(Question)
I heard many parents complaining that their teenage children are rebelling. I wish it were so. At your age you ought to be growing away from your parents. You should be learning to stand on your own two feet. But take a good look at the present rebellion. It seems that teenagers are taking the same way of showing that they disagree with their parents. Instead of striking out boldly on their own, most of them are clutching at one another's hands for reassurance. They claim they want to dress as they please. But they all wear the same clothes. They set off in new directions in music. But somehow they all end up huddled round listening to the same record. Their reason for thinking or acting in thus-and-such a way is that the crowd is doing it. They have come out of their cocoon into a larger cocoon. It has become harder and harder for a teenager to stand up against the popularity wave and to go his or her own way. Industry has firmly carved out a teenage market. These days every teenager can learn from the advertisements what a teenager should have and be. And many of today's parents have come to award high marks for the popularity of their children. All this adds up to a great barrier for the teenager who wants to find his or her own path. But the barrier is worth climbing over. The path is worth following. You may want to listen to classical music instead of going to a party. You may want to collect rocks when everyone else is collecting records. You may have some thoughts that you don't care to share at once with your classmates. Well, go to it. Find yourself. Be yourself. Popularity will come -- with the people who respect you for who you are. That is the only kind of popularity that really counts. What does the author think of advertisements? A) Convincing. B) Instructive. C) Influential. D) Authoritative.
(Answer)
C

(Question)
The artist Grandma Moses became famous for her simple, bright, cheerful paintings of American farm life.Her full name was Anna Mary Robertson Moses.But she was known to everyone as Grandma Moses because she did not begin to paint seriously until in her seventies. Born on a farm in New York, Anna had little schooling.Her days were filled with farm chores.But she often found time to make pictures.Soon, however, she became too busy to draw or paint.At the age of 12, she went to work as a servant for a family nearby.She worked for other people for many years.Then, when she was 27, she married Thomas Moses, a farmer.And they began raising a family of their own. Anna Moses could no longer do heavy farm work with age.Then, in her seventies, she began to paint in oils.Her pictures showed things she recalled from childhood-farm scenes, ice-skating, bringing home the Christmas tree.Later, she began to display her art at county fairs.Her pictures recorded a way of life that was quickly passing away.People everywhere loved these happy scenes, and soon her paintings were shown in art galleries.Grandma Moses became famous partially on account of her age, but mainly because her approach to art was modest and simple compared to many other painters of her time.Without formal training or even knowledge of Modernism, she relied on her own simple techniques to create her landscapes and scenes.She continued to paint almost until her death, on December 13, 1961 , at the age of 101. The themes in her paintings provided the comfort of a rural life that many busy Americans treasured from their past.The threat of nuclear arms that appeared on television screens and in magazines had Americans starving for something more.Grandma Moses' art appealed to those who had lost hope for the future.Her classic paintings still appear on TV commercials, greeting cards, and magazine and book covers. The key reason for her success is _ . A) her old age B) her plain style C) her lack of training D) her modern knowledge
(Answer)
B

(Question)
Jasmine Meyers had the last laugh when the ocean swallowed her SUV Monday morning and brought it up an hour later, damaged, on the beach. Meyers was staying in Campbell River's Eagles Nest Motel during the wild storm that attacked the east coast of Vancouver Island early this week. "We woke up to my mom screaming 'Your car! Your car! Your car's about to go in the water,'"she said Wednesday. She'd parked her car in the hotel's parking lot that she described as a sort of a sea wall. The storm that swept throughout coastal areas hit extra hard in the Campbell River area. At about 8:30 am the bank below the parking lot gave way. Huge waves caught hold of the Toyota and took it into the water. Her mother took pictures while the terrible waves pulled the car out to sea. Then Meyers and her family members could only watch helplessly as the car was struck and pushed around in front of the hotel. "It floated around out there for about an hour." Then the ocean spit the car back up on the beach. Meyers said it sat there until Wednesday, when a tow truck finally recovered the destroyed car. That's the crazy part of the story. The fun part is what happened next. "I went mad," said Meyers. "I didn't cry because I knew that I had insurance, but I went mad and I didn't know what to do." Yeah, insurance: not just insurance, but replacement insurance. "Replacement insurance only ever lasts for three years,"said Meyers. "Mine ends on Nov.22 I would have been crying if it had been 10 days later." What can we learn about the motel from the passage? A) It has a large car park. B) It is not far away from the coast. C) It sells cars and insurance. D) It can stand a storm.
(Answer)
B