Choose the best answer:
The Mona Lisa,_____ is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, has caused a lot of disputes.

 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D)
Since 2015, the annual Women in the Workplace benchmarking report has covered over 600 of the largest U.S. companies employing more than 20 million people, and has individually surveyed more than a quarter-million employees. That research base shows us how better sponsorship and improved training to counter unconscious bias can speed our progress to gender equality. And it reveals the changes that have—and haven’t—happened over the past few years. There are some bright spots. In 2019, nearly 90% of respondent companies say that gender equality is a top priority. Almost half report having at least three women on their leadership team And greater openness to flexible working is allowing many more women— and men—to work remotely. But some areas are proving stubbornly difficult to improve. Most strikingly, it’s much harder for women than men to achieve their first promotion. Indeed, for every 100 men who step up from an entry level position to a management role, only 78 women—and just 52 black women—will receive the same promotion. Over five years, that gap adds up to a difference of one million promoted women, with lasting repercussions further along the talent funnel: only 1 in 5 C-suite members are women, and only 1 in 25 are women of color. Moving up the ladder, the 21% figure for women in the C-suite is also less encouraging than it seems. Women are much more likely to have a staff role—chief human resources officer, general counsel, or CFO—while men take more of the line roles, running the largest business units with their own P&L lines. It’s rare for any leader in a staff role to be promoted to CEO.  
3. According to paragraph 2, what can be concluded from the provided statistics?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Scuba diving is a sport in (1)__________ you swim underwater for extended (2)_______ using special equipment. The word Scuba is actually an acronym for selfcontained underwater breathing apparatus. Scuba diving is an excellent way to see some very beautiful sites: coral diving sites with their colorful sea life are the most famous but other scuba diving (3)________include shipwrecks and caverns. Scuba diving can also be a very relaxing sport and in many places it’s very beginner friendly. Many dive sites are (4)_________ (under the care of an instructor) after a short briefing and training dive. You can learn to dive far more quickly than you can learn snow sports, for example. It’s also suitable for people with a number of physical disabilities. (5)___________ you can use the breathing equipment and are able to successfully propel yourself underwater you may be able to dive

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
A (1) ______ teacher can reach thousands of students in an online course, opening up a world of knowledge to anyone with an internet connection. This limitless reach also offers substantial benefits for school districts that need to save money, by reducing the number of teachers. (2) __________, in high schools and colleges, there is mounting evidence that the growth of online education is hurting a critical group: the less proficient students (3) _______ are precisely those most in need of skilled classroom teachers. Online courses can be broken down into several categories, and some are more effective than others. In “blended” courses, for example, students don’t do their work only online: They also spend time in a classroom with a flesh-and-blood teacher. Research suggests that students — at nearly all levels of achievement — do just as well in these blended classes as they do in traditional classrooms. In this model, online resources supplement traditional instruction but don’t replace it. In the fully online model, on the other hand, a student may never be in the same room with an instructor. This category is the main problem. It is where less proficient students tend to (4) _________ trouble. After all, taking a class without a teacher requires high levels of self-motivation, self-regulation and organization. Yet, in high schools across the country, students who are struggling in (5) ________classrooms are increasingly steered into online courses

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The word noise is derived from the Latin word nausea, meaning “seasickness”. Noise is among the most pervasive pollutants today. Noise pollution can broadly be defined as unwanted or offensive sounds that unreasonably intrude into our daily activities. Noises from traffic, jet engines, barking dogs, garbage trucks, construction equipment, factories, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, televisions, boom boxes and car radios, to name a few, are among the audible litter that is routinely broadcast into the air. One measure of pollution is the danger it poses to health. Noise negatively affects human health and well-being. Problems related to noise include hearing loss, stress, high blood pressure, sleeplessness, fright, distraction, and lost productivity. Noise pollution also contributes to a general reduction in the quality of life and eliminates opportunities for tranquility. We experience noise in a number of ways. On some occasions, we can be both the cause and the victim of noise, such as when we are operating noisy appliances or equipment. There are also instances when we experience noise generated by others, just as people experience secondhand smoke. In both instances, noise is equally damaging physically. Secondhand noise is generally more troubling, however, because it is put into the environment by others, without our consent. The air into which secondhand noise is emitted and on which it travels is “a commons”. It belongs not to an individual person or a group, but to everyone. Please, businesses and organizations, therefore, do not have unlimited rights to broadcast noise the as they please, as if the effects of noise were limited only to their private property. Those that disregard the obligation to not interfere with other’ use and enjoyment of the commons by producing noise pollution are, in many ways, acting like a bully in a schoolyard. Although they may do so unknowingly, they disregard the rights of others and claim for themselves rights that are not theirs. The actual loudness of a sound is only one component of the negative effect noise pollution has on human beings. Other factors that have to be considered are the time and place, the duration, the source of the sound, and even the mood of the affected person. Most people would not be bothered by the sound of a 21-gun salute on a special occasion. On the other hand, the thump-thump of music coming from the apartment downstairs at 2a.m, even if barely audible, might be a major source of stress. The sound of neighbor’s lawn mower may be unobjectionable on a summer afternoon, but if someone is hoping to sleep late on a Saturday morning, the sound of a lawn mower starting up just after sunrise is an irritant  
1. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a problem caused by noise?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The Forbidden City is the former imperial palace in the center of Beijing, China. Construction began in 1406, and the emperor’s (1)_______ officially moved in by 1420. The Forbidden City got its name because most people were barred (2) _______ entering the 72- hectare site, surrounded by walls. Even government officials and the imperial family were permitted only limited access. Only the emperor could enter any section at (3)_______. The architecture of the Forbidden City conforms rigidly to traditional Chinese principles. All buildings within the walls follow a north-south line and the most important ones face south to honor the sun. The designers arranged the other buildings, and the ceremonial spaces between them, to impress all visitors with the great power of the Emperor, while reinforcing the (4)_____ of the individual. This architectural concept was carried out to the smallest detail. For example, the importance of a building was determined not only by its height or width but also by the style of its roof and the quantity of statuettes placed on the roof’s ridges. In (5)_____ of the importance of its unparalleled architecture, UNESCO added the palace to its World Heritage List in 1987. Today, visitors from all over the world do not wait for an imperial invitation to walk about this palace, now a museum of imperial art

Choose the best answer:
Since changing the way of production, many craftsmen have voluntarily joined together to form ……….

Choose the best answer:
Lan and Maryam are pen pals. They correspond ___________ each other twice a month.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Long life expectancy can be attributed to a person’s diet - a healthy, balanced diet has been proven to improve longevity. Experts recommend eating at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day, basing meals on higher starchy foods like potatoes, bread and rice, having some dairy or dairy alternatives, eating some protein, choosing unsaturated oils and spreads, and drinking plenty of fluids. But new research, published this week, has found the times of day a person eats holds the most benefits. Dr Mark Mattson, a professor of neuroscience at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, in the US, has said “intermittent fasting could be part of a healthy lifestyle.” Intermittent fasting diets usually involve daily time-restricted feeding, which narrows eating times to six to eight hours per day and so-called 5:2 intermittent fasting, in which people limit themselves to one moderate-sized meal two days each week. A range of human and animal studies have shown that alternating between times of fasting and eating supports cellular health, probably by triggering an age-old adaptation to periods of food scarcity called metabolic switching. Such a switch occurs when cells use up their stores of rapidly accessible, sugar-based fuel, and begin converting fat into energy in a slower metabolic process. Dr Mattson says studies have shown that this switch improves blood sugar regulation, increases resistance to stress and suppresses inflammation. Because most Americans eat three meals plus snacks each day, they do not experience the switch, or the suggested benefits. In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr Mattson said four studies in both animals and people found intermittent fasting also decreased blood pressure, blood lipid levels and resting heart rates.  
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage? 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
People have been donating blood since the early twentieth century to help accident victims and patients undergoing surgical (1)_____. Usually a pint of whole blood is donated, and it is then divided into platelets, white blood cells, and red blood cells. People can donate blood (for red blood cells) about once every two months. (2) ____ the blood from the donor to the recipient is straightforward. It involves (3) _____ the blood from a donor’s arm vein by means of a hypodermic syringe. The blood flows through a plastic tube to a collection bag or bottle (4)_______ contains sodium citrate, which prevents the blood from clotting. When the blood is given to a patient, a plastic tube and hypodermic needle are connected to the recipient’s arm. The blood flows down from the container by gravity. This is a slow process and may last as long as 2 hours to complete the infusion of blood into the recipient. The patient is protected (5)______ being infected during the transfusion. Only sterile containers, tubing, and needles are used, and this helps ensure that transfused or stored blood is not exposed to disease causing bacteria

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Naval architects never claim that a ship is unsinkable, but the sinking of the passenger-and-car ferry Estonia in the Baltic surely (1) ____ have never happened. It was well designed and carefully maintained. It carried the proper number of lifeboats. It had been (2) ____ inspected the day of its fatal voyage. Yet hours later, the Estonia rolled over and sank in a cold, stormy night. It went down so quickly that most of those on board, caught in their dark, flooding cabins, had no chance to save themselves: Of those who (3) ____ scramble overboard, only 139 survived. The rest died of hypothermia before the rescuers could pluck them from the cold sea. The final death (4) ____ amounted to 912 souls. However, there were an unpleasant number of questions about why the Estonia sank and why so many (5) ____ were men in the prime of life, while most of the dead were women, children and the elderly.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
Clara Barton became known as “The Angel of the Battlefield” during the American Civial War. Born in Oxford, Massachusetts in 1821, Clara Barton’s interest in helping soldiers on the battlefield began when she was told army stories from her father. Another event that influenced her decision to help soldiers was an accident her brother had. His injuries were cared for by Barton for 2 years. At the time, she was only 11 years old. Barton began teaching school at the age of 15. She taught for 18 years before she moved to Washington, D.C. in 1854.
The civil war broke out 6 years later. Immediately, Barton started was service by helping the soldiers with their needs. At the battle of Bull Run, Clara Barton received permission from the government to take care of the sick and hurt. Barton did this with great empathy and kindness. She acknowledged each soldier as a person. Her endurance and courage on the

battlefield were admired by many. When the war ended in 1865, she used 4 years of her life to assist the government in searching for soldiers who were missing during the war.
The search for missing soldiers and years of hard work made her feeble physically. In 1869, her doctors recommended a trip to Europe for a rest. While she was on vacation, she became involved with the International Red Cross, an organization set up by the Geneva Convention in 1864. Clara Barton realized that the red Cross would be a big help to the United States. After she returned to the United States, she worked very hard to create an American red Cross. She talked to government leaders and let American people know about the Red Cross. In 1881, the Notional Society of the Red Cross was finally established with its headquarters in Washington, D.C. Clara Barton managed its activities for 23 years.
Barton never let her age stop her from helping people. At the age of 79, she helped flood victims in Galveston, Texas. Barton finally resigned from the Red Cross in 1904. She was 92 years old and had truly earned her titled “The Angel of the Battlefield”.

What does the author mention about the American Red Cross?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Without regular supplies of some hormones our capacity to behave would be seriously impaired; without others we would soon die. Tiny amounts of some hormones can modify our moods and our action, our inclination to eat or drink, our aggressiveness or submissiveness, and our reproductive and parental behavior. And hormones do more than influence adult behavior; early in life they help to determine the development of bodily form and may even determine an individual’s behavioral capacities. Later in life the changing outputs of some endocrine glands and the body’s changing sensitivity to some hormones are essential aspects of the phenomena of aging. Communication within the body and the consequent integration of behavior were considered the exclusive province of the nervous system up to the beginning of the present century. The emergence of endocrinology as a separate discipline can probably be traced to the experiments of Bayliss and Starling on the hormone secretion. This substance is secreted from cells in the intestinal walls when food enters the stomach; it travels through the bloodstream and stimulates the pancreas to liberate pancreatic juice, which aids in digestion. By showing that special cells secrete chemical agents that are conveyed by the bloodstream and regulate distant target organs or tissues, Bayliss and Starling demonstrated that chemical integration can occur without participation of the nervous system. William Bayliss and Ernest Henry Starling, two British physiologists, discovered and introduced the word hormone. In 1979, The Bayliss and Starling Society was founded as a forum for research scientists with specific interest in the chemistry, physiology and function of central and autonomic peptides. The Society also offered the travelling fellowship award for members who wanted to attend national and international academic conferences. Sometimes, the Society help schools to organize science fairs for secondary students and give them incentives to fall for related subjects. The term “hormone” was first used with reference to secretion. Starling derived the term from the Greek hormone, meaning “to excited or set in motion.” The term “endocrine” was introduced shortly thereafter, “Endocrine” is used to refer to glands that secrete products into the bloodstream. The term “endocrine” contrasts with “exocrine” which is applied to glands that secrete their products through ducts to the site of action. Examples of exocrine glands are the tear glands, the sweat glands, and the pancreas, which secretes pancreatic juice through a duct into intestine. Exocrine glands are also called duct glands, while endocrine glands are called ductless.
5. The highlighted word "liberate" in the passage is closet meaning to ________

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
There has been much debate over the past few decades concerning fears that automation will lead to robots replacing human workers on a massive scale.
The increasing use of robotics, computers and artificial intelligence is a reality, but its full implications are far from cut and dried. Some forecasts present the future in a utopian way, claiming that robots will take over the tedious heavy work thus freeing up human time and potential, allowing for more creativity and innovation. At the other end of spectrum are those who foresee an employment apocalypse, predicting that almost fifty percent of all American jobs could vanish within the next few decades. Former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates states that in 20 years robots could be in place in a number of job categories, particularly those at lower end of the scale in terms of skills.
The bottom line is that while the future is always uncertain, robots are a fixture of our society, which is not going to disappear. As with the Industrial Revolution, where machines were utilized in many tasks in place of manual laborers and social upheaval followed, the Digital Revolution is likely to place robots in various jobs. In spite of that, many of today’s jobs were not in existence before the Industrial Revolution, such as those of programmers, engineers and data scientists. This leads other experts to criticize this alarmist approach of robot scare-mongering, which is invariably compared to the 19th-century “Luddites”. This group was textile workers who feared being displaced by machines and resorted to violence, burning down factories and destroying industrial equipment – their rejection of inevitable progress has come to symbolize mindless ignorance.
Needless to say, exactly what new kinds of jobs might exist in the future is difficult to envision at present. Therefore, the crux of the issue is not whether jobs will be lost, but whether the creation of new vacancies will outpace the ever-increasing number of losses and what skills will be required in the future.
It is clearly not all doom and gloom, as demand for employees with skills in data analysis, coding, computer science, artificial intelligence and human-machine interface is rising and will continue to do so. Furthermore, the demand for skills in jobs where humans surpass computers, such as those involving  care, creativity and innovative craftmanship, are likely to increase considerably. Ultimately, the key lies in the adaptation of the workforces, through appropriate education and training, to keep pace with our world’s technological progress.

What is the modern-day view of the Luddites?

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
Sunlight is solar energy. Sunlight is needed for growing plants that you eat to get energy. Sunlight is also used to make clean electricity. Burning fossil fuels to make electricity pollutes our atmosphere and rivers. Fossil fuels are expensive and limited sources of energy. Nuclear fission is used to create enormous amount of heat and electricity. However, nuclear fission forms dangerous radioactive waste.
Sunlight offers many ways to get energy. A window can allow warm sunlight into your room. Solar water-heating systems can use sunlight to warm the water for your home, swimming pool

and school. Sunlight also warms the Earth and causes wind. Electricity can be made by wind generators.
Photovoltaic, or PV system use a type of material that converts sunlight into electricity. PV systems can power your air conditioner or a satellite like the International Space Station. PV systems are also used to run a calculator, recharge cell phone, or even power lightweight cars.
Sunlight is also changed into electricity by concentrating solar power or CSP systems. CSP systems have mirrors that focus the sunlight. The concentrated sunlight turns water into steam which turns a turbine that is connected to an electric generator. A CSP system usually uses sunlight to make steam. CSP power plants can store large amount of heat. The stored heat is used to make electricity at night. During cloud days, many CSP plants can also burn natural gas to provide the heat that is used to turn water into steam.
Sunlight provides the energy needed to grow plants and make large amount of environmentally friendly heat and electricity. Solar energy can provide power today and for a long time in the future.

To help the readers understand some of the benefits of solar energy, the author     

Choose the best answer:
I called the dentist ___________ an appointment to meet him this weekend.

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 from 36 to 42.

It is estimated that by 2050 more than two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities, up from about 54 percent today. While the many benefits of organized and efficient cities are well understood, we need to recognize that this rapid, often unplanned urbanization brings risks of profound social instability, risks to critical infrastructure, potential water crises and the potential for devastating spread of disease. These risks can only be further exacerbated as this unprecedented transition from rural to urban areas continues.
 How effectively these risks can be addressed will increasingly be determined by how well cities are governed. The increased concentration of people, physical assets, infrastructure and economic activities mean that the risks materializing at the city level will have far greater potential to disrupt society than ever before.
 Urbanization is by no means bad by itself. It brings important benefits for economic, cultural and societal development. Well managed cities are both efficient and effective, enabling economies of scale and network effects while reducing the impact on the climate of transportation. As such, an urban model can make economic activity more environmentally-friendly. Further, the proximity and diversity of people can spark innovation and create employment as exchanging ideas breeds new ideas.
 But these utopian concepts are threatened by some of the factors driving rapid urbanization. For example, one of the main factors is rural-urban migration, driven by the prospect of greater employment opportunities and the hope of a better life in cities. But rapidly increasing population density can create severe problems, especially if planning efforts are not sufficient to cope with the influx of new inhabitants. The result may, in extreme cases, be widespread poverty. Estimates suggest that 40% of the world's urban expansion is taking place in slums, exacerbating socio-economic disparities and creating unsanitary conditions that facilitate the spread of disease.
 The Global Risks 2015 Report looks at four areas that face particularly daunting challenges in the face of rapid and unplanned urbanization: infrastructure, health, climate change, and social instability. In each of these areas we find new risks that can best be managed or, in some cases, transferred through the mechanism of insurance.

The word "addressed" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to _________. 

Choose the best answer:
The ____________ will announce tomorrow’s weather on TV at 7:30 tonight.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
When people marry, they’re usually in love and happy to be tying the (1) ____. But after that, things tend to change. (2) __________ average, couples’ satisfaction with their marriage declines during the first years of marriage and, if the decline is particularly steep, divorce may follow. The course of true love runs downhill. For around 30 years, researchers have studied how having children affects a marriage, and the results are (3) ______: the relationship between spouses suffers once kids come along. Comparing couples with and (4) ______ children, researchers found that the rate of the decline in relationship satisfaction is nearly twice as steep for couples who have children than for childless couples. In the (5) ______ that a pregnancy is unplanned, the parents experience even greater negative impacts on their relationship. The irony is that even as the marital satisfaction of new parents declines, the likelihood of them divorcing also declines. So, having children may make you miserable, but you’ll be miserable together

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
Who talks more - men or women? Most people believe that women talk more. However, linguist Deborah Tannen, who has the studied the communication style of men and women, says that this is a stereotype. According to Tannen, women are more verbal - talk more - in private situations, where they use conversation as the “glue’ to hold relationships together. But, she says, men talk more in public situations, where they use conversation to exchange information and gain status. Tannen points out that we can see these difference even in children. Little girls often play with one ‘best friend’ and their play includes a lot of conversation. Little boys often play games in groups, their play usually involves more doing than talking. In school, girls are often better at verbal skills, while boys are often better at mathematics.
A recent study at Emory University helps to shed light on the roots of this difference. Researchers studied conversation between children aged 3-6 and their parents. They found evidence that parents talk very differently to their sons than they do to their daughters. The startling conclusion was that parents use more language with their girls. Specifically, when parents talk with their daughters, they use more descriptive language and more details. There is also far more talk about emotions, especially with daughters than with sons.

Which sentence best expresses the main idea of the first paragraph?

Rewrite the sentence:
I/ have never/ be/ more beautiful/ a waterfall/ before.