Question: Children who grow up in households where books are plentiful go further in school than those without books, a new study finds. This book benefit was seen across countries, and held regardless of the parent's educational back-ground, father's occupation or the political system of the country, the researchers say. The results, based on data from 73,249 people living in 27 countries, including the United States, show that having a 500-book library boosted a child's education by 3.2 years on average. "You get a great effect for your books," said study researcher Mariah Evans, a sociologist at the University of Nevada, Reno. "It's quite a good return-on-investment in a time of scarce resources." For years, educators have thought the strongest predictor of attaining high levels of education was having parents who were highly educated. But according to the findings, a good-sized book library is just as good as university-educated parents in terms of increasing education level. "Even a little bit goes a long way," in terms of the number of books in a home, Evans said. Having as few as 20 books in the home still has a significant impact on propelling a child to a higher level of education, and the more books are added, the greater the benefit. In some countries, such as China, having 500 or more books in the home propels children 6. 6 years further in their education. In the United States, the effect is less, 2.4 years. But, Evans points out that 2.4 years is still a significant advantage in terms of educational achievement. For example, Americans who have some college or an associate's degree, but not a bachelor's degree, earn an average of $ 7,213 more annually than those with just a high school education. Those who attain a bachelor's degree earn $ 21,185 more each year, on average, than those with just high school diplomas. Having books in the home is twice as important as the father's education level, and more important than whether a child was educated in China or the United States. What was the author's purpose of writing the passage? A) To display the close relations between jobs and books. B) To reveal the good effect of focusing on diplomas. C) To show the differences in education levels in different nations. D) To show the importance of books in the home.
D


(Question)
Microwaves may be great at warming up food, but what about warming people? Using microwaves to directly heat owners of a room would save much of the energy wasted by heating walls and furniture. And despite popular ideas about microwaves, this technique would be safe, according to Charles R. Burlier of the Microwave Research Center in Marlborough, New Hampshire. Low-power microwaves only penetrate   the skin (low-power microwave penetration in a ham is about 0.2 inches, for example) and with no negative effects. To test this idea, Buffler subjected himself to microwaves in a special room using a standard 500-watt, 2459 MHz magnetron  . He found that a person will start to feel warmth at about 20 milliwatts per square centimeter (mw. / sq. cm. ) ; a satisfactory feeling of warmth occurs between 35 and 50mw. / sq. cm. By comparison, a person standing in noonday summer sun feels the amount of 85 mw. / sq. cm. And a frozen meat pie in your microwave oven receives about 1000 mw. / sq. cm. In houses of the future, each room could be provided with its own magnetron, says Buffler. When you stepped into the living room, for example, a motion detector  would turn on the magnetron, filling the room with low-power microwaves. In the same way that a microwave oven heats up a hamburger, but not the plate it's on, you would feel warmth from the microwaves without changing the temperature of your coffee table. (You could, however, make your favorite easy chair even more comfortable by treating it with a radiation-absorbing chemical.) While it might be some time before homeowners are comfortable enough with the idea to set up whole-body microwave heaters in houses, Buffler says microwaves may attract livestock  farmers. Lambs that are born outdoors in winter, for example, are frequently lost to cold. Microwaves could warm the lambs safely and quickly. Which of the following statements about microwave heaters would Buffler most probably agree with? A) Microwave heaters will soon be widely used by homeowners. B) Microwave heaters sometimes make people feel uncomfortable. C) Perhaps microwave heaters will be first used by livestock farmers, who wish to protect their lambs in winter. D) Microwave heaters cannot be accepted by the public because they are somewhat unsafe.
(Answer)
C


Ques: In 1865, a creative engineer, John Roebling, decided to build a bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However, bridge experts throughout the world thought that this was impossible and told Roebling to forget the idea. However, Roebling thought about it all the time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington that the bridge in fact could be built. With great excitement and inspiration, and great hardships before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge in 1869. The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. prefix = st1 /Washingtonwas injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to walk or talk or even move. In spite of his handicap,Washingtonwas never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever. Now all he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By touching his wife's arm with that finger, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife. For 13 years Washingtontapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife's arm, telling the engineers what to do, until the bridge was finally completed. As a result of an accident, Washingtonlost the following abilities EXCEPT   _ A) speaking B) walking C) writing D) thinking
Ans:
Answer: D