*Question*
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Publicity offers several benefits. There are no costs for message time or space. An ad in prime-time television may cost $250,000 to $5,000,000 or more per minute, whereas a five-minute report on a network newscast would not cost anything. Publicity reaches a mass audience within a short time and new products or company policies are widely known. Credibility about messages is high, because they are reported in independent media. A newspaper review of a movie has more believability than an ad in the same paper, because the reader associates independence with objectivity. Similarly, people are more likely to pay attention to news reports than to ads. For example, Women's Wear Daily has both fashion reports and advertisements. Readers spend time reading the stories, but they skim through the ads. Furthermore, there may be 10 commercials during a half-hour television program or hundreds of ads in a magazine. Feature stories are much fewer in number and stand out clearly. Publicity also has some significant limitations. A firm has little control over messages, their timing, their placement, or their coverage by a given medium. It may issue detailed news releases and find only portions mentioned by the media, and media have the ability to be much more critical than a firm would like. For example, in 1982, Procter & Gamble faced a massive publicity problem over the meaning of its 123-year-old company logo. To fight this negative publicity, the firm had a spokesperson appear on Good Morning America to disprove the rumor . The false rumors were temporarily put to rest. However, in 1985, publicity became so troublemaking that Procter & Gamble decided to remove the logo from its products. Question: What's the author's attitude towards publicity? - doubtful - passive - objective - supportive
**Answer**
objective

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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: An African-born British scientist received an environment research prize for showing how bees can be used to reduce conflict between people and elephants. Lucy King's work proved that beehive "fences" can keep elephants out of African farmers' fields. The animals are scared of bees, which can bite them inside their long noses, and flee when they hear buzzing . Dr King's work offers an intelligent solution to an age-old challenge, while providing further confirmation of the importance of bees to people and a really clever way of preserving the world's largest land animal for current and future generations. Working in Kenya, Dr King and her team showed that more than 90% of elephants will flee when they hear the sounds of buzzing bees. Afterwards, they also found that elephants produce a special sound to warn their fellows of the danger. They used the findings to construct barriers where beehives are woven into a fence, keeping the elephants away from places where people live and grow food. A two-year project involving 34 farms showed that elephants trying to go through the fences would shake them, disturbing the bees. Later, the fences were adopted by farming communities in three Kenyan districts , who also made increased amounts of money from selling honey. As Africa's population grows, competition for space between people and elephants is becoming more serious, and there are _ on both sides. The same is true in parts of Asia. Sri Lanka alone sees the deaths of an estimated 60 people and 200 elephants each year from conflict. Lucy King now wants to see whether the Kenyan technique will work in other parts of Africa and perhaps, eventually, in Asia. Question: Dr King's solution is described as "intelligent" because _ . - it successfully keeps elephants out of African farmers' fields - the fences were adopted by farming communities in three Kenyan districts - more than 90% of elephants flee when they hear the sounds of buzzing bees - it protects crops, produces honey and preserves the elephant at the same time
**Answer**
it protects crops, produces honey and preserves the elephant at the same time

*Question*
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: BEIJING Nov. 28 (Xinhuanet) - Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday pledged central and local government funds to provide and improve school bus services in the wake of the traffic accident that killed 19 preschool children and sparked national outrage . He urged relevant departments of the State Council to "rapidly" formulate safety regulations for school coaches, and said China will accelerate the setting up of standards on design and production. Central and local governments will share the costs on providing more school buses that meet safety requirements, the premier said. However, Wen said a lot of local governments have failed to meet the rapidly increased demand for safe school buses or established sound management systems. Officials will face investigations into their responsibility if tragedies such as the one in Gansu occur again, he warned. Yuan Guilin, an education professor at Beijing Normal University who is known for his research into rural education, has proposed that all school buses should be equipped with black boxes, adding that it is achievable and affordable. The government should also improve the wages and benefits for drivers to prevent them from taking extra jobs and often driving while tired, he said. Given that some authorities complain that they are short of money, Yuan suggested they be allowed to sell advertising space on school buses. Gan Yuanchun, who participated in a campaign to promote school bus safety, said the central government should encourage the use of smaller school buses in rural areas, as roads in remote countryside areas are not as wide as in cities. Students' parents should also be able to get involved in deciding how school buses are managed, he added. In rural areas, especially in western parts, many children are struggling to receive quality preschool education because public kindergartens are scarce and most private ones often do not have qualified teachers or hardware. Question: Which way can not be used to promote school bus safety? - To set up standards on design and production of school buses. - To improve the wages and benefits for drivers. - To equip school buses with black boxes. - To encourages the use of bigger school buses in rural areas.
**Answer**
To encourages the use of bigger school buses in rural areas.

*Question*
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: "Blogging is helping students to think and write more critically ,"says an Australian researcher, "and can help draw out people who would otherwise not engage in debate." These are the preliminary findings of PHD research by Anne Bartlett-Bragg, a lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney, who has been using weblogs or blogs in her own teaching since 2001. "The students are thinking more critically." she says, "They are learning to be responsible and they're communicating outside the boundaries of the classroom and the institution, and they like that. "Bartlett-Bragg says in conventional teaching, students often rely on the lecturer as the main source of ideas and critique for their work. "I'm a bit over listening to my students giving me back in an essay what I've told them in class." she says. "I want them to think for themselves and get different perspectives." "What makes blogs useful is their interactive nature." she says. These web-based forums for discussing ideas, experiences or opinions allow students to discuss publicly what they are studying with other students and experts outside their own university. "I really encourage them to put their personal opinion in there, provided they are informed and backed up with evidence." Bartlett-Bragg says because a lot of academics in her field of electronic or e-learning now have their own blogs, students can engage directly with them. She says one of the most powerful facilities in weblogs is pinging, which involves a person positing a comment about someone else's work on their own blog. They use the "Trackback" tool to notify the author when they have published the comment, basically inviting them to discuss it. "They get such a buzz when they make a comment on another person outside the boundaries of the institution and that person responds, or even gives them some further reading." she says. "They are getting new perspectives that I can't give them in a normal lecture." Question: What Bartlett-Bragg likes most is that blogs can help students to _ . - think for themselves - have stronger sense of responsibility - know more about the world outside - finish an essay assignment easily
**Answer**
think for themselves