Read the article and select the best answer. Article: D It was about midday.I'd left work early in the morning to cash a check.I walked along to the bank and found there were only about ten or eleven customers in there, a pretty unusual number for those central banks. I waited until it was my turn, walked up to the desk and started talking to the bank clerk.He had a really strange expression on his face--just sort of a blank stare.I thought he was looking at me until I realized he was staring over my shoulder. I began to turn round to see what he was looking at and at the same moment, the outside bank guard, the one with the machine gun, came flying through the door and lay face down on the floor.Following him through the door were three absolutely frightening men wearing those horrible stocking masks.They were carrying guns; at least the one in front was carrying a pistol. Whether or not they said anything I can't remember to this day, or whether people just automatically put their hands up I don't know.I put my hands up but I just didn't know what to do.For a few moments there was just total silence, suddenly broken by the telephone ringing.I remember wondering who was on the other end of the line.Nobody answered the telephone, so it just kept on ringing and ringing, in this otherwise deathly quiet. Then two of the masked men went to the counter, jumped over it and got the cashiers and bank clerks to start filling their bags with cash.While the two were getting the money, the one at the door covering us with the gun obviously got a bit of an anxiety attack and started swearing at them, telling them to hurry up and get a move on. They jumped back over the counter.One of them lost his balance when he landed on the floor and fell over.The other two swore at him again.Then they left through the door, warning us, "Don't move.Stay like that with your hands up for ten minutes." Then they just disappeared and there was total silence. Question: From the passage we can know that _ . Options: A: there were usually less customers in the midday hour B: the writer didn't follow like sheep to put his hands up C: the bank clerks were too busy to answer the telephone D: three armed men robbed the central bank in broad daylight
D

(Question)
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Nowadays people are troubled by the violence that spreads throughout the media. Movies, television and video games are full of gunplay and bloodshed, and one might reasonably ask what's wrong with a society that presents videos of violence as entertainment. Viewing large amounts of violent television and video games may well contribute to violent behavior in certain individuals. The trouble comes when researchers downplay uncertainties in their studies or overstate the case for causality . Skeptics were dismayed several years ago when a group of societies including the American Medical Association tried to end the debate by issuing a joint statement: "At this time, well over 1,000 studies... point to a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children." Freedom-of-speech advocates accused the societies of catering to politicians, and even disputed the number of studies (most were review articles and essays, they said). When Jonathan Freedman, a social psychologist at the University of Toronto, reviewed the literature, he found only 200 or so studies of television-watching and aggression. And when he weeded out "the most doubtful measures of aggression", only 28% supported a connection. The critical point here is causality. The alarmists say they have proved that violent media cause aggression. But the assumptions behind their observations need to be examined. When labeling games as violent or non-violent, should a hero eating a ghost really be counted as a violent event? And when experimenters record the time it takes game players to read "aggressive" or "non-aggressive" words from a list, can we be sure what they are actually measuring? The intention of the new Harvard Center on Media and Child Health to collect and standardize studies of media violence in order to compare their methodologies, assumptions and conclusions is an important step in the right direction. Another appropriate step would be to tone down the criticism until we know more. Several researchers write, speak... Question: The author uses the term "alarmists" to refer to those who _ . Options: A: use standardized measurements in the studies of media violence B: initiated the debate over the influence of violent media on reality C: insist on a direct link between violent media and aggressive behavior D: use appropriate methodology in examining aggressive behavior
(Answer)
C

Ques: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: If there is any single factor that makes for success in living, it is the ability to profit by defeat. Every success I know have achieved because the person was able to analyze defeat and actually profit by it in his next undertaking. Confuse defeat with failure, and you are doomed indeed to failure. For it isn't defeat that makes you fail: it is your own refusal to see in defeat the guide and encouragement to success. Defeats are nothing to be ashamed of. They are routine incidents in the life of every man who achieves success. But defeat is a dead loss unless you face it without _ , analyze it and leave why you have failed. Defeat, in other words, can help to cure its own cause. Not only does defeat prepare us for success, but nothing can arouse within us such a compelling desire to succeed. If you let a baby grasp a rod and try to pull it away, he will hold more and more tightly until his whole weight is suspended. It is the same reaction as should give you new and greater strength every time you are defeated. If you exploit the power which defeats give, you can accomplish with it far more than you are capable of. Question: It is implied in the passage that _ . Options: A: the author thinks there is only one factor which makes for success in living B: defeat necessarily leads to success C: people often confuse defeat with failure D: we must face defeat courageously
Ans: D

Ques: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: One morning, a blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said, "I am blind. Please help me." There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took out a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote something on it. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could see the new words. Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Are you the one who changed my sign this morning? May I know what you wrote?" The man said, "I only wrote the truth, I said what you said but in a different way." What he had written was, "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it." Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was a blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. It reminded you to be thankful for what you have. When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1,000 reasons to smile. Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear. Keep the faith and drop the fear. The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling. Question: It can be inferred that the boy was _ after he found out what the man had written. Options: A: moved B: amazed C: excited D: worried
Ans:
A