Q: Short and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. "Football, tennis,cricket -- anything with a round ball, I was useless." he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the object of jokes in school gym classes in England's rural Devonshire. It was a mountain bike he received for his 15th birthday that changed him. At first the teen went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to cycle along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set his mind building up his body, increasing his speed, strength and endurance. At age 18, he ran his first marathon. The following year, he met John Ridgway, who became famous in the 1960s for rowing an open boat across the Atlantic Ocean. Saunders was hired as an instructor at Ridgway's school of Adventure in Scotland, where he learned about the older man's cold-water exploits  . _ , Saunders read all he could about Arctic explorers and North Pole expeditions, then decided that this would be his future. Journeys to the Pole aren't the usual holidays for British country boys, and many people dismissed his dream as fantasy. "John Ridgway was one of the few who didn't say, 'You are completely crazy,'" Saunders says. In 2001, after becoming a skilled skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition toward the North Pole. He suffered frostbite, had a closer encounter   with a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit. Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he's skied more of the Arctic by himself than any other Briton. His old playmates would not believe the transformation. This October, Saunders, 27, heads south to explore from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, an 1800-mile journey that has never been completed on skis. The turning point in Saunders'life came when   _  . A) he started to play ball games B) he got a mountain bike at age 15 C) he ran his first marathon at age 18 D) he started to receive Ridgway's training
A: B


Q: Dear Mr./Ms, I would like to suggest that the starting time be changed at our school. Classes at Sebastian Valley Middle School simply start too early in the morning. Getting eight to nine hours of sleep each night is almost impossible when classes begin at 7:30 am. In order to shower, dress, get organized, eat a quick breakfast, and meet the school bus by 6:45, I would have to get up at 5:45. Early in the morning, students are too sleepy to learn well. Without enough sleep, young people cannot think clearly or enjoy learning. According to a report called "Are Students getting Enough Sleep?" From Sebastian Valley Times, "Sleepiness disturbs concentration, reduces short-term memory, and causes bad feelings." Researchers have learned that teens normally fall asleep and wake up later than adults. Teens who stay up late at night have trouble getting up early in the morning. Studies show that some schools have already adjusted school hours to better match the teen sleep cycle , as a result, students in these school are learning better on the new schedule .  Some of my classmates argue that starting school an hour later will prevent them from taking part in after-school athletic programs. A solution would be to carry out these programs before school instead of after school. The students who are involved in sports and clubs would continue to arrive at the usual time. The rest of the student body could get a little more sleep and arrive an hour later. Teens usually have a later sleep cycle, and learn and behave better when rested. So I would like to suggest that we have a meeting to discuss the problem and listen to all the students' voice. Thank you for considering this request ! Which of the following does Tom probably agree with? A) Sleep is food for the brain. B) Books should be few but good. C) Challenge is needed for success. D) Early to bed makes a man healthy.
A: A


Q: My Best Enemy Once again, I was in a new school. So was a girl in my class named Lisa. That's where the similarities ended. I was tall and she was small. My thick black hair had been recently cut short into an untidy style. Her natural blonde hair flowed to her waist and looked great. I was 12 and one of the oldest in the class while she was 11 and the youngest. I was awkward and shy. She wasn't. I couldn't stand her, considering her my enemy. But she liked me and wanted to be friends. One day, she invited me over and I said yes--I was too shocked to answer any other way. My family had moved six times in six years, and I had never managed to develop any friendships. But this girl who wore the latest fashions wanted me to go home with her after school. She lived in a fun part of town that had two pizza places, an all-night bookstore, a movie theater and a park. As we walked from the school bus stop through her neighborhood, I tried to guess which house might be hers. Was it the white one with the perfect lawn or the three-story house with a front porch? I got very surprised when she led me into an old apartment building. She lived on the fourth floor in a two-room place with her mother,her stepfather, her two brothers and her sister. When we got into the room she shared with her sister, she took out a big case of Babies, which was my next surprise. I had never played with them. We sat on the floor,laughing as we made up crazy stories about the Babies. We found out that we both wanted to be writers when we were older and both had wild imaginations. We had a great day that afternoon. Lisa was loved by the whole neighborhood. The bookstore owners lent her fashion magazines; the movie theater gave her free tickets... Soon I was included in her magic world. We slept over at each other's houses and spent every free moment together. Lisa, my first real friend since childhood, helped me get through the rough year of early adolescence  and taught me an amazing and very surprising thing about making friends: that your... One day Lisa invited the writer  _   . A) to go to her home B) to go to the movie C) to go to a park D) to go to a pizza place

A: A