Since around the later part of the 1950s, society started to realize that tobacco cigarettes caused health problems. As research progressed along with increasing numbers of people that developed lung cancer, emphysema, and other smoking related illnesses, cigarette smoking has become less accepted and popular. Unfortunately, the nicotine contained in cigarettes is one of the most addictive substances on the planet and makes quitting smoking one of the hardest things to do. In 2003, Chinese pharmacist, Hon Lik invented the electronic cigarette as a safer, and cleaner way to breathe in nicotine after his father, a heavy smoker, passed away from lung cancer attributed to smoking tobacco cigarettes. Hon Lik applied for his first patent on the electronic cigarette in 2003 and afterwards introduced e-cigs to the Chinese market in the following year through his employer, Golden Dragon Holdings. Golden Dragon Holdings later changed the company's name to "Ruyan" in order to better match the company's name(Ruyan means "almost like smoke")to the new product. Since the renaming, the Ruyan company has continued e-cigarette development and grown to be one of the largest global e-cig manufactures. Dr.Sam Han, CEO of Cixi E-CIG Technology, Inc, Ltd. also has a number of e-cig related inventions, including four patents in the United States and two in China that are electronic cigarette and e-liquid technology related. Similar to Hon Lik's father. Dr. Han was a heavy smoker for more than 40 years before beginning to work on electronic cigarette technologies in order to help himself and others make the shift to vapor smoking. Dr.Han continues to market and conduct R&D in e-cig related techonologies to this date. After the successful deployment of Ruyan and Cixi E-CIG electronic cigarettes in China and Asia, the products started to be sold in significant quantities on the Internet. How many years is it since the electronic cigarette was first invented according to the passage? A) About 5 years. B) About 11 years. C) About15 years. D) About 20 years.
B
(Question)
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(Answer)
A
Ques: Almost no young people today know who the cartoon character Oswald the Rabbit is, but they certainly recognize his successor, Bugs Bunny. Oswald, Bugs, and hundreds of other characters were created by Walt Disney, perhaps the most famous cartoonist in history. Born in prefix = st1 /Chicagoin 1901, Walt Disney always wanted to be an artist. After returning from World War I, in which he drove an ambulance, Disney worked as a commercial artist. He enjoyed drawing cartoons more than anything else, and decided to try his hand at a technology that was new at the time, moving pictures. In the 1920's, he produced several films where he made cartoon characters move as if by magic. The technique Disney used was painstaking. He made hundreds or even thousands of repeated drawings of the same character. In each drawing, the character was changed just a bit. A film was taken of the series of drawings, and when it was shown, the characters appeared to move. The process, called animation, is still used today, although computers have made the process much easier. In 1928, Disney created his most famous character, Mortimer Mouse, who we know today as Mickey. The mouse starred in a cartoon called Steamboat Willie, which was unusual because it involved the use of a sound track. Within the next few years, Disney invented many of his other characters. The list of Disney's animation successes is long and memorable. It includes Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, and Peter Pan. Perhaps his most remarkable animated film is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Created in 1937, it was an immediate success. Today, more than fifty years later, it is still one of the most popular films for children. What is one of the chief differences between animation today and in Walt Disney's early years? A) More people like animated movies. B) Fewer people like animated movies. C) Computers have made the job easier. D) Computers have made the job harder.
Ans: C
Death is natural, but do you have any idea of the process of dying? Modern scientists divide the process of dying into two phases --- clinical or temporary death and biological death. Clinical death occurs when the vital organs, such as the heart or lungs, have ceased to function, but have not suffered permanent damage. The organism can still be revived . Biological death occurs when changes in the organism lead to the "breaking up" of vital cells and tissues. Death is then unchangeable and final. Scientists have been seeking a way to prolong the period of clinical death so that the organism can remain alive before biological death occurs. The best method developed so far involves cooling of the organism, combined with narcotic sleep. By slowing down the body's metabolism , cooling delays the processes leading to biological death. To illustrate how this works, scientists performed an experiment on a six-year-old female monkey called Keta. The scientist put Keta to sleep with a narcotic. Then they surrounded her body with ice-bags and began checking her body temperature. When it had dropped to 28 degrees the scientists began draining blood from an artery. The monkey's blood pressure decreased and an hour later both the heart and breathing stopped: clinical death set in. For twenty minutes Keta remained in this state. Her temperature dropped to 22 degrees. At this point the scientists pumped blood into an artery in the direction of the heart and started artificial breathing. After two minutes Keta's heart became active once more. After fifteen minutes, spontaneous breathing began, and after four hours Keta opened her eyes and lifted her head. After six hours, when the scientists tried to give her a penicillin injection, Keta seized the syringe and ran with it around the room. Her behavior differed little from that of a healthy animal. Scientists try to make the time of clinical death longer in order to A) slow down the body's metabolism. B) bring vital cells and tissues back to active life. C) cool the organism. D) delay the coming of biological death.
D