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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: When I was a boy my father told me that he could do anything he wanted to.Dad said that he wanted to be the first to develop color prints in our city, and so he did. When I was 16,dad looked closely at the violin I played and said that he wanted to make one.He read about violinmaking,and then became a violinmaker at the age of 43.He bought the tools and materials,opened a small store and set Mom up as the shopkeeper,while he worked at a local company.He retired from the company 17 years later and continued to make violins and other instruments. Dad often guessed why the Stradivarius violins sounded so beautiful.Some experts told him that it was the special varnish that gave the instruments their beautiful sound.Dad argued that chemists could analyze the varnish--if that was the answer. One of Dad's friends asked him which kind of wood was used to make violins.When dad explained that the top was made of spruce ,his friend said that he had all old piece of spruce which dad might be interested in. He worked for the next 12 months making a violin from the wood that his friend had given him.It proved to be an excellent violin and it would become Dad's masterpiece.He believed that the secret of the Stradivarius sound was in the wood itself. Later, the instrument was stolen. _ But he kept the music shop until he was 80 years old,selling guitars and violins. The violin has been missing for more than 25 years.Somewhere a musician is playing a late-20th-century violin with an excellent tone.The owner today may never understand why this Ordinary-looking violin sounds so much like Stradivarius. Question: What did the writer's father think about Stradivarius violins? - They were made by experts. - The wood of the violins was special. - The way of making them was unusual. - The varnish was different from the others.
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The wood of the violins was special.

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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: WASHINGTON: An analysis of global temperatures by independent statisticians shows the Earth is still warming and not cooling as some global warming skeptics are claiming. The analysis was conducted at the request of The Associated Press to investigate the legitimacy of talk of a cooling trend that has been spreading on the Internet, fueled by some news reports, a new book and temperatures that have been cooler in a few recent years. In short, it is not true, according to the statisticians who contributed to the analysis. The statisticians, reviewing two sets of temperature data, found no trend of falling temperatures over time.US government data show the decade that ends in December will be the warmest in 130 years of record-keeping, and 2005 was the hottest year recorded. The case that the Earth might be cooling partly stems from recent weather. Last year was cooler than previous years. It has been a while since the superhot years of 1998 and 2005. So is this a longer climate trend or just weather's normal ups and downs? In a blind test, the AP gave temperature data to four independent statisticians and asked them to look for trends, without telling them what the numbers represented. The experts found no true temperature declines over time. "If you look at the data and sort of cherry-pick a microtrend within a bigger trend, that technique is particularly suspect," said John Grego, a professor of statistics at the University of South Carolina. Yet the idea that things are cooling has been repeated in opinion columns, a BBC news story posted on the Drudge Report and in a new book by the authors of the best-seller Freakonomics. Last week, a poll by the Pew Research Center found that only 57 percent of Americans now believe there is strong scientific evidence for global warming, down from 77 percent in 2006. Question: We can learn from the passage that _ . - five independent statisticians were given temperature data to look for trends - more and more Americans now believe there is strong scientific evidence for global warming - The analysis of global temperatures was required by the independent statisticians - The earth is not becoming cooler as some people are claiming on the internet
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The earth is not becoming cooler as some people are claiming on the internet

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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Computer games have been criticised for quite some time over a whole range of issues. Some people say they are overly violent and encourage violent behaviour particularly in children. Others say that they make children unsociable and are bad for their eyes. Some have even attributed falling standards of literacy and a lack of interest in reading on them. Now, however, it seems that computer games have also become a feminist issue. Game manufacturers have, for some time, been looking to increase the number of female game players. The vast majority of computer games still sell to a mainly male market. Perhaps this is because the violent nature of many of the games appeals more to males or perhaps because many of the main characters in the games are male. Manufacturers' attempts to produce more female characters increase their share of the female gaming market which has met with serious criticism from many women's groups. While heroines such as Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider game are seen as providing positive role models of strong women, many believe that the character's unrealistic Barbies are subconsciously setting unattainable standards in the minds of young women. Perhaps a stronger criticism is that although many games now include female characters, their role is often secondary and they support the main, male, action characters within the games. Of course the nature of many of the games remains violent and destructive and this in itself could well continue to put off female gamers. There are now, however, a number of web sites springing up on the World Wide Web to help women deal with this issue. Sites such as Game Girlz, Women Gamers and Game Gal offer game reviews, articles, discussion forums and even employment opportunities for women interested in becoming part of the rapidly expanding games industry. The games are reviewed by women from a very female perspective. Some rate the games from one to ten across a range of criteria which include the appearance of the female characters, the degree of... Question: Manufacturers want to produce more female characters in order to _ . - increase sales in the male market - help women learn how to play computer games - encourage more women to buy computer games - increase the number of male game players
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encourage more women to buy computer games