Ques: Ellen and Bill County are both teachers. They met in college and became good friends because of their shared love for children. Two years after the couple got married, Ellen saw a huge change in the life of one of her students, a 9 - year - old girl. Three years earlier both of the little girl's parents had died and there was no one to take care of her. She was taken away to live in a government office. But finally she was taken in and adopted by a family and became their daughter. Ellen said that she noticed the difference in the child's life after she was placed in a permanent home and thought that maybe she and her husband could help a child in a similar way. They decided to become temporary parents and to take a child into their home just on the weekends when the real parents could not take care of him or her. The pair planned to have their own children in a few years, but decided that this would be a way to give to the community in the meantime. The couple quickly grew to love one of the children they looked after. When he became legally available, Billy became the first child they took in permanently. Six months after adopting Billy, Ellen was told by her doctor that she was unable to have children naturally. Ellen says she knew then that adoption was the way she was meant to have a family. Since adopting Billy, now 17, Ellen and Bill have adopted five more children -- Rose, 16; Albert, 11; Joshua, 5 and in June 2003, they added biological brother and sister Tyler and Rylee to the County family. The County family has been recognized for their work on adoption, and has received many awards for their efforts.  Last June,  the family was even interviewed on  the television show, "Adoption Stories". Ellen says she would like to encourage other families to adopt children. She adds that the best part of being a mother of six is: "Giving Josh a bath, putting a band-aid on a cut knee or just the everyday Mom things, that makes motherhood such an honor and a privilege." What is the passage mainly about? A) How a couple first met at college. B) Where you can adopt a child. C) The benefits of adoption to the community. D) How adoption created a happy family.
Ans: D

Ques: While she may be best known for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, Emma Watson would rather be known for something else in her mind. The 18-year-old British actress intends to stop her acting career for the moment to pursue   higher studies at a university after she finished the films, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Watson, whose parents are both Oxford graduates, is now on a gap year before starting university. Earlier this month, Watson applied to two of the top universities in the United States -- Harvard and Yale. She admitted that Harry Potter series has brought her fame and financial security  . She has made more than $10 million so far, but now she "has a need to study". "I think the entertainment business is such a  _ one. One minute you' re up there and the next -- nothing," she said. Watson is growing up in front of millions of viewers ( ). She was only nine years old when she started playing the role of Hermione. And the way she figured out how to deal with media attention is "try not to read too much of what is said and try to distance myself a bit from  _ ".  Watson has other interests. These include, interestingly, fishing and she has helped raise money for the Wild Trout   Trust. From the passage we may infer that  _ A) Watson doesn't want to continue her acting B) Watson felt very proud of being known as Hermione Granger C) Watson hasn't read too much so far D) Watson was born in a well-educated family
Ans: D

Ques: In Britain in the 1890s there was a postcard "craze ". People formed clubs and collected and exchanged postcards. Even Queen Victoria had her own private collection. When Edward was the king, the British had a cheap and good postal system. If anyone wanted to tell a friend that they were coming for tea in the afternoon, they would send a postcard in the morning. "Drop me a card" was as common then as "give me a ring" as now. In 1902 an important step was taken. The government said that half of the side that was used for the address on the postcard could be used for messages, and the whole of the other side could be used for a picture. It was then that the simple postcard, as we know now, was created. Choose the best title for the passage. A) Postcards Old and New B) Postcard Clubs in the 1890s C) Creation of the Present Postcard D) Postal System in Britain
Ans: A

Ques: Why can some people sleep through noises like a honking car or flushing toilet, while others are awakened by the lightest sound? To find the answer, sleep researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital conducted an unusual study of 12 self-described deep sleepers. After tests confirmed that the healthy volunteers were solid sleepers, they took part in a three-night study in the university's sleep laboratory. The participants spent the night in a big and comfortable room. But the room also included four speakers positioned near the top of the bed. During the night, the deep sleepers were subjected to 14 different recorded sounds, like street traffic, toilets flushing, an ice machine dispensing and an airplane flying overhead. Next door, the researchers monitored their sleep patterns and brain waves. As expected, all of the participants slept  ly well, but there were differences in how they responded to the noisy interruptions. Some of the sleepers didn't wake up even when a sound was blasted at 70 decibels  ; others were awakened by sounds at 40 or 50 decibels. The researchers discovered that the difference in a sleeper's reaction to noise could be predicted by the level of brain activity called "sleep spindles''. A sleep spindle is a burst of high-frequency brain activity coming from deep inside the brain during sleep. The source of the spindles is the thalamus, a part of the brain that sends sensory information to the rest of the cortex  . Before the study, the Massachusetts researchers theorized   that the spindles are the brain's way of preventing sensory information from passing through the thalamus and waking the rest of the brain during sleep. They found that the sleepers who experienced the most sleep spindles during the night were also the soundest sleepers and were least likely to be awakened by noise. Scientists already know that most people become lighter sleepers with age, most likely because older people experience less "slow wave sleep'', which is the deepest stage of sleep. People also produce... It can be learned from the passage that   _  . A) the older a deep sleeper becomes, the lighter his sleep must be B) the more "slow wave sleep" one experiences, the deeper sleep one has C) the more frequently a sleeper's brain works, the less information it sends D) the deeper sleep people have, the more likely they will be awakened by noise
Ans:
B