Ques:An early morning winter storm had brought several inches of snow on my small town in the mountains. Schools were canceled, roads were dangerous and all I wanted to do was to stay in bed. Still, I knew I had to get the day started so I put on warm clothes and walked outside. The snow got all over my shoes. The cold wind dried my lips and my eyes. _  Yet, when I looked out on the white blanket that covered the ground, I couldn't help but smile a bit. It was so beautiful. It softened the bare trees and hid the dead grass. In the distance I could hear the sound of the snowplow  on the road, the barking of a happy dog and the laughter of children playing outside, enjoying their way off from school. The sweet music of that laughter brought back a hundred memories of winters past. I remembered catching snowflakes   on my tongue, building snowmen, making snow angles, running down hills and always losing snowball fights with first my brothers and then my own children. Standing there in that warm coat of memories made the wind a little less cold and my back a little less sore . I turned up my head, stuck out my tongue and for the first time in years caught a snowflake on it. It tasted so fresh and clean. It tasted like youth, like joy and like love. May you always feel young in spirit, no matter how old or achy your body may be. May you always delight in the simple joys of life. May you always share your happiness with the hearts of children. And may you always give your love, your light, your laughter and your warmth to others even on the coldest days. What was the author's first reaction when he knew it snowed heavily? A) He was upset. B) He was happy. C) He was thankful. D) He was moved.

Ans:A
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Ques:London Underground The world's first subway was built in London in 1863. At the time,the government was looking for a way to reduce traffic problems in the city of London. The poor areas of the city were so crowded with people that it was almost impossible for horse carriages to get through. The city officials were interested in trying to make it possible for workers to live outside of London and travel easily to work each day. If people had a cheap and convenient way that they could depend on to go to and from work, they would relocate their homes outside of the city. This  would  help ease  the pressure of too many people living in the poor parts of London. From these problems,the idea of the London Underground,the first subway system,was born. The plans for building the Underground met with several problems and delays,but the fast track was finally opened in January 1863. A steam train pulled the cars along the fast underground track which was 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) long. About 30,000 people got on the subway the first day. Riders were treated to comfortable seats (standing up while the train was moving was not allowed), and pleasant decorations inside each of the cars. However, the smoke from the engine soon filled the air in the tunnels with ash and soot , as well as chemical gases. Fans had to be put in the tunnels later to keep the air clean enough for people to breathe. Even with its problems,riding in the Underground did . It carried 9 million riders in its first year. What led the British government to build the London Underground? A) Traffic jams and pollution. B) Population and pollution. C) Overcrowding and traffic jams. D) The poverty and subway problems.

Ans:C
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Ques:When I was eight years old, I had a big accident. I get scared even now when I think about that time. There were many people skating near my house, and seeing them skate so wonderfully, I couldn't wait to have a try, just a piece of cake, I thought . I went with a friend who was very skillful. He spent a long time teaching me how to skate , but I still didn't learn much , which made him very angry. Finally , he left me and skated all around. I skated alone and soon got bored because I kept falling down so I took off my skates and just walked around on the ice in my shoes. It was cold and my feet were frozen. Suddenly, I stepped on something that was not hard. What was it ? It was a weak place in the ice . When I stepped there, I sank under the ice. I thought that I was going to die, but I did my best to grab something to get out from under the ice. I would have climbed out myself by grabbing the edge of the ice, but at that time I was only a child of eight . I cried out. Fortunately, someone helped me. He grabbed my arms and pulled me up. Those several minutes seemed a year to me. I thanked him. At that time, my friend came back. I was annoyed at him because he was supposed to take care of me, but he didn't. He was embarrassed. When I took a taxi home, the taxi driver was surprised and asked what had happened. I didn't want to say anything because I was tired and scared. Since then, I have never touched skating. At first the writer thought that skating   _  . A) was hard to learn B) was only suitable to watch C) was easy to learn D) can only be done with support

Ans:C
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Ques:An electric signal can trick a monkey's brain into believing the animal's finger has been touched. Touch something, and your brain knows. The hand sends signals to the brain to announce contact was made. But that feeling of touch may not require making actual contact, tests on monkeys now show. Zapping brain cells can fool the animal into thinking its finger has touched something. A person who has lost a limb or become paralyzed may need an artificial limb to complete everyday tasks. But such patients may not truly feel any objects they hold. The new findings point toward one day creating a sense of touch in those who use such artificial limbs. Psychologist Sliman Bensmaia of University of Chicago worked on the new tests. His team's findings appeared on October 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. The sense of touch is crucial to everyday tasks: People without _ may have difficulty cracking an egg, lifting a cup or even turning a doorknob. That's why restoring it is a major goal for designers of artificial limbs. In their new study, Bensmaia and his co-workers worked with rhesus monkeys  . The scientists implanted electrodes  --- small devices that can detect and relay an electrical signal--into the animals' brains. The scientists used the electrode data to identify which neurons had become active. Then the scientists used the implanted electrodes to zap those same neurons. And the monkeys reacted as though their fingers had been touched. In fact, they hadn't. The monkeys couldn't use words to tell the scientists what they had felt. Instead, they communicated by looking in a particular direction--just as when they had really been touched. The new findings show how touch-sensitive devices could be built. The new study also offers " a nice clear pathway" for figuring out how to restore a sense of touch to an amputee  or someone with a injury of spinal cord. The study shows how artificial limbs might be connected to the brain so that a person can "feel" with... Monkeys tell researchers their sense of touch by   _  . A) putting up one of their fingers B) making their brain cells active C) looking in a particular direction D) mimicking natural signals in the brain

Ans:
C
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