(Question)
Thousands of years ago, birthdays were considered special days. On birthdays, the bad spirits were able to harm you and change your life. It was believed that the only way to solve the problem was to have your friends and family around you, so that good wishes and presents would keep the bad spirits away. Also, noisemakers were thought to be used at parties as a way of scaring away the evil spirits. The custom of lighting candles was created by people believing that the gods lived in the sky. By lighting candles and torches, they were sending a signal or prayer to the gods, so they could be answered. Blowing out the candles and making a wish were thought to be another way of sending a signal or a message. This is how the way we celebrate our birthdays came about. But different cultures celebrate in different ways. The birthday story in the Bible that we know best is about the birth of the Christ in Bethlehem(:). For nearly 2000 years since that day, the Christian world has been honoring this birth. The day many Englishmen celebrate is, of course, Christmas. There are other references to birthday parties. King Pharaoh celebrated his birthday by making a feast for his court followers. That was over 4000 years ago. The story of King Herod tells that on his birthday he made a supper for his lords, high captains and other special friends in Galilee (:). The passage is mainly about _ . A) the functions of the noises made on birthdays. B) how to scare away the bad spirits on birthdays C) how birthdays came about D) the origin of a famous day Christmas
(Answer)
C

(Question)
My 8-year-old daughter is making an experiment. She has been making her own colorful smile cards and often takes them with her everywhere. Last Sunday, I took my kid to go shopping with me. She was hoping to see John, who is an elderly man and gives out samples. We see him from time to time and he is so happy and friendly. John wasn't at the store on Sunday, so my daughter decided that it would be a good idea to _ her smile cards to the store's other employees. So she did. In the produce department, she gave a card to a young man and she hoped it would make him smile. And he smiled at her and thanked her. Then she came across an older gentleman who looked rather impatient. And she snuck a card into his cart on top of his groceries, remarking to me later that he looked at her suspiciously as if she was dumping trash in his cart. But I thought he would be happy later. When we got back from our shopping trip, she had run out of cards. She was walking by a woman with two babies in her cart. My daughter smiled at her and the young mother smiled back. My daughter came to me and said excitedly, "Mom, I just realized something. You don't need cards to make someone smile. All you need to do is make eye contact and smile into their eyes and they will smile back." What a beautiful lesson my daughter reminded me of. You are never too young or too old to experiment with kindness and smiles. At first, the writer's daughter made an experiment by _ . A) giving smile cards B) giving samples C) making eye contact D) giving groceries
(Answer)
A

(Question)
A heartless thief is believed to have crashed a fund-raiser and made off with a bag of cash meant to help a New York City firefighter pay for life-changing surgery for his 9-year-old son. But little Aidan Sullivan -- who was born with a facial defect and no right ear -- yesterday put up a brave front, with a message for the crook(thief): "I'm going to kick your butt!" "I want to look normal," said Aidan, whose father, Tim, is a firefighter in the Bronx. The third-grader has hemi facial micro soma, in which one half of the face doesn't develop correctly. Last weekend, family friend Peter Drake, a Ridgefield, Conn., firefighter, hosted a fund-raiser, collecting between $8,000 and $9,000. But when the party at a Danbury, Conn., Irish cultural center was over, the money had disappeared. "At the end of the night, all the money that was donated was put in a zippered bag," said Tim Sullivan. "A bartender gave the bag to Pete... He had it in his hands. He put it down to go do something, and when he came back, he saw that it was missing." Sullivan said his longtime friend -- who has had fund-raisers to pay for Aidan's 10 previous surgeries -- is "devastated." "Pete was so upset. He kept saying, 'I let Aidan down, I let Aidan down," Colleen Sullivan, 40, recalled. "We even went Dumpster diving, in case it was thrown out." The Sullivans plan to go ahead with the March 1 surgery led by specialists at NYU's Langone Medical Center in Manhattan. The money would have offset the $10,000 to $15,000 that insurance doesn't cover. Yesterday, Aidan said he's not a fan of hospitals and doesn't like to be away from his sister, Kaylee, 4. But he's willing to do it. "I'm excited," he said. "Finally, an ear." Where do you probably read this text from? A) A magazine. B) A newspaper. C) A book. D) An advertisement.
(Answer)
B