Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mum, you must come and see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Lake Arrowhead. "I will go next Tuesday," I promised, a little unwillingly, on her third call. The next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, "Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! Theroad is invisible in the cloud and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and thesechildren that I want to see!" My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this weather all the time, Mum. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience." After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand-lettered sign that read "Daffodil Garden"?We got out of the car and each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, we turned a comer of the path, and I looked up amazed. Before me lay the most beautiful sight. Flows of flowers of different colors seemed poured down the peak and slopes. There were five acres of flowers! A seas of daffodil! It was like a fairyland all beyond description. "But who has done this?" I asked Carolyn. "It's just one woman," Carolyn answered. That's her home, "Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house. On the patio , we saw a poster." Answers to the Questions I KnowYou Are Asking" was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs " it read. The second answer was, "One at a time,by one woman." The third answer was, "Began in 1958." I thought of this woman whom I Had never met, who, more than fifty years before, had begun-one bulb at a time-to bring the beauty and joy to the mountain top. Just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world where she lived and created something of... Question: The writer wasn't going to see the daffodils at first because _ . Options: A: she cared more about the children B: they were on a remote mountain top C: the weather was not good enough D: it was not easy for her to drive there
D

Read the article and select the best answer. Article: The English test will be removed from China's college entrance exam by 2020, according to the Ministry of Education. The national college entrance exam, known as the "Gaokao" has been used to evaluate Chinese students for three decades. The Ministry of Education has worked out a plan for reforming exams and enrollment. Tests will be held several times a year to allow students to choose when and how often they sit the exam so as to reduce study pressure and change China's once-in-a-lifetime exam system. The decision has aroused a heated discussion among Shanghai educators and parents who doubted the reform would reduce the burden of learning English or if the substitute test could reflect a student's English skills and help students learn English better. Cai Jigang, a professor from Fudan University said, "The reform shows China is to give students more test-taking chances. But more chances might become more of a burden since Chinese students are likely to repeat the test until they get the highest score." "In my opinion, the reform doesn't mean English is no longer important for Chinese students after it will be excluded from the unified college entrance exam," said Yu Lizhong, chancellor of New York University Shanghai, "In a way, English is even more important than before since the test would only serve as reference, while every college and university, even every major, canhave different requirements of a student's English skills under a diverse evaluation system." Yu said some students will have their study pressure reduced if the major they choose doesn't need excellent English while others still need to study hard if they want to be among the best students. The education ministry said the reform would not affect students attending the college entrance exam over the next three years. But parents with younger children are concerned. Zhang Hui, the mother of a fourth-grade girl at Pudong Zhuyuan Primary School, said English was her daughter's strength, so canceling the English test would not favor her child. Question: What's the purpose of writing the passage? Options: A: To advise students not to devote themselves to learning English. B: To call on Education Department to remove English from "Gaokao". C: To support Education Department's act of removing English from "Gaokao" D: To report people's opinions on English being removed from "Gaokao"
D

Read the article and select the best answer. Article: My eighth grade consisted of 28 classmates. We knew each other so well that most of us could distinguish each other's handwriting at a glance. Although we grew up together, we still had class outcasts.From second grade on, a small group started harassing two or three of the others.I was one of those two or three, though I didn't know why.In most cases when children get picked on, they aren't good at sports or they read too much or they wear the wrong clothes or they are of a different race.But in my class, we all read too much and didn't know how to play sports.We had also been brought up to carefully respect each other's race.This is what was so strange about my situation.Usually, people are made outcasts because they are in some way different from the larger group.But in my class, large differences did not exist.It was as if the outcasts were invented by the group out of a need for them. The harassment came in the form of laughter when I talked, and rolled eyes when I turned around.If I was out on the playground and approached a group of people, they often fell silent.Sometimes, someone would not see me coming and I would catch the tail end of a joke at my expense. There was another girl in our class who was perhaps even more rejected than I.She provided the group with a lot of material for jokes.One day one popular girl came up to me to show me something she said I wouldn't want to miss.We walked to a comer of the playground.Three or four girls there were reading aloud from a small book, which I was told was the girl's diary. I sat down and, laughing till my sides hurt, heard my voice finally mixed with the others.Often being accepted by others is more satisfying than being accepted by oneself, even though the satisfaction does not last.Looking back, I wonder how I could have participated in making fun of this girl when I knew perfectly well how it felt.If I were in that situation today I would react differently, but I can't honestly be sure. Question: The author was made an outcast because _ . Options: A: she couldn't play sports as well as others B: her classmates needed to find an outcast her C: her classmates found her clothes funny D: family belonged to a minority group
B