Read the article and select the best answer. Article: When a group of children politely stop a conversation with you, saying: "We have to go to work now," you're left feeling surprised and certainly uneasy. After all, this is the 1990s and the idea of children working is just unthinkable. That is, until you are told that they are all pupils of stage schools, and that the "work" they go off to is to go on the stage in a theatre. Stage schools often act as agencies to supply children for stage and television work. More worthy of the name "stage school" are those few places where children attend full time, with a training for the theatre and a general education. A visit to such schools will leave you in no doubt that the children enjoy themselves. After all, what lively children wouldn't settle for spending only half the day doing ordinary school work, and acting, singing or dancing their way through the other half of the day? Then of course there are times for the children to make a name and make a little money in some big shows. Some stage schools give their children too much professional work at such a young age. But the law is very tight on the amount they can do. Those under 13 are limited to 40 days in the year; those over 13 to 80 days. The schools themselves admit that not all children will be successful in the profession for which they are being trained. So what happens to those who don't make it? While all the leading schools say they place great importance on children getting good study results, the facts seem to suggest this is not always the case. Question: In the writer's opinion, a good stage school should _ . Options: A: produce star performers B: help pupils improve their study skills C: train pupils in language and performing arts D: provide a general education and stage training.
D

Read the article and select the best answer. Article: A back injury led Briton Rose Oliver to t'ai chi, which led her to her husband and then took both of them to China. But three years after moving to Shanghai to pursue their dream, Oliver's husband died, leaving her alone to follow their shared passion for t'ai chi. Twenty years ago, Oliver's back injury ruined her childhood dream of becoming a ballet dancer. But the injury did lead her to t'ai chi, a martial art typically practiced in slow motion. Her initial hope was to improve her health. She later married her instructor, Rey Nelson, and founded a school with him, teaching the martial art to more than 10, 000 students over eight years. The 49-year-old recalls the injury that left her bedridden for six months when she was 21 years old and with constant pain for decades. "I was active and could not bear resting in bed," she recalls."But the soft tissue injuries were hard to heal. I thought I had to find some way to recover my health." Oliver saw a poster for a t'ai chi class and decided to try the"mysterious exotic sport". She was struck by the beautiful movements and the"nice, patient instructor -- Nelson". The couple later opened a t'ai chi school in the United Kingdom that attracted thousands of people. But they found themselves in a bottleneck. "It was not enough for us to improve ourselves when we just learned from t'ai chi masters for two or four weeks a year,"she says. So the couple moved to Shanghai. They taught English in universities and happily learned t'ai chi under various masters. After years of practice, Oliver found her occasional backaches had disappeared. In 2003, her husband's death brought her much pain. She thought of giving up, but considering the career in which her husband took pride, she stuck to it. She says her t'ai chi"family"-- the masters and students -- also provided a great support network. Her then tutor was Dong Bing and Dong died in 2009 at the age of 88. She speaks of their first meeting:"I had been told that his skill was of a very high level and for some reason I had a... Question: The true cause leading the couple to Shanghai was . Options: A: Nelson's strong insistence B: Oliver's severe back injury C: the limitation of practicing t'ai chi in England D: their interest in Chinese kung fu and tea
C

Read the article and select the best answer. Article: My father and I started our morning by moving quickly into the local store. I waited in the line a the Starbucks counter while he shopped around to pick up a few things. As I was starting there I become aware of an elderly women, with untidy hair,wearing layers upon layers of old clothing, hunchbacked behind me in line. She had a few things for washing and seemed to want the Starbucks cashier to ring up since that queue was shorter than the queues in the store. At some point I became aware of her edging closer behind me -- closer than I was comfortable with! I instinctively placed a hand over my purse and drew it close to me. My fear and imagination raced creating wild stories about this homeless woman who might try to steal from me. Then it was my turn to order. As the cashier rang Ypsilanti my total, I discovered I was 67 cents short. I called my father but he was hard of hearing. He asked me to repeat what I said but he still couldn't make me out. At that point, a long, grey arm, with holes in its sleeves, reached over from behind me. She laid 67 cents out on the counter, saying, "Here, we all need some help sometimes. " I was _ Here was a woman who clearly had very little to give and was i n great need herself. I had judged her wrongly and she had offered to reach out to help me! What an amazing gift and lesson this woman gave me about judging others! Thank you, God! Question: The elderly woman decided to help the writer _ . Options: A: the moment she saw the writer B: when she noticed the writer watching her C: after the writer failed to get help from her father D: when the writer discovered she was 67 cents short
C

Read the article and select the best answer. Article: There is one difference between the sexes on which every expert and study agrees: men are more aggressive than women. It shows up in 2-year-olds. It continues through school days and persists into adulthood. It is even constant across cultures. And there is little doubt that it is rooted in biology. If there's a woman's trait which is the same as men's aggressiveness, it's what social scientists refer to as the result of "education". Feminists have argued that the caring nature of women is not biological in origin, but rather has been forced into women by a society that wanted to keep them in the home. But the signs that it is at least partly inborn are too numerous to ignore. Just as tiny infant girls respond more readily to human faces, female toddlers learn much faster than males how to pick up nonverbal cues from others. And grown women are far more skilful than men at interpreting facial expressions: A recent study by University of Pennsylvania brain researcher Ruben Gur showed that they easily read emotions such as anger, sadness and fear. The only such emotion men could pick up was disgust. What difference do such differences make in the real world? Among other things, women appear to be somewhat less competitive--or at least competitive in different ways--than men. At the Harvard Law School, for instance, female students enter with qualities just as outstanding as those of their male peers. But they don' t qualify for the well-known Law Review in proper numbers, a fact some school officials owe to women' s discomfort in the incredibly competitive atmosphere. Students of management styles have found fewer differences than they expected between men and women who reach leadership positions, perhaps because many successful women deliberately imitate men. But an analysis by Purdue social psychologist Alice Eagly of 166 studies of leadership style did find one difference: Men tend to be more "autocratic"-making decisions on their own--while women tend to consult colleagues more often. Studies of... Question: The passage mainly discusses _ . Options: A: how sex differences are demonstrated in social relations B: how hormone determines sex differences C: why there are differences between males and females D: why men and women have different social roles
A