Q: I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: When school was out, I hurried to find my sister and get out of the schoolyard before seeing anybody in my class. But Barbara and her friends had beaten us to the playground entrance and they seemed to be waiting for us. Barbara said, "So now you' re in the A class. " She sounded impressed. "What' s the A class? "I asked. Everybody made superior yet faintly envious giggling sounds. "Well, why did you think the teacher moved you to the front of the room, Dopey? Didn' t you know you were in the C class before, way in the back of the room? " Of course I hadn' t known. The Wenatchee fifth grade was bigger than my whole school which had been in North Dakota, and the idea of subdivisions within a grade had never occurred to me. The subdividing for the first marking period had been done before I came to the school, and I had never, in the six weeks I' d been there, talked to anyone long enough to find out about the A, B, and C classes. I still could not understand why that had made such a difference to Barbara and her friends. I didn' t yet know that it was shameful and dirty to be a transient laborer and ridiculous to be from North Dakota. I thought living in a tent was more fun than living in a house. I didn' t know that we were gypsies, really (how that thought would have excited me then! ), and that we were regarded with the suspicion felt by those who plant toward those who do not plant. It didn' t occur to me that we were all looked upon as one more of the untrustworthy natural phenomena, drifting here and there like mists or winds, I didn' t know that I was the only child who had camped on the Baumann' s land ever to get out of the C class. I didn' t know that school administrators and civic leaders held conferences to talk about the problem of transient laborers. I only knew that for two happy days I walked to school with Barbara and her friends, played hopscotch and jumped rope with them at class intervals, and was even invited into the house for some ginger ale--a strange drink I had... Question: The tone of this passage as a whole is _ . Options: A: impersonal B: enthusiastic C: reflective D: defensive
A: A

Q: I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: "Men get all the breaks!" the veteran teacher announced to me. A cold greeting. Her stare stabbed like an icicle . "Hello," I countered, extending my hand. "I guess we'll be teaching together this year." "I swear, all you have to do is wear pants and walk into an elementary school and they hire you! It makes me sick!" I would have responded, but she turned her back to me and stomped off down the hall. Who would have imagined that the biggest challenge I would face during my first year on the job would not be students, but fellow teachers? "You can't put that there!" Another teacher burst into my classroom. "You can't put the teacher's desk at the back of the room!" "Pardon?" "If you put your desk way back there, you won't be able to see them cheating!" Next I was told I must not arrange student desks into abutting clusters because "the students might talk too much." At home my wife kept assuring me, "You're there for the kids. When you meet your students, things will be different." And she was right. One day the bell rang and there were thirty-five wonderful sixth graders sitting at their desks (still arranged in clusters) and it was different. I was happy. "Welcome to sixth grade." I began the year as I'd rehearsed for months. "You'll notice," I continued, "my desk is at the back of the room." They chuckled. "I don't want that desk between us. I want to be involved in your learning and involved in your lives." In the days that followed, I ate with my students at lunch (" _ "); I played with my students at recess (" _ "); I read with my students in the library (" _ "); I even stayed after school with some boys who got in trouble with the principal (" _ "). I went home to my wife. "Don't worry," she said. "They're just threatened by you because you're new and you're good. Let the other teachers know you're not a threat. Just keep being nice to them." Obediently, I pulled out the Golden Rule, dusted it off, and vowed to start again. As I did with the children, I started looking for specific, positive things... Question: Why did the writer smile inside when he heard of "Mrs. Icicle Eyes" playing basketball with students? Options: A: She became interested in sports to amuse him. B: She got closer to students under his influence. C: He could not put his feelings into words. D: He discovered a secret of hers.
A: B

Q: I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: When I was at University I studied very hard. But a lot of my friends did very little work. Some did just enough to pass exams. Others didn't do quite enough. Fred Baines was one of them. He spent more time playing than working in the library. Once at the end of the term, we had to take an important test in chemistry. The test had a hundred questions. Beside each question we had to write "True" or "False". While I was studying in my room the night before the test, Fred was watching TV. Fred usually worried a lot the night before a test. But on that night he looked perfectly calm. Thenhe told me of his plan. "It's very simple. There are a hundred questions and I have to get fifty correct to pass the test. I'll just toss the coin to decide the answers. That way, I'm sure I'll get half the questions right." The next day, Fred came happily into the exam room. As he sat tossing a coin for half an hour he marked down his answers. Then he left, half an hour before the rest of us. The next day, he saw the chemistry professor in the corridor. "Oh, good," he said to the teacher, "Have you got the result of the test?" The teacher reached into his pocket and took out a coin. He threw it into the air, caught it in his hand and looked at it. "I'm terribly sorry, Fred," he said, "You failed!" Question: Fred came happily into the exam room because _ . Options: A: he had got ready for the exam B: he knew the answers already C: one excellent student would help him D: he had his special way to finish the exam
A: D