Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Prince Roman was a Polish nobleman, a captain in the army of Czar Nicholas of Russia. When his young wife died, the prince left the army and returned in sorrow to his native Poland. In time, love for his country and its people took the place of his lost love. He joined a Polish rising against the Russians. The rising was crushed, and Prince Roman was taken prisoner. His relatives and friends begged the military court to have mercy on him. The president of the court received these appeals kindly. He was a good Russian, but he was also a good-natured man. Russian hatred of Poles was not as fierce at that time as it became later; and the Russian felt sympathetic as soon as he saw the prince's thin, tired, sun-burnt face. The court of three officers sat in a bare room, behind a long black table. Some clerks sat at the two ends, but no one else was there when the guards brought in the prince. Those four walls shut out from Prince Roman all sights and sounds of freedom, all hopes of the future, all comforting thoughts. How much love for Poland remained in him then? How much love of life? He stood before his judges alone, having refused their permission to sit. He answered their first formal questions -- his name and so on -- clearly and politely although he felt too weary to talk. Then the president of the court seemed to suggest how the young man could best help himself. He asked questions in a way that almost put the right answers in the prisoner's mouth. "Didn't your wife's death drive you to despair? Wasn't your mind unbalanced by that sad event ?" Prince Roman was silent. "You were not fully responsible for you conduct, were you?" Prince Roman was silent. "You made a sudden blind decision to join the rising. You didn't realize that your actions were dangerous and dishonourable. Isn't that the truth of this unfortunate matter?" The judges looked at the prisoner hopefully. In silence the prince reached for a pen and some paper. He wrote, "I joined the rising because I believe it was just." He pushed the paper... Question: What does the passage tell us of Poland at the time? - Polish officers in the Russian army had to return to Poland. - Russia was at war with Poland, so the Poles were enemies. - The Russians were very cruel rulers of Poland. - It was ruled by Russia, and Poles served in the Russian army.
It was ruled by Russia, and Poles served in the Russian army.

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Have you heard of the saying, "If anything is worth doing, it is worth doing well"? The proverb is a piece of advice to make effects towards perfection in whichever job one does. It could be a small task like folding up your clothes, or a major one like organizing a business meeting in your later life. Perfection just needs paying attention to details. If it is your job to dust the furniture at home, dust it so that not a single spot of dirt shows from any direction. If your task is to make the beds, make them so that not a single crease shows on the bed-covers. There are only two ways to do a job: either sloppily, or well. If you choose the latter, you need to realize that any job that qualifies as (...)"your" work deserves your best. Perfection is an attitude that can be developed with just a little effect. It is a habit that is helpful to a person in later life. Let us prove with an example: you may be asked to turn in an essay on, for example, wildlife, for a school project. Instead of writing carelessly a few facts that you already know, you could make the project more effective by looking up a reference books, encyclopedias or websites for additional information. You could then go over the finished essay for slips and errors, and provide pictures where necessary. If you make it a habit to put in extra effort in your school homework, will it not help you to handle more difficult projects at the college or university level? As Michelangelo, the famous 16th century sculptor and painter, once put it: Trifles go to make perfection, and perfection is no trifle. Question: According to the passage, to achieve perfection is _ . - to realize the quality of the work - to pay attention to details of one's work - to do as many jobs as possible - to form the habit of doing things ahead of time
to pay attention to details of one's work

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Walt Whitman was born in eighteen nineteen in New York City. During his long life, he watched America grow from a young nation to the strongest industrial power in the world. Whitman was influenced by events around him. But his poetry speaks of the inner self. He celebrated great people like President Abraham Lincoln. He also celebrated common people. As a young man, Whitman worked as a school teacher, a printer and a newspaper reporter. He was thirty-six years old when his first book of poetry was published. He called it Leaves of Grass. It has only twelve poems. The poems are written in free verse. The lines do not follow any set form. Some lines are short and some are long. The words at the end of each line do not have a similar sound. They do not rhyme. One of America's greatest thinkers and writers immediately recognized the importance of Leaves of Grass. Ralph Waldo Emerson praised Whitman's work. _ The America's Civil War began in eighteen sixty-one. During the war, Whitman worked without pay at army hospitals. He helped care for the wounded and dying soldiers. He sat beside these men for hours. He brought them food and wrote letters for them. After the Civil War, Whitman worked for government agencies. He watched the United States try to heal itself and increase democracy. To Walt Whitman, democracy was more than a political system or idea. It was a natural form of government for free people. Whitman believed democracy was meant to honor the rights of every person and the equality of all people. In eighteen seventy-three, Walt Whitman suffered a stroke. He spent the last few years of his life in Camden, New Jersey and wrote more poems. Whitman was poor and weak during the last few years of his life. He died in eighteen ninety-two. Question: Walt Whitman expressed his feelings by _ . - singing songs - celebrating great people - writing poems - praising common people
writing poems