Question: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Five years ago, David Smith wore an expensive suit to work every day. "I was a clothes addict," he jokes. "I used to carry a fresh suit to work with me so I could change if my clothes got wrinkled." Today David wears casual clothes--khaki pants and sports shirt--to the office. He hardly ever wears a necktie. "I'm working harder than ever," David says, "and I need to feel comfortable." More and more companies are allowing their office workers to wear casual clothes to work. In the United States, the change from formal to casual office wear has been gradual. In the early 1990s, many companies allowed their employees to wear casual clothes on Friday, but only on Friday. This became known as "dress-down Friday" or "casual Friday". "What started out as an extra one-day-a-week benefit for employees has really become an everyday thing." said business consultant Maisly Jones. Why have so many companies started allowing their employees to wear casual clothes? One reason is that it's easier for a company to attract new employees if it has a casual dress code. "A lot of young people don't want to dress up for work," says the owner of a software company, "so it's hard to hire people if you have a conservative dress code." Another reason is that people seem happier and more productive when they are wearing comfortable clothes. In a study conducted by Levi Strauss Company, 85 percent of employers said that they believe that casual dress improves employee morale . Only 4 percent of employers said that casual dress has a negative effect on productivity. Supporters of casual office wear also argue that a casual dress code helps them save money. "Suits are expensive, if you have to wear one every day," one person said. "For the same amount of money, you can buy a lot more casual clothes." Question: According to this passage, which of the following statements is TRUE? - Company workers started to dress down about twenty years ago. - Dress-down has become an everyday phenomenon since the early 1990s. - "Dress-down Friday" was first given as a favor from employers. - Many workers want to wear casual clothes to impress people.
Answer: "Dress-down Friday" was first given as a favor from employers.

Question: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Sam "Fingers" had been in trouble all his life. He'd started stealing things when he was only a kid. He used to walk through the street market near his home and "pick up" a few things--an apple, or a hairbrush perhaps. But things got worse as Sam got older. By the time he was twenty-five, he was spending a lot of time stealing and then he got caught. While he was in prison he decided that he'd never steal again. He really had to stop. On his first day out of prison, Sam went for a walk along the High Street. It was so nice to walk along in the crowds and looked at the shops. Oh, the shops! "I'll just go into this jeweler's and have a look around," Sam said to himself. "There's nothing to worry about. No more stealing for me." Then Sam saw the diamond ring. He'd always wanted to give one to his girlfriend. And nobody was looking. In a minute the ring was in his pocket and Sam was walking out of the shop. But as he went towards the door he felt a hand on his shoulder, "I shall have to call the police." "I'll pay for it. Yes, I'll pay for it," said Sam. With a smile, the manager handed him the bill: 500! "Err, um, well..." said Sam. "I really didn't want to spend that much. Would you please show me something a little cheaper?" Question: People called him "Fingers" because he was a _ . - prisoner - piano-player - thief - small boy
Answer: thief

Question: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: A new study has found some secrets of people's understanding of large numbers. Researchers studied a group of people who were born deaf and never learned any spoken language or a formal sign language, but they have developed a gesture system to communicate with people around them. The gestures let them express approximate amounts, but not exact numbers. "Up to three, they're fine," says Elizabet Spaepen, a researcher at the University of Chicago and an author of the study. "But past three, they start to fall apart." In one test, Spaepen would knock her fist against a study participant's fist a certain number of times and then ask them to respond with the same number of knocks. "If I were to knock four times on their fist, they might knock on my fist five times," she says. The finding offers a clue to just how much language affects our understanding of numbers. That has been a big question since 2004, when other researchers published data on two tribes in the Amazon whose members also lack words for big numbers. "What they have are words that mean one and two," Spaepen says, "and then they have a word to mean many." Members of the Amazonian tribes also had trouble matching numbers larger than three or four. But some scholars felt that these earlier studies failed to prove that language was the reason. They pointed out that the tribes lived in groups that didn't use money and had no need for exact numbers. The new research appears to answer that criticism. "It proves that the kinds of problems in understanding numbers that we found in the Amazonian tribes are not due to just the cultural or environmental circumstances," says Peter Gordon of Columbia University, one of the researchers involved in the earlier studies. Question: According to the passage, the new study _ . - ignored the cultural influence on the participants - is doubted by many people - has found it is harder to learn numbers than learning a sign language - has shown that our understanding of numbers is influenced by our mastering of language.
Answer:
has shown that our understanding of numbers is influenced by our mastering of language.