*Question*
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: In 1961 Obama was born in Hawaii, US. His father was an African and his mother was a white American. He grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii. When Obama was 10 years old, he was one of the only three black students at his school in Hawaii. He felt very different from most other students. White girls wanted to touch his hair. A white boy even asked him what his father was. "I lied to them that my father was a Kenyan prince. But I kept asking myself who I am," said Obama. However, 37 years later, the boy made history. Obama became the first black president in US history. Obama's unusual background made him wonder who he was. He once turned to alcohol to help forget this question. With the help of his friends, Obama finally turned his life around at college. His hard work made him a star at Harvard. Later, he became the third black senator in US history. "Obama's success has made Martin Luther King's dream come true. That is: A man should not be judged by the colour of his skin, but by the content of his character," wrote ABC news. Question: From the passage we can learn that _ . - Obama's father is a Kenyan prince. - Obama was a star in Harvard because he drank a lot - We should judge a person by what he did when he was young - Obama's success owes to his hard work
**Answer**
Obama's success owes to his hard work

*Question*
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Everyone needs safe drinking water, but about 1.1 billion people have no access to clean water. Most of the world's water is salty ocean water or frozen polar ice. By 2050, the world's population could grow from 6.7 billion to more than 9 billion. All of those people will need water to drink. But the bad news is that some areas of the world are growing drier because of climate change. The total area of the Earth's surface classified as very dry has doubled since the 1970s. Sadly, the precious resource is still misused in industry, in farming and at homes. Therefore, the world is facing a crisis over water. "You do the math, and it gets a little scary," says Stuart Minchin, a water expert in Australia. "We're waking up," he says. "But not fast enough." In southern Australia, farmers have been hit hard. They can't irrigate their fields well enough. The Australian government has launched a $1.3 billion project to improve Australia's irrigation system to stop the crop production dropping further. Australians have serious water worries, but it could be worse. They don't have to fear that when they turn on the tap, nothing will come out. That's the case in India. Many people in New Delhi, the capital, go without clean water for days. City leaders have taken stricter measures to save water. Users pay a very high but affordable price for it. Homeowners who waste water are given large fines. There are 1.9 million people who live in Las Vegas, Nevada. Now it has grown by more than 300,000 people since 2002. But it uses less water today than it did seven years ago. Question: What do people in Las Vegas think of the water-saving measures in their city? - They have reduced the water usage. - They are strongly against the measures. - They feel they can't afford the high price. - They doubt the effects of the measures.
**Answer**
They have reduced the water usage.

*Question*
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Unconventional in every way, Edward Estlin Cummings made striking use of grammar. His arts were poetry, painting, and drama, and in all of them he was an experimenter. The poetry -- for which he is best remembered -- was marked by strange combinations of words and expressions and produced in very strange print. The unusual techniques that Cummings used served to present his ideas more forcefully and effectively than would have been the case with more ordinary styles. Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Oct. 14, 1894. He graduated from Harvard College in 1915 and received a master's degree in 1916. During World War I he served as an ambulance driver in France. He spent six months in prison because of his friendship with another American who had supposedly criticized the countries that fought against Germany in the First World War. This experience increased his distrust of all officialdom , a distrust that showed itself in many of his later poems as well as in his first book, "The Enormous Room", published in 1922. Between the two world wars Cummings divided his time between Paris and New York City. His first book of poetry was "Tulips and Chimneys" (1923). The poems in the book were collected in "Complete Poems" (1968). The strangeness of his style was criticized by some, but others found it meaningful. Among Cummings' plays were "Him", first performed in 1927, and "Tom" (1935), a work based on "Uncle Tom's Cabin". An experimental prose book, "Eimi" (1933), recorded a 36-day visit to the Soviet Union. Cummings died at his home in North Conway, N.H., on Sept. 3, 1962. He was the second most widely read poet in the United States, after Robert Frost. He was buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. Question: What do we know about Cummings from the text? - His poems were seldom read in the United States. - He wrote three plays during his life. - He published his first book of poetry in 1922. - His writing style was unique.
**Answer**
His writing style was unique.

*Question*
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Many years ago, Norman Cousins was seriously ill. He was given six months to live. His chance for recovery was 1 in 500. He could see the worry, depression and anger in his life contributed to his disease. He wondered, "If illness can be caused by negativity , can health be created by positivity ?" He decided to make an experiment of himself. Laughing was one of the most positive activities he knew. He watched all the funny movies he could find. He read funny stories. He asked his friends to call him whenever they said, heard or did something interesting. His pain was so great that he could not sleep. Laughing for 10 solid minutes, he found, relieved the pain for several hours so he could sleep. He fully recovered from his illness and lived another 20 happy and healthy years. Laughing is necessary to our health. If we're not well, laughing helps us get well; if we are well, laughing helps us stay that way. So, if you like laughing, do it as often as you can. Use whatever makes you laugh--movies, books, jokes or friends. The people around you may think you're strange, but sooner or later they'll join in even if they don't know what you're laughing about. Question: The text mainly tells us _ . - how to be happy - laughing is good for our health - about Cousins' miserable life - funny stories make our life different
**Answer**
laughing is good for our health