Question: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: When I was in my first year of high-school I tried out for my school's basketball team. Although I was very successful in other sports, particularly soccer and baseball, I was only a mediocre basketball player. I remember walking into the gymnasium and feeling shocked when I saw how many people were also trying out. I knew I was a good athlete, but I didn't know if my skill would be as good as the other participants. Try-outs lasted for four long days. At the end of each day, the basketball coach had a short discussion with each player. He told some of the players to come back for the next day, and told other players that they had not made the team. This is called getting cut. All of us were afraid of getting cut at the end of each practice. On the fourth day of try-outs there were only twenty kids left. I was one of them, but we all knew only eighteen students would make the team. This day was the most intense day of them all. There were many opportunities to impress the coach but there were so few people that the pressure was very high. I was not one of the best players on the team, so I was especially worried on this last day. At the end of practice the coach told every player to take one shot from the same spot. Many kids missed their shot but mine went in the basket. After practice we waited as the coach talked to each player. When my turn finally came my heart skipped a beat when I walked towards the coach. My head was spinning when the coach started speaking and I was almost shaking because I was anxious. The coach told me that I had done very well and that he was impressed. However, the team only eighteen spots and unfortunately none of these would be mine. Question: What is the author's goal in this story? - To play basketball everyday after school - To improve his skill at basketball - To join the school's basketball team - To play basketball, soccer, and baseball.
Answer: To join the school's basketball team

Question: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: One day when I was 12, my mother gave me an order: I was to walk to the public library, and borrow at least one book for the summer. This was one more weapon for her to defeat my strange problem -- inability to read. In the library, I found my way into the "Children's Room." I sat down on the floor and pulled a few books off the shelf at random. The cover of a book caught my eye. It presented a picture of a beagle. I had recently had a beagle, the first and only animal companion I ever had as a child. He was my secret sharer, but one morning, he was gone, given away to someone who had the space and the money to care for him. I never forgot my beagle. There on the book's cover was a beagle which looked identical to my dog. I ran my fingers over the picture of the dog on the cover. My eyes ran across the title, Amos, the Beagle with a Plan. Unknowingly, I had read the title. Without opening the book, I borrowed it from the library for the summer. Under the shade of a bush, I started to read about Amos. I read very, very slowly with difficulty. Though pages were turned slowly, I got the main idea of the story about a dog who, like mine, had been separated from his family and who finally found his way back home. That dog was my dog, and I was the little boy in the book. At the end of the story, my mind continued the final scene of reunion, on and on, until my own lost dog and I were, in my mind, running together. My mother's call returned me to the real world. I suddenly realized something: I had read a book, and I had loved reading that book. Everyone knew I could not read. But I had read it. Books could be incredibly wonderful and I was going to read them. I never told my mother about my "miraculous" experience that summer, but she saw a slow but remarkable improvement in my classroom performance during the next year. And years later, she was proud that her son had read thousands of books, was awarded a PhD in literature, and authored his own books, articles, poetry and fiction. The power of the words has held. Question: Why could the author manage to read the book through? - He was forced by his mother to read it. - He identified with the story in the book. - The book told the story of his pet dog. - The happy ending of the story attracted him.
Answer: He identified with the story in the book.

Question: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: The virus "Ebola" is named after the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That's where the virus was discovered in 1976. A person can only get Ebola through direct contact with an infected person's bodily fluids, for example, sweat or spit. Additionally, the virus can get into your body through your eyes and mouth if those areas come into contact with something that contains the bodily fluids of an infected person. That's why health care workers are supposed to keep themselves completely covered while treating patients. The deadliest Ebola outbreak is spreading fast in Western Africa, taking over 900 lives so far. The health systems in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are severely lacking in resources, and health care workers may not have access to adequate protective clothing when working in rural clinics, where the proper protections are lacking. Since Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia share a border; it's easier for people to move from one country to another, increasing the risk for disease spread. For now, all doctors can do is treat the symptoms and provide supportive care like monitoring heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing while making sure the patients' fluids are supplied. Sometimes patients are given antibiotics to treat other possible infections. The hope is to make the patient pull through the infection so their immune system can eventually clear the virus. The people who survive Ebola have created enough antibodies to kill it. There are several promising drugs and vaccines in development, but since Ebola is less common--and research about it is not well funded -- there is no drug or vaccine that has been approved for use in humans. Many of the other drugs and vaccines have not yet been tested in humans. The WHO (World Health Organization) is meeting next week to discuss whether experimental treatments should be used during this outbreak. Question: Why have there been no cures used for Ebola in humans so far? - There are not enough drugs for the infected people. - Ebola is rare and its research money is lacking. - The people have enough antibodies to kill Ebola. - The WHO has decided not to use them.
Answer:
Ebola is rare and its research money is lacking.