user: *Question*
Playing basketball isn't a sport for women.That's what Jewell Chapman's high school headmaster told her in 1961 when he forbade the girls to play basketball."We were very sad,"said Chapman,a player for her high school team of Des Moines. Nearly 50 years later,Chapman is back on the basketball playground.She is 62 years old and plays for the Hot Pink Grannies,joining about 10 other women on a team whose uniforms are black trousers and hot pink socks.They play in the Iowa Granny Basketball League. It is one of the twelve of basketball leagues for women over 50 that have spread up across the country.For some, it's an opportunity to exercise and socialize;for others,it's a once-refused chance to compete."You see more and more senior women's teams taking part in state and national competitions,"said Michael Rogers,a professor in sports studies at Wichita State University."In the future it will be a common thing to have leagues like this." Yearly researches by the National Sporting Goods Association show the number of women of 55 and older who play basketball at least 50 times a year has grown from 16,000 in 1995 to nearly 131,000 ten years later. The women on the Hot Pink Grannies are good-natured but they are competitive when game time comes."I think I'm tough,"says Hot Pink Granny Colleen Pulliam, 69, showing her biceps in a game against the Strutters, known for their bright yellow socks. Granny Basketball Leagues and similar groups are scattered through much of the country, including California,Connecticut, Louisiana,New Mexico,North Carolina,Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. When game time comes,the women on the Hot Pink Grannies are_. A) good-natured B) active C) friendly D) happy
**Answer**
B

*Question*
Last week my youngest son and I visited my father at his new home in Tucson, Arizona. He moved there a few years ago, and I was eager to see his new place and meet his friends. My earliest memories of my father are a tall, handsome, successful man devoted to his work and his family, but uncomfortable with his children. He seemed to expect too much of me. He seemed unhappy with me unless I got straight A's and unhappy with my boyfriends if their fathers were not as "successful" as he was. Whenever I went out with him on weekends, I used to feel very nervous. On the first day of my visit, we went out with one of my father's friends for lunch at an outdoor cafe. We talked along that afternoon, did some shopping, ate on the street table, and laughed over my son's funny facial expressions. Gone was my father's critical   air and strict rules. After my visit to Tucson , My father seemed to be so friendly and gentle. What had held him back before? The next day dad pulled out his childhood pictures and told me quite a few stories about his own childhood. Although our times together became easier over the years, I never felt closer to him at that moment. After so many years, I'm at last seeing another side of my father. And in doing so, I'm delighted with _ . My dad, in his new home in Arizona, is back to me from where he was. Why did the writer feel uncomfortable about her father as a young adult? A) He was silent most of the time. B) He was too proud of himself. C) He did not love his children. D) He expected too much of her.
**Answer**
D

*Question*
Do you often play with your pet dog or cat? Do you like touching wild animals such as squirrels? They are cute. But be careful. If they bite you, you may get a terrible disease----rabies. Believe it or not, in the last five months, rabies killed more people in China than any other disease. 2,254 people got rabies in the first nine months of this year. In September, 318 people died of rabies. That is 37 per cent more than last September. Animals like dogs, cats, squirrels and bats can have rabies. If they bite or scratch someone, rabies could infect the person's nervous system . The person could even die. It's important to get the right _ as soon as possible. Every year, more than 50,000 people around the world die of rabies. Most of them are from developing countries. India has the most deaths. China is second. Rabies is the name of   _  . A) a book B) a man C) a dog D) a disease
**Answer**
D

*Question*
Are you afraid of sharks? You shouldn't be! Below we cleared up the main _ about one of the world's most perfectly formed creatures ...          All sharks are the same.           This is  ly not true. There are nearly four hundred species of sharks and they vary widely in habitat, size, features, diet and lifestyle. They range from the cigar shark, which is about 15 centimetres long, to the whale shark, which can be up to about nine meters long. More than 50 percent of sharks are less than a metre long and more than 90 percent are less than two metres long. And their habitat ranges from shallow to deep water and from the Arctic to the Tropic.           _           This is not true, either. In fact, many shark populations are decreasing. The chief reason for this is that hundreds of thousands of them are caught in fishing nets. Depending on where they are caught. They are either killed for their fins , which are used in shark's fin soup, or they are tossed back into the sea because they are unwanted. Almost all sharks which are discarded in this way die. Also, sharks mature late in life and produce very few young. If the current reduction in numbers continues, the ecological balance of the oceans will be severely threatened.           Sharks will always attack you           This is nonsense. The chances of being attacked by a shark are minimal. You are 250 times more likely to be killed by lightning than by a shark, and your chances of being killed by lightning are practically zero.          However, if you are planning to take a swim in shark territory, then follow these simple rules:          Avoid swimming at dawn or duck when visibility decreases.          Avoid areas where there are breaking waves. Turbulent  water makes it difficult for sharks to see and determine whether you are prey .           Do not wear jewellery in the water. Sharks are attracted to shiny fishes, and jewellery may resemble their scales .           Do not swim near schools of small fish, which are the favorite food of some sharks. From the passage we can learn sharks   _  . A) look alike B) are dangerous C) usually live in deep sea D) hardly attack people
**Answer**


assistant: D