We've reached a strange--some would say unusual--point. While fighting world hunger continues to be the matter of vital importance according to a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO), more people now die from being overweight, or say, from being extremely fat, than from being underweight. It's the good life that's more likely to kill us these days. Worse, nearly l8 million children under the age of five around the world are estimated to be overweight. What's going on? We really don't have many excuses for our weight problems. The dangers of the problem have been drilled into us by public-health campaigns since 2001 and the message is getting through--up to a point. In the 1970s, Finland, for example, had the highest rate of heart disease in the world and being overweight was its main cause. Not any more. A public-health campaign has greatly reduced the number of heart disease deaths by 80 per cent over the past three decades. Maybe that explains why the percentage of people in Finland taking diet pills doubled between 2001 and 2005, and doctors even offer surgery of removing fat inside and change the shape of the body. That has become a sort of fashion. No wonder it ranks as the world's most body-conscious country. We know what we should be doing to lose weight--but actually doing it is another matter. By far the most popular excuse is not taking enough exercise. More than half of us admit we lack willpower. Others blame good food. They say: it's just too inviting and it makes them overeat. Still others lay the blame on the Americans, complaining that pounds have piled on thanks to eating too much American-style fast food. Some also blame their parents--their genes. But unfortunately, the parents are wronged because they're normal in shape, or rather slim. It's a similar story around the world, although people are relatively unlikely to have tried to lose weight. Parents are eager to see their kids shape up. Do as I say--not as I do. Which would be the best title for the passage? A) Actions or Excuses? B) Overweight or Underweight? C) WHO in a Dilemma D) No Longer Dying of Hunger
A
(Question)
Homosexual couples in New York are being married for the first time after Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a law permitting same-sex marriage in the state last month. But such marriages, though now legal in New York, remain controversial . So many couples wanted to be married on Sunday, the first day of legal homosexual marriage in New York City, that local officials announced a lottery to determine qualification. New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, herself openly gay, witnessed the first two ceremonies of same-sex marriage. She says the same-sex marriage law supports equality. "A law that says every family is as good as every other family; that every family is based on love, and is exactly the way God wants it to be," she said. Margie Phelps announced same-sex marriage as a crime against God. She and other Christians from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas came halfway across the country to say marriage is defined by Holy Bible. "The pattern is one man and one woman for life to have children who you raise in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," she said. David Schwartz, a traditional Jew, believes every human being has free choice and the power to rule over their desires. He considers homosexual desire to be wrong. "There's one God in heaven and earth, and he has ordered for all mankind that they should limit their affections to relationships between a man and a woman in the context of marriage," he said. Douglas Robinson and his partner of 25 years, Michael Elsasser, were in the first group to be married in Manhattan. Robinson says the United States allows religious views to coexist with(...) what he believes is a civil right of same-sex marriage. "You can have different opinions. This is a tent, some people call it a mixture of various different cultures and opinions and the like, so God bless America, and we are proud to be Americans," he said. Margie Phelps believes God will punish New York City for permitting what she believes to be moral decay. Meanwhile, Nevin Cohen and... Which of the following is the best title for this passage? A) Religious Debate on Marriage B) Moral Decay in Marriage C) Happy Homosexual Couples in USA D) First Gay Marriage Legalized in New York
(Answer)
D
Ques: I have always been interested in making things. When I was a child, I enjoyed drawing, but I also liked making things out of clay . I won a prize for one of my paintings when I was fourteen. That may be why I went to art school four years later. But I studied painting at first, not pottery . I like being a potter because I like to work with my hands and feel the clay. I'm happy working by myself and being near my home. I don't like mass-produced things, because they are made by machines. I think crafts are very important and crafts-people make things cleverly with hands. They make our lives color1ful. When I left school, I got some money. I hope to become a full-time crafts-woman. This work-place is small, but I wish to move to a larger one next year. The writer got into art school because of _ . A) liking to make things B) enjoying working near her home C) a prize won when the writer was young D) a wish to be a potter
Ans: C
Ques:When I was fifteen, I announced to my English class that I was going to write and illustrate my own books. Half the students sneered. The rest nearly fell out of their chairs laughing. "Don't be silly, only geniuses can become writers," the English teacher said, "And you are getting a D this semester." I was so humiliated that I burst into tears. That night I wrote a short sad poem about broken dreams and mailed it to the Capri's Weekly newspaper. To my astonishment, they published it and sent me two dollars. I was a published and paid writer. I showed it to my teacher and fellow students. They laughed. "Just plain dumb luck," the teacher said. I tasted success. I'd sold the first thing I'd ever written. That was more than any of them had done and if it was just dumb luck, that was fine with me. During the next two years I sold dozens of poems, letters, jokes and recipes. By the time I graduated from high school, with a C minus average, I had scrapbooks filled with my published work. I never mentioned my writing to my teachers, friends or my family again. They were dream killers and if people must choose between their friends and their dreams, they must always choose their dreams. I had four children at the time, and the oldest was only four. While the children slept, I typed on my ancient typewriter. I wrote what I felt. It took nine months, just like a baby. A month later Crying Wind, the title of my book, became a best seller, was translated into fifteen languages and Braille and sold worldwide. I appeared on TV talk shows. I traveled from New York to California and Canada on promotional tours. My first book also became required reading in native American schools in Canada. People ask what college I attended, what degrees I had and what qualifications I have to be a writer. The answer is: "None." I just write. I'm not a genius. I'm not gifted and I don't write right. To all those who dream of writing, I'm shouting at you: "Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Don't listen to them." I don't write right but I've... What prevented him telling others about his writing? A) The characters in his story. B) His teacher. C) His early experience. D) His parents.

Ans:
C