At the age of sixteen,I joined a volunteer group with my dad. I went on my first volunteer project in West Virginia. On the night we arrived, we discovered that "our family" was living in a trailer  that was in poor condition. A crew had been working on it for two weeks,but every time they finished one problem,another surfaced(, ).  We decided the only reasonable solution was to build a new house--something unusual but necessary under these circumstances. The family was overjoyed with their new house that was twenty by thirty feet with three bedrooms,a bath and a kitchen.  On Tuesday of that week, while we were eating lunch together,I asked the family's three boys,Josh,Eric and Ryan,"What do you want for your new room?"Expecting toys and other gadgets that children usually ask for, we were astonished when Josh responded,"I just want a bed." The boys had never slept in a bed! They were accustomed to plastic mats. That night we had a meeting and decided that beds would be the perfect gift. On Thursday night, a few adults in our group drove to the nearest city and bought beds and new bedding.  When we saw the delivery truck coming,we told the family about the surprise. We could hardly control ourselves. It was like watching excited children on Christmas morning.  That afternoon, as we fitted the frames of the beds together, Eric ran into the house to watch us. Too dirty to enter his room,he observed with wideeyed enthusiasm from the doorway.  As my father slipped a pillowcase  onto one of the pillows,Eric asked,"What is that?" "A pillow," he replied.  "What do you do with it?" Eric continued to ask.  "When you go to sleep,you put your head on it," I answered softly. Tears came to my eyes as my father handed Eric the pillow.  "Oh...that's soft," he said,hugging it tightly.  Now,when my sister or I start to ask for something that seems urgent,my dad gently asks,  "Doyouhaveapillow?" We know exactly what he means. By saying "Doyouhaveapillow?",  the writer's father means that  _  . A) what they want to get may be unnecessary B) they should not waste money on small things C) they should do more volunteer work for the poor D) what he will buy is not what they want but a pillow
A

Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster Inc. said "w00t" reflects a new direction in the American language led by a generation raised on video games and mobile phone text-messaging. It's like saying "yay," the dictionary said. "It could be after a triumph  or for no reason at all," Merriam-Webster said. Visitors to Merriam-Webster's Web site were invited to vote for one of 20 words and phrases selected from the most frequently looked-up words on the site and submitted by readers. Merriam-Webster President John Morse said "w00t" reflected the growing use of numeric keyboards to type words. "People look for self-evident numeral-letter substitutions: 0 for O; 3 for E; 7 for T; and 4 for A," he said. "This is simply a different and more efficient way of representing the alphabetical character." Online gamers often replace numbers and symbols with letters to form what Merriam-Webster calls an "esoteric computer hacker language" known as "l33t speak." This translates into "leet," which is short for "elite."   One Web site, www.thinkgeek.com, already sells T-shirts with the word "w00t" printed on the front. Runner-up was "facebook" as a new verb meaning to add someone to a list of friends on the Web site Facebook.com or to search for people on the social networking site.  "Truthiness" was the word of last year picked by Webster. A separate survey of words used in the media and on the Internet by California-based Global Language Monitor produced a different set of winners last week. "Hybrid" took top honors as word of the year with "climate change" the top phrase. Runner-up was "surge," based on the "surge" of 30,000 extra U.S. troops deployed to Iraq since mid-June, followed by the word "Bluetooth," a technology used to connect electronic devices via radio waves. "The English language is becoming more and more a globalized language every year," said Global Language Monitor president Paul Payack, noting that this year's list included words also selected from India, Singapore, China and Australia. According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOTtrue ? A) Merriam-Webster's Web site did the survey of words of the year at least twice. B) The two surveys didn't get the same result of words of the year. C) This year's list included words mainly selected from some Asian countries. D) The top three words of the year produced by California-based Global Language Monitor are Hybrid, surge and Bluetooth.
C

Tamara walked through the night to the little house where her </PGN0103.TXT/PGN>old nurse lived. The old woman gave her a meal. Then Tamara went out to get a car. She had enough money with her to pay for the use of a car for a few days. She wanted to go into town and see a friend, a teacher of science. She had to sit through the second part of a class before she was able to speak to him. But then he took her to his office and listened to her. She told him that she wanted to build houses on some land her husband had owned. But first she must clear it of unwanted plants. She wanted something that would kill them. Her friend wrote down  a name on a piece of paper and told her to take it to a shop he knew. "You will need lots of it." he said. "Put it in water and spread it over the plants." Tamara got into town in order to see   _  . A) a friend and a teacher of science B) a friend who was a teacher of science C) her old nurse D) a house that she had built
B

Washington----A screaming intruder  made it onto the front lawn of the White House Sunday while President Obama was at home before being caught by Secret Service officers. Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren recognized the man as 40-year-old Brian Lee Patterson, whose last known address was in Albuquerque, N.M. Patterson has been caught trying to get onto the White House grounds at least three times before Zahren said. The bearded man, wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt that read "God Bless America" jumped the fence outside the White House and ran across the north lawn while repeatedly crying, "I am a victim of terrorism!" Members of the Secret Service emergency response team, including one holding a barking dog, ran after Patterson with their guns and surrounded him near the row of cameras set up for television stand-ups. "I have intelligence information for the president," he said, waving his arms in the air. "I'm not afraid of you." Patterson screamed at the officers who were ordering him to lie ground with guns drawn. Patterson finally kneeled on the ground and was taken into custody  shortly before 4 p.m. He cut his hand jumping the fence and was taken to George Washington University Hospital for treatment and was to appear in court Monday, Zahren said. Zahren said Patterson was charged with unlawful entry for the last time he jumped the fence, in February. He faces the same charge for Sunday's incident and also a contempt  of court charge for disobeying the judge's orders to stay away from the White House. Entering the White House, Patterson meant   _  . A) to kick against the law B) to fight against the Secret Service officers C) to see the president D) to have a look around the White House

C