user: My school stood in a big square playground in southeastern South Dakota. One teacher taught all grades, first through eighth. Most grades had only two or three students. Our school day started with the flag pledge . Then the teacher called one grade at a time to the recitation bench beside her desk. She'd check our work, explain the new lesson, and dismiss us to go back to our own desks and do our new work, all in less than ten minutes per grade. At noon we ate lunches we had brought. Our lunches consisted of homemade sandwiches and if we were lucky, dessert. My favorite dessert was a fresh pear, and a piece of Mom's delicious sour cream chocolate cake. The annual Christmas program was the most exciting part of the year. We hurried through our lessons during December to allow time to practise poems, songs, and plays. A few days before the performance, the school board members borrowed equipment from the town and set up a stage across one side of the classroom. We hung bed sheets for curtains. On the evening of the performance, petrol lanterns hanging along the walls cast a warm, though not very bright, light over the gathering crowd. We could hardly contain our excitement as we looked from behind the curtains to wave at our parents. On a spring Sunday in a new term, just before the last day of the school term, everyone in the neighborhood gathered for a picnic. Our moms set fried chicken, bowls of salads, and desserts on the teacher's desk and the library table. After the dinner, we played games. One of the school board members brought big buckets of ice cream in the afternoon to top off the picnic. How we looked forward to that treat! I was just nineteen years old when I started my first teaching position in a country school with thirteen students. I felt excited, nervous and happy as I prepared my lunch bucket the first morning of the term. I can't remember what kind of sandwiches I packed, but I do remember I put in a fresh pear and a piece of chocolate cake for dessert! According to the text, the school the author once attended   _  . A) had a small number of students B) had no celebrations C) had advanced teaching equipment D) had a small playground
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Elizabeth Blackwell was born on February 3, 1821 in Bristol, England. Her father was a rich sugar businessman at the time. Because her parents thought boys and girls should be equal, Elizabeth received the same education as her brothers. In 1832, her father's business was destroyed by fire, so her family moved to New York City. But her father's business there failed. Then in 1837, the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Not long after, her father died. After her father's death, Elizabeth, at the age of 16, had to go to work. When she was 24, she visited her dying friend Mary. Her friend said, "You're young and strong, you should become a doctor." That was nearly impossible for a woman in the middle of the nineteenth century. But she knew this was what she was going to do. After several rejections from medical schools, she finally was accepted by Geneva Medical College. By studying hard, she graduated successfully in 1849. After graduating from medical school, she went to Paris to learn more about medicine. She wanted to be a surgeon, but a serious eye problem forced her to give up the idea. When she returned to America in 1851, she found it difficult to start her own practice because she was a woman. In 1857, Elizabeth and her sister, also a doctor, along with another woman doctor, managed to open a new hospital, the first for women and children. Besides, she also set up the first medical school for women in 1868, where she taught the women students about disease prevention. It was the first time that the idea of preventing disease was taught in a medical school. Elizabeth Blackwell started the British National Health Society in 1871, which helped people learn how to stay healthy. In 1889, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman doctor in the United States. Most importantly, she fought for the admission of women to medical colleges. Elizabeth Blackwell died on May 3, 1910, when she was 89.She opened a world of chances for women. She always fought for what was right in all her life. In 1949 the Blackwell... Elizabeth Blackwell spent most of her life in   _  . A) the U.S. B) Paris C) England D) Geneva
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Scientists from the University of East Anglia have identified four new man-made gases that are contributing to the damage to the ozone  layer. Two of the gases are accumulating at a rate that is causing concern among researchers.      Worries over the growing ozone hole have seen the production of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases restricted since the mid 1980s. But the precise origin of these new, similar substances remains a mystery.      Lying in the atmosphere, the ozone layer plays a critical role in blocking harmful UV rays, which cause cancers in humans and reproductive problems in animals.       Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey were the first to discover a huge "hole" in the ozone over Antarctica in 1985. The evidence quickly pointed to CFC gases, which were invented in the 1920s, and were widely used in refrigeration. Extraordinarily, global action was rapidly agreed to deal with CFCs and the Montreal Protocol to limit these substances came into being in 1987. A total global ban on production came into force in 2010.      Now, the newly discovered four new gases can destroy ozone and are getting into the atmosphere from as yet unidentified sources. Three of the gases are CFCs and one is a hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC), which can also damage ozone.      The research has shown that four gases were not around in the atmosphere at all until the 1960s, which suggests they are man-made. The scientists discovered the gases by analyzing polar snow pack. Air from this snow is a natural archive of what was in the atmosphere up t0 100 years ago. The researchers also looked at modern air samples, collected at remote Cape Grim in Tasmania.      They estimate that about 74,000 tonnes of these gases have been released into the atmosphere. Two of the gases are accumulating at significant rates. However, they don't know where the new gases are being released from and this should be investigated. Possible sources include chemicals  for insecticide  production and solvents   for cleaning electronic... What will the scientists probably attempt to do about the gases next? A) Find out what can replace things like insecticides and put them into use. B) Find out how they destroy ozone and get rid of those in the atmosphere. C) Find out where they are exactly from and stop them from being released. D) Find out if HCFC is more harmful than CFCs and take proper measures.


assistant: C
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