Q: Obama Still Smokes in Secret US President Barack Obama has just made life more difficult for cigarette makers. He has just signed a law that will set tough new rules for the tobacco industry. The new law gives the US Food and Drug Administration the power to strictly limit the making and marketing of tobacco products. At a White House signing ceremony Monday, Obama said that he was among the nearly 90% of smokers who took up the habit before their 18 th birthday. Obama, who has publicly struggled to give up smoking, said he still hadn't completely kicked the habit. Every now and then he still smokes in secret. "As a former smoker I struggle with it all the time. Do I still smoke sometimes? Yes. Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No." Obama said at a news conference. "I don' t do it in front of my lads.I don ?t do it in front of my family.I would say that I am 95% cured, but there are times when I mess up, " he said. "Once you go down this path, it' s something you continually struggle with, which is exactly why the law is so important.The new law is not about me, it' s about the next generation of kids coming up.What we don ' t want is kids going down that path," he said. Nearly 20% of Americans smoke and tobacco use kills about 440,000 people a year in the United States due to cancer, heart disease, and other serious diseases. The new law makes life difficult for  _  . A) Obama B) tobacco industry C) White House D) US Food and Drug Administration
A: B


Q: On a sunny day last August, Tim heard some shouting. Looking out to the sea carefully, he saw a couple of kids in a rowboat were being pulled out to sea. Two 12-year-old boys, Christian and Jack, rowed out a boat to search for a football. Once they'd rowed beyond the calm waters, a beach umbrella tied to the boat caught the wind and pulled the boat into open water. The pair panicked and tried to row back to shore. But they were no match for it and the boat was out of control. Tim knew it would soon be swallowed by the waves. "Everything went quiet in my head," Tim recalls  . "I was trying to figure out how to swim to the boys in a straight line." Tim took off his clothes and jumped into the water. Every 500 yards or so, he raised his head to judge his progress. "At one point, I considered turning back," he says. "I wondered if I was putting my life at risk." After 30 minutes of struggling, he was close enough to yell to the boys, "Take down the umbrella!"               Christian made much effort to take down the umbrella. Then Tim was able to catch up and climb aboard the boat. He took over rowing, but the waves were almost too strong for him. "Let's aim for the pier  ," Jack said. Tim turned the boat toward it. Soon afterward, waves crashed over the boat, and it began to sink. "Can you guys swim?" he cried. "A little bit," the boys said.               Once they were in the water, Tim decided it would be safer and faster for him to pull the boys toward the pier. Christian and Jack were wearing life jackets and floated on their backs. Tim swam toward land as water washed over the boys' faces. "Are we almost there?" they asked again and again. "Yes," Tim told them each time.               After 30minutes, they reached the pier. Why did the two boys go to the sea? A) To go boat rowing. B) To swim in the open water. C) To get back their football. D) To test the umbrella as a sail.
A: C


Q: Dr Asim Syed, 32, has performed more than 100 operations at London's Hammersmith Hospital in the country's busiest transplant unit, but never imagined that he would one day become a donor himself. He stepped forward when was told his 64-year-old mother might be dead within months unless she got a new kidney  . The worried surgeon brought her to London to be cared for at his hospital. However, it was not all plain sailing. Tests showed Dr Syed was the wrong blood group, so the only way was to go through a special blood-washing process. He consulted colleagues about that, but they didn't agree, because the risk of rejection is still too high. Dr Syed and his mother were then advised to consider a new way of donating and receiving, called an organ-paired. That is, Dr Syed donated his kidney to an unknown person and another donor in the chain was a successful match for his mother. The chain of three transplants took place at the same time on July 31 with Dr Syed's kidney going to a recipient in the Midlands and Mrs. Syed receiving her kidney from a person in the south of England. Just hours after donating his own kidney, Dr Syed found himself recovering in bed next to his mother. Mrs Syed said, "When I came round from my operation Asim was in the next bed and the first thing he said was, 'Mum now all your worries are over.' Tears fell down." Now mother and son are recovering well with Dr Syed already back at work. Mrs. Syed is staying with him for several months while the hospital monitors her progress. He said, "I did what anyone would do when they see a relative suffering disease. Although I wasn't able to help mum directly, by agreeing to be part of a chain, I was also very happy." Why didn't his colleagues agree to the method of blood-washing? A) It is very dangerous. B) It costs too much. C) They didn't know how to do it at all. D) They didn't have the relative equipment.
A: A


Q: Dear Reader,  Today I am going to ask you to support Wikipedia with a donation. Wikipedia is built differently from almost every other top 50 website. We have a small number of paid staff,just twenty-three. Wikipedia content is free to use by anyone for any purpose. Our annual expenses are less than six million dollars. Wikipedia is run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation,which I founded in 2003.  Wikipedia is driven by a global community of more than 150,000 volunteers--all devoted to sharing knowledge freely. Over almost eight years,these volunteers  have  contributed  more  than 11 million articles in 265 languages. More than 275 million people come to our website every month to access information,free of charge and free of advertising.  But Wikipedia is more than a website. We share a common cause:Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.  _ 's our commitment. Your donation helps us in several ways. Most importantly,you will help us cover the increasing cost of managing global traffic to one of the most popular websites on the Internet. Funds also help us improve the software that runs Wikipedia--making it easier to search,easier to read,and easier to write for. We are committed to increasing the free knowledge movement worldwide,by taking on new volunteers,and building strategic partnerships with institutions of culture and learning.  Wikipedia is different. It's the largest encyclopedia    in history,written by volunteers. Like a national park or a school,we don't believe advertising should have a place in Wikipedia. We want to keep it free and strong, but we need the support of thousands of people like you.                                                                   Thank you,                                                                  Jimmy Wales All the following are the reasons for the need of your donation EXCEPT   _  . A) to keep Wikipedia free for people all over the world B) to update the software that runs Wikipedia C) to raise the salaries of the staff D) to pay the cost of running the website

A: C