Choose the best answer:
Urban development is having a direct impact on the weather in (26) ______ cities worldwide. It has been noticed that the difference in temperature is usually greater at night and the phenomenon occurs in both winter and summer. Experts agree that this is due to urban development, when open green spaces are replaced with asphalt roads and tall brick or concrete buildings. These materials retain heat generated by the Sun and release it through the night. In Atlanta, in the US, this has even led to thunderstorms (27) ______ occur in the morning rather than, as is more common, in the afternoon. Large cities around the world are adopting strategies to combat this issue, (28) ______ it is not uncommon to find plants growing on top of roofs or down the walls of large buildings. In Singapore, the government has (29) ______ to transform it into a "city within a garden" and, in 2006, they held an international competition calling for entries to develop a master plan to help bring this about. One outcome was the creation of 18 "Supertrees" – metal constructions resembling very tall trees. Each one is a vertical freestanding garden and is (30) ______ to exotic plants and ferns. They also contain solar panels used to light the trees at night and also containers to collect rainwater, making them truly self-sufficient

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) ......................

Choose the best answer:
How do you feel about nature? After spending hours indoors, do you often like going outside for a walk? Or if you work for hours at your office desk, do you feel better when you take a break and visit your local park? Most people think that nature is good for us; it is good for our bodies and good for our brains. However, humans are spending more time inside and less time outside. For example, the number of visitors to Canada’s national parks is getting lower every year. And in countries such as the USA, only 10% of teenagers spend time outside every day. Many doctors feel that this is a problem in the twenty - century, and that is making our physical health worse. As a result, some doctors are studying the connection between nature and health: one example of this is the work Dr Matilda van den Bosch in Sweden. The doctor gave people a maths test. During their test, their heart rate was faster. After the test, one group of people sat in a 3D-virtual-reality room for fifteen minutes with pictures and sounds of nature. Their heart rates were slower than people in the other group. The virtual contact with nature helped them feel more relaxed. Another good example of how nature is good for health comes from Canada. In Toronto, researchers studied about 31,000 people living in cities. Overall, they found that healthier people lived near parks. Because of studies like these, some countries and cities want nature to be part of people’s everyday life. In Dubai, for example, there are plans for a new shopping mall with a large garden so shoppers can relax outside with trees, plants and water. In some countries, such as Switzerland, “forest schools” are popular, schoolchildren study their subjects in the forests and do lots of exercise outside. And South Korea is another good example: it has new forests near its cities and around 13 million people visit these forests every year. So, after building cities so long, it’s now time to start rebuilding nature.
2. According to paragraph 1, people nowadays tend to_______

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On December 10, 2006, I was going through some hard time. The landlady did not want to release the house any more so I had to (1) _____ and only had one month to find a place. Because Christmas was coming and it was difficult for me to (2) _____ a suitable accommodation. I had only some money (3) _____. I could not buy a Christmas tree and some presents for my three boys, (4) _____ I had to use the money to find a place to live. Tome, it broke my heart as I could not prepare the Christmas for my three boys. I have been their only parent since my husband (5) _____ away two years ago. I was so sad and everything was getting on my nerves. Although I managed to solve the problem myself I could not help (6) _____ my sons about the things. When I suddenly woke up at midnight, I found my eldest son was sitting (7) _____me. He kissed me and said, "Don't worry, Mum. We love you very much and always stand by you (8) ____ happens." At the moment I started weeping, grabbed him and kissed him. His words and love made me (9) _____ all about what I was stressing about. In fact ever since that moment, I have realized that I can overcome any problems thanks to my sons' love. The most important thing of my life is that my boys are safe and healthy, and they bring me joy all the time. The memory (10) _____ me that nothing really matters, when I have the love of my children

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) ......................

Choose the best answer:
Increasing numbers of parents in the U.S. are choosing to teach their children at home. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education has estimated that in 1999, about 850,000 children were being homeschooled. Some educational experts say that the real number is double this estimate, and the ranks of home-schooled children seem to be growing at the average rate of about eleven percent every year. At one time, there was a theory accounting for home-schooling: it was traditionally used for students who could not attend school because of behavioral or learning difficulties. Today, however, more parents are taking on the responsibility of educating their own children at home due to their dissatisfaction with the educational system. Many parents are unhappy about class size, as well as problems inside the classroom. Teacher shortages and lack of funding mean that, in many schools, one teacher is responsible for thirty or forty students. The children are, therefore, deprived of the attention they need. Escalating classroom violence has also motivated some parents to remove their children from school. Although there have been a lot of arguments for and against it, home-schooling in the U.S. has become a multi-million dollar industry, and it is growing bigger and bigger. There are now plenty of websites, support groups, and conventions that help parents protect their rights and enable them to learn more about educating their children. Though once it was the only choice for troubled children, homeschooling today is an accepted alternative to an educational system that many believe is failing. 
1. The word "arguments" in the third paragraph can be best replaced by "_______"

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

Choose the best answer:
The Atacama Desert is situated in South America. It is found near (23) _______thirtieth parallel south of the equator. (24) _______, the Sahara and the Rub’al-Khali deserts of northern Africa and nearby Saudi Arabia are 30° north of the equator. (25) _______the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa is about 30° south of it. The Gobi Desert of central Asia (26) _______a little farther than 30° north, at about 45°, while the Great Sandy and Gibson deserts of Australia fall back into the pattern, lying 30° south of the equator. This pattern is no (27) _______. All the hot deserts are found about the same distance north or south of the equator.

Choose the best answer:
The Industrial Revolution in Britain was built on the use of machines in factories. Since the 1950s, Britain's (24)......industries have replaced machine operators with computers, and this (25)......has led to a decline in the number of (26).......in many factories. Goods are bought and used much more than ever before but a lot of these goods are imported. By the beginning of the 20th century, other. industrial countries like the USA were (27).......with Britain's exports, and countries in the Far East have been able to provide cheaper (28)......since the 1970s. Areas located with heavy industries are suffering high unemployment. During the last 30 years, there has been a constant rise in smaller industries (29).........as "light industries". These ones use electricity and are not (30) .........on raw materials such as coal so they are "footloose", i.e. they can be located anywhere. They produce such things as washing machines or spare (31) .......... Some of these industries produce nothing at all, but provide services like distribution. The consumer boom of the 1980s and the increased leisure time of most Britons have led to rapid (32) ........ in service industries like banking, tourism, retailing and information processing, and in industries which distribute, maintain, and repair (33)............consumer goods

There are four seasons in my country. 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.

In the summer, the day is short and the night is long

Choose the best answer:
People in the UK enjoy fewer years of good health before they die than the citizens of most comparable European countries as well as Australia and Canada, a major report shows. While life expectancy has improved by 4.2 years in the UK over the two decades, other countries have improved faster. In 2010, Spain topped the league. Its people could expect 70.9 years of healthy life - before disease and disability began to take a toll. Second came Italy, with 70.2 years and third was Australia, on 70.1 years. In the UK, we can expect 68.6 healthy years of life. Hunt said the UK was a long way behind its global counterparts and called for action by local health commissioners to tackle the five big killers - cancer, heart disease, stroke, respiratory and liver diseases. Drinking and drug use have been the main issues behind the worsening of the UK’s ranking in early deaths among adults aged 20-54. In 2010, drugs were the sixth leading cause of death in this age group and alcohol was 18,h - up from 32nd and 43rd place respectively 20 years earlier. Hunt will on Tuesday announce a strategy to tackle cardiovascular disease, which he says could save 30,000 lives a year. “Despite real progress in cutting deaths, we remain a poor relative to our global cousins on many measures of health, something I want to change,” he said. “For too long we have been lagging behind and I want the reformed health system to take up this challenge and turn this shocking underperformance around.” However, the problem is only in part to do with hospital care - much of it is about the way we live. Our diet, our drinking and continuing smoking habits all play a part, which assumes its responsibilities on 1 April
3. According to the passage, what is NOT the cause of death in the UK?

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Easter is an important Christian festival and holiday. It is (1)______to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter is not a fixed holiday. Its (2)____varies between 22nd March and 25th April. People celebrate Easter (3)____ the world. In the UK, Easter is a public holiday. People (4)_ Easter chocolate eggs to their friends and family. There are also egg hunts for kids. In the US, Easter is a (5)______ holiday. People can go to church and have a special family meal. They also (6)____ egg-hunts and give gifts of coloured eggs. In Russia, Easter is one of the (7)___important holidays. People celebrate it (8)___ an Easter breakfast or meal. They also create very beautiful Easter eggs

Choose the best answer:
Musicians who want to make it in the world have a lot of options, but the best one to (1)_________ them obscurity to fame might be rock ’n’ roll. Especially in the days when other forms of music are waning, rock ’n’ roll (2)__________ in the memory. Nevertheless, it is music that transcends cultures and keeps the youth of many nations invigorated.
Before rock ’n’ roll, there were many different forms of popular music. If looking at a timeline, the music of African Americans created both jazz and blues. These (3)_________ into what is known as rhythm and blues, which is often just called R&B. With the invention of the electric guitar, rock ’n’ roll came (4)_________ as musicians experimented with what they could do with the sounds this new style of instrument could make. Musicians were quick to see the possibilities that rock ’n’ roll offered. Early musicians like Chuck Berry (5)__________ the way for the likes of Elvis Presley, who would go on to become known as the King of Rock ’n’ Roll.

Choose the best answer:
Pablo Picasso is considered to be one of the most (26)_______painters in the twentieth century.(27)_______ was born in Malaga, Spain on October 20, 1881.(28)______painting, Picasso also tried (29)______ kinds of job such as a printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright. From the age of seven, Picasso received formal artistic training from his father in figure drawing and oil painting. On one occasion, the father found his son painting over his unfinished sketch of a pigeon. Observing the (30)______ of his son’s technique, the father felt that the thirten-year-old Picasso had surpassed him, and vowed to (31)______ painting. Picasso grew up to become one of the greatest (32)______most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known (33)______ co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for (34)_____ styles that he helped develop and explore. Picasso is now regarded as one of the artists (35)______ most defined the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century

Choose the best answer:
Welcome to Trang An, Vietnam's newest UNESCO World Heritage Site, a place where the water is crystal clear and pink flowers bloom along the shallows. Temples rest on a precipice of rock and water. Here, for 30,000 years, people have lived amongst these limestone giants. To the unfamiliar, this area is a maze of confusing waterways and impassable hills, a place where one could easily disappear from the world. However, to the emperors of the 10th and 11th centuries, this was the ideal setting for a capital city where the inhabitants could be controlled and enemies rebuffed.  This combination of stunning natural beauty and ancient history has led Trang An to be recognised as Vietnam's eighth World Heritage Site. Unlike the previous seven, Trang An is notable for being the only UNESCO site in Vietnam to be classified for both its cultural beauty and natural integrity.  At the ticket office, we are met by the sight of thousands of wooden boats bobbing along the shoreline. Stepping gingerly into the closest dinghy, we are greeted by a young woman whose ability to paddle three adults - all in the midst of Christmas feasting - for three straight hours left me in awe of her strength. What followed was a string of beautiful caves of varying heights and lengths, interspersed with scenes of a peaceful beauty that can be hard to come by in Vietnam.  Dubbed ‘Halong Bay on land’, Trang An’s landscape is reminiscent of its coastal World Heritage neighbour. Dominated by similar karst geography, Halong Bay and Trang An both provide a stunning backdrop lo a tranquil boat cruise. Unlike Halong, however, the boats at Trang An are small, seating no more than five adults, and weekday crowds are minimal. We emerged from a particularly low cave opening and into a small cove ringed by flowering reeds and waterlilies. The steep limestone cliffs block all outside sounds. Underwater reeds stand tall in the clear water beneath our boat, their green spongy limbs waving gently in the current as we paddle past. Brown-and-gold fish dart between grass, their scales glinting in the sunlight, before plunging into the shadows of the towering hills above. Water movement is imperceptible, with the steep hillsides, plunging valleys and clear sky mirrored in its glassy surface. It is as though a parallel world of deep crevices and underwater mountains exists just below our feet.  A parallel world does, in fact, describe how it seemed as we floated through the caves of Trang An. The journey through the first hollow felt like stepping through the back of the wardrobe and entering Narnia. We were suddenly transported into a beautiful, magical world. So at odds with the industrial limestone factories that dominate the Ninh Binh landscape, this small pocket of serenity is surprising.  With more and more visitors flocking to Vietnam's World Heritage Sites, I worry that Trang An will suffer the consequences of unchecked mass tourism. We can only hope that tourism officials will learn from the experiences of other popular tourist destinations and ensure that this place remains as close to paradise as it was on our visit. 
4. The word "gingerly" in the passage is closest in meaning to ____

Read the email, choose the best answer A, B, c or D and write.

From: an@fastmail.com
To: nick@fastmail.com
Subject: My best friend
Hi Nick,

It’s great to hear from you. I want to tell you about my best friend.

My grandma is my best friend. She’s 68 years old. She lives with our family. She was a Maths teacher at a secondary school. She likes getting up early and watering the flowers in our garden, she usually helps me with my homework. In the evening, she tells me interesting stories. She also listens to me when I’m sad, which makes me love her the most.

I love my grandma very much. What about you? Who’s your best friend?

Please write to me soon.

Bye bye,

The e-mail is about ..........................................

Choose the best answer:
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

Choose the best answer:
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.  
1. The word "echelon" in the passage could best be replaced by ____

Choose the best answer:
Until fairly recently, explaining the presence of human beings in Australia was not such a problem. At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was thought that Aborigines had been on the continent for no more than 400 years. As recently as the 1960s, the time-frame was estimated to be perhaps 8,000 years. Then in 1969 a geologist from the Australian National University in Canberra was poking around on the shores of a long-dried lake bed called Mungo in a dry and lonely corner of New South Wales when something caught his eye. It was the skeleton of a woman sticking out slightly from a sandbank. The bones were collected and sent off for carbon dating. When the report came back, it showed that the woman had died 23,000 years ago. Since then, other finds have pushed the date back further. Today the evidence points to an arrival date of at least 45,000 years ago but probably more like 60,000. The first occupants of Australia could not have walked there because at no point in human times has Australia not been an island. They could not have arisen independently because Australia has no apelike creatures from which humans could have descended. The first arrivals could only have come by sea, presumably from Timor or the Indonesian archipelago, and here is where the problems arise. In order to put Homo sapiens in Australia you must accept that at a point in time so remote that it precedes the known rise of behaviourally modern humans, there lived in southern Asia a people so advanced that they were fishing inshore waters from boats of some sort. Never mind that they the archaeological record shows no one else on earth doing this for another 30,000 years. Next, we have to explain what led them to cross at least sixty miles of open sea to reach a land they could hardly have known was there. The scenario that is usually described is of a simple fishing craft probably little more than a floating platform - accidentally carried out to sea probably in one of the sudden storms that are characteristic of this area. This craft then drifted helplessly for some days before washing up on a beach in northern Australia. So far, so good. The question that naturally arises - but is seldom asked - is how you get a new population out of this. If it's a lone fisherman who is carried off to Australia, then clearly he must find his way back to his homeland to report his discovery and persuade enough people to come with him to start a colony. This suggests, of course, the possession of considerable sailing skills. By any measure this is a staggeringly momentous achievement. And how much notice is paid to it? Well, ask yourself the last time when you read anything about it. When was the last time in any context concerning human movements and the rise of civilisations that you saw even a passing mention of the role of aborigines? They are the planet's invisible people. A big part of the problem is that for most of us it is nearly impossible to grasp what an extraordinary span of time we are considering here. Assume for the sake of argument that the Aborigines arrived 60,000 years ago (that is the figure used by Roger Lewin of Havard in Principles of Evolution, a standard text). On that scale, the total period of European occupation of Australia represents about 0.3 percent of the total. In other words, for the first 99.7 per cent of its inhabited history, the Aborigines had Australia to themselves. They have been there an unimaginably long time.
1. What did the discovery of the skeleton show?

Choose the best answer:
Until fairly recently, explaining the presence of human beings in Australia was not such a problem. At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was thought that Aborigines had been on the continent for no more than 400 years. As recently as the 1960s, the time-frame was estimated to be perhaps 8,000 years. Then in 1969 a geologist from the Australian National University in Canberra was poking around on the shores of a long-dried lake bed called Mungo in a dry and lonely corner of New South Wales when something caught his eye. It was the skeleton of a woman sticking out slightly from a sandbank. The bones were collected and sent off for carbon dating. When the report came back, it showed that the woman had died 23,000 years ago. Since then, other finds have pushed the date back further. Today the evidence points to an arrival date of at least 45,000 years ago but probably more like 60,000. The first occupants of Australia could not have walked there because at no point in human times has Australia not been an island. They could not have arisen independently because Australia has no apelike creatures from which humans could have descended. The first arrivals could only have come by sea, presumably from Timor or the Indonesian archipelago, and here is where the problems arise. In order to put Homo sapiens in Australia you must accept that at a point in time so remote that it precedes the known rise of behaviourally modern humans, there lived in southern Asia a people so advanced that they were fishing inshore waters from boats of some sort. Never mind that they the archaeological record shows no one else on earth doing this for another 30,000 years. Next, we have to explain what led them to cross at least sixty miles of open sea to reach a land they could hardly have known was there. The scenario that is usually described is of a simple fishing craft probably little more than a floating platform - accidentally carried out to sea probably in one of the sudden storms that are characteristic of this area. This craft then drifted helplessly for some days before washing up on a beach in northern Australia. So far, so good. The question that naturally arises - but is seldom asked - is how you get a new population out of this. If it's a lone fisherman who is carried off to Australia, then clearly he must find his way back to his homeland to report his discovery and persuade enough people to come with him to start a colony. This suggests, of course, the possession of considerable sailing skills. By any measure this is a staggeringly momentous achievement. And how much notice is paid to it? Well, ask yourself the last time when you read anything about it. When was the last time in any context concerning human movements and the rise of civilisations that you saw even a passing mention of the role of aborigines? They are the planet's invisible people. A big part of the problem is that for most of us it is nearly impossible to grasp what an extraordinary span of time we are considering here. Assume for the sake of argument that the Aborigines arrived 60,000 years ago (that is the figure used by Roger Lewin of Havard in Principles of Evolution, a standard text). On that scale, the total period of European occupation of Australia represents about 0.3 percent of the total. In other words, for the first 99.7 per cent of its inhabited history, the Aborigines had Australia to themselves. They have been there an unimaginably long time.
2. Which of the following statements is NOT true, according to the text?

Choose the best answer:
Many older cities are having modern makeovers and they are being given a new (1) ____. Sometimes the impetus for this (2) ____ of change comes from the need to provide new (3) ____ for particular events being held in the city - a sporting event, or something (4) ____. On other (5) ____ the change just seems to (6) ____ place almost naturally.  Take Birmingham, for instance, (7) ____ it was previously an (8) ____ place to live, it has now become trendy, and this change has been (9) ____ largely by the new-look architecture that can be found everywhere in the city. The old shopping centre has been (10) ____ down and completely rebuilt, and new shopping malls are competing to attract shoppers with the high quality of their services and goods. The area located around the canal, once hidden away and surrounded by decaying factories was often used as a rubbish (11) ____, but it has now become a trendy place (12) ____ up of modern offices, bars, sought-after apartments and restaurants. To (13) ____ up, Birmingham has become the place to be. Even in what was formerly the poorest part of the city an old factory has been (14) ____ into a lively complex of studios, galleries and coffee bars. With its theatres, museums and football teams Birmingham is (15) ____ worth visiting and has something for everyone