Read the following article and answer the question. Article: Today I was at the mall waiting for friends, when a lady wearing a knit hat and a sweater came up to me and, shivering, said, "I'm homeless. Would you mind buying me some food?" In that split second, everything I'd learned since kindergarten flashed through my mind. Don't talk to strangers ... Be a good citizen ... People will take advantage of you ... Treat others as you wish to be treated ... The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return ... I guess love won the debate. "Sure," I said. "What would you like?" She thought and then said, "I'd like to get Chinese food." We headed upstairs. On the way she told me about when she was a teenager. She remembers taking pictures for the yearbook with her best friend. She was in the band and played basketball. She got good grades and was a good student. She ordered soup, an egg roll, white rice, and pepper chicken. I would normally think that was a lot, but she had probably barely eaten in the last few days. I got my usual - lo mein and General Tso's chicken. As we ate, we got to know each other. She asked if I played any instruments. I replied that I played the violin, cello, and guitar. She told me she played the flute, piano, guitar, and violin. In the middle of our meal, I realized something. And she thought of it at exactly the same time. "So, what's your name?" she asked. "I'm Claire," I said, startled at our exact same thought. "What's yours?" "Joyce," she said with a smile. We continued talking, and she asked my favorite subjects in school and if I wanted to go to college. "Hopefully," I replied. "I'm interested in nursing." "I went to college for nursing," she said. I was taken aback. How could we have so much in common? Was she pretending so I'd feel sympathy for her? But her eyes were genuine as she said this. Meanwhile I was eating my lo mein, picking around the cabbage and the other vegetables. Joyce said, "If you don't like it you can take it back." I told her that I liked it, but was not fond of the vegetables. She broke... Question: The writer was very happy to have met Joyce because  _  . Answer:

Answer: this chance meeting changed her attitudes towards life in a way.


Read the following article and answer the question. Article: Confucius was born five hundred and fifty years before Christ. Unlike Jesus Christ, he did not bring words of God to the people. He was a clever teacher and a philosopher, looking for truth and wisdom. Most of his teaching was about life in this world.      Confucius was very keen to give people good rulers. Someone asked him, "What does a country need?" Confucius answered, "Enough food, a good army, and a good leader." The people then asked, "Which one is the most important?" Confucius answered, "An army is not very important. All men must die, so food is not the most important. But if the leader of the country is not good, then everything will be bad," Question: A philosopher is a person who   _  . Answer:

Answer: Seeks after truth and wisdom


Read the following article and answer the question. Article: Homosexual couples in New York are being married for the first time after Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a law permitting same-sex marriage in the state last month. But such marriages, though now legal in New York, remain controversial .  So many couples wanted to be married on Sunday, the first day of legal homosexual marriage in New York City, that local officials announced a lottery   to determine qualification. New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, herself openly gay, witnessed the first two ceremonies of same-sex marriage. She says the same-sex marriage law supports equality. "A law that says every family is as good as every other family; that every family is based on love, and is exactly the way God wants it to be," she said. Margie Phelps announced same-sex marriage as a crime against God. She and other Christians from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas came halfway across the country to say marriage is defined by Holy Bible. "The pattern is one man and one woman for life to have children who you raise in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," she said. David Schwartz, a traditional Jew, believes every human being has free choice and the power to rule over their desires. He considers homosexual desire to be wrong. "There's one God in heaven and earth, and he has ordered for all mankind that they should limit their affections to relationships between a man and a woman in the context of marriage," he said. Douglas Robinson and his partner of 25 years, Michael Elsasser, were in the first group to be married in Manhattan. Robinson says the United States allows religious views to coexist with(...) what he believes is a civil right of same-sex marriage. "You can have different opinions. This is a tent, some people call it a mixture of various different cultures and opinions and the like, so God bless America, and we are proud to be Americans," he said. Margie Phelps believes God will punish New York City for permitting what she believes to be moral decay.  Meanwhile, Nevin Cohen and... Question: We can infer from the passage that   _  . Answer:

Answer: the US is open to different views


Read the following article and answer the question. Article: When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor named Doctor Gibbs. He didn't look like any doctor I'd ever known. He never yelled at us for playing in his yard, but was always very kind. When Doctor Gibbs wasn't saving lives, he was planting trees. He had some interesting theories about planting trees. He believed in the principle:  "No pain, no gain". He hardly watered his new trees, an attitude which flew in the face of conventional wisdom. Once I asked why and he told me that watering plants spoiled them because it made them grow weaker. He said you had to make things tough for the trees so that only the strongest could survive. He talked about how watering trees made them develop shallow roots and how, if they were not watered, trees would grow deep roots in search of water. So, instead of watering his trees every morning, he'd beat them with a rolled-up newspaper. I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree's attention. Doctor Gibbs died a couple of years after I left home. Every now and then, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I'd watched him plant some 25 years ago. They were tall and strong. I planted a couple of trees myself a few years ago. Two years of attending these trees meant they grew up weak. Whenever a cold wind blew, their branches trembled. _ seemed to benefit Doctor Gibb's trees in ways comfort and ease never could. Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I often pray that their lives will be easy. But lately I've been thinking that it's time to change my prayer. I know my children are going to encounter hardship. There's always a cold wind blowing somewhere. What we need to do is to pray for deep roots, so when the rains fall and the winds blow, we won't be torn apart. Question: Which prayer does the author wish for his sons? Answer:

Answer: