*Question*
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: The yearly Academy Awards ceremony was once a private affair. Now, because of television, it is very much a public affair. Hundreds of people gather in Hollywood to see the Oscars presented to outstanding actors, and others involved in the motion picture industry. Millions more watch on television. It all began on May 16, 1929, when 270 men and women sat down to dinner at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. There was no secret about the winners. The names of the winners had been known for months. Janet Gaynor, for example, had won as Best Actress. Douglas Fairbanks presented her with the famous gold statue . The little statue was not then called Oscar. Like a new actor, Oscar was unknown. About six years later, it somehow got that renowned name. A number of explanations have been offered for its origin, but nobody knows the true story for certain. Nowadays the results of the Oscar voting are kept secret. Only two people know the winners before the names are announced at the ceremony. The counting of votes is not done by one group of people but by different groups. Nobody except two members of an accounting company sees the final results. The information is not kept in open files. Winners' names are placed in closed envelopes. The accountants each carry a complete set of envelopes to the ceremony. One set is simply a spare to be used in case something happens to the other one. Question: Two sets of envelopes are prepared for the ceremony _ . Options: A: one for New York, one for Hollywood B: in order to be perfectly safe C: one for the ceremony, one for the newspapers D: just because that is the custom
**Answer**
B

*Question*
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: Apparently everyone knows that global warming only makes climate more extreme. A hot, dry summer has caused another flood of such claims. And one of the players that benefit the most from this story is the media: the idea of "extreme" climate simply makes for more exciting news. Consider Paul Krugman writing breathlessly in The New York Times about the "rising incidence of extreme events." He claims that global warming caused the current drought in America's Midwest, and that supposedly record-high corn prices could cause a global food crisis . But the United Nations's latest assessment tells us precisely the opposite--there has an overall slight tendency toward less dryness in North America. Moreover, there is no way that Krugman could have identified this drought as being caused by global warming without a time machine since climate models estimate that such detection will be possible by 2048, at the earliest. And, fortunately, this year's drought appears unlikely to cause a food crisis, as global rice and wheat supplies are plentiful. Moreover, Krugman overlooks inflation :Prices have increased six-fold since 1969.So, the inflation-adjusted price of corn was higher throughout most of the 1970s. Finally, Krugman forgets that concerns about global warming are the main reason that corn prices have skyrocketed since 2005.Nowadays 40 percent of corn grown in the United States is used to produce ethanol ,which raises the price of corn -at the expense of many of the world's poorest people. Bill Mickbben similarly worries in The Guardian About the Midwest drought and corn prices.He confidently tells us that fierce wildfires from New Mexico and Colorado to Siberia are "exactly" what the early stages of global warming look like. In fact, the latest study on global wildfire suggests that fire incidence has declined over the past 70 years and is now close to its preindustrial level. When well--meaning campaigners want us to pay attention to global warming, they often end up making overstatements. And exaggerated ... Question: What is the chief reason for the rise in corn prices according to the author? Options: A: Inflation rates have been skyrocketing since the 1970s. B: A considerable part of corn is used to produce green fuel. C: Climate change has caused corn supply to drop markedly. D: Demand for food has been rising in the developing countries.
**Answer**
B

*Question*
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: On Friday, Japanese researchers announced a population clock that showed a dangerous situation that the Japanese nation would disappear in 1,000 years if the falling birth rate kept the present level. Researchers in the northern city of Sendai said that Japan's population of children aged up to 14, which now stands at 16.6 million, was falling at the rate of one child per 100 seconds. It would lead to a terrible result that there would be no children left in Japan in 1,000 years. "If the rate keeps falling at that rate in our country, there will only be one child who is able to enjoy the following Children's Day left on May 5th, 3011," said Hiroshi Yoshida, a professor at Toholu University. "But 100 seconds later, a national disaster that there are no children left in Japan will happen," he added, "The nation's people will disappear for the birth rate has fallen to the level that every woman has no more than two children, which started in 1975." Yoshida said they created the population clock to make Japanese people pay close attention to that problem for their nation's future. Another study showed that Japan's population was expected to fall to one third of the present population amount: 127.7 million in the next century. The Japanese government predicted that the birth rate would just become 1.35 children per parents within 50 years. At the same time, Japanese life expectancy which is expected to ascend from 86.93 years in 2010 to 90.93 years in 2060 for women and from 79.64 years to 84.19 years for men has already been one of the highest in the world. More than 20 percent of the Japanese are aged 65 or over. It means that Japan has become one of the countries with aging populations in the world. The problem of aging populations is a headache for the government and the Japanese economy because there are fewer and fewer workers who can make money for the country. However, the government has to face the terrible situation that it needs to offer a growing number of pensions. Question: According to Hiroshi Yoshida, on June 1st, 3011 _ . Options: A: Children's Day will be called off B: 16.6 million Japanese children may die C: The birth rate of Japan will go up slowly D: Japan will become a country without children
**Answer**
D

*Question*
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: Unless you bring your own thermos, paper cups are the real option for on-the-go coffee. But as we all know, producing these simple items cuts down forests of trees and contributes to mountains of waste. In fact, Starbucks alone uses 4 billion paper cups a year globally and most of these plastic-lined cups are never recycled. But a project from Reduce. Reuse. Grow. is handling the coffee industry's paper cup problem by giving these single-use coffee holders a further purpose: reforestation. A company in California has developed the world's first plantable coffee cup, which has seeds in the paper-based material. That means after you're done with the cup, you can tear it, leave it in water for a few minutes, bury it and let nature take over. To prevent the spread of invasive plants, the bottom of the cup details the seed variety and also includes instructions on how to plant it either in the northern or central coast of California. For those who don't want to get their hands dirty, the cup can be put into a Reduce. Reuse. Grow bin where it will eventually be taken to a reforestation location. The cup can biodegrade within 180 days and offer nutrition to plants. The company is trying to put the cup into commercial production and persuade coffee shops to buy the cups. Question: The seed variety is shown on the cup mainly to _ . Options: A: interest cup users B: spread knowledge of plants C: make sure it is planted properly D: help users choose certain cups
**Answer**
C