Q: Each time I see a balloon, my mind flies back to a memory of when I was a six-year-old girl. It was a rainy Sunday and my father had recently died. I asked my mom if Dad had gone to heaven. "Yes, honey. Of course." she said. "Can we write him a letter?" She paused, the longest pause of my short life, and answered, "Yes." My heart jumped. "How? Does the mailman go there?" I asked. "No, but I have an idea." Mom drove to a party store and returned with a red balloon. I asked her what it was for. "Just wait, honey. You'll see." Mom told me to write my letter. Eagerly, I got my favorite pen, and poured out my six-year-old heart in the form of blue ink. I wrote about my day, what I learned at school, how Mom was doing, and even about what happened in a story I had read. For a few minutes it was as if Dad were still alive. I gave the letter to Mom. She read it over, and a smile crossed her face. She made a hole in the corner of the letter where she looped the balloon string. We went outside and she gave me the balloon. It was still raining. "Okay, on the count of three, let go. One, two, three." The balloon, carrying my letter, darted upward against the rain. We watched until it was swallowed by the mass of clouds. Later I realized, like the balloon, that Dad had never let his sickness get him down. He was strong. No matter what he suffered, he'd persevere, dart up, and finally transcend this cold world and his sick body. He rose into sky and became something beautiful. I watched until the balloon disappeared into the gray and white and I prayed that his strength was hereditary. I prayed to be a balloon. When the girl was told that she could send a letter to her father, she   _  . A) jumped with joy B) became excited C) started writing immediately D) was worried that it couldn't be delivered
A: B


Q: When I was walking down the street the other day, I happened to notice a small brown leather wallet, lying on the sidewalk. I picked it up and opened it to see if I could find out the owner's name. There was nothing inside it except some change and an old photograph---- a picture of a woman and a young girl about twelve years old, who looked like the woman' s daughter. I put the photograph back and took the wallet to the police station, where I handed it to the desk sergeant . Before I left, the sergeant took down my name and address in case the owner might want to write and thank me.    That evening I went to have dinner with my aunt and uncle. They had also invited a young woman so that there would be four people at the table. Her face was familiar. I was quite sure that we had not met before, but I could not remember where I had seen her. In the course of conversation, however, the young woman happened to mention that she had lost her wallet that afternoon. All at once I realized where I had seen her. She was the young girl in the photograph, although she was now much older. She was very surprised, of course, when I was able to describe her wallet to her. Then I explained that I had recognized her from the photograph I had found in the wallet. My uncle insisted  on going to the police station immediately to claim  the wallet. As the police sergeant handed it over, he said that it was an amazing coincidence that I had not only found the wallet, but also the person who had lost it. The writer opened the wallet because he wanted to   _   in it. A) find some money B) find some gold C) find the owner's name D) find the owner's photograph
A: C


Q: It was on the early afternoon of a mid-October day in 2012. Bismark Mensah, who came to America several months ago, was collecting carts   outside a Walmart in Federal Way. It was a part-time job for him. He earned $9.05 an hour in charge of getting carts out of the parking lot. He was used to finding stuff in carts that customers had somehow forgotten -- keys, credit cards, wallets. And he turned them into a customer service. But a particular item stood out. It was a white envelope with a clear window in the middle, and there was a lot of cash in it, around $20,000. Mensah turned them into customer services. Because of what he did that afternoon, Mensah is now the winner of Walmart's national 2013 "Integrity  in Action Award". Bismark Mensah says that since the story ran, he has become the model the youth in Ghana (his native country). He is now employed full-time at the Federal Way Walmart, earning $10.95 an hour, up from the $9.05 an hour he earned working part-time. Mensah, 33, no longer collects carts and such. He is in the backroom, dealing with inventory . "I want to learn everything about operating a store like Walmart store," he says. He plans to return to Ghana to run some shops owned by his family. He also plans to go to college and earn a degree in business administration. What does Mensah do in Walmart now? A) Collect carts. B) Deal with inventory. C) Checks out the groceries. D) Ensures Walmart's security.
A: B


Q: After 21 years of marriage, my wife wanted me to take another woman out to dinner and a movie. The other woman my wife wanted me to visit was my mother, who has been a widow  for 19 years, but the demands of my work and my three children had made it impossible to visit her often. That Friday after work, when I arrived at her house, my mother waited in the door with her coat on. She had curled her hair and was wearing the dress that she had worn to celebrate her last wedding anniversary.  We went to a restaurant that, although not elegant, was very nice and comfortable. My mother took my arm as if she were the First Lady. During the dinner, we had an agreeable conversation, nothing extraordinary but catching up on recent events of each other's life. We talked so much that we missed the movie. As we arrived at her house later, she said, "I'll go out with you again, but only if you let me invite you." I agreed. A few days later, my mother died of a massive heart attack. It happened so suddenly that I didn't have a chance to do anything for her. Some time later, I received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant receipt from the same place Mother and I had dined. An attached note said "I paid this bill in advance. I wasn't sure that I could be there; but, nevertheless, I paid for two plates--one for you and the other for your wife. You w ill never know what that night meant for me. I love you, son." At that moment, I understood the importance of saying in time 'I love YOU' and to give our loved ones the time that they deserve. Nothing in life is more important than your family. Give them the time they deserve because these things cannot be put off till some "other" time. It can be inferred from the passage that  _  . A) the author regretted for not showing much love to his mother B) the author was satisfied to do something for his mother C) the mother felt happy to pay for the bill in advance D) the mother was sorry for inviting her son to have dinner

A: A