Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Several weeks ago, a mysterious Christmas card dropped through our mailbox. The envelope was addressed to a man named Raoul, who, I was ly certain, did not live with us. The envelope wasn't sealed, so I opened it. The inside of the card was blank. Ed, my husband, explained that the card was both from and to the newspaper deliveryman. His name was apparently Raoul, and Raoul wanted a holiday tip. We were meant to put a check inside the card and then drop the envelope in the mail. When your services are finished at 4 a.m., you can't simply hang around, like a hotel bellboy expecting a tip. You have to be direct. So I wrote a nice holiday greeting to this man who, in my imagination, fires The New York Times from his bike aimed at our front door, causing more noise with mere newsprint than most people manage with sophisticated black market fireworks. With a start, I realized that perhaps the reason for the 4 a.m. wake-up noise was not ordinary rudeness but carefully executed spite : I had not tipped Raoul in Christmas past. I honestly hadn't realized I was supposed to. This was the first time he'd used the card tactic . So I got out my checkbook. Somewhere along the line, holiday tipping went from an optional thank-you for a year of services to a Mafia-style protection racket . Several days later, I was bringing our garbage bins back when I noticed an envelope taped to one of the lids. The outside of the envelope said MICKEY. It had to be another tip request, this time from our garbage collector. Unlike Raoul, Mickey hadn't enclosed his own Christmas card from me. In a way, I appreciated the directness. "I know you don't care how merry my Christmas is, and that's fine," the gesture said. "I want $30, or I'll 'forget' to empty your garbage bin some hot summer day." I put a check in the envelope and taped it back to the bin. The next morning, Ed noticed that the envelope was gone, though the trash hadn't yet been picked up: "Someone stole Mickey's tip!" Ed was quite certain. He made me call the bank and cancel... Question: The newspaper deliveryman put a blank card inside the envelope because _ . - he wanted the couple to pay for the newspaper - he forgot to write a few words on it - he used it to ask for a Christmas tip - he was afraid of asking for a tip in person
he used it to ask for a Christmas tip

(Question)
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: What would life be like without rich, creamy, mouthwatering, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate? Life would be bitter for most Americans. They spend about $13 billion a year buying all sorts of chocolate treats. However, for the African children who toil under slavelike conditions on cacao plantations, life is not sweet. The cacao bean is the main ingredient in the chocolate. According to a 2002 survey by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the US Agency for International Development, about 284,000 children work in dangerous conditions on cacao farms in western Africa. More than half those children are younger than 14. Many were sold into forced labor to work 12 hours or more a day on the cacao plantations. A number of international organizations, including several African governments, recently began a program to eliminate child labor on cacao plantations. Under the program, government officials will remove children from abusive working situations while teaching farmers about child labor issues. The program will also make borrowing money easier for cacao farmers. Officials hope farmers will use the money to invest in their farms and hire paid laborers. Question: How many children under 14 work on cacao farms in western Africa? - About 284,000. - About 142,000. - About 467,000. - About 876,000.
(Answer)
About 142,000.

Ques: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Soaring divorce rates around the globe are _ the environment ,American researchers suggested in a study released Monday . Michigan State University researcher Jianguo "Jack "Liu and his assistant Eunice Yu said the increasing number of divorces leads to more households with fewer people and greater consumption of water and energy .They said housing units require space ,construction materials and fuel to heat and cool ,regardless of the number of inhabitants . For example ,in the United States in 2005, divorced households consumed an extra 73 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water ,An additional 38 million extra rooms required heating and lighting that same year due to divorced households . "A married household actually uses resources more efficiently than a divorced household ", Liu said ,He said that in cohabitating households ,people will watch the same television ,share the air conditioning and heat and use the same refrigerator ,all things that use energy at a regularly stable rate regardless of the number of uses . Liu said he was not condemning divorce ," Some people really need to get divorces "He said cohabitation ---- whether by a family ,friends or even in a commune ------ was simply a more environmentally friendly option ,Additionally ,the researchers noted that trends other than divorce are also changing family living structures ,such as the end of multiple generations of a family sharing a home and people remaining single longer . "People's first reaction to this research is surprise ,and then it seems simple ":Liu said in a release " But a lot of things become simple after research is done .Our challenges were to connect the dots and quantify their relationships People have been talking about how to protect the environment and combat climate change ,but divorce is an overlooked factor that needs to be considered . " He said the increasing energy demands caused by divorce should be considered by governments when they are creating environmental policies . Question: This passage is mainly meant to _ - inform the reader of the increasing divorce in America - emphasize the importance of protecting the environment - appeal to married people to keep their households - tell people the impact divorce has on the environment
Ans: tell people the impact divorce has on the environment

Ques: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: The size and location of the world's deserts are always changing. Over millions of years, as climates change and mountains rise, new dry and wet areas appear. But within the last hundred years deserts have been increasing after frightful speed. This is partly because of natural changes, but most responsible for creating deserts are men. Man can make deserts, but they can also prevent them from getting bigger. Algeria is planning a green belt of trees along the edge of the Sahara Desert to stop the sand. In China, too, _ are being built in the northwest to keep the desert from growing. But desert still threaten the world. Experts believe that land that is on the way to becoming deserts equals the size of Australia, Russia and US put together. Can we stop the spread of the world's deserts and save the land that is so essential to mankind? Yes, we can, and we must. Question: The deserts still threaten the world in the way _ - of increasing at an unbelievable speed - of spreading in Australia, Russia, and the US - of appearing new dry and wet areas in every part of the world - that they cause the changes of the climates
Ans:
of increasing at an unbelievable speed