user: Read the following article and answer the question. Article: Dana Cummings was in his thirties before he first went surfing. But, even more interesting is that Dana Cummings chose to learn the sport after losing a leg in a car accident. Now, nine years later, he helps other disabled   people learn how to ride the waves in AmpSurf. On the coast of Maine, he is working with 27-year-old Matthew Fish, who is partly blind. Cummings takes hold of Fish and leads him into the ocean. The surfboard floats next to them. Fish lies on the surfboard. He tries to stand up on it. After a few attempts   he is up and riding all the way back to land. "That was exciting," Fish says. A car accident in 2002 took Dana Cummings' leg. He says the crash changed him more than just physically. "Losing my leg made me realize how precious   life is and get off the couch and start living. I do more things now than I ever did before. Next week I am going to compete in a contest in Hawaii," Dana says. One year later Dana Cummings formed AmpSurf. AmpSurf is a group that volunteers to hold surfing classes and events for people with all kinds of disabilities. Recently, AmpSurf took its training programs to the East Coast. Eleven students attended the class in Maine. They came from all over the northeastern United States. Dana Cummings thinks AmpSurf can change the way a disabled person thinks. "Most people with disabilities consider himself or herself unlucky and useless, but we want them to see what they can do. Who cares you lose your leg or you are blind, whatever? Have fun. Just enjoy life. Take the most advantage of _ you can," Dana says. Question: According to Dana Cummings, AmpSurf can   _  . Answer:

OPTIONS:
- ease the physical pain of the disabled
- help the disabled learn to get used to their life
- change the attitude of the disabled towards life
- make the disabled pay more attention to their disabilities

Answer: change the attitude of the disabled towards life


Read the following article and answer the question. Article: Before I started school, people felt that I was not going to be successful. At the age of four I started speech lessons because basically I could not speak well enough for anyone to understand me. The story goes downhill from here. The first grade was a struggle. I not only had difficulty speaking, but also felt nervous about the fact that I was expected to learn to read and I just couldn't do it. The second grade was not much better. I still struggled with the inability to read. It was in the third grade that the school district built a new school close to my home. I remember going there with my parents and helping to get the school ready so that we could move to the new one. However, things were still not much better as far as my schooling was concerned and did not get better for the next two years. It was in the fifth grade. Mrs. Wakefield was my teacher, and if ever there was a teacher that deserved a gold star, it was her. She did not make me feel defeated. On the contrary, she did her best to let me know that I could be whatever I wanted to be. And that is just what I did. For the past 22 years, I have been a fifth grade teacher. Because of Mrs. Wakefield's influence on my life, I am now encouraging students who have had difficulties in their lives to believe that they can overcome any difficulty and become someone. I have won numerous awards up to now, such as Teacher of the Year. I owe it all to one fifth grade teacher who believed in me and challenged me to be all that I could be. Question: What is the writer's purpose in writing the passage? Answer:

OPTIONS:
- To express his devotion to his work.
- To show his respect to a special teacher.
- To share his teaching experience with us.
- To tell us his story of overcoming difficulties.

Answer: To show his respect to a special teacher.


Read the following article and answer the question. Article: Last year, on report card day, my son and a group of his 13-year-old friends piled into the back seat of my car, ready for the last-day-of-school party at McDonald's. "Jack got a laptop for getting straight A's, and Laurie got a cell-phone," one boy said. "Oh, yeah, and Sarah got an iPod Nano, and she's only in third grade," said another. "And how about Brian? He got $10 for each A." I suddenly became concerned. These payoffs might get parents through grammar school, but what about high school and beyond? What would be left after the electric guitar, the cell-phone, and the DVD player? I saw the road ahead: _ I saw my comfortable lifestyle disappear before my eyes---no more of those $5 bags of already-peeled organic carrots. No more organic anything! I started to feel surprised and nervous. Would every goal achieved by my two children fetch a reward? A high grade point average? A good class ranking? Would sports achievements be included in this reward system: soccer goals, touchdowns ? What about the orchestra ? Would first chair pay more than second? I'd be penniless by eighth-grade graduation. "We never paid anything for good grades," said my neighbor across the street, whose son was recently accepted at MIT. "He just did it on his own. Maybe once in a while we went out for pizza, but that's about it." Don't you just hate that? We're all running around looking for the MP3 player with the most updates, and she's spending a few dollars on pizza. She gets motivation; we get negotiation. And what about the primary grades? What do these students get? "When the teacher asked if anyone got rewards for good grades, everyone in my class raised their hands and said they got ice cream cones  ," said one third-grader. Question: The author takes her neighbor as an example to show   _  . Answer:

OPTIONS:
- pizza is the best way to motivate children
- it is necessary to reward children for their good grades.
- getting rewards for good grades is common nowadays
- rewards are not the only way to motivate children

Answer: rewards are not the only way to motivate children


Read the following article and answer the question. Article: Scientists around the world have been studying the warming of waters in the Pacific Ocean known as El Nino  . The appearance of El Nino is known to affect the weather around the world. Scientists still do not completely understand it. Yet they now find they can use it to tell about the future in different areas of the world. One example is the work of two scientists at Columbia University in New York, Mark Cane and Gordon Eshel. A scientist of Zimbabwe , Roger Buckland worked with them. They have found that when El Nino appears, Zimbabwe has little or no rain. This means corn crops in Zimbabwe are poor. The last El Nino was in 1991 to 1993. That was when southeastern Africa suffered a serious lack of rain. The scientists wrote about their recent work in the publication Nature. Their computer program can tell when an El Nino will develop up to a year before it does. They suggest that this could provide an effective early warning system for southern Africa, and could prevent many people from starving. Question: El Nino is known as    _   . Answer:

OPTIONS:
- the changing of the weather in southern Africa
- the warming of waters in the Pacific Ocean
- the weather which brings drought to Africa
- the weather phenomenon that brings heavy rains to Africa

Answer:

assistant: the warming of waters in the Pacific Ocean