Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Ocean animals have been getting bigger over the last half-billion years. Not a little bigger. Not even a lot bigger. They have _ gigantically, scientists now conclude. Their new finding lends support for something known as "Cope's rule." It holds that animals tend to evolve into species that are much larger than their distant ancestors. This hypothesis takes its name from the 19thcentury paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope. While studying fossils , he was the first to notice this trend. Noel Heim is a paleontologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. He also is a co-author of the new study. His team compared the body size of animals between the Cambrian Period and modern times. This was a span of 542 million years. The animals studied included species from more than 17,000 genera. They ranged from ancient trilobites, plesiosaurs (extinct reptiles with a long neck and flippers) and many less familiar creatures to today's whales and clams. Ocean animals today are an average of 150 times larger than they were during the Cambrian, Heim's group reports. The smallest animals alive today -- tiny crustaceans called ostracods -- are only about one-tenth the size of the Cambrian's tiniest animals. But today's largest ocean animals -- whales -- are more than 100,000 times bigger than the biggest in the Cambrian. "Classes of animals that were already big ... tended to live longer," Heim says. They also tended to change more than classes of animals that were small did. The size gains in ocean animals are much larger than would be expected by chance, saysJonathan Payne. He's a co-author who also works at Stanford. The scientists don't know what drives the trend. One possibility is an arms race between predators and prey. The idea here is that larger animals are less likely to become some other animals' meal. Another possibility has to do with oxygen. Land animals evolved from species that started in the ocean. Some of these land animals eventually returned to the ocean. And they kept the ability to breathe... Question: The ocean animals' change in size _ . - is determined by environment - cannot be predicted by any factor - is fully explained by the new study - relates to the size of their ancestors
relates to the size of their ancestors

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Holidays are really important. Many of us will have childhood memories of summer holidays where we were taken away from home to experience new environments and learn in different ways. But holidays are expensive and, for those on low wages or living on benefits, they are often unobtainable. Even the cheapest holidays require travel and other additional costs that are difficult for many families to meet. For working parents, the long summer break can be a very difficult problem for childcare. When an annual leave allowance amounts to only five weeks, there is a need to spread this across the year. Couples can find themselves taking leave in turn in order to care for children who are on holiday. For some this makes even an affordable family holiday difficult. The schools that I visit in Nottingham are full of experienced staff committed to giving our children a caring and inspiring learning environment. The number of children receiving free school meals is quite large in Nottingham and many schools have breakfast clubs to make sure that children get a healthy start to the day. Most schools undertake programs of group or individual educational support. Schools also have an important role in safeguarding children's welfare through the ongoing touch and support with their pupils. During the long summer holidays, much of this is missed. While teachers are holidaying in the UK, many of their pupils spend the whole six weeks on the street where they live. The lack of free school meals for six weeks can result in pressure on a family budget and an inability to afford the inspiring experiences that help children to continue their learning. In setting out its plans for a five-term year, Nottingham City Council is seeking to reduce the summer holiday down to four and a half weeks, with a more balanced five terms of roughly eight weeks, each followed by a two-week break. We believe this will give real "down time" for school staff and pupils alike but will be short enough not to cause a real break in learning. We... Question: The passage is probably written by _ . - an experienced teacher - a working parent - an inspired student - a city council member
a city council member

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Every day, 15-year-old Martha wrote on the Internet about the meal she ate at school. She also took pictures of the food. However, Martha was very honest about the food. She did not just describe the food. She judged the taste and health of the food. Martha also began to use her blog for an important reason. She began to raise money for the organization Mary's Meals in the East African country of Malawi. It provides food for children in schools for free. Martha encouraged her readers to send money to Mary's Meals to help build a kitchen. But then, Martha began to have a problem. Many people read her blog. She became big news. The news stories showed that the food at Martha's school was not always healthy. And that made some people angry. So the school officials decided to stop Martha's blog. They said that she could not take her camera to school. But an amazing thing happened. Many people began sending messages of support across the Internet. Martha's story was even bigger than before. Now the officials had to change their minds. A few days later, Martha was again writing her blog. But more than that, people had sent a lot of money for the Malawi school children. Martha had hoped to raise about 10,000 dollars. But the total reached 100,000 dollars and still kept on growing! Martha's blog also helped to improve meals at her school. One day she wrote: As we waited for dinner we were told that we are allowed to eat as much fruit and bread as we want. No one knows what will happen to Martha's blog in future. But already this little girl has helped to change the eating experience of many children just by sharing on the Internet pictures of her school meals. Question: The organization Mary's Meals _ . - was set up by Martha - provides free school meals - is an international organization - helps poor families build kitchens
provides free school meals