Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Last week,Bill Gates retired from full-time work at the world's biggest computer software company, Microsoft.He will remain chairman of the company he established with Paul Allen in nineteen seventy-five. Mister Gates leaves Microsoft at a time of change in the computing industry.Microsoft grew at a time when personal computers,or PCs,were replacing big mainframe computers as the main computing tools.He showed that huge profits could be made in software as PCs increasingly were found "on every desk and in every home." Early on,Microsoft understood the importance of the "network effect." That is, software is the kind of product that increases in value as more people buy and use it. Now,free Internet software threatens to replace PC-based software.Devices like "smart phones" connect people to the Internet.Google has become a 1eader in Internet Web searching and advertising.Microsoft has struggled to change with the new computer environment.Its efforts to sell music and its latest operating system,Vista,have not been big successes.And an attempt this year to buy Yahoo for over forty-seven billion dollars failed. In the last several years,Bill Gates has slowly given control of Microsoft to others.In two thousand,he gave the job of chief executive officer to Steve Ballmer, a friend of his since their years at Harvard University.Mister Ballmer has been with Microsoft since nineteen eighty.Still,it is hard to overestimate the influence of Bill Gates on computing.He developed the business model that put the Windows operating system on about ninety percent of the world's one billion PCs.Microsoft now has almost ninety thousand employees. At fifty--two years old,Bill Gates is currently the third richest man in the world.He is worth about fifty-eight billion dollars.He remains Microsoft's biggest shareholder. Mister Gates will now spend most of his time working at his charity organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.The foundation is the world's largest charity with over thirty-seven billion dollars.It... Question: Bill Gates retired from full-time work in Microsoft because - he had earned enough money - Google threatened Microsoft's leading place - PCs were out of fashion - of a reason that was not mentioned
of a reason that was not mentioned

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: I made a promise to myself on the way down to the vacation beach cottage. For two weeks I would try to be a loving husband and father. Totally loving. No ifs, ands or buts. The idea had come to me as I listened to a talk on my car radio. The speaker was quoting a Biblical passage about husbands and their wives. Then he went on to say, "Love is an act of will. A person can choose to love." To myself, I had to admit that I had been a selfish husband. Well, for two weeks that would change. And it did. On arriving at the beach cottage, I kissed Evelyn meeting me at the door and said, "That new yellow sweater looks great on you." "Oh, Tom, you noticed", she said, surprised and pleased. Maybe a little puzzled. After the long drive, I wanted to sit and read. Evelyn suggested a walk on the beach. I started to refuse, but then I thought, "Evelyn's been alone here with the kids all week and now she wants to be alone with me." We walked on the beach while the children flew their kites. So it went. Two weeks of not calling the Wall Street firm where I am a director; a visit to the shell museum though I usually hate museums. Relaxed and happy, that's how the whole vacation passed. I made a new promise to keep on remembering to choose love. There was one thing that went wrong with my experiment, however. Evelyn and I still laugh about it today. On the last night at our cottage, preparing for bed, Evelyn stared at me with the saddest expression. "What's the matter?" I asked her. "Tom," she said in a voice filled with distress, "I don't?" "What do you mean?" "Well...that checkup I had several weeks ago...our doctor...did he tell you something about me? Tom, you've been so good to me...am I dying?" It took a moment for it all to be understood. Then I burst out laughing. "No, honey," I said, wrapping her in my arms. "You're not dying; I'm just starting to live." Question: From the story we may infer that Tom drove to the beach cottage _ . - with his family - with Evelyn - alone - with his children
alone

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: I was thirteen when my father got hurt.Looking back over the years, I sometimes wonder what I could have done differently that day.Spit twice over my shoulder when I saw the single magpie , maybe.But that's the thing about superstitions .You don't know how much power they have until you break them. We lived in a dark shabby house in Bucks.Wood blocks laid over dirt on the floor.That part of England was full of cherry trees.Chalky soil. The rice had caught in the bottom of the pot that morning at breakfast and all I could smell was burned rice.Even now when I think of that day I have the taste of burned rice in my mouth. "I'm going to cut down the old cherry tree," my father announced. "You've been saying that for years," said my mother lightly touching the end of her nose.Her nose ran all year long.Her arms rested on the table, a cup of tea placed between her hands, steam rising into the air."You'll never get round to it." My stomach, balled into a tight little knot relaxed itself. "Millie's going to cry if you cut it down," said my younger brother, Simon, his eyes bright as a fox."Silly Millie, silly Millie." "Hold your noise," said my father patting Simon on the head."And put back that butter.That's a week's ration you've got on your plate." "The war's over," said Simon in a low voice."We haven't had rationing for ages." Simon was right.Even sugar had come off points.However, we still occasionally received food parcels from distant cousins in Canada. My father glared at him and then went on. "Pigs.Burt says he'll come and help me take the tree down if he can have some of the wood." "No," I said springing to my feet."You can't do it.That's my tree.Always has been.Always will be.I won't let you." Tom, took a piece of toast, watching my reaction.My older brother, he knew what the tree meant to me. "Now then, Millie," said my father softening his face."That tree's wild.It's in the way." Question: The magpie is mentioned to show that _ . - Millie got much power on seeing the bird - the bird caused father's getting hurt that day - things seemed to go wrong from the beginning - but for the bird Millie would have done differently
things seemed to go wrong from the beginning