Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: My school stood in a big square playground in southeastern South Dakota. One teacher taught all grades, first through eighth. Most grades had only two or three students. Our school day started with the flag pledge . Then the teacher called one grade at a time to the recitation bench beside her desk. She'd check our work, explain the new lesson, and dismiss us to go back to our own desks and do our new work, all in less than ten minutes per grade. At noon we ate lunches we had brought. Our lunches consisted of homemade sandwiches and if we were lucky, dessert. My favorite dessert was a fresh pear, and a piece of Mom's delicious sour cream chocolate cake. The annual Christmas program was the most exciting part of the year. We hurried through our lessons during December to allow time to practise poems, songs, and plays. A few days before the performance, the school board members borrowed equipment from the town and set up a stage across one side of the classroom. We hung bed sheets for curtains. On the evening of the performance, petrol lanterns hanging along the walls cast a warm, though not very bright, light over the gathering crowd. We could hardly contain our excitement as we looked from behind the curtains to wave at our parents. On a spring Sunday in a new term, just before the last day of the school term, everyone in the neighborhood gathered for a picnic. Our moms set fried chicken, bowls of salads, and desserts on the teacher's desk and the library table. After the dinner, we played games. One of the school board members brought big buckets of ice cream in the afternoon to top off the picnic. How we looked forward to that treat! I was just nineteen years old when I started my first teaching position in a country school with thirteen students. I felt excited, nervous and happy as I prepared my lunch bucket the first morning of the term. I can't remember what kind of sandwiches I packed, but I do remember I put in a fresh pear and a piece of chocolate cake for dessert! Question: According to the text, the school the author once attended _ . - had a small number of students - had no celebrations - had advanced teaching equipment - had a small playground
had a small number of students

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: It was Saturday. As always, it was a busy one, for "Six days shall you labor and all your work" was taken seriously back then. Outside, Father and Mr. Patrick next door were busy chopping firewood. Inside their own houses, Mother and Mrs. Patrick were engaged in spring cleaning. Somehow the boys had slipped away to the back lot with their kites. Now, even at the risk of having brother caught to beat carpets, they had sent him to the kitchen for more string . It seemed there was no limit to the heights to which kites would fly today. My mother looked at the sitting room, its furniture disordered for a thorough sweeping. Again she cast a look toward the window. "Come on, girls! Let's take string to the boys and watch them fly the kites a minute." On the way we met Mrs. Patric, laughing guiltily as if she were doing something wrong, together with her girls. There never was such a day for flying kites! We played all our fresh string into the boys' kites and they went up higher and higher. We could hardly distinguish the orange-colored spots of the kites. Now and then we slowly pulled one kite back, watching it dancing up and down in the wind, and finally bringing it down to earth, just for the joy of sending it up again. Even our fathers dropped their tools and joined us. Our mothers took their turn, laughing like schoolgirls. I think _ . Parents forgot their duty and their dignity; children forgot their everyday fights and little jealousies. "Perhaps it's like this in the kingdom of heaven," I thought confusedly. It was growing dark before we all walked sleepily back to the housed. I suppose we had some sort of supper. I suppose there must have been surface tidying-up, for the house on Sunday looked clean and orderly enough. The strange thing was, we didn't mention that day afterward. I felt a little embarrassed. Surely none of the others had been as excited as I. I locked the memory up in that deepest part of me where we keep "the things that cannot be and yet they are." The years went on, then one day I was... Question: By "we were all beside ourselves writer means that they all _ . - felt confused - went wild with joy - looked on - forgot their fights
went wild with joy

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: IKEA is the world's largest furniture retailer, and the man behind it is Ingvar Kamprad, one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs.Born in Sweden in 1926, Kamprad was a natural businessman.As a child, he enjoyed selling things and made small profits from selling matches, seeds, and pencils in his community.When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him some money as a reward for his good grades.Naturally he used it to start up a business--IKEA. IKEA's name comes from Kamprad's initials (I.K.) and the place where he grew up ('E'and 'A').Today IKEA is known for its modern, minimalist furniture, but it was not a furniture company in the beginning.Rather, IKEA sold all kinds of miscellaneous goods. Kamprad's wares included anything that he could sell for profits at discounted prices, including watches, pens and stockings. IKEA first began to sell furniture through a mail-order catalogue in 1947.The furniture was all designed and made by manufacturers near Kamprad's home.Initial sales were very encouraging, so Kamprad expanded the product line.Furniture was such a successful aspect of the business that IKEA became solely a furniture company in 1951. In 1953 IKEA opened its first showroom in Almhult, Sweden.IKEA is known today for its spacious stores with furniture in attractive settings, but in the early1950s, people ordered from catalogues.Thus response to the first showroom was overwhelming: people loved being able to see and try the furniture before buying it.This led to increased sales and the company continued to thrive.By 1955, IKEA was designing all its own furniture. In 1956 Kamprad saw a man disassembling a table to make it easier to transport.Kamprad was inspired.The man had given him a great idea: flat packaging.Flat packaging would mean lower shipping costs for IKEA and lower prices for customers.IKEA tried it and sales soared.The problem was that people had to assemble furniture themselves, but over time, even this grew into an advantage for IKEA.Nowadays, IKEA is often seen as having connotations ... Question: What is the main idea of the passage? - Ingvar Kamprad is the richest man in the world. - IKEA is the world's largest furniture retailer. - The advantage of IKEA's furniture is dissembling. - Ingvar Kamprad established IKEA and led it to great success.
Ingvar Kamprad established IKEA and led it to great success.