Ques: Article: If you were to come up with a list of organizations whose failures had done the most damage to the American economy in recent years,you would probably have to start with the Wall Street firms that brought us the financial.From there,you might move on to the automakers in Detroit. But I would suggest that the list should also include a less obvious nominee:public education. At its top level,the American system of higher education may be the best in the world.Yet in terms of its core mission-turning teenagers into educated college graduates--much of the system is failing. The United States does a good job enrolling teenagers in college,but only half of the students who enroll end up with a bachelor's degree. So identifying the causes of the college dropout crisis m the world's largest economy matters enormously, and a new book called Crossing the Finish Line tries to do precisely that.Its authors are economists William Bowen and Michael.McPherson,and a doctoral candidate Matthew Chigoes.The first problem they diagnose is something they call tender-matching. It refers to students who choose not to attend the best college they can get into.They instead go to a less selective one,perhaps one that is closer to home or less expensive.About half of the low--income students with a grade-point average of at least3.5 in high school and an SAT score of at least 1,200 do not attend the best college they could have. "I was really astonished by the degree to which well--qualified students from poor families under-matched," said Mr.Bowen. In fact,well-off students attend the colleges that do the best job of producing graduates.Meanwhile,lower-income students-even when they are better qualified--often go to colleges that excel in producing drop-outs."It's really a waste,"Mr.Bowen said,"and a big problem for the country."As the authors point out, the only way to lift the college graduation rate significantly is to lift it among poor and working--class students. Instead,it appears to have fallen. What can be... Question: The passage is mainly about _ . Yes or no, is the answer "low rate of American college graduation, its cause and its influence"?
Ans: No

Ques: Article: Music comes in many forms;most countries have a style of their own. Poland has its folks. Hungary has its czardas. Argentina is famous for the tango. The U.S.A.is known for jazz,the type of music that has gained worldwide popularity. Jazz is an American contribution to popular music. While classical music follows formal European tradition,jazz is rather a free form. It is full of energy,expressing the moods,interests,and emotions of the people. It is breaking and exciting with a modern sound. In the 1920s jazz sounded like America. And so it does today. The origins of the music are as interesting as the music itself. Jazz was invented by American Negroes,or blacks,as they are called today,who were brought to the southern states as slaves. They were sold to farm owners and forced to work long hours in the cotton and tobacco fields. This work was hard and life was short. When a Negro died his friends and s would gather and carry the body to have a ceremony before they buried him. There was always a band with them. On the way to the ceremony the band played slowly,solemn music suitable for the situation. But on the way home the mood changed. Spirits lifted. Everyone was happy. Death had removed one of their members,but the living were glad to be alive. The band played happy music. This music made everyone want to dance. It was an early form of jazz. Music has always been important in Negro life. The black,who were brought to American from West Africa,had a rich musical tradition. In the fields,they made up work songs. Singing made the hard work go faster. And when they got to Christianity,they made lovely spirituals,which have become an everlasting part of American music. Question: Jazz will always be connected with _ . Yes or no, is the answer "American blacks"?
Ans: No

Ques: Article: It helps us understand the world better if we know a little geography and have some maps at hand. But with maps in Chinese only, misunderstanding is possible in studying world events. Chinese names are long, hard to pronounce and without meaning to a foreigner. For the opening of the country maps are important and helpful and needed badly. I wish maps various languages, such as those used in the United Nations, would come out and be sold in all bookstores open to Chinese. Question: According to the passage maps in foreign language are badly needed _ . Yes or no, is the answer "in a country open to other parts of the world"?
Ans: No

Ques: Article: Thanks to science, industry and moral philosophy, mankind's steps were at last guided up the right path in the past century. The 19th century of steam was about to give way to the 20th century of oil and electricity. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, only 41 years old in 1900, provided a scientific basis for the idea that progress was not to be stopped, determined by natural law. And almost everybody thought that the development would continue to be as slow as that in the 19th century. Inventions like the railroad or the telegraph or the typewriter enabled people to live their everyday lives a little more conveniently. No one could have guessed that new ideas would storm the world with a force and frequency at an amazing pace. This high-speed attack of new ideas and technologies seemed to make people believe in the old dreams of a perfect life on earth, of a safe world in which natural disasters would be controlled. But the fast progress was accompanied by something against mankind's will. Murders in Sarajevo in 1914 led to the Great War, which did more than destroy a generation of Europeans. The Great War was most commonly called so until the beginning of World War II when it was renamed World War I. Hitler rose to power in the 1930's. It was this very man who ordered the attack of prefix = st1 /Poland, only to meet with his failure whenGreat BritainandFrancemade war onGermany. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed the American naval base at Pearl harbor. Americans decided to enter the war, and World War II was now truly a world war. But civilization was not crushed by the two great wars, and from the ruins people built a way of life again. The citizens of the 20th century felt free to reinvent themselves. In that task they were aided by two far-reaching developments-Psychoanalysis and the Bomb. Question: Why was the Great War renamed as World War I? Yes or no, is the answer "Because it was followed by the other world war."?
Ans:
No