Televisions were among the most talked about items at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show last week in Las Vegas, Nevada. Some employed the most advanced technology ever. Some of the TVs used a new technology called Organic Light Emitting Diodes, or OLED. They were thinner, lighter, offered better color1 and were brighter than traditional LEDs. Smart TVs this year were smarter. Many offered technology that let users have a more personalized experience. One such TV from the electronics company TCL uses sensors and voice recognition to determine who is watching. It then offers programming based on the specific user. Another TV from Panasonic offers a similar personalized user experience. In addition to television technology, size also played a major part in CES 2013. Televisions varied in size from big to bigger, with at least two companies -- Samsung and HiSense -- exhibiting TVs measuring 110 inches. The yearly Consumer Electronics Show is the biggest technology trade show in North America and one of the biggest in the world. Gary Shapiro is president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, the group that organizes CES. He gave one of the keynote speeches on opening day. "Now you know that CES is more than a trade show. It's a gathering of the brightest minds and the top leaders from many industries and those seeking a glimpse into the future." That glimpse into the future included a look at digital health and fitness devices, which were also big at CES 2013. There were devices that track your activity and others that measure blood pressure, heart rate and weight. There was even a fork that tells you when you are eating too fast. Cars, smart-phones, tablet computers and PCs also made news. And a 27-inch table computer drew quite a bit of attention. CEA President Gary Shapiro says there was much to see but not nearly enough time to see it all. "You cannot see the show in the four days that you have. We have over 3200 different industries showing over 20,000 new products. It's  ly incredible." What can we know from Gary Shapiro? A) CES is only a big trade show. B) CES offers a glimpse into the future. C) CES lasts only four days in all. D) He thinks little of the new products' quality.
B

Which is sillier: denying we ever went to the moon or trying to convince the true non-believers? Once upon a time--July 20, 1969, to be specific - two men got out of their little spaceship and wandered around on the moon for a while. Ten more men walked on the moon over the next three and a half years. The end. Unfortunately, not quite. A fair number of Americans think that this whole business of moon landings really is a fairy tale. They believe that the landings were a big hoax   staged in the Mojave Desert, to convince everyone that U.S. technology was the "best" in the whole wide world. Which is the harder thing to do: Send men to the moon or make believe we did? The fact is that the physics behind sending people to the moon is simple. You can do it with computers whose entire memory capacities can now fit on chips the size of postage stamps and that cost about as much as, well, a postage stamp. I know you can because we did. However, last fall NASA considered spending $15,000 on a public-relations campaign to convince the unimpressed that Americans had in fact gone to the moon. That idea was mostly a reaction to a Fox television program, first aired in February 2001, that claimed to expose the hoax. The show's creator is a publicity hound   who has lived up to the name in more ways than one by hounding Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon. Mr. X (as I will call him, thereby denying him the joyous sight of his name in print) recently followed Buzz Aldrin around and called him "a thief, liar and coward" until the 72-year-old astronaut finally lost it and hit the 37-year-old Mr. X in the face. Anyway, NASA's publicity campaign began to slow down. The nonbelievers took the campaign as NASA's effort to hide something while the believers said that $15,000 to convince people that the world was round -- I mean, that we had gone to the moon -- was simply a waste of money. (Actually, the $15,000 was supposed to pay for an article by James E. Oberg, an astronomy writer who, with Aldrin, has contributed to... The believers think that NASA's publicity campaign is   _  . A) proof to hide the truth B) stupid and unnecessary C) needed to convince the non-believers D) important to develop space technology
B

Do you sometimes argue about what seems to you to be simple fact? Do you argue whether it's cold outdoors or whether the car in front of you is going faster than the speed limit? If you get into such arguments, try to think about the story about the six blind men and the elephant. The first blind man who felt the elephant's trunk said it was like a snake. The second who felt the elephant's side said it was like a wall, while the third said it was like a spear as he touched the animal's tusk. The fourth, who got hold of the elephant's tail insisted that it was like a rope. The fifth man said it looked like a tree as he put his arms around one of the elephant's legs. The sixth, who was tall and got hold of the elephant's ears, said it was like a huge fan. Each man's idea of the animal came from his own experience. So if someone disagrees with you about a "simple fact", it's often because his experience in the matter is different from yours. To see how hard it is for even one person to make up his mind about a "simple fact", try this simple experiment. Get three large bowls. Put ice water in one. Put hot water in the second. Put lukewarm water in the third. Now put your left hand in the ice water. Put your right hand in the hot water. After thirty seconds, put both hands in the lukewarm water. Your right hand will tell you the water is cold. Your left hand will tell you it's hot! Which of the following temperatures can the word "lukewarm" be applied to? A) Around 1degC B) Above 60degC C) Around 25degC D) Below 0degC

C