Question: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: My father' s response to the bank building at 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue in New York city was immediate and definite: "You won' t catch me putting my money in there!" he declared, "Not in that glass box. " Of course, my father is a gentleman of the old school, a member of the generation to whom a good deal of modern architecture is upsetting, but I believe that his negative response was not so much to the architecture as to a violation of his concept of the nature of money. In his generation money was thought of as a real commodity that could be carried, or stolen. Therefore, to attract the custom of a sensible man, a bank had to have heavy walls, barred windows, and bronze doors, to make sure of the fact, however, untrue, that money would be safe inside. If a building' s design made it appear strong, the institution was necessarily reliable, and the meaning of the heavy wall as an architecture symbol showed the general attitude toward money. But the attitude toward money has, of course, changed. Except pocket money, cash of any kind is now rarely used; money as a tangible commodity has largely been replaced by credit. The banker no longer offers us a safe: he offers us a service in which the most valuable factor is the creativity for the invention of large numbers. It is in no way surprising, in view of this change in attitude, that we are witnessing the disappearance of the heavy-walled bank. Just as the older bank emphasized its strength, this bank by its architecture is proud of imaginative powers. Question: The main idea of this passage is that _ . Options: A: money is not as valuable as it was in the past B: changes have taken place in both the appearance and the concept of banks C: the architectural style of the older bank is better than that of the modern bank D: belief makes the older generation think that the modern bank is unreliable
Answer: B

Question: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: When he was just 19, Michael Dell started the company that would _ the industry. At the time, IBM personal computers sold in stores for about $3,000. After taking them apart and rebuilding them, Dell realized the components could be bought for one-fourth the price. Soon he was buying components to reduce the cost. A good business decision, but it meant his room was starting to look like a mechanic's shop. "I was quite excited about the possibilities for personal computers and how they could change society. I had this idea to sell the products directly to the users over the phone", he said. College plans and his parents' expectations bothered him a lot. But Michael Dell was determined. He drove off to the University of Texas at Austin in August 1983 in a car he'd bought with earnings from selling newspapers. He was surprised that his mother wasn't suspicious about the three computers in the backseat. By November, news reached his parents that he wasn't attending classes. On a surprise visit to Austin, they caught their son on spot. Michael Dell told his dad that he wanted to compete with IBM. Although Michael agreed to focus on his studies, the business chances and the timing couldn't have been better. The public was becoming more interested in computers, but no one was producing them. In early May, a week before his final exams, Michael started Dell computer Corporation with $1,000. He took his exams, and then dropped out of college at the end of his freshman year. It was time to try out his direct-to-customer business model. "Three years later", Dell says, "we had already achieved annual sales of about $150 million, I was 22 years old then." Question: Dell's experiences show that _ . Options: A: determination and opportunity lead to success B: family support plays an import in one's success C: there's no need for all of us to go to college D: we should insist on whatever we are doing
Answer: A

Question: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: During my early twenties, to make my parents stop feeling angry, and simply to escape, I decided to live in my birthplace for a period of time, something I'd sworn I would never do. My parents were thrilled. They prayed that I'd come back triumphantly with a picture-perfect bridegroom. That was the furthest thing from my mind as I packed my faded jeans, tank tops, boots, and a photo of my freckle-faced then-boyfriend who was of Scottish descent. The moment I landed in Seoul, I was aware of how much I felt like a misfit. All my life I had tried to blend into the dominant culture and couldn't. And finally, when I was in a place where everyone looked like me, I still stood out. I took it for granted that I'd feel a sense of freedom. I thought I'd blend into the landscape. This was not the case. People stared at me with curious eyes. I became conscious of my American-girl swaggering body movements and inappropriate dress. Collecting my courage, I traveled to the demilitarized zone on my own. I touched the high barbed-wire fence that stretched across the belly of the peninsula , dividing Korea in half. I visited thousand-year-old temples and magnificent palace gates that had survived modernization and centuries of battle. I met with distant cousins who welcomed me with outstretched arms into their homes and related heroic tales about my mother and Halmoni (Grandmother) during the war. How Halmoni had led her young children out of north to the United Nation-backed south. How my mother, at the age of thirteen, saved the life of her baby sister. I listened with such an overwhelming thirst that when I returned to the States a year and a half later, I began to ask my parents and Halmoni (who had immigrated to the States some time after we did) all about the past. The past was no longer a time gone by, a dead weight. I now saw that it held ancient treasures. And the more I dug and discovered, the more I felt myself being steered toward a future I had never imagined for myself. I began to write. I didn't even know I... Question: What was the author's attitude toward the ancient monuments she visited in Korea? Options: A: She was curious about their original functions. B: She was astonished at their size. C: She admired their capacity to endure. D: She was surprised at their beauty.
Answer:
C