In the age of reality television,success isn't the only way to the public eye. Failure can also create fame,just like William Hung,21,a native of Hong Kong. Hung recently has made an agreement with USbased entertainment firms Koch Records and Fuse Music Network. They'll publish a record,titled TheTrueIdolon April 6. The idol is a civil engineering student at the University of California at Berkeley. He did a version of Ricky Martin's SheBangson the television showAmericanIdol3,on January 27.The Fox TV singing contest searches for pop stars among ordinary people. In the case of Hung,however,his act was so bad that the judges cut him off in midact. Hung's response?"I already did my best,so I have no regrets at all." That's good,because any common person would have found plenty to regret:the offkey singing,the blue Hawaiian shirt worn with pants pulled up too high,the terrible dancing and the hips jerking to a beat that did not belong to the song,maybe not even to this planet. It was,by all accounts,bad. However,it was this very bad act that sold well. Mare Juris,president of Fuse,explained it this way:"Every one of us is happily guilty of singing our favorite song at the top of our lungs with complete freedom,completely offkey and completely unworried. That's what William did and immediately won the hearts of America." Whatever _ is,for the moment it's big.Three websites devoted to Hung have gone up on the Internet in the past few weeks. Versions of his performance have been remixed with hip hop and technomusic and have made it to the top 10 request list at a Chicago radio station. So,what does Hung think of this? "There were all these people saying things about me. A lot were saying I was very courageous and that I was great on the show,but some didn't have much respect for me and some were kind of mean." Now he says he's not so sure whether to distance himself from the glamour or to accept it.Returning to normal hasn't been easy. What is the main idea of this passage? A) How an unsuccessful person became famous. B) Success sometimes does not require hard work. C) Something an idol behaves quite foolishly. D) Hung's performance attracted the public eye.
D
(Question)
The business executive was deep in debt and could see no way out. Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy . Suddenly an old man appeared before him. "I can see that something is troubling you." he said. After listening to the executive, the old man said: "I believe I can help you." He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and pushed it into his hand saying: "Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time." Then he turned and disappeared as quickly as he had come. The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world! "I can settle all my debts in a moment!" he realized. But instead, the executive decided to put the uncashed check in his safe, just knowing it would give him the strength to work out a way to save his business. With renewed optimism, he made better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big deals. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again. Exactly one year later, he returned to the park with the uncashed check. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man. "I'm so glad I caught him!" she cried. "I hope he hasn't been bothering you. He's always escaping from the rest home and telling people he's John D. Rockefeller." And she led the old man away by the arm. The executive didn't cash the check because _ . A) He was afraid that the bank didn't have so much money. B) The check gave him a lot of strength and encouragement. C) He was uncertain if he could ever pay back the money. D) Rockefeller at all.
(Answer)
B
Ques: Ram-raiders armed with hammers smashed their way into an exclusive jewellery store in central Sydney. The thieves used a white four-wheel drive (4WD) to smash through the back window of the Mondial Neuman store in the historic Queen Victoria Building just before 9 a.m. on January 19. Detective Sergeant Paul Dunstan said three or four people were believed to have been in the 4WD. He said two or three people armed with what were thought to be hammers entered the shop through the smashed window, which fronts York St, before taking jewellery and driving away in a red Audi car. It's too early to say how much was taken, police said, but luckily, none of the store's workers was injured in the attack. A woman was working next door to the jewellery store. She saw the drama unfold and called the police. "I was just going to go upstairs when I saw the car stop," she said, "It mounted the kerb and at first Ijust thought it was a bad driver. Then I saw a person who was masked jump out of the back seat and move a cafe table out of the way.The truck just rammed into the window." She said the man then went back to the car and got a bag out of the back seat before going into the store. "I was shaking. I was scared they would see me. I heard screaming from the next door," she said, "you know, this is the second time in several months the store has been robbed." A police spokesman said detectives were still talking to witnesses and the owners of the store. From the passage we learn the robbers _ . A) used hammers to fight the police B) used a red car to get into the jewellery store C) robbed the same shop for the second time in a year D) went into the store through the broken window
Ans: D
A lot of grown-ups worry that spending too much time playing video games isn't good for a kid's health. Now some doctors have noticed that kids who bring their hand-held game players to the hospital seem less worried about being there. These patients also seem to experience less pain when they are concentrating on a superhero adventure or a car race. At the Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Maryland, young patients are finding hospital visits easier to deal with, thanks to a test program called the Hospital-based On-line Pediatric Environment (HOPE). Patients in HOPE have a life-threatening condition where their kidneys no longer filter wastes from their blood. To get their blood cleaned, these kids must be hooked up to dialysis machines at the hospital three times a week, for at least three hours each time. HOPE allows kids to play online sports, racing, and adventure games with each other. Eventually they will be able to connect with kids in other hospitals who are suffering from the same problem. "We want to use the power of the Internet to bring together kids who feel that they are separated by their illness, and let them know that they are not alone," said Arun Mathews, the doctor who heads the program. He loves video games himself and got the idea to connect kids all over the country. Many researchers elsewhere are testing video game programs that might help young patients. For example, nine-year-old Ben Duskin of San Francisco, who was struggling with cancer helped to design a video game where players get rid of cancer cells. That's all great news, because doctors already know that reducing pain and worry helps patients heal faster. What can we learn from the passage? A) Nine-year-old Ben Duskin, who has a cancer, is very brave and clever. B) Many parents want their children to play video games because it's good for their health. C) Doctors are not sure whether reducing pain and worry can help the patients recover faster. D) HOPE allows kids to play online games only with the kids in the same hospital.
A