(Q).
Famous writer Edgar Allan Poe wrote 70 poems and 66 short stories during his life,but published only one novel. That book, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon, Pym of Nantucket,is fiction,focusing on Pym's bad luck on a whaling ship. The novel,published in 1838 ,involves an attempted rebellion of the whaling ship. Pym and two others drive back the rebels,killing or throwing overboard all but one. The spared rebel, named Richard Parker,is kept aboard in order to help operate the ship. But as the ship overturns,it has no adequate food. Parker suggests that cannibalism  is the only way out,and they draw straws to determine the victim. Parker loses and becomes dinner. But in 1846 a real-life Richard Parker died in a shipwreck  . He and 20 0thers were on board the doomed Francis Spaight, which sank, killing all on board. It was a mere coincidence,as it involved neither rebellion nor cannibahsm. In 1884,the coincidence became extremely horrible. A boat named the Mignonette sank, and four people went into a lifeboat. And just like in Pym's tale,the four found themselves lacking food and were desperate. They did not draw straws;however,two of the remaining three simply killed the youngest,a cabin boy who had fallen unconscious. All three then dined on the now-dead 17 year old. The cabin boy's name,of course,was Richard Parker. As for rebellion,one needs to travel back t0 1797 ,before Poe penned his novel - although there is little evidence that Poe had known about this Richard Parker or intentionally chose his name for the Pym novel. That year,another man named Richard Parker led a rebellion of the British Naval base at Nore,taking over a number of ships. But as food was running out,Parker ordered "his" fleet to head toward France. The ship he was on foUowed this order but none of the other ships did,and Parker was arrested then was hanged as punishment. This series of coincidences has not gone entirely unnoticed. In 2001,author Yann Martel published The Life of Pi,which was made into a movie for release in November of... What made the coincidence in 1884 extremely temble? A) Cannibalism without drawing straws. B) Shipwreck and rebellion. C) Rebellion and cannibalism. D) Hanging and cannibalism.
(A).
A


(Q).
It seems that people are gradually losing their smartness as smartphones become increasingly important assistants in their lives.  As we rely too much on technology instead of our brains, many people have lost three basic abilities. The first skill many people have lost is remembering phone numbers. Because phone numbers are stored in smartphone contacts, there's now no need to dial a number or look at it again. _  And some people may also have lost their sense of direction because navigation apps can guide people anywhere they want. People get so dependent on them that when they can't use their smartphones, they get lost and anxious. But the worst lost skills may be social ones, meaning that some people are becoming socially inept People often bury themselves in their smartphones. As we're too absent-minded by what's happening in the virtual some of us have lost conversational skills and sometimes can't even distinguish whether a person is happy or not. Last August, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, studied 51 students aged 11 and 12 who had over five hours' screen time every day. Their task was to tell the emotions of 48 pictures of faces that were happy, sad, angry or scared. The children made an average of 14. 02 mistakes at the  beginning.  But after a five-day camp without electronic products, they made only 9.41 mistakes on average. Luckily, people still have a chance to get these abilities back.  You should try to keep your parents' numbers in mind for emergencies. You should also pay more attention to street signs and stores , which will help you to draw a mind map and stop you from getting lost.  And the easiest solution to social skill loss is to take a break from electronic products. The experiment by researchers indicated that  without electronic  products, one could  _  . A) recognize more facial expressions correctly B) lose the sense of direction frequently C) tell different emotions immediately D) more pictures of faces easily
(A).
A


(Q).
A group of foreign residents married to Japanese talked about their children's names. Nicole Despres Students services manager, 40 (American) We have no intention to live outside Japan so it made sense for the kids to take my Japanese husband's family name. However, we did want to have a Western name too, so all three of them now have both a Western and Japanese name. We agreed there would be no strange names, spelling or unusual kanji(Chinese characters in the Japanese language). All names had to be easy to say and familiar in both Japanese and English. John McCracken Company general manager, 27(American) My son's name is Aiden. In part because my wife and I met in university and as she was studying Irish history and I have some links to Scotland and Ireland, I wanted a unique Gaelic name. We settled for Aiden as we found kanji that can be used in Japan that means "legendary hero" Paula Murakami College women's Association of Japan, 53(American) My husband was very excited about choosing names, so I decided to let him choose. He wanted their first names to be Japanese and camp up with names that included the kanji character in his own name. Our boys, Hiroki and Kenta, never had any problems while living on the U.S. West Coast with Japanese names, and I think both as children and as adults, they love their names. Jeff Ruiz Recording engineer, 42(Mexican) My son's name is Lenny. My wife chose it together with me as we were looking for a name that works in both worlds -- mine in Mexico, and hers in Japan -- and the name Lenny is common everywhere. In Japanese we write the name in katakana as that is easy for Japanese people who seem to like names in two or three characters. What can we infer from the passage? A) Nicole and her Japanese husband have a daughter and two sons. B) Paula has little say in making a decision at home. C) John's wife is Irish and the couple have only one child. D) Lenny is a name familiar to Japanese when written the Japanese way.
(A).

D