Anyone who has ever lost keys or money will have wished for a simple but effective way to make sure it never happens again. A US company is trying to help. Using a tiny microchip which is implanted into the arm, they have come up with a replacement for cash or credit cards that cannot be left at home or dropped on the bus. The Verichip is about the size of a grain of rice and works using radio frequency identification technology. At a shop, a radio frequency "reader" would send a signal and the chip in your arm would respond with your unique identity number. That would give the "reader" your financial information, and money could be taken directly from your accounts and you wouldn't even have to reach for your wallet. The company also hopes to include other information on the chip, such as medical records, building security codes and passwords, making life even easier. But not everyone is happy with the developments. Critics say that a lot can go wrong with the chip. A clever thief could build a fake reader that would steal your information without you knowing. So your money could still be stolen. Privacy is a big issue too. Stores, or even the government, only need to track the chip to find out what you buy, how much you spend and where you go. And if you wanted to get rid of your chip, you would need an operation to remove it. Which is true of the Verichip? A) Your information on it will always be safe. B) Medical records have already been included. C) You can easily reach for your wallet using it. D) An operation has to be performed to remove it.
D
Everyone hates to wait in lines. We get that anxious feeling that our precious life is slipping away while we're doing something so meaningless. But it's not always the length of the wait we find so unbearable. Some people camp outside Apple stores for an entire night just to get their hands on the latest product. But waiting 10 minutes in a grocery store just to buy a drink? Forget it. Our behavior when waiting is only partly decided by the length of the wait. "Often the psychology of queuing is more important than the statistics of the wait itself," notes the MIT researcher Richard Larson. One apparent aspect of queuing psychology is that we get bored when we wait in line. This issue is solved in many ways, from magazines in hospital waiting rooms to mirrors in elevators so that we can check our appearance. We really hate it when we expect a short wait and then get a long one. But studies show that we are much more patient when we are given an idea of how long we'll be waiting. Walt Disney Co knows this better than anyone else. It posts estimated waiting times for attractions in its theme parks. But according to Larson, these times are overestimated so that visitors get to the front of the queue more quickly than they expect. It keeps them happy. But perhaps the biggest influence on our feelings about waiting in a line has to do with our sense of fairness. When it comes to queues, the universally acknowledged standard is first come, first served. Any departure from this principle is regarded as unfair and can lead to violent queue anger. You've probably experienced mild queue anger yourself in fast food restaurants, watching people in the other line zoom ahead of you, cursing yourself for having chosen the "wrong" line. In order to solve this problem, the serpentine line was invented. The serpentine line guides all customers into one big snaking queue, separated by ropes or barriers. When you reach the head of the queue, you are directed to the next available server, or teller, or customs official. The... The main purpose of the passage is _ . A) to explain the advantages of serpentine line B) to introduce ways of saving time in queuing C) to offer an explanation of the psychology of queuing D) to analyze the psychology of people queuing for Apple products
C
Q: When a big exam is coming up, you probably feel anxious about any wasted time and want to begin school as soon as you probably can. But tens of thousands of British high school students will soon be getting up later. They're taking part in a new experiment by Oxford University to see if later classes can improve their exam results. Grades 10 students in the UK have to take the nationwide General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exams. They have to pass these exams in order to study more advanced courses, and later apply for universities. The Oxford University project means that GCSE students from more than 100 schools across England will start school at 10 am, more than one hour later than the current start time (8:50 am). The project is based on scientific evidence that teenagers are "out of sync " with traditional school hours, the Telegraph reported. And what they need is more sleep in the morning. "We know that something funny happens when you're a teenager, in that you seem to be out of sync with the world," said professor Colin Epsie, who is leading the study. "Your parents think it's because you are lazy and opinionated and everything will be OK if you could get to sleep earlier. But science is telling us that teenagers need to sleep more in the mornings." Everyone follows a natural cycle of sleep and wakefulne ss. Biology has decided that teenagers go to sleep around midnight and don't feel fully awake until 9-10 am, according to scientists. That's two hours later than adults. And their body clocks stay like this until the age of around 21 for males, and 19 for females. "Society provides school for learning, but the brain provides sleep. So we are exploring the possibility that if you delay the schools start time until 10 am, that will improve learning performance," said Epsie. The results could be positive, based on previous studies. An early study at the UK's Monkseaton High School in 2009 found that starting an hour later improved grades in core subjects by 19 percent. The Oxford project... What is the author's attitude toward the Oxford University project ? A) Critical B) Optimistic C) Doubtful D) Uninterested
A: B
(Question)
BEIJING, Jan. 11(Xinhuanet)-- Sleeping a little bit longer a day might help fight against obesity , a recent study shows. The research-- published in the Archives of Internal Medicine along with an editorial by Turek and Northwestern colleague Joseph Bass commenting on it and related research-- after comparing people of normal weight- a body mass index of less than 25- with those who were overweight or _ , found that sleeping for an extra 20 minutes each night could offer a pain-free way to lose weight. Insufficient sleep is linked with changes in hormone levels that may stimulate appetite. A series of studies in recent months have shown that the less people sleep, the heavier they tend to be. American researcher Robert Vorona from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk and colleagues have now examined the relationship between people's self-reported sleep time per 24 hours and their body mass index(BMI). They found that total sleep time and BMI were inversely correlated was total sleep time decreased, BMI increased, except in the severely obese group." Americans experience insufficient sleep and corpulent bodies. Clinicians are aware of the burden of obesity on patients," the study said. "Our findings suggest that major extensions of sleep time may not be necessary, as an extra 20 minutes of sleep per night seems to be associated with a lower body mass index," it added. "We warn that this study does not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between restricted sleep and obesity (but) investigations demonstrating success in weight loss via extensions of sleep would help greatly to establish such a relationship." In November 2004, researchers from Columbia University in New York City, New York demonstrated a clear link between the risk of being obese and hours of nightly sleep, finding that people aged 32 to 59 who slept four hours or less per night were 73% more likely to be obese than people who slept between seven and nine hours per night. According to the text , the author intends to tell us that _ . A) Sleeping a little bit longer a day might help fight against obesity B) insufficient sleep is linked with changes in hormone lives C) there exists a clear link between the risk of being obeses and hours of nightly sleep D) the less people sleep , the heavier they tend to be
(Answer)
A