I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: Most American schools have boys and girls in the same classroom. But a public high school in the small, rural town of Boonsboro, Maryland, offers a special program called the Academy. 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. What they really want to do is take that top group of kids and take them to the very highest level they can achieve there, so that they're prepared for college. Students are invited to enter this program after they finish middle school, and placement in the Academy is voluntary. However, they need high marks and test scores and strong teacher recommendations. They also need to be involved in activities. Almost 350 students have taken part in the Academy. It began as an experiment in 2010. Michael Bair has been at Boonsboro High for twenty years and directs the Academy. His ninth-grade English class for boys centers on books that he believes boys find interesting. He says that the novels the students are reading now are very manly novels. These novels deal with the arrogance of man and the pride of man which finally leads to man's downfall. 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. Morgan Fleet, a senior at Boonsboro High, likes being in the Academy. She says boys and girls act differently when they are together in a classroom. She believes this difference seems to prevent her from developing herself because she's more focused on thoughts like "Oh, I wish they would shut up. Oh, what do they think of me?'' instead of focusing on "What's the homework? What's going on in this class? What's the lesson?". There is one activity that girls and boys in the Academy do together. At the end of the day, many of them stay and help tutor students who are having trouble in school. Question: What is the purpose of the Academy program? Options: A: To offer a special program in high school. B: To help students concentrate on study. C: To strengthen sex education for teenagers. D: To start learning college courses earlier.
B
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: There is nowadays in schools a great movement that places major emphasis on higher order skills, these being those skills that encourage the ability to reason. This group of skills involves recalling information, basic concept formation, critical thinking, and creative idea formation. Formerly viewed as the tools of mathematics, these skills are now recognized as necessary to abilities across the curriculum. Higher order thinking skills are now recognized as important for those who will enter the twenty-first century work force. Preparing young learners for their future requires that teachers employ a great deal of inventiveness and creativity in designing lessons that meet the dual challenge of providing the basics as in reading, language arts, and mathematics, and developing the ability to reason. This unit uses detective fiction to address both of these challenges, and the activities that lie here are designed to draw the learner along a path that moves him from the simple skills, such as recalling information, to the more difficult area of creative thinking. Activities may be modified, simplified, lengthened, or deleted to meet the needs of the intellectual diversity found in most classrooms. For this unit I have chosen three separate series of children's detective fiction. The easiest to read are the Private Eyes club mysteries, written and illustrated by Crosby Bonsall. This series centers on the activities of four neighborhood boys who along with their cat Mildred keep the area they live in free of crime. Each title is centered on one issue and the list of titles is expanding. The reading levels range from about 1.6 to 2.0 and the print is large and well organized on the page. Snitch, Wizard, Skinny, and Tubby are funny and engaging, and are represented in lively color illustrations. The only issue that could be a problem is that the private eyes are all boys. However, girls are well represented among the peripheral peer group. Question: Which of the following is NOT mentioned in this passage? Options: A: Basic reading skills. B: Ways of thinking. C: Who wrote the detective fiction. D: How much to pay for the course.
D
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: The Taj Mahal is a love story, a sad and beautiful one. If it didn't exist, we would easily imagine that the story of its construction was simply a fairy tale. Three hundred years ago, there lived an Indian emperor called Shah Jahan. His wife was a beautiful and bright woman whom he loved greatly. Her title was Mumtazl Mahan: its shortened form Taj Mahan, means "pride of the palace". In the year 1630 this beloved wife of the emperor died. He was so brokenhearted that he thought of giving up his throne. He decided out of his love for his wife, to build her the most beautiful tomb that had ever been seen. He summoned the best artists and architects from India, Turkey, Persia and Arabia and finally, the design was complete. It took more than twenty thousand men working over a period of 18 years to build the Taj Mahan, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. The building itself stands on a marble platform 29 meters square and 6-7 meters high. Towers rise from each of the four corners. The Taj itself soars another 61 meters into the air. It is an eight-sided building made of white marble. The emperor planned to build an identical tomb of black marble for himself on the other side of the river connected by a silver bridge. However his son put him into a prison in the palace before he could finish, and for the rest of his life, he could only gaze across river at the tomb of his beloved wife. Question: Which of the following statements is NOT true about the Taj Mahal? Options: A: It was completed quickly owing to the efforts of the best artists and workers. B: A lot of people took part in the building work C: It is a magnificent building. D: It is a tomb for the emperor's beloved wife.
A