Question: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: All across California, honeybees are flying away from their hives and dying. Empty hives are causing a lot of worry about some important food crops. Bees give us a lot more than delicious honey. They are pollinators --they enable plants to produce the fruits and nuts we enjoy by carrying pollen from one plant or flower to the next. The wind pollinates oats, corn, and wheat, but many other plants (like apple and cherry trees and melon vines) depend on insects, bats, and birds. In the U.S., millions and millions of bees kept by human beekeepers fly around doing a lot of this important work for food crops. "Bees are worth protecting because their work adds so much to our diet," says Dr. Jeff Pettis of the Bee Research Laboratory. California's almond crop alone depends on about half the bees in the country. But now the almond crop and many others could be in trouble with so many bees dying. Researchers at government and university labs all over the country are trying to figure out why so many bees are dying. However, bees are hard to study. Most die away from the hive, so researchers don't have dead bodies to examine. And when researchers return to a hive after two weeks, about half the bees they studied on their first visit will be dead, replaced by new ones in the natural life cycle of bees. "It isn't like studying a large animal like a cow that doesn't move around much and is easy to find out in the cow field," says Pettis. Researchers have some ideas about what could be affecting bee health. They could be sick from poisons widely used to kill insects, or they might not be getting enough good food to stay strong. Also, tiny insects called mites feed on bees. "A virus or bacteria could also be doing the killing." explains Pettis. Question: What can we learn from the article? - A large number of bees have died in the hive. - Without bees, some foods would disappear from our diet. - Only researchers in California want to know what kills bees. - Large animals are easier to study than tiny insects.
Answer: Without bees, some foods would disappear from our diet.

Question: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: You may have heard the popular saying, "there are always more fish in the sea". But as many new studies show, fish populations are changing, and not necessarily for the better. Consider the case of big, predatory fish. These giants, like sharks and cod , eat other smaller fish. Big fish are an important part of the marine ecosystem because they keep down the numbers of smaller fish. Without fish that eat other fish, populations of smaller swimmers would increase, eating more plants, and leaving less vegetation for other creatures, including future fish. As fierce as predators can be, they're no match for fishing technology. Many people love to catch predatory fish like sharks, cod and tuna, and new studies suggest that over-fishing is threatening these creatures near the top of the marine food chain. In one study, Villy Christensen and his colleagues looked at 200 past studies of marine life to learn how fish populations have changed over time. Christensen reported that between 1910 and 1970, the numbers of big predators decreased slowly, and that in 1970 their populations really started to drop. Around that time, fishing ships began using new tools that led to more fish being caught. The numbers have been falling quickly ever since. Reg Watson looked at the problem from the perspective of the fishermen. In the middle of the 20thcentury, Watson reported, fishing boats didn't go far from home, and most fish were caught near the shore. That was no longer true by the 1980s. By then, fishing had moved farther from shore, into the open oceans, and was helped by the development of new technologies. But since the 1990s, something has changed. Despite new technologies and more efforts, fishing operations have not continued to develop. Scientists study historical data to understand the present, and this research is needed to forecast the future of fish and fishing. And the forecast doesn't look good: large predator fish are becoming harder to find, and soon may disappear. Question: Why did the number of big predators begin to fall quickly in 1970? - Fishing ships began using new tools with which they could catch more fish. - There were fewer smaller fish than before. - There were more people catching big predators. - Their environment was being polluted by fishing ships.
Answer: Fishing ships began using new tools with which they could catch more fish.

Question: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: People who put a smiley face at the end of a message, in an attempt to show feeling, show no feeling. I wish there was a symbol for two fingers in the air. I had some bad news this week. My manager informed me of this news via email. It was like hearing about the death of a loved one via pigeon. Bad news should only ever be delivered face to face or voice to voice. We seem to celebrate our numerous methods of communication, but really there is no communication at all. I talk to my plants more than I talk to my neighbors, I get text messages that take me three hours to read because they're written like this: "Hi, I ope you av a gr8 day. Call me La8tr." I had an email from someone this week that read, "Da ut ov 2day are really annoying me!" Ut? I had to say this 20 times before I understood it. Youth has now become ut. Haven't we taken enough from them--now we have to take their letters? I had an email recently from a girl who used to live over the road from me as a child. She wrote, "Hi Shazia, howz u? Im sure u used 2 live across the road from me. We sumtimes played tennis 2 gever at the park and you was in your eliment. I am married now wif 3 daughters." Then, to my horror, she ended the email with: "Im now teachin in Leeds. Luv Clare." Teaching? With English like this. It's like saying you're a train driver when you've never seen a train. It was like reading modern Morse code. Getting bad news via email makes it seem so much worse than it actually is. Just a few lines, no emotion, no comfort, not really an explanation. Just a few cold hard words. It's an excuse. Just write a few words and the problem of delivering it is no longer yours. A close friend recently told me she was very happy to announce she was getting married--and made the announcement by email. I don't know how she didn't fall off her chair with excitement while writing it. If you are really happy or really sad to announce something important, wouldn't you like a human reaction? Some euphoria, elation, tears, a punch in the face? I receive... Question: Why does the writer mention the telegram? - Because she thinks the annoyance of reading text messages is originated from it. - Because we have more options to keep in touch with each other than ever before. - Because advanced technology partly takes the blame for lacking the human touch. - Because she thinks humans today become colder with the development of society.
Answer:
Because advanced technology partly takes the blame for lacking the human touch.