Passage 1 

        Do teachers who know more about their subjects have a more positive impact on their students? When we look at teachers' knowledge of facts and concepts,  26 measured by test scores and college grades, the relationship to student learning is unclear and may be indirect. Teachers who know more facts about their subjects do not necessarily have students who learn more. But teachers who know more may make clearer presentations and recognize student difficulties more 27  . They are prepared for any student questions and do not have to be evasive or vague in their answers.  28  , knowledge is necessary but not  29 for effective teaching because being more knowledgeable helps teachers be clearer and more organized.

        On a summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents 30 and reservations made when Amy disappears from their rented mansion on the Mississippi River. Under the 31 pressure from the police and Amy’s parents, the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is 32 evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? 33 the cops close in, every couple in town is wondering how well they know each other.

        Today, there are approximately twenty million Muslims in China, and Haji Noor Deen Mi Guang Jiang is a well-known and respected calligrapher. What makes him unique is that he is a master of Arabic calligraphy. Deen has once said, “As a Chinese Muslim calligrapher, I have a deep sense of 34 in promoting, propagating, and carrying forward this intricate skill and precious cultural heritage.” He has taught his 35 in lectures and workshops at many 36 institutions in the U.S. and the U.K., such as Harvard University, the University of Cambridge, and Boston University.

        In political science, populism is the idea that society is separated into two groups 37 one another—“the pure people” and “the corrupt elite,” according to the book, Populism: A very short introduction. The term, populism, is often used as a kind of shorthand political 38 . For example, Jeremy Corbyn, Britain’s Labour leader, has been accused of populism over his party's slogan “for the many, not the few.” 39 to represent the unified “will of the people,” populists stand in opposition to an enemy, often embodied by the current system, the establishment. The term was generally attached to the left in the past, but now populism can be anywhere on the political 40 .

Passage 1 

        While anxiety in its various forms has undoubtedly been with humans from time immemorial, certain modern lifestyle factors may have exacerbated the problem, and anxiety management needs to include a close analysis of lifestyle and thought patterns followed by appropriate modification. 

        During the past two decades, researchers have discovered that decreases in sleep time and quality can cause changes in nervous systems. Notably, anxiety can be augmented by excessive caffeine, alcohol, and recreational drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and amphetamines. In particular, caffeine use can profoundly raise the anxiety levels in those predisposed individuals, particularly the patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Recent research has also empirically established that in addition to food and fluid intake, factors such as social discrimination against obesity and physical inactivity may also significantly aggravate anxiety.

        The trips to resorts in Florida, Arizona and California were a great chance for medics to network. And the visits were all expenses paid. But such events laid the groundwork for a national crisis. From 1996 to 2001, American drug giant Purdue Pharma held more than 40 national “pain management symposia” at picturesque locations. The healthcare professionals had been specially invited, whisked to the conferences to be drilled on promotional materials about the firm’s new star drug, OxyContin, and recruited as advocates, the US government later documented. But OxyContin was to become ground zero in an opioid crisis that has now engulfed the United States. 

        The pill comprises oxycodone, a semi-synthetic opioid loosely related to morphine and originally based on elements of the opium poppy. Such strong painkillers were traditionally used to ease cancer pain, but beginning in the mid-1990s, pills based on oxycodone began being branded and aggressively marketed for chronic pain instead—a nagging back injury from manual labor or a car accident, for example. 

        Prescriptions issued for OxyContin in the US increased tenfold from 1996 to 2002. A bulletin from the American Public Health Association in 2009, reviewing the rise of prescription opioids, is titled, The promotion and marketing of OxyContin: Commercial triumph, public health tragedy. This document also asserted that Purdue had played down the risks of addiction. By 2002, opioids prescribed by doctors were killing 5,000 people a year in America and that number tripled over the following decade.

        Advertisers are willing to pay top dollar for a good tune. It might seem strange for advertisers to spend a large amount of money on music alone. After all, the direct connection between music in a commercial and the amount of money the company will make from it is difficult to quantify. But advertisers know that a memorable song will do most the work of catching and keeping people’s attention, sometimes regardless of the product. Catching people’s attention can be much more important to sales than trying to get any particular information across about the product or service being advertised. 

        Music also has the power to be retained in a person’s memory long after it has been heard. We’ve all had the experience of trying to get a catchy song out of our head. This phenomenon encourages advertisers to use music to “get inside the heads” of customers. One very important reason for using popular music and popstars in commercials is to have a direct message permeate a particular demographic, or group, within the general population. For example, it doesn’t take a marketing whiz to know that young people are the main consumers of soft drinks. This leads soft drink makers to choose recording artists who are popular with young people to help sell their products. In the same way, popular musicians and styles of music from the 1970s might be used to sell luxury cars or other items for more sophisticated tastes.