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Life span usually is measured in units of time. Although this may seem eminently logical, certain difficulties may arise. In cold blooded animals in general, the rate of metabolism that determines the various life processes varies with the temperatures to which they are exposed. If aging depends on the expenditure of a fixed amount of vital energy, an idea first proposed in 1908, life span will vary tremendously depending on temperature or other external variables that influence life span. There is considerable evidence attesting at least to the partial cogency of this argument. So long as a certain range is not exceeded, cold blooded invertebrates do live longer at low than at high temperalures. Rats in the laboratory live longest on a somewhat restricted diet that does not permit maximum metabolic rate. Of perhaps even greater significance is the fact that many animals undergo dormant periods. Many small mammals hibernate; a number of arthropods have life cycles that include periods during which development is arrested. Under both conditions the metabolic rate becomes very low. It is questionable whether such periods should be included in computing the life span of a particular organism. Comparisons between species, some of which have such inactive periods while others do not, are dangerous. It is possible that life span could be measured more adequately by total metabolism; however, the data that are necessary for this purpose are almost entirely lacking.  Length of life is controlled by a multitude of factors, which collectively may be termed environment, operating on a genetic system that determines how the individual will respond. It is impossible to list all the environmental factors that may lead to death. For analytical purposes it is, however, useful to make certain formal separations. Every animal is exposed to (1) a pattern of numerous events, each with a certain probability of killing the individual at any moment and, in the aggregate, causing a total probability of death or survival; (2) climatic and other changes in the habitat, modifying the frequency with which the various potentially fatal events occur; and (3) progressive systemic change, inasmuch as growth, reproduction, development, and senescence are characteristics intrinsic in the organism and capable of modifying the effects of various environmental factors. 
2. The word "they" in the passage refers to ____

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Sylvia Earle is an underwater explorer and marine biologist who was born in the USA in 1935. She became interested in the world’s oceans from an early age. As a child, she liked to stand on the beach for hours and look at the sea, wondering what it must be like under the surface. When she was 16, she finally got a chance to make her first dive, which motivated her to become an underwater explorer. Since then, she has spent more than 6,500 hours under water, and has led more than seventy expeditions worldwide. She has also made the deepest dive ever, reaching a record – breaking depth of 381 metres.
In 1970, she became famous around the world when she became the caption of the first all- female team to live under water. The team spent two weeks in an underwater “house”. The research they carried out showed the damage that pollution was causing to marine life, and especially to coral reefs. Her team also studied the problem of over- fishing. Fishing methods meant that people were catching too many fish, Earle warned, and many species were in danger of becoming extinct. Since then she has written several books and magazine articles in which she suggests ways of reducing the damage that is being done to the world’s oceans. One way, she believes, is to reply on fish farms for seafood, and reduce the amount of fishing that is done out at sea. Although she no longer eats seafood herself, she realizes the importance it plays in our diets, It would be wrong to tell people they should stop eating fish from the sea, she says. However, they need to reduce the impact they are having on the ocean’s supplies.
2. The word “motivated” in paragraph 2 mostly means _______.

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As more and more people concentrate in cities, planners are looking for ways to (31) _________ cities into better living spaces. This can be (32) _________ by improving existing infrastructure while also creating more public spaces that are both beautiful and green. This can be hard to accomplish, especially in cities with a haphazard fashion. Some cities have been created with the idea of a green city as the goal. One such city, Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates, aims to become a (33) _________ for other cities to follow. It is being known as a truly green city that relies strictly on renewable sources such as solar energy to provide all of its energy needs. In addition, it will be a zero waste city in which (34) _________ that is used can be recycled. (35) _________ it will truly accomplish its goal remains to be seen, but it will also act as an experiment for environmentally-friendly areas to be tested

My name is Nora and I live in Sweden. I live in a small village in the mountains. I love mountains and I can't imagine my life without them. I live with my parents and my little sister. She is six and I am eleven.
My mum's name is Helen and my dad's name is Nick. My mum is a fitness coach at my school and my dad is a farmer. We have a small milk farm. That's why I am fond of sports and animals.
I get up at 6.30 and do my morning training together with my mum. Then I wake my sister up. We have a big breakfast and our mum takes us to school by her car.
After lessons I stay at school to practice basketball. It's my favourite sport. At that time my sister trains at the singing club. After that I go home with my sister by bus because my mum has some evening trainings.
After school I like to help my dad to take care of calves. They are so nice! In the evening I like reading books or going out with my friends. We are crazy about riding bikes at the weekend. I have got a cool green bike. I think I am the best bike rider because I go in for sports every day.
How many people are there in Nora’s family?

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One of my favorite movies is When Harry Met Sally. I can watch it again and again and love it every single time - maybe even more than I did before. There’s a scene that will be familiar to any of the movie’s fans: Harry and Sally have just set off on their drive to New York City and Harry starts telling Sally about his dark side. He mentions one thing in particular: whenever he starts a new book, he reads the last page first. That way, in case he dies while reading it, he’ll know how it ends. Harry will know how it ends, true, but doesn’t that also ruin the book? If you know the ending, how can you enjoy the story? As it turns out, easily. A study in this month’s issue of Psychological Science comes to a surprising conclusion: spoilers don’t actually spoil anything. In fact, they may even serve to enhance the experience of reading. Over 800 students from the University of California San Diego took part in a series of three experiments, where they read one of three types of short story: a story with an ironic twist (such as Roald Dahl), a mystery (such as Agatha Christie), and a literary story (such as Raymond Carver). For each story, there was a spoiler paragraph that revealed the outcome. The students read the stories either with or without the spoiler. Time to reconsider, it seems, what we call a spoiler. The so-called “spoiled” stories were actually rated as more enjoyable than those that were “unspoiled,” no matter what type of story was being read. Knowing the ending, even when suspense was part of the story’s goal, made the process of reading more, not less, pleasurable. Why would this be the case? Perhaps, freed from following the plot, we can pay more attention to the quality of the writing and to the subtleties of the story as a whole. Perhaps we can be more attuned to those signs that foreshadow the unfolding of the action and take pleasure in our ability to identify them. Whatever the case may be, it may not be as urgent as we think it is to avoid spoilers. Indeed, it might be just fine to embrace them openly. Harry might have the right idea after all. In fact, he might be getting at the very thing that lets me watch him meet Sally over and over and over again, and enjoy the process every single time.
7. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

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It is hard to argue that the actual contribution to development amounts to a great deal directly. Whilst volunteer tourists can get involved in building homes or schools, they have usually paid a(n) (26) _______ fee for the opportunity to be involved in this work: money that, if donated to a local community directly, could potentially pay for a greater (27) _______ of labour than the individual volunteer could ever hope to provide. This is especially so in the case of gap years, (28) _______ the level of technical skill or professional experience required of volunteers is negligible. Hence, it is unsurprising that many academic studies (29) _______ to the moral issue of whether gap year volunteering is principally motivated by altruism – a desire to benefit the society visited – or whether young people aim to generate ‘cultural capital’ which benefits them in their careers. (30) _______, the projects may play a role in developing people who will, in the course of their careers and lives, act ethically in favour of those less well-off

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Over the past fifty years or so, the methods used for collecting money from the public to aid the developing world have changed out of all recognition, along with the gravity of the problems (1) ____, and the increasing awareness among the population that something must be done. At the beginning of this period, it would have been common to put money in a collecting box, perhaps on the street or at church. The 1960s saw the (2) ____ of shops which sold second-hand goods, donated by the public, and which also began to sell articles manufactured in the developing world in charitable projects set up to guarantee a fair income to local people. The next development was probably the charity 'event', in which participants were (3) ____ to run, cycle, swim or what have you, and collected money from friends and relatives (4) ____ how far or long they managed to keep going. The first hint of what was to become the most successful means of (5) ____ money was the charity record, where the artists donated their time and talent, and the (6) ____ from the sales went to a good cause. This was perhaps a (7) ____ of the fact that young people felt increasingly concerned about the obvious differences between life in Europe and the United States, and that in most of Africa, for example. A feeling of frustration was building up. Why was so little being done? The huge success of Band Aid, and (8) ____ televised concerts, showed the power of the media, and of music in particular, to inspire and shock. It differed significantly in style from other events. People phoned up in their thousands on the day and pledged money by (9) ____ their credit card numbers. (10) ____ if you have enough money to buy an MP3 player, you can afford something for the world's starving children

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The traffic light signal was invented by a railway signaling engineer. It was installed (26)_________The House of Parliament in 1868. It (27)_________like any railway signal of the time, and was operated by gas. (28)_________, it exploded and killed a policeman, and the accident (29)_________further development until cars became common.             (30)_________traffic lights are an American invention. Red-green (31)_________were installed in Cleveland in 1914. Three-color signals, (32)_________by hand from a tower in the (33)_________of the street, were installed in New York in 1918. The (34)________lights of this type to (35)________in Britain were in London, on the junction between St James’s street and Piccadilly in 1925.

Read the passage below and answer the question

My country has four seasons. They are spring, summer, fall and winter. In the spring, the spring is usually warm. Sometimes, it is cold, but not very cold. There are many flowers in the spring. In the summer, the day is long and the night is short. We often go swimming in this season. This fall is the season of fruits. In the winter, it's usually very cold. The day is short and the night is long.

How is the night in the summer?

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Hoang is a (1) ……………. He’s twelve years (2) …………….. He’s tall and (3)……………. His face is (4) ……………… and his hair is (5) ………………. and black. He (6) ……………… at school in the morning and (7) …………….. football in the afternoon. He (8) ……………… good marks in class

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Planet earth is part of a system of planets and their moons, as well as numerous asteroids and comets which (26)_________around a huge star we call the Sun. The Sun itself (27)_________of gas. Nuclear reactions inside its core (28)_______the heat and light that make life on the Earth (29)________. The Earth is the third of four small terrestrial (Earth like) planets that orbit close to the (30)_________. Further out in our Solar System are four huge gas planets, while distant Pluto, (31)_________planet, is made (32)_________rock and ice. Our Earth is one of the ten planets that orbit the Sun- a huge, burning-hot star in the center of our Solar System. The Solar System and all the stars in the (33)_________are part of our galaxy-the Milky Way, which (34)________as many as 200 billions stars. Beyond our galaxy (35)_________millions more galaxies. They all add together to make up the Universe

Read the passage below and answer the question

Hello everyone, I’m Phu. I’m from Vietnam. There are four seasons in the North of Vietnam. I like the spring and winter most. In the spring, it is warm and there are many kinds of fruits. I live in the countryside so the air is very cool and fresh in the spring. The view looks like a stunning picture. In the summer, it is very hot so I and my friends usually go swimming and fly our kites. Sometimes we go fishing. I don't like the winter because the weather is very cold and there is a lot of cold wind. I love living in the rural areas.

What the season does Phu like best?

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How do children learn about wildlife? And is what they learn the sort of thing they should be learning? It is my belief that children should not just be acquiring knowledge of animals but also developing attitudes and feelings towards them based on exposure to the real lives of animals in their natural habitats. But is this happening? Some research in this area indicates that it is not. Learning about animals in school is often completely disconnected from the real lives of real animals, with the result that children often end up with little or no understanding or lasting knowledge of them. They learn factual information about animals, aimed at enabling them to identify them and have various abstract ideas about them, but that is the extent of their learning. Children’s storybooks tend to personify animals as characters rather than teach about them. For direct contact with wild and international animals, the only opportunity most children have is visiting a zoo. The educational benefit of this for children is often given as the main reason for doing it but research has shown that zoo visits seldom add to children’s knowledge of animals - the animals are simply like exhibits in a museum that the children look at without engaging with them as living creatures. Children who belong to wildlife or environmental organizations or who watch wildlife TV programmes, however, show significantly higher knowledge than any other group of children studied in research. The studies show that if children learn about animals in their natural habitats, particularly through wildlife-based activities, they know more about them than they do as a result of visiting zoos or learning about them in the classroom. Research has also been done into the attitudes of children towards animals. It shows that in general terms, children form strong attachments to individual animals, usually their pets, but do not have strong feelings for animals in general. This attitude is the norm regardless of the amount or kind of learning about animals they have at school. However, those children who watch television wildlife programmes show an interest in and affection for wildlife in its natural environment, and their regard for animals in general is higher
2. The word “disconnected” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ________

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
What do you do if you want to (1)______ a book in a library? If you know the author’s (2)______, go to the author catalogue. Find the title of the book (3)______ check the shelf mark. Make a note of this before you look (4)_______ the appropriate shelf. If you do not know the author’s name, go to the (5)______ catalogue. If there (6)_______ no title catalogue in the library, go to the subject catalogue. Check all the titles which are under the (7)______ you want. Then check the appropriate card, as with the author catalogue. Next look for the book on the shelf. Let the librarian stamp it (8)_______ you take it out of the library. If the book isn’t on the shelf, ask the librarian to get it for you

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Part of what makes summers so hot is also what causes thunderstorms. As heat from the sun beats down on Earth, the heat evaporates some of the water in lakes and oceans. The evaporated water stays in the air. This evaporated water makes the air feel heavy and humid. Humid air is what makes you feel hot and sticky (1) _______ the summer. Warm humid air usually does not stay in one place. The wind can move it higher in the sky (2) _______ it will cool off. When warm humid air cools, it forms clouds. As more water is moved from lakes and oceans to the airs, the clouds get bigger and bigger. Since summer, the air near the ground is hotter than it is during other seasons of the year. When this hot air mixes with cool air from (3) _______ area, there will be changes in the weather. Greater differences between the (4) _______ of the hot and cold air will cause greater changes in the weather. Imagine putting an ice (5) _______ in a warm drink. As soon as the ice hits the warm drink, it will crack and pop. But if you put the ice cube in a cool drink, it will not crack or pop as much. When warmer and cooler clouds get close to one another, there may be some popping and cracking as the weather changes. There may be more clouds or storms. A thunderstorm may be on its way

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Although women now (1) ______ almost half of all workers in the U.S., nearly 80  percent of them are employed in low-paying clerical, sales, service, or factory jobs.  Approximately a third of all women workers have clerical jobs, which pay (2)  ______ average $12,000 or less. Partly as a result, women make only seventy five cents for every dollar (3) ______ by men. (4) ______, men routinely make  more money even when education, experience, and responsibilities are (5) ______

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If cartoons are anything to go by, then the attitude of the British towards the family, and of British men towards the (31) ________ sex, has not changed much recently, despite attempts to shame people into admitting their prejudices. The mother-in-law, frequently of horrific (32)______ and usually either about to visit, or being somehow driven from the house is still a favorite butt of this kind of humor. Marriage itself has been reduced to the skinny male, dominated by a massive female who habitually lies in wait with the rolling pin behind the door for the return of her drunken spouse. Children are rarely shown other than as screaming infants, or else as ill-favoured urchins who (33) _____ all their time being objectionable or asking for money. The old are simply (34) _____ as comic characters. The problem is, how do such cartoons relate to the way people truly see each other? Does a joke always contain some grain of truth, however much we may dislike to admit it? In other words, is life really a series of mother- in-law jokes? Or do jokes have a life of their own, with a (35) _______ of stereotypes we can recognize, like the Englishman with his umbrella and bowler hat, or the Frenchman with his striped jumper and beret?

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Harvard University, today recognized as part of the top echelon of the world's universities, came from very inauspicious and humble beginnings.  This oldest of American universities was founded in 1636, just 16 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. Included in the Puritan emigrants to the Massachusetts colony during this period were more than 100 graduates of England's prestigious Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and these university graduates in the New World were determined that their sons would have the same educational opportunities that they themselves had had. Because of this support in the colony for an institution of higher learning, the General Court of Massachusetts appropriated 400 pounds for a college in October of 1636 and early the following year decided on a parcel of land for the school; this land was in an area called Newetowne, which was later renamed Cambridge after its English cousin and is the site of the present-day university.  When a young minister named John Harvard, who came from the neighboring town of Charlestowne, died from tuberculosis in 1638, he willed half of his estate of 1,700 pounds to the fledgling college. In spite of the fact that only half of the bequest was actually paid, the General Court named the college after the minister in appreciation for what he had done. The amount of the bequest may not have been large, particularly by today's standards, but it was more than the General Court had found it necessary to appropriate in order to open the college.  Henry Dunster was appointed the first president of Harvard in 1640, and it should be noted that in addition to serving as president, he was also the entire faculty, with an entering freshman class of four students. Although the staff did expand somewhat, for the first century of its existence the entire teaching staff consisted of the president and three or four tutors.  
4. It can be inferred from the passage that the Puritans who travelled to Massachusetts colony were ____

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to answer these questions

Hi. My name is Mary. I’m twelve years old. I’m a pupil. I live in a beautiful area in a big city. Every morning I get up at 5:30 o’ clock. After that, I dress up, have breakfast and go to school. My school is not very far from my house so I often go to school on foot. But today I ride my bike because I want to attend my English class after school. I love English so much. I will study abroad soon.

What time does she get up in the morning?

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Most adults struggle to recall events from their first few years of life and now scientists have identified exactly when these childhood memories are lost forever. A new study into childhood amnesia has found that it tends to take (31) _____ around the age of seven. The rapid decline of memories persisting while children are five and six is owing to the change in the way memories are formed. Before the age of seven, children tend to have an (32) _____ form of recall with no sense of time and place in their memories. In older children, however, the early recollected events tend to be more adult like in their content and the way they are formed. Faster rate of forgetting in children and higher turnover of memories means early memories are less likely to survive. (33) _____, memories of younger children tend to lack autobiographical narrative leading to a process known as ‘retrieval induced forgetting’ (34) _____ the action of remembering causes other information to be forgotten. Consequently, if childhood memories can survive into the ninth or tenth year of life, they may stay a chance of (35) _____ it into adulthood

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Have you ever had the feeling that people older than you are hard to understand? Or, have you felt like people from younger generations just don't get it? Maybe you find it easier to connect with people (26) ______ are closer to your age than those who are older or younger than you. You can probably thank the generation gap for these feelings. There are currently six generations living in the United States: the Greatest Generation, Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z. (27) ______ generation has its own unique set of characteristics and norms. For (28) ______ , the Greatest Generation (born 1901-1924) is known for its patriotism, hard workers, and loyalty to institutions. The Millennials (born 1980-2000) are characterized by their dependence on technology, detachment from traditional institutions, optimism, and open-mindedness. It is no (29) ______ that many people from different generations have a hard time understanding each other. Generation gap refers to differences in actions, beliefs, interests, and opinions that (30) ______ between individuals from different generations. So, what causes these differences?