user: More than 20 million kids in the United States live with one parent. Separation and divorce are the most common reasons for this. In other cases, the mom and dad may never have lived together, or one of them may have died. Living with one parent instead of two can bring about a lot of emotions. These feelings can be pretty strong, and they can be confusing, too. You might feel terribly sad and angry because your parents divorced. Single parents are often working parents because someone needs to earn money to buy food, clothing, and a place to live in. Having a job means your mom or dad is able to provide these things and more for you. People work for other reasons, too. A job can let a person use his or her special talents and skills. A job can be important because it helps people in the community. But even though you might understand why your mom or dad has to work, sometimes it can be hard to accept. This can be especially true during the summer or school vacations. _  It can be tough when you don't have enough time with your dad or mom. When you live with one parent, that person really has to do the work of two people. Besides a job, your mom or dad is responsible for caring for the kids, the house, the yard, the car and the pets. So what can you do ? One of the best ways is to hold a family meeting. Talk about everyone's schedule for work, school, and activities. You can also talk about what jobs around the house need to be done every day. You might want to help your parent cook dinner sometimes. That can be both fun and helpful to your parent. Maybe you can also schedule a weekly game or a movie at night. What is the best title for the passage? A) Living with a single parent B) Single parents and work C) How to work with a single parent D) Schedules for work
A


"Can't hold a candle to" is a popular expression. It is from the time before electricity, when people used candles for light. Someone who lived in a big house would have a servant light his way by holding a candle. The expression meant that the person who cannot hold a candle to you is not fit even to be your servant. "Hold out" is an expression one hears often in sports reports and labor news. It means refusing to play or work. Professional football and baseball players hold out if their team refuses to pay them what they think they are worth. Members of labor unions hold out and refuse to work until they get the work agreement they want. The expression "hold up" has several different meanings. One is a robbery. A man with a gun may say, "This is a hold up. Give me your money." Another meaning is to delay. A driver late for work may tell his boss, "I was held up by heavy traffic." Someone who was robbed on the way to work might say, "Sorry, boss, I was held up by a hold up." Still another meaning of the expression is for a story to be considered true after an investigation. The same driver late for work could say, "My boss did not believe a hold up held me up. But the police confirmed what I said so my story held up." "Hold on" is another expression. Often it means wait or stop. As you leave for school, your brother may say, "Hold on, you forgot your book." Hold on is also used to ask a telephone caller to wait and not hang up his telephone. Which of the following is NOT one of the meanings of "hold up"? A) A robbery B) To delay C) To prove true D) Wait a moment.
D


Q: A school was across the street from our home and I would often watch the kids from my window as they played basketball. One day, among the children a girl attracted me. She seemed so small as she muscled her way through the crowd of boys. Running circles around the other kids, she managed to shoot jump shots just over their heads and into the net with no one to stop her. Sometimes, I saw her play alone. She would practice dribbling   and shooting over and over again until dark.  One day I asked her why she practiced so much. Without hesitation, she said, "I want to go to college. The only way I can go is that I get a scholarship. If I were good enough, I would get a scholarship. I like basketball. My Daddy told me if the dream is big enough, the facts don't count." Then she smiled and ran towards the court to go on with practice.  I watched her through junior high and into high school. Every week, she led her school team to victory. One day in her senior year, I saw her sitting in the grass, head cradled   in her arms. I went over there and sat down beside her. The coach told her that as a player as tall as prefix = st1 /5'5"she would probably never get to play for a top ranked college team -- much less offered a scholarship -- so she should stop dreaming about college. She was heartbroken and I felt my own throat tighten as I sensed her disappointment. I asked her if she had talked to her dad about it yet. She told me that her father said those coaches were wrong. They did not understand the power of a dream. He told her that if she really wanted to play for a good college and if she truly wanted a scholarship, nothing could stop her except one thing -- her own attitude. He told her again, "If the dream is big enough, the facts don't count."  The next year, as she and her team went to the Northern California Championship game, she was seen by a college recruiter  , and was offered a full scholarship, to a NCAA women's basketball team. She was going to college, which she had dreamed of and worked toward for... The coach advised the girl to quit because he thought   _  . A) she had lost confidence in her ability to play well B) she had been good enough to get a scholarship C) she couldn't get along well with her teammates D) she was too short to realize her dream
A: D


My father' s response to the bank building at 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue in New York city was immediate and definite: "You won' t catch me putting my money in there!" he declared, "Not in that glass box. " Of course, my father is a gentleman of the old school, a member of the generation to whom a good deal of modern architecture is upsetting, but I believe that his negative response was not so much to the architecture as to a violation of his concept of the nature of money. In his generation money was thought of as a real commodity  that could be carried, or stolen. Therefore, to attract the custom of a sensible man, a bank had to have heavy walls, barred windows, and bronze doors, to make sure of the fact, however, untrue, that money would be safe inside. If a building' s design made it appear strong, the institution was necessarily reliable, and the meaning of the heavy wall as an architecture symbol showed the general attitude toward money. But the attitude toward money has, of course, changed. Except pocket money, cash of any kind is now rarely used; money as a tangible commodity has largely been replaced by credit. The banker no longer offers us a safe: he offers us a service in which the most valuable factor is the creativity for the invention of large numbers. It is in no way surprising, in view of this change in attitude, that we are witnessing the disappearance of the heavy-walled bank. Just as the older bank emphasized its strength, this bank by its architecture is proud of imaginative powers. According to this passage, a modern banker should be   _  . A) ambitious and friendly B) reliable and powerful C) sensible and strong D) imaginative and creative


assistant: D