I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: Riding was the favourite activity of Thomas Jefferson, who was the third President of the United States. He usually rode good horses. One day, he was riding outside Washington, when a jockey came near. He did not know the President, but his professional eye was attracted by Mr. Jefferson's horse. He stopped and said that he wanted to buy the horse, but Mr. Jefferson politely refused his offer. The jockey offered more money for the horse, because the closer he looked at the horse, the more he liked it. All of his offers were refused, which made him angry. He then became rude, but his rudeness left as little an impression as his money, for Jefferson had a very good temper. At last, he hit Mr. Jefferson's horse with his whip, getting it to run suddenly. This would have thrown a less skillful rider to the ground, but Jefferson stayed on his seat, and controlled his horse well. The jockey then gave up. He rode with Mr. Jefferson side by side and began to talk with him about politics. Jefferson joined in the conversation. When they got into the city and came close to the gate of the presidential mansion , Mr. Jefferson stopped, and politely invited the man to enter. The jockey was surprised and asked, "Why? Do you live here?" "Yes" was the simple reply. "Why, stranger, what's your name?" "My name is Thomas Jefferson." Embarrassed, the man quickly left, while the President looked at him with a smile and then rode through the gate. Question: According to the passage, which of the following statement is true? Options: A: The President of the US is fond of riding. B: The jockey managed to buy the horse from Mr. Jefferson. C: Mr. Jefferson, the third President of the United States, was a man of good manners. D: All the presidents of the US have expensive horses.
C
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: My neighbor Mrs. Gargan first told me about it. "Have you seen the tree?" She asked as I was sitting in the backyard enjoying the autumn twilight . "The one down at the corner," she explained. "It's a beautiful tree--all kinds of colors. All the passers-by stop to have a look. You ought to see it." I told her I would, but I soon forgot about the tree. Three days later, I was jogging down the street when a splash of bright orange caught my eyes. For an instant, I thought someone's house had caught fire. Then I remembered the tree. I approached the tree to look at it closely. There was nothing remarkable about the shape of the tree. It was a medium-sized maple. But Mrs. Gargan had been right about its colors. Like the mess of an artist's palette , the tree blazed a bright crimson on its lower branches and burned with vivid yellows and oranges in its center, and deep red at its top. Through these colors were light green leaves as yet untouched by autumn. Walking closer I noticed several bare branches near the top, their small black branches scratching the air like claws. The fallen leaves lay like a red carpet around the trunk. As I was amazed at this beauty, I thought of Ralph Waldo Emerson's comments about the stars. "If the constellations appeared only once in a thousand years, imagine what an exciting event it would be. But because they're up there every night, we barely give them a look," he made a remark in Nature. I felt the same way about the tree. Because its beauty will last only a week, it should be especially precious to us. And I had almost missed it. Once in the 19th century when a man noticed a brilliant display of northern lights in the sky over Massachusetts, he rang a church bell to alert the whole town's people. That's what I felt like doing about the tree. I wanted to awake the countryside to its wonder. I didn't have a church bell, but as I walked home, I did ask each neighbor I passed the same simple but important question Mrs. Gargan had asked me: "Have you seen the tree?". Question: How did the author call on people to enjoy the wonder? Options: A: He rang the church bell. B: He passed on the same question. C: He awakened all neighbors up. D: He required people to the corner.
B
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: Speed-reading is a necessary skill in the Internet age.We skim over articles, e-mails and WeChat to try to grasp key words and the essential meaning of a certain text.Surrounded with information from our electronic devices, it would be impossible to cope if we read word by word, line by line.But a new trend calls on people to unplug and enjoy reading slowly, listing benefits beyond the intelligent stimulation. A recent story from The Wall Street Journal reported on a book club in Wellington, New Zealand, where members meet in a cafe and turn off their smartphones.They sink into cozy chairs and read in silence for an hour. Unlike traditional book clubs, the point of the slow reading club isn't exchanging ideas about a certain book, but to get away from electronic devices and read in a quiet, relaxed environment. According to the Journal, the Wellington book club is just one example of a movement started by book lovers who miss the old-fashioned way of reading before the Internet and smartphones. Slow readers, such as The Atlantic's Maura Kelly, say a regular reading habit sharpens the mind, improves concentration, reduces stress levels and deepens the ability to sympathize. Another study published last year in Science showed that reading novels helps people understand other's mental states and beliefs, a fundamental skill in building relationships. Yet technology has made us less attentive readers. Screens have changed our reading patterns from the straight and information.left-to-right sequence to a wild skimming and skipping pattern as we hunt for important words and information. Reading text punctuated with links leads to weaker comprehension than reading plain text. The Internet may have made us stupider, says Patrick Kingsley from The Guardian. Because of the Internet, he says, we have become very good at collecting a wide range of interesting news, but we are also gradually forgetting how to sit back, reflect, and relate all these facts to each other. Slow reading means a return to an uninterrupted,... Question: What's the best title for the passage? Options: A: Benefit of Reading Clubs. B: Return of Slow Reading. C: Reading of the Internet Age. D: Influence of Speed Reading.
B