Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Charles Dickens was one of the most beloved storytellers in the English language. His novels made him famous in his own time, and continue as classics in ours. Dickens began his literary career with almost no formal education. He was born in Landport, on Feb. 7, 1812, the second of eight children. When he was 12, his father was sent to debtor's prison. Dickens was forced to quit school and work in a London blacking factory. He would rework that terrible experience into his fiction for the rest of his life. "He was a social reformer," says actor Simon Callow, author of a new biography called Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World. "He knew what poverty was. He knew what it was to be rejected, to be cast aside, to live in squalor ." And so Dickens wrote with great sympathy for the suffering of innocent and vulnerable children - characters like David Copperfield, Little Dorrit and the orphan, Oliver Twist: With his slice of bread in his hand, and his little brown parish cap on his head, Oliver was now led away from the wretched home, where one kind word or look never lighted the gloom of his infant days. Yet he burst into an agony of childish grief as the cottage gate closed after him. Wretched as were the little companions in,misery he was now leaving behind him, they were the only friends he had ever had. His first book Sketches by Boz came out in 1836. With the appearance of Oliver Twist in London periodicals in 1837, the 25-year-old Dickens became the most popular writer in England. But his first love was theater, and he considered becoming an actor. "When he was actually writing, he became his characters," says Peter Ackroyd, author of Dickens: Public Life and Private Passion. "He would get up from his desk, go over to the mirror and mouth the words - do the expressions, grimaces , whatever, and then laugh, chuckle to himself, then go back to his desk and write it down." Dickens created 989 named characters, which increased his popularity.... Question: What did Dickens intend to do by telling his stories? - To amuse his readers and change society. - To analyze the nature of society he was m. - To make an attack on the upper class of the time. - To get rid of his depression and sense of hopelessness.
To amuse his readers and change society.

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Want to live longer? Win an Oscar. A new study says that actors who received the award earn more than larger paychecks. So when 94-year-old Katharine Hepburn once remarked that she was respected internationally "like an old building", she had no idea that her four Oscars directly influenced her longevity . The study says winning actors will live 3.9 years longer than their losing counterparts . Actors who have won more than once, like Hepburn, live up to six years longer than those who were nominated but never won. "We found that they died from the same things we all die from--cancer, heart disease, but they fought them a bit longer and diseases came a bit later," says Dr. Donald Redelmeier, the leading author of the study. Redelmeier says the sense of success and satisfaction makes one's soul become more full of life. "We are not saying that you will live longer if you win an Oscar," explains Redelmeier, "or that people should go out and take acting courses. Our main conclusion is simply that social factors are important." The study's implied conclusion, he says, is that doctors should ask about their patients' personal feelings because mental well-being is related to physical health. Redelmeier says he got the idea for the study when he watched a glowing Gwyneth Paltrow win an Oscar in 1999 for her role in Shakespeare in Love. Redelmeier says, "She looked more full of life than anyone I had seen." "We found, too, those that had multi-nominations and no win had the same life expectancy as those with just a single nomination and no win," Redelmeier adds. Question: The longevity of Oscar winners mainly has something to do with _ . - the big money that was awarded - mental factors - rich and colorful lives - respect from others and better treatment
mental factors

*Question*
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Chemicals used for industrial processes often create dangerous forms of waste. The amount of these chemicals has risen heavily in the past few years, as more areas of the world industrialize and new products are produced. Over 80,000 different chemicals are used in industries world wide. Around the world hundreds of millions of tons of harmful waste are produced each year. Often, it is difficult and expensive to get rid of these chemicals or to store them in a way that does not endanger human life and the environment. Every year, major health problems result from harmful waste. Sadly, it is often when someone has died or, become seriously ill that governments will take action and reduce levels of dumped harmful waste. In 1989, a school inprefix = st1 /New Jerseyhad to be closed because students there had suffered too much exposure to chromium. It was later learned that large amounts of chromium had been dumped nearby and blown over to the school area. Research has been done to provide information on the effects of every chemical. Because waste chemicals often mix together, it will also be necessary to learn how the combinations of these chemicals affect human health. Some governments have realized how serous the problem is and are making laws to get rid of harmful waste. They are also trying to limit the amount of waste industries are allowed to produce. Not only governments but the public as well must form part of the solution. They can choose not to buy those products which require the production of harmful waste, attempt to affect policymakers, and produce less harmful waste themselves. Many scientists think that waste production can be cut. The waste can be reduced by at least one-third using existing technologies and methods. Question: What is mainly discussed in the text? - The effect of every chemical. - Problems of harmful waste. - Chemicals used for industrial processes. - Events related to waste chemicals.
**Answer**
Problems of harmful waste.