Question: New findings suggest that brainy card games such as contract bridge may temporarily  raise production of a key blood cell including in fighting off illness. After 90 minutes of play, bridge players had increased levels of immune  cells, according to the research reported last week. A researcher, Diamond, studied bridge players from a women's bridge club. She chose bridge players because the game includes skills stimulating  a part of the brain called the dorsolateral cortex. Earlier animal research suggests that this part of the brain may play a role in the immune system. The findings are based on blood samples drawn from 12 women players. Their blood samples showed a rise in levels of white blood cells called T cells after they played bridge for 90 minutes. T cells are produced by the thymus gland  and used by the immune system against diseases. The T cell count jumped significantly in eight of the bridge players, and slightly in the other four. The findings contribute to the field of neuroimmunology , whose name reflects the fact that the nervous system and the immune system are not considered separate and isolated  systems. What isn't clear is whether the help to the immune system from an activity like contract bridge is lasting or temporary. It is also not clear whether the increase in T cells could finally be targeted against special illnesses. Which of the following is true according to this article? A) The immune system and the brain system used to be considered separate and isolated systems. B) The help to the immune system that is brought about by playing bridge can last for a long time. C) Cortex is a kind of blood cell. D) The new findings are impossible.
Answer: A

Question: Nonverbal  Communication When you are in another country, it is important to know the language, but it is equally important to know how to communicate nonverbally. Before saying anything, people communicate nonverbally by making gestures. According to an investigation ,only 30 to 35 percent of our communication is verbal. When people don't know the language, the most common way to communicate is through gestures. However, many gestures have different meanings, or no meaning at all, in different parts of the world. In the United States, for example, nodding your head up and down means "yes". In some parts of Greece and Turkey, however, this motion can mean "no". In Southeast Asia, nodding your head is a polite way of saying "I've heard you." In ancient Rome, when the emperor wanted to spare someone's life, he would put his thumb up. Today in the United States, when someone puts his/her thumb up, it means "Everything is all right." However, in Sardinia and Greece, the gesture is insulting  and should not be used there. In the United States, raising your clasped  hands above your head means "I'm the champion" or "I'm the winner". It is the sign that prizefighters make when they win a fight. When a leading Russian statesman  made this gesture after a White House meeting, Americans misunderstood and thought he meant he was a winner. In Russia, however, it is a sign of friendship. There are other nonverbal signals that people should be aware of when they go to another country, such as the distance to maintain between speakers. Americans stand closer to each other than English people. English people don't like touching somebody or being touched. Now in America, touch is important. For example friends touch each other on the arm. They often put an arm around a friend when they say "hello" or "goodbye". When the Russian leader put up his clasped hands after the meeting at the White House  _  . A) he meant Russia was the winner B) he was insulting America C) he made a show of friendship to America D) he in fact meant nothing at all
Answer: C

Question: Elizabeth Freeman was born about 1742 to African American parents who were slaves. At the age of six months she was acquired, along with her sister, by John Ashley, a wealthy Massachusetts slaveholders. She became known as "Mumbet" or "Mum Bett." For nearly 30 years Mumbet served the Ashley family. One day, Ashley's wife tried to strike Mumbet's sister with a spade. Mumbet protected her sister and took the blow instead. Furious, she left the house and refused to come back. When the Ashleys tried to make her return, Mumbet consulted a lawyer, Theodore Sedgewick. With his help, Mumbet sued  for her freedom. While serving the Ashleys, Mumbet had listened to many discussions of the new Massachusetts constitution. If the constitution said that all people were free and equal, then she thought it should apply to her. Eventually, Mumbet won her freedom---- the first slave in Massachusetts to do so under the new constitution. Strangely enough, after the trial, the Ashleys asked Mumbet to come back and work for them as a paid employee. She declined and instead went to work for Segdewick. Mumbet died in 1829, but her legacy lived on in her many descendants . One of her great-grandchildren was W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the founder of the NAACP, and an important writer and spokesperson for African American civil rights. Mumbet's tombstone still stands in the Massachusetts cemetery where she was buried. It reads, in part: "She was born a slave and remained a slave and remained a slave for nearly thirty years. She could neither read nor write, yet in her own sphere she had no superior or equal." Why did Mumbet run away from the Ashleys? A) She found an employer B) She wanted to be a lawyer C) She was hit and got angry D) She had to take care of her sister
Answer:
C