Water scarcity is fast becoming one of the major limiting factors in world crop production. In many areas, poor agricultural practices have led to increasing desertification and the loss of formerly arable lands. Consequently, those plants species that are well adapted to survival in dry climates are being looked at for an answer in developing more efficient crops to grow on marginally arable lands.
Plants uses several mechanisms to ensure their survival in desert environments. Some involve purely mechanical and physical adaptations, such as the shape of the plant's surface, smaller leaf size, and extensive root systems. Some of the adaptations are related to chemical mechanisms. Many plants, such as cacti, have internal gums and mucilages which give them water-retaining properties. Another chemical mechanism is that of the epicuticular wax layer. This wax layer acts as an impervious cover to protect the plant. It prevents excessive loss of internal moisture. It also protects the plant from external aggression, which can come from inorganic agents such as gases, or organic agents which include bacteria ant plant pets.
Researchers have proposed that synthetic waxes with similar protective abilities could be prepared based on knowledge of desert plants. If successfully developed, such a compound could be used to greatly increase a plant's ability to maintain health in such adverse situations as inadequate water supply, limited fertilizers availability, attacked by pets, and poor storage after harvesting
What is an example of an inorganic agent that may attack plants?
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Lời giải:
Báo saiwhich can come from inorganic agents such as gases
=> có thể đến từ các tác nhân vô cơ như khí
Câu hỏi liên quan
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During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, almost nothing was written about the contributions of women during the colonial period and the early history of the newly formed United States. Lacking the right to vote and absent from the seats of power, women were not considered an important force in history. Anne Bradstreet wrote some significant poetry in the seventeenth century, Mercy Otis Warren produced the host contemporary history of the American Revolution, and Abigail Adams penned Important letters showing she exercised great political Influence over her husband, John, tiie second President of the United States. But little or no notice was taken of these contributions. During those centuries, women remained Invisible In history books.
Throughout the nineteenth century, this lack of visibility continued, despite the efforts of female authors writing about women, These writers, like most of their male counterparts, were amateur historians. Their writings were celebratory in nature, and they were uncritical in their selection and use of sources.
During the nineteenth century, however, certain feminists showed a keen sense of history by keeping records of activities in which women were engaged. National, regional, and local women's organizations compiled accounts of their doings. Personal correspondence, newspaper clippings, and souvenirs were saved and stored. These sources from the core of the two greatest collections of women’s history In the United States one at the Elizabeth and Arthur Schleslnger Library at Radcliffe College, and the other the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. Such sources have provided valuable materials for later Generations of historians.
Despite the gathering of more information about ordinary women during the nineteenth Century, most of the writing about women conformed to the "great women" theory of History, just as much of mainstream American history concentrated on "great men," To demonstrate that women were making significant contributions to American life, female authors singled out women leaders and wrote biographies, or else important women produced their autobiographies. Most of these leaders were Involved in public life as reformers, activists working for women's right to vote, or authors, and were not representative at all of the great of ordinary woman. The lives of ordinary people continued, generally, to be untold in the American histories being published.On the basis of information in the third paragraph, which of the following would most likely have been collected by nineteenth-century feminist organizations?
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Commuting is the practice of travelling a long distance to a town or city to work each day, and then travelling home again in the evening. The word commuting comes from commutation ticket, a US rail ticket for repeated journeys, called a season ticket in Britain. Regular travellers are called commuters.
The US has many commuters. A few, mostly on the East Coast commute by train or subway, but most depend on the car. Some leave home very early to avoid the traffic jams, and sleep in their cars until their office opens. Many people accept a long trip to work so that they can live in quiet "bedroom communities" away from the city, but another reason is 'white flight'. In the 1960s most cities began to desegregate their schools, so that there were no longer separate schools for white and black children. Many white families did not want to send their children to desegregated schools, so they moved to the suburbs, which have their own schools, and where, for various reasons, few black people live.
Millions of people in Britain commute by car or train. Some spend two or three hours a day travelling, so that they and their families can live in suburbia or in the countryside. Cities are surrounded by commuter belts. Part of the commuter belt around London is called the stock broker belt because it contains houses where rich business people live. Some places are becoming dormitory towns, because people sleep there but take little part in local activities.
Most commuters travel to and from work at the same time, causing the morning and evening rush hours, when buses and trains are crowded and there are traffic jams on the roads. Commuters on trains rarely talk to each other and spend their journey reading, sleeping or using their mobile phones, though this is not popular with other passengers. Increasing numbers of people now work at home some days of the week, linked to their offices by computer, a practice called telecommuting.
Cities in both Britain and the US are trying to reduce the number of cars conning into town each day. Some companies encourage car pooling (called car sharing in Britain), an arrangement for people who live and work near each other to travel together. Some Us cities have a public service that helps such people to contact each other, and traffic lanes are reserved for car-pool vehicles. But cars and petrol/gas are cheap in the US, and many people prefer to drive alone because it gives them more freedom. In Britain many cities have park-and-rids schemes, car parks on the edge of the city from which buses take drivers into the centre.Which of the following is true according to the passage?
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
Nowadays, everybody knows Apples and (26) ____ everybody knows that the company was founded by Steve Jobs, an American inventor and entrepreneur. He is widely recognized as a pioneer in the field of microcomputer revolution. He helped design the first Macintosh computer, transformed a small computer graphics company into Pixar, the company behind Toy Story and The Monster Inc.
His countercultural lifestyle and philosophy was a product of the time and place of his (27) ____. Jobs was adopted and raised in San Francisco Bay Area during the 1960s. In 1972, Jobs attended Reed College from which he (28) ____ in next to no time. Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976 in order to sell Apple I personal computer. At that moment, he might hardly imagine that only a year later the company tasted impressive victory with Apple II, one of the first highly successful mass-produced personal computers. (29) ____, in 1985, following a long power struggle, Jobs was forced out of Apple. After leaving Apple, Jobs took a few of its members with him to found NeXT, a computer development company which was then bought by Apple. The purchase allowed Jobs to become the company's CEO once again.
Steve Jobs died in 2011 after battling with pancreatic cancer (30) ____ nearly a decade. Millions first learned of Jobs’ death on a device which had been invented by himself.
30................
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Choose the option A, B, C or D that best answers the question about the passage:
"The seven-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met September 2, 1996, in Singapore, to discuss how to police the Internet. Although the group agreed on the need to control the explosion of information available on the Internet, it was unable to reach a common policy for regulating access to the global Computer network.
At the end of the three-day meeting, ASEAN government officials and industry experts issued a statement emphasizing the need to block access to Web sites that run “counter to our cherished values, traditions and culture.” ASEAN comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The meeting was the first time the Southeast Asian countries had tried to formulate a common approach to the Internet. Many of the ASEAN-member countries were concerned about the dissemination of pornography and antigovernment views over the Internet, the influence and perceived bias of the Western media, and the erosion of Asian values.
The forum, which followed a meeting of ASEAN information ministers earlier in the year, concluded that each country should develop its own regulatory approach to cyberspace. The ASEAN delegates agreed to share information and their experiences with national regulations and “cyberlaws.”
The forum was unable to agree on a regulatory framework for the region because of differing political views regarding censorship. Singapore, which has an estimated 150,000 Web users, is the first ASEAN country to impose regulations on access to the Internet. The city-state requires Internet providers to block access to pornographic sites and regulate political and religious discussion. On the other hand, the Philippines and Thailand support more liberal policies, calling for self- regulation by Internet access providers and minimal government intervention."3. At the end of the forum, the ASEAN delegates came to the conclusion that…..
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Although they are an inexpensive supplier of vitamins, minerals, and high-quality protein, eggs also contain a high level of blood cholesterol, one of the major causes of heart diseases. One egg yolk, in fact, contains a little more than two-thirds of the suggested daily cholesterol limit. This knowledge has caused egg sales to plummet in recent years, which in turn has brought about the development of several alternatives to eating regular eggs. One alternative is to eat substitute eggs. These egg substitutes are not really eggs, but they look somewhat like eggs when they are cooked. They have the advantage of having low cholesterol rates, and they can be scrambled or used in baking. One disadvantage, however, is that they are not good for frying, poaching, or boiling. A second alternative to regular eggs is a new type of egg, sometimes called 'designer' eggs. These eggs are produced by hens that are fed low-fat diets consisting of Ingredients such as canola oil, flax, and rice bran. In spite of their diets, however, these hens produce eggs that contain the same amount of cholesterol as regular eggs. Yet, the producers of these eggs claim that eating their eggs will not raise the blood cholesterol in humans.
Egg producers claim that their product has been portrayed unfairly. They cite scientific studies to back up their claim. And, in fact, studies on the relationship between eggs and human cholesterol levels have brought mixed results. It may be that it is not the type of egg that is the main determinant of cholesterol but the person who is eating the eggs. Some people may be more sensitive to cholesterol derived from food than other people. In fact, there is evidence that certain dietary fats stimulate the body's production of blood cholesterol. Consequently, while it still makes sense to limit one's intake of eggs, even designer eggs, it seems that doing this without regulating dietary fat will probably not help reduce the blood cholesterol level.What is the meaning of 'back up'?
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Read the passage below and choose one correct answer for each question.
On 8 August 1967, five leaders - the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand- sat down together in the main hall of the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok, Thailand and signed a document. By virtue of that document, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was born. The five Foreign Ministers who signed it have been considered as the founders of probably the most successful intergovernmental organization in the developing world today. The document that they signed would be known as the ASEAN Declaration.
It is a short, simply-worded document containing just five articles. It declares the establishment of an Association for Regional Cooperation among the Countries of Southeast Asia to be known as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and spells out the aims and purposes of that Association. These aims and purposes are about the cooperation in economy, society, culture, techniques, education and other fields, and in the promotion of regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the principles of the United Nations Charter. It stipulates that the Association will be open for participation by all States in the Southeast Asian region subscribing to its aims, principles and purposes. It proclaims ASEAN as representing the collective will of the nations of Southeast Asia to bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices, secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity. The goal of ASEAN, then, is to create, not to destroy. The original ASEAN logo presented five brown sheaves of rice stalks, one for each founding member. Beneath the sheaves is the legend "ASEAN" in blue. These are set on a field of yellow encircled by a blue border. Brown stands for strength and stability, yellow for prosperity and blue for the spirit of cordiality in which ASEAN affairs are conducted. When ASEAN celebrated its 30th Anniversary in 1997, the sheaves on the logo had increased to ten -representing all ten countries of Southeast Asia and reflecting the colors of the flags of all of them. In a very real sense, ASEAN and Southeast Asia will be one and the same, just as the founders had envisioned.
Up to 1997 how many countries there have been in ASEAN?
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Aging is the process of growing old. It occurs eventually in every living thing provided, of course, that an illness or accident does not kill it prematurely. The most familiar outward signs of aging may be seen in old people, such as the graying of the hair and the wrinkling of the skin. Signs of aging in a pot dog or cat include loss of playfulness and energy, a decline in hearing and eyesight, or even a slight graying of the coat. Plants age too, but the signs are much harder to detect.
Most body parts grow bigger and stronger, and function more efficiently during childhood. They reach their peak at the time of maturity, or early adulthood. After that, they begin to decline. Bones, for example, gradually become lighter and more brittle. In the aged, the joints between the bones also become rigid and more inflexible. This can make moving very painful.
All the major organs of the body show signs of aging. The brain, for example, works less efficiently, and even gets smaller in size. Thinking processes of all sorts are slowed down. Old people often have trouble in remembering recent events.
One of the most serious changes of old ago occurs in the arteries, the blood vessels that lead from the heart. They become thickened and constricted, allowing less blood to flow to the rest of body. This condition accounts, directly or indirectly, for many of the diseases of the aged. It may, for example, result In heart attack.
Aging is not a uniform process. Different parts of the body wear out at different rates. There are great differences among people in their rate of aging. Even the cells of the body differ in the way they age. The majority of cells are capable of reproducing themselves many times during the course of a lifetime. Nerve cells and muscle fibers can never be replaced once they wear out.
Gerontologists - scientists who study the process of aging - believe this wearing out of the body is controlled by a built-in biological time-clock. They are trying to discover how this clock works so that they can slow down the process. This could give man a longer life and a great number of productive years.The word "brittle" as used in the second paragraph means ......................
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Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer
On 8 August 1967, five leaders - the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand- sat down together in the main hall of the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok, Thailand and signed a document. By virtue of that document, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was born. The five Foreign Ministers who signed it have been considered as the founders of probably the most successful intergovernmental organization in the developing world today. The document that they signed would be known as the ASEAN Declaration.
It is a short, simply-worded document containing just five articles. It declares the establishment of an Association for Regional Cooperation among the Countries of Southeast Asia to be known as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and spells out the aims and purposes of that Association. These aims and purposes are about the cooperation in economy, society, culture, techniques, education and other fields, and in the promotion of regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the principles of the United Nations Charter. It stipulates that the Association will be open for participation by all States in the Southeast Asian region subscribing to its aims, principles and purposes. It proclaims ASEAN as representing the collective will of the nations of Southeast Asia to bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices, secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity. The goal of ASEAN, then, is to create, not to destroy.
The original ASEAN logo presented five brown sheaves of rice stalks, one for each founding member. Beneath the sheaves is the legend "ASEAN" in blue. These are set on a field of yellow encircled by a blue border. Brown stands for strength and stability, yellow for prosperity and blue for the spirit of cordiality in which ASEAN affairs are conducted. When ASEAN celebrated its 30th Anniversary in 1997, the sheaves on the logo had increased to ten -representing all ten countries of Southeast Asia and reflecting the colors of the flags of all of them. In a very real sense, ASEAN and Southeast Asia will be one and the same, just as the founders had envisioned.
The pronoun "it" in the first paragraph refers to ________.
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Birds that feed in flocks commonly retire together into roosts. The reasons for roosting communally are not always obvious, but there are some likely benefits, In winter especially, it is important for birds to keep warm at night and conserve precious food reserves. One way to do this is to find a sheltered roost. Solitary roosters shelter in dense vegetation or enter a cavity- horned, larks dig holes In the ground and ptarmigan burrow into snow banks- but the effect of sheltering is magnified by several birds huddling together in the roost, as wrens, swifts, brown creepers, bluebirds, and anis do. Body contact reduces the surface area exposed to the cold air, so the birds keep each other warm. Two kinglets huddling together were found to reduce their heat losses by a quarter and three together saved a third of their heat.
The second possible benefit of communal roosts is that they act as "information centers". During the day, parties of birds will have spread out to forage over a very large area. When they return in the evening some will have fed well, but others may have found little to eat. Some investigators have observed that when the birds set out again next morning, those birds that did not feed well on the previous day appear to follow those that did. The behavior of common and lesser kestrels may illustrate different feeding behaviors of similar birds with different roosting habits. The common kestrel hunts vertebrate animals in a small, familiar hunting ground, whereas the very similar lesser kestrel feeds on insects over a large area. The common kestrel roost and hunts alone, but the lesser kestrel roosts and hunts in flocks, possibly so one bird can learn from others where to find insect swarms. Finally, there is safety in numbers at communal roosts since there will always be a few birds awake at any given moment to give the alarm. But this increased protection is partially counteracted by the fact that mass roosts attract predators and are especially vulnerable if they are on the ground. Even those in trees can be attacked by birds of prey. The birds on the edge are at greatest risk since predators find it easier to catch small birds perching at the margins of the roost
The word "magnified" is closest in meaning to...................
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Aging is the process of growing old. It occurs eventually in every living thing provided, of course, that an illness or accident does not kill it prematurely. The most familiar outward signs of aging may be seen in old people, such as the graying of the hair and the wrinkling of the skin. Signs of aging in a pot dog or cat include loss of playfulness and energy, a decline in hearing and eyesight, or even a slight graying of the coat. Plants age too, but the signs are much harder to detect.
Most body parts grow bigger and stronger, and function more efficiently during childhood. They reach their peak at the time of maturity, or early adulthood. After that, they begin to decline. Bones, for example, gradually become lighter and more brittle. In the aged, the joints between the bones also become rigid and more inflexible. This can make moving very painful.
All the major organs of the body show signs of aging. The brain, for example, works less efficiently, and even gets smaller in size. Thinking processes of all sorts are slowed down. Old people often have trouble in remembering recent events.
One of the most serious changes of old ago occurs in the arteries, the blood vessels that lead from the heart. They become thickened and constricted, allowing less blood to flow to the rest of body. This condition accounts, directly or indirectly, for many of the diseases of the aged. It may, for example, result In heart attack.
Aging is not a uniform process. Different parts of the body wear out at different rates. There are great differences among people in their rate of aging. Even the cells of the body differ in the way they age. The majority of cells are capable of reproducing themselves many times during the course of a lifetime. Nerve cells and muscle fibers can never be replaced once they wear out.
Gerontologists - scientists who study the process of aging - believe this wearing out of the body is controlled by a built-in biological time-clock. They are trying to discover how this clock works so that they can slow down the process. This could give man a longer life and a great number of productive years.What happens to memorization when the brain begins to age?
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Learning means acquiring knowledge or developing the ability to perform new behaviors. It is common to think of learning as something that takes place in school, but much of human learning occurs outside the classroom, and people continue to learn throughout their lives.
Even before they enter school, young children learn to walk, to talk, and to use their hands to manipulate toys, food, and other objects. They use all of their senses to learn about the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells in their environments. They learn how to interact with their parents, siblings, friends, and other people important to their world. When they enter school, children learn basic academic subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics. They also continue to learn a great deal outside the classroom. They learn which behaviors are likely to be rewarded and which are likely to be punished. They learn social skills for interacting with other children. After they finish school, people must learn to adapt to the many major changes that affect their lives, such as getting married, raising children, and finding and keeping a job.
Because learning continues throughout our lives and affects almost everything we do, the study of learning is important in many different fields. Teachers need to understand the best ways to educate children. Psychologists, social workers, criminologists, and other human- service workers need to understand how certain experiences change people's behaviors.
Employers, politicians, and advertisers make use of the principles of teaming to influence the behavior of workers, voters, and consumers.
Learning is closely related to memory, which is the storage of information in the brain. Psychologists who study memory are interested in how the brain stores knowledge, where this storage takes place, and how the brain later retrieves knowledge when we need it. In contrast, psychologists who study learning are more interested in behavior and how behavior changes as a result of a person's experiences.
There are many forms of learning, ranging from simple to complex. Simple forms of learning involve a single stimulus. A stimulus is anything perceptible to the senses, such as a sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste. In a form of learning known as classical conditioning, people learn to associate two stimuli that occur in sequence, such as lightning followed by thunder. In operant conditioning, people learn by forming an association between a behavior and its consequences (reward or punishment). People and animals can also learn by observation - that is, by watching others perform behaviors. More complex forms of learning include learning languages, concepts, and motor skillsThe word "retrieves" in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ______
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Choose the option among A, B, C or D that best fits the blank space in the following passage:
"Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), regional alliance of ten independent countries that (1)……; stability and economic growth in Southeast Asia. The organization also encourages cultural exchanges between its members. ASEAN was founded in August 1967 by Malaysia, Thailand, and the (2)….. of Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Brunei joined the alliance after (3)….. independence from the United Kingdom in 1984. Vietnam was admitted (4)…. its seventh member in 1995. Laos and Myanmar (formerly Burma) joined ASEAN in 1997, and Cambodia became (5)…… of the alliance in 1999. The ASEAN secretariat, a (6) ….. office that administers the organization's activities, is located in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Its Principal objectives, outlined in the Bangkok Declaration (1967), were to (7)…… economic growth and promote regional peace and stability. A joint forum with Japan was established in 1977, and a (8)….. agreement with the European Community was signed in 1980. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, ASEAN (9)…… an important role in mediating the civil war in Cambodia. In January 1992 ASEAN members agreed to establish a free-trade area and to cut tariffs on nonagricultural goods over a 15-year period (10)______ in 1993."8. A joint forum with Japan was established in 1977, and a (8)….. agreement with the European Community was signed in 1980.
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Picture a society where learning can happen at any time, in any place and can be completed without ever going to class. This is could be new wave of education and the internet technology now exists to support such a system. The virtual classroom is here. If you are interested in English or Civil Engineering, then head to the University and click yourself a degree. Well, maybe it’s not that easy, but you would be on the right track. The flexibility of studying at your own pace, and the money you save with online courses, are two of the main attractions.
The web is a powerful educational tool. Some feel that virtual classrooms will isolate students from each other, which will result in problems developing interpersonal relationships and that these skills are much more important than computer skills. Should teachers teach kids how to behave in society, how to respect others and how to co-operate, or should kids have already learned this from their parents? No one is saying that social skills aren’t important, however, virtual classrooms are far more than just computer skills. Some strongly believe that education can be taught via the web and social skills can be gained from joining sports teams, summer camps, or just by hanging out! Others argue that this virtual classroom may place pressure on students: to become computer literate or be left behind in life. Is this undue pressure or reality? Maybe being left behind in life is a little dramatic, but the reality is that the computer age is here. Whether you want to pay for your new jeans with your debit card, or check to see if the library has the book you want, you’re going to need some computer skills.
The development of flexible, inquiring minds has rarely been the main concern in the design of educational systems. After all, if you have over thirty inquiring minds and only one teacher, flexibility could be a problem. It seems that developing students’ proper social behavior has always exceeded the concern to develop students’ creativity. Computer technology can make individualized attention a real possibility. At the Institute for the Learning Sciences, systems are being developed to allow people to try out things in simulated worlds. This technology will allow for the individual creative growth in students.
The web will provide amazing opportunities for the education of our society. Anyone with a computer and internet access can peruse effectively unlimited amounts of knowledge and programs, designed to help them learn and understand. The teachers and parents involved with these programs will be given the job of making sure that students lead well-balanced lives that combine Web-education and positive social interaction with their friends and neighbors. Imagine that your recreation room has now become your classroom, and your parents seem to be doing as much homework as you are! So, be prepared as the virtual classroom may find its way to a computer screen near you!What role are parents supposed to play in the web-based education of society?
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Picture a society where learning can happen at any time, in any place and can be completed without ever going to class. This is could be new wave of education and the internet technology now exists to support such a system. The virtual classroom is here. If you are interested in English or Civil Engineering, then head to the University and click yourself a degree. Well, maybe it’s not that easy, but you would be on the right track. The flexibility of studying at your own pace, and the money you save with online courses, are two of the main attractions.
The web is a powerful educational tool. Some feel that virtual classrooms will isolate students from each other, which will result in problems developing interpersonal relationships and that these skills are much more important than computer skills. Should teachers teach kids how to behave in society, how to respect others and how to co-operate, or should kids have already learned this from their parents? No one is saying that social skills aren’t important, however, virtual classrooms are far more than just computer skills. Some strongly believe that education can be taught via the web and social skills can be gained from joining sports teams, summer camps, or just by hanging out! Others argue that this virtual classroom may place pressure on students: to become computer literate or be left behind in life. Is this undue pressure or reality? Maybe being left behind in life is a little dramatic, but the reality is that the computer age is here. Whether you want to pay for your new jeans with your debit card, or check to see if the library has the book you want, you’re going to need some computer skills.
The development of flexible, inquiring minds has rarely been the main concern in the design of educational systems. After all, if you have over thirty inquiring minds and only one teacher, flexibility could be a problem. It seems that developing students’ proper social behavior has always exceeded the concern to develop students’ creativity. Computer technology can make individualized attention a real possibility. At the Institute for the Learning Sciences, systems are being developed to allow people to try out things in simulated worlds. This technology will allow for the individual creative growth in students.
The web will provide amazing opportunities for the education of our society. Anyone with a computer and internet access can peruse effectively unlimited amounts of knowledge and programs, designed to help them learn and understand. The teachers and parents involved with these programs will be given the job of making sure that students lead well-balanced lives that combine Web-education and positive social interaction with their friends and neighbors. Imagine that your recreation room has now become your classroom, and your parents seem to be doing as much homework as you are! So, be prepared as the virtual classroom may find its way to a computer screen near you!The word “computer literate” in paragraph 2 is closet in meaning to____?
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Aging is the process of growing old. It occurs eventually in every living thing provided, of course, that an illness or accident does not kill it prematurely. The most familiar outward signs of aging may be seen in old people, such as the graying of the hair and the wrinkling of the skin. Signs of aging in a pot dog or cat include loss of playfulness and energy, a decline in hearing and eyesight, or even a slight graying of the coat. Plants age too, but the signs are much harder to detect.
Most body parts grow bigger and stronger, and function more efficiently during childhood. They reach their peak at the time of maturity, or early adulthood. After that, they begin to decline. Bones, for example, gradually become lighter and more brittle. In the aged, the joints between the bones also become rigid and more inflexible. This can make moving very painful.
All the major organs of the body show signs of aging. The brain, for example, works less efficiently, and even gets smaller in size. Thinking processes of all sorts are slowed down. Old people often have trouble in remembering recent events.
One of the most serious changes of old ago occurs in the arteries, the blood vessels that lead from the heart. They become thickened and constricted, allowing less blood to flow to the rest of body. This condition accounts, directly or indirectly, for many of the diseases of the aged. It may, for example, result In heart attack.
Aging is not a uniform process. Different parts of the body wear out at different rates. There are great differences among people in their rate of aging. Even the cells of the body differ in the way they age. The majority of cells are capable of reproducing themselves many times during the course of a lifetime. Nerve cells and muscle fibers can never be replaced once they wear out.
Gerontologists - scientists who study the process of aging - believe this wearing out of the body is controlled by a built-in biological time-clock. They are trying to discover how this clock works so that they can slow down the process. This could give man a longer life and a great number of productive years.What does "Aging is not a uniform process" mean?
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
The increase in urbanization causes different problems. Air and water pollution are amongst the major issue we have to tackle.
In the first place, cars, factories and burning waste emit dangerous gases that change the air quality in our cities and pose threats to our health. Dangerous gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides cause respiratory diseases, for instant, bronchitis and asthma. Those are also proved to have long-term effects on the environment.
Furthermore, with the increased population, it becomes difficult to manage the waste generated in cities. Most of the waste is discharged or dumped into rivers or onto streets. The waste pollutes water and makes it unfit for human consumption. Subsequently, it becomes more and more difficult for city dwellers to get clean water. Some cities in Africa are unable to provide adequate water supply because most of the water is lost in pipe leakages. In fact, most city dwellers in developing countries are forced to boil their water or to buy bottled water, which is very expensive.
There are several actions that could be taken to eradicate the problems described above. Firstly, a simple solution would be joining community efforts to address problems affecting your city. Ask your parents, friends and relatives to join in as well. These efforts might include clean-up campaigns, recycling projects and a signature campaign to ask the government to do something about the situation. A second measure would be encouraging your teacher to talk about these problems and to discuss how young people can help to solve them. Finally, writing to local organizations working on these issues for ideas on how you can contribute to solve them.
Which of the following would serve as the best title for the passage?
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Many flowering plants woo insect pollinators and gently direct them to their most fertile blossoms by changing the color of individual flowers from day to day. Through color cues, the plant signals to the insect that it would be better off visiting one flower on its bush than another. The particular hue tells the pollinator that the flower is full of far more pollen than are neighboring blooms. That nectar-rich flower also happens to be fertile and ready to disperse its pollen or to receive pollen the insect has picked up from another flower. Plants do not have to spend precious resources maintaining reservoirs of nectar in all their flowers. Thus, the color-coded communication system benefits both plants and insects.
For example, on the lantana plant, a flower starts out on the first day as yellow, when it is rich with pollen and nectar. Influenced by an as-yet-unidentified environmental signal, the flower changes color by triggering the production of the pigment anthromyacin. It turns orange on the second day and red on the third. By the third day, it has no pollen to offer insects and is no longer fertile. On any given lantana bush, only 10 to 15 per cent of the blossoms are likely to be yellow and fertile. But in tests measuring the responsiveness of butterflies, it was discovered that the insects visited the yellow flowers at least 100 times more than would be expected from haphazard visitation. Experiments with paper flowers and painted flowers demonstrated that the butterflies were responding to color cues rather than, say, the scent of the nectar.
In other types of plants, blossoms change from white to red, others from yellow to red, and so on. These color changes have been observed in some 74 families of plants.
The word “woo” is closest in meaning to __________
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Choose the option among A, B, c or D that best answers the question about the passage:
"Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand (or “Land of the Free”), is a country in Southeast Asia. The country was an absolute monarchy from 1782 until 1932, when rebels seized power in a coup and established a constitutional monarchy. Since then, Thailand has come under the rule of many governments, both civil and military. The country was known as Siam until 1939 (when it was renamed Thailand), and again for a few years in the late 1940s. In 1949 the name Thailand was adopted a second time.
Central Thailand is dominated by a large fertile plain, formed by the country’s chief river, the Chao Phraya, and its tributaries. Much of the country’s rice and other crops are grown in this region. Bangkok, located on the Chao Phraya near the Gulf of Thailand, is Thailand’s Capital and largest city.
Thai people form the large majority of Thailand’s population, and most of them practise Theravada Buddhism. Other ethnic groups within the population include Chinese, Malays, and indigenous hill peoples, such as the Hmong and Karen. Thailand is known for its highly refined classical music and dance and for a wide range of folk arts. Traditionally based on agriculture, Thailand’s economy began developing rapidly in the 1980s.
The Thai have always been an agricultural people of the 1owland valleys and intermontane basins, where they cultivated wet rice with the use of water buffalo and harvested a wide range of fish and shellfish from the rivers and the sea. These occupations were often supplemented, especially in the north and northeast, by the collection of forest Products, ranging from timber, such as teak and bamboo, to foods stored for consumption during the dry season. In the northern mountain valleys, Tai-speaking peoples developed an intricate System of small-scale irrigation, called muang fai. The eventual move to the great Central plain necessitated the development of canals for transportation and, from the late-19th century onwards, of much larger irrigation and flood-control Systems. Small nuclear families occupied villages, comprising a wat and wooden houses on stilts. The pattern of life was governed above all by the seasonal rhythm of the monsoons and by a series of important religious festivals. Many of these festivals were closely associated with fertility and the arrival and ending of the rains."4. People in Thailand develop various kinds of irrigation such as ……
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Aging is the process of growing old. It occurs eventually in every living thing provided, of course, that an illness or accident does not kill it prematurely. The most familiar outward signs of aging may be seen in old people, such as the graying of the hair and the wrinkling of the skin. Signs of aging in a pot dog or cat include loss of playfulness and energy, a decline in hearing and eyesight, or even a slight graying of the coat. Plants age too, but the signs are much harder to detect.
Most body parts grow bigger and stronger, and function more efficiently during childhood. They reach their peak at the time of maturity, or early adulthood. After that, they begin to decline. Bones, for example, gradually become lighter and more brittle. In the aged, the joints between the bones also become rigid and more inflexible. This can make moving very painful.
All the major organs of the body show signs of aging. The brain, for example, works less efficiently, and even gets smaller in size. Thinking processes of all sorts are slowed down. Old people often have trouble in remembering recent events.
One of the most serious changes of old ago occurs in the arteries, the blood vessels that lead from the heart. They become thickened and constricted, allowing less blood to flow to the rest of body. This condition accounts, directly or indirectly, for many of the diseases of the aged. It may, for example, result In heart attack.
Aging is not a uniform process. Different parts of the body wear out at different rates. There are great differences among people in their rate of aging. Even the cells of the body differ in the way they age. The majority of cells are capable of reproducing themselves many times during the course of a lifetime. Nerve cells and muscle fibers can never be replaced once they wear out.
Gerontologists - scientists who study the process of aging - believe this wearing out of the body is controlled by a built-in biological time-clock. They are trying to discover how this clock works so that they can slow down the process. This could give man a longer life and a great number of productive years.According to the passage, what condition is responsible for many of the diseases of the old?
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The Influence of Advertising on Pricing
Advertising makes an immense difference in the popularity of a product. Studies have shown that consumers usually pay more for advertised products than non-advertised products. As a result, the marketing and advertising industry is a multibillion-dollar-a-year business. Local commercials can cost as little as several hundred dollars to produce, while national companies have been known to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single commercial. Interestingly, the source for these expensive commercials is the consumers who view the advertisements from the comfort of their living rooms. Companies influence the prices that consumers pay in two ways.
When consumers purchase any product, they are obviously paying for the cost of manufacturing the product. However, they are also paying for the advertising campaign devised to convince consumers to buy the product. The more costly the advertising campaign, the higher the price paid by consumers. Companies are allowed to set these high prices because consumers have shown that they will continue to pay them. For instance, a multinational chain of coffee shops significantly raised its prices a few years ago, due in no small part to an expensive national advertising campaign. While regular customers noticed and were not fond of the hike, one was quoted as saying, “I doubt it will make an impact [on consumers]. It won’t change my habit." Indeed, it did not; the company experienced record sales in spite of the fact its prices were higher than its competitors'.
Another way advertising tends to affect product pricing is seen in the arena of perceived value to the consumers. The perceived value is the worth that consumers assign to a product. Studies show that often the advertising for a product determines its value more than the quality or necessity of the product itself. One way a company may take advantage of this perceived value is by running commercials during prime time. These ads are usually much more expensive than others. For example, a national commercial that ran during a popular American show cost close to $745,000 to run for thirty seconds. If people watching the show perceive that the product is more valuable simply because it was advertised during prime time, they are often willing to pay higher prices. So, whether it is seen in the cost of the commercials or the advertiser-assigned value, it is obvious that advertising drives product pricing and directly affects consumers.
The author mentions commercials running during prime time in order to ______.