*Question*
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: When Ben Franklin was only a boy, he always wanted to know about things. He was always asking his father and brothers 'What?' and 'How?' and 'Why?' They couldn't always tell him what he wanted to know. When they couldn't tell him, Ben tried to find out for himself. Many times Ben did find out things that no one knew before. The other boys would say, 'That is Ben Franklin! He's always finding out something new!' Ben lived close to the water. He liked to go there to see the boats. He saw how the wind blew them across the water. One day Ben said to himself: 'Why can't the wind help me float across the water? And I'm going to try.' Ben got his big kite.He took hold of the kite string and ran with it. The wind took the kite up into the air.Then Ben jumped into the water. The wind blew the kite high into the air.Ben began to float across the water.Soon he was on the other side, and he had not worked at all. One boy shouted, 'Look at Ben floating across the water! His kite takes him to the other side without any work!' 'Yes,' said another. 'He's always finding new ways to do things.' Question: From the story we can see that young Ben Franklin liked _ . Options: A: using his mind B: using his hands C: making kites D: flying kites
**Answer**
A

*Question*
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: How important can a fifteen-year-old boy's work be? Well, Louis Braille's work changed the world. Born in a small town near Paris in 1809, shortly after his third birthday Louis blinded himself in one eye while playing with a sharp pointed tool in his father's workshop. He soon lost the sight in his other eye when the infection spread. He wanted to go to school, but in his small town there was no school for him. At that time, blind people did not get any school education. Braille went to Paris to study, but there were few books for the blind. Louis knew that books were the key to learning. He struggled with ideas for three years. Finally, at fifteen, he invented an alphabet made with raised dots . Blind people could "read" by feeling the patterns of the dots. Being able to read Braille allows blind children to learn together with the sighted at school, and go on to get jobs. It allows people who lose their eyesight to continue to read, learn and get information. Question: Which could be the best title for the passage? Options: A: Louis Braille changed the world B: Louis Braille struggled in his life C: Louis Braille saved sighted children D: Louis Braille set up a blind school
**Answer**
A

*Question*
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: The passages below discuss the retirement age. Passage 1: In the United States,the financial crisis has left the country with 11 million fewer jobs than Americans need now.No matter how tough the policy ,we are not going to find 11 million new jobs soon.So common sense suggests we should make some decisions about who should come first:older people,who have already worked three or four decades at hard jobs? Or younger people,many just out of school,with fresh skills and ambitions? The answer is obvious.Older people who would like to retire and would do so if they could afford it should get some help.The right step is to reduce,not increase,the retirement age.As a rough cut,why not make it a law to set a three--year window during which the age for receiving full Social Security benefits would drop to 62----providing a voluntary ,one--time,grab-it-now bonus for leaving work? Let them go home! With a secure pension and medical care,they will be happier.Young people who need work will be happier.And there will also be more jobs.With pension security, older people will consume services until the end of their lives.They will become.each and every one,an employer. Passage 2: Too many people see longer working lives as a worry rather than an opportunity--and not just because they are going to be chained to their desks.Some worry that there will not be enough jobs to go around.This misunderstanding,known to economists as the"lump of labour fallacy ",was once used to argue that women should stay at home and leave all the jobs for breadwinning males.Now lump-of-labourites say that keeping the old at work would deprive the young of employment.The idea that society can become better-off by paying more of its citizens to be idle is clearly ridiculous.On that reasoning,if the retirement age came down to 25 we would all be as rich as Bill Gates. Question: Lump-of-laborites believe that _ . Options: A: young citizens should be better paid B: the old should leave jobs for the young C: males should earn bread for the family D: earlier retirement will lead to a poorer society
**Answer**
B

*Question*
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Not being the best but touching the limits of your ability. This belief came from my third grade teacher, the most trusted and loved person in my life. Mr. Myrus was always perfectly dressed and spoke with the conviction that talking to small kids didn't mean that he had to sacrifice proper pronunciation or grammar. And he was demanding. Oh, he wasn't unreasonable or cruel; he simply felt that no matter what your best was, you should achieve it. As luck would have it, I met him again as my eighth grade math teacher. I was not, nor ever will be, gifted in math. And thirteen-year-old girls do not have the energy to devote to something like square roots . I remember our struggles, "I don't know the answer. I can't do it.!" "Perhaps you don't know the answer," he would say quietly. "Do you think we might figure it out together? How do you know what you can do until you try?" Mr. Myrus lived around the corner, and I would often stop by to talk while he worked in his wood shop. In this room of sawdust, wood chips, and the smoke from the woodburning stove, I felt respected and valued as a person. I knew there was someone who liked me for who I was, someone who, while he always wanted me to do my best, let me know that if I had really tried, that was enough. Mr. Myrus was my teacher and my friend. He taught me to be kind. He taught me my own value. He taught me about honor, about truth, and about doing my best--and that all feelings and beliefs have dignity and deserve respect. And of all the things I know, this I believe: We can't all be "the" best, but we can, each of us, be our best, and I know that's true because Mr. Myrus told me. Question: Which of the following may Mr. Myrus agree with? Options: A: Result always matters most. B: Everyone is equally talented. C: Whatever you do, spare no effort. D: When talking to kids, speak in their way.
**Answer**
C