She is quiet, soft-spoken and has a kind face and a strong heart. She is my mom, Lili. When I was nine, Lili quitted her job and started her own business. She said she didn't want to stay at home and work as a housewife: "It's a waste of life." Lili became so busy that she spent less and less time with me. She didn't help me with my schoolwork. It was, in her words, "so that you can develop your independence". We quarreled because she rarely showed up at parents' meetings. Like mother, like daughter. I have many things in common with Lili. I want everything to be under control. I want to be perfect and I don't expect other people to help me. I push myself hard to achieve my goals. After I started to go to high school, Lili and I were too busy to communicate much with each other. In biology class I began to be depressed. When the teacher showed us a picture of a butterfly, I was scared and screamed. I had a vision of thousands of butterflies flying toward me. That night I told Lili about it. The next morning, I saw that she had red eyes with black circles around them. She took me to see a therapist . Three hours later, the therapist told Lili that my life was like a wheel spinning faster and faster and that was the reason for what had happened to me. I only realized it when my body couldn't stand the pressure anymore. At these words, Lili burst into tears. "It's all my fault, she's just a kid and I didn't have time to take care of her...." To be honest, I had never seen Lili cry before. After that, Lili began to spend more time at home, cooking and dragging me to do sports. I realized she was the one who would always be there when I was in real trouble. No mom is perfect, but she is the one who really cares about her kid. We quarreled because _ . A) she began to spend less and less time with me B) she didn't help me with my schoolwork. C) she seldom attended the parents' meetings in my school. D) Lili and I were too busy to communicate much with each other.
C
(Question)
Because I am extremely vulnerable to both slick advertising and peer pressure, I've been thinking about getting an iPad. But here's the problem: I'm cheap, and the iPad's not. If I'm going to fork over at least $499 for a new device, I want to try it out and make sure it's not just a larger, shinier version of my iPhone. But if I went to my local Apple Store, I'd get to spend only a few minutes testing out the machine. I wanted more time than that, so I rented one for $15 a day from a guy on SnapGoods. The Internet start-up in Brooklyn runs on simple reasoning: there are people who want to borrow stuff - camping equipment, food processors, robot vacuums, etc. - and there are people who have stuff they want to lend. SnapGoods helps these two groups connect over the Web. SnapGoods is one of many sites that have sprung up to facilitate offline sharing. Some sites have a narrow, obvious focus (like SwapBabyGoods.com) while others are more obscure (Neighborhood Fruit helps people share what's growing in their yards or find fruit trees on public land). But regardless of whether the sharing is free or involves a fee, these transactions often come with a stick-it-to-the-man attitude. "Borrow these things from your neighbors," reads one earnest request on neighborrow.com, "The owner-ship has SAILED!" All of these sites are encouraging something academics call collaborative consumption - in other words, peer-to-peer sharing or renting. Renting something you don't need to use very often makes a lot more sense than buying it and letting it collect dust in your garage. There's a green aspect as well, since sharing helps cut down on overall use of resources. But one of collaborative consumption's most surprising benefits turns out to be social. In an era when families are scattered around the country and we may not know the people down the street from us, sharing things - even with strangers we've just met online - allows us to make meaningful connections. "This isn't just about saving the environment or saving a dollar,"... Which of the following can best serve as the title of the passage? A) SnapGoods: a Good Place For Shopping B) Borrow, Don't Buy: Websites That Let Strangers Share C) Why Do I Rent D) Tips For Selling Things On the Internet
(Answer)
B
Ques: An electric signal can trick a monkey's brain into believing the animal's finger has been touched. Touch something, and your brain knows. The hand sends signals to the brain to announce contact was made. But that feeling of touch may not require making actual contact, tests on monkeys now show. Zapping brain cells can fool the animal into thinking its finger has touched something. A person who has lost a limb or become paralyzed may need an artificial limb to complete everyday tasks. But such patients may not truly feel any objects they hold. The new findings point toward one day creating a sense of touch in those who use such artificial limbs. Psychologist Sliman Bensmaia of University of Chicago worked on the new tests. His team's findings appeared on October 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. The sense of touch is crucial to everyday tasks: People without _ may have difficulty cracking an egg, lifting a cup or even turning a doorknob. That's why restoring it is a major goal for designers of artificial limbs. In their new study, Bensmaia and his co-workers worked with rhesus monkeys . The scientists implanted electrodes --- small devices that can detect and relay an electrical signal--into the animals' brains. The scientists used the electrode data to identify which neurons had become active. Then the scientists used the implanted electrodes to zap those same neurons. And the monkeys reacted as though their fingers had been touched. In fact, they hadn't. The monkeys couldn't use words to tell the scientists what they had felt. Instead, they communicated by looking in a particular direction--just as when they had really been touched. The new findings show how touch-sensitive devices could be built. The new study also offers " a nice clear pathway" for figuring out how to restore a sense of touch to an amputee or someone with a injury of spinal cord. The study shows how artificial limbs might be connected to the brain so that a person can "feel" with... Bensmania tested monkeys to prove that the feeling of touch _ . A) is important to everyday tasks B) may not require making actual contact C) is a problem of life and death D) may be a challenge for designers of artificial limbs.
Ans:
B