(Q).
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: This year's Newsweek list of the top 100 high schools shows that today those with fewer students are rising. Ten years ago, when the first Newsweek Top School List based on college-level test participation was published, only three of the top 100 schools had graduating classes smaller than 100 students. This year there are 22. Fifty years ago, they were the latest thing in educational reform: big, modern high schools outside the cities with thousands of students. Big schools meant economic efficiency, a greater choice of courses, and better football teams. But only years later did we understand that it involved the difficulty of strengthening personal connections between teachers and students. SAT scores began dropping; on average, 30% of students did not complete high school in four years, a figure that rose to 50% in poor city neighborhoods. High schools for a variety of reasons seemed to have made little progress. Size isn't everything, but it does matter, and the past decade has seen a noticeable trend toward smaller schools. This has been partly due to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested $1.8 billion in American high schools, helping to open about 1,000 small schools -- most of them with about 400 kids, each with an average enrollment of only 150 students per grade. About 500 more are on the drawing board. Districts all over the country are taking notice, along with mayors in cities like New York, Chicago and San Diego. And most noticeable of all, there is the phenomenon of large urban and suburban high schools that have split up into smaller units of a few hundred. Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, California, is one of those ranking No.423 -- among the top 2% in the country. In 2003, Hillsdale remade itself into three "houses". 300 students arriving ninth graders are randomly assigned to one of the houses, where they will keep the same four core subject teachers for two years before moving on to another for 11th and 12th grades. Teachers meet with students in groups of 25, five... Question: Newsweek ranks high schools according to _ . Options: A: their students' academic achievement B: the number of their students admitted to college C: the size and number of their graduating classes D: their college-level test participation
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D

(Q).
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Confucius said, "In a group of three people, there is always something I can learn. Choose to follow the strengths of others, and use their shortcomings to reflect upon ourselves." As you can see from what Confucius said, everyone that we come across can teach us something useful. As long as we reflect on the lessons learnt from and by other people, we can continuously improve ourselves. But take note that when you reflect on these lessons, you apply some wisdom to each lesson because each situation is unique although they share some common principles. We can learn a lot from everyone. We always tend to think that we can only learn from those who are higher in status or have more knowledge than us, but that is not really the case. We learn from those who are lower in status than us as well, because the experience and knowledge of each person is very different. The best thing about _ learning, reflecting other people's strengths and shortcomings onto ourselves, is that we do not pay for the mistakes that are made. The only cost to us is the time that is needed to learn about and reflect on these lessons from other people's lives. As we all know, some mistakes can be ones which people cannot afford to make, for instance, a broken friendship or a financial loss. Thus constantly using other people's strengths and shortcomings to reflect upon ourselves makes us realize the costs of these mistakes and reduces the possibility that we will make similar mistakes. What can we do now to learn from others? By keeping our eyes and ears open. Be observant and able to realize what strengths and shortcomings other people have. A lot of people in this world like to complain about their lives. Listen to them and make you own assessment and from your own assessment, reflect upon your life and make improvements where necessary. Question: What does this passage mainly talk about? Options: A: How to improve oneself. B: How to use the shortcomings of others to reflect upon ourselves. C: How to reduce the mistakes in one's life. D: How to learn from other people's strengths and shortcomings.
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D

(Q).
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Regularly staying late at the office significantly increases the risk of having a stroke or heart attack, researchers have found, working just an hour extra each day pushes up stroke risk by 10 per cent, according to a huge review of working patterns. And people who work an extra three hours a day--or 55 hours a week--are 33 per cent more likely to have a stroke, the scientists found. The research, published in the Lancet medical journal, is based on health records of more than 500, 000 people across Europe, the US and Australia. Scientists led by University College London warned that people who work longer hours tend to do less exercise, sit at a computer for hours at a time and drink more than people with a better work-life balance. Repeated stress may also be to blame for greater health problems, the scientists think. They looked at the combined result of 17 previous studies, in which 529, 000 people were tracked over an average of seven years. Experts stressed that the study had only found a link between hours worked and heart problems---it had not proved what had actually caused each death. But they warned people to take note of the findings. Dr Tim Chico, consultant cardiologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, said "For many people, reducing their working hours would be difficult or impossible, and this study does not show that it would reduce the risk of stroke." Most of us could reduce the amount of time we spend sitting down, increase our physical activity and improve our diet while working and this might be more important the more time we spend at work. Question: Which areas are involved in the research? Options: A: The US, Australia and Russia. B: Japan, Britain and China. C: China, Russia and Japan. D: Europe, the US and Australia.
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D