Question:
Read the text and answer the questions.
One sunny day, Martha went on a walk through the park. While walking, she noticed something strange. No one was outside. She was the only person at the park. "How strange, where is everyone?" she thought. Martha looked everywhere. She looked inside the restrooms, under the benches, and even at the top of the slide. She was confused. Usually, she would see her friends playing with each other. She started walking again when one of her friends popped up, surprising her. Her friend asked her, "Why are you outside?" Martha asked what she meant, and explained that she always came out to the park to play. Her friend then looked at her strangely and asked, "Didn't Stephan invite you to his party?" Martha hadn't known that Stephan was holding a party. She was sad that he hadn't invited her. She walked back home, upset.
1. Who was walking?
2. Where?
3. Was she the only person there?
4. How did she feel?
5. Whose party was it?
6. Was she invited?
7. Where did she go?
8. Feeling?
9. What was the weather?
10. Did she notice something strange?

Numbered answers:
1. Martha
2. One day
3. Yes
4. confused.
5. Stephan's
6. No
7. Home.
8. upset.
9. Sunny
10. yes

Question:
Read the text and answer the questions.
Our village carpenter ,John Hill, came one day and made a dining table for my wife. He made it just the right size to fill the space between the two windows. When I got home that evening, John was drinking a cup of tea and writing out his bill for his job. My wife said to me quietly, "That's his ninth cup of tea today." But she said in a loud voice, "It's a beautiful table, dear, isn't it?" "I'll decide about that when I see the bill." I said. John laughed and gave me his bill. It said: One dining table 10thNovember,2014 Cost of wood $17.00 Paint $1.50 Work,8 hour( $1.00 an hour) $ 8.00 Total $ 36.50 When I was looking at the bill,John said,"It's been a fine day,hasn't it? Quite sunny." "Yes," I said."I'm glad it's only the 10thof November." "Me too." said John, "You wait--it'll be a lot colder by the end of the month." "Yes, colder--and more expensive! Dining tables will be $20 more expensive on November 30th, won't they, John?" John looked hard at me for half a minute. I gave his bill back to him. "If it isn't too much trouble, John," I said,"please add it up again. You can forget the date..." I paid him $26.50 and he was happy to get it.
1. Who was the carpenter?
2. What did he drink to excess?
3. What was he there to make?
4. Did it have to fit a certain dimension?
5. Did it have to fit next to the bed?
6. Where did it have to fit between?
7. How many line items did he charge?
8. What did he think it added up to?
9. Was that the difference between that and the real total?
10. Who called the woodwork beautiful?
11. Did they all live in the same bustling city?
12. What day was the woodwork completed on?
13. When would the woodwork be more expensive according to the man's joke?
14. Did they wind up paying the wrong amount?
15. Was the woodworker unhappy with that?
16. How many drinks had he had according to the woman?
17. Was it a rainy day?

Numbered answers:
1. John Hill
2. tea
3. a table
4. yes
5. no
6. the space between the two windows
7. Three
8. $36.50
9. $10
10. the wife
11. unknown
12. November 10, 2014
13. November 30th
14. no
15. no
16. Nine
17. no

Question:
Read the text and answer the questions.
Yu Pengnian is an 88-year-old real estate Chinese businessman. He amassed a fortune of $1.3 billion dollars during his career but instead of keeping the money and living like an emperor, he decided to give it all away. All of his fortune will be spent on helping poor Chinese students get a better education.

And Yu isn't the only super-rich person in China who has this spirit of giving. Chen Guangbiao, a Jiangsu recycling tycoon, has given millions of dollars to charity and promises to give all of his money to charity when he dies.

Yu and Chen are among the many businessmen who have become prosperous during China's economic rise. An American business magazine, Forbes, estimates that there are 117 billionaires in China and hundreds of thousands of millionaires. What sets Yu and Chen apart from the rest, though, is their tremendous generosity(,) when it comes to donating money to charity.

Last week Bill Gates and Warren Buffett came to Beijing. Gates and Buffett, two of the world's richest men, are also the world's biggest philanthropists. They invited fifty of China's richest people to have dinner with them and talk about the spirit of giving. At first, only a few people accepted their invitation. It seemed some of the invited guests were afraid that Buffett and Gates were going to pressure them into giving their wealth to charity.

A lot of people are angry at the billionaires who are not willing to give away their fortunes. They _ hem for being miserly and not caring about the poor and the less fortunate. But I think this criticism is wrong. A gift, any gift, should come from the heart. Instead of criticism, these reluctant billionaires should be encouraged to follow the examples of Yu Pengnian and Chen Guangbiao. Encouragement is always a better strategy than criticism. As we say in English, "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."
1. Who came to Beijing last week?
2. How many billionaires are there in China?
3. Gates and Buffett invited fifty to do what?

Numbered answers:
1. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett
2. 117
3. to have dinner with them and talk about the spirit of giving.

Question:
Read the text and answer the questions.
CHAPTER V

THE BATTLE ON THE SEA

On the morrow Thorvald, my father, sent messengers to the head men of Agger, telling them of all that he and his House had suffered at the hands of Steinar, whereof those of their folk who had been present at the feast could bear witness. He added that if they stood by Steinar in his wickedness and treachery, thenceforward he and the men of the North would be their foes and work them mischief by land and sea.

In due course these messengers returned with the tale that the head men of Agger had met together and deposed Steinar from his lordship over them, electing another man, a nephew of Steinar's father. Also they sent a present of gold rings in atonement for the wrong which had been done to the house of Thorvald by one of their blood, and prayed that Thorvald and the northern men would bear them no ill will for that in which they were blameless.

Cheered by this answer, which halved the number of their foes, my father, Thorvald of Aar, and those Over-men of whom he was the High-lord, began to make their preparations to attack Athalbrand on his Island of Lesso. Of all these things Athalbrand learned by his spies, and later, when the warships were being prepared and manned, two messengers came from him, old men of repute, and demanded to see my father. This was the substance of his message, which was delivered in my hearing.
1. Who was the father?
2. Who had made them suffer?
3. Who did he send word with?
4. To whom?
5. Did the men he sent with word return?
6. What had Agger men done with Steinar?
7. Did someone take his place?
8. Who?
9. What did they offer as an apology?
10. What was it?
Numbered answers:
1. Thorvald of Aar
2. Steinar,
3. messengers
4. head men of Agger
5. yes
6. deposed Steinar from his lordship
7. yes
8. a nephew of Steinar's father
9. a present
10. gold rings