Many articles have appeared in recent years, claiming that there are no more heroes in the world. The authors says that the young now refuse to admire anyone and that we are living in a world too well informed, too curious showing us the faults of the public figures who could become today's stars, until we lose faith and start looking for defects in any person who seems worthy of respect.  Is it true that we know too much? Were our ancestors lucky to be only partly informed? Those who read the first biographies of George Washington, Joan of Arc, or other great men and women of the past were not told that their hero had bad breath or disliked his mother; they only found a description of his great accomplishments and their admiration was strengthened. In fact, early biographers didn't hesitate to make up an admirable story or two about their hero. The man who wrote the first biography of Washington, for instance, invented the cherry tree; he admitted later that there was no truth in it, but he said that it would give young men a good example to follow. His readers didn't seem to object; the book was reprinted eighty times--a great success in those days. Modern biographers do not invent such stories; they respect the facts, as indeed they should. But we pay a price for their truthfulness, for in their efforts to show "the whole person," they tell us more than we really need to know about private lives, family secrets, and human weakness. The true greatness of a fine man is often forgotten in the display; and people lose not only their admiration for him, but their willingness to trust any other "star" completely. It may be difficult to be a hero in the world these days, under the searching eyes of the society. But surely excellence has not disappeared completely; there are still individuals who are superior to their fellow men by their wisdom, their courage, or their character. They can be heroes if people are willing to ignore their human imperfection and to admit the respect that their admirable qualities... Which of the following statements about modern biographers is true? A) They show no respect to facts. B) They choose to ignore heroes' greatness. C) Their writing style has aroused criticism. D) We benefit from their truthfulness.
C


,.  Three-year-old Teddy Lasry was sleeping in his cowboy outfit   yesterday at his family's Fifth Ave.apartment when he shot up in bed screaming.A 3-foot-long black-and-white snake twisted around his left arm and had just bitten his little finger. "The babysitter (a person taking care of children while their parents are away for a short time) was frightened to death," said Teddy's father, David Lasry, who, along with his wife, Evelyn, was at work when the snake appeared about 4:00 pm. The horrified babysitter called 911 and the building's doorman.The doorman and two cable TV workers helped take the snake off the boy's arm and put it in a garbage bag.Police rushed Teddy to Mount Sinai Medical Center, where he spent two hours attached to a heart monitor as a precaution in case the snake was poisonous.It wasn't.Experts at the snakebite treatment center at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, where policemen took the snake, found out it was a non-poisonous California king snake. But how did it end up in Teddy's bed? A little detective work determined that the snake had escaped two weeks ago from its cage in the apartment of a doctor whose family lives four floors below the Lasrys.The apologetic owner said his son's pet snake likely traveled up the water pipes and into his neighbor's apartment."It's a very gentle, very harmless snake," he said."It's handled by our family all the time." David Lasry believed the pet was simply hungry after two weeks of wandering.Evelyn said her son seems to have overcome his fright by thinking of himself as a hero cowboy as he rode in the back of the police car to the hospital. "I told Teddy he's a pretty snake, a nice pet snake who got out of his cage," Evelyn said."But he asked, 'Why did he bite my finger, Mamma?' And I said, 'Because he saw that you are a big boy, Teddy, in your cowboy outfit and he got scared.'" From the passage, we know   _  . A) Teddy needed a heart machine to stay alive for two hours B) Teddy was awake when the snake arrived C) Teddy's mother was at home when the snake turned up D) the snake was used to being touched
D


*Question*
Scientists in Colombia have trained a team of rats to help remove land mines from the countryside. Land mines are small bombs hidden in the ground and designed to explode  when someone steps on them. When trained, the rats can smell special metals in the mines and then signal  to their human team. Then why use rats for such an important job? In the past, dogs have been used to find bombs. Rats have a good sense of smell and can respond to orders, just like dogs do. But rats are much lighter than dogs. They stand less of a chance of setting off the mines, which explode under a certain amount of weight. What's more, the best rats are cheaper to keep than dogs. It costs about the same amount of money to take care of one dog as it does 70 rats. The rats have already been used in Tanzania, an African country with many land mines. Luisa Fernanda Mendez and her team in Colombia are training the even lighter Wistar rats. These are the white rats with red eyes that scientists often use in laboratory experiments. " _ even train their babies to perform their jobs, which saves us a lot of time, " Mendez said. Colombia has the second-highest rate  of deaths from land mine accidents in the world. Last year, land mines killed 695 people -- 56 of whom were children. A criminal group called the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as well as other organizations, have placed the mines. FARC are strongly against Colombia's government. The group has placed mines all around its own bases and in many places in the countryside. In the past, the Colombian government hired peasants and poor farmers to find mines. Many of them died trying to find the well-hidden bombs. Colombian police official Erick Guzman hopes the team of rats can come to the rescue . "These rats will be a great help," he said. The advantage of rats over dogs in finding bombs is that   _  . A) they are cleverer. B) they run faster C) they have a better sense of smell D) they don't make mines explode as easily
**Answer**

D