Where is that noise coming from? Not sure? Try living with your eyes closed for a few years. Blind people are better at locating sounds than people who can see, a new study says, Without the benefits of vision the ears seem to work much better. Previous studies have shown that blind people are better than others at reaching out and touching the sources of sounds that are close by. Researchers from the University of Montreal wanted to see if blind people were also better at locating sounds that are far away. Twenty-three blind people participated in the study. All had been sightless for at least 20 years. Fourteen of them had lost their vision before age 11. The rest went blind after age 16. The experiment also included 10 people who could see but were wearing blindfolds. In one task, volunteers had to pick the direction of a sound coming from about 3 meters away. When the sound was in front of them or slightly off center in front, both groups performed equally well. When sounds came from the side or the back, however, the blind group performed much better than the blindfolded group. The participants who had been blind since childhood did slightly better than those who lost their sight later. Recognizing the locations of distant sounds can be a matter of life-or-death for blind people, say the researchers. Crossing the street, for instance, is much harder when you can't see the cars coming. Still, the researchers were surprised by how well the blind participants did, especially those who went blind after age 16. In another experiment, the scientists also found that parts of the brain that normally deal with visual information became active in locating sound in the people who were blind by age 11. These brain parts didn't show sound-location activity in the other group of blind people or in the sighted people. The scientists now want to learn more about the workings of brains of "late-onset" blind people. If people were asked to tell the direction of a sound from the side, who would perform best? A) Those who are blind. B) Those who have gone blind since children. C) Those who went blind at age 16. D) Those who are blindfolded.
B
Somehow Rey had managed to struggle free from the rope around his neck, after being left to die a slow death as punishment for being a bad Spanish greyhound . It is believed that 50,000 greyhounds are killed by their owners in prefix = st1 /Spaineach year after they grow too old, or turn out to be too slow to hunt with. Dogs have also been found thrown into wells, burnt alive and even injected with poison. But Rey's intended fate was, even within the levels of cruelty usually shown to Spanish hunting dogs, especially cruel. The rope around his neck had been set at a height so that his front paws could not touch the ground, meaning that he was intended to stand on his back legs until he was too tired to support himself. When his legs finally became too tired, the rope should have done its work. "They call it the typewriting death, because the dog's back legs struggled against the ground and make the clicking sound of a typewriter," said Albert Sorde, of the SOS Galgos greyhound rescue group. "It is a punishment for greyhounds that are thought to have made their owners lose face. " "Rey's throat was severely damaged but we managed to find a vet to operate and, though it was expensive, he survived," he said. Greyhounds in Spain are used for hunting hares . "The dogs are meant to imitate the swerves of the hares," said Sorde. "Those who don't, and make their owners look bad, are called ' dirty greyhounds' and are most likely to be killed by the typewriter method. " What can you infer from the passage? A) Dogs are not kept as pets in Spain. B) Rey was punished because he had not been loyal to his owner. C) The typewriting death is named because a typewriter is used in the punishment. D) Rey didn't behave very well in the hunting.
D
Q: Greece declared a national state of emergency on Saturday as scores of forest fires that have killed at least 46 people continued to burn out of control, leaving some villages trapped within walls of flames, cut off from firefighters. Although most of the fires have been on the Peloponnesian Peninsula, some broke out on the outskirts of Athens on Saturday, forcing the evacuation of homes and closing a major road linking the capital to the main airport for several hours. The national fire brigade said that by evening it had brought those blazes under control, including one that came within about six miles of the city. The country has been helpless to fire this summer because of drought and three consecutive heat waves that sent temperatures high over 100 degrees. More than 3,000 forest fires have destroyed thousands of acres of wooded areas since June; the earlier fires killed nine people.The latest wave of fires on the peninsula started Friday. Strong, hot winds have spread the flames. Firefighters expect the death toll to rise, because they have not yet been able to search some areas that had been overrun by flames. Hardest hit by the fires were a dozen small villages around the town of Zaharo in the western peninsula, where at least 12 people, including some who may have been trying to flee by car, were killed. Scores of other residents, including elderly and disabled people, remained trapped in their homes, phoning into local television and radio stations, crying for help. Late Saturday, Mr. Karamanlis, Prime Minister of Greece appeared on national television and declared that he was mobilizing all of the country's resources to control the fire. Mr. Karamanlis also suggested that the recent fires might have been purposely set. "So many fires sparked at the same time in so many regions is no coincidence," he said, "We will get to the bottom of this and punish those responsible." The overstretched national fire services are being helped by an estimated 6,000 soldiers mobilized for the operation. A fleet of... According to the passage, which of the following might not contribute to the recent forest fires in Greek? A) Storm thunders in summer B) Lack of rainfall C) Extremely hot weather this summer D) Hot and strong wind
A: A
*Question*
This is not a diet. It's a simple way to lose weight. You don't have to give up the food you love or join a gym. You just follow some habits thin people have. Keep them, and you'll become thin. *Wake-up When you wake up in the morning, sit up slowly without using your hands. With legs straight out, lean forward until you feel sore in your back. It will use up 10 calories. *Start with soup Order a clear soup, and have it before the main food. In this way, you'll feel fuller, so you'll eat less when the main food comes. *An apple or more a day Apples are full of fiber and water, so your stomach will want less. Studies show that people who eat at least three apples or pears a day may lose weight. *Talk it up Every time you use the cell phone, stand up and walk around. Heavy people sit on average two and a half hours more each day than thin people. This skill is very important and standing up and walking around will burn up 50 or more calories. Use these skills, and you will have a big weight loss. Which of the following ways is a good choice become thin? A) Sit up quickly in the morning B) Have soup before the main food. C) Eat rice instead of apples D) Sit down when using a cell phone.
**Answer**
B