Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: The idea for the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone came to Joanne Kathleen Rowling in 1990. It took her seven years to finish writing it. During those seven years she had a number of jobs, including one job as an English teacher in Portugal. Rowling sent the book to four publishers before one of them bought it. She was very happy to sell her book because it was her life's dream to be a published writer. Before she sold her book, Rowling was living in a small apartment with her daughter and was so poor that she could not afford heat in the winter. Harry Potter became very successful with children and adults in England. The book also really took off in the United States. After her second and third books were published, the three Harry Potter books filled the top three places on many newspapers' lists of best-sellers. Then the books were made into popular movies. Without question, Rowling's life had completely changed, in just three years. Harry Potter books have now sold more than 30 million books around the world and have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. In 1997, Rowling was earning PS70 (about US$110) a week. By the end of 2001, she had earned over PS150 million ($250 million), making her one of the most successful female writers of all time. Question: Rowling's dream was _ . Options: A: to be a magician B: to make a movie C: to have her books published D: to be an English teacher
A: C

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: You've heard of the fat suit and the pregnancy suit;now meet AGNES--the old person suit. AGNES stands for "Age Gain Now Empathy System" and was designed by researchers at MIT's AgeLab to let you know what it feels like--physically--to be 75 years old."The business of old age demands new tools,"said Joseph Coughlin,director of the AgeLab."While focus groups and observations and surveys can help you understand what the older consumer needs and wants,young marketers never get that'Ah ha!'moment of having difficulty opening a jar, or getting in and out of a car.That's what AGNES provides." Coughlin and his team carefully adjusted the suit to make the wearer just as uncomfortable as an old person who has spent a lifetime eating poorly and not doing much exercise.Special shoes provide a feeling of imbalance,while braces on the knees and elbows limit joint mobility.Gloves give the feeling of decreased strength and mobility in the hands and wrists,and earplugs make it difficult to hear high--pitched sounds and soft tones.A helmet with straps attached to it presses the spine ,and more straps attached to the shoes decrease hamstring flexibility, and shortens the wearer's step. AGNES has been used most recently by a group of students working on a design of .By wearing the suit they could see for themselves what design and materials would make the most sense for a physically limited older person.Coughlin said the suit has also been used by clothing companies,car companies and retail goods companies to help them understand the limitations of an older consumer. "AGNES is not the destiny of everybody," he said."She is a badly behaved lady who didn't eat and exercise very well.A secondary benefit we've found with AGNES is that it has become a powerful tool to get younger people to invest in their long-term health." Question: AGNES has been developed to _ . Options: A: make the users more comfortable B: 1et us understand old people better C: help old people move more quickly D: produce new tools for the old-age business
A: B

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: It happened one morning 20 years ago. A British scientist Alec Jeffrey came across DNA fingerprinting: He identified the patterns of genetic material that are unique to almost every individual. His discovery changed everything from the way we do criminal investigations to the way we decide family law. But the professor of genetics at the University of Leicester, UK, is still surprised, and a bit worried, by the power of the technology he released upon the world. The patterns within DNA are unique to each individual, except identical twins, who share the same pattern. The ability to identify these patterns has been used to convict(...) murderers and to clear people who are wrongly accused. It is also used to identify the victims of war and settle disputes over who is the father of a child. Jeffrey said he and his colleagues made the discovery by accident while tracking genetic variations . But, within six months of the discovery, genetic fingerprinting had been used in an immigration case, to prove that an African boy really was his parents' son.*In 1986, it was used for the first time in a British criminal case: It cleared one suspect after being accused of two murders and helped convict another man. DNA testing is now very common. In Britain, a national criminal database established in 1995 now contains 2.5 million DNA samples. The U.S. and Canada are developing similar systems. But there are fears about the stored DNA samples and how they could be used to harm a person's privacy. That includes a person's medical history, racial origin or psychological profile. "There is the long-term risk that people can get into these samples and start getting additional information about a person's paternity or risk of disease," Jeffrey said. DNA testing is not an unfailing proof of identity. Still, it is considered a reasonably reliable system for determining the things it is used for. Jeffrey estimates the probability of two individuals' DNA profiles matching in the most commonly used tests at one in a billion. Question: Which is the best title for the passage? Options: A: Discovery of DNA testing by Jeffery B: Practice of DNA testing in court C: DNA testing in the present situation D: Benefits and side effects of DNA testing
A: D

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: While it may be unlikely for a computer to write a best seller, a technology expert has created a computer program that writes its own fiction stories with minimal user input. The program, called MEXICA, is the first to generate original stories based on computerized representations of emotions and tensions between characters. An Internet survey was carried out to see the popularity of the computer-generated stories, other computerized stories and stories written solely by a human. The result was that readers ranked MEXICA stories highest for flow and coherence, structure, content, suspense and overall quality. Rafael Perezy Perez, the creator of MEXICA, explained that a story might begin with something as basic as, "The enemy wounded the knight. The princess cured the knight. The knight killed the enemy. The knight rewarded the princess. The end." The program reads characters as variables and assigns a numerical value, between a continuum from -3 to +3, to emotional connections that are defined as either amorous or non-amorous. The numerical value is equivalent to the degree of emotion, with -3 being intense hate and +3 being intense love. The program also understands story tension, such as linking the word "wounded" with tension. This too is assigned a numerical value. Once these clusters of emotional links and tensions are established, the program begins what is called an "engagement reflection cycle". Basically this involves searching a database of story actions and other happenings, which are called "atoms", and determines the best match for the characters and contexts for that moment. The process repeats itself again and again until the system can no longer make any matches. At this point, the computer analyzes the story for coherence and "interestingness". The program views a story as interesting when tension levels increase and fall throughout the piece. If the program finds that the story is boring or incoherent in places, it will replace or insert atoms until a version is thought to be satisfactory. Question: How does the computer system describe the characters in its story? Options: A: Characters in the story are given different numerical values. B: Characters are developed according to the tension preset. C: Characters are designed by using the language MEXICA can understand. D: Each character is valued for its value in the construction of the story.
A: A