Salt plays an important role in our daily diet. Even a small reduction in salt in the diet can be a big help to the heart. A new study used a computer model to predict -how just three grams less a day would affect heart disease in the United States. The result: Thirteen percent fewer heart attacks. Eight percent fewer strokes. Four percent fewer deaths. Eleven percent fewer new cases of heart disease. And two hundred forty billion dollars in health care savings. Researchers found it could prevent one hundred thousand heart attacks and ninety-two thousand deaths every year. The study is in the New England Journal of Medicine. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo at the University of California San Francisco was the lead author. She says people would not even notice a difference in taste with three grams,or one-half teaspoon, less salt per day. The team also included researchers at Stanford and Columbia University. Each gram of salt contains four hundred milligrams of sodiu , which is how foods may list their salt content. The government says the average American man eats ten grams of salt a day. The American Heart Association advises no more than three grams for healthy people. It says salt in the American diet has increased fifty percent since the nineteen seventies, while blood pressures have also risen. Less salt can mean a lower blood pressure. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is leading an effort called the National Salt Reduction Initiative.The idea is to put pressure on food companies and restaurants. Critics call it government interference. Mayor Bloomberg has already succeeded in other areas, like requiring fast food places in the city to list calorie information. Now a study by the Seattle Children's Research Institute shows that the calorie information on the menu can influence what parents order for their children. Ninety-nine parents of three to six year olds took part. Half had calories between the two groups for foods that the parents would have chosen for themselves. McDonald's menus clearly showing... It can be inferred from the passage that _ . A) Americans ate no more than 5 grams of salt per day in the 1970s B) the American Heart Association suggests less than 3 grams of salt a day for everyone C) the less salt one eats, the healthier he will be D) all the heart diseases result from eating too much salt
A
It is widely known that any English conversation begins with The Weather. Such a fixation with the weather finds expression in Dr. Johnson's famous comment that "When two English meet, their first talk is of weather." Though Johnson's observation is as accurate now as it was over two hundred years ago, most commentators fail to come up with a convincing explanation for this English weather-speak. Bill Bryson, for example, concludes that, as the English weather is not at all exciting, the _ with it can hardly be understood. He argues that "To an outsider, the most striking thing about the English weather is that there is not very much of it." Simply, the reason is that the unusual and unpredictable weather is almost unknown in the British Isles. Jeremy Paxman, however, disagrees with Bryson, arguing that the English weather is by nature attractive. Bryson is wrong, he says, because the English preference for the weather has nothing to do with the natural phenomena. "The interest is less in the phenomena themselves, but in uncertainty." According to him, the weather in England is very changeable and uncertain and it attracts the English as well as the outsider. Bryson and Paxman stand for common misconceptions about the weather-speak among the English. Both commentators, somehow, are missing the point. The English weather conversation is not really about the weather at all. English weather-speak is a system of signs, which is developed to help the speakers overcome the natural reserve and actually talk to each other. Everyone knows conversations starting with weather-speak are not requests for weather data. Rather, they are routine greetings, conversation starters or the blank "fillers". In other words, English weather-speak is a means of social bonding. What is the author's purpose of writing the passage? A) To explain what English weather-speak is about. B) To analyse misconceptions about the English weather. C) To find fault with both Bill Bryson and Jeremy Paxman. D) To convince people that the English weather is changeable.
A
Q: Does solving a math problem give you a headache? Doyou feel nervous when you sit a math exam? For most students, math can be tough but scientists have proved that math problems can actually trigger physical pain. Scientists came to his conclusion with an in-depth experiment, which was published in the Public Library of Science One journal. They began by finding out how much participants fearmath. Those involved were asked a series of questions such as how they feel when they receive amathtextbook orwhenthey walkinto amathlesson. Based on their answers, participants were divided into groups. One group was made up of peoplewhowere particularly afraid ofmath and participantsinthe other group weremore comfortablewiththesubject. Both groups were then given either math tasks or word tasks. When a math task was going to come next, a yellow circle would appear but when a word task was soon to come, a blue squarewould beshown. Using a brain-scan machine, scientists noticed that whenever people from Group One saw ayellow circle, their brain would respond in a way similar to when their bodyis feeling pain. It waslike the pain they would fee, for example, if they burnt their hand on a hot stove. But theyreactedlessstrongly whenthey knew that they would befaced with awordtask. However, scientistssaw no strong brainresponsefrom peopleinthesecond group. Math can be difficult, and for those with high levels of mathematics-anxiety (HMA), math is associated with tension, apprehension and fear. "When you are really thinking about the math problems, your mind is racing and you are worrying about all the things that could go wrong," explained Ian Lyons from University of Chicago, US, leader of the study. "The higher a person's anxiety of a maths task, the more he activated brain regions associated with threat detection, andthe experience of pain." More interestingly, the brain activity disappeared when participants actually started dealingwiththemathtasks. "This means that it'snot that mathitself hurts; rather, the anticipation... What can be concludedfrom the experiment? A) Theanticipation ofmath has norelationto students' confidenceinmath. B) Moderatemathematic anxiety promotes students' academic performance. C) Effectivesolutions havebeenworked out tolower students' anxiety ofmath. D) Physical pain causedby HMA disappearsinthe process of doingmath problem.
A: D
*Question*
Without plant, people could not live. We eat plants. We breathe the oxygen that plants produce. And we need plants for another reason: we need them for their beauty. Imagine a world with no plants. Imagine no flowers with their sweet smells, their beautiful colors and their lovely shapes. Imagine when the wind blows, not being able to hear the leaves in the trees or watch the branches sway from side to side. Everywhere people need the beauty of plants. That is why we have parks full of trees and flowers. That is why people always try to design houses with room for some grass and a garden. Do you talk to your plants? Do you give them love and attention? Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, writers of a book called THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS, tell of an experiment in which two seeds were planted in different places. While the plants were growing, one plant was given love and hopeful ideas. The other plant was given only hopeless ideas. After six months, the loved plant was bigger. Under the earth it had more and longer roots; above the earth, it had a thicker stem and more leaves. The experiment has proved that _ -. A) we should talk to plants and give them love B) without plants people could not live C) we should grow as many plants as possible D) plants need plenty of water, sunshine and attention
**Answer**
A