English Lessons

DIRECTIONS: Read the following and answer the questions?
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Silver's halcyon days may be fading, but gold still looks like it has some spunk.
The basic arguments for investing in gold apply to silver as well. Precious metals act as a hedge against all manner of grim developments, including inflation (or deflation), currency frailty (chiefly the dollar), fiscal chaos (see Greece) and various geopolitical concerns, such as terrorism and civil unrest.
Fervent investors in precious metals tend to have a dark view of the world. Scratch a gold bug, and you might find a canned-goods enthusiast, or someone who thinks the world's currencies one day will collapse.
Sure, gold and silver have been great investments over the past couple of years. But silver seems to have taken on a more manic stripe, while gold has retained a degree of restraint. It is that divergence that argues for looking at these two metals differently.

Take the last two weeks. Silver is down nearly 30% this month in volatile trading. Such a move in the Dow Jones Industrial Average would equate to an eye-popping drop of more than 3,700 points. of Pacific Investment Management Co. called silver's parabolic rise and subsequent skid a "tulip mania-style move."
Silver backers counter that even with its recent drop, the lesser precious metal has retained a nearly 80% gain over the past year. Of course, it was up nearly 150% two weeks ago. Over the past year, gold is up 23% and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is up 15%.

Even before last week's dive, things had gotten pretty crazy in the silver markets. On April 25, the exchange-traded fund traded nearly as much dollar volume as the S&P 500 ETF. And , which oversees silver trading at its Nymex unit, tightened silver margin requirements four times in the last few weeks as the speculative fever got hotter.

1.  Take the last two weeks. Silver is down nearly?
A.  50%
B.  30%
C.  15%.

2.  Silver's halcyon days may be fading? 
A. and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is up 15%.
B.  Even before last week's dive.
C.  but gold still looks like it has some spunk.