I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: Where do you find out about the world's longest walk? The world's tallest man? The world's oldest woman? You know the answer, of course. It is the Guinness Book of World Records. How would people find such unusual facts without this book? Guinness Book did not exist until 1951. Here is what happened. The managing director of Guinness Brewery was a curious man. He wanted answers to some questions about records. For example, he wanted to know what was the fastest flying game bird in Europe. But he was frustrated. There was no book to answer questions like this. The director, Sir Hugh Beaver, contacted the McWhirter twins. They were brothers who owned a research agency. He asked them to put together a new reference book. It would include all kinds of unusual records. The brothers quickly accepted. The first edition of their book was published in 1955. Soon the Guinness Book of World Records was a best seller. It has sold more copies than any book except the Bible. A new edition is published every year. Where do all the book's records come from? They are a combination of things like natural wonders, sports records, and stunts (How many people would push an egg with their noses if they weren't trying to get to the book?). But the editors try to keep things honest. All records must be _ by an investigator. Only then are they printed. The Guinness Book is a big business. It is published in dozens of languages. There are TV shows and museums. It is proof of how interested people are in strange pieces of information. Question: The passage is mostly about _ . Options: A: the McWhirter twins B: the director Sir Hugh Beaver C: unusual records in the Guinness Book D: a history of the Guinness Book
D

I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: Researchers found that people become happier and experience less worry after they reach the age of fifty. In fact, they say by the age of eighty-five, people are happier with their life than they were when they were eighteen years old. The findings came from a survey of more than three hundred forty thousand adults in the United States. The Gallup Organization questioned them by telephone in two thousand eight. At that time, the people were between the ages of eighteen and eighty-five. The researchers asked questions about emotions like happiness, sadness and worry. They also asked about mental or emotional stress. Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five. The findings showed that stress levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties. Happiness was highest among the youngest adults and those in their early seventies. The people least likely to report feeling negative emotions were those in their seventies and eighties. The findings appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers say they do not know why happiness increases as people get older. One theory is that, as people grow older, they grow more thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences. Professor Stone says the emotional patterns could be linked to changes in how people see the world, or maybe even changes in brain chemistry. The researchers also considered possible influences like having young children, being unemployed or being single. But they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being related to age. The study also showed that men and women have similar emotional patterns as they grow older. However, women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men. Question: What do you think the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is? Options: A: A Gallup organization. B: A university in New York. C: A popular science magazine. D: A research institution
C

I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: To wash yourself, you take a bath or a shower. Animals need to keep clean, too. How do animals clean themselves? Cats themselves to keep their fur clean. Have you ever watched a pet cat clean itself? Elephants take baths much as you do. But instead of jumping into the , they walk into a river or lake. Pigs also like to roll around in water. This keeps them clean and cool. If there is no clean water, they will roll in on a hot day. They do this to cool off. Pigs do not really like mud. They are happier in a nice, clean pond . Bats have a funny way to keep clean. They lick their thumbs to clean their ears! Guess how polar bears clean themselves. They use snow, of course! Some animals take baths in dust instead of water! The wombat is an Australian animal with lots of fur. To get clean, it lies down. Then it covers itself with sand! Birds clean themselves in many ways. Sometimes they wash in water. That's why some people put birdbaths in their yard. At other times birds take dust baths, just like wombats. Birds also use their to keep their feathers clean. They use their beaks the way you use a comb. Sometimes a bird has in its feathers. Birds may use ants to help them clean off the bugs. A bird will lie down on an ant nest. Then the ants will crawl on the bird. The ants make a kind of bug on the feathers;. Then the itchy bugs die! Birds take baths in something else besides dust and ants! Some birds take "smoke baths" They sit on chimneys. They wave their wings in the smoke! Question: This passage mainly tells us _ . Options: A: why some people put birdbaths in their yard B: why birds allow ants to crawl on their body C: how animals cool off on hot days D: how some animals keep clean
D