Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: When a friend calls out "Wait a second, I have a trick to show you," don't you always stop and wait? Tricks are hard to resist. No one is ever too old to enjoy them or too young either. In fact, many of the most successful tricks are really quite simple. They don't require special equipments or hours of practice. For example, you tell a friend "Pick a card", then you surprise him by telling him which card he picked. Here's how it is done. Take a pack of cards and secretly look at the bottom card. Put the cards facedown on a table, and ask your friend to pick a card. Then place the card at the bottom. Has your friend picked the cards by taking part of the cards from the top and putting it at the bottom? Start turning the cards up one at a time. You can pretend to think hard about each card. Look for the bottom card at the beginning which you have remembered. The cards that come after it will be the one your friend picked. Also, a mind-reading trick is fun to do at a party. You leave the room, and while you are gone, a tea cup is placed upside down over a penny, nickel($0. 05), dime($0. 1)or quarter($0. 25). When you come back into the room, you can tell which coin the tea cup is hiding. To do this trick, you only need a helper, or partner. Before hand, you two work out some signals. If he looks up. it's a penny; if he looks right, a nickel. You see, they are all very easy. Why not have a try? Question: The author's main purpose to write this passage is _ . - to tell the readers tricks are done to fool people - to give the readers knowledge about all kinds of tricks - to tell the readers how to do some easy tricks to enjoy themselves - to say tricks are very popular
to tell the readers how to do some easy tricks to enjoy themselves
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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: When Julio Diaz stepped off the subway after work one night, he was simply planning to go to his favorite local diner for a meal. But when a teenage boy approached him with a knife, Diaz knew the evening was about to take a more dramatic turn. The young man demanded Diaz's wallet, and Diaz passed it over without objection . But just as he turned to walk away, Diaz called, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something." The young man turned around, surprised. "If you're going to rob people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep warm." The teenager looked at Diaz in disbelief, and asked why he would do such a thing. Diaz replied, "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, I guess you must really need the money."He said he was heading out for dinner, and that he would be happy to take someone with him. The young man decided to _ his offer. As they were sitting at the table, the manager, dishwashers and waiters all stopped over to say hello to Diaz, and the young man was amazed at his popularity. "Haven't you been taught that you should be nice to everybody?"Diaz asked him. "Yeah, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teenager replied. Thanks to Diaz, he was beginning to see that kindness wasn't so strange, after all. When the bill came, Diaz told the teen that he'd have to get the check. After all, he still had Diaz's wallet. But the teenager put the wallet on the table without a moment's thought, and Diaz treated him to dinner. Diaz also gave the would-be robber a $20 bill -- in exchange for his knife. "I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right," Diaz said. Question: When a teenage boy approached him with a knife, Diaz was on his way _ . - to the subway station. - to his workplace. - to have a meal. - to see a drama.
to have a meal.
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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: It is not often realized that women held a high place in southern European societies in the 10 th and 11 th centuries. As wife, the woman was protected by the setting up of a dowry or decimum. Admittedly, the purpose of this was to protect her against the risk of desertion ,but in reality its function in the social and family life of the time was much more important. The decimum was the wife's right to receive a tenth of all her husband's property. The wife had the right to withhold consent, in all transactions the husband would make, And more than just a right: the documents showed that she enjoyed a real power of decision, equal to that of her husband. In no case did the documents indicate any degree of difference in the legal status of husband and wife. The wife shared in the management of her husband's personal property, but the opposite was not always true. Women seemed perfectly prepared to defend their own inheritance(,)against husbands who tried to exceed their rights, and on occasion they showed a fine fighting spirit. A case in point is that of Maria, Vivas, a Catalan woman of Barcelona. Having agreed with her husband Miro to sell a field she had inherited, for the needs of the household, she insisted on compensation. None being offered, she succeeded in dragging her husband to the scribe to have a contract duly drawn up assigning her a piece of land from Miro's personal inheritance. The unfortunate husband was obliged to agree, as the contract says, "for the sake of peace." Either through the dowry or through being hot-tempered, the Catalan wife knew how to win herself, within the context of the family, a powerful economic position. Question: What compensation did Maria Vivas get for the field? - Some of the land Miro had inherited. - A tenth of Miro's land. - Money for household expenses. - Money from Miro's inheritance.
Some of the land Miro had inherited.
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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: The president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, is asking for foreign help to fight forest and agricultural fires in his country. According to Mr Widodo, Indonesian helicopters are only able to carry a small amount of the water needed to put out the fires. " _ " the Associated Press reported his comment. The Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space says more than 1,300 fires are burning across the country. The government has sent about 25,000 soldiers, police and firefighters in six provinces to battle the fires. Indonesian farmers and some businesses often burn rainforest to clear land at this time of year. The burning usually takes place during the country's dry season. But a large rise in palm oil production on peat lands is blamed for the many fires this year. Peat is made partly of dead plants, which burns easily and is often used as cooking fuel. The resulting thick, black smoke has polluted skies over Indonesia and four other countries. The burning has worsened air quality, closed schools and caused any outdoor activities to stop. The smoke is not only affecting people; it is affecting wildlife. In Indonesian Borneo, an animal rescue center says some of its animals have developed breathing problems. If the fires continue, a lot more could become sick and some could die. Scientists have warned that the fires this year could be worst ever because of a weather system called El Nino. They say the weather system has created extremely dry conditions in Indonesia. Question: This passage might be found in _ . - a government report - a news report - a firefighting guide - an agricultural book
a news report
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