On a cool November afternoon in Fleming Island, Florida, Melissa Hawkinson, 41, was driving her five-year-old twins home from school when she saw a sudden splash in Doctors Lake just ahead. What was that? She thought. As she drove up to the scene, she saw a half-submerged car sinking about 30 yards offshore. "It was going down pretty quickly," Hawkinson recalls. She stopped the car near the boat ramp and ran toward the water. Water is going to be cold, she thought. She took off her vest and leather boots, got into the icy water, and swam to the car, where she found Cameron Dorsey, five, trapped into his car as the swirling water rose around him. Hawkinson tried to open the door, but it was locked. So she pushed and pulled hard on the partially open window until she could reach through and unlock the door. She pulled the boy free, swam to shore, and handed him off to onlookers who were only watching them on a dock. The driver, the boy's suicidal father, swam back to land on his own. Afterward, Hawkinson sat on the shore wrapped in a blanket. "For ten or 15 minutes, I couldn't stop shaking," she said. There's nothing visibly extraordinary about Melissa Hawkinson, an energetic stay-at-home mom with brown hair and a sweet smile. Yet something made her different from the dockside onlookers that day. Why do some people act quickly, willing to take a risk for a stranger? What makes them run toward danger rather than away from it? Hawkinson, the Granite Mountain Hotshots (,)---19 of whom lost their life this past summer in Arizona--- every hero who puts his or her life on the line to save another: what makes them brave? Moreover, can bravery be learned, or is it a quality with which you are born? The answer is complex. Bravery taps the mind, brain and heart. It comes from instinct, training and sympathy. Today, neurologists, psychologists and other researchers are studying bravery, trying to uncover the mystery. What is the writer's purpose of writing this passage? A) To set us thinking what makes people brave. B) To call on us to learn from such people as Hawkinson. C) To remind people of risk while saving others. D) To show people bravery can be learned.
A
(Question)
It seems that great artists and scientists often suffer from mental problems. Both Einstein and Dickens had mental illness. Now scientists have started to look at whether mental illness and genius are linked . Dr. Adele Juda studied 5,000 creative people in Germany. She found there were more people with mental illness in this group than in the general population. Poets had the highest rate of mental illness, followed by musicians, with lower numbers for painters and architects. Other scientists did research which also showed a strong link between mental problems and creativity. But, it did nothing to explain it. Dr. Ruth Richards of Harvard University _ . Instead of studying creative people, she took a group of psychiatric patients and tested them for creativity. The patients got much higher scores than a normal group. Also, the patients' close relatives were much more creative than the patients and a normal group. This suggests that the key to the link between creativity and mental illness is in our genes . But this is a problem. According to Darwinism, harmful genes should be removed. Some scientists believe that evolution has created a balance, where the madness of a few people leads to the development of the whole human race. Geniuses may be mad, bad or just difficult to understand, but their discoveries have improved the world we live in. It seems that a little creative madness is good for us all. What is the writer's attitude toward madness? A) Madness is harmful to the whole society. B) A little creative madness is good for us all. C) All the talented people are mad. D) Only the people with mental illness have more creativity.
(Answer)
B
Ques: We know that sugary sodas aren't good for our bodies. Now it turns out that they may not be good for our minds, either. A new study of more than 260,000 people has found a link between sweetened soft-drinks and depression, and diet sodas may be making matters worse. Americans drink far more sodas than people in other countries-- as much as 170 liters per person per year. But the impact of this study isn't limited to the United States. "Sweetened drinks, coffee and tea are commonly consumed worldwide and have important physical consequences. And they may have important mental-health consequences as well," study author Dr Honglei Chen said in a statement. The study studied 263,925 people between the ages of 50 and 71. Researchers followed their consumption of drinks like soda, tea coffee, and other soft drinks from 1995 to 1996 and then. 10 years later, asked them if they had been diagnosed with depression since the year 2000. More than 11,3000 of them had. Participants who drank more than four servings of sodas per day were 30 percent more likely to develop depression than participants who did not drink sodas at all. People who stuck with fruit punch , had a 38 percent higher risk than people who didn't drink sweetened drinks. And all that extra sugar isn't the actual problem. Researchers say that the artificial sweetener _ may be to blame. The study found a link but could not surely determine whether sodas and other sweet soft drinks cause depression. Still, the results "are consistent with a small but growing body of evidence suggesting that artificially sweetened beverages may be linked to poor health outcomes." But there's a bright side for those who can't live without their daily sodas. Adults who drank coffee had a 10 percent lower risk of depression compared to people who didn't drink any coffee, according to the study. "Our research suggests that cutting out or down on sweetened diet drinks or replacing them with unsweetened coffee may naturally help lower your depression risk," said Chen. What should you drink in order to reduce the risk of depression? A) Sodas. B) Unsweetened coffee. C) Sugary coffee. D) Fruit punch.
Ans: B
Ques:It is often assumed that people with parents who lived to be very old are more likely to live to a grand old age themselves. "But that's just not true - our study shows that hereditary factors don't play a major role and that lifestyle has the biggest impact." says professor Lars Wilhelmsen, referring to the 1913 Men Study that formed the basis of the current research. Those who did not smoke, consumed mild amounts of coffee and had a good socio-economic status at the age of 50 (measured in terms of housing costs), as well as good physical working ability at the age of 54 and low cholesterol at 50 had the greatest chance of celebrating their 90th birthday. "We're breaking new ground here." says Wilhelmsen. "Many of these factors have previously been identified as playing a role in cardiovascular( )disease, but here we are showing for the first time that they are important for survival in general," He believes that it is significant that the research illustrates so clearly that it is the sum of our own habits that has the biggest impact. "The study clearly shows that we can influence several of the factors that decide how old we get," says Wilhelmsen. "This is positive not only for the individual, but also for society as it doesn't need any major drug costs," The study has been published in the Journal of Internal Medicine. The 1913 Men study started up in 1963. A third of all male 50-year-olds in Gothenburg were called for a check-up that focused on cardiovascular health. Every ten years since, a new group of 50-year-olds has been called in and those who were already taking part in the study have been given another check-up. This has enabled researchers to follow the development of illnesses in a specific age group, and to compare the health of 50-year-olds in 2003 with that of 50-year-olds in 1963, for example. Women have also been included in the study since 2003. Data have been studied over the years. including BMI , smoking habits, cholesterol, exercise habits and blood... The earlier men involved in the 1913 Men Study were examined in _ for the second time. A) 1917 B) 1967 C) 1923 D) 1973

Ans:
B