In many romantic movies or TV shows one scene always appears. It involves a handsome man standing outside a young woman's window, singing a love song to her to win her over. However, trying to woo a female with songs is not just something that humans do. A few animals sing love songs as well. Birds and elephants are romantic but the latest animal to _ a female might surprise you--it is the humble mouse. You may find it odd to find out that mice sing. We do not hear them because the frequency of their voice is so high. In fact, scientists have known for some time that male mice make special sounds to females, but it has always been assumed that the sounds are produced instinctively and randomly, with little thought going into the process. But new research suggests otherwise. When male mice with different voices were put in a cage together, scientists found that they would gradually change their pitches to sound like one another. But when a female mouse was put in the cage with two males, one male would change his pitch to match the other. "It was usually the smaller animal changing the pitch to match the larger animal," professor Erich Jarvis, leader of the study, from Duke University, US, told BBC News. This ability, known as vocal learning, is rare in the natural world. It had been thought to be limited to some birds, such as parrots--as well as whales and dolphins. The latest findings challenge the long-held opinion that mice cannot learn to adapt their voices. Scientists also found the part of the brain that controls the mice's singing ability. In the experiment, they damaged the cells in this part of the mice's brain and found that the animals couldn't keep their songs in pitch or repeat them any more. This also happened when the mice became deaf. Jarvis said that this finding had changed his understanding of the way mice make sound. "In mice we find that the pathways that are at least modulating these vocalizations are in the forebrain, in places where you actually find them in humans,"... Romantic movies and TV shows are mentioned at the beginning of the passage to _ . A) help readers better understand the article B) stress the importance of the article C) explain why this article is written D) get readers interested in the topic
D
(Question)
Music is an international language. The songs that are sung or played by instruments are beautiful to all people everywhere. Popular music in America is what every student likes. Students carry small radios with earphones and listen to music before class, after class, and at lunch. Students with cars buy large speakers and play the music loudly as they drive on the street. Adult drivers listen to music on the car radio as they drive to work. They also listen to the news about sports, the weather, politics ,and activities of the American people. Pop or popular music singers make much money. They make a CD or tape which radio stations use in every state. Once the popular singer is heard throughout the country, young people buy his or her tapes. Some of the money from these tapes comes to the singer. Wherever the singer goes, ail the young people want to meet him or her. Now the singer has become a national star. There are other kinds of music that are important to Americans. One is called folk music. It tells stories about the common life of Americans. Another is called western or country music. This was started by cowboys who would sing at night to the cows they were watching. Today, any music about country life and the love between a country boy and his girl is called western or country music. Serious music for the concert halls is called classical music. Music for instruments is called orchestra music,such as the symphonies of Beethoven. There is opera for singers. There is ballet for dancers like the story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai in China. How many kinds of music are mentioned in the passage? A) 5. B) 6. C) 7. D) 8.
(Answer)
C
Ques: OTTAWA -- Canada's western city of Calgary is the world's best city when it comes to healthy living, local press reported Monday. According to an international survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, a London-based consulting firm, Calgary was put at the top of a list of 144 cities. It scored 121 points, just above Honolulu's score of 120. Helsinki(,) and Ottawa followed at 119.5 and 118.5 respectively. Three other Canadian cities came in the top 20. Montreal and Vancouver tied for ninth and Toronto came in at 18th. The scores are based on air pollution levels, availability and quality of hospitals and medical supplies, as well as the efficiency of waste removal and sewage systems. In America, the lowest scoring city was Atlanta, which was ranked 76th. Athens was the lowest scoring city in Western Europe, ranking 120th because of its air pollution. London was ranked 59th. How many Canadian cities are in the top 20? A) 3. B) 4. C) 5. D) 6.
Ans: C
Lillan Hanson, a college junior, expects to graduate in about two years. Mrs Hanson, a rather unusual student, plans to go on to take more courses after she gets her degree. What makes Mrs Hanson different from most of her classmates? What sets Lillian Hanson apart from the college crowd is her age-73 years. She has been going to college, a few courses at a time, for 27 years. When Mrs Hanson graduated from high school, she went to her local bank and asked for a loan for college tuition and fees. The banker gave her no encouragement. He didn't think that country girl should be borrowing money to go to college. He thought she should be home doing work in the house or around the farm. So Mrs Hanson went home and raised a family of nine children instead of going to college. She still lives with her husband on the farm that has been in the family for five generations. Mrs Hanson never forgot her dream of getting a higher education. When her children were grown, she tried again. She finds the hardest part of going back to school at her age is to be sitting in class for long periods of time, because she is not as agile as she used to be. Mrs Hanson often gets up and walks around between classes to keep her joints from getting stiff. At the beginning of a course in using the computer, the other students all gave Mrs Hanson a warm round of applause when she introduced herself and explained why she was there and what her goals were. We can learn form the passage that Mrs Hanson_. A) is troublesome at college because of her old age B) often disturbs her teachers' teaching by walking around in class C) is popular and well-admired on campus D) is good at all her subjects except computer studies
C