Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Here is a poster on a middle school web site. Read the web-site poster. Going, Going, Gone! The Haynes Middle School Parent-Teacher organization Invites you to attend our latest fund-raiser, The Fourth Annual Haynes School Auction ! Saturday, May 10 6:00 p.m.-11: p.m. in the school hall 6:00 p.m.-6:30 p.m. :All items for auction are previewed. 6:30 p.m.-7:00 p.m. : Silent auction begins. 7:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. : Highest bidders from silent auction are determined. 7:30 p.m.-11:00 p.m. : Main auction begins. Items up for bid in the silent auction range in value from $ 5.00 to $ 30.00. Items up for bid in the main auction include the following: l Airline tickets to a place of your choice l Weekend getaways at first-class hotels l Season tickets to the Chicago Bears football game l $ 50 gift tickets to local gift shops, restaurants, and salons Don't miss the boat! Book your tickets today. Last year, tickets sold out in five days! Tickets are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. $ 15.00 per person All the money from the auction will be given to the prefix = st1 /HaynesSchoolcomputer lab. Question: Which of the following is most likely to happen at the year's auction? - The airline tickets will receive higher bids than any other item. - All items up for bid will be sold for at least twice their value. - More money will be raised this year than in any other year before. - Tickets for the event will be sold out in less than one week.
Tickets for the event will be sold out in less than one week.

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Have you ever wondered why the roots of the plants always know which way to grow--into the soil but not above it? Some British scientists have recently solved this mystery. It turns out that roots have special hairs that tie them into the soil and help them grow their way past obstacles, a team at the John Inners Center in Norwich reports in the February 29 issue of Journal Science. "The key is in the fuzzy coat of hairs on the roots of plants," says professor Liam Dolan. "We have found a growth control system that enables these hairs to find their way and to become longer when their path is clear." Root hairs explore the soil in much the same way a person would feel their way in the dark. If they come across an obstacle, they make their way around until they can continue growing in an opening. In the meantime, the plant is held in place as the hairs grip the soil. The hairs are guided by a clever chemical trick. A protein at the tip of the root hairs called RHD2 helps them to take calcium from the soil. Calcium makes the hairs grow, and produce more RHD2, and take more calcium. But when an obstacle blocks the hair's path, or the hair reaches the surface of the soil, the cycle is broken and growth starts in another direction. This system gives plants the flexibility to explore a complex environment and to live in even the most unpromising soils, says Dolan. In poor soils such as in parts of Australia and Africa, native plants have adapted by producing enormous numbers of root hairs. A better understanding of this adaptation will allow scientists to develop hairy rooted crops that can grow in unfriendly environments. According to Dolan, "Research in the John Inners Center is taking a breeding approach to increase hair length in wheat but it will be some time before new cultivars are developed." Question: The passage is mainly about _ . - why the roots of plants grow into the soil but not above it - how the roots of plants grow into the soil but not above it - the process of plants growth - a growth control system of plants
why the roots of plants grow into the soil but not above it

Q: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina is a wake-up call. It is a call for every American to pay attention to the destruction we risk by allowing human-induced climate change to continue. It is impossible to prove that Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming, or even that human activities made the storm more severe. However, a paper published in the scholarly journal Nature reports that the force of dangerous hurricanes has increased by 50% during the last 50 years. It also reports that a global warming-induced rise in temperature near the ocean's surface has probably contributed to this increase in dangerous storms, and thus to property damage and human death. On August 30, the Los Angeles Times summed up the view of many scientists who agree that if the frequency of hurricanes does not decrease in the next few years, then we will be fairly certain that humans, and not natural storm cycle, are at the root of the problem. I believe there is at least a chance that by reducing U.S. reliance on fossil fuels for energy, we can prevent future tragedies like Hurricane Katrina. Let the change begin now. There are many ways to reduce the volume of greenhouse gas emissions. My family drives the most fuel-efficient car we can afford, but I prefer to take public transportation whenever possible. My family buys locally grown food instead of produce that was transported thousands of miles on fuel-burning vehicles. We also replaced our incandescent light bulbs with more energy-efficient compact fluorescents . This might sound like a trivial move, but the Union of Concerned Scientists reports that if every household in the United States replaced one incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent, it would have the same effect on U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions as removing 7.5 million cars from the roads. Now think if every household replaced not just one but all of their incandescent bulbs! The United States, with just five percent of the world's population, is responsible for close to one quarter of greenhouse... Question: Which of the following is a fact? - Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming. - Human activities made the storm more severe. - The force of dangerous hurricanes has increased by 50 percent during the last 50 years. - A global rise in temperature near the ocean's surface accounts for more dangerous storms.
A: The force of dangerous hurricanes has increased by 50 percent during the last 50 years.

(Q).
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Dolphins and sharks are showing up in surprisingly shallow water just off the Florida coast. Mullets, crabs, rays and small fish gather by the thousands off an Alabama pirer. Birds covered in oil are crawling deep into marshes , never to be seen again. Marine scientists studying the effects of the BP disaster are seeing some strange phenomena. Fish and other wildlife seem to be fleeing the oil out in the Gulf and clustering in cleaner waters along the coast in a trend that some researchers see as a potentially troubling sign. The animals' presence close to shore means their usual habitat is badly polluted, and the crowding could result in mass die-offs as fish run out of oxygen. Also, the animals could easily be captured by their enemies. The nearly two-month-old spill has created an environmental disaster in US history as tens of millions of gallons have flown into the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. Scientists are seeing some unusual things as they try to understand the effects on thousands of species of marine life. For nearly four hours Monday, a three-person crew with Greenpeace cruised past delicate islands and mangrove-dotted inlets in Barataria Bay off southern Louisiana. They saw dolphins by the dozen frolicking in the oily sheen and oil-tinged pelicans feeding their young. But they spotted no dead animals. "I think part of the reason why we're not seeing more yet is that the impacts of this crisis are really just beginning," Greenpeace marine biologist John Hocevar said. The counting of dead wildlife in the Gulf is more than an academic exercise; the deaths will help determine how much BP pays in damages. Question: The environmental disaster was caused by _ . - the damage of the Mexico Gulf ecosystem - the lack of environmental sense of BP - the nearly two-month-old oil spill - the crowding marine life
(A).
the nearly two-month-old oil spill