Choose the best answer:
There is (42) _______ debate between archeologists about when and where the first civilizations developed. That is because the answer to that question depends on what one defines as a civilization. If a civilization is simply a small group of people having a similar culture and beliefs, then civilizations have existed in many parts of the world for thousands of years. If a civilization is defined as a larger, more complex society (43) _______ a government and the construction of cities, then the first civilization was probably the Sumerian civilization in what is now Iraq. The Sumerians were (44) _______ from the Ubaid culture, which was made up of small villages of farmers who lived slightly farther north. Sometime around 4,000 B.C. these farmers moved down into the valley along the Tigris River. This land received little rain, and was unsuitable for farming. Therefore, it was empty and the Sumerians had plenty of (45) _______ and little competition from other peoples. What allowed the Sumerians to successfully farm in this dry land was their knowledge of irrigation, the practice of taking water from a river or lake and moving it to fields through the use of man-made canals. This allowed the Sumerians to farm here successfully (46) _______ the lack of rain. We know that the Sumerians had a great understanding of irrigation because their language is filled with words related to it.

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Singapore is an island city of about three million people. It’s a beautiful city with lots of parks and open spaces. It’s also a very (31)______ city.             Most of the people (32)______ in high-rise flats in different parts of the island. The business district is very modern with (33)______ of high new office buildings. Singapore also has some nice older sections. In Chinatown, there  (34)______ rows of old shop houses.  The government buildings in Singapore are very beautiful and date from the colonial days.             Singapore is famous (35)______ its shops and restaurants. There are many good shopping centers. Most of the goods are duty free. Singapore’s restaurants sell Chinese, Indian, Malay and European food, and the prices are quite reasonable

Choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D for each of the gaps to complete the following text.
Tra Co Beach in Quang Ninh province is 9 kilometers from Mong Cai. It has the (31) longest and the most romantic beach in Viet Nam. Tourists can enjoy the (32) __________ of white sand beaches and green seawater all year (33) __________. Visitors can (34) __________ enjoy the sunset or sunrise in Con Mang islet. You can visit Tra Co Communal House, Linh Khanh Pagoda, and Tra Co Church. If tourists want some fresh (35) __________, they can find it from fishing boats. They can take part in "Tra Co Festival" from May 30 to June 6

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The word ‘grandparents’ is descriptive of the unique dual parenting role that this generation assumes. It emphasises the vital part they play in family life. With a (26) _______ of old world experience behind them, and with the unique ability to metamorphose from advisers or mediators into listeners or friends, they can offer support and stability in an ever-changing world. The underlying sense of responsibility (27) _______ goes with this is tremendous. Grandparents perform a balancing act between the needs of their adult children and those of their grandchildren. This role is varied. It is imperial at times, muted at (28) _______. It goes underground whenever required, but it is solid and absolutely dependable. Grandparents often (29) _______ the gap between parents and children. Rebellious, independent children who are trying to find their feet are almost always at loggerheads with their parents. The role of grandparents can be very important provided that they act as impartial judges and are able to convey this feeling to both parties. One important thing, which seems to be missing in the lives of children today, is a sense of family, values, beliefs and principles. This is where the grandparents step in. (30) _______, instilling beliefs and values is not as easy as it was fifty or sixty years ago

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When people are looking for a great way to (31) _________ themselves of boredom, videos found on the Internet are often the perfect solution. Such websites as YouTube, Dailymotion, and Vimeo have become so popular that they are known to get millions of visits each day. YouTube is known for allowing people to create their own videos and share them with the world. It is (32) _________ YouTube that enormous amounts of interest in certain videos can be created. So many people watch them that the interest (33) _________ from person to person is almost exponential. Another site that is similar to YouTube is called Vimeo. Although it (34) _________ as a direct competitor to YouTube, Vimeo has more of a concentration on longer videos. However, the (35) _________ is the same in which the service allows users to share their videos with a very wide audience on the Internet

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.

What weather is your country in the spring?

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The greenhouse effect is always reported as being a negative consequence of current human lifestyle practices. However there certainly have been numerous suggestions of positive consequences of the greenhouse effect.  A slight temperature increase in some of the colder parts of the world may improve conditions for agriculture and changing rainfall patterns may favor some species over others. However, they do not balance with overall negative impacts. The social, economic and ecological disorders brought about by such climatic changes worldwide are projected to greatly outweigh regional benefits.  The impacts of global warming and climate change could become a source of increased tension between nations and regions. While the developed, industrialized world is responsible for 75% of all CO2 emissions, these impacts will most likely hit hardest upon the poorer, underdeveloped parts of the world. For example, as sea levels rise countries like Bangladesh will suffer much more from the loss of valuable and populated lands than European or North American countries, even though they have emitted only a tiny fraction of the greenhouse gases.  The effect of drowning coastlines could lead to hundreds of millions of climate refugees. Where will these refugees go? How will they be cared for? Undoubtedly, such a disaster will seriously worsen the already critical refugee problem in the world. A severe disorder of the world's food supplies through floods, droughts, crop failures and diseases brought about by climate change would lead to famines, wars and civil disorder in many countries.  
2. Which of the following will suffer most from the impacts of climate change?

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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 (28)________, 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

Choose the best answer:
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.
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

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The beautiful white bears found in the Arctic are in grave danger, and human beings are very (31) _________ the cause of this danger. As we bum fossil fuels to generate electricity or get us around town in our cars and trucks. We create a massive amount of carbon dioxide. This gas has increased in (32) _________ so much over the past few centuries that it is causing global warming. Polar bears need sea ice in order to live because this ice is their hunting (33) _________. The bears’ main source of food is the meat and blubber of seals. These animals come to the surface holes in the ice to breathe. It is there that the polar bears have (34) _________ to ambush the seals. Without any ice, there is nowhere for the bears to stalk their prey. The seals rarely venture onto land and spend their time out on the sea ice. In recent years, the sea ice has disappeared in the Arctic during the late summer. This is dangerous for the polar bears, as they rely almost exclusively on seals for food. (35) _________ brown and black bears, polar bears do not hibernate during the winter

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Edward Patrick Eagan was born on April 26th 1897 in Denver, Colorado, and his father died in a railroad accident when Eagan was only one year old. He and his four brothers were raised by his mother, who earned a small income from teaching foreign languages. Inspired by Frank Marriwell, the hero of a series of popular novels for boys, Eagan pursued an education for himself and an interest in boxing. He attended the University of Denver for a year before serving in the U.S. army as an artillery lieutenant during World War I. After the war, he entered Yale University and while studying there, won the US national amateur heavyweight boxing title. He graduated from Yale in 1921, attended Harvard Law School, and received a Rhodes scholarship to the University of Oxford where he received his A.M. in 1928. While studying at Oxford, Eagan became the first American to win the British amateur boxing championship. Eagan won his first gold medal as a light heavyweight boxer at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium. Eagan also fought at the 1924 Olympics in Paris as a heavyweight but failed to get a medal. Though he had taken up the sport just three weeks before the competition, he managed to win a second gold medal as a member of four-man bobsled team at the 1932 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. Thus, he became the only athlete to win gold medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
3. The word "Inspired" in paragraph 2 in CLOSEST in meaning to ______

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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 reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Jane’s family decided to go to London last week because they want to __(1)__ a tour. The sight in London was so __(2)__ that she’s been there a few days but it __(3)__ to her only to be yesterday. It means __(4)__ she enjoyed the trip so much. She and her father stayed __(5)__ a very big hotel __(6)__ two hundred rooms. From there, they can __(7)__ reach Hyde Park, __(8)__ very big park in London. In here, people can buy from a needle __(9)__ an elephant in two best__(10)__ streets, Regent Street and Oxford Street

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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 ____

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.
What is her sister’s hobby?

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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.
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

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Around 200 million people are employed in tourism worldwide, making it the largest industry in the modern global (25) _____. It is estimated that three-quarters of a billion people go on holiday each year, and industry planners expect this figure to double by 2020. Some of the biggest beneficiaries are less developed countries, where it is often their main source of income. (26) _____, along with the economic benefits, this mass movement of people has resulted in threats to the environment. People often forget the damage caused by carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft, (27) _____ contribute directly to global warming. Deforestation has cleared land in order to build hotels, airport and roads, and this has destroyed wildlife. In some areas, water shortages are now common because of the need to fill swimming pools and water golf courses for tourists. By pushing up prices for goods and services, tourism can also be (28) _____ to the people who live in tourist destinations. In response to these concerns, some travel operators now offer environmental friendly holidays. Many of these aim to reduce the negative effect of tourism by (29) _____ only hotels that have invested equipment to recycle waste and use energy and water efficiently. Increasingly, tourists are also being reminded to show respect for the customs of the people whose countries they are going to visit, and to support local businesses, such as restaurants and shops, which depend on tourism for their main income

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Air pollutant emission factors are (1) ___________ representative values that attempt to relate the quantity of a pollutant released to the ambient air with an activity associated (2) ___________ the release of that pollutant. These factors are usually expressed as the weight of (3) ___________ divided by a unit weight, volume, distance, or duration of the activity emitting the pollutant. Such factors facilitate estimation of emissions from (4) ___________ sources of air pollution. In most cases, these factors are simply averages of all available data acceptable quality, and are generally assumed to be representative of (5) ___________ averages. (6) ___________ are 12 compounds in the list of persistent organic pollutants. Dioxins and furans are two of them and (7) ___________ created by combustion of organics, like open burning of plastics. These compounds are also endocrine disruptors and can mutate the human genes. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (8) ___________ published a complication of air pollutant emission factors for a wide range of industrial sources. (9) ___________ United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and many other countries have published similar compilations, (10) ___________ well as the European Environmental Agency.

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Few people have packed more into a day trip than Michael and Lillian Long from Kent who took the ferry from their home in England to Boulogne in France in 1987. On Easter Sunday this adventurous couple went for a short walk around the town. In no time they were spectacularly lost and showing all the qualities of born explorers. 'We walked and walked,' Mrs Long recalled, 'and the further we walked to try to get back, the further we walked away from Boulogne.' Unable to speak French, they felt embarrassed about asking the way, so they walked throughout the night until finally the next morning a driver gave them a lift to a small village they did not recognise. Here they caught a train to the wrong destination - Paris. In the French capital they spent all their remaining money on catching what they thought was the express train back to Boulogne. After an enjoyable trip they arrived in Luxembourg on Monday. Two hours later police put them on the train back to Paris, but it divided and their half ended up in Basel, an attractive medieval town in the north of Switzerland. Having no money, they tried to find work, but without success. The railway company offered them a free ticket to Belfort, thinking that this was where they had come from. Once they got off the train, our heroes hiked forty-two miles to Vesoul, hitched a lift to Paris and then nearly boarded the train to Bonn in Germany. Diverted just in time to the right platform, they finally reached Boulogne a week after they had set out on their walk. They had covered a distance of almost 1,700 km without luggage, maps or any idea of where they were. When he arrived at Dover harbour, Mr Long said it was the first time they had travelled abroad and that they would not be leaving England again.
4. The word “it” in paragraph 3 refers to _______

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Dear Sir or Madam, I am sending you this letter of (1) ____, together with my CV, in view of the possibility of obtaining a job inside your company. (2) ____ very well aware of the fact that you will choose the best, I would be honoured (3) ____ myself among them in order to occupy an intermediary position between your company and your clients. Considering that my experience and my education are appropriate (4) ____ the job you could be offering and for the competence of your company, I decided to (5) ____ my CV to your attention. I have a very high interest in becoming a competent person in a (6) ____ company (7) ____ experience, motivation and ambition will be proven to be the strongest points for the best interest of the company and for my future experience. You will find details (8) ____ my education, my (9) ____ experience and my skills in the attached CV. I would be very glad with the opportunity of an interview, (10) ____ you consider it necessary and useful, in order to analyze the possibility of me being a part of the team. For any explanations that will be necessary please do not hesitate to contact me at the following number: 0723.456.789 Yours faithfully, George Airinei!

Choose the best answer:
It is true that keeping fit will benefit a person’s health in many ways. It has become clear in recent years, that a large number of people are doing less and less exercise and this is now causing many serious illnesses, putting a strain on doctors and hospitals. However, some experts believe that too much exercise can do just as much (44) _____. Although it is true that moderate exercise such as walking can be very beneficial to a person’s health, it is not the only one factor (45)_____ keeps us healthy. Diet is also extremely important and I would argue that it is probably even more important than exercise, although the ideal is for both of these factors to work together. It seems to me that many people are unwilling to put in the effort required to become fitter. (46)_____, too much exercise can also cause problems. So people are urged to take moderate exercise and eat moderately healthily rather than embarking on extreme diets and training. In too many instances, ultra–fit people have had heart attacks or dropped down dead. In all, governments need to find ways of (47)_____ people to take responsibility for their own health. People need to realize that eating healthy food does not have to cost a (48)_____, nor is it difficult to prepare healthy meals themselves. People need to be better educated about their health