Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: "Clean your plate!" and "Be a member of the clean-plate club!" Just about every kid in the US heard this from a parent or grandparent. Often, it's accompanied by an appeal: "Just think about those starving orphans in Africa." Sure, we should be grateful for every bite of food. Unfortunately, many people in the US take too many bites. Instead of "cleaning the plate', perhaps we should save some food for tomorrow. According to news reports, US restaurants are partly to blame for the growing bellies(,). A waiter puts a plate of food in front of each customer, with two to four times the amount recommended by the government, according to a USA Today story. Americans traditionally associate (......) quantity with value and most restaurants try to give them that. They prefer to have customers complain about too much food rather than too little. Barbara Rolls, a nutrition professor at Pennsylvania State University, told USA Today that restaurant portion(,) sizes began (or grew) in the 1970s, the same time that the American waistline began to expand . Health experts have tried to get many restaurants to serve smaller portions. Now, apparently, some customers are calling for this too. The restaurant industry trade magazine QSR reported last month that 57 percent of more than 4,000 people surveyed believe restaurants serve portions that are too large; 23 percent had no opinion; 20 percent disagreed. But a closer look at the survey indicates that many Americans who can't afford fine dining still prefer large portions. Seventy percent of those earning at least $150,000 per year prefer smaller portions; but only 45 percent of those earning less than $25,000 want smaller. It's not that working-class Americans don't want to eat healthily. It's just that, "after long hours at low-paying jobs, getting less on their plate hardly seems like a good deal. They live from paycheck, happy to save a little money for next year's Christmas presents." Question: Why do American restaurants serve large portions? Options: A: Because Americans associate quantity with value. B: Because Americans have big bellies. C: Because Americans are good eaters. D: Because Americans are greedy.
A: A

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: My problems started after I went to a boarding school. I was only 14, and at first I misses my family a lot. I often called them and cried on the phone. But after two weeks, I found I enjoyed being with my classmates at school. I had many friends who were boys. I thought of them as my best friends - but only friends. I never guessed my friendships with boys would become a problem. Then, three months later, my friends told me that some teachers and girls said I was hanging out with boys all day long in order to get attention from them. Seven months after that, the head teacher Mr. Wang asked the class to choose some students to join the Student Union. I thought I could win for I was doing well in school. I'd already won prizes for the best math and English exams. A week later, the list came out and it didn't include me. I was sad. Mr. Wang came to me and said, "Don't be sad. I know you're excellent! Maybe you are a little distant from the girls in our class. They don't know much about you, so some of them didn't choose you. It doesn't matter. Do your best to get along well with everyone and I think you'll make it next time." Question: What was the writer's problem when she first entered the boarding school? Options: A: She didn't like her new school. B: She didn't get along well with her classmates. C: She missed her family very much. D: She didn't like her new teacher.
A: C

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: The professor stood before his class of 30 senior biology students, about to pass out the final exam. "I have been honored to be your teacher this term, and I know how hard you have all worked to prepare for this test. I also know most of you are off to medical school or graduate school next fall," he said to them. "I can well understand how much pressure you are under to keep your grades up, and because I know you are able to understand this material, I am prepared to offer an automatic "B" to anyone who would prefer not to take the final." In relief a number of students jumped up to thank the professor and left the class. The professor looked at the students who remained, and offered again, "Any other takers? This is your last chance." One more student decided to go. There were seven students left. The professor closed the door. Then he handed out the final exam. There were only two sentences typed on the paper: "Congratulations, you have just received an "A" in this class. Keep believing in yourself." I never had a professor who gave a test like that. It may seem like the easy way out of grading a lot of exams, but it's a test that any teacher in any subject could and should give. Students who don't have confidence in what they've learned are "B" students at best. The same is true for students of real life. The "A" students are those who believe in what they're doing because they've learned from both successes and failures. They have learned life's lessons, whether from formal education or the school of hard knocks, and become better people. Take your cue from Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to reach the top of Mount Qomolangma: "It's not the mountain we conquer , but ourselves." Don't let the biggest limit be yourself. Question: The point of the story is to advise readers _ . Options: A: to pay attention to what they can do B: not to miss any final exam at school C: not to let themselves limit their growth D: to surround themselves with confident people
A: C

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: What can help you make a fortune in the future? Graduating from a top university might not be enough. A new study from the University of Essex in Britain has shown that the more friends you have in school, the more money you'll earn later. The idea that popularity could have a serious impact on one's earning potential shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. The researchers noted that if you want to get ahead in life, social skills and networking are easily as powerful as talent and hard work. "If a person has lots of friends, it means that he or she has the ability to get along with others in all kinds of different situations," said Xu Yanchun, 17, from Nantou High School in Shenzhen, who totally agreed with the recent finding. "Also, friends always help each other. They not only create wider social circles for you but lift your mood when you occasionally feel depressed," said Xu. She believed that all this helps you "earn a higher salary". Maybe that's why some people think the younger generations are in the age of Friendalholism . A woman even complained that the networking website Facebook's 5,000-friend limit was too low for her large reserve of social contacts. But what does a friend mean? Should friends be regarded as a form of currency? "Call me uncool, but I think of a friend as an actual person with whom I have an actual history and whom I enjoy actually seeing. It seems, however, that this is no longer the definition of 'friend'," said Meghan Daum, who works with the Los Angeles Times in the US. Question: What's the main idea of the passage? Options: A: The passage mainly tells us something about the friendship. B: Friendship plays a more important part in our daily life than anything else. C: Friends are currency. D: Friends give you success.
A: D