French writer Le Clezio won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced Thursday.  The Academy  _ Le Clezio as "author of new departures and poetic adventure, explorer of humanity beyond civilization." Le Clezio, 48, received much attention with his first novel The Interrogationin 1963 and made the breakthrough as a novelist withDesertin 1980, for which he was rewarded a prize from the French Academy. This novel Desertcontains magnificent images of a lost culture in the North African desert, contrast with a description of Europe seen through the eyes of unwanted immigrants, the Swedish Academy said in the statement. The emphasis in Le Clezio's work has increasingly moved in the direction of an exploration of the world of childhood and of his own family history, the academy added. Le Clezio was born 1940 in Nice of France, but both parents had strong family connections with the former French colony Mauritius.At the age of eight, he moved to Nigeria with his family. During the month-long voyage to Nigeria, he began his literary career with two books Un long voyageandOradi noir. He has taught at universities in Bangkok, Mexico City, Boston, Austin and Albuquerque among other places. Since the 1990s, Le Clezio and his wife share their time between Albuquerque in New Mexico, the island of Mauritius and Nice.  This was the fourth of the prestigious  Nobel Prizes handed out this year, with awards in chemistry, physics and medicine made in the past three days.  The Nobel Prizes have been awarded annually since 1901 to those who "conferred the greatest benefit on mankind during the preceding year."  The annual Nobel Prizes are usually announced in October and are handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite .  Each prize consists of a medal, a personal diploma and a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (1.4 million U.S. dollars). Where can we probably find this article? A) In a scientific fiction. B) In a history book. C) In a newspaper. D) In a travel leaflet
C
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WASHINGTON--Two-thirds of the world's polar bear population could be gone by 2050 if predictions of melting sea ice hold true, the US Geological Survey reported on Friday. The fate of polar bears could be even worse than that estimate, because sea ice in the Arctic might be disappearing faster than the available computer models predict, the geological survey said in a report aimed at determining whether the big white bear should be listed as a threatened species. "There is a definite link between changes in the sea ice and the welfare of polar bears," said Steve Amstrup, who led the research team. He says Arctic sea ice is already at the lowest this year and is expected to retreat  farther this month. That means that polar bears--some 16,000 of them -- will disappear by 2050 from parts of the Arctic where sea ice is melting most rapidly, along the north coasts of Alaska and Russia, researchers said in a telephone briefing . Other polar bears could survive beyond that date but many of those could be gone by 2100, Amstrup said. By this century's end, the only polar bears left might live in the Canadian Arctic islands and along the west coast of Greenland. "It is likely to result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world's current polar bear population by the mid 21st century," the report's executive summary said. "Because the observed trajectory of Arctic sea ice decline appears to be underestimated by currently available models, this assessment of future polar bear status may be conservative ." In January, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the polar bear as a threatened species, noting polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals, their main food. Without enough sea ice, polar bears would be forced onto land, but they are poor hunters once they get out of the water and ice, the researchers said. The bears' disappearance would probably take place as young cubs failed to survive to adulthood and females were unable to reproduce successfully. What was the US Geological Survey intended to do? A) To determine whether the polar bear was in danger. B) To measure how fast the sea ice melts in the Arctic. C) To check the predictions of the computer models. D) To find out the exact number of the polar bear.
A
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Imagine looking for your lost dog. You step into a cave . But instead of the dog, you find beautiful cave paintings. You see paintings of horses, deer, and bison that are drawn in black, brown, red and yellow. Your first question would probably be "Who did this?" This is what happened to four French boys in 1940. They found the Lascaux caves. The paintings the boys discovered in those caves are 17,000 years old. They were drawn by the ancient people called Cro-Magnons. Cro-Magnons looked much like people of today. They used tools, such as fishing nets. But their art was extremely good. The main cave at Lascaux is called the Great Hall of Bulls, which has a picture of bulls and horses in many colors. The largest animal is 18 feet long. There are smaller animals, such as bison, stags  and a bear. There is also a strange spotted two-horned   animal. To the left of the main cave are the most famous paintings that are the drawings of multicolored animals. One painting is called Little Horses. On the ceiling are horses and cows. The most unusual sight may be in the Shaft of the Dead Man where there is a thinoceros  , a carefully drawn dead man, a wounded bison and a bird. Why did Cro-Magnon artists do these beautiful drawings on cave walls? Did the drawings call upon some magical power? Did the Cro-Magnon people hope that the drawings would bring good luck? There is one thing the paintings seem to tell us. The Cro- Magnons were interested in the world. They looked at beauty and they understood it. Most of the drawings in the caves are about   _  . A) boys B) tools C) dead men D) animals

D
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