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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Every day from the time we wake up until the time we go to bed, we are bombarded with information from all sides, from TV, radio, newspapers and books; from family, friends, and colleagues. As a new cable television subscriber, I am ly amazed at the quantity and varying levels of information quality on cable television. Including the networks, there are eight TV "news" organizations vying to provide us with all the information we can possibly absorb. Newspaper, magazines, books, radio, the Internet, email, snail mail, and the telephone all compete for our attention and our minds. At the office conversations around the water cooler and coffee maker serve to spread even more items of information. There is valuable information out there about the world we live in, on topics as varied as health, safety, traffic, nutrition, business, finance, philosophy, nature, science, weather, history and the human condition. There is also a large amount of misleading and outright false information, not just on controversial subjects such as politics and religion but on any topic one can think of, including all of the topics mentioned above. With all this information coming at us from all directions, how does one sift through it all to sort out the facts from the fiction, the truth from the lies, the more important from the less important? Should we turn off the TV, cancel our newspaper subscriptions, disconnect our phones and modems to become information "hermits"? Probably not. A better method of sifting through the information wave without being overwhelmed and confused is to become a skeptical inquirer-or skeptic-with regard to the surrounding world. By "skeptic"-I do not mean a cynic-a person who rejects new ideas simply because they are new. A skeptic is one who questions the validity of a particular claim by calling for evidence to prove or disprove it. Skepticism is a method, not a position. It is a provisional approach to all factual claims. In terms of processing information, a skeptic needs to be able to grasp... Question: When faced with an incredible or fantastic claim, what shall we do according to the author? - Ask questions and look for proof. - Ignore the information and its source. - Change the subject immediately. - Try to consult an expert who knows the truth.
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Ask questions and look for proof.

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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: How Many Lies Do the Children Tell You? Mothers who feel their children don' t appreciate them can add another _ to the list: half the time, their children are lying to them. A study designed to expose the truth about lying shows that undergraduates lie to their mothers in 46% of their conversations. Still, mums should feel better than total strangers, who are told lies an astonishing 77 % of the time. Bella Depaulo and a team of psychologists from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, asked 77 undergraduates to keep a record of all their conversations for a week, and write down whether they lied at any time. DePaulo named lying broadly, as "when you intentionally try to mislead someone", so she would catch the smallest of lies. The students told an average of two lies a day. They said they had been studying when they had been out drinking. One told his parents that a textbook cost $50 rather than $20 so that they would send him extra money. Female students constantly told their plain-looking roommates that they were pretty. "They are everyday lies," says DePaulo. DePaulo and her colleagues conclude that people tend to tell fewer lies to those they feel closest to. College students lied to their best friends 28% of the time but lied to acquaintances 48% of the time. In close relationships, people were more likely to tell "kind-hearted" lies, designed to protect feelings, rather than self-serving lies. Romantic partners lie somewhere between close friends and acquaintances. Students lied to romantic partners about a third of the time. DePaulo thinks that unmarried lovers can expect less honesty than best friends because of the insecurity that comes with romance. Mothers can take heart from one other finding. They may have been lied to, but at least their children talked to them. The students were recorded telling few lies to their fathers because they had little interaction with them. Question: According to the passage, college students felt closest to _ . - mothers - best friends - acquaintances - romantic partners
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best friends

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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: In Shanxi Province you may be offered brains to eat. Frightened? You shouldn't be because these brains are only a food, which is famous for its unusual name and rich nutrition . Brains as a food were invented more than 300 years ago by Fu Shan, an artist whose mother had been ill for a long time. To help her become well, he studied medicine and invented a kind of soup made of meat, vegetables and a number of Chinese medicines. Rice Wine was also used in the soup to cure illnesses caused by old age. After taking the soup his mother got better little by little and lived a long life. Fu's soup became the talk of the town. Many people came to see him. One day a restaurant owner asked him what was in the soup. "I'll tell you, " Fu said, "but if your restaurant is going to sell the soup, you must call it brains because of its shape and colour. And your restaurant should be renamed after my mother. " Question: The food was first invented to _ . - help the aged in the town - improve people's health - make a restaurant famous - help a sick woman
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help a sick woman