Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Most of the news in the newspapers is bad but sometimes there is a story with good news. This is one of those stories. Millions of people around the world suffer from AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other serious diseases. There are medicines to treat these diseases but for people in poor countries, these medicines are too expensive to buy. When a pharmaceutical company produces a new medicine, they receive a special license called a _ This license means that the new medicine or drug is protected for a period of 20 years. The company that produced the drug can fix the price of the drug and no other company is allowed to produce the same drug or a copy of the drug for 20 years. At the moment, these patents operate all over the world, both in rich countries and in poor countries. The drugs companies say that they need patents so that they can get the money to pay for research to find new drugs and medicines. In rich countries people usually have enough money to pay for these drugs but in poor countries people can't afford to buy them and cannot treat diseases like AIDS and malaria. Last month, however, a group of experts published a report which says that patents are very bad for poor countries. The report says that drug companies do not want to find new medicines for diseases of poor people in poor countries. It says that poor countries should be allowed to buy cheap drugs without patents from other countries. The authors of the report were lawyers, scientists and a senior director from the drug company Pfizer. Of course, the pharmaceuticals industry doesn't agree with the report, "We need patents so that we can develop new medicines to fight disease both in the developed and developing world," said a spokesman. But the report is the first sign that there might be a change in the patent system. This change could save millions of lives in the world's poorest countries. This really is good news. Question: Why are medicines expensive for people in poor countries? Options: A: They are protected by patents. B: They are produced in rich countries. C: They are imported. D: They can cure the deadly diseases.
A: A

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: For thousands of years,we have looked for ways to measure time. Early humans found that the regular movements of the sun,the earth,the moon,and the stars made good ways to measure time. The rising and setting of the sun were used to distinguish day from night. But,eventually,people needed to tell time more accurately,or exactly. So,by using the sun's position in the sky,they divided the day into dawn,morning,midday and evening. Then it was noted that the sun cast a changing shadow as it moved across the sky. Time could be told more accurately by setting up a stick and marking the positions of the sun's shadow. It was the ancient Greeks who divided each position of this "sundial " into hours. But the sun doesn't always shine. So,for the past 6,000 years,many other ways of keeping time have been tried. Slowburning candles were divided into hours,and the hourglass was invented. When all the sand in the top of an hourglass has shifted to the bottom,an hour has passed. Later,the pendulum ,with its regular backandforth movement of weights,was used to move the hands on a clock. Pendulums are still used in grandfather clocks. Today,even more accurate clocks are in use,such as batteryoperated quartz clocks ,digital clocks,and clocks run by electrical tuning forks and tiny atoms. These atomic clocks are the most accurate clocks ever invented. The exact time can be kept to within 1 second a century. Question: Which of the following ways of measuring time is ordered from the least accurate to the most accurate? Options: A: Sundial,pendulum,sun. B: Atomic clock,quartz clock,sundial. C: Sun,pendulum,atomic clock. D: Digital clock,hourglass,slowburning candles.
A: C

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: The eight airlines of the Oneworld alliance have joined forces to give world travelers a simple way to plan and book a round-the-world journey. It's called the Oneworld Explorer program. Oneworld Explorer is the perfect solution for a once-in-a-lifetime holiday or an extended business trip. It's a great way for you to explore the four corners of the earth in the safe hands of the eight Oneworld airlines. You can have hundreds of destinations to choose from, because the Oneworld network covers the globe, And as you travel around the world, you'll have the support of 260,000 people from all our airlines, who are devoted to the success of our journey, helping you make smooth transfers and offering support all along the way. The Oneworld goal is to make global travel easier and more rewarding for every one of our travelers, We try our best to make you feel at home, no matter how far from home your journey may take you. We can offer travelers benefits on a scale beyond the reach of our individual networks. You'll find more people and more information to guide you at every stage of your trip, making transfers smoother and global travel less of a challenge. Question: The advantage of the alliance lies in _ . Options: A: its detailed travel information B: its unique booking system C: its longest business flights D: its global service network
A: D

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Ears are for hearing -- everyone knows that. But for a creature called the Cuvier's beaked whale, hearing starts in the throat, a new study found. The observation might help explain how all whales hear. The work might also help scientists understand how animals are affected by underwater sonar . This sonar, used by some ships, sends out sound waves to locate underwater objects. The Cuvier's beaked whale is a so-called toothed whale. Toothed whales dive deep into the ocean in search of food. As the whales hunt, they produce sounds that reach objects and then return to the whales. This allows the animals to "see" the shape, size, and location of objects, even when they're 1,000 meters under the sea, where it is totally dark. To better understand how the whale hears, researchers from San Diego State University in California took X-rays of two Cuvier's beaked whales. The whales had died and washed up on the beach. Ted Cranford and his colleagues used the images to make a computer model of a Cuvier's beaked whale's head. Then, they modeled the process of sound traveling through the head. The researchers knew that some sounds get to the ears of a toothed whale through a structure called "the window for sound". Found on the lower jaw, this structure is very thin on the outside and has a large pad of fat on the inside. When the researchers used their computer model to work out how sound waves travel in the whale's head, they were surprised to find that sounds coming from right in front of the whale actually travel under the animal's jaw. From there, sound waves move through the throat, into a hole in the back of the jaw, and finally to the pad of fat near the animal's ears. Cranford guesses that other types of whales may hear through their throats. Further testing is needed to be sure. Eventually, the insight into how whales hear might explain whether sonar testing by military ships is causing the animals to wind up on beaches. Question: Which of the following describes the way taken by sound waves through a Cuvier's beaked whale? Options: A: A hole in the back of the jaw - the ears - the jaw - the throat. B: The jaw - the throat - a hole in the back of the jaw - the ears. C: The throat - the jaw - the ears - a hole in the back of the jaw. D: The ears - the throat - a hole in the back of the jaw - the jaw.
A: B