Someday a stranger will read your e-mail without your permission or scan the website you've visited or perhaps someone will casually glance through your credit card purchases or cell phone bills to find out your shopping calling habits In fact, it's likely that some of these things have already happened to you. Who would watch you without your permission? It might be a spouse, a girlfriend, a marketing company, a boss, a cop or a criminal. Whoever it is, they will see you in a way you never intended to be seen. Psychologists tell us boundaries are healthy, that it's important to reveal yourself partly to friends, family and lovers at appropriate times. But few boundaries remain. The digital bread crumbs you leave everywhere make it easy for strangers to know who you are, where you are and what you like. In some cases, a simple Google search can reveal what you think. Like it or not, increasingly we live in a world where you simply cannot keep a secret. The key question is: Does that matter? For many Americans, the answer apparently is "no". When opinion polls ask Americans about privacy, most say they are concerned about losing it. 60 percent of respondents say they feel their privacy is "slipping away, and that bothers me". But people say one thing and do another. Only a small number of Americans change any behavior in an effort to preserve their privacy. Few people turn down a discount at tollbooths to avoid using the EZ-Pass system that can track automobile movements. Privacy economist Acquisti has run a series of tests that reveal people will give up personal information like social security numbers just to get their hands on a 50-cents-off coupon. But privacy does matter-at least sometimes. It's like health: when you have it, you don't notice it. Only when it's gone do you wish you'd done more to protect it. What would be the best title for the passage? A) Value your health. B) Treasure your privacy. C) Boundaries are important between friends. D) The information age has its own shortcomings.
B
Most children, even the youngest of children, are delighted to be around cats and dogs. But these pets carry plenty of germs and allergens , prompting researchers to ask: Are cats and dogs really safe for children? A study finds that, contrary to many parents' fears, owning cats or dogs does not increase a child's risk of developing allergies, and in fact, may actually protect them. The study's lead author, Dr. Dennic Ownby of the Medical College of Georgia, says that even he was "very surprised" by the results. Ownby and colleagues followed more than 470 children from birth to age 6 or 7, comparing those exposed to cats and dogs during their first year of life to those who were not. By using skin-prick tests for detecting common allergies, the researchers found that, contrary to what many doctors had been taught for years, children who had lived with a pet were not at greater risk. Even more remarkable, children who had two or more dogs or cats had an even greater reduction, up to 77 percent, in risk of allergies. Researchers suggest this protective effect may be the result of early exposure to lots of bacteria that are carried by dogs and cats. Exposing young children to these bacteria helps" exercise" their immune systems early in life so that they're better able to resist allergic diseases later. There's something very important in that first year of life when the immune system is developing that we can retrain _ away from an allergic response, said Dr. William Davis. And while researchers are not encouraging parents to buy dogs or cats just to reduce a child's allergy risk, they say if a family already has one or more animals, there's no need to get rid of them. It can be inferred from the passage that _ . A) pets are ill-treated by their owners B) less families would like to own cats and dogs C) keeping pets is a good way to keep children healthy D) the results of the study can make families with pets feel at ease
D
(Question)
What is funny? The short answer is: Who knows? The joke that causes a burst of laughter from one listener might be met with a puzzled look from another. In general, you should avoid jokes at any business or social gathering where there are more than two people in your conversational group. If there are only two people -- and they consist of you and your best friend -- go ahead and tell it. Admittedly, a few people possess a perfect sense of timing, appropriateness, and joke delivery. You are probably not one of them. You might be quite funny and have many great jokes. But there's a place for jokes -- over dinner with family, hiking with friends, but business or social affairs with colleagues and acquaintances are not it. It takes a whole other level of joke-telling ability to put a joke into the more formal conversations. The best jokes come into the conversation so that by the time listeners realize a joke is in progress, the punchline that produces humour is being delivered -- to their surprise and delight. Jokes don't translate well when you're in a group with mixed backgrounds: those whose first language is not English, those who might not understand a special term or an "in" expression, young people who wouldn't catch a reference to some bit of culture familiar to older people -- and vice versa . Never joke about another person in the group -- about their name, habits, hometown, profession, appearance, or past. It's not a question of whether the joke is cheery or appropriate. No one enjoys being singled out this way. When you are the subject of the joke, the laughter doesn't feel good no matter how hard you try to tell yourself they're not laughing at you. Because that's what it feels like. What do you say if you realize your joke upset someone? Apologize as briefly and as sincerely as you can, and hope that someone changes the subject. Try saying: "I'm sorry. I should have known better" or "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking." What do you do if people don't get your joke or don't appear to find it as funny... Which of the following best describes the writer's opinion on joke-telling? A) Nobody knows what makes a joke funny. B) We should not tell jokes unless we are asked to do so. C) Joke-telling is a very complex thing. D) Jokes should be told only to friends and family members.
(Answer)
C