SPEED READING CONTEST ROUND 1

The Earth is the third planet from the Sun and it is the only planet known to have life on it. The Earth formed around 4.5 billion years ago. It is one of four rocky planets on the inside of the Solar System. The other three are Mercury, Venus, and Mars.

The four rocky planets are

• Earth, Mercury, Venus, Saturn

• Mercury, Mars, Earth, Venus

• Venus, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter

• Mercury, Venus, Mars

The Moon goes around the Earth about every 27⅓ days, and reflects light from the Sun. As the Earth goes round the Sun at the same time, the changing light of the Moon takes about 29½ days to go from dark to bright to dark again. That is where the idea of "month" came from. However, now most months have 30 or 31 days so they fit into one year.

The changing light of the Moon take how many days?

• 28½ days

• 29½ days

• 29 days

• 27½ days

The Vitamin Shoppe: 1,946 part-time openings.

The Vitamin Shoppe is a New Jersey-based retailer of nutritional supplements. They also operate stores in Canada under the name "VitaPath". The company provides approximately 8,000 different brands of supplements through its retail stores and over 20,000 different brands of supplements through its online retail websites.

How many different brands of supplements does the company provide through its retail stores?

• 1946

• 20,000

• 8,000

• 3,000

Chipotle: 1,553 part-time openings.

Chipotle is known for its use of organic meats throughout its more than 1,500 restaurants, which are located in 45 states. Since having been founded in 1993, the chain has since exploded and now counts some 37,000 employees. It is a pioneer in the "fast casual" dining movement.

What is Chipotle famous for?

• organic vegetables

• organic seeds

• organic meats

• fast casual dining movement

Rice That Fights Global Warming

More than half the global population relies on rice as a regular part of their diet. But rice paddies have a downside for the planet too: they produce as much as 17 percent of the world's total methane emissions. That is even more than coal mining emissions, which make 10 percent of total! So Christer Jansson, a plant biochemist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, spent the past 10 years developing SUSIBA2, a genetically modified rice plant that emits almost no methane.

• It is regular part of more than half of the world population’s diet.

• Rice paddies emit more methane than coal mining industry.

• Its plantations produce 17% of the world’s total methane emissions.

• Rice has genetically modified sort SUSIBA2, which is harmful for health.

Because of its water, the Earth is home to millions of species of plants and animals. The things that live on Earth have changed its surface greatly. For example, early cyanobacteria changed the air and gave it oxygen. The living part of the Earth's surface is called the "biosphere".

What is a "biosphere"?

• species of plants

• species of animals

• The part of bacteria on the Earth's surface

• The living part of the Earth's surface

One of the most famous works of art in the world is Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Nearly everyone who goes to see the original will already be familiar with it from reproductions, but they accept that fine art is more rewardingly viewed in its original form. However, if Mona Lisa was a famous novel, few people would bother to go to a museum to read the writer’s actual manuscript rather than a printed reproduction.

According to the passage, Mona Lisa is

• One of the famous works of art

• Da Vinci's greatest masterpiece

• The only work of art

• Just another painting

Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the son of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. He had an older sister, Willie Christine King, and a younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams King. Growing up in Atlanta, King attended Booker T. Washington High School. He skipped ninth and twelfth grades and entered Morehouse College at age fifteen without formally graduating from high school.

When and where was Martin Luther King born?

• April 4, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee

• January 15, 1929, Atlanta, Georgia

• November 21, 1933, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

• March 23, 1925, Ulm, Germany

Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the son of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. He had an older sister, Willie Christine King, and a younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams King. Growing up in Atlanta, King attended Booker T. Washington High School. He skipped ninth and twelfth grades and entered Morehouse College at age fifteen without formally graduating from high school.

How many siblings did Martin Luther King have?

• Three

• One

• Two

• Four

Primal therapy is a trauma-based psychotherapy created by Arthur Janov, who argues that neurosis is caused by the repressed pain of childhood trauma. According to Janov, repressed pain can be sequentially brought to conscious awareness for resolution through re-experiencing specific incidents and fully expressing the resulting pain during therapy.

What is a primal therapy?

• a trauma-based psychotherapy

• a kind of therapy

• a clinical-based therapy

• a medication-based therapy