Question: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Large numbers of children in Britain are missing out on the natural world, a study from the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) suggests. The three-year project found that only 21 % of children aged 8 --12 were "connected to nature". Girls were much more likely than boys to be exposed to the great outdoors, while children in Wales had the lowest score across the UK. The RSPB says that a perception among some adults that nature is dangerous or dirty could be holding children back. There has been an increasing amount of research in recent years underlining the lack of contact and experience with nature among modern children. Some have argued that this is having a negative impact on their health, education and behaviour. The RSPB says its new study is the first to quantify the scale of British children's exposure, or lack of it, to the natural world. They came up with a definition of what "connected to nature" actually means and then deve -loped a questionnaire with 16 statements designed to assess the level of connection among children. Some 1, 200 children from across the UK were asked to agree or disagree with these statements. Only 21 % of children in the UK had a level of connection with wildlife and the natural world that the RSPB believes should be realistic and achievable for all youngsters. This "realistic and achievable" value is based on the average scores of children visiting RSPB sites or who are junior members of the organization. One interesting finding was the gender difference. While 27 % of girls were at or above the "realistic and achievable" target, only 16 % of boys were at the same level. "We need to understand these differences," Sue Armstrong Brown, head of conservation at the charity, told BBC New. "Whether boys and girls are scoring differently on different questions, are girls more empathetic to nature than boys for instance? We need to analyze the data to find that out." The report also stressed significant regional differences. Only 13% of children in Wales... Question: The RSPB believes that it's valuable for children to _ . - be exposed to the natural world - miss out on the natural world - conduct a questionnaire - visit dangerous places
Answer: be exposed to the natural world

Question: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Hong Kong, major commercial center for Asia, and with a population which has grown at an alarming rate to over 5 million, is a city highly dependent on mass (, ) transit of all sorts, both local and long distance. An ordinary Hong Kong worker or businessman, going about his daily activities, simply must use transportation at one time or another. Because Hong Kong is in two parts, Kowloon, on the mainland side, and Hong Kong, the island, with Hong Kong's harbor in between Hong Kong's mass transit systems, in addition to going over land they must also cross water. Going from home to work, or going shopping from one side of the harbor to the other, the Hong Kong resident has three choices. One way is to take a bus which will cross the harbor through an under water traffic tunnel moving slowly through bumper- to-bumper traffic.Another way is by ferry boat , a pleasant ride which crosses the harbor in from seven to fifteen minutes. But by far the fastest way of crossing the harbor is the newly built underground electric railway, the Hong Kong Metro . If one gets on the train in the Central District,the commercial area of Hong Kong on the island side, he can speed across the harbor in an astonishing three minutes. On the other side of the harbor the railway continues, snaking back and forth through the outlying districts of Kowloon, allowing one to get off a short distance from his destination. The story of the Metro is an encouraging one for supporters of mass transit. Although building the system was certainly a challenging task, the Japanese firm hired to construct it did so in record time. Construction got underway in 1979 and it was completed in 1980. For the average commuter the system has only one disadvantage; it is more expensive than by bus or ferry. One can ride the bus across the harbor for half as much or he can ride the ferry across for less than one-fifth as much. Question: Hong Kong public transportation extends _ . - over hills and valleys - across land and water - through mountains - throughout the Kowloon area
Answer: across land and water

Question: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Even after centuries of exploration , the ocean still holds its mysteries. Although we know more today about the world's oceans and creatures living in them than ever before, every once in a while the sea brings up something so strange, so unexpected, that makes the world wonder what it could be. Such was the case when the currents of the Mediterranean Ocean recently washed a 13-foot-long, smelly body onto the shores of the village of Villaricos in Andalusia, Spain. An early report in the Spanish publication Lavante described the strange, horned body as what might seem like a big fish, but _ was already in pieces. Locals joked that it was some kind of Loch Ness Monster. The media jumped right on the creature, of course. Some sites called it a horned sea monster. The popular newspaper Boing Boing called it a dragon. Some people guessed that it might be an oarfish , which is actually a rarely seen kind of big fish that can grow up to 55 feet long. But now the experts have weighed in and we're sorry to report that it's not a dragon, a Loch Ness Monster, or even an oarfish. "That is actually a shark skeleton ," Professor Grubbs from Florida State University told NBC News. "The parts toward the back were confusing me, but those are the lower caudal fin supports. The "horns" are the scapulocoracoids which support the pectoral fins ." Scapulocoracoids are backbones common to many animals. So there we go, another mystery solved. Well, the ancient maps that once described areas of the ocean as places of dragons have yet to be proven true. But it's good to know that the ocean still has a few surprises for us, even in cases where they're just dead, smelly bodies. Question: The creature mentioned in the text _ . - was about 15 feet long with a horn - could probably grow up to 55 feet long - was already in pieces but it was still alive - was found on the shores of a village in Spain
Answer:
was found on the shores of a village in Spain