Question: Years ago a farmer owned land along the Atlantic. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were not willing to work on farms along the Atlantic because they worried about the terrible storms that destroy buildings and crops. The farmer received a steady stream of refusals at the interview for a farmhand Finally, a short, thin man approached the farmer. "Are you a good farmhand?" the farmer asked him. "Well, I can sleep when the wind blows. " answered the little man. Although puzzled by this answer ,the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm ,busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work. Then one night the wind howled loudly from offshore. Jumping out of bed,the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, " Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they are blown away! " The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows. " Enraged  by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire  him on the spot ,Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement,he discovered that all of the hay had been covered. The cows were in the bam,the chickens were in the coops,and the doors were barred The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down, Nothing could be blown away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he also returned to his bed to sleep while the wind was still blowing. Why did the farmer constantly advertise for hired hands? A) Because he needed hired hands all. the year round. B) Because there was too much work to do on the farm. C) Because he could hardly hire a farmhand. D) Because he offered poor conditions for the hired hands.
Answer: C

Question: Officials in a remote Russian city have drawn up a list of practical tips for locals on how to survive encounters   with bears, after growing numbers have wandered into the streets in search of food. Officials in the city of Syktyvkar drew up the guidelines to guide the local people, after several bears were caught sight of in the city, going hungry after a heat wave their usual diet of nuts and berries. The guide warns that city people there should stay calm and stand still if they meet with a bear. "Speak to the bear in a firm voice" and "Don't turn your back on it," it adds. In the worst case, if the bear attacks, the person should also be ready to attack, the guide says. "Shout angrily at it and look it straight in the eye," the guide advises. "Bears have started coming into the areas where people live more and more often," the city officials said in a statement. "Any encounter with a bear is unsafe for humans, so our task is to do all we can to prevent such accidents." In September, a bear attacked a 25-year-old man in a central street of the city, wounding him in the neck before he managed to run away, police said. "Three or four people who met with brown bears have been recorded recently," the head of the hunting department in the regional agriculture organization, Alexander said. Officials have asked police to patrol   streets close to wooded areas in the evenings. Syktyvkar is the regional capital of the remote Komi region in northwest Russia. Its population is just over 230,000. The city issued the guidelines to help the local people to    _   . A) avoid bear encounters B) survive bear encounters C) get along well with bears D) drive hungry bears away
Answer: B

Question: Drew Gilpin Faust made history in 2007 when she became the first female president of Harvard University, Massachusetts, US. Faust is an excellent historian known especially for her work on the history of the American South. She was a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania for 25 years. In 2001, she became dean   of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard.         Born in 1947, Faust grew up in a traditional family. She has often spoken of her "continued confrontations  " with her mother "about the requirements of what she usually called femininity  ". Her mother used to tell her, "It's a man's world, sweetie. And the sooner you learn that, the better off you'll be."          However, the daughter was a rebellious one. For example, Faust would fight with her mother over whether it was suitable for her to drive a car at night, even if one of her three brothers was a passenger. "She was raised to be a rich man's wife," said a friend, Elizabeth Warren. "Instead she becomes the president of the most powerful university in the world."         As a girl, Faust rebelled against not only the strict rules of femininity, but also the racial injustice that existed in her native Virginia. At age 9, after a conversation with her family's black handyman   and driver, she sent a letter to President Dwight D. Eisenhower decrying   racial injustice. When studying in Bryn Mawr, a women's college in Pennsylvania, she was a student activist who would go on to march in the civil rights protests   in the 1960s.          What would her mother, who never went to college and died in 1966, have to say about her appointment? "I've often thought about that," she said. "I've had dialogues with my dead mother over the 40 years since she died." Which of the following can be the best title for the passage? A) A lesson from Harvard's new president B) A woman fighter for American civil rights C) A "rebellious daughter" to lead Harvard D) A portrait of Harvard's future president
Answer:
C