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I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: "Can't hold a candle to" is a popular expression.When there wasn't electricity, someone 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.Now,it means such a person cannot compare or compete. Another expression is"hold your tongue."It means to be still and not talk."Hold your tongue"is not something you would tell a friend.But a parent or teacher might use the expression to quiet a noisy child. "Hold out"is an expression one hears often in sports reports and labor news.It means to refuse to play or work.Professional football and baseball players"hold out" if their team refuses to pay them what they think they are worth. 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 who was held up by heavy traffic might be late for work.Another meaning is for a story to be considered true after an investigation.A story can hold up if it is proved true. "Hold on"is another expression,which means wait or stop.As you leave for school,your brother may say,"Hold on,you forgot your book." It is used to ask a telephone caller to wait and not hang up his telephone. Our final expression is"hold the line."That means to keep a problem or situation from getting worse--to hold steady.For example,the president may say he will"hold the line on taxes."He means there will be no increase in taxes. Question: The author introduces the expressions mainly by _ . Options: A: giving examples B: making comparisons C: raising questions D: quoting famous remarks
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A

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I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: There's a dark little joke: Rip Van Winkle awakens in the 21st century after a hundred-year sleep. Men and women dash about, talking to small metal devices. Young people sit on sofas, moving miniature athletes around on electronic screens. Airports, hospitals, shopping malls-- every place Rip goes just puzzles him. But when he finally walks into a schoolroom, the old man knows exactly where he is. "This is a school," he declares. "We used to have these black in 1906. Only now the blackboards are green." American schools aren't exactly frozen in time, but considering the pace of change in other areas of life, our public schools tend to feel like throwbacks. Kids spend much of the day as their great-grandparents once did: sitting in rows, listening to teachers lecture, scribbling notes by hand, reading textbooks that are out of date. A yawning chasm separates the world inside the schoolhouse from the world outside. The national conversation on education has long focused on reading scores, math tests and closing the "achievement gap". This is not a story about that conversation. This is a story about the big public conversation the nation is not having about education, the one that will ultimately determine whether an entire generation of kids will fail to make the grade in the global economy because they can't think their way through abstract problems, work in teams or speak a language other than English. This week the conversation will burst onto the front page, when the NCSAW releases a blueprint for rethinking American education from pre-K to 12 and beyond to better prepare students _ in the global economy. While that report includes some debatable proposals, there is a remarkable agreement among educators and business and policy leaders on one key conclusion: we need to bring what we teach and how we teach into the 21st century. Today's economy demands not only a high-level competence in the traditional academic disciplines but also what might be called 21st-century skills. Question: What is the writer's general impression of American school children? Options: A: They look much like their great-grandparents. B: They can do everything as they like. C: They are well developed on all sides. D: They are almost separated from the outside world.
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D

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I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: American this year will swallow 15,000 tons of aspirin, one of the safest and most effective drugs invented by man. The most popular medicine in the world today, it is an effective pain reliever. Its bad effects are ly mild and it is cheap. For millions of people suffering from arthritis . It is the only thing that works. Aspirin, in short, is truly the 20th-century wonder drug. It is also the second largest suicide drug and is the leading cause of poisoning among children. It has side effects that, although ly mild, are largely unrecognized among users. Although aspirin was at first sold by a German company in1899, it has been around much longer than that. Hippocrates, in ancient Greek, understood the medical value of the leaves and tree bark which today are known to contain salicylates , the chemical in aspirin. During the 19thcentury, there was a great deal of experimentation in Europe with this chemical, and it led to the introduction of aspirin. By 1915, aspirin tablets were available in the United States. A small quantity of aspirin (two-grain tablets) relieves pain and inflammation. It also reduces fever by interfering with some of the body's reactions. Question: The passage is written to _ . Options: A: suggests us using more aspirin B: reminds us of the side effects of aspirin C: gives us a whole view of aspirin D: discusses the good effects of aspirin
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C