ACA FLEX Reading 23-9

According to the United States Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, everybody who is at least six months old should get a u shot this year. This recommendation was first made last year. The AARP Bulletin reports that a vaccine called Fluzone High-Dose is now available, designed especially for people aged 65 years and older. Because older people produce less robust immune responses than younger people, scientists have produced this vaccine to give them better protection against the influenza virus. This is important because cases of the u can involve very serious complications for older persons.

• AThere is now a special high-dose u shot just for older people.
• BEveryone over six months old should get a u shot this year.
• CPeople over 65 years of age are more likely to contract the flu.
• DDue to complications, no u shot can protect an older person.

Stump-Up was invented in 1986 by Tokyo Beverages Owner Okawa Bhery. The name for the product was actually proposed by Okawa's assistant, Fizzy Brewndon. The name was taken from the two most unusual ingredients in the drink, the Canadian banana leaf and the Asian stump root. The recipe for today's Stump-Up is very well guarded. Many of the ingredients are known; in addition to banana leaves and stump root, they include strawberry, cocoa, lemon, cinnamon, nuts, vanilla, caramel, salts and sugar. The proportions of the ingredients and the identity of Stump's secret ingredients are known by only a few of the Stump-Up Company's very senior scientists and Vice¬Presidents.

• ANo one knows the exact proportions of ingredients used in Stump-Ups.
• BThe public does not know how many stump roots are used in a batch of Stump-Ups.
• CThe public is not sure that banana leaves are used in Stump-Ups.
• DThe public knows all the ingredients in Stump-Ups.

In this role, due to their working heritage, Border Collies are very demanding, playful, and energetic. They thrive best in households that can provide them with plenty of play and exercise, either with humans or other dogs. Due to their demanding personalities and need for mental ________ (3) and exercise, many Border Collies develop problematic behaviors in households that are not able to provide for their needs. They are infamous for chewing holes in walls and furniture, and ________ (4) scraping and hole digging, due to boredom. Border Collies may exhibit a strong desire to herd, a trait they may show with small children, cats, and other dogs. The breed's herding trait has been deliberately encouraged, as it was in the dogs from which the Border Collie was developed, by selective breeding for many generations. However, being ________ (5) trainable, they can live amicably with other pets if given proper socialization training. The American Border Collie Association recommends that potential owners, before taking on the breed as a household pet, should be sure they can provide regular exercise ________ (6) with the collie's high energy and prodigious stamina. A working collie may run many miles a day, using its experience, personality and intelligence to control challenging livestock. These dogs will become ________ (7) and frustrated if left in isolation, ignored or inactive. Like many working breeds, Border Collies can be motion-sensitive and may chase moving vehicles and bicycles, but this behavior can be modified by training. Some of the more difficult behaviors require patience, as they are developmental and may disappear as the dog matures.

At supper Johnson talked of good eating with uncommon ________ (8). "Some people," said he, "have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very ________ (9), and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else," He was, for the moment, not only serious but ________ (10). " Yet I have heard him, upon other occasions, talk with great contempt of people who were anxious to gratify their palates; and the 206th number of his Rambler is a masterly essay against ________ (11). His practice, indeed, I must acknowledge, may be considered as casting the balance of his different opinions upon this subject; for I never knew any man who ________ (12) good eating more than he did.

The iPhone is a line of touchscreen-based smartphones designed and marketed by Apple Inc. that use Apple's iOS mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was ________ (13) by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007. Since then Apple has periodically released new iPhone models and iOS updates. of November 1, 2018, more than 2.2 billion iPhones had been sold. The iPhone's user interface is built around a multi-touch screen with a ________ (14) keyboard. The iPhone connects to cellular networks or Wi-Fi. An iPhone can make calls, browse the web, take pictures, play music and send and receive emails and text messages. Since the iPhone's launch further features have been added, including larger screen sizes, shooting video, waterproofing and the ability to install third-party mobile apps through an app store, ________ (15) accessibility support. Up to 2017, iPhones used a layout with a single button on the front panel that returns the user to the home screen. Since 2017, more expensive iPhone models have switched to a nearly bezel-less front screen design with app switching activated by gesture ________ (16).

When we accept the evidence of our unaided eyes and describe the Sun as a yellow star, we have summed up the most important single fact about it-at this moment in time. It appears probable, however, that sunlight will be the colour we know for only a negligibly small part of the Sun’s history. Stars, like individuals, age and change. As we look out into space, we see around us stars at all stages of evolution. There are faint blood-red dwarfs so cool that their surface temperature is a mere 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, there are searing ghosts blazing at 100, 000 degrees Fahrenheit and almost too hot to be seen, for the great part of their radiation is in the invisible ultraviolet range. Obviously, the “daylight” produced by any star depends on its temperature; today (and for ages to come) our Sun is at about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and this means that most of the Sun’s light is concentrated in the yellow band of the spectrum, falling slowly in intensity toward both the longer and shorter light waves. That yellow “hump” will shift as the Sun evolves, and the light of day will change accordingly. It is natural to assume that as the Sun grows older, and uses up its hydrogen fuel which it is now doing at the spanking rate of half a billion tons a second- it will become steadily colder and redder.

• AThe passage is mainly about the evolutionary cycle of the Sun
• BHot stars are referred to as “ghosts because they are nearly invisible.
• CThe important thing about the Sun at the present time is that it appears yellow
• DAs the Sun continues to age, it is likely to become colder and redder in colour.
• ESun has a short history and it always remains the same.

Communication is the sharing of information. It is the power to create in the minds of others, feelings or information that you want them to have. It is the need to communicate that has given rise to speech, language, alphabets, and writing. The same need led to the invention of paper, printing presses, typewriters, and finally computers and the internet. The power to communicate in depth has allowed humans to dominate earth. The fast development of the same power has allowed human technological evolution to overtake biological and social evolution. There are three principal needs of communication. The need to communicate in presence of the receiver gave rise to speech and language. The need to communicate in one’s absence gave rise to alphabet, writing, paper, printing press, all kinds of recording devices, and finally the modern-day computer with its features. The need to communicate over a distance included everything that one needed to communicate in one’s absence, but also gave rise to signals, telegraph, telephone, the postal system and the internet.

• AWhy do we communicate?
• BHow do we communicate?
• CWhat do we communicate?
• DWhere do we communicate?
• EWhen do we communicate?

English is important not because a number of people know it, although it is a factor to be remembered. It is not important because it is the language of Milton and Shakespeare, although that also has to be considered. English is important because it is the major window on the modern world. And we dare not close that window. If we close it, we imperil our future. Be it industrialization, scientific development and technology, every door of modern knowledge will be closed if we do not have one or more foreign languages. We can have French, German or Russian, if you like, but obviously it is infinitely simpler for us to deal with a language which we know than to shift over to French, German, Russian or Spanish which will be a tremendous job. Every competent scientist today has to know two or three non-native languages. In the present age of industrialization, mechanization, scientific progress and research, we cannot progress without knowledge of English or, for that matter, French, German or Russian.

• ASince there are many in the country that can speak and understand English, the language is important for us.
• BThe literary importance of English cannot be underestimated.
• CLanguage plays an important role in research and development.
• DEnglish has today become the language of the world.
• EKnowledge of French, German or Russian is less important than knowledge of English.

The role of governments in environmental management is difficult but inescapable. Sometimes, the state tries to manage the resources it owns, and does so badly. Often, however, governments act in an even more harmful way. They actually subsidise the exploitation and consumption of natural resources. A whole range of policies, from farm-price support to protection for coal-mining, do environmental damage and (often) make no economic sense. Scrapping them offers a two-fold bonus: a cleaner environment and a more efficient economy. Growth and environmentalism can actually go hand in hand, if politicians have the courage to confront the vested interest that subsidies create. All faming activities may have damaging environmental impacts. For example, land clearing for agriculture is the largest single cause of deforestation; chemical fertilisers and pesticides may contaminate water supplies; more intensive farming and the abandonment of fallow periods tend to exacerbate soil erosion; and the spread of mono-Culture and use of high-yielding varieties of crops have been accompanied by the disappearance of old varieties of food plants which might have provided some insurance against pests or diseases in future. Soil erosion threatens the productivity of land in both rich and poor countries. The United States, where the most careful measurements have been done, discovered in 1982 that about one-fifth of its farmland is losing topsoil at a rate likely to diminish the soil’s productivity. The country subsequently embarked upon a program to convert 11 per cent of its cropped land to meadow or forest. Topsoil in India and China is vanishing much faster than in America.

• AMany countries have reduced the productivity of farmland by 20 per cent.
• BSoil erosion in the US was almost as severe as in India and China.
• CSoil erosion was causing significant damage to 20 per cent of farmland in the US.
• DSoil erosion could be reduced by converting cultivated land to meadow or forest.
• EGovernment in many countries provide financial aid to consume natural resources.