Article: The Panama Canal opened almost 100 years ago.It connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and reduces travel by about 13,000 kilometers and avoids the need for ships to sail around Cape Horn at the bottom of South America. Built from 1904 to 1914,the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 ships in 2008.In total,over 815,000 ships have passed through the canal.It has been named one of the seven modern wonders of the world.More than forty ships pass through the canal each day. Now,a major expansion  project will permit more ships and bigger ships to pass through the canal.Jorge Quijano,the Panama Canal's executive vice president of engineering,says,"The present canal has a total capacity  of about 340 million tons a year.With the expansion we expect to double that." For years,shipbuilders limited the size of many ships so that they could pass through the Panama Canal.But now many shipping companies use bigger ships to transport more goods as a way to reduce costs.Mr.Quijano says the expansion project will allow many of these larger ships to use the canal. Workers are building the new locks  alongside the old ones,which will remain in use.The existing locks are 305 meters long and 33.5 meters wide.The new ones will be 427 meters long and 55 meters wide.They will be able to handle ships with drafts  of more than 15 meters.At present,ships can ride only 12 meters deep in the canal. Engineers could not make the new locks too big.Mr.Quijano says the plans have to balance the size of the locks with the cost for ships to use the canal. The cost of the expansion is estimated at more than five billion dollars.The new locks are set to open in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal. Question: Why not make the new locks too big? Yes or no, is the answer "Partly because of the cost for ships."?
Yes

Article: 66-year-old Dai once worked as a boat tracker along the Yangtze River. "It was something that required brute strength,but not that alone, "Dai said at his home in Xialong village, which sits at the entrance to Wuxia Gorge, one of the famous Three Gorges in Southwest China. "You needed a lot of skills to do what we did." When outboard motors became available in the 1980's,boat trackers became a thing of the past. Today, they are seen only occasionally along the river during festivals and cultural events. However, Dai can still remember a time when being pulled by tracker along the Yangtze was the only way for people to travel from village to village in the mountainous Wushan county. Due to the area's rich mining resources,his services were vital for companies that wanted to ship their goods. "I was 15 or 16 when I started", said the retiree,explaining that his father also worked as a tracker. "He died in 1964, when I was a teenager. I can't even remember us tracking together, but we did. It was so long ago." Dai said that boats crews worked in teams with a first, second and third master. The first master was the most essential because he sat in the boat and steered   it along the safest route. "It was a key role. He had to guide the boat past jagged rocks and whirlpools," he said, adding that first masters were often the most experienced boatmen and the most familiar with the Yangtzer River. "My tracker days were dangerous," Dai said. "If the boat got caught in a whirlpool, it could have swallowed the boat and all the trackers down with it. The same thing would have happened if the halter   broke." Dai's days as a tracker finally came to an end when his family invested in a motorboat in the early 1980s. He successfully applied for a license from Wushan shortly after. Question: For about how many years did Dai work as a tracker? Yes or no, is the answer "20 years."?
No

Article: The opening scene of The King's Speech was, in a word, terrifying. The moment King George VI--wonderfully played by Colin Firth--stepped up to the microphone at Wembley Stadium, a rush of nervousness came over me. It took me back to my school days, standing at my desk, having to read aloud to the class. I whispered to my wife, Jill, "A stutterer  wrote this screenplay . I grew up with a stutter, really afraid of trying to get through simple sentences--knowing that I would then, or later, be laughed at. I still remember the reading when I was in 7thgrade at St. Helena's: "Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentlemen..." I remember reciting, "Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentlemen." The school teacher said, "Master B-B-B-Biden! What's that word?" She wanted me to say gentlemen. But by then, I had learned to put my sentences into bite-size pieces and I was reading it: "gentle"|breath|"man". Ninety-nine percent of the time, the teachers were great. I never had professional treatment but a couple of teachers taught me to put a regular rise and fall in my tone of speaking, and that's why I spent so much time reading poetry. But even in my small, boys' prep school, I got _ in my class with the nickname Joe Stutterer. You get so desperate, you're so embarrassed. I actually went and stood by the side of my house once, with a small round stone in my mouth, and tried to talk. Jill always thought I was kidding until she saw the movie and saw King George did the same thing. King George relied on the support his wife and the help of Lionel Longue, who, in describing working with other stutterers, said, "My job was to give them confidence in their voices and let them know that a friend was listening." I was lucky enough to have more than a couple of Lionels in my life. Nobody in my family ever--ever--made fun of me or tried to finish my sentences. My mother would say, " _ ." And because of her and others, I made sure it didn't. Through hard work and determination, I beat my stutter in high school. I even spoke briefly at my graduation... Question: What message is conveyed in the passage? Yes or no, is the answer "Stuttering is such a pain for children that we should give help and encourage them."?
