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In the Us, the first stage of compulsory education_______as elementary education.

 

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The children were wearing traditional _______ costume.

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Explosions in the Sky
If you attend a major outdoor event in the evening, whether it is in Paris, Beijing, or New York City, there is a good chance that it will end in a sensational way. After all of the other activities have concluded, the sky will be lit up by a colourful firework display. Although the show may only last for a few minutes, during that time every eye will look on with amazement as they work their magic in the air. Fireworks were invented in the seventh century by the Chinese. They were quickly absorbed into the culture and became a part of many celebratory events and festivals. Eventually, emperors would organize large firework displays to entertain and impress their subjects. Fireworks didn’t become big in Europe until the mid-17th century. People became interested in fireworks after reading accounts from monks and travellers who saw them while in China. Once they did arrive, it was obvious they were there to stay. Fireworks were frequently paired with triumphant classical symphonies to celebrate the end of wars and other great victories. As time went on, the fireworks continued to evolve and get better in many ways. Fireworks now come in every colour imaginable. The colour comes from different chemicals that are placed inside of each firework. Thanks to modern technology, it is also possible to create firework arrangements in the shape of hearts, smiley faces, and even the planet Saturn. This is because of the way that the aerial shells, or casings, of fireworks are constructed. The cases are packed with exploding pellets and a piece of cardboard. The cardboard enables the designers to arrange the pellets in pattern or shape of the object of their choice. The first time this technology was used was in Washington DC, during a celebration to welcome home American troops who fought in the Gulf War. The visual aspect is only part of the reason fireworks are appealing. The sounds that fireworks make also add a healthy dose of excitement to the display. There are several noises that fireworks can make. The most common is the “bang” which sounds a lot like a gunshot. Fireworks can also crackle, hum, and whistle as they streak across the night sky. The world’s largest firework show was held in Kuwait in 2012. 77,282 fireworks exploded during the incredible 64-minute show. But with people’s love for fireworks at an all-time high, who knows how long that record will last?
3. What is the main idea of the second paragraph?

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She had worked as a tourist guide before __________ a teaching career.

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Many countries in Asia agreed to _____ diplomatic relations.

Deserts take ____ one-third of the Earth’s land surface.

(336)______

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
The Design Present Conference is an annual event held in Melbourne for graphic-design professionals. The conference is steadily growing in popularity. Last year, it ---(1)--- more than 3,000 attendees from Australia and around the world. The next Design Present Conference, which will be held from 20 to 23 March, will offer more than 100 workshops, plus keynote speeches and plenary sessions. This year, several opportunities for professional networking will be added. Attendees will have the chance to market ---(2)--- to firms in several different industries. Periods for networking will be included in the ---(3)--- each day. Whether you are a design enthusiast, student, freelance designer, or business owner, Design Present has something for you. ---(4)--- .

Choose the best answer:
Sunday mornings, Ba/ often/ jogging/ mountains.

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Fashion is no longer something that is just made of cloth or leather. These days it has become something that needs batteries and is often connected to the Internet. When it comes to high-tech fashion, it might be (1) _________ to your wrist or resting on the bridge of your nose, and it is doing a lot more than just (2) _________ you look stylish. Google was one of the first to burst on the scene with a fashionable item that was also very (3) _________. Google Glass, which looks like glasses, allows wearers to do all sorts of things, from seeing information in a simple viewer to simply saying out loud, “Take a picture.” What you are seeing in the picture that will be taken, (4) _________Google Glass heard you through its microphone and has a built-in camera. If you ask a question, you will (5) _________ the answer in the tiny screen displayed before one eye. Google Glass uses Bluetooth technology to communicate with a smartphone, so it is not a stand-alone item

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Cities develop as a result of functions that they can perform. Some functions result directly from the a great city regardless of the disadvantageous ingenuity of the citizenry, but most functions activity. result from the needs of the local area and of the surrounding hinterland (the region that supplies goods to the city and to which the city furnishes services and other goods). Geographers often make a distinction between the situation and the site of a city. Situation refers to the general position in relation to the surrounding region, whereas site involves in physical characteristics of the specific location. Situation is normally much more important to the continuing prosperity of a city. If a city is well situated in regard to its hinterland, its development is much more likely to continue. Chicago, for example, possesses an almost unparalleled situation: it is located at the southern end of a huge lake that forces East-West transportation lines to be compressed into its vicinity, and at a meeting of significant land and water transport routes. It also overlooks what is one of the world's fiest large farming regions. These factors ensured that Chicago would become characteristics of the available site, such as being prone to floding during thunderstorm Similarly, it can be argued that much of New York City's importance stems from its early and continuing advantage of situation. Philadelphia and Boston both originated at about the same time as New York and shared New York's location at the Western end of one of the world's most important oceanic trade routes, but only New York possesses an easy-access functional connection (the Hudson-Mohawk lowland) to the vast Midwestern hinterland. This account does not alone explain New York's primacy, but it does include several important factors. Among the many aspects of situation that help to explain why some cities grow and others do not, original location on a navigable waterway seems particularly applicable. Of course, such characteristics as slope, drainage, power resources, river crossings, coastal shapes, and other physical characteristics help to determine city location, but such factors are normally more signifiant in early stages of city development than later.
3. The passage suggests that a geographer would consider a city's soil type part of its: 

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It is no good ............................ sorry for yourself.

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I think it is a very nice town …………. the weather is good and the people are friendly.

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The newlywed ______ spent their honeymoon in Hawaii.

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Space travel is one of the marvels wonders of modern _______.

Community Colleges, institutions of higher (1) _______ offering two-year programs of general study or technical or vocational training. Many (2) _______ receive the first two years (freshman and sophomore years) of postsecondary education at community colleges (3) _______ pursuing a bachelor's degree at a four-year institution. Community colleges (4) _______ a variety of programs and degrees, (5) _______ certificate programs that require less than two years of work in a specific area of study; terminal associate degrees in professional and technical programs; and associate degrees that may be transferred toward the completion of a bachelor’s degree.

(25)_______

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Organisms play ________ important role in keeping the nature balanced.

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:
Fish that live on the sea bottom benefit by being flat and hugging the contours. There are two very differcent types of flatfish and they have evolved in very separate ways. The skates ad rays, relatives of the rharks, have become flat in what might be called the obivious way. Their bodies have grown out sideways to form grat “wings”. They look as though they have been flattened but have remained symmetrical and “the right way up”. Conversely, fish such sas plaice, sole, and halibut have become flat in a different way. There are bony fish which have a marked tendency to be flattened in a vertical direction; they are much “taller” than they are wide. They use their whole, vertically flattened bodies as swimming surfaces, which undulat through the water as they move. Therefore, when their ancestors migrate to the seabed, they lay on one side than on their bellies. However, this raises the problem that one eye was always looking down into the sand and was effectively useless – In evolution this problem was soleved by the lower eye “moving” around the other side. We see this process off moving around enacted in the development of every young bony flatfish. It starts life swimming near the surface, and is symmetrical and vertically flattened, but then the skull starts to grow in a strange asymmetrical twisted fashion,, so that one eye, for instance the left, moves over the top of the head upwards, an old Picasso – like vision. Incidentally, some species of 20 flatfish settle on the right side, others on left, and others on either side.

The passage is mainly concerned with     .

Ms Young, to ______ many of her students are writing, is living happily and peacefully in Canada.

(270)_______

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Although only a small percentage of the electromagnetic radiation that is emitted by the Sun is ultraviolet (UV) radiation, the amount that is emitted would be enough to cause severe damage to most forms of life on Earth were it all to reach the surface of the Earth. Fortunately, all of the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation does not reach the Earth because of a layer of oxygen, called the ozone layer encircling the Earth in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 15 miles above the Earth. The ozone layer absorbs much of the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation and prevents it from reaching the Earth. Ozone is a form of oxygen in which each molecule consists of three atoms (O3) instead of the two atoms (O2) usually found in an oxygen molecule. Ozone forms in the stratosphere in a process that is initiated by ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. UV radiation from the Sun splits oxygen molecules with two atoms into free oxygen atoms, and each of these unattached oxygen atoms then joins up with an oxygen molecule to form ozone. UV radiation is also capable of splitting up ozone molecules; thus, ozone is constantly forming, splitting, and reforming in the stratosphere. When UV radiation is absorbed during the process of ozone formation and reformation, it is unable to reach Earth and cause damage there. Recently, however, the ozone layer over parts of the Earth has been diminishing. Chief among the culprits in the case of the disappearing ozone, those that are really responsible, are the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). CFCs meander up from Earth into the stratosphere, where they break down and release chlorine. The released chlorine reacts with ozone in the stratosphere to form chlorine monoxide (ClO) and oxygen (O2). The chlorine then becomes free to go through the cycle over and over again. One chlorine atom can, in fact, destroy hundreds of thousands of ozone molecules in this repetitious cycle, and the effects of this destructive process are now becoming evident.
5. The word "free" in paragraph 2 could best be replaced by: 

Next week new payment processing terminals will be installed at each sales register in Macaw stores located in St.Thomas. Payment   System 4.0 ---139--- in our stores in Puerto Rico for several months. So far, no issues with the system have been reported by ---140--- customers or managers there. ---141---. It is faster and handles more transaction types than the current payment system. It also eliminates the need for ---142--- verification of transactions under $25.00.

142....................

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
One of the major problems in the art world is how to distinguish and promote an artist. In effect, a market must be created for an artist to be successful. The practice of signing and numbering individual prints was introduced by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, the nineteenth-century artist best known for the painting of his mother, called "Arrangement in Grey and Black", but known to most of US as "Whistler's Mother". Whistler's brother-in- law, Sir Francis Seymour Haden, a less well-known artist, had speculated that collectors might find prints more attractive if they knew that they were only a limited number of copies produced. By signing the work in pencil, an artist could guarantee and personalize each print. As soon as Whistler and Haden began the practice of signing and numbering their prints, their work began to increase in value. When other artists noticed that the signed prints commanded higher prices, they began copying the procedure. Although most prints are signed on the right-hand side in the margin below the image, the placement of the signature is a matter of personal choice. Indeed, prints have been signed within the image, in any of the margins, or even on the reverse side of the print. Wherever the artist elects to sign it, a signed print is still valued above an unsigned one, even in the same edition.
2. Which of the following would be a better title for the passage?