Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: B It was a hot, humid day, and my brother Walt and I had decided that the only way to survive it would be to go swimming in a deep swimming hole across Mr.Blickez's pasture and through some woods. The only problem with our plan was that this pasture was guarded by a huge, mean Hereford bull.Mr.Blickez had told us that Elsie was the meanest bull in the township, maybe even the county, and we believed him.But the hotter it got, the more we thought there was something fishy about his claim.For one thing, we remembered Mr.Blickez liked telling tall tales; for another, Elsie seemed like an odd name for a bull. Finally, I talked Mom into asking permission for us to walk through the pasture, but then another problem surfaced.Mom said she would talk to Mr.Blickez if we would take our cousin Joanie along with us.Joanie was almost two years older than me and a head taller.If her teasing ever got around my grade school, it would be all over for me.In fact, I still had a headache from a quarrel with her that morning."I'm not going swimming with that dumb girl cousin." I told my mom. "Either Joanie goes with, or you stay home alone," Mom said in her serious tone.I gave in and we set out.On our way across the pasture, Walt yelled suddenly.Elsie had approached him quietly and was licking his back.Joanie and I dove under the wire fence, but while I was on the ground I looked up and saw that Elsie wasn't a big mean bull after all.She was going to keep licking my brother's back as long as he stood still. We had many good days growing up and visiting our secret swimming hole guarded by the so-called "big mean bull".And as it turned out, for a girl cousin, Joanie hasn't been too bad.She's been one of my best friends over the years. Question: What's the passage mainly about? - The bull guarding Mr.Blickez's farm. - The story of visiting the swimming hole. - How friendly the so-called mean bull was. - How the author changed his attitude to Joanie.
The story of visiting the swimming hole.

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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: A high school history teacher once told us, "If you make one close friend in school, you will be most fortunate. A true friend is someone who stays with you for life." Experience teaches that he was right. Good friendships are just not easily formed. Why? One reason is that it is easy to move around in our society. Mr. Darrell Sifford, a news reporter for the Washington Daily, has been studying and talking about friendships for a number of years. He reports what one woman thought about the effect of ease of movement on friendship: "I was nine, and we'd just moved from South Carolina to New Jersey, and I didn't know anybody. _ and she said to me, 'Amelia, I know you're feeling bad because you don't have any friends. But you can fix that. Just walk across the street -- I know there's a girl about your age over there -- and knock on the door and ask her to be your friend.'" "As a 9-year-old, I could do that. I knocked on the door and said, 'Hi, my name is Amelia, and I'd like for us to be friends.' And to my surprise, she said that she would like that too--and we became friends." She added that going about it directly always worked when she was a child. But as she left childhood, she found that the simple direct approach was more and more difficult for her to follow. So, as an adult, Amelia longed to have friends but her hands were tied when it came to doing anything about it. The problem, according to her, is that society teaches us in a number of ways that direct action is not an acceptable way of doing things. We need to be less direct so that our feelings will not be hurt if our offer of friendship is refused. Mr. Sifford goes on to describe his own ideas on the subject: "To most of us, friendship is very important, but we need to have clear in our own minds the kinds of friendships we want. Are they to be very close or kept at arm's length? Do we want to share ourselves or do we want to walk on the surface?" "For some people, an ordinary friendship is enough -- and that's all right. But at some point we... Question: By saying that "My mother had a way of getting to the root of things..." the author means that _ . - her mother could always find friends for her - her mother had a way of making friends with people - her mother was able to find the cause of things - her mother was able to solve difficult problems
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her mother was able to find the cause of things

Ques:Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Nicaragua's Cerro Negro Volcano has erupted 23 times in the past 100 years,burying homes, crops and people in lava and ashes. But recently the black mountain has become a tourist draw, thanks to a newly invented extreme sport: volcano boarding. Thousands of thrill-seekers have climbed to the top of Cerro Negro, peered into its mouth, then zipped down its rough-and--rocky 41--degree slope on special boards. The volcano-boarding speed, set by an Israeli woman, is 54 mph. "Rushing down an active volcano is something that people expect." Said Anthony Alcalde, an expert volcano boarder. The sport was developed in the mid-2000s by Darryn Webb, an Australian who had climbed the nearby Cerro Negro but was looking for a faster way to get to the bottom. He tried sliding down on surfboards, snowboards, and even a refrgerrator door before inventing a sit-down board made of plywood. "At first, Darryn planned to use a snowboard," said Gemma Cope, a British woman who now runs Big Foot, which offers volcano boarding tours. "But he realized he couldn't cut an edge for there were little rocks everywhere. So he came up with the sitting-down option and realized he can go pretty fast. " Tourists,who are nearly all foreigners,pay $28 for the experience, which begins with a truck ride on dirt roads to Cerro Negr0.a 2,400-foot--high volcano that last erupted in l999.Visitors must carry their boards during the half-hour climb to the top. There,they go straight down the slope and sometimes they have to use their feet for brakes.Along the way.The board fills with rocks and dust,making boarders almost blind.Crashes are common."l wiped out twice and ripped my pants."said Melinda Vorisek, a tourist from Miami."But I'd do it again." Another tourist added:"It was sheer terror. I was eating dirt.But how many people can say they've bombed down a volcano?" Question: Who is the key person to develop the sport of volcano boarding? - Anthony Alcalde - Darryn Webb - Cerro Negro - Melinda Vorisek

Ans:
Darryn Webb