Chọn câu có nghĩa gần nhất với câu đã cho: It has been years since I last ate fish.

Read the passage below and choose one correct answer for each question.

On 8 August 1967, five leaders - the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand- sat down together in the main hall of the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok, Thailand and signed a document. By virtue of that document, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was born. The five Foreign Ministers who signed it have been considered as the founders of probably the most successful intergovernmental organization in the developing world today. The document that they signed would be known as the ASEAN Declaration.

It is a short, simply-worded document containing just five articles. It declares the establishment of an Association for Regional Cooperation among the Countries of Southeast Asia to be known as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and spells out the aims and purposes of that Association. These aims and purposes are about the cooperation in economy, society, culture, techniques, education and other fields, and in the promotion of regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the principles of the United Nations Charter. It stipulates that the Association will be open for participation by all States in the Southeast Asian region subscribing to its aims, principles and purposes. It proclaims ASEAN as representing the collective will of the nations of Southeast Asia to bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices, secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity. The goal of ASEAN, then, is to create, not to destroy. The original ASEAN logo presented five brown sheaves of rice stalks, one for each founding member. Beneath the sheaves is the legend "ASEAN" in blue. These are set on a field of yellow encircled by a blue border. Brown stands for strength and stability, yellow for prosperity and blue for the spirit of cordiality in which ASEAN affairs are conducted. When ASEAN celebrated its 30th Anniversary in 1997, the sheaves on the logo had increased to ten -representing all ten countries of Southeast Asia and reflecting the colors of the flags of all of them. In a very real sense, ASEAN and Southeast Asia will be one and the same, just as the founders had envisioned.

Which adjective can be used to describe the Association of Southeast Asian Nations?

Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase.

ASEAN Handicraft Promotion and Development Association (AHPADA) was established as a result of a Workshop on Handicraft for Export which was (1) _____ by the Royal Thai Government in February 1981 in Bangkok. AHPADA was formed as a forum for both the government and private sectors that are concerned with meeting and complementing each other in the promotion and development of handicrafts (2) _____. AHPADA is affiliated to the ASEAN and the World Craft Council. The (3) _____ members were Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Singapore and Brunei join in a little (4) _____. Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar and Vietnam joined in September 1999.AHPADA's objectives are: To take common approach to develop and promote the marketing of crafts (5) _____ and outside the ASEAN Region. To operate as a main point of promotion of ASEAN handicrafts and raw (6) _____ required-for production, trade fairs and exhibitions. To strengthen and improve the status of craftspeople. To create employment opportunities especially in the rural areas. To (7) _____ traditional craft skills within the context of conservation of cultural heritage. To educate and create awareness and appreciation of the authentic handicrafts of ASEAN Countries. And to build up an archive of ASEAN CRAFT information.

With the recent economic downturn in (8) _____ ASEAN Countries, AHPADA's objectives are more relevant than they have ever been before. Most producers are among the rural areas and (9) _____ majority of them are very small entrepreneurs. AHPADA works at both national level through the national focal points and at the international level through the Board of AHPADA and the Regional Secretariat which is permanently based in Bangkok, Thailand. (10) _____ 1981 AHPADA has been able to act as a catalyst and initiators in the promotion and development of ASEAN CRAFTS through seminars, workshops and exhibitions, often in partnership with several multinational and international organizations.

(3) _____

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, almost nothing was written about    the contributions of women during the colonial period and the early history of the newly formed United States. Lacking the right to vote and absent from the seats of power, women were not considered an important force in history. Anne Bradstreet wrote some significant poetry in the seventeenth century, Mercy Otis Warren produced the host contemporary    history of the American Revolution, and Abigail Adams penned Important letters showing    she exercised great political Influence over her husband, John, tiie second President of the United States. But little or no notice was taken of these contributions. During those centuries, women remained Invisible In history  books.
Throughout the nineteenth century, this lack of visibility  continued,  despite  the  efforts of female authors writing about women, These writers, like most of their male counterparts, were amateur historians. Their writings were celebratory in  nature,  and  they were uncritical in their selection and use of  sources.
During the nineteenth century, however, certain feminists showed a keen sense of history by keeping records of activities in which women were engaged. National, regional,    and local women's organizations compiled accounts of  their  doings.  Personal  correspondence, newspaper clippings, and souvenirs were saved and stored. These sources  from the core of the two greatest collections of women’s history In the United States one at   the Elizabeth and Arthur Schleslnger Library at Radcliffe College, and the other the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. Such sources have provided valuable materials for later Generations of historians.
Despite the gathering of more information about ordinary women during  the  nineteenth Century, most of the writing about women conformed to  the  "great  women"  theory of History, just as much of mainstream American  history  concentrated  on  "great  men," To demonstrate that women were making significant contributions to American life, female authors singled out women leaders and wrote biographies, or else important women produced their autobiographies. Most of these leaders were Involved in public life  as  reformers, activists working for women's right to vote, or authors,  and  were  not  representative at all of the great of ordinary woman. The lives of ordinary people continued, generally, to be untold in the American histories being   published.

In the 2nd paragraph, what weakness in nineteenth-century histories does the author point out?

The Influence of Advertising on Pricing
Advertising makes an immense difference in the popularity of a product. Studies have shown that consumers usually pay more for advertised products than non-advertised products. As a result, the marketing and advertising industry is a multibillion-dollar-a-year business. Local commercials can cost as little as several hundred dollars to produce, while national companies have been known to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single commercial. Interestingly, the source for these expensive commercials is the consumers who view the advertisements from the comfort of their living rooms. Companies influence the prices that consumers pay in two ways.
When consumers purchase any product, they are obviously paying for the cost of manufacturing the product. However, they are also paying for the advertising campaign devised to convince consumers to buy the product. The more costly the advertising campaign, the higher the price paid by consumers. Companies are allowed to set these high prices because consumers have shown that they will continue to pay them. For instance, a multinational chain of coffee shops significantly raised its prices a few years ago, due in no small part to an expensive national advertising campaign. While regular customers noticed and were not fond of the hike, one was quoted as saying, “I doubt it will make an impact [on consumers]. It won’t change my habit." Indeed, it did not; the company experienced record sales in spite of the fact its prices were higher than its competitors'.
Another way advertising tends to affect product pricing is seen in the arena of perceived value to the consumers. The perceived value is the worth that consumers assign to a product. Studies show that often the advertising for a product determines its value more than the quality or necessity of the product itself. One way a company may take advantage of this perceived value is by running commercials during prime time. These ads are usually much more expensive than others. For example, a national commercial that ran during a popular American show cost close to $745,000 to run for thirty seconds. If people watching the show perceive that the product is more valuable simply because it was advertised during prime time, they are often willing to pay higher prices. So, whether it is seen in the cost of the commercials or the advertiser-assigned value, it is obvious that advertising drives product pricing and directly affects consumers.

Which of the following is NOT true about the perceived value of a product?

New surveys suggest that the technological tools we use to make our lives easier are  killing our leisure time. We are working longer hours, taking fewer and shorter vacations (and when we do go away, we take our cell phones, PDAs, and laptops along). And, we are more stressed than ever as increased use of e-mail, voice mail, cell phones, and the Internet is destroying any idea of  privacy and leisure.
Since the Industrial Revolution, people have assumed that new labor-saving devices would free them from the burdens of the workplace and give them more time to grow intellectually, creatively, and socially -exploring the arts, keeping up with current events, spending more time with friends and family, and even just ''goofing off''.
But here we are at the start of the 21st century, enjoying one of the greatest technological boom times in human history, and nothing could be further from the truth. The very tools that were supposed to liberate us have bound us to our work and study in ways that were inconceivable just a few years ago. It would seem that technology almost never does what we expect.
In 'the old days', the lines between work and leisure time were markedly clearer. People  left their offices at a predictable time, were often completely disconnected from and out of touch with their jobs as they traveled to and from work, and were off-duty once they were home. That is no longer true. In today's highly competitive job market, employers demand increased productivity, expecting workers to put in longer hours and to keep in touch almost constantly via fax, cell phones, e-mail, or other communications devices. As a result, employees feel the need to check in on what is going on at the office, oven on days off. They feel pressured to work after hours just to catch up on everything they have to do. Workers work harder and longer, change their work tasks more frequently, and have more and more reasons to worry about job security.
Bosses, colleagues, family members, lovers, and friends expect instant responses to voice mail and e-mail messages. Even college students have become bound to their desks by an environment in which faculty, friends, and other members of the college community increasingly do their work online. Studies of time spent on instant messaging services would probably show staggering use.
This is not what technology was supposed to be doing for us. Now technologies, from genetic research to the Internet, offer all sorts of benefits and opportunities. But, when new tools make life more difficult and stressful rather than easier and more meaningful - and we are, as a society, barely conscious of it - then something has gone seriously awry, both with our expectations for technology and our understanding of how it should benefit us.

The word "inconceivable" in the passage is closest in meaning to "     ".

A book has just been published to help parents to deal with their children's naughty behavior at home. The author, Dr James Bruno, says that the first positive discipline technique is for parents to remain (21)_____ because nervous parents don't get good results. Parents who often (22)____ their temper find that their children stop taking any notice of them. When parents yell at their children to make them (23)____ an order, children often act as if they did not hear them,The second challenge is to know how to correct bad behavior in an effective way. (24)_____ children by preventing them from watching their favorite TV program is not an ideal solution. Nor is telling them off when their friends are present. Dr Bruno believes parents should (25)____ clear rules for children to follow. If children refuse to follow these, they know they will be disciplined

(24).......................

Choose the option among A, B, C or D that best fits the blank space in the following passage:

"Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), regional alliance of ten independent countries that (1)……;  stability and economic growth in Southeast Asia. The organization also encourages cultural exchanges between its members. ASEAN was founded in August 1967 by Malaysia, Thailand, and the (2)….. of Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Brunei joined the alliance after (3)….. independence from the United Kingdom in 1984. Vietnam was admitted (4)….   its seventh member in 1995. Laos and Myanmar (formerly Burma) joined ASEAN in 1997, and Cambodia became (5)…… of the alliance in 1999. The ASEAN secretariat, a (6) ….. office that administers the organization's activities, is located in Jakarta, Indonesia.
 Its Principal objectives, outlined in the Bangkok Declaration (1967), were to (7)…… economic growth and promote regional peace and stability. A joint forum with Japan was established in 1977, and a (8)….. agreement with the European Community was signed in 1980. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, ASEAN (9)……  an important role in mediating the civil war in Cambodia. In January 1992 ASEAN members agreed to establish a free-trade area and to cut tariffs on nonagricultural goods over a 15-year period (10)______ in 1993."

5. Laos and Myanmar (formerly Burma) joined ASEAN in 1997, and Cambodia became (5)…… of the alliance in 1999.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Born on June 30, 1985 in Baltimore, Maryland, to Fred and Debbie Phelps, the youngest of three children, Michael Phelps and his sisters grew up in the neighbourhood of Rodger Forge. His father, Fred, a former all-rounded athlete, was a state trooper and his mother Debbie was a middle-school principal. When Phelps's parents divorced in 1994, he and his siblings lived with their mother, with whom Michael grew very close. Even at the age of 7, Phelps was still a little scared to put his head under water, so his instructors allowed him to float around on his back. Not surprisingly, despite the fact that later he is very good at butterfly swimming, the first stroke he mastered was not the easily-practised breaststroke but the backstroke.

At the age of 15, Phelps became the youngest American male swimmer to compete at an Olympic Games in 68 years. While he didn't win any medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, he would soon become a major force in competitive swimming.

In the spring of 2001, Phelps set the world record in the 200-meter butterfly, becoming the youngest male swimmer in history at the age of 15 years and 9 months. At the 2001 World Championships in Japan, he then broke his own record with a time of 1:54:58, earning his first international medal. In 2002, Phelps continued to establish several records including the 100-meter butterfly and the 200-meter individual medley. The following year, at the same event, he broke his own world record in the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:09.09.

After the London Olympics in 2012, Phelps announced he was retiring from his sport. However, at the 2016 Olympic Games, he came out of retirement and returned to professional competition. This was also the event in which he won one silver and five gold medals, becoming the oldest individual gold medalist in Olympic swimming history, as well as the first swimmer to win four consecutive golds in the same event, the 200 meter individual medley.

The word consecutive in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ____.

Ranked as the number one beverage consumed worldwide, tea takes the lead over coffee in both popularity and production with more than 5 million metric tons of tea produced annually. Although much of this tea is consumed in Asia, European and African countries, the United  States drinks it fair share. According to estimates by the Tea Council of the United States, tea is enjoyed by no less than half of the U.S population on any given day. Black tea or green tea - iced, spiced, or instant - tea drinking has spurred a billion - dollar business with major tea produces in Africa and South America and throughout Asia.
Tea is made from the leaves of an evergreen plant, Camellia sinensis, which grows tall and lush in tropical regions. On tea plantation, the plant is kept trimmed to approximately four feet high, and as new buds called flush appear, they are plucked off by hand. Even in today's world of modern agricultural machinery, hand harvesting continues to be preferred method. Ideally, only the top two leaves and bud should be picked. This new growth produces the highest quality tea.
After being harvested, tea leaves are laid out on long drying racks, called withering racks, for 18 to 20 hours. During this process, the tea softens and becomes limp. Next, depending on the type of the tea being produced, the leaves may be crushed or chopped to release flavor, and then steamed to retain their green color, and the fermentation process is skipped. Producing black teas requires fermentation during which the tea leaves begin to darken. After fermentation, black tea is dried in vats to produce its rich brown or black color.
No one knows when or how tea became popular, but legend has it that tea as a beverage was discovered in 2737 B.C. by Emperor Shen Nung of China when leaves from Camellia dropped into his drinking water as it was boiling over a fire. As the story goes, Emperor Shen Nung drank the resulting liquid and proclaimed that the drink to be most nourishing and refreshing. Though this account cannot be documented, it is thought that tea drinking probably originated in China and spread to other parts of Asia, then to Europe, and ultimately to America colonies around 1650.
With about half of the caffeine content as coffee, tea is often chosen by those who want to reduce, but not necessarily eliminate their caffeine intake. Some people find that tea is less acidic than coffee and therefore easier on the stomach. Others have become interested in tea drinking since the National Cancer Institute published its findings on the antioxidant properties of tea. But whether tea is enjoyed for its perceived health benefits, its flavor, or as a social drink, teacups continue to be filled daily with the world's most popular beverage.

Where in the passage does the author mention research conducted on the beneficial effects of tea drinking?

Sheffield Football Club was (1)_____ one-hundred-and-fifty years ago, and is the oldest in the world. As put of its anniversary celebrations, the club has joined forces with the world's largest express transportation company, FedEx Express, in a charitable scheme known as Boots for Africa. The (2) _____  of the scheme is to send more than two thousand pairs of used football boots to South Africa. The boots will be given to young people living in remote rural areas who are interested in taking up the sport and setting up local teams.
Sports organisations in Africa are giving their full support to the scheme which will help make the game more accessible to thousands of young people and could have a beneficial effect on the country's performance in future World Cup championships.
People in Sheffield are, (3) _____, being asked to donate any football boots, astro boots or football trainers of any size to the scheme. All the boots donated must be in good (4) _____, complete with laces and studs. Local businesses and schools who may be able to donate more than one pair of boots can receive a special 'group donation pack'. This pack contains posters and leaflets, which can be used to publicise the scheme, plus collection bags to encourage people to (5) _____ a donation. The club's website has further information about the scheme.

(3)..................................

Very few people, groups, or governments oppose globalization in its entirety. Instead,  critics of globalization believe aspects of the way globalization operates should be changed. The debate over globalization is about what the best rules are for governing the global economy so that its advantages can grow while its problems can be solved.
On one side of this debate are those who stress the benefits of removing barriers to international trade and investment, allowing capital to be allocated more efficiently and giving consumers greater freedom of choice. With free-market globalization, investment funds can move unimpeded from the rich countries to the developing countries. Consumers can benefit from cheaper products because reduced taxes make goods produced at low cost from faraway places cheaper to buy. Producers of goods gain by selling to a wider market. More competition keeps sellers on their toes and allows ideas and new technology to spread and benefit others.
On the other side of the debate are critics who see neo-liberal policies as producing greater poverty, inequality, social conflict, cultural destruction, and environmental damage. They say that the most developed nations - the United States, Germany, and Japan - succeeded not because of free trade but because of protectionism and subsidies. They argue that the more recently successful economies of South Korea, Taiwan, and China all had strong state-led development strategies that did not follow neo-liberalism. These critics think that government encouragement of "infant industries"' that is, industries that are just beginning to develop - enables a country to become internationally competitive.
Furthermore, those who criticize the Washington Consensus suggest that the inflow and outflow of money from speculative investors must be limited to prevent bubbles. These bubbles are characterized by the rapid inflow of foreign funds that bid up domestic stock markets and property values. When the economy cannot sustain such expectations, the bubbles burst as investors panic and pull their money out of the country.
Protests by what is called the anti-globalization movement are seldom directed against globalization itself but rather against abuses that harm the rights of workers and the environment. The question raised by nongovernmental organizations and protesters at WTO and IMF gatherings is whether globalization will result in a rise of living standards or a race to the bottom as competition takes the form of lowering living standards and undermining environmental regulations.
One of the key problems of the 21st century will be determining to what extent markets should be regulated to promote fair competition, honest dealing, and fair distribution of public goods on a global scale.

Supporters of free-market globalization point out that ..................

New surveys suggest that the technological tools we use to make our lives easier are  killing our leisure time. We are working longer hours, taking fewer and shorter vacations (and when we do go away, we take our cell phones, PDAs, and laptops along). And, we are more stressed than ever as increased use of e-mail, voice mail, cell phones, and the Internet is destroying any idea of  privacy and leisure.
Since the Industrial Revolution, people have assumed that new labor-saving devices would free them from the burdens of the workplace and give them more time to grow intellectually, creatively, and socially -exploring the arts, keeping up with current events, spending more time with friends and family, and even just ''goofing off''.
But here we are at the start of the 21st century, enjoying one of the greatest technological boom times in human history, and nothing could be further from the truth. The very tools that were supposed to liberate us have bound us to our work and study in ways that were inconceivable just a few years ago. It would seem that technology almost never does what we expect.
In 'the old days', the lines between work and leisure time were markedly clearer. People  left their offices at a predictable time, were often completely disconnected from and out of touch with their jobs as they traveled to and from work, and were off-duty once they were home. That is no longer true. In today's highly competitive job market, employers demand increased productivity, expecting workers to put in longer hours and to keep in touch almost constantly via fax, cell phones, e-mail, or other communications devices. As a result, employees feel the need to check in on what is going on at the office, oven on days off. They feel pressured to work after hours just to catch up on everything they have to do. Workers work harder and longer, change their work tasks more frequently, and have more and more reasons to worry about job security.
Bosses, colleagues, family members, lovers, and friends expect instant responses to voice mail and e-mail messages. Even college students have become bound to their desks by an environment in which faculty, friends, and other members of the college community increasingly do their work online. Studies of time spent on instant messaging services would probably show staggering use.
This is not what technology was supposed to be doing for us. Now technologies, from genetic research to the Internet, offer all sorts of benefits and opportunities. But, when new tools make life more difficult and stressful rather than easier and more meaningful - and we are, as a society, barely conscious of it - then something has gone seriously awry, both with our expectations for technology and our understanding of how it should benefit us.

With the phrase "at a predictable time", the author implies that  ......................

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:
Most weddings in Japan start with a religious ceremony in which usually only family members attend. Afterwards, a banquet is customarily held to which many people, including friends and colleagues, are invited. To celebrate the happy occasion, guests give the bride and groom goshuugi – gift money in special envelopes. Goshuugi from friends is usually 20,000 yen or 30,000 yen.
A typical Japanese wedding party starts when the bride and groom enter the banquet hall together, and take their seats on a slightly raised platform facing their guests. Invited guests are seated closer to the bride and groom, with family and relatives seated further in back. The bride's and groom's bosses usually give congratulatory speeches then their friends sing in celebration. Other wedding highlights include a candle ceremony where the couple holds a candle while greeting their guests at each table, and the cutting of the wedding cake. Afterwards, the bride and groom thank their parents with a speech, then leave to end the party.
In the past, dishes that supposedly brought good fortune, such as prawns and sea breams, were served in abundance. So much of the food was ordered that guests ended up taking the surplus home. Today, the majority of the weddings serve just enough for everyone. Additionally, before leaving, guests would traditionally receive souvenir gifts called hikidemono.
Many wedding ceremonies take place at wedding halls or hotels. Rough estimates show that it costs about 3 million yen to host a wedding party for 80 guests. During Japan's economic bubble, overseas weddings and flamboyant receptions with special effects, such as smoke machines and having the bride and groom fly in on gondolas, were very popular. But these days, couples choose to tie the knot in various ways, from not having any ceremony to having a modest affair, or still going all out.

The word "their" in paragraph 2 refers to .................

New surveys suggest that the technological tools we use to make our lives easier are  killing our leisure time. We are working longer hours, taking fewer and shorter vacations (and when we do go away, we take our cell phones, PDAs, and laptops along). And, we are more stressed than ever as increased use of e-mail, voice mail, cell phones, and the Internet is destroying any idea of  privacy and leisure.
Since the Industrial Revolution, people have assumed that new labor-saving devices would free them from the burdens of the workplace and give them more time to grow intellectually, creatively, and socially -exploring the arts, keeping up with current events, spending more time with friends and family, and even just ''goofing off''.
But here we are at the start of the 21st century, enjoying one of the greatest technological boom times in human history, and nothing could be further from the truth. The very tools that were supposed to liberate us have bound us to our work and study in ways that were inconceivable just a few years ago. It would seem that technology almost never does what we expect.
In 'the old days', the lines between work and leisure time were markedly clearer. People  left their offices at a predictable time, were often completely disconnected from and out of touch with their jobs as they traveled to and from work, and were off-duty once they were home. That is no longer true. In today's highly competitive job market, employers demand increased productivity, expecting workers to put in longer hours and to keep in touch almost constantly via fax, cell phones, e-mail, or other communications devices. As a result, employees feel the need to check in on what is going on at the office, oven on days off. They feel pressured to work after hours just to catch up on everything they have to do. Workers work harder and longer, change their work tasks more frequently, and have more and more reasons to worry about job security.
Bosses, colleagues, family members, lovers, and friends expect instant responses to voice mail and e-mail messages. Even college students have become bound to their desks by an environment in which faculty, friends, and other members of the college community increasingly do their work online. Studies of time spent on instant messaging services would probably show staggering use.
This is not what technology was supposed to be doing for us. Now technologies, from genetic research to the Internet, offer all sorts of benefits and opportunities. But, when new tools make life more difficult and stressful rather than easier and more meaningful - and we are, as a society, barely conscious of it - then something has gone seriously awry, both with our expectations for technology and our understanding of how it should benefit us.

It can be inferred from the fourth paragraph that ........................

Birds that feed in flocks commonly retire together into roosts. The reasons for roosting communally are not always obvious, but there are some likely benefits, In winter especially, it is important for birds to keep warm at night and conserve precious food reserves. One way to do this is to find a sheltered roost. Solitary roosters shelter in dense vegetation or enter a cavity- horned, larks dig holes In the ground and ptarmigan burrow into snow banks- but the effect of sheltering is magnified by several birds huddling together in the roost, as wrens, swifts, brown creepers, bluebirds, and anis do. Body contact reduces the surface area exposed to the cold air, so the birds keep each other warm. Two kinglets huddling together were found to reduce their heat losses by a quarter and three together saved a third of their heat.

The second possible benefit of communal roosts is that they act as "information centers". During the day, parties of birds will have spread out to forage over a very large area. When they return in the evening some will have fed well, but others may have found little to eat. Some investigators have observed that when the birds set out again next morning, those birds that did not feed well on the previous day appear to follow those that did. The behavior of common and lesser kestrels may illustrate different feeding behaviors of similar birds with different roosting habits. The common kestrel hunts vertebrate animals in a small, familiar hunting ground, whereas the very similar lesser kestrel feeds on insects over a large area. The common kestrel roost and hunts alone, but the lesser kestrel roosts and hunts in flocks, possibly so one bird can learn from others where to find insect swarms. Finally, there is safety in numbers at communal roosts since there will always be a few birds awake at any given moment to give the alarm. But this increased protection is partially counteracted by the fact that mass roosts attract predators and are especially vulnerable if they are on the ground. Even those in trees can be attacked by birds of prey. The birds on the edge are at greatest risk since predators find it easier to catch small birds perching at the margins of the roost

The word "forage" is closest in meaning to....................

Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer

On 8 August 1967, five leaders - the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand- sat down together in the main hall of the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok, Thailand and signed a document. By virtue of that document, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was born. The five Foreign Ministers who signed it have been considered as the founders of probably the most successful intergovernmental organization in the developing world today. The document that they signed would be known as the ASEAN Declaration.

It is a short, simply-worded document containing just five articles. It declares the establishment of an Association for Regional Cooperation among the Countries of Southeast Asia to be known as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and spells out the aims and purposes of that Association. These aims and purposes are about the cooperation in economy, society, culture, techniques, education and other fields, and in the promotion of regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the principles of the United Nations Charter. It stipulates that the Association will be open for participation by all States in the Southeast Asian region subscribing to its aims, principles and purposes. It proclaims ASEAN as representing the collective will of the nations of Southeast Asia to bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices, secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity. The goal of ASEAN, then, is to create, not to destroy.

The original ASEAN logo presented five brown sheaves of rice stalks, one for each founding member. Beneath the sheaves is the legend "ASEAN" in blue. These are set on a field of yellow encircled by a blue border. Brown stands for strength and stability, yellow for prosperity and blue for the spirit of cordiality in which ASEAN affairs are conducted. When ASEAN celebrated its 30^th Anniversary in 1997, the sheaves on the logo had increased to ten -representing all ten countries of Southeast Asia and reflecting the colors of the flags of all of them. In a very real sense, ASEAN and Southeast Asia will be one and the same, just as the founders had envisioned.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations ________.

Although they are an inexpensive supplier of vitamins, minerals, and high-quality protein, eggs also contain  a high  level of blood cholesterol, one of the major causes of heart diseases. One egg   yolk, in fact, contains a little more than two-thirds of the suggested daily cholesterol limit. This knowledge has caused egg sales to plummet in recent years, which in turn has brought about the development of several alternatives to eating regular eggs. One alternative is to eat substitute eggs. These egg substitutes are not really eggs, but they look somewhat like eggs when  they are  cooked. They have the advantage of having low cholesterol rates, and they can be  scrambled  or  used  in baking. One disadvantage, however, is that they are not good for frying, poaching,  or boiling.  A second alternative to regular eggs is a new type of egg, sometimes called 'designer' eggs. These eggs  are produced by hens that are fed low-fat diets consisting of Ingredients such as canola oil, flax, and rice bran. In spite of their diets, however, these hens produce eggs that contain the same amount of cholesterol as regular eggs. Yet, the producers of these eggs claim that eating their eggs will not raise the blood cholesterol in  humans.
Egg producers  claim  that their product has been  portrayed unfairly. They cite scientific studies  to back up their claim. And, in fact, studies on the relationship between eggs and human cholesterol levels have brought mixed results. It may be that it is not the type of egg that is the main determinant   of cholesterol but the person who is eating the eggs. Some people may be  more  sensitive  to  cholesterol derived from food than other people. In fact, there is evidence that certain dietary fats stimulate the body's production of blood cholesterol. Consequently, while it still makes sense to limit one's intake of eggs, even designer eggs, it seems that doing this without regulating dietary fat will probably not help reduce the blood cholesterol  level.

Which of the following could best replace the word   'somewhat'?

Read the passage and choose the best answers. 

Brunei is one of the smallest countries in the world. Its population is only 25,000 and most of them live in Bandar Seri Begawan (the capital city with the longest name in the world. It is also the richest country in Asia and maybe the richest country in the world because it has a lot of oil and natural gas which it exports to Japan. Every week huge tankers carry oil and gas from the oil-fields of Brunei to Japan. The head of the state in Brunei is Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah. He is the richest man in the world. He has two wives and each lives in their own beautiful palace. The first wife lives in the biggest palace in the world which has 200 rooms. The Sultan has more than 200 cars and he also has hundreds of horses.

Brunei is_____________________.

Birds that feed in flocks commonly retire together into roosts. The reasons for roosting communally are not always obvious, but there are some likely benefits, In winter especially, it is important for birds to keep warm at night and conserve precious food reserves. One way to do this is to find a sheltered roost. Solitary roosters shelter in dense vegetation or enter a cavity- horned, larks dig holes In the ground and ptarmigan burrow into snow banks- but the effect of sheltering is magnified by several birds huddling together in the roost, as wrens, swifts, brown creepers, bluebirds, and anis do. Body contact reduces the surface area exposed to the cold air, so the birds keep each other warm. Two kinglets huddling together were found to reduce their heat losses by a quarter and three together saved a third of their heat.

The second possible benefit of communal roosts is that they act as "information centers". During the day, parties of birds will have spread out to forage over a very large area. When they return in the evening some will have fed well, but others may have found little to eat. Some investigators have observed that when the birds set out again next morning, those birds that did not feed well on the previous day appear to follow those that did. The behavior of common and lesser kestrels may illustrate different feeding behaviors of similar birds with different roosting habits. The common kestrel hunts vertebrate animals in a small, familiar hunting ground, whereas the very similar lesser kestrel feeds on insects over a large area. The common kestrel roost and hunts alone, but the lesser kestrel roosts and hunts in flocks, possibly so one bird can learn from others where to find insect swarms. Finally, there is safety in numbers at communal roosts since there will always be a few birds awake at any given moment to give the alarm. But this increased protection is partially counteracted by the fact that mass roosts attract predators and are especially vulnerable if they are on the ground. Even those in trees can be attacked by birds of prey. The birds on the edge are at greatest risk since predators find it easier to catch small birds perching at the margins of the roost

Which of the following is a disadvantage of communal roosts that is mentioned in the passage?

Aging is the process of growing old. It occurs eventually in every living thing provided, of course, that an illness or accident does not kill it prematurely. The most familiar outward signs of aging may be seen in old people, such as the graying of the hair and the wrinkling of the skin. Signs of aging in a pot dog or cat include loss of playfulness and energy, a decline in hearing and eyesight, or even a slight graying of the coat. Plants age too, but the signs are much harder to detect.
Most body parts grow bigger and stronger, and function more efficiently during childhood. They reach their peak at the time of maturity, or early adulthood. After that, they begin to decline. Bones, for example, gradually become lighter and more brittle. In the aged, the joints between the bones also become rigid and more inflexible. This can make moving very painful.
All the major organs of the body show signs of aging. The brain, for example, works less efficiently, and even gets smaller in size. Thinking processes of all sorts are slowed  down. Old people often have trouble in remembering recent events.
One of the most serious changes of old ago occurs in the arteries, the blood vessels that lead from the heart. They become thickened and constricted, allowing less blood to flow to  the rest of body. This condition accounts, directly or indirectly, for many of the diseases of the aged. It may, for example, result In heart attack.
Aging is not a uniform process. Different parts of the body wear out at different rates. There are great differences among people in their rate of aging. Even the cells of the body differ in the way they age. The majority of cells are capable of reproducing themselves many times during the course of a lifetime. Nerve cells and muscle fibers can never be replaced  once they wear out.
Gerontologists - scientists who study the process of aging - believe this wearing out of the body is controlled by a built-in biological time-clock. They are trying to discover how this clock works so that they can slow down the process. This could give man a longer life and a great number of productive years.

The word "brittle" as used in the second paragraph means ......................