____ players are not allowed to interfere with the opponent’s movements unless the player is holding the ball. 

(407)_______

Choose the best answer:
When having an optical checkup, I had to look at the ___________ chart.

I feel _____ I did yesterday.

(450)________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Although he created the game of basketball at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, Dr. James A. Naismith was a Canadian. Working as a physical education instructor at the International YMCA, now Springfield College, Dr. Naismith noticed a lack of interest in exercise among students during the wintertime. The New England winters were fierce, and the students balked at participating in outdoor activities. Naismith determined that a fast-moving game that could be played indoors would fill a void after the baseball and football seasons had ended. First he attempted to adapt outdoor games such as soccer and rugby to indoor play, but he soon found them unsuitable for confined areas. Finally, he determined that he would have to invent a game. In December of 1891, Dr. Naismith hung two old peach baskets as either end of the gymnasium at the school, and, using a soccer ball and nine players on each side, organized the first basketball game. The early rules allowed three points for each basket and made running with the ball a violation. Every time a goal was made, someone had to climb a ladder to retrieve the ball. Nevertheless, the game became popular. In less than a year, basketball was being played in both the United States and Canada. Five years later, a championship tournament was staged in New York City, which was won by the Brooklyn Central YMCA. The teams had already been reduced to seven players, and five became standard in the 1897 season. When basketball was introduced as a demonstration sport in the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, it quickly spread throughout the world. In 1906, a metal hoop was used for the first time to replace the basket, but the name basketball has remained.
6. Where in the passage does the author discuss the first basketball championship tournament?

Choose the best answer:
'Would you like some coffee, Mike?'

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Some Amazing Apps for Your Smartphone
It is hard to imagine life in modern society without smartphones. These handy little devices keep us entertained and enable us to manage important tasks on the go. Although smartphones feature powerful hardware, they wouldn’t be so useful without thousands of handy applications. Here are a few free and helpful apps that you can download to help you throughout the day. If you have a habit of forgetting things and want to organize your life, give Evernote a try. It promises to help users remember everything. With a few clicks, you can send all of your photos, documents, and audio notes to Evernote. Then, your digital information can be stored in folders or tagged with useful keywords. When you need to access this data, you can perform a simple search and it will appear in seconds. Evernote is available on smartphones, tablets, and computers, so you can access your data from everywhere. Imagine this scenario. You are watching a TV show and you hear a cool song in the background. You want to buy it but there is one problem. You don’t know the name of the song. SoundHound is an app that will make this problem a thing of the past. It enables users to quickly identify songs by launching the app and holding their phone in the air. The app takes the song playing and compares it to thousands of other songs until it finds a match. Within seconds, it can tell you the name, artist, and album of the song you just heard. Another spectacular app is Lookout. Hopefully, you won’t have to use it often, but when you do need it. Lookout can be a lifesaver. Its main function is to help you find your phone if it goes missing. Lookout does this by using your smartphone’s data connection to locate your lost device. To see where your phone is on a map, simply log into Lookout from any web browser. In the worst-case situation, if someone steals your phone and you fear it has gone for good, you can wipe out all of its data with a few clicks. This will ensure no one will see any private information on your phone. These helpful apps are just the tip of the iceberg. If you do some searching online, you are certain to find many other apps that will make your life more convenient.
4. What is Lookout most useful for?

My family consists of four people. There’s my father whose name is Jan, my mother whose name is Marie, my brother Peter and of course me. I have quite a large extended family as well but only the four of us live together in our apartment in a block of flats. My father is fifty-two years old, he works as an accountant in an insurance company. He is tall and slim, has got short brown and grey hair and blue eyes. My father likes gardening very much as well as listening to music and reading books about political science. His special hobbies are bird watching and travelling.

Now I’ll describe my mother and my brother. My mother is forty-seven and she works as a nurse in a hospital. She is small and slim, has got short brown hair and green eyes. She likes bird watching and travelling too, so whenever my parents are able to them go to some places interesting for nature watching. Since we have a cottage with a garden they both spend a lot of time there. My brother is sixteen. He is slim and has short brown hair and blue eyes. He also attends high school. He is interested in computers and sports like football and hockey. He also spends a lot of time with his friends.

I have only one grandmother left still living. She is in pretty good health even at the age of seventy- eight so she still lives in her own flat. I enjoy spending time with her when I can. Both my grandfathers died from cancer because they are smokers, which was really a great tragedy because I didn’t get a chance to know them. My other grandmother died just a few years ago. I also have a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousines. The cousine I’m closest to is my uncle’s daughter Pauline. We have a lot in common because we are both eighteen and so we are good friends.

My parents have assigned me certain duties around the house. I don’t mind helping out because everyone in a family should contribute in some way. I help with the washing up, the vacuuming and the shopping. Of course, I also have to help keep my room tidy as well. My brother is responsible for the dusting and the mopping. He also has to clean his own room. Even though my brother and I sometimes fight about who has to do what job, we are still very close. I am also very close to my parents and I can rely on them to help me. My parents work together to keep our home well maintained and it seems they always have some projects or another that they are working on. They respect each other’s opinions and even if they disagree they can always come to a compromise. I hope in the future that I have a family like ours.

The word “tragedy” in the third paragraph mostly means_______.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Glenbrook South (GBS) High School is in a suburb of Chicago, lllinois, in the United States. It is an award-winning school with a highly competent teaching staff. It has over 400 Asian Pacific American students-over 17 percent of the students in the school. Of these, the majority are Korean American. This is very unusual in a state where Korean Americans are less than 1 percent of the population. The interactions of the Korean American students at GBS were the subject of an article in Asian Week magazine. Different Korean American students react differently to being in a high school where most students are white. Professor Pyong Gap Min, an expert on Korean life in America, believes that Korean Americans in this situation can sometimes feel inhibited or ashamed of their Korean identity. Asian Week interviewed a number of GBS students, and each had a different attitude. Eighteen-year-old Alice said that she used to spend time only with Korean American friends. Although she felt secure with those friends, she found herself motivated to form closer relationships with non-Koreans, too. She said that she felt she was missing out on new experiences and challenges. Seventeen-year-old John moved in the opposite direction. In junior high school, most of John's friends were white. After coming to GBS, his sense of his Korean American identity was restored, and he decided to have mainly Korean American friends. He feels that he and his Korean American friends understand each other better. For example, they understand about severe parental pressures to succeed at school; John felt his white friends couldn't really understand. Sixteen-year-old Paul has some Korean American friends, but he says he spends most of his time with his white friends. He is often the only Asian American in the group, but he doesn't mind. What Paul likes about the white culture is that he can be more radical - he can be as loud and funny as he wants to be. He says he doesn't see as much of that among the Asian students. Without belittling the importance of what these students had to say, it's important to remember that their opinions at this phase of their lives are bound to change as they grow into adulthood. But these honest opinions can help US better understand issues of cultural relations, and their honesty might help Americans from different cultural groups to get along better in the future. 
10. What can be inferred from the fifth paragraph?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
Scientists have developed a new bionic computer chip that can be mated with human cells to combat disease. The tiny device, smaller and thinner than a strand of hair, combines a healthy human cell with an electronic circuitry chip. Doctors can control the activity of the cell by controlling the chip with a computer.
It has long been established that cell members become permeable when exposed to electrical impulses. Researchers have conducted genetic research for years with a trial-and-error process of bombarding cells with electricity in an attempt to introduce foreign substances such as new drug treatments or genetic material. They were unable to apply a particular level of voltage for a particular purpose. With the new invention, the computer sends electrical impulses to the chip, which triggers the physicians to open a cell‘s pores with control.
Researchers hope that eventually they will be able to develop more advanced chips whereby they can choose a particular voltage to activate particular tissues, whether they be muscle, bone, brain, or others. They believe that they will be able to implant multiple chips into a person to deal with one problem or more than one problem.

The author indicates that it is expected doctors will be able to     .

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Traveling in the Future
These days, if you want to travel from New York to Beijing, the flight takes about 16 hours. You also have to wait at the airport, and sometimes you have to transfer onto a different airplane. If you add all of that extra time, the trip takes at least 20 hours. But in the future, the trip from New York to Beijing might only take two hours. Right now, a private company is developing something called ET3. ET3 stands for “evacuated tube transport technology”. Here is how it works. A tube goes all the way from New York to Beijing. The tube is only a few meters wide. Capsules move through the tube. Six people can sit in one capsule. The capsules use electricity instead of gasoline. For international travel, the capsules can travel at about 6,500 kilometers per hour. That is much faster than airplane – most modern airplanes usually only fly at about 800 kilometers per hour. So how is this possible? How can these capsules travel so fast? The answer is that there is no air inside the tube. When airplanes fly, they have to move through the air. The air slows the airplanes down. Because there is no air in the ET3 tubes, the capsules are able to move at a very high speed. Besides, the capsules are quite light. They only weigh 183 kilograms. There are other advantages to ET3. Because it uses electricity, it is quite clean. In addition, it is much quieter than airplanes and cars. Finally, ET3 tubes and capsules don’t require very much building material. Of course, ET3 doesn’t exist yet. The technology is still being developed. Developers still have to solve a lot of problems. The biggest problem is that right now, ET3 would be far too expensive. In order to make ET3 cheaper, we will need much better technology. It is exciting to think of how ET3 will change travel in the future. Maybe someday, you will be able to have lunch in New York and dinner in Beijing.
1. Which of the following is NOT true about travelling at present?

He is a great sports ______. He rarely misses any sport games although he was busy.

(445)____

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
It is commonly believed in the United States that school is where people go to get an education. Nevertheless, it has been said that today children interrupt their education to go to school. The distinction between schooling and education implied by this remark is important. Education is much more open-ended and all-inclusive than schooling. Education knows no bounds. It can take place anywhere, whether in the shower or on the job, whether in a kitchen or on a tractor. It includes both the formal learning that takes place in schools and the whole universe of informal learning. The agents of education can range from a revered grandparent to the people debating politics on the radio, from a child to a distinguished scientist. Whereas schooling has a certain predictability, education quite often produces surprises. A chance conversation with a stranger may lead a person to discover how little is known of other religions. People are engaged in education from infancy on. Education is, then, a very broad, inclusive term. It is a lifelong process, a process that starts long before the start of school, and one that should be an integral part of one's entire life. Schooling, on the other hand, is a specific, formalized process, whose general pattern varies little from one setting to the next. Throughout a country, children arrive at school at approximately the same time, take assigned seats, are taught by an adult, use similar textbooks, take exams and so on. The slices of reality that are to be learned, whether they are the alphabet or an understanding of the working of government, have usually limited by the boundaries of the subject being taught. For example, high school students know that they are not likely to find out in their classes the truth about political problems in their communities or what the newest filmmakers are experimenting with. There are definite conditions surrounding the formalized process of schooling
8. Which of the following is NOT true about the passage?

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the sentences with given words:
If/ it/ fine/ tomorrow, we/ go/ the/ dentist.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Alemur is a unique animal. When you look at a lemur, it might be hard to tell what you are really looking at. With their huge dark eyes and lush fur, lemurs are very cute, but what animal family are they from? Some lemurs look like a cross between a cat and a dog. Some look a little like squirrels, while others resemble monkeys. Why do they look so strange? To answer to this question we need to understand the lemur's history and genetics. In modern biology, lemurs are called prosimians. This means before monkeys. Remarkably, lemurs, monkeys, apes, and humans all share a common ancestor from about 50 million years ago. Monkeys, apes, and humans developed together in one direction. However, lemurs developed differently and slowly because of their geographical location. All lemurs come from the island of Madagascar, located off the east coast of Africa. Madagascar split off from mainland Africa 50 million years ago. It is believed that the first prosimians traveled to Madagascar on floating trees and plants. The prosimians that traveled to Madagascar were isolated from the rest of Africa. Predators, like dogs or cats, did not make it to Madagascar. Since there were no dangerous threats, prosimians did not have to evolve as quickly as other primates did. (primates: any nimal that belongs to the group of mammals that includes humans, apes, and monkeys.) Over time, the original prosimians evolved into lemurs. Lemurs have changed in some ways over those 50 million years, but they are much more similar to our shared ancestor than either humans, monkeys, or apes. Because of this, their bodies and behaviors hold clues about what out common ancestor looked like. Lemurs have four fingers and a thumb on their hands, and five toes on their feet, just like humans do. They have eyes and jaw bones that are similar to humans as well, but they have a wet nose, like a dog. Lemur behavior is also comparable to human behavior, as they live in social groups. Like apes and humans, lemurs travel together, groom one another, fight each other, and play together. Lemurs, however, have simpler friend and family relationships. Recently, lemurs have been studied in captivity. Like their distant chimpanzee and monkey cousins, they can be taught to use tools and to solve complicated problems. The word lemur means ghost. While the name probably comes from their huge reflective eyes and their strange, haunting cries, lemurs are ghosts in a way. They are living ghosts that remind US where we came from, and also give US clues about how humans evolved.
7. Paragraph 4 States, "they are much more similar to our shared ancestor than either human, monkeys, or apes". What do you think the reason is?

Choose the best answer:
He ________ to the spot where the house used to stand.

This book is not really _____ It is a waste of money buying it.

(381)________

SHIRESBERRY (February 15) – The second annual Shiresberry Film Festival begins on April 18 and ---143--- for five weeks. This year's offerings will not be limited to entries from North America and Europe. We will also be presenting ---144--- from Asia and South America. And everyone's favorite feature from last year's festival will be back: directors and screenwriters will hold question-and-answer sessions after their films' initial screening. Make sure you do not miss this ---145---  event. Tickets always sell out quickly. ---146---. Shiresberry Film Club members can now purchase priority tickets. Visit the Shiresberry Theater box office or www.shiresberrytheater.com

145...............

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Together, the thousands of scientists and conservation organizations that contribute to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and other systems of assessment provide the world's largest knowledge base on the global status of species. The aim of these systems is to provide the general public, conservationists, nongovernmental organizations, the media, decision makers, and policy makers with comprehensive and scientifically rigorous information on the conservation status of the world's species and the threats that drive the observed patterns of population decline. Scientists in conservation and protected area management agencies use data on species status in the development of conservation planning and prioritization, the identification of important sites and species for dedicated conservation action and recovery planning, and educational programs. Although the IUCN Red List and other similar species-assessment tools do not prescribe the action to be taken, the data within the list are often used to inform legislation and policy and to determine conservation priorities at regional, national, and international levels. In contrast, the listing criteria of other categorization systems (such as the United States Endangered Species Act, the CITES) are prescriptive; they often require that landowners and various governmental agencies take specific mandatory steps to protect species falling within particular categories of threat It is likely that many undescribed or unassessed species of plants, animals, and other organisms have become or are in the process of becoming extinct. To maintain healthy populations of both known and unknown species, assessments and reassessments are valuable tools. Such monitoring work must continue so that the most current knowledge can be applied to effective environmental monitoring and management efforts. For many threatened species, large well-protected conservation areas (biological reserves) often play major roles in curbing population declines. Such reserves are often cited by conservation biologists and other authorities as the best way to protect individual species as well as the ecosystems they inhabit. In addition, large biological reserves may harbor several undescribed and unassessed species. Despite the creation of several large reserves around the world, poaching and illegal trafficking plague many areas. Consequently, even species in those areas require continued monitored and periodic assessment.
1. Which could be the best title for the passage?

 Read the following passage and then choose the best answer.
This is a picture of Tom’s family. He is my pen pal. He lives in a lovely old town in England. There are six people in his family: his parents, his aunt, his uncle, his brother and Tom. They live happily together.
Tom’s family lives in a nice house in the town. His house is near a park and next to a bookstore. There are seven rooms, a garage and a beautiful garden in the house. The seven rooms include three bedrooms, two bathrooms, one living room, and a large kitchen. Tom and his brother share a bedroom and they don’t really like it. The house was built in 1999 but it is still new and fashionable. The garden is so beautiful with many kinds of flowers. Tom loves the garden so much.
People in Tom’s family have different jobs. His father is fifty and he is a teacher. He teaches in a secondary school in the town. His mother is forty-eight and she is a housewife. She takes care of all the people in the house. She grows vegetables in the garden and usually prepares wonderful meals. His brother, Peter is a pilot. He flies a plane in the sky. He is very handsome. His aunt is a nurse. She helps doctors take care of sick people in the hospital. His uncle is a journalist. He writes articles for a local newspaper. Tom is a student and he wants to be a doctor in the future. I will go to England to see him again next summer vacation.
 What is the most suitable title for this passage?

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
An Amazing Invention
Look at your hand, and it might not seem very interesting at first, but it is an amazing tool. In fact, the human hand is as complex and as useful as a high tech machine. This might sound strange to you, but the development of the human hand changed the world. For example, the thumb helped human beings become the smartest and most powerful animals on the Earth. Your thumb is important because it faces your other fingers. This allows you to hold things, like tools. Being able to hold tools allowed our ancient ancestors to build things and become more advanced. It is also possible that when we developed thumbs and started to use tools, our brains developed faster as well. And how about this? Your fingers are the only parts of your body that are moved by a “remote control”. A remote control is the small device that you use to change the channel on your television. Your fingers are controlled by remote because they don’t have any muscles. You control your fingers with the muscles in your palms. The palms are connected to the fingers by tendons. The palms pull the tendons, and move them the same way a string moves a puppet. Every part of the human body is complicated, but the hand is especially complicated. It has a total of 29 bones. There are 34 different muscles that move the fingers and the thumb. Seventeen of those muscles are in the palm, and 18 are in the forearm. The human hand also has 48 nerves and 30 arteries. An artery is like a vein, but it carries blood away from the heart. Human beings are not as strong or as fast as other animals. However, our ancient ancestors were able to rule the world for two reasons.  First, they were intelligent. Second, they had these amazing instruments called hands. There is no other invention like them in the world.

1. What is important about the thumb?
 

Choose the best answer:
I couldn't cut the grass because the machine............. a few days previously.