My grandfather had a small farm where he raised beef and some grain for feed. He also worked diligently as a factory laborer and country pastor. He was a good neighbor and well-respected for honoring his word. When harvest time came, he'd piece together his old one-row corn picker and oil it up for the season. All his life he worked hard, helped others, and you could count on him to keep his promises. He had promised to harvest a few ribbons of corn on a friend's farm, but after harvesting his own corn, Grandpa's little corn picker coughed and quit. It would be out of commission until a particular part could be ordered, but that would take far too long to help this year. The factory where Grandpa worked began to require overtime. In order to keep his job there he had to leave the farm before dawn and get home until well after sunset. One autumn night, while harvest time was running out, he and his wife sat at the kitchen table and trying to figure a way out of their dilemma. "There's nothing you can do," said my grandma. "You'll just have to tell him that you can't help with the corn this year." "Well that just doesn't sit well with me," said my grandpa. "My friend is depending on me. I can't exactly let my neighbor's harvest rot in the field, can I?" "When do you think you'd have time to do it?" she asked. "With the overtime you've been working you'd be up all night." "I know of one night that I could do it!" he said, running to the bookshelf. He grabbed the Farmer's Almanac and started flipping through the pages. "Aha! There's still one more full moon in October." They say it's called the harvest moon because it gives farmers more light and more time to collect their crops. And so a few days later, after a long shift at the factory, my grandpa made his way to the field where my grandma met him in the truck with dinner. The weather was cold but clear, and the moon was brilliant. He worked through the night to keep his word. I know this story well, so sometimes, when I'm tempted to cut corners or to put... Which was the main trouble my grandfather had in helping his friend? A) His wife objected to his helping his friend. B) His corn picker ran out of oil. C) His corn picker broke down. D) The weather was not favorable.
C
We often hear people talking about a generation gap . The name is new,but the idea is old. Young people and their parents don't understand each other. The world has always kept changing. During the second century after Christ a wise man said, "Bury me on my face because in a little while everything will be turned upside down." There has always been a gap between generations, but more people talk about it now. Old Mr. Ellis thinks he understands what has happened. "When I was a boy, I thought the world was a beautiful place. My life was very pleasant. But when I was older, I learned about people who were treated badly, people who didn't have enough to eat. I wanted to help them, and I married a girl who wanted to help them, too. We went to meetings and talked a lot, but it didn't seem to make much difference. ""Our children grew up in a world at war. They didn't know when the fighting would stop. They wanted their children to have nice clothes and toys. They didn't want to think about the future. They thought nothing could be done about it." "Now I have grandchildren, and they have their own ideas. They are trying to make the world better. They are trying to help other people. They're making people listen to them. I am proud of their generation." What is the writer's attitude towards the generation gap? A) Unacceptable. B) Awful. C) Funny. D) Common.
D
Q: Getting enough sleep on a regular basis is one important way to protect the health of your heart. Poor sleep is associated with a range of cardiovascular problems, including high blood pressure, heart attack, and heart failure. Both men and women are at increased risk for these conditions. But we continue to learn that when it comes to health problems associated with sleep, the particular risks to men and women are not always the same. A new study suggests that for women who already have heart disease, poor sleep may be particularly dangerous to their heart health. Research indicates that poor-quality sleep--and waking too early in particular--is associated with increased inflammation among women with heart disease. There was no similar association found for men, suggesting that women with heart disease and sleep problems may be at particular risk for inflammation that can be damaging to the heart. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco investigated the relationship between sleep quality and inflammation linked to coronary heart disease. They also sought information about how an association between sleep and inflammation might differ between men and women. Their investigation included 980 men and women at first, and 626 completed the 5-year study. All of those included were suffering for coronary heart disease. The average age of men in the study was 66. Women were slightly younger, with an average age of 64. Researchers measured sleep quality by asking participants to rate their sleep over the previous month. They also asked for reports of some of the most common sleep problems, including difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, waking frequently throughout the night, and waking too early in the morning. After 5 years, researchers repeated tests for inflammation and once again sought reports on sleep quality and sleep problems. When they analyzed data for both men and women together, researchers found no links between inflammations and sleep quality. However, when they... What is the purpose of the author in writing the passage? A) To stress how to have a good sleep in daily life. B) To show a good sleep is more important to women. C) To describe different kinds of sleep problems. D) To encourage readers to sleep more.
A: B
(Q).
The cattle egret has lived in American continent in recent years. Non-native species are a worldwide problem and studies are devoted to assess the damage they cause to local species populations. The cattle egret primarily lives on the grassland and feeds in close association with animals like cattle and sheep. This bird is native to Africa, southern Europe and western Asia. The cattle egret in Brazil is unlike a number of bird species that have been established and expanded to non-native areas through human assistance. The first sight of the cattle egret in the New World were reported between 1877 and 1882, followed by sightings in British Guiana and Colombia and later expansion throughout the Americas. In Brazil, the cattle egret was first recorded in the northern region of the country in 1964, feeding along with buffalos on Marajo Island in the state of Para. While the cattle egret is not currently a threat to native animals and birds in Brazil throughout most of its geographic distribution, it has the potential to produce bad effects, as evidenced by its occupation of island environments. For example, in the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, the cattle egret drives adult native seabirds away from their nests in producing time. Understanding how the cattle egret settled and lived in Brazil is important for the better understanding of spreading patterns of bird populations and their interaction with the local species. Explaining the egret cattle's settling in the Americas is a challenging task due to the lack of sufficient information and reports on entrance time, location, and number of events. Comparisons between native and non-native populations can provide a 'natural' experimental way to clarify the biological and environmental factors that may contribute to range expansion and adaptation to climate change, and to find how animals respond to strange and sudden ecological and environmental pressures. In America, humans first found the cattle egret _ A) in the 1870s. B) in Colombia C) in British Guiana D) in the 1960s
(A).
A