Article: Outside her cottage, old Mrs. Taylor was hanging out laundry on a wire line, unaware that some children were hiding in a nearby tree watching her every move. They were determined to find out if she really was a witch. They watched nervously as she took a broomstick to sweep the dirt from her stone steps. But much to their disappointment, she didn't get on the broomstick and fly off. The old lady only looked up when her hen began to make sounds loudly --signaling that she had laid an egg in the nest on the top of the haystack. . The old lady put aside her broomstick and walked to the haystack, followed by Michael, a black cat she had rescued from a fox trap. With only three legs, it was hard for Michael to keep up with his mistress. The cat was proof for the children that only a witch would own a black cat with three legs! Crawling further along the branches, they could clearly see the haystack. Mrs. Taylor was standing on a wooden box with the new-laid egg in one hand. Placing the egg in her pocket, she readied herself to climb down. Then, without warning, the box broke under her and she crashed to the ground. The children were in horror. "Should we go and help her?" asked Mia. "What if it's a trick?" replied Patrick. "She probably knows we're here. Witches know things like that!" After thinking for a while, Julia said"Anyway, we should go and check whether she is all right." Approaching _ , they could see a wound on the old lady's forehead. She had knocked her head on a stone and was unconscious. "Go and get Dad," Mia yelled to her brothers. "Tell him about the accident." The boys didn't need another excuse to leave. They ran as fast as they could for help, hoping that Mrs. Taylor would not regain consciousness and turn the girls into frogs. Later, in the hospital, the old lady smiled her thanks. "I was so lucky that you lovely children happened to be passing when 1 fell. I must have yelled quite loudly." The children exchanged guilty glances, but were very pleased that she was not a witch after all! Question: Mrs. Taylor stopped sweeping when _ . Yes or no, is the answer "she heard the hen making sounds loudly"?
No

Article: Death Valley is a land of beautiful yet dangerous extremes. Death Valley can be dangerously cold during the winter months. Storms in the mountains can produce sudden flooding on the floor of the Valley. The air temperature during the summer has been as high as fifty- seven degrees Celsius. The sun can heat the ground so that the temperature of the rocks and soil can be as high as seventy -four degrees Celsius. Death Valley contains evidence of several ancient volcanoes that caused huge explosions. Evidence of one of these explosions is called Ubehebe Crater. The explosion left a huge hole in the ground almost a kilometer and a half wide. In many areas of Death Valley it is easy to see where the ground has been pushed up violently by movement deep in the Earth. This movement has created unusual and beautiful rock formations. Some are red. Others are dark brown, gray, yellow or black. The area was named by a woman in 1849. Thousands of people from other parts of the ountry traveled to the gold mining areas in California. They were in a hurry to get there before other people did. One group trying to reach California decided to take a path called the Old Spanish Trail. By December they had reached Death Valley. They did not have to survive the terrible heat of summer, but there was still an extreme lack of water. There were few plants for their work animals to eat. The people could not find a pass through the tall mountains to the west of the Valley, Slowly, they began co suffer from a lack of food. To survive, they killed their work animals for food and began to walk out of the Valley. As they left, one woman looked back and said, "Good -bye, death valley. " The name has never been changed. Almost everyone who visits Death Valley visits a huge house called Scotty' s Castle. The building design is Spanish, with high thick walls to provide protection from the fierce heat. The castle is named for Walter Scott , called Scotty. by his friends. He was a gold miner. He told everyone that he built the house with money... Question: The main idea of the passage is about _ . Yes or no, is the answer "the facts about Death Valley"?
No

Article: Is there a limit to the number of years that a person can expect to live? Can changes in life-style add years to one's life? Throughout history people have sought answers to these questions and others. Various myths offer the hope of great longevity. In the imaginary land of Shangri-La, for example, people are said to lead a charmed existence for a thousand years. The Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon was convinced that he would find the Foundation of Youth in what is now the state of Florida. According to the Bible, Methuselah lived to be more than 900 years old. The subject of longevity is fascinating, and scientists study individuals such as Jeanne Calment to learn about the aging process. Calment died in 1997 in Arles, France, at the age of 122. She never married, and she lived in her own apartment until moving to a retirement community when she was 109. Most scientists agree that bodies will last, at best, about 125 years. This potential has changed little since modern human beings appeared more than 100 thousand years age. Recent improvements in medicine and the environment have extended life expectancy, especially for those from poorer parts of the world. It is not clear, however, whether such improvements will lengthen life expectancy beyond a certain point. Life expectancy is the number of years an infant can be expected to live, given the conditions into which it is born. Life expectancy, therefore, is affected by nutrition, medical care, and social and political circumstances. An individual's genetic makeup is also an important factor. Children from long-lived families can hope to enjoy long lives themselves. According to recent data, the average life expectancy worldwide in 1998 was 67 years. This can be compared with an average life expectancy of 77 in the United States. In 1970 the average life expectancy worldwide was 61 years, or 6 years less than it was in 1998. This same period saw a drop in infant mortality --- the death of a child before the first birthday---from 80 births out of 1,000 to 54... Question: Infant mortality is defined as _ . Yes or no, is the answer "the number of children, out of 1,000 births, who die before their first birthday"?
No