In some parts of the United States, farming is easy. But farming has always been difficult in the northeastern corner of the country, which is called New England. New England has many trees and thin, rocky soil. Anyone who has wanted to start a new farm there has had to work very hard. The first job has been cutting down trees. The next job has been digging the stumps of the trees out of the soil. Then the farmer has had the difficult job of removing stones from his land. This work of removing stones never really ends, because every winter more stones appear. They come up through the thin soil from the rocks below. Farmers have to keep removing stones from the fields. Even today, farms which have been worked on for 200 years keep producing more stones. That is why stone walls are used instead of fences around New England fields. The stone walls are not high; a man can easily climb over them. But they keep the farmer's cows from joining his neighbor's cows. According to this selection farming is difficult in New England because _ . A) the winter is very long there B) the farms are very old C) the soil is rocky and thin D) the summer is too hot
C
(Question)
"Look, my mum's in hospital, dying, she won't survive the night, I'm going to miss the connection to Leeds at Peterborough, I'd be grateful if you'd leave me alone.Okay?" "Okay," he said, finally getting up."Sorry to hear that, son.Hope you make it home in time." Then he left. Ten minutes later, he was back.Oh no, I thought, "here we go again".This time I really want to rag him down the train. He touched my arm."Listen, when we get to Peterborough, shoot straight over to Platform One as quick as you like.The Leeds train'll be there." I said, stupidly, "What do you mean? Is it late, or something?" "No, it isn't late," he said."No, I've just radioed Peterborough.They're going to hold the train up for you.As soon as you get on, it goes." " Everyone will be complaining about how late it is, but let' s not worry about that on this occasion.You'll get home and that's the main thing.Good luck and God bless. Then he was off down the train again. I chased him down the train.I wanted to give him all the things I had, but I knew he would be offended. I caught him up and grabbed his arm."Oh, er, I just wanted to..." I was suddenly speechless."I, if erm... "It's okay," he said."Not a problem. " I wish I had some way to thank you," I said." I appreciate what you've done." "Not a problem," he said again."If you feel the need to thank me, the next time you see someone in trouble, you help them out.That will pay me back enough.Tell them to pay you back the same way and soon the world will be a better place." I was at my mother's side when she died in the early hours of the morning. How should the author pay the conductor back, according to the conductor? A) The author should do nothing and take it for granted. B) The author should give him everything he has. C) The author can help them out when seeing someone in trouble. D) The author should appreciate what the conductor did forever.
(Answer)
C
Ques: Do you know what Fear and Faith have in common? Fear believes in a negative future. Faith believes in a positive future. Both believe in something that has not yet happened. So I ask you, if neither the positive nor negative future has happened yet then why not choose to believe in the positive future? I believe during these challenging times we have a choice between two roads: the positive road and the negative road. And our bus can't be on two roads at the same time. So we have to make a choice and this choice determines our belief about the future and the attitude and actions we bring to the present. I'm not saying we shouldn't have any fear. There are times when fear is a gift. A healthy dose of fear causes us to examine our situation and plan for the future. It moves us to smell the cheese and expect change. When used wisely it allows us to manage risk and make better decisions. Some fear is good. However, what I have observed lately is a supersized, huge dose of fear that is spreading the hearts and minds of far too many people. This oversized fear is causing leaders and their organizations to either act unreasonably or to not act at all. They are either hurrying in a million different directions because of fear. In both cases, fear is leading them to take the negative road to failure. The answer is the positive road paved with faith and a belief that your best days are not behind you but ahead of you. With this belief you make the right choices and actions today that will create your positive future tomorrow. You stay calm, focused and committed to your purpose. You look for ways to save money and cut costs without making unreasonable fear-based decisions that sacrifice your future success. You identify opportunities in the midst of the challenges and you focus on solutions instead of problems. Your faith and belief in a positive future leads to powerful actions today. The future has not happened yet and you have a say in what it looks like by the way you think and act. Fear or Faith. The choice is yours. Which of the following about "Fear" is true? A) We should have fear because it is a gift. B) Fear can bring cheese and risk to people. C) Reasonable fear helps to plan for future. D) Leaders usually have oversized fear.
Ans: C
Ques: For a 400-year-old art form, opera had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which were hard to understand in one of those romance languages you were supposed to learn in high school. And with tickets costing as much as $145 a performance, opera goers also had a certain appearance in people's mind: rich, well-dressed and old.[:] But now opera companies around the country are loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes in an attempt to keep opera alive and take it to a younger and not so wealthy audience. Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to make the opera closer to common people. Because young people don't or won't come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such unusual places as parks, libraries and public schools. The Houston Grand Opera's choice is the public library, where it performs "mobile operas" shortened versions of child-friendly operas. This summer's production is Hansel & Gretel. By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level. The San Francisco Opera, which will be celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, is staging Cinderella free of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists' Training Program. Opera companies prefer to perform short versions because _ . A) they can be performed in public libraries B) short versions are easy to perform C) it is hard to find long versions D) they can make more people come to opera
Ans:
D