Q: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: When I was quite young, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember well the polished old case fastened to the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with great interest when my mother used to talk to it. Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an amazing person-- her name was Information Please and there was nothing she did not know. Information Please could supply anybody's number. My first personal experience with Information Please came one day while my mother was visiting a neighbor. I accidentally hit my finger with a hammer. The pain was terrible, but there didn't seem to be any reason in crying because there was no one home to give sympathy. I walked around the house sucking my hurting finger, finally arriving at the stairway--the telephone! Climbing up I unhooked the receiver and held it to my ear. "Information Please," I said. A click or two and a small clear voice spoke into my ear, "Information." "I hurt my finger..." I cried. The tears came readily enough now that I had an audience. "Isn't your mother home?" came the question. "Nobody's home but me." I sobbed. "Are you bleeding?" "No," I replied. "I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts." "Can you open your icebox?" she asked. I said I could. "Then chip off a little piece of ice and hold it to your finger." After that I called Information Please for everything. I asked her for help with my geography and she told me where Philadelphia was. And there was the time that Petey, our pet canary died. I called Information Please and told her the sad story. She listened, and then said the usual things grown-ups say to comfort a child. But I was Why is it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring joy to all families, only to end up as a heap of feathers, feet up on the bottom of a cage? She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly, "Paul, always remember that there are other worlds to sing in."... Question: The author picked up the telephone for the first time to _ . - call his mother who was visiting a neighbor - call the doctor for his wounded finger - find out what exactly lived in the telephone - find someone to give him sympathy
A: find someone to give him sympathy

Q: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Never argue with one's own understanding. The whisper of intelligence is always there, whatever you do. If you create a time lag between the whisper of intelligence and understanding in you and your action, then you are preventing the brain from growing into a new size. When you argue with intelligence, when you postpone acting according to understanding then there is confusion, the brain gets confused. The voice of understanding, the voice of intelligence has insecurity about it. How do you know that it is the right thing? So we tend to ignore it. Instead we accept authority. We obey. But the brain cannot be orderly, competent, accurate and precise if you do not listen to it, if you have no respect. We are so busy with the outside world and its force that the world that is inside us does not command that respect and reverence , that care and concern from us. So one has to be a disciple of one's own understanding, and look upon that understanding as the master. Sometimes one may commit a mistake, it might be the whim of the ego and we might mistake the whim, the wish of the ego for the voice of silence and intelligence, but that we have to discover. Unless you commit mistakes, how do you learn to discriminate between the false and the true? In learning there is bound to be a little insecurity, a possibility of committing mistakes. Why should one be terribly afraid of committing mistakes? So instead of accepting the authority of habits and conditionings, while one is moving one watches, and when there is a suggestion, do not neglect, ignore, or insult the whisper from within and from one's own intelligence. Question: The whole passage is developed by _ . - facts and ideas - reasoning and explaining - scientific experiments - arguing and debating
A: reasoning and explaining

Q: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Australian cities can keep their native wildlife -- but only if they can kick their habit of urban sprawl . That's the finding of a new study by leading Australian environmental researchers Jessica Sushinsky, Professor Hugh Possingham and Dr Richard Fuller of The University of Queensland. "While urban development usually reduces the number of birds in a city, building more compact cities and avoiding urban sprawl can slow these reductions greatly," says lead author Jessica Sushinsky. "Compact housing development leaves birds' homes untouched, leading to fewer losses of birds." The researchers surveyed native and wild birds in Brisbane's urban areas, including living and industrial areas, public parks and gardens, major roadways and airports. They then used statistical modeling to find out what will happen to the birds as the city grows. The first setting was compact growth -- where multiple homes are built on land that previously had only one house. The second setting was sprawling growth -- a familiar pattern where homes are built here and there beyond the city's current boundaries. The team's forecasts showed that a much greater diversity of species was lost over 20 years in the sprawling setting compared to the more compact setting. "Urban sprawl resulted in the disappearance of many urban-sensitive birds -- birds that only live in areas where there is native vegetation , such as parklands and woodlands," Ms Sushinsky says. "On the other hand, we found the city with the compact development attracted more birds because it kept more of its parks and green areas." Now the Queensland Government has adopted the more compact urban growth strategy, which, Dr Richard Fuller says, is good news for Australia's native birds. These birds are environmental specialists -- they need a particular environment to do well. "While compact development means smaller backyards, it can also make our entire cities more biodiverse," according to Dr Fuller. "The study shows that we should hold on to our green spaces instead of... Question: Why is compact urban growth better than the sprawling strategy? - It makes the cities more beautiful. - It gives people larger backyards. - It is money-saving. - It is bird-friendly.
A: It is bird-friendly.