*Question*
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: When I first got an e-mail account ten years ago, I received communications only from family, friends, and colleagues. Now it seems that every time I check my e-mail,I have an endless series of advertisements and other _ that do not interest me at all. If we want e-mail to continue to be useful, we need specific laws that make spamming a crime. If lawmakers do not do something soon to prohibit spam, the problem will certainly get much worse. Computer programs allow spammers to send hundreds of millions of e-mails almost instantly. As more and more advertisers turn to spam to sell their products,individual e-mail boxes are often flooded with spam e-mails. Would people continue to use e-mail if they had to deal with an annoying amount of spam each time? This problem is troubling individuals and companies as well. Many spam e-mails contain computer viruses that can shut down the entire network of a company. Companies rely on e-mail for their employees to communicate with each other. Spam frequently causes failures in their local communications networks, and their employees are thus unable to communicate effectively. Such a situation results in a loss of productivity and requires companies to repeatedly repair their networks. These computer problems raise production costs of companies, which are, in the end, passed on to the consumer. For these reasons, I believe that lawmakers need to legislate against spare. Spammers should be fined, and perhaps sent to prison if they continue to disturb people. E-mail is a tool which helps people all over the world to communicate conveniently, but spam is destroying this convenience. Question: What is the purpose of the text? Options: A: To inform. B: To educate. C: To persuade. D: To instruct.
**Answer**
C

*Question*
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: I still remember --- my hands and my fingers still remember --- what used to lie in store for us on our return to school from the holidays. The trees in the school yard would be in full leaf again and the old leaves would be lying around like a muddy sea of leaves. "Get that all swept up!" the headmaster would tell us. "I want the whole place cleaned up, at once!" There was enough work there, to last over a week. Especially since the only tools with which we were provided were our hands, our fingers, our nails. "Now see that it's done properly, and be quick about it," the headmaster would say to the older pupils, "or you'll have to answer for it!" So at an order from the older boys we would all line up like peanuts about to cut and gather in crops. If the work was not going as quickly as the headmaster expected, the big boys, instead of giving us a helping hand, used to find it simpler to beat us with branches pulled from the trees. In order to avoid these blows, we used to bribe the older boys with the juicy cakes we used to bring for our midday meal. And if we happened to have any money on us, the coins changed hands at once. If we did not do this, if we were afraid of going home with an empty stomach or an empty purse, the blows were redoubled. They hit us so violently and with such evil enjoyment that even a deaf and dumb person would have realized that we were being whipped so much not to make us work harder, but rather to beat us into a state of obedience in which we would be only too glad to give up our food and money. Occasionally one of us, worn out by such calculated cruelty, would have the courage to complain to the headmaster. He would of course be very angry, but the punishment he gave the older boys was always very small --- nothing compared to what they had done to us. And the fact is that however much we complained, our situation did not improve in the slightest. Perhaps we should have let our parents know what was going on, but somehow we never dreamed of doing so; I don't know whether it... Question: When receiving complaints, the headmaster would deal with the big boys by means of _ . Options: A: slight punishment B: strict criticism C: complete indifference D: good beating
**Answer**
A

*Question*
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: A school was across the street from our home and I would often watch the kids from my window as they played basketball. One day, among the children a girl attracted me. She seemed so small as she muscled her way through the crowd of boys. Running circles around the other kids, she managed to shoot jump shots just over their heads and into the net with no one to stop her. Sometimes, I saw her play alone. She would practice dribbling and shooting over and over again until dark. One day I asked her why she practiced so much. Without hesitation, she said, "I want to go to college. The only way I can go is that I get a scholarship. If I were good enough, I would get a scholarship. I like basketball. My Daddy told me if the dream is big enough, the facts don't count." Then she smiled and ran towards the court to go on with practice. I watched her through junior high and into high school. Every week, she led her school team to victory. One day in her senior year, I saw her sitting in the grass, head cradled in her arms. I went over there and sat down beside her. The coach told her that as a player as tall as prefix = st1 /5'5"she would probably never get to play for a top ranked college team -- much less offered a scholarship -- so she should stop dreaming about college. She was heartbroken and I felt my own throat tighten as I sensed her disappointment. I asked her if she had talked to her dad about it yet. She told me that her father said those coaches were wrong. They did not understand the power of a dream. He told her that if she really wanted to play for a good college and if she truly wanted a scholarship, nothing could stop her except one thing -- her own attitude. He told her again, "If the dream is big enough, the facts don't count." The next year, as she and her team went to the Northern California Championship game, she was seen by a college recruiter , and was offered a full scholarship, to a NCAA women's basketball team. She was going to college, which she had dreamed of and worked toward for... Question: Which of the following is true about the girl according to the passage? Options: A: She sometimes played alone because she was too short. B: She played basketball so well that she could compete against some boys. C: She believed girls had to pay more than boys to succeed. D: She felt sad when her coach didn't allow her to play for a college team.
**Answer**
B

*Question*
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: Milan, the second largest city of Italy, has won an undesirable world record. Of the 54 big cities studied by the World Health Organization and the United Nations, Milan is considered to have the worst air pollution. According to these two10-year studies, the level of air pollution in Milan is twice as high as the levels in Paris and Beijing and three times those in Tokyo and London, and four times that in New York. The reason for Milan's bad pollution, to some experts, is that the city lies in a valley that holds back the poisonous gases. Though Milan has taken some measures to lower the level of pollution, the situation is still worrying. People joke to each other, "If you are traveling to Milan, be sure to bring your gas mask." In order to reduce the use of private cars, in 1979, the government in Milan began an interesting experiment: passengers in the city buses did not have to pay for their tickets. Question: Which of the following cities keeps the lowest level of air pollution? Options: A: London. B: Tokyo. C: New York. D: Paris.
**Answer**
C