One day a professor entered the classroom and told the students about a surprise test. After hearing that, all students were seated and waited for the test to begin. Now, the professor gave the test papers to all students with text facing down on the desk. Once he was done with handing out the test to all students, he asked them to turn the test pages and begin.

Students were confused to see that there was not a question but just a black dot in the center of the page. The professor noticed the students’ facial expressions and told them, “I want you to write about what you see there.”

The students were still confused but got started with the test. At the end of the class, the professor took all answer sheets and started reading each answer from each sheet in front of all students. All of them described about the black dot and tried to explain its position. After the professor finished reading, the whole class was silent.

Now, the professor began to explain, “Don’t worry. I am not going to give you grades for this but I just want you to think about something. Here everyone focused on the black dot and wrote about it but no one wrote about the white paper. The same is with our lives. The white paper embodies our whole life and the black spot problems in our life.

Our life is a gift given to us by God, with love and care, and we always have reasons to celebrate---our friends around us, the job that provides us our livelihood, the miracles we see everyday. Still we just focus on day to day problems like health issues, lack of money, problems in relationships, etc. But we never see that these problems are very small compared to everything we have in our lives.”

1.From the text we learn that _________.

A. the professor gave the students an unexpected test

B. the professor graded the students’ test papers

C. none of the students focused on the black dot

D. the students were unwilling to take the test

2.The underlined word “embodies” in Paragraph 4 probably can be replaced by ________.

A. presents B. represents

C. empties D. enriches

3.What is the main idea of the text?

A. Be happy to take tests

B. Life is filled with problems

C. There are many black dots in our life

D. Take eyes off problems and enjoy life

People often ask which is the most difficult language to learn, and it is not easy to answer because there are too many factors to take into consideration. Firstly, in a first language the differences are unimportant as people learn their mother tongue naturally, so the question of how hard a language is to learn only makes more sense when learning a second language.

A native speaker of Spanish, for example, will find Portuguese much easier to learn than a native speaker of Chinese, for example, because Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, while Chinese is very different, so first language can affect learning a second language. The greater the differences between the second language and our first, the harder it will be for most people to learn. Many people answer that Chinese is the hardest language to learn, possibly influenced by the thought of learning the Chinese writing system, and the pronunciation of Chinese does appear to be very difficult for many foreign learners. However, for Japanese speakers, who already use Chinese characters in their own language, learning writing will be less difficult than for speakers of languages using the Roman alphabet.

Some people seem to learn languages easily, while others find it very difficult. Teachers and the circumstances in which the language is learned also play an important role, as well as each learner's motivation for learning. If people learn a language because they need to use it professionally, they often learn it faster than people studying a language that has no direct use in their day to day life.

Obviously , British diplomats and other embassy staff have found that the second hardest language is Japanese, which will probably come as no surprise to many, but the language that they have found to be the most problematic is Hungarian, which uses a similar alphabet to English but has 35 cases (forms of a nouns according to whether it is subject, object, genitive, etc). This does not mean that Hungarian is the hardest language to learn for everyone, but it causes British diplomatic personnel, who are generally used to learning languages, the most difficulty. However, Tabassaran, a Caucasian language has 48 cases, so it might cause more difficulty if British diplomats had to learn it.

Different cultures and individuals from those cultures will find different languages more difficult. Therefore, it is impossible to say that there is one language that is the most difficult language in the world.

1.What can we infer from the first paragraph?

A. The question of how hard a language is to learn is only applicable to first language acquisition

B. The question of how hard a language is to learn is only applicable to second language acquisition

C. The question of how hard a language is to learn is applicable to both first and second language acquisition.

D. There are too many languages in the world so it’s difficult to say which one is the most difficult to learn.

2.Which language will a native Portuguese speaker probably find easier to learn?

A. Chinese , because Portuguese use Chinese characters in their own language .

B. Japanese , because it is similar to their own language.

C. Spanish , because it also uses Roman alphabet .

D. Any one but Chinese, because its pronunciation is very difficult.

3.What does the underlined word mean in Paragraph3?

A. A particular situation or environment.

B. The degree of education that somebody has obtained

C. Teachers’ encouragement.

D. Professional training.

4.The author is most likely to agree____________

A. Not Hungarian’s writing system but its grammatical complexity causes problems for native British speakers.

B. Tabassaran is the hardest language to learn in the world for native European speakers.

C. Many British diplomats learn Tabassaran.

D. Learning a different writing system is easy.

Choosing the right college for you is not so easy.You should have a general idea of what you want and don't want.The idea can guide you to find what fits your needs best.1.

Think about what major you want to study in college.If you know that,just look at colleges that have your major. 2.So think carefully about your major and interests before choosing one.

Where the college is located matters.Anyone who tells you the location isn't important is lying.3.If you look forward to working in the publishing industry,New York may be your best bet.If your parents want you to stay close to home,please don't consider anywhere that requires a plane ticket to get to.

Think about how much you can afford.Are your parents,paying for your education? If so,how much are they willing to spend?Do you have to contribute anything? Financial aid and scholarship exist,but don't count on anything. 4.These are all things to consider before you fall in love with a college.

Make sure you're going to spend time with the right people.The cool thing about college is that each different one attracts different kinds of people.For the first thing in your life,you get to choose where you get to spend your time and who you get to spend it with.5.Make sure that the people you're with for four years are your kind of people.

A.College is about learning what you love.

B.You'd better choose a major that is popular.

C.Go to the college with some people you like.

D.Are you willing to go into major debt over a school?

E.Remember,above all,it's the people that make the place.

F.If you don't like cold weather,stay away from northern schools.

G.These guidelines will help figure out what college you want to go to.

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