Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: An artist in Oakland, California is using his skills to help the homeless. Greg Kloehn builds very small shelters that make life on the streets more comfortable. The structures offer the homeless some safety and protection from bad weather. Each little house also has wheels on the bottom so it can go wherever its owner goes. Greg Kloehn has given away at least 20 tiny houses to the homeless on the street. On a recent day, Mr. Kloehn stops to visit his homeless friends. One of them is Oscar Young. The two men hug when they see each other. Inside his little shelter Mr. Young gets relief from cold nights on the streets. Mr. Kloehn also visits Sweet-Pea, another friend who also lives in one of the little homes the artist built. She says it keeps her safe and protects her belongings. In the mornings, Mr. Kloehn searches the streets for building materials. He gathers what he can and takes it to his studio. There, he puts the houses together. Empty coffee bags become roof material. A washing machine door and refrigerator part become windows. Nails, screws and the sticky glue hold all the pieces together. The artist also attaches a small electrical device to the house. The device is powered by the sun. Some of the people living on the streets once had normal houses of their own. But some of the people say they have learned to live with less and they are thankful to that man. Mr. Kloehn says his work is not a social project. He says he is just someone using his skills to help his homeless neighbors. Question: The passage is likely to be taken from _ . Options: A: a textbook B: a book review C: a science magazine D: a news report
A: D

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: "Selfie" joins ranks of dictionary words. In 2002, an Australian man went to his friend's 21st birthday party. He got drunk, _ on some steps and cut his lip. He took a picture of his injuries and shared it with his friends on an online forum. "And sorry about the focus," he wrote, "it was a selfie." That was the first recorded use of the word "selfie", according to linguistic experts at Oxford Dictionaries. On Nov 19, Oxford Dictionaries declared "selfie" Word of the Year for 2013, in honor of the term having taken over the world thanks to millions of smart phone self-portraits and the resulting shares on social media. So what does the choice of the word say about our culture? Mary Elizabeth Williams, writing in Salon magazine, says the word reminds us that contemporary culture is defined by our narcissism .Megan Jackson from a local newspaper points out a selfie may only focus on appearance. Selfies invite judgment based on appearance alone. What kind of cultural influence does this have on women? Erin Gloria Ryan on Jezebel says selfies teach young woman to obsess over their appearance and judge themselves on the basis of beauty rather than accomplishments. "They're a reflection of the warped way we teach girls to see themselves as decorative," said Ryan. In Slate magazine, Rachel Simmons has the opposite view. She argues that selfies are an example of young women promoting themselves and taking control of their own self-presentation. Think of each one, she says, as "a tiny pulse of girl pride --a shout-out to the self". Question: Who holds a positive opinion towards selfie in the life of women? Options: A: Mary Elizabeth. B: Megan Jackson. C: Erin Gloria Ryan. D: Rachel Simmons.
A: D

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: There are robots all around us,Some do very complicated jobs like flying airplanes and driving subway trains. And some do a simple job. When an automatic washing machine is switched on, water pours in. The machine waits until the water is hot before washing the clothes. It does this by "feedback". Information about what is happening is "feedback"into the robot to tell it what to do next. Our eyes,ears and other senses are our feedback. They tell us what is going on around us. So robots are like people in two ways:They work and they have feedback. There are robots all around, making our lives easier. Some of them, like the pocket calculator, can work much more quickly than human beings can. And they rarely make mistakes. In some ways robots are better than people. They work quickly, but do not make mistakes. They do not get bored doing the same job over andover again. And they never get tired. Robots are very useful in factories. They can be taught to do many different jobs. First their electronic brains must be shown how the job is done. A person moves the robot's"arm"and"hand"through each part of the job. The robot's brain remembers each move. When the robot is put to work on its own, its brain controls the rods, wheels and motors which move its arm. When the robot is needed for a new job, its electronic memory is"wiped clean."Then it is taught how to do its new task. If the robot's hand stops working, or if something gets in the way, it cannot do the next part of the job. So it stops and signals for help, then a human engineer repairs it. The most"intelligent"robots can move and see. Their eyes are cameras. Their metal fingers can feel shapes and even find out how hot and cold objects are. These robots have computer brains, linked to their eyes and fingers, which control their actions. Question: Since people like what robots do, what do you think this means for the future? Options: A: More and better robots will be built. B: People will stop making robots. C: There will be laws against using robots. D: Robots will benefit nobody.
A: A

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Late last summer, I was introduced to a new special someone. We met at an Apple product announcement. She was helpful, smart, and even funny, talking of jokes and making me laugh. What more could a man ask for? Since then, we have had some major communication issues. She frequently misunderstands what I'm saying. Sometimes she is just unavailable. Often, she responds with the same repetitive statement. Her name is Siri. At first, Siri, the voice-activated digital assistant on Apple Iphones, seemed a little too good to be true. Siri cheated me into a relationship promising to help me set up appointments, to gently wake me in the morning for work, and to give me the ability to text someone while I was driving. It didn't work out that way. "There's something wrong, and I can't answer your questions right now. Please try again in a little while," Siri will say when I ask something, or: "I'm really sorry about this, but I can't take any requests right now. Please try again in a little while." She is always polite. But I'm starting to suspect that "I'm really sorry" is just something Siri says to shut me up. Apple introduced Siri as a beta test, meaning it was still a work in progress. That was unusual for Apple. It wanted a head start. But it doesn't seem ready to change anything yet. Many people I have spoken to have switched Siri off and turned to the iPhone's voice dictation service, which is more reliable because it doesn't use Siri's artificial intelligence software. Over time, things have really gone bad between Siri and me. We hardly speak anymore. Although she doesn't know this, I've started seeing someone else. Her name is Google Voice Search (GVS). GVS, available in the latest operating software, is a much better listener. It's ly smarter. If I ask GVS a question, like, "Who is Tim Cook?", it responds with an answer " He's the chief executive of Apple". If I ask Siri the same question, the response is: "I don't see Tim Cook in your contacts." Question: What makes the author feel annoyed about Siri later in life? Options: A: She is always running out of electricity in a short time. B: She frequently fails to finish what he wishes for. C: She often receives some calls from strangers. D: She is always out of order in the countryside.
A: B