Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Jamie Wardley is a special kind of artist - an ice sculptor. He first trained as a sand sculptor. Later, he learned about ice sculpture. Now he does sand sculpture in the summer. And in the winter, he sculpts ice. When sculpting ice, Wardley has to work in cold temperatures. If the weather is cold enough, he can work outside. But winter in the United Kingdom is not always very cold. So often he works in a large freezer where the temperature is about -12degC. Wardley enjoys sculpting ice outside in the winter. When he sculpts in the open air, people can watch. They can be part of the creative process. Wardley makes ice sculpting sound simple. But the tools Wardley uses are sharp and dangerous. And the ice is very heavy. Each block of ice weighs 120 kilos. And some larger sculptures are made from several combined blocks of ice. Sometimes ice sculptures can be as big as buildings. In Kemi, Finland there is an ice hotel called the Snow Castle. Each year, Wardley helps build the Snow Castle. Inside the Snow Castle, the temperature is -50C. Even the dining tables are made of ice. So you have to wear winter clothes when eating and wear a hat when sleeping. "The ice hotel is built every year in January. Then it melts in April. Each year we rebuild it and create a new design," Wardley said. The Snow Castle is a large and amazing work of ice, but Wardley's smaller ice sculptures are special too. One winter, in the city of Bradford, UK, Wardley created several small sculptures. He used the sculptures to tell a story which contained an important message about good will and understanding. Ice sculptures are temporary works of art. When the temperature rises, they will melt. But that does not mean that their beauty is lost. The sculptures from that day in Bradford have now melted away, but their message of good will, understanding, and acceptance remains. Question: What does the author think of ice sculptures? Options: A: They never melt in people's hearts. B: It takes time to understand them. C: Their beauty doesn't last forever. D: They add more beauty to Bradford.
A: A

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Most British telephone cards are just plain green, but card collecting is becoming a popular hobby in Britain and collectors even have their own magazine, International Telephone Cards. One reason for their interest is that cards from around the world come in a wide variety of different and often very attractive designs. There are 100, 000 different cards in Japan alone, and there you can put your own design onto a blank card simply by using a photograph or a business card. The first telephone cards, produced in 1976, were Italian. Five years later the first British card appeared, and now you can buy cards in more than a hundred countries. People usually start collecting cards because they are attractive, small and light , and they do not need much space. It is also a cheap hobby for beginners, although for some people it becomes a serious business. In Paris, for example, there is a market where you can buy only telephone cards, and some French cards cost up to 4, 000 pounds. The first Japanese card has a value of about 28, 000 pounds. Most people only see cards with prices like these in their collectors magazine. Question: The main reason for most people to collect phone cards is that _ . Options: A: they find the cards beautiful and easy to keep B: they like to have something from different countries C: they want to make money with cards D: they think the cards are convenient to use
A: A

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Erik wants to climb Mount Everest. He loves to climb, and there is no place greater for climbers than the top of 29,035 feet, the world's highest mountain. Erik is blind. He has been blind since age 13, when an eye disease robbed him of his sight. His new book, Touch the Top of the World: A blind Man's Journey to Climb Farther than the Eye Can See, describes his blindness and climbing. He is the first blind man to attempt Everest. The team reached the base camp at 17,800 feet last Wednesday and began its climb Saturday. If all goes well, Erik will reach the top on about May 15. "I'm not just some broken blind guy," Erik, aged 32,said for hours before he left Los Angeles on Friday for Katmandu, Nepal. "1 put my life in my fellow climbers'hands, and they put their lives in my hands. It's an honor to reach that state. " "I want to experience the sense of adventure. Blindness has nothing to do with that. But a message of the climb is that a blind person can join a team and climb the highest mountain in the world. " Erik has climbed the highest tops on four continents: North America's Mount McKmley, South America's Aconcagua, Africa's Kilimanjaro and Antarctica's Vinson Massif. He is an expert rock and ice climber, having scaled El Captain in Yosemite National Park. When he was 16, he attended a school that taught blind people to be independent. One day, a group went rock-climbing. "1 really liked it," Erik said, "You can solve problems. It is sense in your inner mind. People didn't think blind people could go out and become expert rock climbers. Question: The distance between the top of Mount Everest and the base camp was probably _ . Options: A: 8,458 feet B: 11,235 feet C: 17,800 feet D: 29,035 feet
A: B

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Paul was a good athlete when he was a middle school student. He liked running and jumping and won some medals at the sports meetings. So he was tall and strong. Suddenly war broke out and the young man joined the army. He was sent to the front and killed several enemy soldiers. Two years later he raturned to his home town and found a job at the police station. People had known about his bravery by then and they all liked the polite young man. One day a few young men had drunk too much before they came in a cinema. They danced and sang there and the film couldn't be shown. Paul was ill that day and went to the hospital. When he was passing there, the young men were beating an old man. He went to stop them and they began to fight. He caught them all and sent them to the police station. Since then all the bad men in the town were afraid of the brave policeman. It was a summer evening. The weather was hot and few people could stay indoors. Paul was on duty and sat by the telephone. Suddenly in rushed a beautiful girl with a book in her hand. She stood there, shaking in her shoes. "What's the matter, madam? "asked Paul. "I wish you could protect me sir, "answered the girl. "Protect? "Paul said in surprise. "For what? " The girl showed the book to Paul. The young man understood at once: it was a book about Ghosts ! Question: Paul sent the young men to the police station because _ . [ ] Options: A: they made some trouble at the cinema B: they drank much in the restaurant C: they wouldn't see the filin D: they wanted to fight with him
A: A