Choose the best answer:
Do/ think/ spending/ you/ much/ too/ time/ is/ the/ on/ Internet/ harmful?

 

DAKAR (August 4) – Nentique Laboratories, Inc., announced today the development of a new variety of organic wheat that ---143--- heat. Dozens of plants were cross-pollinated over many years to produce this variety, known as GR-712. It joins a growing list of ---144--- that can withstand high temperatures during extended dry periods. "Some farmers in regions close to the equator focus---145--- on rice production because rice grows well in hot climates. But in the Sahara, it is too dry for much of the year," explains company spokesman Ahmad Niang. "But for a small investment in GR-712 seeds, farmers will now be able  to  grow  wheat  in  our  region."  146---.  This added income can, in turn, be reinvested in better machinery, which will encourage more environmentally friendly farming practices.

143. ...................

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Mickey Mouse was not Walt Disney’s first successful cartoon creation, but he is certainly his famous one. It was on a cross-country train trip from New York to California in 1927 that Disney first drew the mouse with the big ears. Supposedly, he took his inspiration from the tame field mice that used to scamper into his old studio in Kansas City. No one is quite sure why he dressed the mouse in the now- familiar shorts with two buttons and gave him the yellow shoes. But we do know that Disney had intended to call him Mortimer until his wife Lillian intervened and christened him Mickey Mouse. Capitalizing on the interest in Charles Lindsborg, Disney planned Mickey’s debut in the short cartoon Plane Crazy, with Minnie as a co-star. In the third short cartoon, Steamboat Willie, Mickey was whistling and singing through the miracle of the modern soundtrack. By the 1930s Mickey’s image had circled the globe. He was a superstar at the height of his career. Although he has received a few minor changes throughout his lifetime, most notably the addition of white gloves and the alterations to achieve the rounder forms of a more childish body, he has remained true to his nature since those first cartoons. Mickey is appealing because he is nice. He may get into trouble, but he takes it on the chin with a grin. He is both good-natured and resourceful. Perhaps that was Disney’s own image of himself. Why else would he have insisted on doing Mickey’s voice in all the cartoons for twenty years? When interviewed, he would say: “There is a lot of the mouse in me.” And that mouse has remained one of the most pervasive images in American popular culture.
1. The word "those" in the third paragraph refers to: 

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Azmah, Inc., Hits a Record
1 May - Azmah, lnc., one of Malaysia's leading electronics manufacturers, announced yesterday that it achieved record safes in the last quarter. Azmah's revenue jumped 18 percent to RM 144 million, with the increase largely (1)------- by television sales. Sales of flat-screen models alone rose nearly 30 percent over sales figures from the previous quarter. (2)-------, production costs also reached record highs. Azmah reports its profit margins have been reduced by 20 percent because of the rising prices of computer chips and other electronic (3)------

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Hooray for Hip Hop
It is amazing how far hip hop music has come in its relatively short history. You can trace the roots of this urban art form to New York City in the 1970s. Hip hop began as a spontaneous way of entertaining crowds. DJs discovered that people loved dancing to the drum breaks in popular funk and soul records. These breaks were typically brief, so DJs would move or “scratch” records back to extend them. In addition, a master of ceremonies (MC) would sometimes grab the microphone and say a few words to get the crowd more excited. At first, the words of MCs were simple chants but they later became a more complex form of poetry. Still, for several years rap remained an underground art. Then, in the early 1980s, artists like LL Cool J, KRS-One, and Run DMC helped it reach a wider audience. Nevertheless, hip hop didn’t have an easy road to mainstream success. Many people dismissed rap music because no “real musicians” were involved in creating it. Critics blamed the beats were repetitive and stolen from other artists. Others claimed the lyrics were too negative and violent. Yet they were overlooking several things. The lyrics were often from the perspective of underprivileged youths growing up in the big city. Although these words were often dark, they painted a clear picture that allowed outsiders to understand their joys and pain. Not all hip hop songs had a heavy message, though. Others were quite humorous and showed a lighter side of street life. The influence of hip hop would spread far beyond music itself. In fact, a collection of other art forms, would develop out of it. Since hip hop music had a beat like no other music before it, new dance styles had to emerge. B-boying, more commonly called break dancing, was one of these styles. Break dancers featured lots of spinning and fancy moves that took speed, agility, and lots practice to perfect. Hip hop also helped to inspire waves of modern street graffiti. Urban artists would spray-paint their names on walls and subway cars a rebellious way of expressing themselves. After nearly three decades of popularity, hip hop has spread from New York to every continent on the earth and it is still going strong as it continues to evolve.
2. It can be inferred from paragraph 1 that _________

Choose the best answer:
Sue lives in the house. The house is opposite my house.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Mickey Mouse was not Walt Disney’s first successful cartoon creation, but he is certainly his famous one. It was on a cross-country train trip from New York to California in 1927 that Disney first drew the mouse with the big ears. Supposedly, he took his inspiration from the tame field mice that used to scamper into his old studio in Kansas City. No one is quite sure why he dressed the mouse in the now- familiar shorts with two buttons and gave him the yellow shoes. But we do know that Disney had intended to call him Mortimer until his wife Lillian intervened and christened him Mickey Mouse. Capitalizing on the interest in Charles Lindsborg, Disney planned Mickey’s debut in the short cartoon Plane Crazy, with Minnie as a co-star. In the third short cartoon, Steamboat Willie, Mickey was whistling and singing through the miracle of the modern soundtrack. By the 1930s Mickey’s image had circled the globe. He was a superstar at the height of his career. Although he has received a few minor changes throughout his lifetime, most notably the addition of white gloves and the alterations to achieve the rounder forms of a more childish body, he has remained true to his nature since those first cartoons. Mickey is appealing because he is nice. He may get into trouble, but he takes it on the chin with a grin. He is both good-natured and resourceful. Perhaps that was Disney’s own image of himself. Why else would he have insisted on doing Mickey’s voice in all the cartoons for twenty years? When interviewed, he would say: “There is a lot of the mouse in me.” And that mouse has remained one of the most pervasive images in American popular culture.
8. What distinguished Steamboat Willie from earlier cartoons?

Choose the best answer:
He likes the dress. Huong is wearing it.

Choose the best answer:
Most children like …………. because they make them laugh a lot.

___ the start of each period, both teams line up on their own goal line.

(408)_____

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:
Niagara Falls, one of the most famous North American natural wonders, has long been a popular tourist destination. Tourists today flock to see the two falls that actually constitute Niagara Falls: the 173-foot-high Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of the Niagara River in the Canadian province of Ontario and 182-foot-high American Falls on the U.S. side of the river in the state of New York. Approximately 85 percent of the water that goes over the falls actually goes over Horseshoe Falls, with the rest going over American Falls.
Most visitors come between April and October, and it is quite a popular activity to take a steamer out onto the river and right up to the base of the falls for a close-up view. It is also possible to get a spectacular view of the falls from the strategic locations along the Niagara River, such as Prospect Point of Table Rock, or from one of the four observation towers which have heights up to 500 feet.
Tourists have been visiting Niagara Falls in large numbers since the 1800’s; annual visitation now averages above 10 million visitors per year. Because of concern that all these tourists would inadvertently destroy the natural beauty of this scenic wonder, the State of New York in 1885 created Niagara Falls Park in order to protect the land surrounding American Falls.
A year later Canda created Queen Victoria Park on the Canadian side of the Niagara, around Horseshoe Falls. With the area surrounding the falls under the jurisdiction of government agencies, appropriate steps could be taken to preserve the pristine beauty of the area.

The word “flock” in paragraph 1 could best be replaced by     .

Choose the word whose underlined part is pronounced differently from that of the others.

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Ocean Currents and the Turning of the Tide
If you take a seat at the beach and look out across the water, you’ll soon notice that oceans have a rhythm of their own. Throughout the course of the day, sea levels will rise and fall, and water will flow through routes and end up in different places. But how does it all work? One force at play is tides, which are the alternating water levels of the ocean. There are two major gravitational forces which cause tides: the sun and the moon. The moon’s force has a tugging effect on oceans which causes them to bulge outwards on opposite sides of the planet. Solar tides operate according to the same principles. However, they are only about 50 percent as strong due to the distance between the sun and the earth. As tides rise and fall, they create tidal currents. The strongest tidal currents occur at the height of both high and low tides. Unlike other currents, they do not flow in a continuous stream. Far from shore, tidal currents don’t have much of an effect. Yet when they pass through narrow area, like harbours and bays, tidal currents can displace plants, animals, and sediment. Although they may certainly shake things up, not all of the damage is negative. Tidal currents can spread fish eggs across long distances to assist fertilization, in addition to transporting key nutrients. Another category of currents is ocean currents. These currents occur near the top of the water, and are mainly powered by the wind. One example of these is coastal currents, which are those beachgoers encounter when going for a swim. One of the strongest and most well-known currents is the Gulf Stream, which brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Western Europe. Meanwhile, Deep Ocean currents are a powerful force in the depths of oceans. The strongest of these has been nicknamed the global conveyor belt, and it moves much slower than surface currents. Although we can’t see it in operation, it’s about 16 times as powerful as all the earth’s rivers put together. As the global conveyor belt pushes water around the planet, it carries nutrition and carbon dioxide to places that truly need them. In the end, although there are several currents working on oceans simultaneously, they each seem to perform a necessary function that creates balance for life in the sea.
5. What can be inferred from the passage?

Free _____ area is a designated group of countries that have agreed to eliminate tariffs, quotas, and preferences on most goods among them.

(503)______

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
Many people today would like the traditional two-parent family back, that is to say, they want a man and a  woman to (1)...................for life; they also think the man should support the family, and the woman should stay home with the children. However, few families now (2)................. in the this category. In fact, if more women decide to have children on their own, the single-parent household may become more typical than the traditional family in many countries. Also, couples may decide to have more children, or they might take in foster children or (3).............. . And because people are staying single and living longer, there may be more one-person households. (4).......... the otherhand, some people believe that similar events happen again and again in history. if this is true, people may go back to the traditional (5).................. or nuclear family of the past. Others think that the only certainty in history is change. in other words, the structure of the future family could begin to change faster and faster and in more and more ways.

(5).......................................

Though called by sweet-sounding names like Firinga or Katrina, tropical cyclones are huge rotating storms 200 to 2,000 kilometers wide with winds that blow at speeds of more than 100 kilometers per hour (kph). Weather professionals know them as tropical cyclones, but they are called hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea, typhoons in the Pacific Ocean, and cyclones in the Indian Ocean. They occur in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Large ones have destroyed cities and killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Tropical cyclones begin over water that is warmer than 27 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit) slightly north or south of the earth’s equator. Warm, humid air full of water vapor moves upward. The earth's rotation causes the growing storm to start to rotate around its center (called the eye). At the certain height, the water vapor condenses, changing to liquid and releasing heat. The heat draws more air and water vapor upward, creating a cycle as air and water vapor rise and liquid water falls. If the cycle speeds up until winds reach 118 kilometers per hour, the storm qualifies as a tropical cyclone.

Most deaths in tropical cyclones are caused by storm surge. This is a rise in sea level, sometimes seven meters or more, caused by the storm pushing against the ocean's surface. Storm surge was to blame for the flooding of New Orleans in 2005. The storm surge of Cyclone Nargis in 2008 in Myanmar pushed seawater nearly four meters deep some 40 kilometers inland, resulting in many deaths.

Which of the following would serve as the best title for the passage?

Choose the best answer:
Lan/ she/ soccer/ doesn't/ playing/ like/ and/ like washing/ up/ either.

Choose the best answer:
In 1778, he ……………… to London to study with Benjamin West for four years.

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
The Finer Points of Fair Trade
Throughout the year, we buy foods and beverages from a variety of sources. However, few of us take the time to consider the lives of the people who make these things. In many cases, these goods are produced by poor workers who have trouble surviving on their salaries. A social movement called “Fair Trade” is trying to change this by ensuring that workers are paid decent wages for their efforts. The Fair Trade movement aims to create a membership between customers and producers that is based on respect and fairness. Consumers hope that by supporting fair trade goods they are empowering workers in developing countries to live better lives. Consumers also benefit because they receive high-quality products and have peace of mind that these workers aren’t mistreated. Fair Trade also benefits the environment, as Fair Trade goods are produced with minimal pesticides and pollutants. The first Fair Trade mark was introduced in 1988 by a Dutch group called Solidaridad, which focused on labeling fair trade coffee imported into Holland from Mexico. Shortly after, other groups in North America and Europe followed their lead. These groups started to seek Fair Trade benefits for workers producing wine, honey, bananas, flowers, and several other goods. Then, in 1997, the Fairtrade Labeling Organization International (FLO) was established to unite all of these independent groups into one organization and set unified standards worldwide. In 2002, the FLO launched the FAIRTRADE Certificate Mark, which became an international symbol that labeled goods met the environmental, economic, and social requirements set by FAIRTRADE International (FLO). If consumers spot this mark on goods, they are assured that the workers producing them are receiving a suitable payment for their services. Major corporations are also getting involving in the Fair Trade movement, deluding Starbucks. The multi-national coffee retailer now purchases over 93 percent of its coffee from ethical sources. Furthermore, it has pledged to increase that number to 100 percent by 2025. If you are willing to join Starbucks and millions of other consumers around the globe, keep your eyes out for the FAIRTRADE mark next time you go food shopping.
7. What is supposed to happen in 2025?

Rewrite sentences without changing the meaning:
Stress and tiredness often leads to lack of concentration.

As many of you are aware, Jacob Wu, our long-standing Chief Executive Officer, ---139--- on 1 October. Twenty years ago, Mr. Wu set out to create a Hong Kong-based services firm with an international scope. ---140---. Wu Investment Services currently serves clients in seventeen countries, 95 percent of whom have chosen to invest with us for the long term. Mr. Wu will be ---141--- by Thomas Wu, his son, who has served as Vice President of Wu Investment Services for the past four years. A gathering will be held on 28 September to celebrate Mr. Wu's ---142--- career. I will send further information about the event closer to the date. Thank you.

140..................