Anthropologists are scientists that study people who often lived hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Items those men, women, and children left behind when they died --- everything from clothing to jewelry and tools --- tell anthropologists a lot. And sometimes even their words survive. Experts believe that a discovery in Mexico is the oldest example of writing ever found in the Americas. The people who created it probably lived 3,000 years ago, long before Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World. Workers digging in a rock mine happened to notice a stone block with marks carved onto its surface. They found the large piece of stone near the city of Cascajal, Mexico, which was once the capital of an ancient people called the Ohmec. "There are signs on the block that seem to show objects used by the Olmec during their religious ceremonies," says Dr. Stephen Houston, of Brown University in the USA. "There is a sign that looks very similar to a knife and another that looks like the chair of a King," he explains. Houston, an expert on the writing systems of ancient cultures, says the discovery is exciting because "it makes clear that the Olmec could read and write. It is like hearing voices from the past." But experts don't know exactly what the writing says. Finding other examples of Olmec writing could help decipher the puzzle. "We could have whole sets of ancient writing which will basically make ancient people speak to us directly," says Houston. "There are many puzzles to be solved, and this is just one of them." What is important about the stone block mentioned in the passage? A) It proves that people lived in this part of the world more than 3,000 years ago. B) It allows scientists to translate the ancient language used in this area. C) It is evidence of the oldest form of writing ever found in the Americas. D) It shows the people of the area have a written language.
C
(Question)
In prison you spend the majority of your time in an 8*10 cell. At work you spend most of your time in a 6*8 cubicle . In prison you get three meals a day. At work you only get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it. In prison you get time off for good behavior. At work you get rewarded for good behavior with more work. In prison a guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you. At work you carry around a security card and unlock and open all doors yourself. In prison you can watch TV and play games. At work you get fired for watching TV and playing games (or being on the Internet). In prison you get your own toilet. At work you have to share. In prison they allow your family and friends to visit. At work you cannot even speak to your family and friends. In prison all expenses are paid by taxpayers with no work required. At work you get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners. In prison you spend most of your life looking through bars , waiting to get out. At work you spend most of your time waiting to get out and inside bars. In prison there are wardens who are often sadistic . At work they are called managers. According to the passage, if an employee has performed well in the company, he will probably _ . A) get a promotion B) be given a pay rise C) receive a reward D) have a heavier load
(Answer)
D
Ques: Is it okay to keep exercising when you have a cold? What about the flu? With winter viruses going around, it's important to know how to alter your training if you do catch a germ or two. "The guidelines are pretty easy," says Dr Lorenzo Masci from the Alphington Sports Medicine Clinic. "Anything above the neck --- so if you've got a cold for example, a runny nose or a sore throat --- then you should probably cut down your exercise by half and do 50 percent of what you normally do." "If you've got anything below the neck, like muscle pain, joint pain or fever, you shouldn't really exercise at all until those general symptoms settle down," Lorenzo says. He points out that a cough would also fall into this more serious category. "For example, if anyone comes in with a fever and a runny nose, I'd tell them to stop exercising until the fever and the muscle ache settles. Then they can start their training again at 50 percent once all those symptoms settle, even if they've got a bit of a runny nose or a sore throat." "The reason we tell people to stop exercising is because if you exercise when you're unwell it can make the illness worse and prolong it." There is a second reason Lorenzo advises his patients to stop exercising when they have "below the neck" symptoms. In the event you have an illness which affects your heart, exercise can sometimes actually lead to death. Lorenzo advises to take zinc and vitamin C as a way of preventing colds. But he admits that this is controversial --- some studies have shown that these supplements can improve immune function while other studies have cast doubt on the issue. The good news is that if you exercise regularly, you're likely to improve your immune function. "If you exercise too much, it can predispose you to coughs and sniffles," he points out. This is often the case for excellent athletes who train every day, such as triathletes . "But what we do know is that if you exercise at a moderate level, your immune system improves such that you're probably at a lower risk... What is the worst result if people don't stop exercising when they are unwell? A) Worsening the illness. B) Prolonging the illness. C) Affecting the heart. D) Bringing about threat to life.
Ans: D
Ques:Almost a decade ago, the federal government dropped $10 million for an Earth-monitoring satellite that never made it into space. Today it sits in a closet in Maryland. Cost to taxpayers for storing it: $1 million a year. And _ . Who knows what's in the rest of them? Because we think the government should be held to at least the same standards as a publicly traded company, and because as taxpayers, we're America's shareholders, we performed an audit of sorts of the federal books. We're not economists, but we do have common sense. We tried to get help from Congressional staffers from both parties, as well as various watchdog groups and agencies. In the end, we found that the federal government wastes nearly $1 trillion every year. That's roughly equal to the amount collected annually by the Internal Revenue Service in personal income taxes. Put another way, it's also equal to about one-third of the country's $2.9 trillion total annual budget. And reclaiming that lost trillion could help wipe out the country's annual budget deficit , improve education, and provide health insurance for those who don't have it. So how do you define "waste"? David Walker of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a federal watchdog agency, calls it "the government's failure to give taxpayers the most for their money." For our part, we used the kind of household test you would use on a piece of meat sitting in your refrigerator: If it smells rotten, it's waste. Our government regularly pays for products and services it never gets, wildly overpays companies to do things it could do more cheaply itself, loses money outright due to lax accounting and oversight, and spends money randomly on unnecessary programs. How exactly does the federal government waste your hard-earned tax dollars? We've identified what we consider ten of the worst ways. What might be talked about if the passage is continued? A) The government's taking some steps to stop wasting taxes. B) Presenting people's feelings against the government's wasting taxes. C) Giving suggestion to help the government solve the financial problem. D) Listing how the government is wasting taxes.

Ans:
D