Years ago a farmer owned land along the Atlantic. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were not willing to work on farms along the Atlantic because they worried about the terrible storms that destroy buildings and crops. The farmer received a steady stream of refusals at the interview for a farmhand Finally, a short, thin man approached the farmer. "Are you a good farmhand?" the farmer asked him. "Well, I can sleep when the wind blows. " answered the little man. Although puzzled by this answer ,the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm ,busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work. Then one night the wind howled loudly from offshore. Jumping out of bed,the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, " Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they are blown away! " The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows. " Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot ,Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement,he discovered that all of the hay had been covered. The cows were in the bam,the chickens were in the coops,and the doors were barred The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down, Nothing could be blown away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he also returned to his bed to sleep while the wind was still blowing. Why did the farmer constantly advertise for hired hands? A) Because he needed hired hands all. the year round. B) Because there was too much work to do on the farm. C) Because he could hardly hire a farmhand. D) Because he offered poor conditions for the hired hands.
C
(Question)
The water level of oceans rises and falls alternately twice a day. This movement of water is called the tide. Tides are causer by the pull of the sun and the moon on the earth' s surface; since the moon is closer, it affects the tides more than the sun. When the moon is directly overhead, it actually pulls on the water that is below it. This causes the water level to rise because the water is pulled away from the earth. As the moon disappears over the horizon, the pull lessens and the water level settles back towards the ocean bottom. When the water reaches its highest level, we have high tide. And when the water comes to its lowest level, we have low tide from its lowest point, the water rises gradually for about six hours until it reaches high tide. Then it begins to fall continuously for about six hours until it reaches low tide. Then the cycle begins again. High tide occurs _ . A) every 12 hours B) every 6 hours C) every 24 hours D) every 18 hours
(Answer)
A
Ques: Because plants cannot move or talk, most people believe that they have no feelings and that they cannot receive signals from outside. However, this may not be completely true. People who studied plants have found out that plants carry a small electrical charge . It is possible to measure this charge with a small piece of equipment called "galvanometer". The galvanometer is placed on a leaf off the plant, and it records any changes in the electrical field of the leaf. Humans have a similar field which can change when we are shocked or frightened. A man called Backster used a galvanometer for his studies of plants and was very surprised at his results. He found that if he had two or more plants in a room and he began to destroy one of them - perhaps by pulling off its leaves or by pulling it out of its pot - then the galvanometer on the leaves of the other plants showed a change in the electrical field. It seemed as if the plants were signalling a feeling of shock. This happened not only when Backster started to destroy plants, but also when he destroyed other living things such as insects . Backster said that the plants also knew if someone had destroyed a living thing some distance away, because they signalled when a man who had just cut down a tree entered the room. Another scientist, named Sauvin, achieved similar results to Backster's. He kept galvanometers fixed to his plants all the time and checked regularly to see what the plants were doing. If he was out of the office, he telephoned to find out about the signals the plants were sending. In this way, he found that the plants were sending out signals at the exact times when he felt strong pleasure or pain. In fact, Sauvin could cause a change in the electrical field of his plants over a distance of a few miles simply by thinking about them. Which of the following is true according to the passage? A) The electrical charge plants carry may shock or frighten us. B) A tree will signal when it has been cut down. C) Sauvin could make his plants send out signals some distance away. D) Plants have feelings because they can receive signals without moving.
Ans: C
The Great Plague of London in 1665 was the last in a long senies of plague that first began in London in June 1499.1t killed between 75,000 and 100,000. First suspected in late 1664,it began to spread eastwards in April 1665 from the poor suburb of St. Giles to the crowded and dirty communities on its way to the walled City of London. The Great Plague at Its Peak By September 1665 ,the death rate had reached 8,000 per week. Helpless city authorities began to abandon quarantine measures. Houses containing the dead and dying were no longer locked. London's mournful silence was broken by the noise of carts carrying the dead for burial in churches or public plague pits. Well-off residents soon fled to the countryside, leaving the poor behind in poor old commun/ties. Thousands of dogs and cats were killed to remove a feared source of contagion ,and piles of rotting garbage were burned. Doctors cut swellings and bled black spots in attempts to cure plague victims. Plague Orders prohibited churches from keeping dead bodies in their buildings during public assemblies or services, and camers of the dead had to identify themselves and could not mix with the public. Samuel Pepys: Eyewitness Accounts In his famous diary, Samuel Pepys, a member of Parliament, conveyed the sad image of desperate people wandering the streets in search of relief from the ruins of the plague. His notes during 1665 indicated the severity of London's Great Plague. In July, he mourned " the sad news of the death of so manv in the community, forty last night, the bell always going either for deaths or burials. " A month later, when London's death rate rose sharply, Pepys noted that surviors are forced to carry the dead to be buried by daylight, the nights not enough to do it The Plague Declines and the Government Reacts By February 1666,the Great Plague had nearly run its course.lt died out during the Great Fire that same year and never returned. Central parts of London were rebuilt with wider streets to relieve crowding and better waste... What's the main purpose of this writing? A) To blame poor public cleanliness for plague. B) To inform readers of what happened in the Great Plague. C) To show that plague was closely related to church activities. D) To prove that plague could be controlled by humans.
B