I give two examples as to why intelligent life may not actually exist, though I admit that for me, or even for a physicist who devoted his or her entire life to researching and studying the universe, it's shocking to claim that completely no life exists elsewhere. Keeping that in mind, I'd just like to consider conditions elsewhere in the known universe. You really only need to look at our own solar system or the Earth at certain periods in its own history to appreciate that most places are much worse and much less suitable for life than our mild, watery globe. So far, space scientists have discovered about seventy planets outside the solar. But it appears that if you wish to have a planet suitable for life, you just have to be very lucky, and the more advanced the life is, the luckier you'll have to be. I'm by no means a space observer, but I can recognize some particularly fortunate breaks we've had on the Earth. For example: We are, to a degree, at the right distance from the perfect type of star, the one that is big enough to radiate a huge amount of energy, but not so big as to bum itself out quickly. Had our sun been ten times as huge, it would have burnt out completely after only ten million years, instead of ten billion and surely we would not exist. Too near, everything on the Earth would have boiled and withered away; any further, everything would have frozen over. The universe is a surprising place, and our existence within it is a wonder. If a long and unimaginably complex sequence of events dating back 4.6 billion years or so hadn't happened in a particular manner at a particular time --if, to take just one example, the dinosaurs hadn't been wiped out by a meteor --we might still be a few centimeters long, with whisker and a tail, and you'll be reading this in a cave somewhere. What makes the Earth more suitable for life than other planets in the solar system? A) The Earth is the only planet that can receive energy from the sun. B) The sun is at the right distance from us and in proper size. C) The distance between the planets was neither too long nor too near. D) The dinosaurs were no longer a threat to the Earth.
B
(Question)
Swearing can provide effective relief from pain - but not if you swear all the time, researchers have found. A study found releasing the strange expletive (=swearing) helped people cope with discomfort in the short-term but the frequency of swearing played an important role. Researchers at Keele University's School of Psychology employed 71 undergraduates who were asked to carry out a cold-water challenge while either repeating a swear word or a non-swear word. The students put their hand in room temperature water for three minutes to act as a control before diving it into cold 5degC water for as long as they could while repeating their word. The level of sensed pain together with a change in heart rate were compared while people swore or said their non-swear word. The group was also asked about how much they swore in daily life and this was analyzed together with their level of pain tolerance. Writing in the Journal of Pain, the authors concluded: "Swearing increased pain tolerance and heart rate compared with not swearing." "Moreover, the higher the daily swearing frequency, the less was the benefit for pain tolerance when swearing, compared with when not swearing." Dr Richard Stephens, a senior lecturer in psychology at Keele, said: "Swearing is a very emotive form of language and our findings suggest that using swear words moderation (, ) can be an effective and readily available short-term pain reliever." "However, if you're used to swearing all the time, our research suggests you won't get the same effect." According to the passage, which of the statements is TRUE? A) The more frequently you swear, the better your ability to stand pain will be. B) The heart rate of the participants will be increasing while they are swearing in the experiment. C) If you repeat a swear word in moderation, you will relieve much of the pain for a long time. D) Swearing plays a very important role in relieving the pain and comforting yourself.
(Answer)
B
Ques:Like many other nations, China has been busy putting together evacuation plans for its citizens stuck in crisis-torn Libya.The real surprise has been just how many Chinese are living there.The foreign ministry does not know for sure but puts the figure at 30-40,000. The huge contingent in Libya, who work for at least 27 Chinese companies, has brought to light one of the new dilemmas facing China as its economic interests expand.For a mixture of reasons that are partly political, partly business, Chinese workers are now present in many of the most unrest and dangerous parts of the world, including places where anti-Chinese sentiment over jobs and working conditions is on the rise.One of the first wake-up calls was in 2007, when a group of Chinese women were kidnapped in Pakistan, an event which led to the siege of the Red Mosque in Lahore.In the same year, nine Chinese oil workers were killed in Ethiopia.In recent years, Chinese workers have been kidnapped in Cameroon, Congo and Afghanistan. Publicly, Chinese diplomats admit that the country needs better contingency plans to deal with this sort of situation.Privately, they worry about a different issue: that such incidents will force them to get much more involved in domestic political disputes in far-off lands, pulling the government away from its commitment to a policy of non-interference.The nightmare, a few diplomats and academics admit, would be a large, violent attack on a group of Chinese which then prompted an intense nationalist reaction at home, forcing the government to take the sort of interventionist actions it tries to _ . Beijing gave some indication of how it will respond in the future with the decision on Thursday to send the frigate Xuzhou, currently conducting anti-piracy tasks off the coast of Somalia, to Libya.Its mission will be to help the evacuation effort, but it is also a warning to any in Libya who might attack Chinese interests, as well as the latest indication of the growing global reach of China's navy.As Andrew Erickson, a... What's Not true about the frigate Xuzhou? A) It is conducting anti-piracy tasks off the coast of Somalia. B) It will help the evacuation effort. C) It is a warning to Libya who might attack Chinese interests. D) It indicates that China's navy can reach an increasing number of parts of the global.

Ans:
C