I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: What were you doing before you started reading this? Were you fully focused on another article? Or eating breakfast? Organizing your day? Or were you staring out of the window, feeling restless and bored? It is likely to have been the latter. Brief moments of boredom are universal, and are frequently what drives us to stop what we are doing and move to something that we hope will be more exciting. But although boredom is common, it is neither unimportant nor favorable, according to Dr John Eastwood, a psychologist at York University, Toronto. Eastwood is the joint author ofThe Unengaged Mind, a major new paper on the theory of boredom. Boredom, he points out in the paper, has been connected with overeating, depression, anxiety, and an increased risk of making mistakes. Mistakes at work might not be a matter of life and death for most of us, but if you are an air traffic controller, pilot or nuclear power plant operator, they most certainly can be. Commercial polo Sami Franks confirms that boredom can make pilots lose attention. "When you fly a lengthy distance, there are two pilots, one of whom is monitoring all the screens while the other does the paperwork, talks to air traffic control and so on. You need to be alert for landing and takeoff, but once you're 500 ft above the runway, the plane's on autopilot and it can be very quiet and boring. In a study I saw of pilots who woke up after a short sleep. 30% of them reported seeing the other pilot asleep too," said Franks. However, Dr Esther Priyadharshini, a senior lecturer in education at the university of East Anglia, has studied boredom and says it can be seen in a positive light. "We can't prevent boredom--it's an unavoidable human emotion. We have to accept it and find ways to control it. We all need downtime. There's no need to be fully busy with work at all times." she says. Children who complain that they have nothing to do on rainy holidays may try to find other things to focus on. The artist Grayson Perry has reportedly spoken of how long periods... Question: What is the best title for the text? Options: A: Why am I so bored? B: Is boredom bad for you? C: Can I have your attention? D: How can I get rid of boredom?
B
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: The 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature went to the French novelist "for the art of memory" with which he has "uncovered the lifeworld of the occupation". Although the 69yearold writer is a very popular literary figure in France, he is little known elsewhere. So who is this Patrick Modiano, why does his memory have such an influence upon him, and what exactly has he uncovered? Modiano was born in a suburb of Paris right after World War IIended in Europe in July 1945.His father was a JewishItalian businessman who met his Belgian actress mother during the Nazi occupation of Paris. As The New Yorker magazine put it, Europeans born in 1945 share a condition--They escaped the war, but "not the taint of the war". Modiano's life has been influenced by Nazi Germany's occupation during the war, and his family's connections to it.According to New Yorkbased newspaper Forward, his father survived the war dishonorably.When Paris' Jews were brought together to be sent to concentration camps, the businessman did not join them but spent the time making money from deals with Nazis on the black market. "The novelist has a duty to record the lives of the people who have disappeared, the people who were made to disappear," French writer Clemence Boulouque, also an expert in Jewish studies, told The New Yorker magazine. In his more than three dozen novels, Modiano has returned again and again to the same themes:Jewishness, the Nazi occupation, and loss of identity.His characters collect pieces of old evidence, handwriting, photographs, police files, and newspaper cuttings. His most admired novel,Missing Person, is a good example.It's the story about a detective who has lost his memory.He tries to find out who he really is by following his own steps through history. Although Modiano's win is a surprise outside France, people are celebrating in his home country.Modiano is the 15th French literature winner.After Le Clezio's 2008 win, it seemed unlikely that there would be another so soon. Question: The passage is mainly about _ . Options: A: a literary figure's personal affairs B: a famous novelist's family background C: a Nobel Prize winner and his literary achievement D: European people's sufferings during World War II
C
Q: I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: While sweet treats can be hard to resist, the World Health Organization(WHO) has set new guidelines for people around the world. The guidelines, released on Wednesday, advise that both adults and children cut back on their sugar intake to stay healthy. In a statement, Francesco Branca, director of the WHO's nutrition department, said there is evidence that reducing daily sugar intake reduces the risk of being overweight and tooth decay . The guidelines do not apply to the sugars in fresh fruit and vegetables or those that are naturally present in milk. According to the WHO, there is no reported evidence of negative effects of consuming those sugars. Instead, the new guidelines focus on "added" or "free" sugars. These include sugars that are added to processed foods and drinks such as candy and soft drinks. Added sugars are sometimes described as " hidden" sugars because they exist in foods we might not think of as sweets, such as honey and ketchup . Health experts advise that consumers look at ingredients on food packages to help make better-informed decisions. The WHO recommends that people in the United States, Europe and other Western societies should cut their average sugar intake by about two-thirds, or down to just 10% of their overall calories. For developing countries, where dental care is less advanced, the WHO recommends that sugar intake be reduced to 5%. Scientist Kieran Clarke, of the University of Oxford, notes that for those people who can't shake their love for sweets, getting more exercise is a good solution. "If you get enough exercise, you can eat almost anything," she said "But it's very hard to avoid large amounts of sugar unless all you're eating is fruit and vegetables." Question: We can learn from the text that _ . Options: A: added sugar isn't marked on food packages B: we should drink as little milk as possible as it contains sugar C: soft drinks don't contain added sugar D: the less exercise you do, the fewer sweet things you should eat
A: D