When Nick Pasqua hits his bedroom after school, he's tired. The 14-year-old high school freshman from New Rochele, New York, plays computer video games online for a couple of hours, pausing only to instant-message his friends, check his blog or download a new song to his IPOD. When his cell phone vibrates , he scans the text message and fires back a reply. "We're leagues behind," sighs Nick's mom, Kimberly Pasqua, 45. And many parents like her are feeling increasingly out of step with their children. The technology gap between parents and kids is widening, says Amenda Lenhart, senior research specialist for Internet & American Life Project, a research group that explores the impact of the Internet on children and families. In a series of reports released last year, researchers found that 87 percent of the prefix = st1 /United States' kids aged 12 to 17 use the Internet, compared to only 66 percent of adults. Half of those teens go online daily. Eighty-one percent play games online and 75 percent use instant-messaging. Nearly half(45 percent) have a cell phone. One out of five has a blog. Why are children increasing past their parents? Because today's kids learn to use computers by playing and think technology is fun, says Lenhart. But adults generally view computers as mere tools for work , not toys. Despite this difference, most parents realize that computers, cell phones and the like are fixtures in their children's lives. With that acceptance comes worry about what makes appropriate usage and more important, what's safe. Experts say the best way to keep up is to learn the technology for yourself. Visit blogs. Send some instant and text messages. Download music. "This stuff may never be as necessary to your life as it is to your kids," says Susannah Stern, assistant professor in the Communications Department at UniversityofSan Diego, "but you won't get their respect about online issues if you don't know what they're talking about." Children can be great teachers, so let them show you the ropes. "It's... What do parents worry about most according to the passage? A) Their children spend too much time on computers and cell phones. B) Their children don't know how to use computers and cell phones. C) Computers and cell phones may do harm to their children. D) Their children no longer work hard at their lessons.
C
(Question)
A towering South American plant that is believed to kill animals with its spikes and use their rotting bodies as fertilizer is about to bloom in England. A rare Puya chilensis was planted at a greenhouse in Surrey, a county in the southeast of England about 15 years ago. However, despite its frightening description, the tall, spiked plant is considered a threatened species. The Royal Horticultural Society has been feeding the plant a diet of liquid fertilizer. "In its natural habitat in the Andes it uses its razor sharp spikes to _ and trap sheep and other animals, which slowly starve to death and rot at the base of the plant, providing it with a bag of fertilizer," reads a description on the RHS website, which adds that the plant gives off a "gruesome scent." But does the plant actually trap and eat sheep? Other sources have simply said it is "believed" that the plant traps small animals with its spikes. After the animals die of starvation, the plant is "believed" to then use their rotting bodies as fertilizer to feed itself. "I'm really pleased that we've finally persuaded our Puya chilensis into producing flower," horticulturalist Cara Smith said in a press release on the RHS site. Regardless of whether it actually traps sheep, the plant does have sharp spikes that can grow up to 12 feet high and 5 feet wide. However, it's not all death and danger for this plant. Its flowery blooms reportedly provide nectar for bees and birds. The Puya chilensis blooms annually in its native land of Chile, but this is the first time it has done so after more than a decade of cultivation efforts from the RHS. "We keep it well fed with liquid fertilizer as feeding it on its natural diet might prove a bit problematic," Smith said. "It's growing in the dry section of our glasshouse with its deadly spines well out of reach of both children and sheep alike." From the passage we learn that in England the Puya chilensis _ . A) feeds on man-made liquid fertilizer B) often kills sheep and other animals C) has once bloomed 15 years before D) uses animals' rotting bodies as fertilizer
(Answer)
A
Ques: Houseplants clean the air and brighten a room. Occasionally, they drive us mad as we wonder how exactly we managed to kill yet another "unkillable" houseplant. (In that way, they provide great lessons in perseverance as well!) But it looks like there's one more great reason to grow houseplants: their presence in your workspace might actually make you smarter. According to a recent study published in The Journal of Environmental Psychology, just having plants in your work space is enough to increase your attention span. An increase in attention span means that we're able to remember more of what we read. To test the hypotheses, the study's authors gave subjects a Reading Span Task, which requires reading sentences aloud, then remembering the last word in each sentence. This requires reading, memorization, and recall abilities, and switching between the three. The researchers had their entire test pool complete Reading Span Tasks to get a baseline reading. Then they moved some of the people to a room with no plants, and others to a room that had four plants around the desk. They were all asked to repeat the Reading Span Tasks, and the people who worked near a plant improved overall, while those without plants stayed roughly the same. Beauty, fresh air, the joy of caring for another living thing -- all great reasons to have a few houseplants around. If they help increase attention spans, all the better! People in the study were asked to_. A) read sentences slowly B) recall all the information C) memorize each sentence correctly D) change between the three abilities
Ans:
D