Question:
Read the text and answer the questions.
A public high school in the rural town of Boonsboro,Maryland,offers a special program recently. Top students in the ninth and tenth grades can attend single-sex classes for math,science,English and social studies.

The aim is to help teenagers keep their mind on their work by keeping males and females apart. Rebecca Brown chooses the students for what Boonsboro High School calls the Academy. "What we really want to do is take that top group of kids and take them to the very highest level they can achieve here,so that they're prepared for college," she said. They need high marks and test scores and strong teacher recommendations. They also need to be involved in activities.

Michael Bair has been at Boonsboro High School for twenty years and directs the Academy. His ninth-grade English class for boys centers on books that he believes boys find interesting. "The novels they're reading now,are very manly novels. They're novels that deal with the arrogance of man and the pride of man." One of those books,for example,is "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London. This classic story tells of a dog stolen from his home and sold to work as a sled dog in Canada's Klondike Gold Rush.

On this day,the students are working in small groups. Vincent and Logan explain why they're drawing pictures that relate to the story. Vincent said,"The main character,Buck,gets abducted , and they send him off to the Yukon in a train. So I'm drawing part of the story where he's in the train. It gets you to _ the setting of the story and gets you to think more about what's going on in the story,the important events of the story."" Instead of just doing work sheets about it,this is a lot more fun," Logan added happily.

Morgan Van Fleet likes being in the Academy. She says boys and girls act differently when they are together in a classroom. "To me,it almost seems like it's hindering your chances at developing yourself because you're more focused on 'Oh,I wish they'd shut up. Oh,what do they think of me?' instead of focusing on what's the homework or what's going on in this class,what's the lesson."
1. Where does this story take place?
2. At what institution?
3. Who teaches 9th grade?
4. Who does he teach?
5. What are his pupils doing?
6. What?
7. By what authors?
8. How do they study?
9. What is the goal of the Facility?
10. Who's drwain in place of reading?
11. Was this wrong?
12. Why did they draw?
13. Who enjoys the courses?
14. Why?
15. What does this allow her to do?
16. Who interviewed the instructor?
17. How long has the instructor taught?
18. What else does he do?
19. Who selects the scholars?
20. Who is accepted?

Numbered answers:
1. Boonsboro,Maryland
2. high school
3. Michael Bair
4. boys
5. they're reading
6. very manly novels
7. Jack London
8. small groups
9. The aim is to help teenagers keep their mind on their work by keeping males and females apart. Rebecca Brown chooses the students for what Boonsboro High School calls the Academy. "What we really want to do is take that top group of kids and take them to the very highest level they can achieve here,so that they're prepared for college," she said. They need high marks and test scores and strong teacher recommendations. They also need to be involved in activities.
10. Vincent and Logan
11. no it helped them understand
12. a lot more fun
13. Morgan Van Fleet
14. She says boys and girls act differently when they are together in a classroom.
15. more focused on class work
16. unknown
17. twenty years
18. directs the Academy
19. Rebecca Brown chooses the students
20. Students with good grades.

Question:
Read the text and answer the questions.
To succeed in business or life we must continually take actions. Putting yourself on the line day after day can be extremely boring, especially when things do not work out as desired. Each time a disappointing event happens, I like to get reminded of these famous failures: Gates has literally changed the work culture of the world in the 20the and the 21st centuries, by simplifying the way the computer is being used. He was the world's richest man for more than one decade. However, in the 1970's before starting out, he was a Harvard University dropout. The most ironic part is that he started a software company by purchasing the software technology from someone for only $50 back then. Lincoln received no more than five years of formal education throughout his lifetime. When he grew up, he joined politics and had 12 major failures before he was elected the 16th President of the United States of America. Newton was the greatest English mathematician of his generation. His work on optics and gravitation made him one of the greatest scientists the world has even known. Many thought that Newton was born a genius, but he wasn't! When he was young, he did very poorly in grade school, so poor that his teachers became helpless in improving his grades. Beethoven is widely regarded as one of history's great composers. His reputation has inspired composers, musicians and audiences who were to come after him. Before the start of his career, Beethoven's music teacher once said of him "as a composer, he is hopeless". And during his career, he lost his hearing yet he managed to produce great music. A deaf man composing music, ironic, isn't it!
1. What must we do to succeed in business?
2. What can be extremely boring?
3. Who was supposedly the world's richest man for over a decade?
4. What did many think of Newton?
5. Where was Newton from?
6. How did he perform in school?
7. Who is one of history's best composers?
8. What did he lose as an adult?
9. Who was the 16th president?
10. How did Gates change work culture?

Numbered answers:
1. take action
2. putting yourself on the line every day
3. Gates
4. he was born a genius
5. zEngland
6. poorly
7. Beethoven
8. his hearing
9. Lincoln
10. simplifying computer use'

Question:
Read the text and answer the questions.
I bought a jasmine plant for my office. When I bought it, I was told it would bloom and the sweet smell would fill my office. I had the plant for two months, and every day I looked at it, but there weren't any flowers or pleasant smell. I was not happy, so I gave the plant to my friend Linda. One day, another friend Mary called and invited me to her office. When I walked in, her jasmine flowers surprised me. I reached out to touch the flowers. Mary cut some and gave them to me. I couldn't help smelling them. Surrounded by the sweet smell of only a handful of these flowers, I suddenly understood something. Mary bought her plant the same time I did. It took a year for her jasmine to bloom. I was so impatient for mine to bloom; regretfully, I gave it away. In a way my life is like the jasmine plant. I need to be patient and let things happen. Last Sunday Linda told me that she was going abroad the next week. Before she left, she returned the plant to me. This time I am going to wait. I have learned that when we want something in our life, we have to be patient. I am slowly learning to have that patience to wait for my jasmine to bloom.
1. Who did I give the jasmine to?
2. Why?
3. What did I buy it for>
4. What was she told the plant would do for her office?
5. How long did she keep it?
6. How often did she check it?
7. Why did Linda give it back?
8. When?
9. When did she tell her about the trip?
10. When did she give the plant back?
11. Who else has a plant like this?
12. When did Mary get her plant?
13. What is different about Mary's?
14. How long did it take?
15. Where does she keep her plant?
16. How does it smell?
17. Why did she cut some?
18. What could she not resist doing?
19. How does she feel now about giving hers away?
20. What has she learned from these plants?
Numbered answers:
1. Linda
2. she was impatient for it to bloom
3. her office
4. fill it with a sweet smell
5. two months
6. every day
7. she was going abroad
8. next week
9. Last Sunday
10. Before she left
11. Mary
12. at the same time as her
13. it had bloomed
14. a year
15. her office
16. sweet
17. to give to her
18. smelling them
19. regretful
20. to be patient