Each Indian was supposed to keep his birth name until he was old enough to earn one for himself.But his playmates would always give him a name of their own.No matter what his parents called him, his childhood friends would use the name they had chosen.Often it was not pleasing, such as Bow Legs or Bad Boy.But sometimes a name fit so well that the youngster found it difficult to shake it off.If he could not earn a better one from a war later, he could be stuck with a name like Bow Legs for the rest of his life. The Indian earned his real name when he was old enough for his first fight against the enemy.His life name depended on how he acted during this first battle.When he returned from the war, the whole tribe would gather and observe the ceremony in which he would be given his name by the chief.If he had done well, he would get a good name.Otherwise he might be called Crazy Wolf or Man-Afraid-Of-a-Horse.So an Indian's name told his record or described the kind of man he was. A man was given many chances to improve his name, however.If in a later battle he was brave in fighting against the enemy, he was given a better name.Some of our great fighters had as many as twelve names--all good and each better than the last. An Indian's names belonged to him for the rest of his life.No one else could use them.Even he himself could not give them away because names were assigned by the tribe, not the family.So no man could pass on his name unless the chief and the tribe asked him to do so. Sometimes an Indian would be asked to give his name to a son who had performed a noticeable deed.I know of only three of four times when this happened.It is the rarest honor for a person--the honor of assuming his father's name. If an Indian had more than ten names, it meant that _ . A) many people in the tribe liked him B) he was a great fighter C) he had a lot of friends D) he had fought in fewer than ten battles
B
Older people who have low expectations for a satisfying future may be more likely to live longer, healthier lives than those who see brighter days ahead, according to new research "Our findings showed that being overly optimistic in predicting a better future was associated with a greater risk of disability and death within the following decade," said Frieder R. Lang, the leading researcher of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany." Pessimism about the future may encourage people to live more carefully, taking health and safety measures." Lang and colleagues examined data collected from 1993 to 2003 for the national German Socio-Economic Panel, an annual survey on approximately 40,000 people from 18 to 96 years old. The researchers divided the data according to age groups: 18 to 39 years old, 40 to 64 years old and 65 years old and above. Through mostly in-person interviews, the participants were asked to rate how satisfied they were with their lives and how satisfied they thought they would be in five years. Five years after the first interview, 43 percent of the oldest group had underestimated their future life satisfaction, 25 percent had predicted accurately and 32 percent had overestimated , according to the study. The researchers calculated that each increase in overestimating future life satisfaction was related to a 9.5 -percent increase in reporting disabilities and a 10- percent increase in risk of death. Because a darker outlook on the future is often more realistic, older adults' predictions of their future satisfaction may be more accurate, according to the study. In contrast, the youngest group had the sunniest outlook. "We argue, though, that the analysis may depend on age and available resources. These findings shed new light on how our perspectives can either help us take action or prevent us from taking action that can help improve our chances of a long, healthy life," Lang said. Based on the passage, the researchers _ . A) collected 13 years of nationwide data B) calculated people's life satisfaction within five years C) interviewed 40,000 people from 18 to 65 years old D) divided the data into four age groups
B
A person has to be sixteen to drive, seventeen to see certain movies, and eighteen to vote. People can get terrific discounts on all sorts of stuff-provided they're over sixty-five. Everywhere we look there are age limits that define what people can and can't do. But creativity has no boundaries, no limitations. Anyone can invent. And they do. Inventors are popping up at the youngest ages. Sitting in the car waiting for her mom to return from shopping, Becky decided she might as well try to finish her math homework. But it was growing dark and getting hard to see the paper. "I didn't have a flashlight, and I didn't want to open the car door because then the whole car would light up." recalled Becky. "So I thought it would be neat to have my paper light up somehow, and that's when the idea came to me." It isn't every day that a ten-year-old invents a product eagerly sought by several businesses, but that's exactly what Becky Schroeder did when she created a tool that enabled people to write in the dark. Her invention? The Glo-sheet. That night Becky went home, trying to imagine different ways of making her paper glow in the dark. She remembered all sorts of glow-in-the-dark toys-like balls and Frisbees-and wondered how they were made. She was determined to find a solution. So they very next day, Beck's dad took her on an outing to the hardware store. They returned with a pail of _ . She took the paint and stacks of paper into the darkest room in the house-the bathroom. There, she experimented. "I'd turn on the light, turn it off, turn it on," said Becky. "My parents remember me running out the room saying 'It works, it works! I'm writing in the dark!' " She used an acrylic board and coated it with a specific amount of phosphorescent paint. She took a complicated idea and made it work rather simply. When the coated clipboard is exposed to light, it glows. The glowing board then illuminates or lights up the paper that has been placed on top. Two years after her initial inspiration, in 1974, Becky became the... With which statement would Becky most likely agree? A) Experience is needed to be a good inventor. B) Only by inventing things can you know what people need. C) Always try to sell patent rights to large companies. D) You never know what you can do unless you try.
D