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I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: The number of speakers of English in Shakespeare's time is estimated to have been about five million. Today it is estimated that some 260 million people speak it as a native language, mainly in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to the standard varieties of English found in these areas, there are a great many regional and social varieties of the language as well as various levels of usage that are employed both in its spoken and written forms. In fact, it is impossible to estimate the number of people in the world who have acquired an adequate working knowledge of English in addition to their own languages. The purpose for English learning and the situations in which such learning takes place are so varied that it is difficult to explain and still more difficult to judge what forms an adequate working knowledge for each situation. The main reason for the widespread demand for English is its present-day importance as a world language. Besides serving the indefinite needs of its native speakers, English is a language in which some of important works in science, technology, and other fields are being produced, and not always by native speakers. It is widely used for such purposes as meteorological and airport communications, international conferences, and the spread of information over the radio and television networks of many nations. It is a language of wider communication for a number of developing countries, especially former British colonies. Many of these countries have multilingual populations and need a language for internal communication in such matters as government, commerce, industry, law and education as well as for international communication and for entrance to the scientific and technological developments in the West. Question: What would be the best title for this passage? Options: A: The Difficulties of Learning English B: International Communications C: The Standard Varieties of English D: English as a World Language
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D

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I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: It was August 2nd,1927.The news had spread fast.A man named Ralph Peer was coming to the city of Bristol.He wanted to make recordings of local people singing and playing musical instruments.And he said he would pay fifty dollars for each song recorded.That was a lot of money in those days.Many people came to Bristol that day to play for Mr.Peer.But one group seemed to have just the sound that he was looking for.They were a man named A.P.Carter,his wife Sara,and her cousin Maybelle.They called themselves the Carter Family. Their first recordings were sent to radio stations throughout the United States.Many listeners were surprised at what they heard.Instead of classical or jazz songs that radio stations usually played,a new sound was born.The Carter Family sounded different.They did not sound as if they had taken music lessons.But it did not matter.The people in poor rural areas thought they sounded just like their neighbors. The Carters sang songs about living in the mountains of Virginia,Tennessee,and North Carolina.They sang about the love of a young man for a special girl.They sang about the beauty of nature.They sang about death and sadness.And they sang religious songs that told of the hope for a better life after death. A.P.Carter sang in the group and also searched for new songs.He often traveled long distances to small towns in the southeastern United States.He wanted to hear the songs that local people sang in their communities.He wrote down the words but kept the music in his memory.When he returned home,he helped Sara and Maybelle fit them to the Carter Family musical style. The Carter Family soon became famous.They recorded more songs.They traveled to many cities and towns in the eastern United States to perform.Thousands of people heard them sing and bought their recordings.Some people estimate that within three years,the Carter Family sold three hundred thousand recordings. Question: What was A.P.Carter's purpose in traveling to small towns in the southeastern United States? Options: A: To ask for some advice on his music. B: To collect songs sung by the local people there. C: To introduce his music to the local people there. D: To see if the local people there had heard his music.
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B

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I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: As anyone who has tried to lose weight knows, realistic goal-setting generally produces the best results. That's partially because it appears people who set realistic goals actually work more efficiently, and exert more effort, to achieve those goals. What are far less understood by scientists, however, are the potentially harmful effects of goal-setting. There has been surprisingly little research on how the practice may have contributed to the current economic crisis and unethical behavior in general. "Goals are widely used and promoted as having really beneficial effects. And yet, the same motivation that can push people to exert more effort in a constructive way could also motivate people to be more likely to engage in unethical behaviors," says Maurice Schweitzer, an associate professor of operations and information management at Penn's Wharton School. His paper, titled "Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting," appears in the February issue of the Academy of Management Perspectives. "It turns out there's no economic benefit to just having a goal-you just get a psychological benefit and that's quite motivating in itself," Schweitzer says. "But in many cases, goals have economic rewards that make them more powerful." A prime example Schweitzer and his colleagues give is the 2004 closing down of energy-trading titan Enron, where managers used financial rewards to motivate salesmen to meet specific sales goals. The problem, Schweitzer says, is the actual trades were not earning money. Other studies have shown that pressing employees with unrealistic goals can force them to lie, cheat or steal. Such was the case, Schweitzer says, in the early 1990s when Sears imposed a sales target on its auto repair staff. It resulted in employees overcharging for work and completing unnecessary repairs on a companywide basis. Schweitzer admits his research run against a very large body of literature that praises the many benefits of goal-setting. Edwin A. Locke, from the University... Question: What does Maurice Schweitzer want to show by giving the example of Enron? Options: A: Goals with financial rewards have strong motivational power. B: Businesses are less likely to succeed without setting realistic goals. C: Financial rewards ensure companies meet specific sales goals. D: Setting realistic goals can turn a failing business into success.
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A