It can be rude to talk politics over dinner...explicitly at least. But subtle linguistic cues might reveal more than you think about your political views, whether at the dinner table--or on Twitter. "There's a lot of information in the details of our language." Matthew Purver, a computational linguist at Queen Mary University of London. "The little words we use, the way we join together our sentences, and the kind of interactional patterns, where we react to other people." Purver's research team used Twitter as their communications forum, randomly selecting 28,000 users, half of whom clearly followed one political party's Twitter feeds, for example, @GOP, but not the other, for a more or less even split among Republicans and Democrats. Then they analyzed the words in those users' timelines during a two-week period in June 2014. As you might expect, the tweets of users who followed Republican accounts were a lot more likely to contain words like "obamacare" and "benghazi," whereas "bridge gate" came up more among Democratic followers. But the researchers also found that the left-leaners were much more likely to use words like sh#& and fu@$ than were the righties. And whereas Republican followers preferred plural pronouns like "we" or "us," Democratic followers used more singular pronouns, like "I" or "me.". That pronoun use could reflect previous work on how people on the right and left forge their political views. "People on the right end of the political spectrum are more likely to be concerned with group conformity. Whereas people who tend to be on the left are perhaps more likely to see their morals or their values deriving from individualistic ideas, if you like." The study is in the journal PLoS ONE. Of course, just following a political account is not proof of political belief. But these findings suggest that algorithms may increasingly be able to read between the lines, detecting nuances in human communication that even we humans can't perceive. Which of the following is true? A) It's right to talk about politics over dinner. B) People use Twitter to express their political views explicitly. C) Humans may not perceive what we convey through language. D) Linguistics has nothing to do with algorithms.
C
The work of railroad pioneers in America became the basis for a great surge of railroad building halfway though the nineteenth century that linked the nation together as never before. Railroads eventually became the nation's number one transportation system, and remained so until the construction of the interstate highway system halfway through the twentieth century. They were of great importance stimulating economic expansion,but their influence reached beyond the economy and was strong in American society at large. By 1804, English as American inventors had experimented with steam engines for moving land vehicles. In 1820,John Stevens ran a locomotive and cars around in a circular track on his New Jersey estate,which the public saw as amusing toy. And in 1825, after opening a short length of track, the Stockton to Darlington Railroad in England became the first line to carry general traffic. American businesspeople, especially those in the Atlanic coastal region who looked for better communication with the West, quickly became interested in the English experiment. The first company in America to begin actual operations was the Baltimore and Ohio,wich opened a thirteen-mile length of track in 1830. It used a team of horses to pull a trainof passenger carriages and freight wagons along the track. Steam locomotive power didn't come into regular service until two years later. However, for the first decade or more, there was not yet a true railroad system. Even the longest of the lines was ly short in the 1830's, and most of them served simply to connect water routes to each other, not to link one railroad to another. Even when two lines did connect, the tracks often differed in width, so cars from one line couldn't fit onto tracks of the next line. Schedules were unreliable and wrecks were frequent. Significantly, however, some important developments during the 1830's and 1840's included the introduction of heavier iron rails, more flexible and powerful locomotives, and passenger cars were redesigned to... The author concludes that for the first decade or more, there was not yet a true railroad system because A) passenger cars were not stable, comfortable or large B) locomotives were not powerful enough C) schedules were unreliable and wrecks were frequent D) lines were ly short and not usually linked
D
(Q).
Dear Michelle, My mother is not a good example for me and my sister. She smokes, stays out late, and she curses. I love her but I am ashamed of her. I do not want to bring home my friends because she does not act like any of the other mothers. She says I am a loser because I sit at home and I study. I wish I could live in another family that is normal, but that will not be for another 5 years when I am 18 and legal. What am I supposed to do until then? Prisoner of a Crazy House Dear 7th Grade, I am glad that you love your mother because the rest of your feelings about her may change as you mature and get older. While it is true that your mother's smoking, partying and cursing bring you shame, the fact that you want to stay separate from her doing is notable and very smart. It shows that you are a winner, not a loser. I am guessing, therefore, that you do not bring shame to yourself, and that is a good thing. So, keep it that way and keep away from your mother's habits. In the meantime, get the best grades as possible and join clubs and after-school activities. Offer social service on weekends and visit with your friends at their homes. Unfortunately, you are not alone. Many teens live in homes with immature, misguided, selfish parents. Those kids often feel lonely and separate from the rest of their friends because of their parents' terrible deeds. Yet, despite this, some of these very teens grow up to be just fine. They develop good friendships with nice kids, do well in school, and often find a teacher of guidance advisor who makes all the difference! Do it, Miss Winning 13-year-old, and keep looking forward to your own fine future. Maybe by then your mother may even see the light and realize how surprising you really are. Best luck! Michelle The kids asks for advice on how to _ . A) make her mother change B) grow up in her present situation C) get along well with her mother D) start a new family with her sister
(A).
B