Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: I've often wondered how exactly sleep, or lack of it, can have such an awful effect on our bodies and, guess what, how much we sleep switches good genes on and had genes off. In the first half of 2013, the Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey found a direct link between hours spent sleeping and genes. Every cell in our bodies carries genetic instructions in our DNA that act as a kind of operating handbook. However, each cell only "reads" the part of this handbook it needs at any given moment. Can sleep affect how a gene reads instructions? It's a question asked by Professor Derk-Jan Dijk at the University of Surrey. He set up an experiment and asked his volunteers to spend a week sleeping around seven and a half hours to eight hours a night and the next sleeping six and a half to seven hours. Blood samples were taken each week to compare which genes in blood cells were being used during the long and short nights. The results were rather surprising. Several hundred genes changed in the amount they were being used, including some that are linked to heart disease, cancer, and Type 2 diabetes. Genes to do with cell repair and replacement were used much less. Sleep restriction(six and a half to seven hours a night) changed 380 genes. Of these, 220 genes were down regulated (their power was increased). Those affected included body-clock genes which are linked to diabetes . One of the most downgraded genes is that which has a role in controlling insulin and is linked to diabetes and insomnia . The most upgraded gene is linked to heart disease. So changing sleep by tiny amounts can upgrade or downgrade genes that can influence our health and the diseases we suffer from when we sleep too little. The important message is that getting close to eight hours of sleep a night can make a dramatic difference to our health in just a few days through the way it looks after our genes. Question: Which of the following may be concluded from the passage? Options: A: The experiment was performed at the University of Surrey in early 2013. B: Body-clock genes are associated with heart disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes. C: Sleep restrictions may contribute to disease like diabetes, insomnia, and heart disease. D: 7.5-8 hours' sleep pattern makes little difference compared with 6.5-7 hours' sleep pattern.
A: C

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: When you are talking to somebody at a party, do you focus entirely on the person you are speaking with or does your attention keep jumping around the room to all the other people there? General1y, if the person is someone you really want to talk to, you will focus on him. Most other people will only get about half of your attention. You may think that this is OK, because if you don't really want to talk to him, then what does it matter if you don't give him your full attention? Consider two things. First, you may just not realize the importance of that conversation. If you are at a networking meeting and you hope to meet the CEO of Company X, but you end up talking to someone who has a low-level job at a different company, then you may let your attention wander as you speak to him. But maybe you don't realize that this person has already met the CEO and could introduce you. Do you think he will do that if he feels you don't really care about speaking to him? This doesn't mean you need to spend the whole time talking to him. Five or ten minutes of real attentive conversation can be worth 30 minutes to an hour of partial attention. Second, whether you want to speak to someone is based on the situation. You can love your wife, but if she tries to talk to you while you are watching something you like on TV, where is your attention going? Make your own decision, but if you want her to feel valued, give her your 100% attention. The nice thing is that in many cases you can give her your attention for a few minutes and then return to what you were doing. You miss very little, she feels valued, and all is good. Question: What is the main idea of this passage? Options: A: Always be friendly to others at a party. B: It is important for you to be active at a party. C: You should respect your wife at any time. D: Improve your communication skills by focusing on others
A: D

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: More than 2.25 billion cups of coffee are drunk throughout the world each day, and it's likely that many taste bitter. Now, a new study suggests that coffee fans can make their drink sweeter by changing the color of their cups. Researchers from Oxford set out to prove whether the claim that coffee drunk from a white cup tastes biter was true. They used 36 volunteers and three different colored cups---blue, white and transparent glass--- to examine the claim. In one experiment, the white cup increased the intensity of the coffee taste relative to the transparent cup. Then, in a second experiment, coffee drunk from the white cup was found to taste less sweet when compared to the other colored cups, while the blue cup made the coffee taste the sweetest. The scientists believe that the color brown may be associated with bitterness, and coffee in a white cup appears the brownest. "Our study clearly shows that the color of a cup does influence our sense of the coffee taste," leading author Dr George Doorn, wrote in an article for The Conversation. "The effect of the color of the cup on the taste of the coffee reported here suggests that cafe owners should carefully consider the color of their cups," he said. "The potential effects may spell the difference between a one-time purchase and a return customer." Actually, the idea that color can change the food and drink taste came out many years ago. A study published last year reported that red, strawberry-flavored cake served on a white plate was rated as 10 percent sweeter than the same food presented on a black plate. Question: The passage is mainly about _ . Options: A: the popularity of sweet coffee. B: an experiment made in Oxford. C: the effect of cup color on coffee's taste D: useful tips on how to make coffee.
A: C