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!" Fred Baines was one of those who _ . A) did just enough to pass an exam B) didn't work hard enough for their studies C) had more important work to do than study D) were quite good at passing exams
B
Less TV Reduce Kids Weight PALO AITO, California--"Switching off the television may help prevent children from getting fatter--even if they do not change their diet or increase the amount they exercise," US researchers said last week. A study of 192 third and fourth grades, generally aged eight and nine, found that children who cut the number of hours spent watching television gained nearly two pounds (0.91 kg) less over a one-year period than those who did not change their television diet. "The findings are important because they show that weight loss can only be the result of a reduction in television viewing and not any other activity," said Thomas Robinson, a pediatrician at Stanford University. " American children spend an average of more than four hours per day watching television and videos or playing games, and rates of childhood being very fat have doubled over the past 20 years," Robinson said. In the study, presented this week to the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting in San Francisco, the researchers persuaded about 100 of the students to reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one-third. Children watching fewer hours of television showed a significantly smaller increase in waist size and had less body fat than other students who continue their normal television viewing, even though neither group ate a special diet nor took part in any extra exercise. "One explanation for the weight loss could be the children unstuck to the television may simply have been moving around and burning off calories," Robinson said. "Another reason might be due to eating fewer meals in front of the television. Some studies have suggested that eating in front of the TV encourages people to eat more," Robinson added. According to the passage, the time American children usually spend on watching TV _ . A) is more than four hours a day. B) is less than four hours a day. C) doubled in the last twenty years. D) is more than on any other activities.
A
Q: What's the meaning of "dark horse"? It's someone who wins when no one expects it. Han Xiaopeng took China's first gold on snow. He became an Olympic "dark horse" by winning the gold medal in men's freestyle aerial skiing at Turin in Italy. He made two almost perfect jumps for the highest score. Han had never won a world gold medal before, let alone in the Olympics! "I never thought this would happen," said the 23-year-old. "I feel like I'm in a dream." It's China's second gold medal at the Turin Olympics. But more important, Han's gold was the country's first ever in a snow sport. In 2002, China's Yang Yang won the gold for speed skating at the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, US. That Han's win was unexpected doesn't mean that he didn't work hard. Han grew up in Jiangsu Province. Before he started his training on snow, he used to be an acrobat at a circus. In 1995, a coach found his talent . The coach, Yang Er'qi, said Han had the agility and courage to be a ski jumper. When Yang first took the 12-year-old to northern China, the boy couldn't swim, skate or ski. But he wasn't afraid of the high platform and kept on training. Han almost left the sport after hurting his knee months before the Salt Lake Games. In that Olympics he only got 24th. "I was hopeless at that time, but my family and the coach stood firmly behind me, helping me through," he recalled. Han Xiaopeng worked so hard that he won the gold medal in the Olympics at last. Because of his success, more and more people in China are becoming interested in skiing. We are proud of him and we hope he will have another big success in the next winter Olympics. What is the best title for this passage? A) A Wonderful Match B) A Dark Horse at the Winter Olympics C) A Hopeful Snow Game D) An Exciting Skiing Race
A: B
*Question*
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. What can we learn from the passage? A) Hard work Leads to success. B) Practice makes perfect. C) Every advantage has its disadvantage. D) Nothing is impossible.
**Answer**
D