For many years, I had a belief that my suffering was due to my size. I believed that when the weight disappeared, it would take old wounds, hurts, and rejections with it. Many weight-conscious people also mistakenly believe that changing our bodies will fix _ . Perhaps our worst mistake is believing that being thin equals being loved,being special, and being cherished. We fantasize about what it will be like when we reach the long-awaited goal. We work very hard to realize this dream. Then, at last, we find ourselves there. But we often gain back what we have lost. Even so, we continue to believe that next time it will be different. Next time, we will keep it off. Next time, being thin will finally fulfill its promise of everlasting happiness, self-worth, and, of course, love. It took me a long while to realize that there was something more for me to learn about beauty. Beauty standards vary with culture. In Samoa a woman is not considered attractive unless she weighs more than 200 pounds. More importantly, if it's happiness that we want, why not put our energy there rather than on the size of our body? Why not look inside? Many of us strive hard to change our body, but in vain. We have to find a way to live comfortably inside our body and make friends with and cherish ourselves. When we change our attitudes toward ourselves, the whole world changes. What can be inferred about the author? A) The author is a Samoan. B) The author succeeded in losing weight. C) The author has been troubled by her/ his weight. D) The author probably got wounded in wars or accidents.
C
(Question)
Leonardo da Vinci's mother may have been a Chinese slave according to a new research by an Italian historian and novelist-Angelo Paratico, who has spent the last 20 years living and working in Hong Kong,researching the links between his homeland and China over the past half century. Mr. Paratico said the documents he has uncovered during two years of research form the basis of his latest book Leonardo Da Vinci, a Chinese scholar lost in Renaissance Italy. The book, which is due to be published next year, uncovers evidence that there's a link between Da Vinci and the Far Fast. Speaking to the South China Morning http://w|ww?.wln%100.com @Post, Mr. Paratico said, "I am sure that Leonardo's mother was from the East, but to make her a Chinese, we need to use a deductive method . One wealthy client of Leonardo's father had a slave called Caterina. After Leonardo's date of birth, she disappeared from the documents. She was no longer working there." It is believed that his mother was called Caterina, who, according to some reports, was a local peasant. But Mr. Paratico's new work claims it is most likely that Da Vinci's mother was a slave. Supporting his theory, he said, "During the Renaissance, countries like Italy and Spain were full of slaves from the East." He claimed that there were certain aspects of Da Vinci's life and works which suggest a Chinese link. For instance, he was writing with his left hand from left to right and he was also a vegetarian, which was not common. Mona Lisa is probably a portrait of his mother, as Sigmund Freud said in 1910. On the back of Mona Lisa, there is a Chinese landscape and even her face looks Chinese. Mr. Paratico said he believes the only way to solve the mystery is to dig out some of Da Vinci's relations in Florence and extract some DNA. We can infer from the passage that Da Vinci's mother _ . A) was a slave of Leonardo's father B) quit working after her marriage C) may be the model of Mona Lisa D) was buried in Florence after death
(Answer)
C
Ques: In 1841, a book was published which astonished the world. It was called"Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan". The author John Loud Stephens had just returned from a long, difficult and dangerous journey through the thick rain forest of southern prefix = st1 /MexicoandGuatemala. He had once been there with Frederick Catherwood, an architect and artist, to search for the remains of a lost civilization known as the Mayas .Very little was known about the Mayas at that time, but Catherwood's drawing in the book showed incredible cities with temples, pyramids and other buildings as impressive as those of their northern neighbors, the Aztecs. These cities, however, were deserted. The inhabitants had disappeared almost a thousand years before. Since that time, far more has been learned about this remarkable civilization. The Mayas had a highly developed system of government and of agriculture, as well as an incredibly accurate system of measuring time. They were also wonderful engineers capable of moving huge blocks stone long distances and cutting them to accurate shapes and sizes. And yet although the Mayas knew about the wheel, they never used it. Neither did they use metals other than copper. What is ever more surprising is that they suddenly abandoned many of their cities and built new ones in the jungle. Some time around AD900, Mayan civilization collapsed. By the year 1200, their last great capital,Chichen Itza, was deserted. Who were these strange people and the even stranger gods they worshipped ? What brought about their sudden and mysterious collapse? Some writers have tried to prove that the Mayas had contact with visitors from space and even that they themselves came from another planet. Some people believe that their civilization came to an end because the Mayas never developed a proper resistance to local germs and diseases. All we really know is that when the first Europeans appeared off their coast in 1517, this great and mysterious culture was only a memory. One of the most surprising findings about Mayas was that_. A) they developed accurate system measuring time B) they knew how to build pyramids with stones C) they deserted their cities and moved to new ones D) they built cities which they never lived in
Ans: C
Ques:For 40 years, people in London have been happy to see parakeets in their parks. The shocking green body and long tail have brought a bright color to the parks, which have attracted a lot of people. However, the parakeets are no longer welcome. They will push out local birds from trees to build their own nests, and will also take most of the food in the parks, such as seeds, fruit and nuts. Sometimes by accident, plants and animals are carried to new places. They are transported by trains, ships or even planes. Often, animals like fishes get transported in the water containers of ships. When these ships reach new places and pump out the water from their tanks, these animals will start a new life in a new place. Sometimes people take plants and animals from one part of the world to the other to solve a problem. But it will create a bigger problem. Years ago, the farmers of northern Australia brought the toads from South America to their farms. They thought they would kill the beetles that harm the sugarcane crops. But the toad has done much more. It is now killing Australia's native animals, such as snakes, water birds and so on. How do the parakeets affect the local birds? A) They sometimes kill the local birds. B) They destroy trees which the local birds live in. C) They take the local birds' nests and food. D) They have attracted much of people's attention.

Ans:
C