The 87thAcademy Award nominations were announced on Jan 15, and The Grand Budapest Hotel stood out as a favorite with nine nominations, including Best Picture. Check out some other Best Picture nominees to see if you missed any of last year's top Hollywood films. The Imitation Game This historical thriller is about British computer scientist, Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), the father of artificial intelligence. At the start of World War II, Turing was asked to join a select team of mathematical geniuses to decode the system the Nazis used to send military messages. Besides the actual breaking of the code, Cumberbatch's portrayal of Turing's personality, a mixture of decency and shyness, is also a highlight of the movie. Birdman This dark comedy film is about how Riggan Thomson, a faded star once famous for his superhero roles, struggles to regain fame. American actor Michael Keaton, 63, who has a similar experience to Thomson's, plays the leading role. Selma A stellar cast including talk show queen Oprah Winfrey may be one reason to see Selma. But that the film focuses on Martin Luther King Jr.'s struggle for civil rights also makes it worth viewing. Based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches, the film is a chronicle of King's (David Oyelowo) campaign for political rights for African-American people. The Theory of Everything We know English theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking for his significant scientific discoveries, especially his black hole theories. This biographical film reveals the scientist's (played by Eddie Redmayne) secret romantic relationship with Jane Hawking (Felicity Jones), whom he meets and falls in love with at Cambridge and who later becomes his first wife. Boyhood American Director Richard Linklater did an experiment in this film, using the same cast for 12 years to record a boy's growth. In two and a half hours, we see Mason, a Texas boy from a divorced family, grow from 6-year-old boy to a freshman in college. What is Boyhood mainly about? A) How Richard Linklater did his decade-long experiment. B) The wonderful life of Mason. C) The growth of a young boy. D) How Mason spent his college years.
C
(Question)
The curtain on the 2008 US presidential election finally rose last month as John McCain and Barack Obama were formally nominated as candidates of the two major parties. This may be one of the hardest decisions voters have to make between two appealing candidates. The big question for voters, as they face both an economic downturn and international threats, is: who will they elect? A young first-term senator promising change and new ideas, or a longtime senator with strong military experience and a reputation as a maverick ? American voters have never seen a candidate quite like Obama. He has a white mother from theprefix = st1 /USand a black father fromKenyawho left the family when Obama was very young. He spent part of his youth inIndonesia. His supporters say Obama's childhood gives him the advantage to repair the recent damage done toAmerica's image abroad. His opponents focus on his inexperience, noting he hasn't finished his first term in the Senate. However, McCain has a very different life story. He grew up in a Navy family and was a pilot during the Vietnam War in the 1960s. When Obama was in kindergarten in Indonesia, McCain's plane was shot down overVietnamand he became a prisoner of war. McCain could have been released if he _ Americabut he refused and so was held for five years. So in the end, the election may hinge on (...) several factors that are hard to judge: Will Obama's race matter to a significant number of voters? Will working-class whites who tended to support his primary opponent, Hillary Clinton, vote for Obama? And perhaps most important of all, will swing voters be more drawn to Obama's vision or to McCain's experience? Whatever happens, one thing is clear: Whoever walks into the White House on January 20, 2009, will find enormous challenges waiting for him in the Oval Office, both at home and abroad. The challenges that will face the new president are _ . A) not mentioned in the text B) building a strong party and a friendly image C) the problems of immigrants and economy D) the problems of economy and international relations
(Answer)
D
Ques: Scientists have searched for many years for a method to tell whether a volcano explosion will be small or large. Now, four scientists say they have discovered something in lava that will help do this. They did the research on Mount Unzen on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. Mount Unzen exploded in November, 1990. Since then, more explosions have killed 43 people and destroyed the homes of more than 2,000 others. The volcano is still active today. The scientists say the lava of the volcano contains high level of an element ,which is a sign of the presence of the lava from deep in the earth, not from the surface. They say it shows that the lava coming directly from inside the earth is connected with huge explosions instead of smaller ones. The scientists examined the lava from 18 explosions of Mount Unzen that took place during many thousands of years. They also studied the lava from other volcanoes in the area that are older than Mount Unzen. The lava studied came from both large and small explosions. The scientists found that large explosions contained more of the element than small ones. The scientists say if they had known this two years earlier, they could have warned the people living in the area near Mount Unzen and saved many lives. Where does lava come from? A) It comes from the deepest part of the ocean. B) It comes from the earth surface. C) Not mentioned in the passage. D) It is from deep part in the earth.
Ans: D
Ques:George had just moved into the street and he felt strange that he was not wanted. He knew that perhaps the other boys were trying to get an idea of what kind of a boy he was. This did not help to make him less lonely. He was new and he had to be tested. Still, proving himself would not be all that easy. He did not want to run with bad boys or get into something against the law to prove that he was strong . No!He must show what he was made of in a more helpful way. That was when he got the idea. The next day was Saturday. He knew that most of the boys would be down on the playground and choose up sides for the Saturday game. George knew he could play well and just might be enough to prove he was strong and to make friends with them. He arrived early and did his step exercises. He shot the ball several times and did some other exercises--the most difficult and most wonderful in basketball. Then the boys came. George went through what he had done before the game and showed what he could do. No one said a word. The boys just looked at each other and thought about it. In the end, when it was all over, the biggest of the group just smiled and nodded his head. George knew he had made it. What does "This did not help to make him less lonely" mean? A) George felt more lonely because the other boys wanted to test him. B) George felt as lonely as before when the other boys tried to find out what kind of a boy he was. C) George did not want himself to be less lonely. D) The other boys did not want to make George feel less lonely.

Ans:
B