*Question*
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: The New Year is the time to buy a new calendar . Yet it can take a lot of time just to choose the right one. There are lots and lots of choices. There are small ones. Big ones. Calendars sit on a desk. Calendars hang on the wall. Calendars are carried around. In one way all calendars are the same. They all list the same days of the year in exactly the same order. Calendars have become popular gifts because many are filled with beautiful pictures. Some have pictures of famous art works. It is like hanging a different painting on your wall each month. You can even learn from calendars. They often give information about their subject--such as famous writers or American Indians or flower gardens. There are calendars about food and about beautiful places in the world. Calendars about sports and about movies. Funny calendars with popular cartoon characters. For pet lovers, there are calendars with pictures of cats doing unusual things. Three hundred sixty-five of them--one for each day of the year. There are calendars with pictures of cars, too. There are even calendars for children who can draw the pictures themselves. Some people do not just look at their calendars. They use them to write down important things they must remember, like meetings or doctor's appointments. Busy people can buy small calendars to carry around to help them organize and plan their life. Since there are so many choices, you must spend your time choosing your favourite calendars. Question: From the passage we can know that _ . - You may see the same painting on your wall each month. - Some people do not even look at the calendars. - There aren't calendars with popular cartoon characters. - Calendars can help busy people to make a plan for the life.
**Answer**
Calendars can help busy people to make a plan for the life.

*Question*
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of visiting with Deputy Superintendent Pedro Martinez, Principal Neddy Alvarez and her staff at Western High School, located in the Clark County School District, in Las Vegas. The school undertook a comprehensive effort to completely transform the culture of the school and added a motivated group of talented teachers. Western altered the school day to add opportunities for students to get additional credits toward graduation and created smaller learning groups. As part of these comprehensive changes, the school's leadership also focused on four main reforms to transform their school. First, improvements started with the change in the relationship between the school and students to create a caring atmosphere at the school. Using the "Capturing Kids' Hearts" strategies, school leadership and teachers began building a trusting environment and students and families described seeing changes aimed at improving student outcomes and ensuring the success of every student. The school day was altered to add more options for students to obtain additional credits toward graduation. Students and teachers were grouped into "houses," so that smaller groups of teachers and counselors could create one-on-one relationships with students. Teachers and counselors said that the altered school day provides time to address student's individual concerns and develop individualized learning plans to put every student on a path to graduation. The school also made changes to encourage parents to support school and encourage real dialogues between parents and the teachers and leaders at Western. Funded in part through the United Way, the school created a family engagement center to get parents more involved in their children's education, particularly parents of English language learners. Parents like Ally Gaona and Martha Mendez told me that they had a voice and the tools to engage in their children's learning and that they recognize that the main responsibility for their children's learning must rest... Question: How many main reforms are mentioned in the passage? - Two - Three - Four - Five
**Answer**
Two

*Question*
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: The cost of raising a child has hit an all-time high, according to a new report, putting pressure on families already dealing with cuts to child benefit. Figures from the insurance company LV's annual Cost of a Child Report show that the cost of bringing a child up to the age of 21 has reached $222, 458 -- more than $4,000 higher than last year and up$82,000 on ten years ago. The company estimates that this is set to reach $350,000 by 2023 if costs continue to increase at the same rate. The report will be a further blow for hard-working families as cash-strapped parents continue to struggle with rising household bills, wage freezes and cuts to child benefit. The right to receive the payments, worth $20.30 a week for the first child and $13.40 further children, was removed earlier this month from households with one earner on a salary of more than $60,000 and reduced for families where one member is paid more than $50,000. The research published today shows costs have risen in all areas over the last decade, except for clothing, with education seeing the biggest increase. As a result, more than three-quarters of parents have been forced to make ends meet. According to LV, more than four in ten are reining in spending on luxuries such as holidays, a third are also cutting back how much they spend on essentials such as food. Education remains the biggest expense for parents. The cost of education, including uniforms, after school clubs and university costs, has shot up from $32,593 to $72,832 per child in the last ten years. Childcare costs have also rocketed, up from $39,613 in 2003 to $63,738 today. Question: According to the passage the cost of raising a child to the age of 21 ten years ago was _ . - $222,458 - $218,458 - $140,458 - $82,000
**Answer**
$140,458

*Question*
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Speaking two languages can actually help offset some effects of aging on the brain, a new study has found. Researchers tested how long it took participants to switch from one cognitive task to another, something that's known to take longer for older adults, said lead researcher, Brian Gold, a neuroscientist at the University of Kentucky. Gold's team compared task-switching speeds for younger and older adults, knowing they would find slower speeds in the older population because of previous studies. However, they found that older adults who spoke two languages were able to switch mental activities faster than those didn't . The study only looked at life-long bilinguals, defined in study as people who had spoken a second language daily since they were at least 10 years old. Gold and his team asked 30 people, either bilingual or monolingual , to have a series of tests. They found that bilingual people were not only able to switch tasks faster, they had different brain activity than their monolingual peers. Kristina called bilingualism "a beautiful natural experiment", because people grow up speaking two languages,and studies have shown that they get certain cognitive benefits from switching between languages and determining which to respond with based on what's going on around them. Gold said he grew up in Montreal, where he spoke French at school and English at home, prompting relatives to question whether his French language immersion would somehow hinder his ability to learn English. "Until very recently, learning a second language in childhood was thought of as dangerous," he said. "Actually, it's beneficial. " Question: In Gold's opinion, learning a second language in childhood is _ . - dangerous to children - not beneficial to children - dangerous but beneficial to children - not dangerous but beneficial to children
**Answer**
not dangerous but beneficial to children