(Q).
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Not long ago, many people believed that babies only wanted food and to be kept warm and dry. Some people thought babies were not able to learn things until they were five or six months old. Yet doctors in the United States say babies begin learning on their first day of life. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is a federal government agency. Its goal is to determine which experiences can influence healthy development in people. Researchers at the institute note that babies are strongly influenced by their environment. They say a baby will smile if her mother does something the baby likes. A baby learns to get the best care possible by smiling to please her mother or other caregiver. This is how babies learn to connect and communicate with other people. The researchers say this ability to learn exists in a baby even before birth. They say newborn babies can recognize and understand sounds they heard while they were still developing inside their mothers. Another study has suggested that low birth weight babies with no evidence of disability may be more likely than other children to have physical and mental problems. American researchers studied almost five hundred boys and girls. They were born in, or admitted to, one of three hospitals in New Jersey between 1984 and 1987. At birth, each child weighed fewer than two thousand grams. The boys and girls had an average age of sixteen at the time of the study. They were asked to complete intelligence and motor skill tests in their homes. Their test results were compared with those of other children their age. Question: According to the passage, some people used to think that babies began to learn _ . Options: A: on their first day of life B: even before they were born C: before five or six months old D: at or after five or six months old
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D

(Q).
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: When the one-year anniversary of my mother's passing came around, I found myself in the kitchen preparing some of her favorite dishes. As I poured myself into cooking, some of the deep sadness I was experiencing at this one-year mark moved through me. I loved my mom's turkey soup. I remembered the time she made some especially for me. It was summer then and I had a terrible head cold. She arrived unexpectedly one afternoon at my work place with a huge jar of her turkey noodle soup. At the thought, I began to feel a little more relieved in the pain of losing her. It was then that I realized I was reconnecting with my mother through food. I laughed a bit at myself when I reflected on all the dishes I had cooked that week. Without knowing it, I had created a beautiful ceremony to honor my mother and to comfort myself at this vulnerable time. I suddenly felt my mother at hand and was filled with her presence. I was so uplifted and excited that I began talking to her, imagining she was there. "What else should we make?" I asked of us both, wanting to keep the ceremony from ending. "Irish Potato Pancakes," was the reply. I hesitated. The thought of these brought up another loss. The last time I made potato pancakes was two and a half years ago. I had taken off my engagement ring and never found it again. Since then, I resisted using that recipe even though I really liked those pancakes as if it were partly to blame. My mom should know better than to suggest these, I thought. She knew how upset I was about losing my ring. But despite these hesitations, I found myself caught up in the joy and celebration of the moment, and I reached for the cookbook without another thought of the ring. My mom did love Irish things. I opened the cookbook and turned to the pancake recipe. At once, something at the bottom of the page caught my eye... It was shining! Amazingly, there, pressed into the pages of this book, was my diamond ring! That day, I made potato pancakes in the shape of hearts. Question: The writer hesitated to cook potato pancakes probably because _ . Options: A: she felt too sad to make them B: she didn't like such pancakes C: her mother was to blame for the loss of her ring D: they reminded her of the loss of her ring
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D

(Q).
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: A German study suggests that people who were too optimistic about their future actually faced greater risk of disability or death within 10 years than those pessimists who expected their future to be worse. The paper, published this March in Psychology and Aging, examined health and welfare surveys from roughly 40,000 Germans between ages 18 and 96. The surveys were conducted every year from 1993 to 2003. Survey respondents were asked to estimate their present and future life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10, among other questions. The researchers found that young adults (age 18 to 39) routinely overestimated their future life satisfaction, while middle-aged adults (age 40 to 64) more accurately predicted how they would feel in the future. Adults of 65 and older, however, were far more likely to underestimate their future life satisfaction. Not only did they feel more satisfied than they thought they would, the older pessimists seemed to suffer a lower ratio of disability and death for the study period. "We observed that being too optimistic in predicting a better future than actually observed was associated with a greater risk of disability and a greater risk of death within the following decade," wrote Frieder R. Lang, a professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Lang and his colleagues believed that people who were pessimistic about their future may be more careful about their actions than people who expected a rosy future. "Seeing a dark future may encourage positive evaluations of the actual self and may contribute to taking improved precautions ," the authors wrote. Surprisingly, compared with those in poor health or who had low incomes, respondents who enjoyed good health or income were associated with expecting a greater decline. Also, the researchers said that higher income was related to a greater risk of disability. The authors of the study noted that there were limitations to their conclusions. Illness, medical treatment and personal loss could also have driven health... Question: According to the study, who made the most accurate prediction of their future life satisfaction? Options: A: Optimistic adults. B: Middle-aged adults. C: Adults in poor health. D: Adults of lower income.
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B