Have you ever wondered how your favorite NBA team received its famous name? All NBA teams have an interesting story or a history behind their names. Some of the names reflect the city's culture or history, others came from previous owners and many were selected through "Name the Team" contests. For teams like Los Angeles and Utah, the names were not always a reflection of the city. Even though Los Angeles has no lakes, the Laker name has been a city treasure for almost 40 years. Before going to Los Angeles, the team originated in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1948, team officials chose the name for its direct relationship to the state's motto, "The Land of 10,000 Lakes." The team name went unchanged after moving to Los Angeles in 1960. Because Utah's team originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, it was called the Jazz. In 1974, New Orleans club officials chose the name to represent the city for its reputation as the "jazz capital of the world." The name stayed with the team even after finding a new home in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1979. The Chicago Bull's original owner, Richard Klein, named the team the Bulls. He picked the name because a fighting bull is relentless, and never quits. Klein, who founded the club in1966, believed these qualities were necessary for a championship team and hoped his Chicago athletes would live up to the team name. A belief that Bulls----winner of the six NBA championships have definitely followed. In 1967, the Indian Pacers selected their team name in a different way from most other teams. Their decision was based on what they wanted to accomplish in the NBA. Team officials chose the Pacers name because the organization wanted to set the "pace" in professional basketball This passage can be entitled _ . A) History of NBA B) Stories behind the names of NBA Teams C) Famous NBA Teams D) Interesting Stories about NBA
B
Bad news travels fast--when you watch the evening news or read the morning papers, it seems that things that get the most coverage are all tragedies like wars, earthquakes, floods, fires and murders. This is the classic rule for mass media. "They want your eyeballs and don't care how you're feeling," Jonah Berger, a psychologist at University of Pennsylvania told The New York Times. But with social media getting increasingly popular, information is now being spread in different ways, and researchers are discovering new rules--good news can actually spread faster and farther than disasters and other sad stories. Berger and his colleague Katherine Milkman looked at thousands of articles on The New York Times' website and analyzed the "most e-mailed" list for six months. One of his findings was that articles in the science section were much more likely to make the list. Those stories aroused feelings of awe and made the readers want to share this positive emotion with others. Besides science stories, readers were also found to be likely to share articles that were exciting or funny. "The more positive an article was, the more likely it was to be shared," Berger wrote in his new book. "For example, stories about newcomers falling in love with New York City," he writes, "tended to be shared more than the death of a popular zookeeper." But does all this good news actually make the audience feel better? Not necessarily. According to a study by researchers at Harvard University, people tend to say more positive things about themselves when they're talking to a bigger audience, rather than just one person, which helps explain all the perfect vacations that keep showing up on microblogs. This, researchers found, makes people think that life is unfair and that they're less happy than their friends. But no worries. There's a quick and easy way to relieve the depression you get from viewing other people's seemingly perfect lives--turn on the television and watch the news. There is always someone doing worse than you are. We can infer from the passage that _ . A) bad news always makes people sad B) people prefer to share bad news with a bigger audience C) people can relieve the depression by reading good news D) good news sometimes has negative influence
D
Q: Have you dreamed of traveling to cool places, meeting different people, and maybe picking up a language or two? No matter which country you live in, you can fly over the world's highest waterfalls in Venezuela, study in France or take dancing lessons in Ghana. Besides the excitement of traveling, there is another reason to study abroad. "Obviously, I learned the language and am now fluent, but perhaps what's more important was how much I learned about cultures, people, and myself." said Andrew, who studied in France. Christina studied in Caracas, Venezuela, a city of 10 million people and a huge change from her hometown of 35,000! Christina said she learned how to better speak for herself and her beliefs and to express herself in another language. What could make you more confident than that? Living away from home can also help you become adapted to the transition to college and adulthood. Matthew said that he returned from studying in Australia with confidence, and a real interest in international affairs. "After having gone abroad in high school, _ -- moving 560 miles from home didn't seem difficult at all after having lived thousands of miles away. " Speaking of college, improving your language skills might help you get into ideal colleges and even land future jobs. Colleges and employers know that studying abroad provides leadership skills in a world that needs much communication. Most of all, it's fun! You won't suffer from the general boredom while you're studying in a different learning environment. By saying "I found the transition to college was a breeze", the author means it is _ to adapt to college life. A) interesting B) difficult C) easy D) disappointing
A: C
Q: Researchers at Yale, Texas A&M and Boston University predict that by 2030 urban areas will expand by more than 463,000 square miles, or l.2 million square kilometers. That is equal to 20,000 American football fields becoming urban every day for the first three decades of this century. The growth in urban areas will go with the construction of roads and buildings, water and sanitation facilities, and energy and transport systems that will transform land cover and cities globally. Recent estimates suggest that between $25 trillion and $30 trillion will be spent on infrastructure worldwide by 2030, with $100 billion a year in China alone. "Considering the long life and near unavoidability of infrastructure investments, it will be critical for current urbanization-related policies to consider their lasting impacts," said Karen Seto, lead author of the study. "We have a huge opportunity to shape how cities develop and their environmental impacts." Nearly half of the increase in high-probability ----defined as greater than 75 percent ---- urban expansion is forecasted to occur in Asia, with China and India absorbing 55 percent of the regional total. In China, urban- expansion is expected to create a l,l00-mile coastal urban corridor from Hangzhou to Shenyang. In India, urban expansion will be gathered around seven state capital cities, with large areas of low-probability growth forecasted for the Himalaya region where many small villages and towns currently exist. Africa's urban land cover will grow the fastest, at 590 percent above the 2000 level of 16,000 square miles. Urban expansion win be concentrated in that continent's five regions: the Nile River in Egypt; the coast of West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea; the northern shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya and Uganda and extending into Rwanda and Burundi; the Kano region in northern Nigeria; and greater Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. "Urban expansion is concentrated in. only a few areas where there are large cities and industry," said Seto. "From the northern shore of... As for China, the expansion of urban area means_. A) $ 100 billion will be spent on infrastructure a year B) creating a coastal urban corridor from Hangzhou to Qingdao C) it will become the fastest developing country in the next decade D) it will make up 55% of the increase in urban expansion in Asia
A: A