Despite knowing he was dying, Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple, worked for more than a year to make plans for four years of new products that he believed would maintain the company's future. It was also revealed that Jobs fought hard to get plans approved for a spaceship-style company headquarters in California. It will be big enough to hold 12,000 employees in a park-like setting near the existing base in Cupertino, the global headquarters of Apple. He appeared at a town council meeting in June to promote the planning. He was also overseeing the development of the delayed iCloud project, which will allow Apple users to store their music, photos and other documents remotely, and designing updated versions of the iPod, iPad, iPhone and MacBooks, ensuring that at least four years' worth of products will go smoothly. Pre-order sales of the first official biography of Steve Jobs have increased by 44,000 percent. According to the official description, the book, out on October 24, 2011, is based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over two years - as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, competitors and colleagues. Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011, aged 56, following a long battle with cancer. Jobs is survived by a wife, a son and two daughters. With his passing being confirmed, world leaders, the most famous technology bosses and thousands of fans throughout the world all paid tribute in their way to the life of the man they honored as a hero. What did Steve Jobs do when he knew he was dying, according to this passage? A) Enjoy life with his family. B) Contact his friends and colleagues. C) Be interviewed by the media. D) Make plans for his company
D
There are many people who say Thomas Edison invented the twentieth century. Although there are those who may disagree, yet Edison was one of the greatest inventors in America. Born in 1847 in Ohio, Thomas Edison attended school for only three months. After his teacher said that he could not learn, Edison's mother decided to teach him at home. There he was allowed to study the subjects that most interested him. By age ten, Edison had built a science laboratory of his own. Edison got his first job at age twelve on the railway selling candy and newspapers. There he once saved a boy whose father was the boss of the railway station. In return the boss helped him a lot. In his late twenties, Edison built an "invention factory" where he and his business partners could devote all their time to inventing. After improving upon the telephone, Edison created the phonograph . Although Edison did not actually invent the light bulb, he did create an electric lighting system which led to its widespread use. Edison set up the first central electric power station in 1882, so New York became the first city in the world to have electric lights. This was the beginning of the modern world in which electricity became a way of life. The following year, one of Edison's engineers discovered electrons , which at last led to electronics. Without electronics, we might not have radio, TV, computers, or space travel. The rest of Edison's life was spent making and improving inventions. Thomas Edison died at the age of eighty-four in 1931. Three days later, much of America dimmed its lights in honor of the inventor--a man who had more impact on the development of present-day civilization than anyone else in history. The passage tells us that _ . A) Edison didn't like to study at school B) Edison invented the light bulb in his late twenties C) even without electronics, we might have radio, TV, computers, or space travel D) New York was the first city in the world to have electric lights
D
Q: Taste is such a subjective matter that we don't usually conduct preference tests for food. The most you can say about anyone's preference is that it's one person's opinion. But because the two big cola companies--Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola are marketed so aggressively, we've wondered how big a role taste preference actually plays in brand loyalty. We set up a taste test that challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-Cola or Pepsi fans: Find your brand in a blind tasting. We invited staff volunteers who had a strong liking for either Coca-Cola Classic or Pepsi, Diet Coke, or Diet Pepsi. These were people who thought they'd have no trouble telling their brand from the other brand. We eventually located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers. Then we fed them four unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group, diet versions for the other. We asked them to tell us whether each sample was Coke or Pepsi; then we analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants' choices with what mere guess-work could have accomplished. Getting all four samples right was a tough test, but not too tough, we thought, for people who believed they could recognize their brand. In the end, only 7 out of 19 regular cola drinkers correctly identified their brand of choice in all four trials. The diet-cola drinkers did a little worse----only 7 of 27 identified all four samples correctly. While both groups did better than chance would predict, nearly half the participants in each group made the wrong choice two or more times. Two people got all four samples wrong. Overall, half the participants did about as well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so tiredness, or taste _ , was not a factor. Our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi participants and Coke fans may really be able to tell their favorite brand by taste and price. The word "burnout" (Line3, Para. 5) refers to the state of _ . A) being seriously burnt in the skin B) being badly damaged by fire C) being unable to function because of excessive use D) being unable to burn for lack of fuel
A: C
*Question*
Drug Use Report A new study examines drug use by young people in t he United States. The study found that cigarette smoking among American teenagers dropped during t he past years. The drop continues a general decrease in teenager smoking rates that started in 1996. American health officials praised the decrease as good news in the nation's battle against smoking. They note that smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease. Smoking rates among American teenagers increased in the first half of the 1990's. However, teenage smoking rates have been decreasing in recent years. The University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research supervised the latest study. The Department of Health and Human Services reported the findings. The study involved more than forty-four-thousand students in more than four-hundred schools across the United States. They were asked about past and daily use of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs. The youngest students questioned were thirteen years old. The study also involved fifteen-year-old students and seventeen-year-olds. The most notable change in the study was a continuation of the decrease in cigarette use among thirteen and fifteen-year-olds. For example, about twelve percent of thirteen-year-old students questioned reported smoking at least one cigarette during the past month. Six years ago, the rate was twenty-one percent. Among fifteen-year-olds, the rate dropped from thirty percent in 1996 to twenty-one percent last year. Tommy Thompson is the secretary of Health and Human Services. He praised the findings. He said more teenagers are making correct choices that will help them avoid health problems caused by tobacco. The study found that use of alcoholic drinks and illegal drugs among American teenagers remained the same or dropped during the past year. However, the use of one illegal drug known as Ecstasy continued to increase. Yet the rate of increase was not as great as in recent years. ... During the past years, the use of Ecstasy among teenagers _ . A) remains the same B) has also decreased C) has increased somewhat D) is not mentioned
**Answer**
C