(Q).
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Last night I had the best gift ever. My older son was reading a detective novel while my younger son was reading fairy tales. They were each in different rooms, _ their books with no TV, music or anything else distracting their attention. I read a lot during my childhood, curling up in sofa or lying in bed. Like anyone else, I had lots of other interests, but once I discovered reading, I really enjoyed it. I read everything -- books, magazines, newspapers, even the back of food packages if there was nothing else to read at the moment. I must thank my parents for their love of reading. Longing for more information and knowledge, my parents were always reading a lot. Today's children are provided with a variety of choices. It is so easy for them to become uninterested in reading and to view it as boring, uncool and unnecessary. There are TVs with astonishing choices of programs; there are MP3 players with thousands of songs at their fingertips; there are the Internet and mobile phones. I've told my sons that reading comes with information, understanding and connection, each of which will help them at every stage in their lives now and forever. So when my sons were reading their books last night, I watched them, noticing them put a bookmark into their books. That's the most amazing gift that I have ever received. Question: What does the author think of TVs, MP3 players, the Internet and mobile phones? Options: A: They are boring, uncool and unnecessary. B: They are too expensive for a family to afford. C: They might distract children's attention. D: They might enrich children's lives and make them happy.
(A).
C

(Q).
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: In the 1950s,a family who owned a farm near Beulah,Michigan kept a bull chained to an elm .The bull paced around the tree,dragging the heavy iron chain,which led to a groove in the bark.The groove deepened over the years,though for whatever reason,it did not kill the tree. After some years,the family took their bull away.They cut the chain,leaving the loop around the tree and one link hanging down. Then one year,agricultural disaster struck Michigan in the form of Dutch Elm Disease.All of the elms lining the road leading to the farm became infected and died.Everyone thought that the old elm would be next. The farm's owners considered doing the safe thing:pulling it out and cutting it up into firewood before it died.But they simply could not bring themselves to do it.It was as if the old tree had become a family friend.So they decided to _ . Amazingly,the tree did not die.Nobody could understand why it was the only elm that was still standing in the country! Plant pathologists from Michigan State University came out to observe the tree.They observed the scar left by the iron chain,now almost completely covered by bark.The plant experts decided that it was the chain that saved the elm's life.They reasoned that the tree must have absorbed so much iron from the chain that it became immune to the fungus . It's said that what doesn't kill you will make you stronger.Or,as Ernest Hemimgway put it,"Life breaks us all,but afterwards,many of us are strongest at the broken places." Question: From the passage we can learn that the old elm was saved by _ . Options: A: the groove in the bark B: the fungus in the tree C: the iron remaining in it D: its own immune system
(A).
C

(Q).
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Humans: It's time to give up the earth or face extinction . It could be the plot of a summer blockbuster , but this prediction isn't science fiction. It's a glimpse of the future, according to famous British scientist Stephen Hawking. "I see great dangers for the human race," he said in an interview with global forum Big Think. "There have been a number of times in the past when its survival has been a question of touch-and-go." Hawking, an award-winning physicist, says humans must evacuate our home planet within the next two centuries and expand into space to survive. "I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space," he said. "It will be difficult enough to avoid disasters on our planet in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million." Hawking, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom last year, has recently voiced many concerns about the future of life on the earth. In April, he spoke about his fear of aliens in an interview for the Discovery Channel. "If aliens visited us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said. "Such advanced aliens would perhaps become wanders, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach." But Hawking says he is still hopeful for the future of humanity. "I'm an optimist," he told Big Think. "We have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space." Getting to another planet will prove a challenge, not to mention colonizing it for humanity. University of Michigan astrophysicist Katherine Freese told Big Think that "the nearest star to the earth is Proxima Centauri which is 4.2 light years away. That means, if you were travelling at the speed of light the whole time, it would take 4.2 years to get there--or about 50,000 years using current rocket science." Question: Hawking's attitude towards the future of humans is _ . Options: A: objective B: positive C: subjective D: negative
(A).
B