Article: A serious threat to farmers in many parts of the world is erosion. Erosion occurs if a large area of land is cleared of trees and is then badly treated by the farmers. The rain and winds may gradually wash away, or blow away, much of the topsoil. When this happens, crops of wheat or corn become weaker and weaker until nothing grows well. If erosion continues, it will turn good land into a desert. In the past, when erosion appeared, farmers sometimes moved to a new place to farm. Sometimes they could not move, but continued to try to grow food in the unhealthy soil. This caused them to sink into poverty. Soon some people realized that there was little rich, fertile soil in the world, government began to try to stop erosion. One of the first experiments to stop erosion began in the prefix = st1 /United Statesin 1933. The experiment was carried out in the area of the Tennessee River. Floods and had farming in this area had ruined land that had once been rich. As a result, most of the people living around the Tennessee River were very poor. The government built big dams across the river and stored the water for use during the dry season when there was no rain. The government workers also helped farmers to fertilize their soil and to learn new farming methods which could stop erosion. At the beginning, the farmers were not interested. But soon, good healthy crops began to appear on the land where new methods where used. Ten years after the extremely prosperous, the great success of this experiment had led similar projects in the other parts of the world. Question: The main purpose of this passage is to tell people_. Yes or no, is the answer "something can be done to prevent erosion"?
No

Article: BEIJING, prefix = st1 /China(CNN) ---China's economic growth dropped to 9 percent for 2008, according to numbers released by the government Thursday --- in line with expectations, but still the slowest rate the nation has seen in seven years. Economists are concerned about what the slowdown means for investment in the future, whether new projects will be undertaken in manufacturing companies and in factories. If not, it will translate into more job losses and erase any optimism about a rebound in 2009. Since 2001, Chinahas been used to double-digit growth as consumers buy Chinese goods. However, the export sector was hit hard in late 2008, with December exports down 2.8 percent. Consumer spending has mostly held up in China, as people there do not carry as much debt as their American counterparts and can continue to spend. Consumer confidence, however, is a problem, said Dong Tao, Asia chief economist for Credit Suisse. Infrastructure is the only thing driving the Chinese economy, Dong said. Tens of thousands of Chinese factories have closed, millions of people are looking for jobs and an untold number of migrants who can't find work may be leaving cities for good because of the slowdown, which would have been unheard of six months ago. Fourth quarter numbers showed growth at 6.8 percent. Goldman Sachs predicted 6.5 percent, down from 9 percent in the third quarter. For all of 2008, Goldman Sachs had predicted 8.8 percent, down from 11.9 percent in 2007. Question: Since 2001, the slowest rate in annual economic growth china has seen is _ . Yes or no, is the answer "9 %"?
No

Article: It was on the afternoon of the day of Christmas Eve, and I was in Mrs. Prothero's garden, waiting for cats, with her son Jim. It was snowing. Patient and cold, our hands wrapped in socks, we waited to snowball the cats. The wise cats never appeared. We were so still in the snows that we never heard Mrs. Prothero's first cry from the bottom of the garden. Or, if we heard it at all, it was, to us, like the cry of the neighbor's Polar cat. But soon the voice grew louder. " Fire!" cried Mrs. Prothero. And we ran down the garden, with the snowballs in our arms, towards the house; and smoke, indeed, was pouring out of the dining room. This was better than all the cats in Wales standing on the wall in a row. We loaded with snowballs, stopped at the open door of the smoke-filled room. Something was burning all right; perhaps it was Mr. Prothero, who always slept there after midday dinner with a newspaper over his face; but he was standing in the middle of the room, saying, " A fine Christmas!" There was no fire to be seen, only clouds of smoke and Mr. Prothero standing in the middle of them, waving his slipper as though he were conducting. " Do something," he said. And we throw all our snowballs into the smoke---I think we missed Mr. Porthero---and ran out of the house. " Let's call the police," Jim said. "And Ernie Jenkins, he likes fires." But we only called the fire-brigade, and soon the fire-engine came. Mr. Porthero gout out just in time before they turned the hose on. Question: When the boys saw smoke pouring out of the dining room, _ . Yes or no, is the answer "they were joyful and excited"?
No

Article: Recently I was asked,"Are we anywhere near the day when you can climb into a car on Long Island, program it to take you to your niece's house in Chicago, hit enter, and after the first hundred yards, once you hit a main road, the car takes over automatically and you just sit back and enjoy the ride?" It is a question I worry. But I had to answer truthfully:"Absolutely. We are without a doubt near that day."Look, we're already doing it with airplanes. Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk takes off at an air base in the U.S., climbs to 50,000 feet, flies to Australia, and lands at an Australian air base, where there is a grandstand filled with military officials=with no human pilot. The necessary technology is already here. We have radar technology that can be tied to cruise control and brakes, which automatically adjusts your speed based on following distance and preprogrammed settings. It's still a little bit raw, but it does work great. The technology can allow cars and trucks to follow each other in very closely spaced roads. GPS can also change speed with location. Let's say you're in a state with a 75-mph limit and you cross into a state with a 65-mph limit. GPS knows that and adjust your speed accordingly. It's not out of the question to imagine that someday soon you'll be able to start the car, make proper settings, then turn the front seats around and play cards and eat lunch as if you're riding on a train. All in perfect comfort and safety, all the way to that niece's place inprefix = st1 /Chicago. If asked to estimate just how far time is, I'd say a working system is ten years out, practice maybe 20 years. Question: What does the author think of the change in car driving? Yes or no, is the answer "It is very likely to come true in the near future"?
Yes