BODY LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
The body language people use often communicates more about their feelings than the words they are saying. We use body movements, hand gestures, facial expressions, and changes in our voice to communicate with each other. Although some body language is universal, many gestures are culturally specific and may mean different things in different countries. 
If you want to give someone the nod in Bulgaria, you have to nod your head to say no and shake it to say yes – the exact opposite of what we do! In Belgium, pointing with your index finger or snapping your fingers at someone is very rude. 
In France, you shouldn't rest your feet on tables or chairs. Speaking to someone with your hands in your pockets will only make matters worse. In the Middle East, you should never show the soles of your feet or shoes to others as it will be seen as a grave insult. When eating, only use your right hand because they use their left hands when going to the bathroom. 
In Bangladesh, the 'thumbs-up' is a rude sign. In Myanmar, people greet each other by clapping, and in India, whistling in public is considered rude.
In Japan, you should not blow your nose in public, but you can burp at the end of a meal to show that you have enjoyed it. The 'OK' sign (thumb and index finger forming a circle) means 'everything is good' in the West, but in China it means nothing or zero. In Japan, it means money, and in the Middle East, it is a rude gesture.

In the Middle East, people do not use their left hands for eating because they use their left hands________.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The climate crisis is poised to deliver a severe blow to America’s most threatened animals, with a new study finding that almost every species considered endangered is vulnerable in some way to global heating. Of the 459 animal species listed as endangered by the US government, researchers found that all but one, or 99.8%, have characteristics that will make it difficult for them to adapt to rising temperatures. The California condor, once close to being completely wiped out, faces increased risk of contamination in hotter conditions. Key deer, found only in the Florida Keys, face losing habitat to the rising seas. Whole classes of animals including amphibians, mollusks and arthropods are sensitive to the greatest number of climate-related threats, such as changes in water quality, shifting seasons and harmful invasive species that move in as temperatures climb. Mammals, such as the north Atlantic right whale and Florida panther, also face increased hardships, albeit on fewer fronts than amphibians, mollusks and arthropods.  Despite the overwhelming peril faced by America’s endangered species due to the climate crisis, the report, published in Nature Climate Change, found a patchy response from the US government. Federal agencies consider just 64% of endangered species to be threatened by the climate crisis, while just 18% of listed species have protection plans in place. Astrid Caldas, a study co-author and a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists said: “While agencies have increasingly listed climate change as a growing threat to species whose survival is already precarious, many have not translated this concern into tangible actions, meaning a significant protection gap still exists.” Nearly half of Australian species are threatened by the climate crisis, researchers have found. A spokesman for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the endangered species list, said that while a species may be sensitive to changes in the climate, this sensitivity may not be so severe as to warrant being put on the list. “Our process for determining this looks at five factors: threats to a species’ habitat, overutilization, disease or predation, existing regulatory mechanisms, and other factors that may affect its continued existence,” he said. “Through this scientifically rigorous process we examine and account for the effects of climate change.  
3. According to paragraph 2, what did the author imply when listing several species and their situation?

 Rewrite the sentence:
The old man is working in this factory. I borrowed his bicycle yesterday.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Diseases are a natural part of life on earth. If there were no diseases, the population would grow too quickly, and there would not be enough food or other resources, so in a way, diseases are natural ways of keeping the Earth in balance. But sometimes they spread very quickly and kill large numbers of people. For example, in 1918, an outbreak of the flu across the world, killing over 25 million people only in six months. Such terrible outbreaks of a diseases are called pandemics. Pandemics happen when a disease changes in a way that our bodies are not prepared to fiht. In 1918, a new type of fl virus appeared. Our bodies had no way to fiht this new flu virus, and so it spread very quickly and killed large numbers of people. While there have been many different pandemic diseases throughout history, all of them have a new thing in common. First, all pandemic diseases spread from one person to another very easily. Second, while they may kill many people, they generally do not kill people very quickly. A good example of this would be the Marburg virus. The Marburg virus is an extremely infectious disease. In addition, it is deadly. About 70%-80% of all people who get the Marburg virus died from the disease. However, the Marburg virus has not become a pandemics because most people die within three days of getting the disease. This means that the virus does not have enough time to spread a large number of people. The flu virus of 1918, on the other hand, generally took about a week to ten days to kill its victims, so it had more time to spread. While we may never be able to completely stop pandemics, we can make them less common. Doctors carefully monitor new disease that they fear could become pandemics. For example, in 2002, and 2003, doctors carefully watched SARS. Their health warming may have prevented SARS from becoming a pandemic.
2. According to paragraph 1, how are diseases a natural part of life on Earth?

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.

   The White House, the official home of the United States president, was not built in time for George Washington to live in it. It was begun in 1792 and was ready for its first inhabitants. President and Mrs.John Adams, who moved in on November 1, 1800. When the Adamses moved in, the White House was not yet complete, and the Adamses suffered many inconveniences; for example, the main staircase was incomplete, which hindered movement from floor to floor, and the future laundry yard was merely a pool of mud, so wet laundry was hung in the unfinished East Room to dry. Thomas Jefferson, the third president, improved the comfort of the White House in many respects and added new architectural features such as the terraces on the east and west ends.

   When the British forces burned the White House on August 24, 1814, President Madison was forced to leave.All the remained after the fire was the exterior walls, the interior was completely destroyed. It was not until December of 1817 that the following president, James Monroe, was able to move into a rebuilt residence. Since then, the White House has continued to be modified but has been continuously occupied by each succeeding U.S president.

What of the White House was not yet complete when the Adamses moved in?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Kids can be creatures of habit. Much like how they can watch the same movie over and over, some kids will stick to one author or genre of book that they’ve fallen in love with. But does it matter if they’re always reading the same type of book? After all, isn’t their love of reading in itself enough? Reading builds their imagination, develops their critical thinking skills, and improves their communication skills, amongst many other benefits. Well, while a love of reading of any sort is to be nurtured, when a child only reads the same author or type of book, their growth and the benefits they gain may not be as broad if they were to explore more types of books. Coaxing them to open up to reading other genres can be a big advantage for them in the long term. They will get exposed to different types of characters and lifestyles when they read a wider range of writing. For example, their favourite fantasy novels may spark their imagination, but true tales of life halfway around the world can trigger interest in traveling and foster understanding of other cultures. It helps them develop a broad perspective on the world around them. Their vocabulary will benefit, too, if they read a wide selection of books. Think of the words and the sentence structure used in a vampire book and how they will differ significantly from those in a suspense novel. They will have to sound out words, and it’ll be helpful to have a dictionary handy. With each new word encountered in the broad range of reading materials they’re consuming, their vocabulary grows. Reading a variety of books will also help your child grow their love of reading and it’ll fuel their motivation to read more and more. They once only adored one author, who has  a limited number of books written, discovering new authors or types of books expands their choice of reading material; they’ll never run out of books to add to their reading list! Consider, too, the value of specific types of books for very young readers. Ones that teach the alphabet help them learn that letters come together to form the words in books. Poetry with rhyming words will help develop a child’s phonemic awareness, which is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. Folktales and nursery rhymes are beloved and cherished. Surely there are ones that bring you right back to your childhood, and they tend to be shared from one generation to the next - your child’s favourite will likely be ones they teach their children when they grow up and have kids of their own!
4. According to paragraph 3, how are fantasy novels good for kids?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
NASA is developing the capabilities needed to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s – goals outlined in the bipartisan NASA Authorization Act of 2010 and in the U.S. National Space Policy, also issued in 2010. Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and robotic and human exploration as we expand our presence into the solar system. Its formation and evolution are comparable to Earth, helping us learn more about our own planet’s history and future. Mars had conditions suitable for life in its past. Future exploration could uncover evidence of life, answering one of the fundamental mysteries of the cosmos: Does life exist beyond Earth? While robotic explorers have studied Mars for more than 40 years, NASA’s path for the human exploration of Mars begins in low-Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station. Astronauts on the orbiting laboratory are helping us prove many of the technologies and communications systems needed for human missions to deep space, including Mars. The space station also advances our understanding of how the body changes in space and how to protect astronaut health. Our next step is deep space, where NASA will send a robotic mission to capture and redirect an asteroid to orbit the moon. Astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft will explore the asteroid in the 2020s, returning to Earth with samples. This experience in human spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit will help NASA test new systems and capabilities, such as Solar Electric Propulsion, which we’ll need to send cargo as part of human missions to Mars. Beginning in FY 2018, NASA’s powerful Space Launch System rocket will enable these “proving ground” missions to test new capabilities. Human missions to Mars will rely on Orion and an evolved version of SLS that will be the most powerful launch vehicle ever flown. A fleet of robotic spacecraft and rovers already are on and around Mars, dramatically increasing our knowledge about the Red Planet and paving the way for future human explorers. The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover measured radiation on the way to Mars and is sending back radiation data from the surface. This data will help us plan how to protect the astronauts who will explore Mars. Future missions like the Mars 2020 rover, seeking signs of past life, also will demonstrate new technologies that could help astronauts survive on Mars. Engineers and scientists around the U.S. are working hard to develop the technologies astronauts will use to one day live and work on Mars, and safely return home from the next giant leap for humanity. NASA also is a leader in a Global Exploration Roadmap, working with international partners and the U.S. commercial space industry on a coordinated expansion of human presence into the solar system, with human missions to the surface of Mars as the driving goal.  
5. The word “capture” in the paragraph 4 could be best replaced by __________

Choose the best answer:
We need to learn how to cook, wash the clothes at home. It’s _________.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Birds are even more disrupted by their noisy neighbours than had been thought  previously, researchers have found. And human activities could be preventing birds from reproducing and even developing normal social behaviour and keeping the peace.  A study by Queen’s University Belfast found that when European robins were subjected to human produced noises their behaviour changed. Background noise appeared to mask the communication of crucial information between birds. While aggressive communication is common and birds respond to it, interference through noise can lead to the birds mistaking the signals.  Birds can end up in situations all too familiar to humans. “The birds receive incomplete information on their opponent’s intent and do not appropriately adjust their response,” explained Arnott. “Where song is disguised by background noise, in some cases the male ends up fighting more vigorously than he should, but at other times gives in too easily.”Arnott said the purpose of birdsong was twofold – to attract mates and defend territory. Birds already face an array of human-made dangers, from pesticides and intensive farming to shooting and poisoning. But noise had often been overlooked, the paper in Biology Letters found. A spokesperson for the RSPB said: “Everyone is becoming increasingly concerned that nature is in crisis in the UK, with one in 10 of our wildlife species at threat of extinction. Many of our birds’ populations are already facing a serious crisis as a result of habitat loss, climate change and other human activities. This report is a good reminder that the way we live and our lifestyle has an impact on our natural world, and that we need to protect our natural world if we want to let nature sing.”  For birds, the extra burden of noise pollution adds to extraordinary decline in species, including among once common birds, in recent decades due to such activities as agricultural practice and pesticide use. In the experiment the team used playbacks of robin song to stimulate responses from birds who were territory holders. Simple or complex songs were used in either the presence or absence of noise. The researchers found that song complexity  was used as a signal of aggressive intent; birds demonstrated higher aggressive intent towards complex rather than simple song. This process was disrupted by the presence of added noise.
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
Most people think that lions only come from Africa. This is understandable because in fact most lions do come from there but this has not always been the case. If we went back ten thousand years, we would find that there were lions roaming vast sections of the globe. However now, unfortunately only a very small section of the lion's former habitat remains.
Asiatic lions are sub-species of African lions. It is almost a hundred thousand years since the Asiatic lions split off and developed as a sub-species. At one time the Asiatic lion was living as far west as Greece and they were found from there, but in a band that spreads east through various countries of the Middle East, all the way to India. In museums now, you can see Greek coins that

have clear images of the Asiatic lion on them. Most of them are dated at around 500 B.C. However, Europe saw its last Asiatic lions roaming free two thousand years ago. Over the next nineteen hundred years the numbers of Asiatic lions in the other areas declined steadily, but it was only in the nineteenth century that they disappeared from everywhere but in India.
The Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in India was established especially to protect the Asiatic lion. There are now around three hundred Asiatic lions in India and almost all of them are in this sanctuary. However, despite living in a sanctuary, which makes them safe from hunters, they still face a number of problems that threaten their survival. One of these is the ever-present danger of disease. This is what killed more than a third of Africa’s Serengeti lions in 1994, and people are fearful that something similar could happen in the Gir Sanctuary and kill off many of the Asiatic lions there.
India's lions are particular vulnerable because they have a limited gene pool. The reason for this is interesting is because all of them are descended from a few dozen lions that were saved by a prince who took a particular interest in them. He was very healthy, and he managed to protect them; otherwise they would probably have died out completely.
When you see the Asiatic lion in India, what you sense is enormous vitality. They are very impressive animals and you would never guess that they have this vulnerability when you look at them.

According to the passage, nowadays we can find the Asiatic lion .

Most Americans still get married at some point in their lives, but even that group is shrinking. Among current generations of adult American - starting with those bom in 1920s - more than 90 percent have married or will marry at some point in their lives. However, based on recent patterns of marriage and mortality, demographers calculate that a growing share of the younger generations are postponing marriage for so long that an unprecedented number will never marry at all.

More Americans are living together outside of marriage. Divorced and widowed people are waiting longer to remarry. An increasing number of single women are raising children. Put these trends together with our increasing life expectancy, and the result is inevitable. Americans are spending a record low proportion of their adult lives married.

Married rates for unmarried men and women have dropped from their post-195Os high to record lows. Part of this fall is due to the change in the age at which people first marry. The median age at first marriage is the age by which half the men or women who will ever marry have done so. It fell almost continuously from the time it was first measured, in 1890, at 22.0 years for women and 26.1 for men, to a low of 20.3 for women and 22.6 for men between 1947 and 1962. Since then, it has risen at a rapid pace, to a record high for 23.8 for women and 26.2 for men in 1994.

The length of time between marriages is also increasing, and more divorced people are choosing not to remarry. In 1990, divorced men had waited an average of 3.8 years before remarrying, and divorced women had waited an average of 3.5 years, an increase of more than one year over the average interval in 1970.

Data on cohabitation and unmarried childbearing suggest that marriage is becoming less relevant to Americans. 2.8 million of the nation's households are unmarried couples, and one-third of them are caring for children, according to the Census Bureau

Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to paragraph 2?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
A satellite is best understood as a projectile, or an object that has only one force acting on it — gravity. Technically speaking, anything that crosses the Karman Line at an altitude of 100 kilometers (62 miles) is considered in space. However, a satellite needs to be going fast — at least 8 km (5 miles) a second — to stop from falling back down to Earth immediately. If a satellite is traveling fast enough, it will perpetually “fall” toward Earth, but the Earth’s curvature means that the satellite will fall around our planet instead of crashing back on the surface. Satellites that travel closer to Earth are at risk of falling because the drag of atmospheric molecules will slow the satellites down. Those that orbit farther away from Earth have fewer molecules to contend with. There are several accepted “zones” of orbits around the Earth. One is called lowEarth-orbit, which extends from about 160 to 2,000 km (about 100 to 1,250 miles). This is the zone where the ISS orbits and where the space shuttle used to do its work. In fact, all human missions except for the Apollo flights to the moon took place in this zone. Most satellites also work in this zone. Geostationary or geosynchronous orbit is the best spot for communications satellites to use, however. This is a zone above Earth’s equator at an altitude of 35,786 km (22,236 mi). At this altitude, the rate of “fall” around the Earth is about the same as Earth’s rotation, which allows the satellite to stay above the same spot on Earth almost constantly. The satellite thus keeps a perpetual connection with a fixed antenna on the ground, allowing for reliable communications. When geostationary satellites reach the end of their life, protocol dictates they’re moved out of the way for a new satellite to take their place. That’s because there is only so much room, or so many “slots” in that orbit, to allow the satellites to operate without interference. While some satellites are best used around the equator, others are better suited to more polar orbits — those that circle the Earth from pole to pole so that their coverage zones include the north and south poles. Examples of polar-orbiting satellites include weather satellites and reconnaissance satellites  
7. Which of the following best summaries paragraph 5?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Many scientists believe our love of sugar may actually be an addiction. When we eat or drink sugary foods, the sugar enters our blood and affects parts of our brain that make us feel good. Then the good feeling goes away, leaving us wanting more. All tasty foods do this, but sugar has a particularly strong effect. In this way, it is in fact an addictive drug, one that doctors recommend we all cut down on. “It seems like every time I study an illness and trace a path to the first cause, I find my way back to sugar,” says scientist Richard Johnson. One- third of adults worldwide have high blood pressure, and up to 347 million have diabetes. Why? "Sugar, we believe, is one of the culprits, if not the major culprit," says Johnson. Our bodies are designed to survive on very little sugar. Early humans often had very little food, so our bodies learned to be very efficient in storing sugar as fat. In this way, we had energy stored for when there was no food. But today, most people have more than enough. So the very thing that once saved us may now be killing us. So what is the solution? It’s obvious that we need to eat less sugar. The trouble is, in today’s world, it’s extremely difficult to avoid. From breakfast cereals to after-dinner desserts, our foods are increasingly filled with it. Some manufacturers even use sugar to replace taste in foods that are advertised as low in fat. But there are those who are fighting back against sugar. Many schools are replacing sugary desserts with healthier options like fruit. Other schools are growing their own food in gardens, or building facilities like walking tracks so students and others in the community can exercise. The battle has not yet been lost.  
5. Which of the following statements about sugar is NOT true?

Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer.

Communication in general is process of sending and receiving messages that enables humans to share knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Although we usually identify communication with speech, communication is composed of two dimensions - verbal and nonverbal. Nonverbal communication has been defined as communication without words. It includes apparent behaviors such as facial expressions, eyes, touching, tone of voice, as well as less obvious messages such as dress, posture and spatial distance between two or more people. Activity or inactivity, words or silence all have message value: they influence others and these others, in turn, respond to these communications and thus they are communicating. Commonly, nonverbal communication is learned shortly after birth and practiced and refined throughout a person's lifetime. Children first learn nonverbal expressions by watching and imitating, much as they learn verbal skills. Young children know far more than they can verbalize and are generally more adept at reading nonverbal cues than adults are because of their limited verbal skills and their recent reliance on the nonverbal to communicate. As children develop verbal skills, nonverbal channels of communication do not cease to exist although become entwined in the total communication process.

The word reading has a close meaning to ________.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Cyberbullying is the use of technology to harass, threaten, embarrass, or target another person. Online threats and mean, aggressive, or rude texts, tweets, posts or messages all count. So (1) _______ posting personal information, pictures or videos designed to hurt or embarrass someone else. Cyberbullying also includes photos, messages or pages that don’t get taken (2) ______, even after the person has been asked to do so. In (3) _______ words, it’s anything that gets posted online and is meant to hurt, harass or upset someone else. Intimidation or mean comments that focus on things like a person’s gender, religion, sexual orientation, race or physical differences count as discrimination, which is against the law in many states. That means the police could get involved, and bullies may face serious penalties. Online bullying can be particularly damaging and upsetting because it’s usually anonymous or hard to trace. It’s also hard to control, and the person being victimized has no idea how many people (or hundreds of people) have seen the messages or posts. People can be tormented nonstop (4) _________ they check their device or computer. Online bullying and harassment can be easier to commit than other acts of bullying because the bully doesn’t have to confront his or her target in (5) _______

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
In 1860 the United States was predominantly rural. Most people were engaged in  agriculture, and about 80 percent of the population actually resided on farms or in small villages. Only 20 percent lived in towns and cities of 2,500 or more, the census definition of an urban area after 1880. New York alone in 1860 had more than 1 million people, and only 8 cities could boast about a population of more than 100,000. Thereafter the transition from a rural to a predominantly urban nation was especially remarkable because of its speed. By 1900, urbanization, with all of its benefits, problems, and prospects for a fuller life, became the mark of modern America The changing physical landscape reflected the shift to an urbanized society. Railroad terminals, factories, skyscrapers, apartment houses, streetcars, electric engines, department stores, and the increased pace of life were all signs of an emerging urban America. Indeed, the vitality, dynamic quality, variety, and restless experimentalism in society centered in the urban communities where the only constant factor was change itself.  Urbanization did not proceed uniformly throughout the nation. New England and the Middle Atlantic states contained the highest percentage of city dwellers. In the Middle West, the growth of cities such as Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and St. Louis showed the importance of urbanization in that region. The three West Coast states also experienced rapid urban growth. In the South, urbanization developed much more slowly, although by 1910 the expansion of transportation, commerce, and industry had greatly increased the population of older cities such as New Orleans and stimulated the growth of new urban centers such as Birmingham. However, the South remained predominantly rural. Only somewhat more than 20 percent of the population in that region was urban by 1910.  In some regions the urban impact had a depressing effect upon the surrounding rural communities. Much of New England in the late nineteenth century presented a discouraging picture of abandoned farms and sickly villages as people forsook the countryside and rushed to the larger towns and cities. In the Middle West, particularly Ohio and Illinois, hundreds of townships lost population in the 1880’s.
2. According to the passage, which of the following was the census definition of an urban area after 1880?

Rewrite the sentence:
You come to Ha Noi. You are offered a large number of must-see tourist sites.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Parents in most cases want the best for their children, and to ensure this, they are  pushed to actively engage in their children’s lives, to ensure that they are making the right choices. Some parents, however, go to the extent of wanting to have the upper hand even when it comes to taking major decisions, such as choosing a career.  Local comedian and actor, Michael Sengazi, was obliged by his parents to pursue a career in law, a path he followed when he joined University of Kigali, but deep down he knew this wasn’t his dream career. This is why after graduating he chose to follow his passion —comedy. His parents failed to understand how a qualified lawyer could decide to go for comedy because they didn’t see it as a ‘well-paying job’. He had a challenge of convincing them to bless his journey. “So, I asked them to give me one year to try and see if comedy would work out for me. I worked hard and my parents realised that I could achieve big things, and they gave me the freedom to pursue the career.”  Bienvenue Muragwa, a career consultant at The Southern New Hampshire University based in Rwanda, says that parents are only allowed to guide the child during the career guidance process, but not take the final decision. “Parents are not allowed to choose or take the final decision for their children as the performance of the student is the assessing parameter of the career to be pursued,” he explains.  Shalom Azabe, a graduate in general counselling at Kampala Christian University, says in most African countries, not only Rwanda, children are overly dependent on their parents, yet this shouldn’t be the case. She recommends picking a leaf from westerners who endeavour to learn their children’s interests, something she says aides them in career guidance for the child. “Normally, a child starts to demonstrate a choice in career at 14 years of age. This is when parents need to sit down and make analysis that would help them guide their child in choosing the fitting option to undertake. This is in fact considered as overprotection as parents want to exercise their authority on their kids unwillingly, yet this affects them psychologically, and when the kid later on fails, they encounter a regret of pursuing studies that were not their choice in the first place,” Azabe said.
3. According to paragraph 2, what does the comedian’s case emphasize about parents’ attitude?

Choose the best answer:
Thanks to computers, we can calculate difficult mathematic formula __________ lightning speed.

Rewrite the sentence:
He said that he would take responsibility for his company's damage to the area. But then he denied that.

Find mistake:
I'd love come and see them on Sunday, provided that I don't have to work that day.