*Question*
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: It's no secret that doing good makes others happy - but did you know it can make you happy as well? According to a study, people participating in meaningful activities were happier and felt that their lives had more purpose than people who only engaged in pleasure-seeking behaviors. Try giving these four things to others to start your journey to a happier and healthier lifestyle. 1. Your Time With a busy life, it can be hard to find any time to give away. However, volunteering your time has great benefits, including making new friends and connections, learning new skills and even advancing your career. According to a paper about the link between health and volunteering, volunteering is connected with lower instances of depression and reduces the risk of dying by 22 percent. 2. Your Attention Most of us think we're good listeners, but according to psychologist Paul Donoghue, most people are aware that others don't listen as well as they could. In addition, they're not fully aware that they themselves aren't listening. When practicing mindfulness meditation , you focus on what you experience in the moment and let your thoughts and emotions pass through without judgment. Did you know that giving someone your undivided attention helps you also? When done well, active listening strengthens your focus-which is a major part of good meditation. 3. Your Compassion The psychological meaning of compassion is the ability to understand another person's emotional state. Compassion differs from empathy in that those who experience compassion not only put themselves in another person's shoes, but also want to reduce that person's suffering. A brain-imaging study showed that the brain's pleasure centers are equally active when we give money to the poor as when we receive money ourselves. 4. Your Money According to an experiment, those who spend money on other people are significantly happier than those who spend the same quantity of money on themselves. Whether or not you can offer other gifts, donating money helps make real... Question: Which of the four gifts matters most according to the author? Options: A: Time. B: Money. C: Attention. D: Compassion.
**Answer**
B

*Question*
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: The Fourth "21th Century Cup" National English Speaking Competition is to be held in prefix = st1 /Shanghai. Organizers: ChinaDaily andShanghaiBroadcasting Network. Co-ordinater: China University English Speaking Association (CUESA). Co-sponsors : English Speaking Union (ESU), Lotus Software (China)Co. Ltd. , Times Publishing Group of Singapore, HiltonShanghai, Pearson Education, Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press. Date: March 26 ( Friday), 2007 Place: Hilton Shanghai. Competition Format : Each student will present a prepared speech on the given topic, followed by a three -minute off - hand speech and a three - minute question and answer period with the judges. Prepared speech period: six minutes. Q & A period: three minutes. Speech topic: People and Nature: In search of harmony in a new age + your personal opinion. (Topics for the off hand speech will be given on the day of competition). Prizes: Besides books and certificates , the top two winners will be offered scholarships to travel to the annual international English -speaking competition which will be held by the English Speaking Union in London in May, 2007. The third and fourth place winners will be offered a study trip to Singapore, sponsored by the Times Publishing Group. The fifth through 10th place winners will be offered cash prizes. All the competitors will receive certificates from the English Speaking Union and book prizes provided by Pearson Education and Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press. The teachers of the top winners will also receive a one - year membership to the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language(IATEFL) Question: Which of the following is NOT mentioned about the Shanghai English Speaking Competition? _ . Options: A: Where and when it will take place. B: Its program. C: What each winner will be offered. D: The number of its competitors.
**Answer**
D

*Question*
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: The use of lotteries to allocate school places is to be reviewed by the British government because more than 20 percent of children are failing to get into their first-choice schools in parts of the country. The struggle for secondary school places has reached record levels this year, increasing anxiety for hundreds of thousands of families. A report from 43 local authorities suggests that in many areas, up to a fifth of children face disappointment. Families in London are the hardest hit. This week is admissions week, when about 570,000 families will receive notice about their child's secondary school acceptance. As the recession forces more parents to consider a state education rather than a private one for their children, more than a third of local authorities have noted rises in the number of applications for secondary school places. This year, just 62 percent of children in Richmond-upon-Thames got into their parents' first-choice school, down from 64 percent last year. The council said this was caused by an increase in applications. In another London authority, Tower Hamlet, 71.1 percent of children were admitted to their parents' first choice school. In Leeds and Warwickshire, 85 percent were successful. In Derby the figure was 81 percent, while in Wiltshire, Stockport and Lincolnshire, the figure was 89 percent. In many authorities, the figures are similar to those of last year. Exceptions include Brighton and Hove, which introduced a lottery system to allocate oversubscribed places last year. This year, it has seen a 3.5 percent increase in the number of children obtaining their first choice, bringing the total to nearly 88 percent. However, more than 5 percent of children in this area have been allocated a place at a school that was not among any of their choices. Lotteries are being used at the government's suggestion by a small number of oversubscribed schools in around twenty-five local authorities. They were meant to prevent middle-class parents from abusing the system by buying or renting... Question: Which of the following statements is true according to the passage? Options: A: The lottery system is certainly a good way to allocate school places. B: Over one in five children fail to get into their first-choice schools in parts of Britain. C: The lottery system is welcomed by parents around twenty-five local authorities. D: The number of applications for secondly school places is falling this year.
**Answer**
B