they really are, thus scaring off enemies. They do... Question: Where does the poison in the puffer fish's body come from? - Its inner organs. - The air it breathes in. - The diet it eats. - The bacteria around it.
The diet it eats.
------
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Hospital emergency rooms treat injured fingers all the time. Without treatment, a bad cut can lead to permanent damage. But how should a person know when a bleeding cut is serious enough to require medical attention? We asked Dr Martin Brown, chairman of the department of emergency medicine at Inova Alexandria Hospital in Virginia. First, the medical term for a cut or tear in the skin is a laceration(,). Dr Brown says the length is usually not as important as the depth. He says a long cut on a finger can likely be treated without a visit to a doctor if the wound is not very deep. "If you have a short but deep laceration where there's been a structure underneath that's been damaged - a tendon, a nerve, a blood vessel," says Martin, "it may, in fact, need professional attention." Some injuries - like a fingertip that gets cut off - might even require surgery to repair. That requires a specialist to either file down the bone or _ the fingertip. More often, filing down the bone is what is done because reattaching a fingertip is often not successful. How a wound bleeds can be a sign of how serious it is. Minor cuts usually produce what is known as venous bleeding. This means the blood flows steadily from the injury. The bleeding will often stop when pressure is put on the wound. Dr Brown says in most cases holding direct pressure with clean gauze or a cloth for four to five minutes should stop the bleeding. With a cut finger, holding the hand above the heart can reduce the loss of blood. But if a cut appears to be pumping blood out with some force, this may be a sign of arterial bleeding. This kind of injury should be treated by a medical professional as soon as possible. Even a cut that does not require medical attention must be kept clean to prevent infection. Small cuts should be cleaned gently with clean water. Use a washcloth to clean the area if the wound is dirty. Dr Brown says cuts should be covered with a clean, dry bandage. Question: According to the passage, _ . - a finger cut without treatment can lead to permanent damage - the length of a cut on a finger is more important than the depth - a long but not very deep cut often doesn't need professional attention - a short but deep laceration that has been damaged need professional attention.
a long but not very deep cut often doesn't need professional attention
------