The Underground Railroad wasn't underground and it wasn't a railroad. But it was real just the same. And it was one of the brightest chapters in American history. The Underground Railroad was a secret network of people who helped slaves flee to freedom before the Civil War. The slaves were black people from families who had been brought from Africa in chains. They were owned by their white masters and forced to work without pay. The first slaves arrived inprefix = st1 /Jamestown,Virginiain 1619. Two hundred years later, there were nearly four million slaves in theUnited States. Most worked in large plantations in the South. By then, slavery had been outlawed in most northern states. Many slaves were treated cruelly. Some were not. All could be bought and sold. Some slaves bought their own freedom by earning money during time off from work at the plantation. There were free black people in both the North and South during slavery days. Thousands of slaves ran away each year. Some fled to get away from harsh masters. Others wanted to enjoy liberty. The Underground Railroad was started to help them. The "station" of the Underground Railroad were homes, shops, and churches where runaway slaves were hidden and fed. The "agents" or "stationmasters" were people --- both black and white --- who hated slavery. They wanted to help slaves get free. "Conductors" on the Underground Railroad led or transported fugitives from station to station on their way to free states. They had to watch for slave catchers, who were paid to capture runaways and return them. Some conductors guided slaves all the way to Canada. The most famous conductor was Harriet Tubman. She was a strong, determined woman. Before she became a conductor, Mrs. Tubman had been a passenger on a dangerous journey on the Underground Railroad. She lived as a slave on the plantation inMaryland. One day in 1849, Mrs. Tubman heard that she was going to be sold. She decided to escape instead. Harriet... This story is mainly about _ . A) Harriet Tubman, the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad B) America's Underground Railroad System C) how people in the United Statesused a secret network to help free slaves D) why nearly 4,000,000 slaves arrived in the United States
C
"There's no point in talking with you: you don't understand me. You don't even know me." A teen spits these words at a parent, who is hurt and annoyed. How can her own child say these things? She's worked hard getting to know him, learning to read his feelings from his voice and gestures. How can her own child now say to her, "You don't know who I really am"? Nothing shakes a parent's confidence as much as the starting of a child's adolescence. The communication that has flowed easily through words, glance and touch becomes a minefield Recent discoveries that the human brain undergoes specific and dramatic development during adolescence offer new "explanations" of teen behavior, particularly of the impulsiveness of teenagers. During this development, there may be too many synapses for the brain to work efficiently, the mental capacities of decision-making, judgment and control are not mature until the age of twenty-four. An old explanation is that anger hormones account for the apparently unreasonable moodiness of teens. Though hormones do play a role in human feelings, the real task of adolescence, and the real cause of the unrest, is the uncertainty of teenagers about who they are, alongside their eagerness to establish a sense of identity. This involves self-questioning, self-discovery and self-development across a range of issues, including sex, faith, intellect and relationships. A sense of who we are is not a mere luxury; without it we feel worthless. A teen often looks upon his or her friends sa models: " I don't know who I am, but I know who he is, I'll be like him," is the underlying thought. Parents also become such mirrors: teens want that mirror to reflect back to them the vividness and clarity they themselves do not feel. Arguments with parents can often be understood in this context. While those common teenager-parent quarrels, which explode every few days, are often over small things such as homework, housework, and respect; a teenager's real focus is on a parent's recognition of his... According to the text, teenagers _ . A) can fully understand their parents' feelings B) need guidance in every aspect of their life C) may experience a huge mental change D) know themselves better than their parents do
C
Q: Soft winds blew throughout the Windy City today. We welcomed the winds, as it was another hot day in Chicago. The wind blew, bringing us some coolness and making the weather not that hot. But it was a beautiful summer day with a blue sky. Chicago is a great city for eating, and we have enjoyed tasting the different foods. Last night, we tried one of the city's most famous foods: deep-dish pizza. Chicago claims credit for the rich and cheesy thick-crust pizza, covered with a sweet tomato sauce. We topped it with olives and green peppers. We were touring the city, mainly looking for delicious local foods. Today, we enjoyed a Polish specialty at lunch: Pierogis, an Eastern European dumpling-like dish, filled with foods like potatoes, cheese, mushrooms, cabbage and meat. Polish immigrants started settling in Chicago in the 1850s, and the city has one of the largest Polish communities in the U.S. We took a break from exploring the city to talk with some of you! Ashley and Caty logged onto the Internet for an on-the-road version of TALK2US. We spoke to an English teacher in Tokyo, Japan, and a graduate student in India. Meanwhile, Adam searched for some locations around the city to shoot some video. He chose a spectacular spot: Navy Pier, Chicago's most-visited attraction. The winds from Lake Michigan keep visitors cool, and the view of the Chicago skyline never fails to impress. In fact, the view made all of us _ ! Our time in Chicago has come to an end. Tomorrow, the true journey begins, as we pass through Illinois and into Missouri via Route 66. Springfield, the home of Abe Lincoln, and St. Louis, the "gateway to the West," wait for us. What did the author and her companions mainly do in Chicago? A) They explored for foreign customs. B) They visited Polish communities. C) They studied the history of the city. D) They enjoyed famous local foods.
A: D
Q: There are two kinds of memory: short-term and long-term. Information in long-term memory can be remembered at a later time when it is needed. The information may be kept for days or weeks. However, information in short-term memory is kept for only a few seconds, usually by repeating the information over and over. The following experiment shows how short-term memory has been studied. Henning studied how students who are learning English as a second language remember vocabulary. The subjects in his experiment were 75 college students. They represented all levels of ability in English: beginning, intermediate , and native speaking students. To begin, the subjects listened to a recording of a native speaker reading a paragraph in English. Following the recording, the subjects took a 15-question test to see which words they remembered. Each question had four choices. The subjects had to circle the word they had heard in the recording, Some of the questions had four choices that sound alike. For example, weather, whether, wither, and wetter are four words that sound alike. Some of the questions had four choices that have the same meaning. Method, way, manner, and system would be four words with the same meaning. Finally the subjects took a language proficiency test. Henning found that students with a lower proficiency in English made more of their mistakes on words that sound alike; students with a higher proficiency made more of their mistakes on words that have the same meaning. Henning's results suggest that beginning students hold the sound of words in their short-term memory, and advanced students hold the meaning of words in their short-term memory. The word "subject" in the passage means _ . A) memory B) the theme of listening material C) a branch of knowledge studied D) the student experimented on
A: D