The meaning of the word "volunteer" may be a little different in different countries, but it usually means "one who offers his or her services". There are many different ways in which people can volunteer, such as taking care of sick people, working in homes for homeless children, and picking up garbage from beaches and parks. Volunteers may work within their own countries or in other countries. They are often people with a strong wish to help those who are less fortunate than themselves. Volunteers don't expect any kind of pay. At the root of volunteering is the idea that one person may have the ability to offer services that can help other people. Tracy, a good friend of mine, however, recently came back from India with a _ of what being a volunteer means. She worked for two and a half weeks in one of Mother Teresa's homes in Calcutta. The following is her story. "I first heard about Mother Teresa in my high school We watched a video about her work in India and all over the world. I was so moved by her spirit to help others and her endless love for every human being that after I graduated from high school, I wanted to try her kind of work. So with two friends I flew to Calcutta for a few weeks. " "I was asked to work in a home for sick people. I helped wash clothes and sheets, and pass out lunch. I also fed the people who were too weak to feed themselves and tried to cheer them up. I felt it was better to share with them than to think that I have helped them. To be honest, I don't think I was helping very much. It was then that I realized that I had not really come to help,but to learn about and experience another culture that helped improve my own understanding of life and the world. " What is the best title for the passage? A) How To Be a Volunteer B) Voluntary life in India C) A Different Meaning of Volunteer D) Inspiration from Mother Teresa
C
(Question)
Short and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. "Football, tennis,cricket -- anything with a round ball, I was useless." he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the object of jokes in school gym classes in England's rural Devonshire. It was a mountain bike he received for his 15th birthday that changed him. At first the teen went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to cycle along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set his mind building up his body, increasing his speed, strength and endurance. At age 18, he ran his first marathon. The following year, he met John Ridgway, who became famous in the 1960s for rowing an open boat across the Atlantic Ocean. Saunders was hired as an instructor at Ridgway's school of Adventure in Scotland, where he learned about the older man's cold-water exploits . _ , Saunders read all he could about Arctic explorers and North Pole expeditions, then decided that this would be his future. Journeys to the Pole aren't the usual holidays for British country boys, and many people dismissed his dream as fantasy. "John Ridgway was one of the few who didn't say, 'You are completely crazy,'" Saunders says. In 2001, after becoming a skilled skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition toward the North Pole. He suffered frostbite, had a closer encounter with a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit. Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he's skied more of the Arctic by himself than any other Briton. His old playmates would not believe the transformation. This October, Saunders, 27, heads south to explore from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, an 1800-mile journey that has never been completed on skis. What do we know about Saunders? A) He once worked at a school in Scotland. B) He followed Ridgway to explore the North Pole. C) He was chosen for the school sports team as a kid. D) He was the first Briton to ski alone to the North Pole.
(Answer)
A
Ques: Baths and bathing have been considered of an important medical therapy to man. In Greece there are the ruins of a bath tub and water system built over 3 000 years ago. The Romans had warm public baths. In some public baths as many 3 000 persons could bathe at the same time. Treating diseases by bathing has been popular for centuries. Modern medical bathing, or _ , first became popular in Europe and by the late 1 700's also became popular in the United States. For many years frequent bathing was believed to be bad for one's health. Ordinary bathing just to be clean was avoided, and perfume was used to cover up body and smell. By the 1 700's doctors began to say that soap and water were good for health. They believed that it was good for people to be clean. Slowly, people began to bathe more frequently. In the United States ordinary bathing was slow to become popular. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, many Americans were known as "the great unwashed". In one American city, for example, a person could only take a bath every 30 days! That was a law. Frequency of bathing today is partly a matter of habit. People know that bathing for cleanliness is important to health. Doctors know that dirty bodies increase that chance of disease. Therefore in the United States people generally bathe often. The passage is mainly about _ . A) bathing in the USA B) the good points and bad points of bathing C) the history of bathing D) the modern medical bathing
Ans: C
Ques:THIS is an excerpt from therapist Laura Trice's speech at TED in 2008: Hi. I'm here to talk to you about the importance of praise, admiration and "thank you"s, and making them specific and genuine. The way I got interested in this was, I noticed that when I was growing up, and until about a few years ago, I would want to say thank you to someone. I would want to praise them. I would want to take in their praise of me and then I'd just stop myself. I asked myself: why? I felt shy. I felt embarrassed. And then my question became: am I the only one who does this? So I decided to study that question. I'm fortunate enough to work in a rehab facility, so I get to see people who are facing life and death with addiction. Sometimes it comes down to something as simple as their core wound is how their father died without ever saying he's proud of them. But then, they hear from all the family and friends that the father told everybody else that he was proud, but he never told the son. It's because he didn't know that his son needed to hear it. I used to take my bike into the bike store and they'd do something called "truing " the wheels. The guy said: "You know, when you true the wheels, it's going to make the bike so much better." I get the same bike back, and they'd have taken all the little warps out of those same wheels I've had for two and a half years, and my bike would feel like new. So, I'm going to challenge all of you. I want you to true your wheels: be honest about the praise that you need to hear. What do you need to hear? Go home to your wife and ask her: "What do you need?" Go home to your husband and ask him what he needs. Go home and ask those questions and then help the people around you. It's simple. But why should we care about this? We talk about world peace. How can we have world peace with different cultures, different languages? I think it starts in each of our households. So, let's make things right in our own backyards. The purpose of the speech is most likely to _ . A) surprise B) persuade C) describe D) entertain

Ans:
B