Choose the best answer:
The Great Barrier Reef is alrealy in a critical state. Rising sea temperatures are killing corals faster than they can recover. As temperatures continue to increase, more and more of the reef will die, along with the rich variety of life and the AUS$6 billion tourism industry that depend on it. The heating of the planet will push many struggling species over the brink. Some will just have no place left to go. For biodiversity, climate change is, in military jargon, a threat multiplier. Worse still, measures to limit warming often don’t take biodiversity into account. Some, such as the push for biofuels, directly harm it. The world has warmed around 1˚C since pre-industrial times. That is already having a dramatic effect on wildlife. In the Arctic, for example, the loss of more and more sea ice each summer is affecting many animals, from walruses to polar bears. Polar inhabitants have nowhere colder to go, but many creatures elsewhere are already moving to stay in their comfort zone. Some marine species, including mammals, birds, fish and plankton, have shifted their ranges by hundreds of kilometres. Rising sea levels, meanwhile, could wipe out species as low-lying islands are inundated. Mainland species are also at risk, such as the few hundred Bengal tigers in the Sundarbans, a network of mangrove forests along the coast of Bangladesh and north-east India. The effects of habitat destruction and rising water levels mean there will probably be no suitable habitat left there for these tigers by 2070. Some threats to biodiversity can’t be forecast with any certainty. For instance, people forced from their homes by disasters or conflict can have a severe impact on biodiversity in the places they flee to, rapidly deforesting vast areas and greatly reducing wildlife populations. Floods and storms displaced 15 million people in 2018 alone, and these numbers will rise as extreme weather keeps on getting more extreme. For all these reasons, there is growing awareness that climate change and biodiversity are inextricably linked, and that we need joined-up policies to tackle both. Many initiatives and studies around the world show that we can protect biodiversity and tackle climate change while offering a better and fairer future for people.
6. Which of the following is true, according to the passage?

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Fathers in today families are spending more time with their children than at any point in the past 100 years. (1) ____ the number of hours the average woman spends at home with her children has declined since the early 1900s, as more and more women enter the workforce, there has been a decrease in the number of children per family and an increase in (2) ____ attention to each child. As a result, mothers today in the United States, (3) ____ those who work part- or full-time, spend almost twice as much time with each child as mothers did in the 1920s. People (4) ____ raised children in the 1940s and 1950s typically report that their own adult children and grandchildren communicate far better with their kids and spend more time (5) ____ with homework than they did. America's children are also safer today than they've (6) ____ been. An infant was four times more likely to die in the 1950s than today. A parent then was 27 per cent more likely to lose an older teen (7) ____ death. If we look back over the last millennium, we can see that families have always been diverse. In each period, families have solved one set of problems only to face new (8) ____. What works for a family in one economic and cultural setting doesn't work for a family in another. What's helpful (9) ____ one stage of a family's life may be (10) ____ at the next stage. If there is one lesson to be (11) ____ from the last millennium of family history, it's that families always have to (12) ____ with a changing world.

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It can be shown in facts and figures that cycling is the cheapest, most convenient, and most environmentally desirable form of transport (26)______ towns, but such cold calculations do not mean much on a frosty winter morning. The real appeal of cycling is that it is so (27)______. It has none of the difficulties and tensions of other ways of travelling so you are more cheerful after a ride, even through the rush hour.             The first thing a non-cyclist says to you is: “But isn’t it (28) ______ dangerous?” It would be foolish to deny the danger of sharing the road with motor vehicles and it must be admitted that there are an alarming (29) ______ of accidents involving cyclists. However, although police records (30) ______ that the car driver is often to blame, the answer lies with the cyclist. It is possible to ride in such a way as to reduce risks to a minimum. ut such cold calculations do not mean much on a frosty winter morning. The real appeal of cycling is that it is so (27)______. It has none of the difficulties and tensions of other ways of travelling so you are more cheerful after a ride, even through the rush hour.

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Any change in one part of an ecosystem can cause changes in other parts. Droughts, storms and fires can change ecosystems. Some changes (1)______ ecosystems. If there is too (2) ______ rainfall, plants will not have enough water to live. If a kind of plant dies off, the animals that (3) ______ it may also die or move away. Some changes are good for ecosystems. Some pine forests need (4) ______ for the pine trees to reproduce. The seeds are sealed inside pinecones. Heat from a forest fire melts the seal and lets the seeds (5)______. Polluting the air, soil, and water can harm ecosystems. Building (6) ______ on rivers for electric power and irrigation can harm ecosystems (7) ______ the rivers. Bulldozing wetlands and cutting down (8) ______ destroy ecosystems. Ecologists are working with companies and governments to find better ways of (9) ______ fish, cutting down trees, and building dams. They are looking for ways to get food, lumber, and other products for people (10)______ causing harm to ecosystems

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I grew up with precious little choice about anything. You ate what you were given, went to school where you were told, wore your sister's hand-me-downs. And twice a year - birthday, Christmas - you got a present. We weren't poor at all but that was entirely normal and I don't remember feeling remotely deprived. Today, as we can see all around us, children seem to have everything - designer clothes, computer games, fussy eating habits and the attention span of itchy gnats. A report yesterday from the Children's Society found that one in ten kids now has mental illness diagnosed and it concluded that materialistic consumer pressure may be partly to blame, with children from poor backgrounds the main victims. Where is it coming from, this consumer pressure? First, from television, and the false dreams on offer there. Children from poor backgrounds, as well as having less money to buy the latest clothes or electronic games, are more likely to have parents without time to spend with them, and homes without access to outside space, so are far more likely to end up spending hours in front of the telly soaking up adverts alongside the easy gratification offered by cartoon; fantasy or drama. You cannot just blame the parents for this; many will be working hard, with no choice, just to put food on the table; after all, how many can afford a house with a garden in a city or suburb these days? Of course parents can correct bouts of consumerism in their children by teaching them what is and is not affordable, but why subject them to the clever traps of marketing people in the first place? Pressure is bad enough as it is, from schoolfriends and celebrity excess, without allowing some of the cleverest adult minds in the sharpest advertising agencies in the world to manipulate them as well. But why is it in a child's interests to be treated like a consumer? It has yet to be proven that giving even adults a wide range of choices improves their lives. In many instances, from too many yoghurts in the supermarket all the way up to a supposed choice of doctor or school, it is just confusing and stressful. I think the fewer, carefully selected, choices we can give young children, the more we help them. Watch the exhausted face of a six-year-old confronted by all this year's Christmas presents, without the time to play with any of them for more than a few minutes, and see what I mean. We are spoilt, and we are spoiling our children. They need to be taught to look down as well as up; to choose to feel fortunate, and not envious -and to recognise that gratification isn't as easy as buying a new toy or switching on a dream. And, as my mother would have been delighted to hear, it will not cost a thing.
4. The word ‘gratification’ in paragraph 2 mostly means _______

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Higher Education in the UK Students who have successfully completed an A-level course may go to university to do (1)_____ three- or four-year course leading to a first degree such as Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Science (BSc), etc. They apply to several universities which then (2)_____ an offer of a place specifying the minimum grades the student needs to obtain in the A level subjects studied. Higher education is not (3)_____. In principle, students have to pay a contribution to the cost of teaching (tuition fees) and have also to pay their living costs (maintenance). The government provides (4)_____ to help them pay for university education which have to be paid back from earnings once their income reaches a certain (5)_____. In recent years government policy has been to (6)_____ the percentage of 18-year olds (7)_____ go to university, which is now, at 40%, double the 1990 figure, but this growth has been at the (8)______ of the amount of financial support given to individual students. Universities receive money (9)_____ the state for each student and are responsible for employing staff and deciding which courses to offer. The head of a university, who is (10)_____ for its management, is called a vice-chancellor

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According to a new survey, people living in Britain's rural areas are more (34) _______ about the future and happier about their quality of life than people in cities and towns. The Countryside Living Index carried out (35) _______ how people feel about their lives, found that the satisfaction ratings of people living in the countryside leapt by 10.7 per cent (36) _______ the first and second quarters of 2013, with their views about the cost of living, education and crime all improving. People in both rural and urban areas said that they felt more optimistic about health, education, and the environment, but the positive change was much more pronounced among countrydwellers than city inhabitants. People from urban areas also said that they were increasingly more worried about crime than those in the countryside and overall, the rise in perceived quality of life was three times higher in the countryside than in the cities. Tim Price, who carried out the study, said: "The recession made life in the countryside very tough for many people, (37) _______ it's great news to see concerns about the cost of living easing." However, for young people the lack of rural jobs paying a living (38) _______, and housing costs continue to make hard for them to live in the countryside

Read the following dialogue and then choose the best answer A, B, C, D:

"Teacher: Good morning. Minh. Do you (1).....................      in town?
Minh : Yes, I live in (2).....................        apartment.
Teacher: Is (3)...................... a supermarket near the apartmenr?
Minh : Yes, there’s also a bank, a clinic (4)       ........... a hotel.
Teacher: Are there any (5).............. near it?
Minh Yes, there (6)............... a toy store, a bakery, a drugstore and two bookstores.                   
Teacher: Is it (7) ....... there? 
Minh No, it’s very (8) ................"

2. I live in (2).....................        apartment.

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:

Hoa is going on (1) ...................... this summer. First, she is going (2) ......................Ha Long Bay, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (3) ...................... Hoi An Ancient town (4) ...................... five days. She is going to stay (5) ...................... her uncle in Ha Noi. (6) ......................, she is going to stay in a hotel in Hue for two days. She is going to see the (7) ...................... and Thien Mu (8) ......................

I am......(1)..... teacher, I……..(2)…….at a primary school in the USA. In the morning I......(3)..... up at seven o'clock. I have breakfast with bread and a cup of coffee. Then I go to work. I teach his students French. I have lunch at school. I go home.....(4)...... one o'clock in the afternoon. I don’t work on Saturdays and Sundays. I go to the cinema, or …….(5)……… a book. I like the books very much. I have a sister in Oxford and a brother in London.

(1).........................

Choose the best answer:
Forget global terrorism - for most of the world's population, ticking time bombs like earthquakes, supervolcanoes and hurricanes pose a far greater threat. Natural disaster expert Bill McGuire reveals a few of the top catastrophes waiting to happen. With NASA's eminent climate scientist, Jim Hansen, concerned that collapsing polar ice sheets could result in sea levels rising 1-2m this century and several more in the next, prospects for the Earth's coastal zones are bleak. A 1m rise would threaten one third of the world's agricultural land, while a 4m rise would maroon Miami 60km offshore. Rising sea levels is not the only threat to coastal regions. The Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma is slowly creeping seawards. During a future eruption, this gigantic landslide will plunge into the ocean, pushing up a bulge of water close to a kilometre high, spawning a mega-tsunami capable of devastating all the coastal areas surrounding the North Atlantic. Coastal regions also face the menace of desertification. By 2030, over half a billion people living around the shores of the Mediterranean will be viewing the encroaching desert with increasing panic. An area bigger than the UK, and home to 16 million people, is threatened - by the end of the century- with transformation from a green and pleasant land to a baking wilderness of sand and rock. However, these disasters seem pale in comparison to the mega-catastrophes waiting to happen like supervolcanoes, for instance. Every 50 millennia or so, a colossal volcanic blast expels sufficient ash and gas to cover a continent and block the Sun's rays for years on end, heralding a bitter volcanic winter. At Yellowstone in Wyoming, US, two such super-eruptions have shattered the crust in the last 2.1 million years and the volcano there remains restless. An asteroid attack is another threat which would have devastating consequences. A total of 713 asteroids with diameters of 1km or more, and the potential to clobber the Earth at some future date, have been identified. A 2km asteroid would load the atmosphere with dust and trigger a sustained global freeze. Harvests would fail and billions would die. Fortunately, such collisions only happen every couple of million years.
2. According to Jim Hansen, what is an outcome of polar ice caps melting?

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Bodies are made to move! They are not (31) _____ for sitting around in front of the television or reading magazines. Keeping fit doesn't mean have to be a super-athlete, and even (32) _____ exercise can give you a lot of fun. When you are fit and healthy, you will find you look better and feel better. You will develop more energy and self-confidence. Every time you move, you are exercising. The human body is designed to bend, stretch, run, jump and climb. (33) _____it does, the stronger and fitter it will become. Best of all, exercise is fun. It's what your body likes doing most-keeping on the move. Physical exercise is not only good for your body. People who take regular exercise are usually happier, more relaxed and more alert than people who sit around all day. Try an experiment-next time you are in a bad mood, go for a walk or play a ball game in the park. See how much better you feel after an hour. A good (34) _____of achievement is yet another benefit of exercise. People feel good about themselves when they know they have improved their fitness. People who exercise regularly will tell you that they find they have more energy to enjoy life. So have (35) _____you'll soon see and feel the benefits

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Vietnam is a (1) ____, developing country that in the last 34 years has had to recuperate from the ravages of war. Substantial progress was (2) ____ from 1986 to 1997 in moving forward from an extremely low level of development and significantly reducing poverty.  Since 2001, Vietnamese authorities have reaffirmed their (3) ____ to economic liberalization and international (4) ____. They have moved to implement the structural reforms needed to modernize the economy and to produce more competitive, (5) ____ industries.  Vietnam's membership in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and entry (6) ____ force of the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement in December 2001 have (7) ____ to even more rapid changes in Vietnam's trade and economic regime. Vietnam's exports to the US doubled in 2002 and again in 2003. Vietnam joined the WTO (World Trade Organization) in January 2007, following over a decade long (8) ____. This should provide an important boost to the economy and should help to ensure the continuation of liberalizing reforms.  Vietnam is working to create jobs to meet the challenge of a (9) ____ that is growing by more than one million people every year. Vietnamese authorities have tightened monetary and fiscal (10) ____ to stem high inflation

Choose the best answer:
Bodies are made to move! They are not (36) _____ for sitting around in front of the television or reading magazines. Keeping fit doesn't (37) _____ you have to be a super-athlete, and even (38) _____ exercise can give you a lot of fun. When you are fit and healthy, you will find you look better and feel better. You will develop more energy and self-confidence.Every time you move, you are exercising. The human body is designed to bend, stretch, run, jump and climb. (39) _____ it does, the stronger and fitter it will become. Best of all; exercise is fun. It's what your body likes doing most - keeping on the (40) _____

Choose the best answer:
Solar energy is a long lasting source of energy, and it can (26)________almost anywhere. To generate solar energy, we only need solar cells and (27)________! Solar cells can easily be installed on house the sun , so we don’t need any new space. Compared to other renewable sources, they also possess many advantages: wind and water power rely on turbines which (29)________noisy, expensive and which take up large space. Solar cells are totally silent and (30)________. As they have no moving parts, they require little maintenance and have a long lifetime

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Princess Eugenie (1)______a member of the British Royal Family. She’s (2)_____ youngest daughter of Princess Andrew and Sara Ferguson. Her parents (3)_______ married any more. They are divorced. Her older siser’s name is Beatrice. Beatrice and Eugenie are Prince William and Harry’s cousins. Her grandmother is the Queen and her uncle is Prince Charles. Her full name is Princess Eugenie Victoria Helena of York, so she (4)_______three first names but no surname. She studies Art, English, and Politics at university in Newcastle. (5)_______ the holidays she sometimes  stays with her mother and sometimes with her father. She often travels abroad with her parents. Although she’s a member of the royal family, she is a normal 20-year-old. She likes going out with her friends, she goes to lots of weddings and parties, and enjoys dancing. She’s also really (6)______ fashion. But because she’s a princess, she never has to (7)______the housework or cook dinner. She hardly ever has to do any official royal duties but she always (8)_____ for the charities her mother supports

Choose the best answer:
Stephen Hawking was 21 years old and just embarking upon his career as a researcher in cosmology at the University of Cambridge when his father noticed he was tripping and falling frequently. After a series of tests, Hawking was (26) _______ with 50 ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) and doctors estimated he had two and a half years left to live. The news was, of course, devastating, but Hawking avoided an emotional (27) _______ by taking new interest in his studies and his research. His disease continued to progress, (28) _______, and by the mid-1970s he needed more care and his speech was so slurred only his family could understand him. In 1985, Hawking came down with pneumonia and needed a tracheotomy, (29) _______ left him without the ability to speak at 60 all. He did make a full recovery, however, allowing him to finish writing A Brief History of Time, which sold 10 million copies around the world. Although it would be easy to dwell on what ALS has cost him, Hawking has chosen to focus on (30) _______ that he still has in life. His brilliant mind remains unaffected by the disease and as a result Hawking has 65 made significant breakthroughs in his field and has received twelve honorary degrees, as well as multiple awards, medals and prizes

On summer vacation, Lam’s family has a ….(1)….trip to the beach. They always go to Vung Tau in the south …(2)…. Vietnam. They usually stay in a hotel but sometimes they stay in a small house near the sea. Every morning, they go to the beach. Lam likes going swimming …..(3)……his sister never swims. She plays volleyball on the beach. Volleyball is her …..(4)…… sport. They usually have sandwiches…(5)…..lunch or sometimes they go to a small restaurant. In the afternoon, they walk. In the evenings, they often go to the cinema or the theater.

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

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British people have a reputation for being rather quiet and reserved. However, a new study has (1) ____ that Britons are actually quite sociable and the (2) ____ person claims to have 14 close friends. Although a minority of those questioned (3) ____ that they had no best friend, a quarter said that they had more than 18 close friends. Experts said that this is (4) ____ to changes in the way people (5) ____ their free time. They are now more (6) ____ to invite friends to their homes or go out socialising than previous generations. The increasing use of mobile phones and emails has also made it easier to (7) ____ a greater number of friendships.  Men's relationships are not (8) ____ though they tend to have more friends. Women, (9) ____ prefer to have a small number of friends they can trust (10) ____, and with whom they can feel completely at (11) ____. The idea that people in the north of England are more neighbourly than those in the south seems to be backed (12) ____ by the survey. However, despite having friends, it seems that family still (13) ____ an important part in most people's lives. When asked who they would (14) ____ to for help if they were ill or had a problem, the majority said that they would (15) ____ upon a relative first rather than a friend

Read the passage and choose the best answer.

The Vietnamese students take part (1) ______ different after - school activities. Some students play sports. They often (2) __________ soccer, table tennis or badminton. Sometimes they (3) ________ swimming in the swimming pools. Some students like music, drama and movies. They often practice playing musical instrument in the school music room. They (4) __________ in the school theater group and usually rehearse plays. Some are members of the stamp collectors’ (5) ________. They often get together and talk about their stamps. A few students stay at home and play video games or computer games. Most of them enjoy their activities after school hours.

(4) ______

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There are many types of family systems around the world. In North America and northern Europe, the nuclear family (with two generations - a father, a mother and one or more children) is often seen as the most typical. In contrast, in most other parts of the world, extended families, which include other family members such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, are seen as the norm.  The common view is that the nuclear family has become the norm in many Western societies as a result of industrialization and urbanization. This trend began in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when people were forced to move to cities to find work in the factories that sprang up during the Industrial Revolution. In the twentieth century, greater industrialization resulted in even more people leaving their large extended families. Urbanization also meant that people lived in much smaller houses, which were not big enough for an extended family.  The trend towards nuclear families meant that many of the duties and responsibilities of a family, such as providing food and shelter, cleaning the home, preparing the food, caring for children and their education, and caring for the sick and elderly are no longer shared among the members of the extended family. The parents (or parent) now have to do this, with some help from the state. However, this is the price that people pay for the higher standard of living that may come from living in a city.  We may think we know what we mean by a ‘nuclear' family and an extended family, but reality is more complicated than most people believe. Most nuclear families are part of extended families: children have grandparents and, in many cases, aunts, uncles and cousins as well. Part of what makes them ‘nuclear' is that they live in their own separate household, but it is not the whole story. In Greece or Italy, for example, a nuclear family may live in its own flat, but the extended family may live in the same apartment block or in the same street and family members see each other and even eat together every day.  There is at least one more factor to consider. Family members may be separated from each other by geographical distance, but they may have close emotional ties. Even in North America and northern Europe, grandparents usually have close bonds with their grandchildren, and families often travel long distances so that they can see each other. Grandparents often help their adult children, for example, by cooking and looking after their children in emergencies. In the same way, when their parents become too old to live on their own, adult children may take them into their own homes. As a result, they turn their nuclear family into an extended family.  The structure of families changes over time. The effects of urbanization and industrialization are enormous, but they are not the only reasons for the changes. People marry, have children, become widowed, divorce and die. Children grow up and adults grow old. Nuclear families become extended families and extended families become nuclear families. Family ties stay strong or become weak. One thing is certain: in a changing world, the family will continue to change, but ultimately, it is likely to continue to be the basic unit of society.  
4. The word "sprang up" in the passage is closest in meaning to ____