Last Sunday I made a visit to some new neighbors down the block. No specific in mind, just an opportunity to sit at the kitchen table, have some tea and chat. As I did so, it occurred to me how rare the Sunday visit has become. When I was a kid in New Jersey of the 1960s, Sunday visits were routine. Most stores were closed, almost nobody worked, and the highways, as a result, were not desperate steeplechases they have become today. My family normally traveled eight city blocks to the home of my grandmother, where adults would sit on the front porch and chat while we children played hide-and-seek. The Sunday visit was something to desire strongly. It was the repetition to church, our reward for an hour of devotion, an opportunity to take advantage of the fact that Dad was not at work, we were not in school, and there was no housework that couldn't wait until Monday. Sunday was, indeed, different from the other days of the week, because everyone seemed to be on the same schedule, which means that there was one day when everyone seemed to have time for everybody else. Sunday as a day of rest is, or was, so deeply rooted in the culture that it's surprising to find that, in a short span of time, it has almost entirely lost this association. In my childhood, it was assumed that everyone would either be home or visiting someone else's home on Sunday. But now the question is, "What do you plan to DO this Sunday?" The answer can range from going to the mall, to participating in a road race, to Montreal for lunch. If one were to respond, "I'm making a Sunday visit to family," such an answer would feel strange, which sounds like an echo from another era. I suppose I should be grateful to live in Maine, a state of small towns, abundant land and tight relationships. Even though folks work as hard here as they do anywhere else, the state's powerfully rural feature still keeps at least remnants of the moral of yesterday's America, where people had to depend on one another in the face of economic vagaries and a... What's the main idea of the passage? A) Doing many activities on Sunday is beneficial. B) We should often travel a long distance to visit some friends and s. C) Nowadays, Sunday has almost lost its association as a day of rest. D) We should abandon some old tradition.
C
(Question)
The fighting against youth smoking since I took office I've done everything in my power to protect our children from harm. We've worked to make their streets and their schools safer, and to give them something positive to do after school before their parents get home. We've worked to teach our children that drugs are dangerous, illegal and wrong. Today, I want to talk to you about the historic opportunity we now have to protect our nation's children form an even more deadly threat: smoking. Smoking kills more people every day than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, murders, suicides, drugs and fires combined. Nearly 90 percent of those smokers lit their first cigarette before they turned 18. Consider this: 3,000 children start to smoke every day illegally, and 1,000 of them will die sooner because of it. This is a national tragedy that every American should be honor-bound to help prevent. For more than five years we've worked to stop our children from smoking before they start, launching a nationwide campaign to educate them about the dangers of smoking, to reduce their access to tobacco products, and to severely restrict tobacco companies from advertising to young people. If we do these, we'll cut teen smoking by almost half over the next five years. That means if we act now, we have it in our power to stop 3 million children from smoking and to save a million lives as a result. Compared with other disasters, what kills more people every day? A) Smoking B) Car accidents C) Drugs D) Murders
(Answer)
A
Ques: I am a senior in high school. For four years I have been a member of the marching band at my school---four years of commitment to an organization of 150 kids, four teachers and 100 parents working from August to June of every school year. For four years, my mom has been there for me---never complaining and never receiving a "Thanks, mom." My mom is pretty much a supermom and, unfortunately, it took me some seventeen years to realize it. "Driver" is probably a more appropriate name for her. Every concert, every competition, every football game, my mom was there with a smile, and always stayed to watch. When she couldn't be there, she would be waiting for me when the bus pulled in to the school's parking lot. She actually enjoyed arriving at the school at 10:30 at night just for me to tell her that I was going out with my friends and that I needed twenty dollars instead of a ride home. Now that I'm a senior, I have my own car and drive myself to my football games and concerts. My mother still comes to watch me. Recently, my band was invited to play for a celebration. When the bus pulled up to the flagpole in front of my high school, I had the strangest feeling. Something was missing. I found myself nervously searching for my mom in the parking lot. I needed to tell her I didn't need a ride home; I was going out. I then realized my mother was at home and probably in bed. I never realized how much I took her for granted until she wasn't there. When I got home that night, I woke her up and told her I loved her and I missed her. I told my mom that I really appreciated all the times she had driven me back and forth. I told her I was glad she embarrassed me all those times, because I knew that it just meant she loved me, too. My mom looked back at me with tears and a big smile. The author realized his mother's love when _ . A) he was a child B) he graduated from senior high school C) he couldn't find her one day D) his mother was sleeping
Ans: C
When I was a kid, I was just like every other kid. As usual, I liked being with friends and having fun. But I didn't like school much. I didn't like the rule of learning, studying, memorizing, etc. Too much work. As I got into high school, things changed for me. I started reading a lot of books. Books taught me about life and helped me learn about the world. I read around 30 books during each senior year. I learned to love reading then. Little did I know at that time that I would write books by myself. I've written 7 books since then. One book I wrote, Powerful Attitudes, was a huge success within a network marketing company in the USA. When I was 17 years old, I took about a dozen guitar lessons. I fell in love with guitar music no matter if it is blues, rock, flamenco or classical. I've attended concerts and have heard some great guitarists through the years. Recently, I bought myself a piano and began to learn to play it. I've made great progress. My knowledge of music and playing guitar has helped me a lot in learning the piano. Last week, I employed a Chinese teacher to teach me Chinese. I've learned about 200 words in my first week. I'm inspired and motivated to learn. In fact, I feel a bit _ , thinking of learning Chinese. It's like a mountain I want to climb and conquer. I'm 56 years old and my love to learn it runs deep in my heart, mind and soul. What I certainly learned while growing up is to love learning. I never want to stop learning. I never want to stop studying people, life, processes and new things. I think the openness of admitting what you don't know, makes you a good learner. You never lie to yourself or to others about your knowledge and experience. I have the attitude that if I don't know something, I will learn to know it. What can we learn about the author from the passage? A) He fell in love with reading when he was a child. B) One of his books enjoyed a lot of success. C) He began to love music recently. D) He is good at Chinese.
B