I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: El Nifio, a Spanish term for "the Christ child", was named by South American fisherman who noticed that the global weather pattern, which happens every two to seven years, reduced the amount of fishes caught around Christmas. El Nifio sees warm water, collected over several years in the western Pacific, flow back eastwards when winds that normally blow westwards weaken, or sometimes the other way round. The weather effects both good and bad, are felt in many places. Rich countries gain more from powerful Nifio, on balance, than they lose. A study found that a strong Nifio in 1997 helped American's economy grow by 15 billion, partly because of better agricultural harvest, farmers in the Midwest gained from extra rain. The total rise in agricultural in rich countries in growth than the fall in poor ones. But in Indonesia extremely dry forests are in flames. A multi-year drought in south-east Brazil is becoming worse. Though heavy rains brought about by El Nino may relieve the drought in California, they are likely to cause surface flooding and other disasters. The most recent powerful Nino, in 1997-98, killed around 21,000 people and caused damage worth $36 billion around the globe. But such Ninos come with months of warning, and so much is known about how they happen that governments can prepare. According to the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), however, just 12% of disaster-relief funding in the past two decades has gone on reducing risks in advance, rather than recovery and rebuilding afterwards. This is despite evidence that a dollar spent on risk-reduction saves at least two on reconstruction. Simple improvements to infrastructure can reduce the spread of disease. Better sewers make it less likely that heavy rain is followed by an outbreak of the disease of bad stomach. Stronger bridges mean villages are less likely to be left without food and medicine after floods. According to a paper in 2011 by Mr Hsiang and co-authors, civil conflict is related to El Nino's harmful effects--and the poorer the... Question: What is the author's purpose in writing the passage? Options: A: To introduce El Nino and its origin. B: To explain the consequences of El Nino. C: To show ways of fighting against El Nino. D: To urge people to prepare for El Nino.
D

I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: The average temperature around the world is rising. People living in the US Midwest might find this fact hard to believe, though. Two new studies show that in America's heartland, summers are now cooler and wetter than they were in years past. The scientists suggest that the change in the Midwest climate may have happened because of farming. The first study was led by David Changnon, a climatologist at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. A climatologist studies the climate of an area, which includes measuring rainfall, temperature and wind. Climatologists want to know how these factors have changed in the past, and how they'll change in the future. Changnon and his team studied temperature records from Chicago and 13 other sites in the Midwest. "These two changes--lower temperatures and more rainfall--may be connected by humidity," Changnon says. Humidity is the measure of how much moisture is in the air. Humid air, which contains a lot of moisture, takes longer to heat up than dry air. So where did the extra _ in the air come from? Changnon points to farms in the region. As plants grow, they pull moisture from the ground and release it into the air. And among plants, soybean and corn plants release a lot of moisture. Midwestern farms now plant more soybeans and corn than in the past, with 97 percent of farmland today planted with these two crops. He also notes that the plants are planted closer together now than they used to be, so there are more plants per acre than in the past. The second study was led by famous scientists from the US. The researchers studied a vast area of the United States that stretches from South DaKota to Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. They found that in 1930, farmers in that region irrigated only about 1.8 million acres of farmland, an amount roughly half the size of Connecticut. In 1980, however, farmers irrigated nearly 15 million acres--more land than Vermont and New Hampshire combined. Question: According to the passage, which factors will you refer to if you want to study the climate of an area? Options: A: Sunlight and rainfall. B: Rainfall and longitude. C: Rainfall and altitude. D: Rainfall and wind.
D

I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: Nikki was brought up from a very early age by her father while her sister was raised by her mother. Nikki spent a very small amount of time with her mum and sister when she was about 6 years old, but soon after contact stopped when communication broke down between her parents. She never felt she wanted to find her family while she was growing up. But now with a husband and a son she decided it was the right time. Nikki didn't know where to start, but her husband's mum had used 192.com for finding people before and recommended it to her . With the help of her son, she started by searching for her sister's full name on the electoral roll without a location, because she had no idea where she lived, even her date of birth. From that one search , the site returned two results listed in the area they used to live. Nikki decided to call the first number. To her surprise, it was her long lost sister ! So after 20 years, it was one phone call that helped her contact her sister! Her sister then passed her number on to her mother, who called Nikki straight away, and it was like they had never been apart. Her mum was so glad to find out Nikki was well that they arranged to meet everyone that Saturday (3 days after the phone call) where she was reunited with her sister and met her 2 nephews for the first time . Nikki also found out she had a half sister and brother. When talking about the reunion , Nikki said , "192.com made finding my long lost family very easy. I was not on any social networking sites before and surprisingly neither was my sister or mum, so we would never have found each other that way. Question: What can we learn about Nikki from the passage? Options: A: She knows much about the Internet . B: Her sister has not got married so far. C: Her mum gave birth to four children in all. D: She got in touch with her mum on Monday.
C