Watching television makes it easier for toddlers to kick and scream, according to a US study.Children under two should not watch any TV.The longer they sit in front of TV,the worse their behavior becomes. Just having the TV on in the background, even if the child wasn't watching it,was also connected to troublemaking behavior although the relationship wasn't as strong, said the researchers. "Parents should be smart about TV use,"researcher Jennifer Manganello from the University at Albany, New York, said. "They should limit the time that children use TV, pay attention to the content of TV programs,and consider how TV is used throughout the home." The study looked at 3,128 women from 20 US cities who had a child between 2005 and 2008. While there was some diversity of education among the women,onethird hadn't graduated from high school. Twothirds of the mothers said their threeyearold children watched more than two hours of TV a day,and the average viewing time for children was around three hours.On average,the TV was on for about five additional hours on a common day. After accounting for factors such as living in a violent neighborhood,scientists also found watching TV was strongly connected to behavior such as hitting others,having angry moods,being disobedient ,and screaming a lot. The researchers thought that children may see violence on TV,and spend less time on positive development tasks such as reading or playing. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests no TV at all for children at two and younger,and two hours a day or less for older kids. What is the main idea of the passage? A) Children should choose positive programs. B) Watching TV can make children violent. C) Children should keep away from TV. D) Parents should watch less TV.
B
(Question)
A group of senior high school students are playing outside on a basketball court. They are shouting with excitement. And they all have the same dream. They wish to play in the NBA, just like Huston Rocket's Yao Ming. "Someday, there will be more Chinese players like Yao in the NBA," said 15-year-old Xie Tao, a senior 1 boy at Shanghai No. 2 Middle School. Xie always watches Yao playing on TV. "He is a great player. He makes me proud to be Chinese," he said. Like Xie, 17-year-old Liu Yan at Beijing No. 22 Middle School is also a big NBA fan. "Since early May, I've not missed one game in the NBA," said the senior 3 student. Basketball is becoming popular in middle schools across the country. And more young players are starting to like the sport. More students are playing the game. Jiang Hui, a basketball teacher at Beijing No. 2 Middle School, said that 85 percent of the students at this school like the sport. "Students are full of passion for the game," Jiang's team won the regional first prize in the 2004 National High School Boy's Basketball League in march. The league is the first national basketball competition for high school students. Playing basketball is a good way to exercise. But students also enjoy it for other reasons. For Li Yan, a Senior 2 at Shanghai No. 12 Middle School, basketball teaches him lessons in life. "When I am in a game, I feel more confident about my studies, " he said. " It also teaches me to have a good team spirit and to enjoy friendship." How many students are mentioned in the passage? A) 2. B) 3 C) 4 D) 5
(Answer)
B
Ques: Wind turbines are efficient sources of cheap energy but also a source of concern as their huge spinning blades frequently kill birds and bats. A new type of wind generator developed in Spain offers a creative solution to that problem. In 2002, Spanish inventor David Yanez saw a short film about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the U.S., collapsing in strong wind. It was a vivid example of the powerful vibrations wind can create when it blows past a long pole, such as a car antenna or even a stick of bamboo. It gave him the idea for a new type of wind-energy generator. "The initial philosophy or spirit was to create a generator of dreams that had all the qualities one would want: It should be as cheap as possible, need as little maintenance as possible, the setup as simple as possible," he said. Yanez and his friend Raoul Martin took the idea to an engineering firm, where they were told it would never work. Undiscouraged, they started experimenting on their own in a small wind tunnel they built. Good initial results were repeated by a larger working model called Vortex installed in a nearby field. "What we have is a mast , which is the top piece and acts as a blade," Yanez said. "It's constructed from the same material as a conventional generator, and what it does is it oscillates , transmitting the oscillation to a conventional alternator, which by its own oscillation converts the wind's energy into electric energy." Yanez said the output of the 6-meter-tall generator, and even that of smaller models, was better than expected. The Vortex creates about 30 percent less energy than a comparable bladed wind turbine, but it is lighter and cheaper to build and maintain. It is made mostly of reinforced plastic and has very few moving parts. Also, it does not create noise and--even more important for many environmentalists--it does not present a threat to passing birds. The current prototype works at wind speeds ranging from 1.5 to 7 meters per second. The inventors say the next step is building a 12.5-meter tall... What do we know from the passage? A) The original idea was considered as practical in an engineering firm. B) Yanez and Martin's initial tests by themselves proved to be successful. C) The material for constructing the mast is different from that of the past. D) The new generator is better at creating energy than a comparable bladed one.
Ans: B
You might think that "global warming" means nothing more than a rise in the world's temperature But rising sea levels caused by it have resulted in the first evacuation of an island nation--the citizens of Tuvalu will have to leave their homeland. During the 20th century , sea level rose 8--12 inches. As a result ,Tuvalu has experienced lowland flooding of salt water which has polluted the country's drinking water. Paani Laupepa , a Tuvaluan government official ,reported to the Earth Policy Institute that the nation suffered an unusually high number of fierce storms in the past ten years .Many scientists connect higher surface water temperatures resulting from global warming to greater and more damaging storms. Laupepa expressed dissatisfaction with the United States for refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement calling for industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions ,which are a main cause of global warming . "By refusing to sign the agreement ,the US has effectively taken away the freedom of future generations of Tuvaluans to live where their forefathers have lived for thousands of years," Laupepa told the BBC. Tuvalu has asked Australia and New Zealand to allow the gradual move of its people to both countries . Tuvalu is not the only country that is vulnerable to rising sea levels .Maumoon Gayoon ,president of the Maldives ,told the United Nations that global warming has made his country of 311,000 an "endangered nation". The country whose situation is similar to that of Tuvalu is _ . A) Australia B) New Zealand C) the Maldives D) the United States
C