Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Of all nature's disasters, forest fires are often considered the most frightening. Moving at lightning speed, huge walls of flames can burn acres of land in just a few minutes. And although technology, including the use of tire-retardant chemicals, has greatly helped the fight against forest fires, they still take great damage. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, the fire season last year was the worst on record in terms of the number of fires and acres burned. There were 96.385 fires and9,873429 acres affected by fire in a year that was 125% more destructive than the 10-year average . These fires cost the federal govemment $1.5 billion to fight, and this figure does not include the money spent by local and state govemments as part of the effort. Fires in the southern states represented half of the national total last year. with Texas. Oklahoma and Arkansas being home to an usually high amount of activity. Wildfire have also taken place in Western states such as California, Colorado. and Alaska throughout the past 10 years. It is said that two-thirds of forest fires are started accidentally by people. almost one quarter are purposely set, while lighting causes 10%. Forest fires can have advantageous effects. Charcoal enriches soil, and some plant species grow well after. The cones of the jack pine tree, for example, will not spread their seeds unless there is heat. Douglas fir trees grow best in open sunlight areas after fire. Question: Why did the author say the southern states was the fire home? - Most forest of the country grew in the southern states - The southern states are dry and forest can catch fire easily - Fifty percent of the national total fire happened there - More lighting took place there lighting the forest
Fifty percent of the national total fire happened there

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Many television programmes are very realistic. One who watches TV often feels that whatever happened in the film could well happen to him. With only a little imagination, every man in the street becomes a thief, a spy or a murderer. Jane had been watching a spy film at her friend's house. In it, a young girl had been followed and murdered. She felt a little frightened, walking to the station. She took a train back to the centre of the city. There were a lot of people traveling with her, so she felt much safer. A man sitting opposite her, reading a newspaper, glanced at her. She thought nothing of it until she saw him staring at her. Remember the film and feeling very uncomfortable, she got off the train and went to the bus stop. When he got on the same bus as she did, she found that he was following her. As long as she had been with other people she wasn't frightened. But when she got off the bus, the streets were almost empty. She walked as quickly as she could. She could hear footsteps following her but she didn't dare to look around. After what seemed to have been hours, she was unable to find them, because she was so frightened. The footsteps stopped behind her. She felt a hand on her shoulder. Instead of feeling hands round her neck, however, she heard a pleasant voice. "I apologize if I frightened you. I'm your new neighbour. I thought I recognized you in the train, but I wasn't sure." Question: The man put his hand on her shoulder. He meant to _ Jane. - kill - be friendly to - frighten - play a joke on
be friendly to

Q: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Hoffman,40,a former senior vice president of a financial company,had what she describes as "one of those extreme jobs." "I loved working," she says. But her career path reached a crossroad when her second child was born,and she left her job in February 2007. Hoffman is one of many people who have left the work force to take a break,but she has a position as a consultant.She has described this type of career detour ----- which is more common for women than for men--as "off- ramping." Typically it occurs when the balancing act of parenting and work becomes too tough. A study by the center found that more than 90 percent of women who off-ramp want to on-ramp back into the work force eventually.But making the transition back to work is rarely easy,and it is even harder in this economic climate of layoffs and hiring freezes. Considering some of the obstacles faced by on- rampers , a three-day program called "Greater Returns:Restarting Your Career" was held at Columbia University. The goal of the three days was to have them walk away with a big shot of confidence. According to one school of thought, women looking to make a comeback might even have an advantage in the current economy,especially if they are looking for part-time or consultant positions that do not offer benefits. And a majority of on-rampers are women with extensive working experiences that could give them a slight advantage over less-experienced competition. "You absolutely cannot be defensive about why you off-ramped," Ms Hoffman says, " defensive" would have put her into a hard situation if the Greater Returns program had had not taught her how to describe the years she spent at home."I now feel confident talking to an employer and saying,' Yes,I have been out of the work force,but here is where I can make significant contributions.'" Question: The main reason for the women's off-ramping is that _ . - they have to suffer the sexual discrimination - they have to parent their children - they reach a crossroad of career - they have great work pressure
A: they have to parent their children

(Question)
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Some of the world's most significant problems never hit headlines. One example comes from agriculture. Food riots and hunger make news, but the trend lying behind these matters is rarely talked about. This is the decline in the growth in yields of some of the world's major crops. A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal looks at where, and how far, this decline is occurring. The authors take a vast number of data pointing for the four most important crops; rice, wheat, corn and soybeans. They find that on between 24 and 39% of all harvested areas, the improvement in yields that took place before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990s and 2000s. There are two worrying features of the slowdown. One is that it has been particularly sharp in the world's most populous countries,India and China. Their ability to feed themselves has been an important source of relative stability both within the countries and on world food markets. That self-sufficiency cannot be taken for granted if yields continue to slow down or reverse. Second, yield growth has been lower in wheat and rice than in corn and soybeans. This is problematic because wheat and rice are more important as foods' accounting for around half of all calories consumed. Corn and soybeans are more important as feed grains. The authors note that we have preferentially focused our crop improvement efforts on feeding animals and cars rather than on crops that feed people and are the basis of food security in much of the world. The report qualifies the more optimistic findings of another new paper which suggests that the world will not have to dig up a lot more land for farming in order to feed 9 billion people in 2050, as the Food and Agriculture Organization has argued. Instead, it says, thanks to slowing population growth, land currently ploughed up for crops might be able to _ to forest or wilderness. This could happen. The trouble is that the forecast assumes continued improvements in yields, which may not actually happen. Question: Which crops are mentioned in the text? - Rice,corn,soybeans and wheat. - Rice,corn, wheat and peas. - Wheat,corn,soybean and potatoes. - Corn,wheat, tomatoes and soybeans.
(Answer)
Rice,corn,soybeans and wheat.