A smart watch is used _____ you access to lots of information besides the time of day, such as missed calls, messages, and emails.

Their children ______ lots of new friends since they moved to that town.

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

Reasons why I would buy an iWatch

As a principal and a teacher, my days are incredibly busy. I often don’t have the time to check messages (1) _______ my phone or computer during the day because there is rarely a free moment during my workday. This has often (2) _______ to my missing important email messages, phone calls, or text messages from my family members or schoolchildren’s parents.

I too often (3) _______ to feel the buzzing of my phone in my (4) _______ , or if I am incredibly busy, I am not able to pull it out to look at the reason for the alert. I would love the ability to have alerts right on my (5) _______ to glance at really quickly. This would help me, even during the busiest parts of the day, to quickly know (6) _______ there is an important message or phone call that I need to attend to.

One of my least favorite parts of the day is sorting through my email box at the end of a busy school day of all the messages that backed up during my day of eaching. How (7) _______ would it be to be able to (8) ______ email and other messages with a quick flick of a button on the iWatch as they arrive during the day? I imagine the iWatch buzzing with an incoming email and then offering buttons to quickly archive, delete, or send the message to a specific (9) _______. Being able to (10) _______ incoming messages as they arrive in split seconds throughout the day would save me from having to spend the time sorting through all alerts and messages at the end of the day.

(7) __________

Choose the best answer: 
Many human activities over the last 200 years have been responsible (1)................polluting the air and damaging people’s health. Automobile engines and power plants burn combustible (2)............ like gasoline and coal and allow toxic gases and smoke to escape into the air. Some pollutants destroy the ozone layer, which is the thin blanket of gases that (3)............ Earth from the Sun’s dangerous ultraviolet rays. Other pollutants contribute to (4)............ warming by adding to the planet’s natural greenhouse effect. Still others create acid rain, a phenomenon that has disastrous (5)............... on lake and forest habitats. Air pollution is not limited to industrial areas. Depending on the direction of the wind and its force, air pollutants may (6).......... spread to other countries very far from the source of the pollution. Big cities like Los Angeles and Mexico City are*often covered by smog, a fog that occurs (7).............. air pollution. In 1952, the City of London, England, was enveloped by smog so thick that people on the streets had to feel their way around by (8)............the walls of buildings! 
4.

Choose the word or phrase that best fits each blank in the following passage. (1.5 pts)

On a yearly (1)______, the USA is afflicted by hurricanes on the east coast, flooding in the Midwest, forest fires, earthquakes, and any number of tornadoes, blizzards, and storms. Historically, the weather has (2)_________ as harsh a chord in people’s lives as any we feel today. Historians list the four major events to wreak devastation (3)________ the country as the Chicago fire in 1871, the Johnstown flood and the Galveston hurricane of 1900, and the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. These (4)_______ provide a flavor of the havoc that natures storms have wrecked on humanity and our reactions to them. Galveston, Texas, (5) _______ on the island of Galveston in the Gulf of New Mexico, (6)_________ on industry and exports. It's over 30,000 citizens in the early 1900s were generally economically successful and comfortable with existing conditions. (7)___________ the ill-fated morning of Sept. 7, 1900, the people of Galveston enjoyed their life on the remote island. (8)______ weather watchers had been following a (9)_______ storm* in the Atlantic for several days and were warning of the (10)_____________ danger of a hurricane. Unfortunately, people (11)_________ the warnings. A day after the hurricane had hit the island, all that (12)____________ of the beautiful city was, a mass of crumbled buildings, debris, and hopeless survivors (13)___________ aimlessly with the stench of rotting flesh all around. However, a few days later, that the city was beginning to heal became (14) ______________  everywhere – soon new buildings were (15) _______ the burned, and the lifeblood of the ravaged city was returning.

14___________

Read the passage and choose the best answers to the questions that follow, (1 pts)

Television’s contribution to family life in the United States has been an equivocal one. For while it has, indeed, kept the members of the family from dispersing, it has not served to bring them together. By dominating the time families spend together, it destroys the special quality that distinguishes one family from another, a quality that depends to a great extent on what a family does, what special rituals, games, recurrent jokes, familiar songs, and shared activities it accumulates.

“Like the sorcerer of old,” writes Urie Bronfenbrenner, “the television set casts its magic spell, freezing speech and action, turning the living into silent statues so long as the enchantment lasts. The primary danger of the television screen lies not so much in the behavior it produces – although there is danger there – as in the behavior it prevents: the talks, games, the family festivities, and arguments through which much of the child’s learning takes place and through which character is formed. Turning on the television set can turn off the process that transforms children into people.”

Of course, families today still do special things together at times: go camping in the summer, go to the zoo on a nice Sunday, take various trips and expeditions. But the ordinary daily life together is diminished – that sitting around at the dinner table, that spontaneous taking up of activity, those little games invented by children on the spur of the moment when there is nothing else to do, the scribbling, the chatting, the quarreling, all the things that form the fabric of a family, that define childhood.

Instead, the children have their regular schedule of television programs and bedtime, and the parents have their peaceful dinner together. But surely the needs of adults are being better met than the needs of children, who are effectively shunted away and rendered untroublesome.

If the family does not accumulate its backlog of shared experiences, shared everyday experiences that occur and recur and change and develop, then it is not likely to survive as anything other than a caretaking institution.

The word freezingin the passage is closest in meaning to_____________ .

Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each question.

What Is It Like Being a Teenager in Britain?

School

British teenagers spend most of their time at school. Students in Britain can leave school at sixteen (grade 11). This is also the age when most students take their first important exams, the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education). Most teens take between 5-10 subjects, which means a lot of studying. They are spending more time on homework than teenagers ever before. Forget watching TV, teenagers in Britain now spend 2-3 hours on homework after school.

School uniform

Visit almost any school in Britain and the first thing you’ll notice is the school uniform. Although school uniform has its advantages, when they are 15 or 16 most teenagers are tired of wearing it. When there is more than one school in a town, school uniforms can highlight differences between schools. In London, there are many cases of bullying and fighting between pupils from different schools.

Clothes and looks

In Britain, some teens judge you by the shirt or trainers you are wearing. 40% of British teenagers believe it’s important to wear designer labels. If you want to follow the crowd, you need to wear trendy labels. Teenage feet in Britain wear fashionable trainers and the more expensive, the better.

Most students in Britain take the GCSE when ____________.

Choose the word or phrase that best fits each blank in the following passage. (1.5 pts)

On a yearly (1)______, the USA is afflicted by hurricanes on the east coast, flooding in the Midwest, forest fires, earthquakes, and any number of tornadoes, blizzards, and storms. Historically, the weather has (2)_________ as harsh a chord in people’s lives as any we feel today. Historians list the four major events to wreak devastation (3)________ the country as the Chicago fire in 1871, the Johnstown flood and the Galveston hurricane of 1900, and the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. These (4)_______ provide a flavor of the havoc that natures storms have wrecked on humanity and our reactions to them. Galveston, Texas, (5) _______ on the island of Galveston in the Gulf of New Mexico, (6)_________ on industry and exports. It's over 30,000 citizens in the early 1900s were generally economically successful and comfortable with existing conditions. (7)___________ the ill-fated morning of Sept. 7, 1900, the people of Galveston enjoyed their life on the remote island. (8)______ weather watchers had been following a (9)_______ storm* in the Atlantic for several days and were warning of the (10)_____________ danger of a hurricane. Unfortunately, people (11)_________ the warnings. A day after the hurricane had hit the island, all that (12)____________ of the beautiful city was, a mass of crumbled buildings, debris, and hopeless survivors (13)___________ aimlessly with the stench of rotting flesh all around. However, a few days later, that the city was beginning to heal became (14) ______________  everywhere – soon new buildings were (15) _______ the burned, and the lifeblood of the ravaged city was returning.

6.____________

Choose the best answer: 
Many human activities over the last 200 years have been responsible (1)................polluting the air and damaging people’s health. Automobile engines and power plants burn combustible (2)............ like gasoline and coal and allow toxic gases and smoke to escape into the air. Some pollutants destroy the ozone layer, which is the thin blanket of gases that (3) ...................Earth from the Sun’s dangerous ultraviolet rays. Other pollutants contribute to (4)............ warming by adding to the planet’s natural greenhouse effect. Still others create acid rain, a phenomenon that has disastrous (5)............... on lake and forest habitats. Air pollution is not limited to industrial areas. Depending on the direction of the wind and its force, air pollutants may (6).......... spread to other countries very far from the source of the pollution. Big cities like Los Angeles and Mexico City are*often covered by smog, a fog that occurs (7).............. air pollution. In 1952, the City of London, England, was enveloped by smog so thick that people on the streets had to feel their way around by (8)............the walls of buildings! 
3.

Read the passage and choose the correct answer to each question.

Today, walking around Ha Noi or Ho Chi Minh City, you can easily see the image of a Vietnamese kid eating KFC-styled chicken, drinking Coca Cola and watching Disney Channel. On Vietnamese channels premiere a lot of Korean, Chinese, American films. English songs appear in iPods or MP3 players of many teenagers. All shows the tremendous effects of globalization on Vietnamese life, especially Vietnamese culture.

Globalization does bring convenience and comfort to Vietnamese people. Now we can enjoy goods and services with high quality and competitive prices as many foreign companies join our market. Advances in communication help eradicate geographic borders among countries and therefore connect our world. Especially, globalization shortens the long-standing distance among different cultures. For example, right here in Viet Nam, we can watch the latest movies made in Hollywood; we can read famous books written by authors from the US, UK, EU, Japan, China… We can see the appearance of restaurants serving Thai, Italian, Japanese, American, Latin American food in big cities. Moreover, globalization is a fast and useful way to present Vietnamese culture to the whole world.

However, that does not mean globalization does no harm to the culture of our country. One of the most concerning problems caused by globalization is the dominance of foreign culture in Vietnamese life. Simply put, people lose their traditional values and begin to identify with the culture of dominant nations. Perhaps, the most apparent and serious effect is language. Our Vietnamese language is facing “severe competition” from other languages, especially English.

According to the writer, the problem that the Vietnamese language is facing is__________ 

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

"To make matters even more interesting some researchers suggest that Elisha Gray, a professor at Oberlin College, applied for a caveat of the telephone on __________ (1) same day Bell applied for his patent of the telephone- these gentlemen didn’t actually visit the Patent Office, their lawyers did __________ (2) their behalf. In Historical First Patents: The First United States Patent for Many Everyday Things (Scarecrow Press, 1994), Travis Brown, reports that Bell’s lawyer got to the patent office first. The date was February 14, 1876. He was the fifth entry of that day, __________ (3) Gray’s lawyer was 39th. Therefore, the U.S. Patent Office ___________ (4) Bell with the first patent for a telephone, US Patent Number 174,465 rather than honor Gray's caveat. _________, (5) some authors dispute this story and suggest that there was malfeasance by certain individuals at Patent Office, and possibly Bell himself."

2. their lawyers did __________ (2) their behalf. 

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

Computers are widely used nowadays and have _________ (1) benefits. First of all, they are used in various aspects _________ (2) our life such as science, industry, airline, military and so on. Computers are also the tool with which we are able _________ (3) the internet, watch animated television shows and other entertainment programs. Moreover, industrialization could not make its miracle jump without the support of computers. Computers, as well as advances in information technology, _________ (4) our life modern, convenient and civilized. Besides, computers and the internet bring us a great means of communication. Distance is no longer a matter of concern _________ (5) we can send emails within a few seconds or make cheap internet phone calls. In short, computers have become an indispensable device and are of vital use in the life of the human being.

Read the passage and choose the correct answer to each of the questions. 

British teenagers sit up to 70 exams and tests before they reach their GCSEs (The General Certificate of Secondary Education). But there are ways to ease the stress at exam time.

What a student eats and drinks in the run-up to exams can influence how clearly they think and how happy they feel. A balanced diet with lots of fruit and vegetables, fish and complex carbohydrates will help them concentrate and think clearly. Too much high-fat, high-sugar and high-caffeine food and drink can make studying harder.

Sleeping well and for long enough to feel rested, around six to eight hours for most people, will help thinking and concentration. Students should allow half an hour or so to wind down between studying, watching TV or using a computer and going to bed to help them get a good night’s sleep. Regular exercise also helps them sleep better. Cramming all night before an exam is usually a bad idea.

Parents should be flexible around exam time. When a child is revising all day, don’t worry about household jobs that are left undone or untidy bedrooms. If they’re a bit moody they should stay calm. They can help a child to revise by making sure they have somewhere comfortable to study.

Students should remind themselves that feeling nervous is normal. Nervousness is a typical reaction to exams. All students will feel it. The key is to put these nerves to positive use. Being reminded of what they do know and the time they have put into a study can help them feel confident that they can reach their potential.

A comfortable place is good for students to ______.

ose the word or phrase (a, b, c or d) that best fits the blank space in the following passage.

One of the greatest advances in modern technology has been the (61)__________ of computers. They are already (62)______ used in industry and in universities and the time may come when it will be common for (63)________ people to use them as well. Computers are capable of doing extremely complicated work in all (64)_________ of learning. They can (65)______ the most complex mathematical problem and put thousands of unrelated facts (66)______ order. Because they work accurately and at high speeds they (67)______ research workers years of hard work. (68)____ is a mistake to believe that these machines could “think”. There is no (69)_____ that human beings will be controlled by machines. Though computers are capable of (70)______ from their mistakes and improving on their performance, they need detailed (71)_______ from human beings in order to be able to operate. They can never, as it were, (72)________ independent lives or rule the world by making decisions of their (73)___________. Computers are the most efficient (74)____ man has ever had and there is no limit to the ways they can be used to (75)_____ our lives.

70_____________

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the sentences

Another man-made satellite has _______ up into space.

He ______  off  alone a month ago, and _______ of since then.

One in five girl or women put up with domestic violence within one-year period.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.

At 16, Paul decided he was (23)____ for full-time work, and left school. At first, his parents did not agree with him and wanted him to stay (24)____ his studies. In fact, they were very angry with him. “We’re worried (25)____ your future!” his father told him. “How can you ever get a good job (26)____ you leave school and sit in the café, drinking coffee with your friends? His parents strongly (27)____ of Paul’s friends.

27_____________

Read the following passage and answer the questions.

Healthy foods are good for you! They help your body grow. They also give you the energy to work and play.

How do you know which foods to eat? Follow the food pyramid. Use it to make good choices.

Grains: The grains group gives you energy. Make sure at least half the grains you eat are whole grains. Eat brown rice, oatmeal, and popcorn. Try whole-wheat bread instead of white bread.

Vegetables: Color your plate with all kinds of veggies. They help your heart, eyes, skin, and teeth. Experts say to eat a rainbow of colors. Each color helps the body in a different way. Munch on carrots, corn, and broccoli.

Meat and Beans: The meat and bean group is high in protein. That helps build strong muscles. Eat fish, chicken, lima beans, and nuts.

Fruits: Fruits are nature’s treats. They are sweet and tasty. They help your heart, eyes, skin, and teeth too. Eat a variety of colors. Try an apple or a banana. You can also mix pieces of different fruits to make a salad.

Milk: Have milk and foods made with milk? Those foods are high in calcium. Calcium builds strong bones. Foods made with milk can be high in fat. Try low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese.

Oils: Your body needs only a little oil to keep it healthy. Some foods that have oils are nuts, tuna fish, and salad dressing.

Which of the food groups does your body need the least amount of?

Choose the best answer:
 The custom of paying a bride price before marriage is still a well-established part of many African cultures. In paying a bride price, the family of the groom must provide payment to the family of the bride before the marriage is allowed. The bride price can vary greatly from culture to culture in Africa. In the Zulu and Swazi tribes of southern Africa, the bride price often takes the form of cattle. In Western African, kola nuts, shells, and other goods are often used for the payment of the bride price. The actual payment of money sometimes takes place, but the payment of goods is more frequent. The amount of paid in a bride price can also vary. In modern times, the bride price is occasionally quite small and its value is mainly symbolic. However, the bride price can still be quite high, especially among prominent or highly traditional families.

There are a number of justifications used to explain the payment of bride price. The first is that the bride price represents an acknowledgement of the expense the bride’s family has gone in order to raise her and bring her up as a suitable bride for the groom. It also represents payment for the loss of a family member, since the bride will officially become a member of her husband’s family and will leave her own. On a deeper level the bride price represents payment for the fact that the bride will bring children into the family of the groom, thereby increasing the wealth of the family. This concept is reinforced by the fact that the bride price must often be returned if the bride fails to bear children.

The payment of the bride price has quite a number of effects on African society. First, the payment of bride price acts to increase the stability of African family structures. Sons are dependent on their fathers and older relatives to help them pay the bride price of their wives, and this generally leads to greater levels of obedience and respect. The negotiations between the two families concerning the bride price allow the parents and other family members to meet and get to know one another before the marriage. Finally, since the bride price must often be repaid in case of divorce, the bride’s family often works to make sure that any marital problems are solved quickly. Bride prices also work as a system of wealth distribution in African cultures. Wealthier families can afford to support the marriage of their son, and thus their wealth is transferred to other families.

 4. The phrase “The first” in the passage refers to the first _________.

Choose the word or phrase (a, b, c or d) that best fits the blank space in the following passage.

One of the greatest advances in modern technology has been the (61)__________ of computers. They are already (62)______ used in industry and in universities and the time may come when it will be common for (63)________ people to use them as well. Computers are capable of doing extremely complicated work in all (64)_________ of learning. They can (65)______ the most complex mathematical problem and put thousands of unrelated facts (66)______ order. Because they work accurately and at high speeds they (67)______ research workers years of hard work. (68)____ is a mistake to believe that these machines could “think”. There is no (69)_____ that human beings will be controlled by machines. Though computers are capable of (70)______ from their mistakes and improving on their performance, they need detailed (71)_______ from human beings in order to be able to operate. They can never, as it were, (72)________ independent lives or rule the world by making decisions of their (73)___________. Computers are the most efficient (74)____ man has ever had and there is no limit to the ways they can be used to (75)_____ our lives.

73___________