Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, linguists say, nearly half are likely to disappear this century. In fact, one falls out of use about every two weeks. Some languages die out in an instant, at the death of the only surviving speaker. Others are lost gradually in bilingual cultures, as local tongues are edged out by the dominant language at school, in the marketplace and on television. New research, supported by the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, has found the five regions where languages are disappearing most rapidly. They are northern Australia, central South America, North America's upper Pacific coastal zone, eastern Siberia, and Oklahoma and the southwestern United States. K. David Harrison, an associate professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College, US, said that more than half the languages had no written form and were _ to loss and being forgotten." Their loss leaves no dictionary, no text, or no record of the accumulated knowledge and history of a disappeared culture. Harrison and other researchers started their rescue project last year. They have been trying to identify and record endangered languages. They interviewed and made recordings of the few remaining speakers of a language and collected basic word lists. The individual projects, some lasting three to four years, involve hundreds of hours of recording speech, developing grammar and preparing children's readers in the obscure language. The research has concentrated on preserving entire language families. "These are probably languages that cannot be brought back, but at least we made records of them," said Gregory Anderson, director of the Living Tongues Institute, in Oregon, US. Question: What does the passage mainly tell us? - Many languages are quickly disappearing. - Some languages are disappearing because they are hard to remember. - Chinese is one of the languages that are disappearing. - Thanks to some researchers, many endangered languages have been rescued.
Many languages are quickly disappearing.

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Technology is changing our lives. Our present aerospace companies are gradually disappearing as private space concerns are being born every day. I'm going to discuss three spacebased businesses that are sure to soon influence us all. First we have to make space travel cheaply and safely. Engine design is the main challenge. To make money in space, the cost of space travel will have to diminish . This problem will be the most difficult to solve. Liquid fueled rockets are the only way to get out of Earth's orbit. Finding new ways to power the flight to space is also another big challenge. Finding the key to cheap space travel might be the biggest story of our times. There are a lot of great minds working on this problem. And companies are pouring money into research and development. In the next few years we'll see the first suborbital tourist. And not long after that we should really start to see new and exciting things as competition heats up. Spacecraft design and production will naturally follow rocket technology. All sorts of crafts will be needed for the wide uses they'll be tasked with. Several companies in the United States have already made small, lowcost test vehicles. Resources in space will provide great mining profits to those who can afford the cost of setting up such a huge operation. Can you imagine finding a huge asteroid of pure gold? The benefit to mankind is limitless. Mining on other planets, like Mars, also adds CO2 into the very thin atmosphere. Over time this can lead to the formation of an atmosphere similar to Earth's. Space is going to offer us untold opportunity and wealth. But this is only going to occur if wealthy investors step forward and fund the first steps forward. It is certain that technology will take us to worlds we could never have imagined. Question: According to the passage, the spacebased businesses are _ . - likely - imaginary - unbelievable - valuable
likely

Q: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Farming is moving indoors, where the sun never shines, where rainfall is irrelevant and where the climate is always right. The perfect crop field could be inside a windowless building with controlled light, temperature, wetness, air quality and nutrition. It could be in a New York high-rise or a sprawling complex in the Saudi desert. It may be an answer to the world's food problems. The world is already having trouble feeding itself. Half the people on Earth live in cities, and nearly half of those--about 3 billion--are hungry or ill-fed. Food prices, currently increasing, are _ by dryness, floods and the cost of energy required to plant, harvest and transport. And prices will only get more unstable. Climate change makes long-term crop planning uncertain. Farmers in many parts of the world are already using water available to the last drop. And the world is getting more crowded: by mid-century, the global population will grow from 6. 8 billion to 9 billion. To feed so many people may require expanding farmland at the expense of forests and wilderness, or finding ways to completely increase crop output. Gertjan Meeuws has taken the concept of a greenhouse a step further, growing vegetables and house plants in enclosed and regulated environments. In their research station, water flows into the pans when needed, and the temperature is kept constant. Lights go on and off, creating similar day and night, but according to the rhythm of the plant. A building of 100 square meters and 14 layers of plants could provide a daily diet of 200 grams of fresh fruit and vegetables to the entire population of Den Bosch, about 140, 000 people. Their idea is not to grow foods that require much space, like corn or potatoes. Here sunlight is not only unnecessary but can be harmful. Plants need only specific wavelengths of light to grow. Their growth rate is three times faster than under greenhouse conditions. They use about 90 percent less water than outdoors agriculture. And city farming means producing food near the... Question: It can be inferred from the text that Gertjan Meeuws's farming _ . - helps save sea water a lot - suits different conditions - is completely different from greenhouse agriculture - suits the production of corn
A: suits different conditions

(Q).
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: They stood outside the door - two children in shabby outgrown coats. "Any old papers, lady?" I was busy, I wanted to say no until I saw the snow on their clothes. And their little sandals were also covered with snow. "Come in and I'll make you a cup of hot cocoa." There was no conversation. Their wet sandals left marks upon the floor. I served them cocoa and toast with jam to strengthen them against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started again on my household. The silence in the front room got me to look inside. The girl held the empty cup in her hands, looking at it. The boy asked in a flat voice, "Lady, are you rich?" "Am I rich? Mercy, no! " I looked at my shabby sofa. The girl put her cup back in its saucer carefully. "Your cups match your saucers, she said." They left then, holding their bundles of papers against the wind. They hadn't said thank you. They didn't need to. They had done more than that. Plain blue cups and saucers. But they matched. I tasted the potatoes and looked at the meat. Potatoes and meat, the roof over my head, my man with a good steady job - these things matched, too. I moved the chairs back from the fire and tidied the living room. The muddy prints of small sandals were still wet upon my floor. I let them be. I wanted them there in case I ever forget again how very rich I am. Question: Why did the author let the two children in? - To offer them some warm clothes - To serve them some cocoa and food - To sell them some old paper - To show off her matched cups and saucers
(A).
To serve them some cocoa and food