Question:
Read the text and answer the questions.
The "Billboard" 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by "Billboard" magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Often, a recording act will be remembered by its "number ones", those of their albums that outperformed all others during at least one week.

The chart is based mostly on sales (both at retail and digital) of albums in the United States. The weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but since July 2015, tracking week begins on Friday (to coincide with the Global Release Date of the music industry) and ends on Thursday. A new chart is published the following Tuesday with an issue post-dated to the Saturday of the following week. The chart's streaming schedule is also tracked from Friday to Thursday.

New product is released to the American market on Fridays. Digital downloads of albums are also included in "Billboard" 200 tabulation. Albums that are not licensed for retail sale in the United States (yet purchased in the U.S. as imports) are not eligible to chart. A long-standing policy which made titles that are sold exclusively by specific retail outlets (such as Walmart and Starbucks) ineligible for charting, was reversed on November 7, 2007, and took effect in the issue dated November 17.
1. what is the chart based on?
2. what is a recording act remembered by?
3. how often is it published?
4. on what day?
5. are all albums included in the chart?
6. which are not?
7. can these be bought in the US anyways?
8. What did Nielsen start keeping track of?
9. when did he start?
10. what days were they between?
11. when did this change?
12. to what?
13. what happened to titles sold by retail outlets in the past?
14. what happened before it was reversed?
15. when was it reversed?
16. what is Billboard 200?
17. what is it used to convey?
18. is it worldwide?
19. are digitals eligible?
20. where is the list published?

Numbered answers:
1. the 200 most popular music albums and EPs
2. by its "number ones"
3. weekly
4. Saturday
5. no
6. Albums that are not licensed for retail sale in the United States
7. yes
8. sales
9. in 1991
10. originally Monday to Sunday
11. July 2015
12. Friday to Thursday.
13. it was reversed
14. they were ineligible for charting,
15. November 7, 2007
16. a record chart
17. the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States
18. no
19. yes
20. "Billboard" magazine.

Question:
Read the text and answer the questions.
Impressionism is a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, inclusion of "movement" as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. Impressionism originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s.

The Impressionists faced harsh opposition from the conventional art community in France. The name of the style derives from the title of a Claude Monet work, "Impression, soleil levant" ("Impression, Sunrise"), which provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satirical review published in the Parisian newspaper "Le Charivari".

The development of Impressionism in the visual arts was soon followed by analogous styles in other media that became known as impressionist music and impressionist literature.

Radicals in their time, early Impressionists violated the rules of academic painting. They constructed their pictures from freely brushed colours that took precedence over lines and contours, following the example of painters such as Eugene Delacroix and J. M. W. Turner. They also painted realistic scenes of modern life, and often painted outdoors. Previously, still lifes and portraits as well as landscapes were usually painted in a studio. The Impressionists found that they could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by painting "en plein air". They portrayed overall visual effects instead of details, and used short "broken" brush strokes of mixed and pure unmixed colournot blended smoothly or shaded, as was customaryto achieve an effect of intense colour vibration.
1. Was this form liked at first?
2. where does the name come from?
3. Which one?
4. Where did this form start?
5. When?
6. What does it consist of?
7. Why wasn't it liked?
8. Did it follow traditional rules?
9. What were they called because of that?
10. Who were they following?
11. What else did they do?
12. What came after this art form?
13. What kinds?
14. Before this, where was art created?
15. Inside or Outside?
16. What phrase describes where they painted?
17. Did they hide their strokes?
18. Why not?
19. What else could be shown?
20. Were they large?

Numbered answers:
1. No
2. the title of a Claude Monet work
3. "Impression, soleil levant"
4. Paris
5. 1870s and 1880s
6. small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition
7. unknown
8. No
9. Radicals
10. Eugene Delacroix and J. M. W. Turner
11. they would painted realistic scenes
12. analogous styles
13. impressionist music and impressionist literature
14. conventional art community in France
15. they were usually painted in a studio
16. "en plein air"
17. No
18. They wanted to achieve an effect of intense colour vibration.
19. they could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight
20. No

Question:
Read the text and answer the questions.
OK, I admit it: emoticons are popular. Some people even think they are fun. Many seem unable to get through an e-mail or Instant Message chat sentence without using one. Some feel that they add feeling and character to otherwise cold digital communications.

Some people, such as a Hollywood scriptwriter John Blumenthal, however, _ the use of emoticons as "infantile just like the people who use them". He believes that words themselves should be enough. "If you're funny, happy or sad, that should be apparent from the comment that goes before the emoticons," he argues.

In the eyes of Blumenthal, the use of emoticons is a gender issue. "Men don't use emoticons very much. Maybe not at all," he said, "Teenage girls and women seem to use them a lot. Maybe there's an emoticon gene."

It's an interesting opinion, but it is not shared by all.

In an interview with The New York Times, Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at the University of California, said that emoticons are popular because our brains are programmed "to seek out representations of humanity". He believes that they are popular not because they are shortcuts for the lazy, but because they bring in something beyond language. They satisfy our needs to be with and communicate with people.

All of these arguments may be somehow right. Each one of us will choose to communicate in our own way. I tried to use one once and felt like I was stealing into a primary school class that I had no place being in. I'd rather let my words do the talking.

Friends, however, send me messages and e-mails full of emoticons. I have no problem with this. I don't regard any of my friends as lazy or immature. It's just a question of individuality.
1. What are popular?
2. Do people think they are boring?
3. Why do people use them?
4. Who is John Blumenthal?
5. What does he think about using them?
6. What does he think?
7. Who does he say uses them?
8. Does everyone think the same as he does?
9. Who is Dacher Keltner?
10. Where?
11. Why do they think it is common to use them?
12. Does he think it's because we are lazy?
13. Then why?
14. What else does he say?
15. When did he say this?
16. What does he say it's a question of?
17. Do enemies use these?
18. Do men use them according to Blumenthal?
19. What need do the satisfy?
20. Are both arguments right?
Numbered answers:
1. emoticons
2. No
3. to add feeling and character to otherwise cold digital communications.
4. a Hollywood scriptwriter
5. infantile
6. that words themselves should be enough
7. Teenage girls and women
8. no
9. professor of psychology
10. University of California,
11. because our brains are programmed "to seek out representations of humanity"
12. No
13. because they bring in something beyond language.
14. They satisfy our needs to be with and communicate with people.
15. In an interview with The New York Times
16. individuality.
17. No
18. No
19. to be with and communicate with people.
20. Yes