Families come in many shapes and sizes-they can be just two people, or hundreds of aunts, uncles and cousins. Every family is different, and what makes a family is different for everyone. Families don't even have to be related -some families are formed by choice. For this contest, draw us a picture of your family. Contest rules: 1. Your picture must be your very own artwork. Ideas and words should not be copied. 2. Be sure to include your name, age and full address on your picture. 3. Only one picture each person, please. 4. If you want your picture returned, include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. 5.Your picture must be signed or e-mailed by a parent, saying it's your own work and that no one helped you. 6.Mailed picture must be postmarked by April 30, 2014. 7.E-mail scanned picture to ask@askmagkids.com, or mail to: Ask Contest, 70 East Lake St., Suite 300, Chicago, IL60601. No faxes, please. You can send your picture to Ask Contest _ . A) by the end of the year. B) by the end of April C) by the end of May D) at any time
B
(Question)
The Sahara Festival is a three-day African celebration of the very recent past, which takes place every year either in November or December. It is part military display and part competition. The military display comes first. It is very popular with tourists and local people and especially with government leaders. During the opening ceremonies, the government leaders first make speeches. They welcome everybody to the display and hope that everyone will enjoy themselves. Then there is a display of soldiers who march very smartly in front of the place where the government leaders sit. Then horsemen from several different countries show off their beautiful clothes and their good riding skills. One after another they come and dancers from all over the Sahara take their turns to show off their wonderful traditional clothes and dances. They are accompanied by men playing drums and beating strong rhythms for the dancers. The highlight of the opening ceremony are the races which take place in the evening. It is the grand _ of the day. Men ride their horses very fast. Some ride with their legs in the air, others ride in pairs on different horses. It is so fast and so wonderful! This passage mainly tells readers _ . A) what happens on the opening day of the Sahara Festival B) how people celebrate during the three-day Sahara Festival C) what takes place at the closing ceremonies of the Sahara Festival D) how animals race on the first and the last days of the Sahara Festival
(Answer)
A
Ques: Every time you go to the supermarket, you come away with your purchases in plastic bags. But wouldn't it be kinder to the environment if you asked for paper bags instead? The answer is not the easy as it might seem. Environmentalists say there are _ to using both plastic bags and paper bags. According to the American Plastics Council 80 percent of groceries in the US are packed in plastic bags. "The numbers are becoming huge," said Vincent Cobb, a businessman from Chicago who set up "reusable bags. com" on the Internet. He notes that consumers use between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags per year worldwide. Some experts believe that all these bags harm the environment. Plastic takes hundreds of years to break down and, as it does so, poisonous materials are released into the water and soil. Further damage is caused if plastic bags enter the sea. For example, endangered sea turtles cannot tell the bags from jellyfish , their main source of food, and often choke on them. Floating plastic bags have been spotted as far north as the Arctic Ocean and as far south as the southern end of South America. One expert predicts that, within ten years, plastic bags will wash up in Antarctica! However, this kind of bag does have its advantages. "Plastic grocery bags are some of the most reused things around the house," explained Laurie Kusek of the American Plastics Council. According to the Film and Bag Federation, a trade group in the US plastics industry, paper bags use more energy and create more waste than plastic bags. Plastic bags require 40 per cent less energy to produce and cause 70 per cent less air pollution, the group explained. They also release as much as 94 percent less waste into the water than paper ones. But paper bags do break down more quickly than plastic bags. They don't endanger wildlife, either. So what should we do? One possible solution would be to use biodegradable plastic bags. But until biodegradable technology improves, it might be easier to pack things you buy in reusable cloth bags. According to the passage, which of the following in NOT true? A) Plastic takes longer to break down than paper. B) Sea turtles usually mistake the plastic bags for jellyfish. C) Paper bags require less energy than plastic bags. D) You'd better pack things in reusable cloth bags.
Ans: C
Three "Great Walls" built around the United States' Tornado Alley could reduce tornadoes from destroying billions of dollars in property and endangering millions of lives, a physicist has claimed. Professor Rongjia Tao of Temple University, Philadelphia unveiled a proposal this week calling for the construction of three 1,000-foot barriers up to 100 miles long, which would act like hill ranges and soften winds before tornadoes could form, the BBC reports. The $16.9 billion plan would call for the faux hill ranges in North Dakota, along the border between Kansas and Oklahoma, and in Texas and Louisiana, ostensibly saving billions of dollars in damage every year, Tao said. The walls would not shelter towns, he said, but instead would soften the streams of hot southern and cold northern air that form tornadoes when they clash in the first place. But critics laughed at Tao's proposals. Leading tornado experts pointed to areas that are already protected by hill ranges the size of the barriers Tao is proposing, yet still have plenty of tornados, like parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. And even if the plan did work, it would create more problems than it would solve, scientists said, by creating catastrophic weather side effects. "Everybody I know is of 100% agreement - this is a poorly conceived idea," Professor Joshua Wurman of the Center for Severe Weather Research. "From what I can gather his concept of how tornadoes form is fundamentally flawed . Meteorologists cringe when they hear about 'clashing hot and cold air'. It's a lot more complicated than that." Which of following statements is true according to the passage? A) Leading tornado experts think that would soften the streams of hot southern and cold northern air that form tornadoes. B) Professor Joshua Wurman pointed out that the plan will be expensive. C) Professor Rongjia Tao is against the construction of walls to prevent the tornadoes. D) the plan will not be carried out because it will creating serious weather side effects.
D