This excerpt is from Day Trading For Dummies by Ann C. Logue (Wiley).

Day trading is a crazy business. Traders work in front of their computer screens, reacting
to blips, each of which represents real dollars. They make quick decisions because their ability
to make money depends on successfully executing a large number of trades that generate small
profits. They close out their positions in the stocks, options, and futures contracts they own at
the end of the day, which limits some of the risks — nothing can happen overnight to disturb an
existing profit position — but those limits on risk can limit profits. After all, a lot can happen in a
year, increasing the likelihood that your trade idea will work out, but in a day? You have to be
patient and work fast. Some days offer nothing good to buy. Other days, every trade seems to
lose money.
The individual human-being day trader is up against a tough opponent: high- frequency
algorithms programmed and operated by brokerage firms and hedge funds that have no
emotion and can make trades in less time than it takes to blink your eye. If you’re not prepared
for that competition, you will be crushed.
The definition of day trading is that day traders hold their securities for only one day.
They close out their positions at the end of every day and then start all over again the next day.
By contrast, swing traders hold securities for days and sometimes even months; investors
sometimes hold for years. The short-term nature of day trading reduces some risks, because
nothing can happen overnight to cause big losses. Meanwhile, many other types of investors go
to bed thinking their position is in great shape only to wake up the next morning to find that the
company has announced terrible earnings or that its CEO is being indicted on fraud charges.
But there’s a flip side (there’s always a flip side, isn’t there?): The day trader’s choice of
securities and positions has to work out in a day, or it’s gone. Tomorrow doesn’t exist for any
specific position. Meanwhile, the swing trader or the investor has the luxury of time, because it
sometimes takes a while for a position to work out the way your research shows it should. In the
long run, markets are efficient, and prices reflect all information about a security. Unfortunately,
a few days of short runs may need to occur for this efficiency to kick in.
Day traders are speculators working in zero-sum markets one day at a time. A zero-sum
game has exactly as many winners as losers. And options and futures markets, which are
popular with day traders, are zero-sum markets. If the person who holds an option makes a
profit, then the person who wrote (which is option-speak for sold) that option loses the same
amount. There’s no net gain or net loss in the market as a whole. That makes the dynamics
different from other types of financial activities you may have been involved in. When you take
up day trading, the rules that may have helped you pick good stocks or find great mutual funds
over the years no longer apply. Day trading is a different game with different rules.
Professional traders fall into two categories: speculators and hedgers. Speculators look
to make a profit from price changes. Hedgers look to protect against a price change. They make
their buy and sell choices as insurance, not as a way to make a profit, so they choose positions
that offset their exposure in another market.
1. According to the passage, what is the main difference between hedgers and speculators?

(A) Speculators try to profit from price changes, whereas hedgers try to protect themselves from
price changes.
(B) Speculators try to protect themselves from price changes, whereas hedgers try to profit from
price changes.
(C) Speculators are amateur traders, whereas hedgers are professional traders.
(D) Hedgers are amateur traders, whereas speculators are professional traders.

Relaxation Techniques

1 Relaxation is more than a state of mind; it physically changes the way your body
functions. When your body is relaxed, breathing slows, blood pressure and oxygen consumption
decrease, and some people report an increased sense of well-being. This is called the
“relaxation response.” Being able to produce the relaxation response by using relaxation
techniques may counteract the effects of long-term stress, which may contribute to or worsen a
range of health problems, including depression, digestive disorders, headaches, high blood
pressure, and insomnia.
2 Relaxation techniques often combine breathing and focused attention to calm the mind
and the body. Most methods require only brief instruction from a book or experienced
practitioner before they can be done without assistance. These techniques may be most
effective when practiced regularly and combined with good nutrition, regular exercise, and a
strong social support system.
3 People may use relaxation techniques as part of a comprehensive plan to treat,
prevent, or reduce symptoms of a variety of conditions, including stress, high blood pressure,
chronic pain, insomnia, depression, labor pain, headache, cardiovascular disease, anxiety,
chemotherapy side effects, and others.
4 According to the 2007 National Health Interview Survey, which included a
comprehensive survey on the use of complementary health approaches by Americans, 12.7
percent of adults used deep-breathing exercises, 2.9 percent used progressive relaxation, and
2.2 percent used guided imagery, or focusing on pleasant images, for health purposes. Most of
those people reported using a book to learn the techniques rather than seeing a practitioner.
5 To understand how consciously producing the relaxation response may affect your
health, it is helpful to understand how your body responds to the opposite of relaxation—stress.
6 When you are under stress, your body releases hormones that produce the
“fight-or-flight response.” Heart rate and breathing rate go up, and then blood vessels narrow
(restricting the flow of blood). This response allows energy to flow to parts of your body that
need to take action, for example, the muscles and the heart. However useful this response may
be in the short term, there is evidence that when your body remains in a stress state for a long
time, emotional or physical damage can occur. Long-term or chronic stress (lasting months or
years) may reduce your body’s ability to fight off illness and lead to or worsen certain health
conditions. Chronic stress may play a role in developing high blood pressure, headaches, and
stomachache. Stress may worsen certain conditions, such as asthma. Stress has also been
linked to depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses.
7 In contrast to the stress response, the relaxation response slows the heart rate, lowers
blood pressure, and decreases oxygen consumption and levels of stress hormones. Because
relaxation is the opposite of stress, the theory is that voluntarily creating the relaxation response
through regular use of relaxation techniques could counteract the negative effects of stress.

2. The phrase “In contrast” in paragraph 7 helps emphasize the difference between

A. blood pressure and heart rates.

B. fight-or-flight responses.
C. science and experimental medicine.
D. stress and relaxation.

Be Active Your Way: A Fact Sheet for Adults

Why should I be physically active?

Physical activity can make you feel stronger and more alive. It is a fun way to be with
your family or friends. It also helps you improve your health.

How many times a week should I be physically active?

It is up to you, but it is better to spread your activity throughout the week and to be active
at least three days a week. . . .

How much physical activity do I need to do?

This chart tells you about the activities that are important for you to do. Do both aerobic
activities and strengthening activities. Each offers important health benefits. And remember,
some physical activity is better than none!
Moderate Activities
(I can talk while I do them, but I can’t sing.)

• Ballroom and line dancing • Biking on level ground or with few hills
• General gardening (raking, trimming shrubs)
• Tennis (doubles)
• Walking briskly
• Water aerobics

Vigorous Activities:
(I can only say a few words without stopping to catch my breath.)

• Aerobic dance and fast dancing

• Biking faster than 10 miles per hour
• Heavy gardening (digging, hoeing)
• Race-walking, jogging, or running
• Swimming fast or swimming laps
• Tennis (singles)

3. What is a key difference between the guidelines and the fact sheet?

A. They are aimed at different audiences.

B. They have different purposes.
C. They use different writing styles.
D. They emphasize different information.

Excerpt from Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, 1876

1 Tom did play hookey, and he had a very good time. He got back home barely in
season to help Jim saw next-day’s wood and split the kindlings before supper—at least he was
there in time to tell his adventures to Jim while Jim did three-fourths of the work. Tom’s younger
brother (or rather half-brother) Sid was already through with his part of the work (picking up
chips), for he was a quiet boy, and had no adventurous, troublesome ways.
2 While Tom was eating his supper, and stealing sugar as opportunity offered, Aunt Polly
asked him questions that were full of guile, and very deep—for she wanted to trap him into
damaging revealments. Like many other simple-hearted souls, it was her pet vanity to believe
she was endowed with a talent for dark and mysterious diplomacy, and she loved to
contemplate her most transparent devices as marvels of low cunning. Said she:
3 “Tom, it was middling warm in school, warn’t it?”
4 “Yes’m.”
5 “Powerful warm, warn’t it?”
6 “Yes’m.”
7 “Didn’t you want to go in a-swimming, Tom?”
8 A bit of a scare shot through Tom—a touch of uncomfortable suspicion. He searched
Aunt Polly’s face, but it told him nothing. So he said:
9 “No’m—well, not very much.”
 10 The old lady reached out her hand and felt Tom’s shirt, and said:
11 “But you ain’t too warm now, though.” And it flattered her to reflect that she had
discovered that the shirt was dry without anybody knowing that that was what she had in her
mind. But in spite of her, Tom knew where the wind lay, now. So he forestalled what might be the
next move:
12 “Some of us pumped on our heads—mine’s damp yet. See?”
13 Aunt Polly was vexed to think she had overlooked that bit of circumstantial evidence,
and missed a trick. Then she had a new inspiration:
14 “Tom, you didn’t have to undo your shirt collar where I sewed it, to pump on your
head, did you? Unbutton your jacket!”
15 The trouble vanished out of Tom’s face. He opened his jacket. His shirt collar was
securely sewed.
16 “Bother! Well, go ‘long with you. I’d made sure you’d played hookey and been
a-swimming. But I forgive ye, Tom. I reckon you’re a kind of a singed cat, as the saying
is—better’n you look. This time.”
17 She was half sorry her sagacity had miscarried, and half glad that Tom had stumbled
into obedient conduct for once.
18 But Sidney said:
19 “Well, now, if I didn’t think you sewed his collar with white thread, but it’s black.”
20 “Why, I did sew it with white! Tom!”
21 But Tom did not wait for the rest. As he went out at the door he said:
22 “Siddy, I’ll lick you for that.”
23 In a safe place Tom examined two large needles which were thrust into the lapels of
his jacket, and had thread bound about them—one needle carried white thread and the other
black. He said: “She’d never noticed if it hadn’t been for Sid. Confound it! sometimes she sews it
with white, and sometimes she sews it with black. I wish to geeminy she’d stick to one or
t’other—I can’t keep the run of ‘em. But I bet you I’ll lam Sid for that. I’ll learn him!”

1. The main theme of this passage is

A. the contrast between Tom’s personality and Sid’s.

B. the conflict between chores (work) and school on the one hand, and avoiding those duties on
the other.
C. the contrast between the choices Tom can make and the choices Jim has.
D. the struggle between Tom and Aunt Polly to outwit each other.

2. What was Aunt Polly’s aim in questioning Tom?

A. She hoped to start an argument between Tom and Sid.

B. She wanted to practice using the diplomatic skills she believed she possessed.
C. She wanted to get Tom to admit that he’d gone swimming instead of going to school.
D. She was trying to exert her authority over him.

3. What does Aunt Polly regret when she feels “her sagacity had miscarried” (paragraph 17)?

A. that she had wrongly accused Tom

B. that she hadn’t taken him to school herself, to make sure he went
C. that Tom apparently hadn’t played hookey after all
D. that her cunning had failed her
4. What main function does the character of Sid serve in the passage?

A. He acts as a counterweight to Tom.

B. He is an example of the type of boy Aunt Polly prefers to Tom.
C. He introduces another source of tension in Tom’s life, in addition to Aunt Polly.
D. His status in the family suggests that Tom isn’t a full member.

5. For what purpose did the author use a dialogue between Aunt Polly and Tom instead of
simply describing the conflict over going to school?

A. so readers could get to know the characters more directly

B. to convey the type of language used in that time period and geographic area
C. because he does a better job of writing dialogue than he does of writing narrative
descriptions
D. because the literary style in the author’s time favored dialogue

6. Does the author’s account of the exchange between Aunt Polly and Tom support the idea that
they seem about equally matched?

A. No. The author describes the talents and cunning Aunt Polly believes she can put to use in
dealing with Tom, but Tom is just a disobedient boy with no special abilities.
B. Yes. Tom senses immediately what Aunt Polly is trying to find out, and “forestalled what might
be the next move” (paragraph 11) by explaining his wet hair without being asked.
C. Yes. Tom gets Jim to do most of the wood splitting, so he would be a match for Aunt Polly’s
attempts to get him to admit to playing hookey.
D. No. Until Sid intervenes with his observation about the thread color, Tom is the clear winner.