(Question)
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: At the age of 16, Julia Butterfly Hill quit school and worked at a restaurant. For many years, she was only interested in making money and material things. Then one day she had a serious car accident, which changed her life. Hill said: "I realized I wanted to find a more powerful purpose for being here on this planet." As soon as she recovered, Hill traveled to California. There she saw ancient redwood trees, which are the largest trees in the whole world. The wood from redwood trunks is very hard. So the Pacific Lumber Company cut down many of the huge redwoods to use for construction. There are not many forests of these trees left. Many environmental activists want to protect the remaining trees. The redwoods are very important to the environment. In 1997 Hill learned a group called Earth First was working to protect a particular group of trees. They decided to send someone up into a redwood tree, hoping this would stop the company from cutting the trees down. Julia Butterfly Hill volunteered. Hill lived in the tree for over two years without ever coming down. Her home was a 6-by-8-foot tree house, 180 feet up. It is always cold and wet in a redwood tree. There were even very serious winter storms while Hill was in the tree. The wind and cold almost knocked Hill out of the tree. But she did not fall -- she survived. Finally, after years of arguing, the company decided to protect Luna, the tree Hill lived in. They signed an agreement to never cut down this huge redwood tree or the trees around it. When Hill put her feet on the earth again, she began to cry. But from that moment on Hill hasn't stopped working to protect the environment. Question: The redwood trees were cut down mainly _ . Options: A: because they might fall over at any time B: because they had great economic value C: to protect other trees in the forest D: to make space for constructions
(Answer)
B

(Question)
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Flowers only bloom when they are planted in the right soil. That is also true for me. I first moved to Foxboro, Massachusetts, as a single mother with my baby daughter, Darcy. I was drawn to its New England beauty, friendly people and rich history. It happened that there were a lot of forsythia bushes around the house in which I lived just like my childhood home. I joined St. Mark's Episcopal Church where I taught the Sunday school. At church, I met my second husband, Dean. For more than 25 years, I bloomed in Foxboro, and I had another two children. Then, when Darcy was a few years out of college, she moved to Alameda, California, to be near friends. I missed her badly. A year later my beloved husband Dean had deadly cancer. He only made it eight months. My heart was broken. Later I moved to Alameda with my children. It was a beautiful Victorian island, and I was grateful to spend more time with Darcy. I even attended a church and made a few friends there. Still, I couldn't help but miss Foxboro. It had everything and everyone I loved. One spring day, when I was walking by a school, something yellow caught my eyes. Forsythia bushes! They made me homesick and I kept back my tears. "I miss you, Foxboro," I whispered. Then I went into a shop and looked at some ceramic pots lined up on a shelf. A large white one seemed to catch my attention. "That'll be perfect in my living room," I thought. I turned it over to look at the price. Instead I found these words: "New England Pottery, Foxboro, Massachusetts." A piece of artwork, from my second hometown, was right here. It was able to spread across the country and so were forsythia bushes. I took it as a sign that I can bloom, right where I am. Question: The author moved to Alameda so that she could _ . Options: A: have more time together with Darcy B: forget the sorrow at her husband's death C: visit her children at Alameda College frequently D: enjoy the beautiful scenery on the Victorian island
(Answer)
A

(Question)
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Sorry to say, our brains naturally start slowing down at the cruelly young age of 30. it used to be thought that this couldn't be helped, but new studies show that people of any age can train their brains to work faster . "Your brain is a learning machine," says prefix = st1 /UniversityofCaliforniascientist Dr. Micha3el Merzenich. Given the right tools, we can train our brains to act like they did when we were younger. All that's required is the practice designed just for the purpose: a few exercises for the mind. Merzenich has developed a computer-based training method to speed up the process in which the brain deals with information (positence. com). Since much of the data we receive comes through speech, the Brain Fitness Program works with language and hearing to better speed and accuracy . Over the course of training, the program starts asking you to distinguish sounds (between "dog" and "dog", for example) at an increasingly faster speed. It's a bit like tennis instructor, says Merzenich, hitting balls at you faster and faster to keep you challenged . You may start out slow, but before long you're pretty quick. The biggest finding in brain research in the last ten years is that _ If you ask your brain to learn, it will learn. And it may even speed up while in the process. To keep your brain young and plastic you can do one of a million new activities that challenge and excite you: playing table tennis or bridge, doing crossword puzzles, learning a language...."When it comes to preventing ageing, you really do 'use it or lose it", says Barbara Sahakian, professor at CambridgeUniversity. Question: By saying "the brain at any age is highly plastic", the wrter probably means the brain can be _ . Options: A: used B: mastered C: developed D: researched
(Answer)
C