Read the following article and answer the question. Article: To develop one's taste in English,the most effective way is to read English books extensively. However, one may be at a loss to choose the appropriate books,especially as a beginner.I would like to share some of my experience. My first English novel was Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice,recommended by many English teachers and professors as an ideal book for English learners. But I had great difficulty in understanding the novel,let alone enjoying it. It's not the vocabulary that troubled me,but rather the way Austen constructs sentences,and her way of thinking,which seemed too remote to me at that time. My fading enthusiasm was much recovered after reading Hemingway's novel Farewell to Arms. I particularly liked his brief and lively style. So my first suggestion is,as a beginner, you'd better choose contemporary novels instead of classical ones. However,reading novels is not the only way to improve your English. English essays can at once inform you,entertain you, and improve your taste in English. The best example is Bertrand Russell's work. Its language is plain, yet you cannot help feeling the elegance and the unique sense of humor. His simple language enables his philosophy within the reach of ordinary people. Here comes my second suggestion--essays are _ . Never follow other's opinions blindly,however famous or influential the person might be. As a saying goes,one man's meat is another man's poison. With that in mind,we are sure to find out our favorite writers through reading and develop our fine taste in English. Question: What made the author's first English novel hard to understand? Answer:

OPTIONS:
- Complex conversations.
- Not knowing the social background.
- The old-fashioned vocabulary.
- Sentences and Austen's thinking pattern.

Answer: Sentences and Austen's thinking pattern.

Read the following article and answer the question. Article: Ted Turner, achieved high goals and great success by the time he was 43. Best known for his CNN, Ted Turner launched a second nationwide all-news network, Headline News, purchased the Atlanta Braves baseball team, and became the world's best yachtsman at the America's Cup in 1977. In 1982 Ted Turner was named by Forbes one of the 400 richest people in the US. He was named Time magazine's "Man of the Year" in 1992. How did Ted Turner accomplish all of this at such a young age? Ted Turner's father, Ed, was a self-made millionaire who demanded that his only son try to achieve similar success. He instilled in the boy a strong belief that hard work was good. Besides reading a new book every two days, Ted Turner was also charged rent at home during summer vacations from boarding school. Ed Turner was a strong influence in his son's life. As a child, Ted Turner lived a very lonely life, often separated from his family. During World War II, his father served in the Navy. Ed Turner took his wife and daughter with him so they could live nearby but left his 6yearold son behind in a boarding school in Cincinnati, Ohio. When Ted Turner was in the fifth grade, his father enrolled him in a military academy. Even though Turner had friends at school, it didn't make up for the absence of his parents and sister. Eventually Ted Turner enrolled at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He attended college off and on, became involved in sailboat racing, and became a member of the U.S. Coast Guard for a while. In his early twenties, he became general manager of one of his father's branch offices -- the Turner Advertising Company in Macon, Georgia. Two years later after his father's suicide, Ted Turner took over the company. He soon discovered that he was more skilled than his father in managing the business. During the next twenty years, Ted Turner worked hard to accumulate enough power and money to fulfill his father's dream. Reflecting on his father's death, however, Ted Turner realized that it was dangerous to put too... Question: The author seems to believe that Ted Turner is _ . Answer:

OPTIONS:
- bossy
- incapable
- ambitious
- modest

Answer: ambitious

Read the following article and answer the question. Article: It is a matter of common observation that although money income keeps going up over the years, we never seem to become richer. Prices are rising continuously. This condition is what we call inflation: the money supply is becoming inflated so that each unit of it becomes less valuable. We have got used to higher and higher rates of inflation in recent years. What could be bought twenty years ago for one pound now costs well over 2 pounds. And at present this rate of inflation seems to be rising rather than falling. If in the real world our money incomes go up at the same rate as prices do. One might think that inflation doesn't matter. _ When money is losing value it also loses one of the qualities of a good money--stability of value. It is no longer acceptable as a store of value; and it becomes an unsuitable means of delayed payment. Nobody wants to hold a wasting possession, so people try to get rid of money as quickly as possible. Inflation therefore simply stimulates our spending and discourages saving. Question: From the passage we can know that inflation is a situation in which _ . Answer:

OPTIONS:
- everyone's incomes rise
- money will hold its value
- we can watch our money grow
- money constantly loses its value

Answer: money constantly loses its value

Read the following article and answer the question. Article: Last year, I took a sightseeing trip to Washington, DC. I heard a voice say, "Can you help me?" When I turned around, I saw an elderly blind woman with her hand extended. Immediately, I pulled out all of my change and placed it on her hand without even looking at her. But the blind woman smiled and said, "I don't want your money. I just need help finding the post office." In an instant, I realized what I had done. I acted with prejudice--I judged another person simply for what I assumed she had to be. I hated what I saw in myself. The thing I had forgotten about myself is that I am an immigrant. I left Honduras and arrived in the US at the age of 15. I started my new life with two suitcases, my brother and sister. Through the years, I have been a doorkeeper, cashier and pizza delivery driver among many other humble jobs, and eventually I became a network engineer. In my own life, I have experienced prejudice. I remember a time--at the age of 17 --when I was a busboy, I heard a father tell his little boy that if he did not do well in school, he would end up like me. But now, living in my American middle--class lifestyle, it is too easy to forget my past, to forget who I am, where I have been, and to lose sight of where I want to be going. That blind woman on the streets cured me of my blindness. She reminded me of my belief in humility . By the way, I helped that lady to the post office. I hope to thank her for the priceless lesson. Question: How did the writer give the blind woman money? Answer:

OPTIONS:
- In a modest way.
- In a polite way.
- In an impatient way.
- In a painful way.

Answer:
In an impatient way.