Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Paris has the Eiffel Tower; New York has the Statue of Liberty; and prefix = st1 /Brussels, the Manneken Piss. Think of the Belgian capital and, if anything, you think of the small peeing boy _ a 60-meter-high bronze figure standing on a block, supplying a constant stream of water to the basin under him. Some might laugh. But for Jacques Stroobants, the statue is up there with the best of them. "I'm proud of him. People come from all around the world to see him," says 60-year-old Stroobants with a fatherly glance at the little boy. As the most famous landmark of Brussels, Manneken Piss has a very special place in the heart of Belgians. The original Manneken Piss dates back to 1388, but the statue tourists see today dates from 1619 when the city built a second one after the original was destroyed. Many stories go round Manneken Piss. Nobody knows why he was made. One story is that he saved Brusselsby putting out the flames of a deadly fire with his well-aimed piss. But the most believable story is that the boy, the son of a wealthy man, was kidnapped. The father had a statue built in honor of the way his son was found-peeing against a tree. Perhaps best-known for his naked beauty, the "peeing boy" has also been clothed in some of the finest clothes money can buy. Stroobants has been changing his clothes for the last 29 years. On average, he has clothes on 300 days a year. And on special days, he pees beer. A few of the ways he's been dressed are; a football player, Mozart and an army general. Now, he has more than 600 pieces of clothes. There is no strict charge for those wishing to provide clothes for the little boy. But certain conditions must be met. "The clothes cannot include either advertising or political message," said Stroobants, because they would cheapen the national treasure. But Manneken Piss is still something local people can make money from _ by selling all kinds of souvenirs. Question: Which of the following is not true according to the passage? Options: A: Tourists cannot provide clothes for the peeing boy. B: The Manneken Piss has attracted many visitors. C: The peeing boy is the national treasure of Belgium. D: Local people make money by selling souvenirs.
A

Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Today's word, pan, takes us back to the days of the gold rush in California. On January 24th, 1848, a man named James Wilson Marshall discovered gold in California. The news spread quickly. Thousands rushed west. They traveled on foot, on horseback and by boat to reach the gold fields. By 1849, the great gold rush was on. Towns and cities grew overnight. Throughout California --- in the mountains, along the streams and rivers --- thousands of people searched for gold. Some found areas of mountain rock thick with gold. These men got rich. But such areas were few and quickly claimed by the first men to find them. Others searched for gold in the rivers coming down the mountains. They were after pieces of gold that the rains had washed down from above . The only way to find this gold was by panning. First a gold miner put dirt in a metal pan and added water. Then he shook the pan so that the water would wash the dirt. Slowly, he poured the water out of the pan. If he was a lucky miner, pieces of gold would remain. Across the nation, newspapers carried stories of the gold being found. Each one hoped that the place he claimed panned out well --- had some gold. For many, gold mining did not pan out. For a few, it panned out well. But in time, huge machines were built that could wash many tons of dirt at a time. Panning died out. The word, however, remained in the language. Today, Americans still say, " It panned out well ," when something they have done pleases them. A business, a discovery, a simple event pans out well if it is successful. Unhappily, sometimes things do not pan out. In recent years, the word pan has taken on another meaning. Today, it also means to criticize. How it got this meaning is hard to discover. But the job of a critic is to sometimes pan the work of a writer, artist or singer. Question: Why did so many people flood to California in 1848? Options: A: Because towns and cities there developed quickly. B: Because the mountains in California were a great place for travel. C: Because they wanted to get rich by looking for gold. D: Because the land of California was fertile at that time.
C

Read the article and select the best answer. Article: London will stage its biggest political funeral in almost half a century on Wednesday when Britain's governing elite join the Queen and global leaders to bid farewell to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, better known as the " Iron Lady". In an event comparable to that of Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965, Thatcher's coffin will be carried on a horse-drawn gun carriage through streets lined with admirers from parliament to the city's most famous cathedral. The bells of London's symbolic Big Ben clock tower will fall silent for the first time since Churchill's funeral and more than 700 men and women from Britain's armed forces will honor a woman who led them to victory in the 1982 Falklands War as foreign politicians from around 170 nations look on. Surveys have shown that many are unhappy that the estimated l0-million($15 million)pound bill for the funeral is being picked up by the taxpayer, while some left-wing lawmakers say the luxurious funeral is too expensive. But her admirers, of whom there are many in her party and in southern England, argue that her historical profile deserves such a funeral. She was the country's first and only woman premier, was Britain's longest-serving prime minister of the 20th century, and won three general elections. More than 2,300 mourners will attend including 11 serving prime ministers from around the world, the British government's entire cabinet, two heads of state and 17 foreign ministers. But there will be notable absences. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is too ill to attend and Nancy Reagan, the widow of Thatcher's great U*S. ally Ronald Reagan, is also unable to come. Thatcher struck up a close relationship with Reagan during the Cold War, backed the first President George Bush during the 1991 Gulf War, and was among the first to discover that Gorbachev was a man she could "do business with. " Covered in the red, white and blue British flag, Thatcher's coffin lay overnight in a 13th-century church in Britain's parliament, a forum she dominated for years. Question: Which of the following might serve as the best title of the passage? Options: A: The legend of Thatcher, the "Iron Lady". B: Why Big Ben falls silent for the first time? C: Who will pay for such a luxurious funeral? D: London will witness its biggest political funeral.
D