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When engineer Tsutomu Takada lost his job, he decided to make a complete change in his life. He took off his business suit and put on an apron – and started a course to become a chef. “I had always dreamed of doing this, even when I was an engineer” says Takada. “And now, here I am” he says with a laugh. He is a student at Tokyo’s Sushi University. This is the only university in Japan which is devoted entirely to teaching the art of sushi. What is “sushi”? It is Japan’s famous dish of raw fish, dried seaweed and rice soaked in vinegar. Traditionally, it takes decades of training to become a sushi chef, but Sushi University trains chefs in one year. As well as providing quick retraining, the university’s approach reflects a growing change in Japanese society – a move away from the tradition a way of doing things. “Society has changed” sighs university principal Katsuji Konkani. Sushi started as a sushi apprentice more than sixty years ago. “People today wouldn’t put up with the tough training I had. When I made mistakes, my teacher hit me on the head with his knife handle!” Sushi hasn’t always been a matter of studying hard and being hit on the head. It started in ancient China, where people preserved fish by packing it in rice and salt. They did not eat the rice. It is said that this process probably came to Japan between 300 BC and AD 300. Adventurous Japanese cooks began to serve the pickled fish together with vinegared rice. This combination of rice and fish was called “sushi”. The most important thing about sushi is that it has to look attractive. In fact, the most carefully prepared sushi meals can cost hundreds of dollars! There are 45,000 sushi businesses in Japan today, including take- away, as some people like to eat it for lunch in their offices. There are also cheap self-service restaurants, where customers sit at a counter which has different colored plates with different types of sushi on them. These plates move around the counter on a conveyor belt, and customers choose the sushi they want to eat. When they have finished eating, the waitress counts the colored plates and works out the bill. Mr. Konkani has made sushi for Japan’s emperor. He says sushi preparation is an art, but he also believes that Sushi University’s intensive course is necessary. “Of course people complain this is not the way to do it” he says, “but we tried to make it easier for those who wanted to learn about sushi, and for those who want to take it overseas”. Many of the students already have jobs lined up in places like Australia, Italy and Singapore.
But the course is really just the beginning of the new chefs. According to Mr. Konkani, it takes five, ten or even twenty years to become a top- notch sushi chef. “To make good sushi, you have to have skill but you also need a warm heart” he says.
4. The word “it” in paragraph 3 refers to _______

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It has been said that the wars of the future will not be fought over land. Instead, they will be fought over the water supply. As the climate changes due to global warming, weather (31) _________ all over the world are becoming disrupted. In some regions, there will be too much water, causing extreme flooding. On the other hand, the (32) _________ will be true in other areas, where drought and famine will take place instead. Climate change is not the only reason why there will be serious problems (33) _________ water. Already, man-made projects such as the damming of rivers have caused (34) _________ to rise between nations. Since rivers can only flow in one direction, if you live in a country that relies heavily on river water for its water supply but live downstream from another country, that other country, (35) _________, controls the water supply.

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The United States has many different types of families. (25) _____ most American families are traditional, consisting of a father, a mother and one or more children, 22 percent of all American families in 1998 were headed by one parent, usually a woman. In a few families in the United States, there are no children. These (26) _____ couples may believe that they would not make good parents; they may want freedom from responsibilities of childbearing; or, perhaps they are not (27) _____ able to have children. Other families in the United States have one adult who is a stepparent. A stepmother or stepfather is a person who joins a family by marrying a father or a mother. Americans (28) _____ and accept these different types of families. In the United States people have right to privacy and Americans do not believe in telling other Americans (29) _____ type of family group they must belong to. They respect each other’s choices regarding family groups. Families are very important to Americans

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Every Saturday Minh and his family have dinner in a (1) ….. They eat chicken or (2) …… with peas and beans. Sometimes Minh’s mother (3) … fish. Minh also has a big (4) …. Minh’s (5)…… drink is fruit juice, but his father and mother like (6) … They listen to (7) …… while they are having (8) …… dinner

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Travel at the North and South Poles has become an expensive leisure activity, suitable for tourists of all ages. The poles may be inhospitable places, but they are seeing increasing numbers of visitors. Annual figures for the Arctic, where tourism has existed since the 19th century, have increased from about a million in the early 1990s to more than 1.5 million today. This is partly because of the lengthening summer season brought about by climate change. The global economic downturn may have affected the annual 20.6 percent rate of increase in visitors to the Antarctic - last season saw a drop of 17 percent to 38,200 - but there has been a 760 percent rise in land-based tourism there since 1997. More people than ever are landing at fragile sites, with light aircraft, helicopters and all-terrain vehicles increasingly used for greater access. Although polar tourism is widely accepted, there have been few regulations up until recently. At the meeting of the Antarctic Treaty in Baltimore, the 28 member nations adopted proposals for limits to tourist numbers. These included safety codes for tourist vessels in Antarctic waters, and improved environmental protection for the continent. They agreed to prevent ships with more than 500 passengers from landing in Antarctica, as well as limit the number of passengers going ashore to a maximum of 100 at any one time, with a minimum of one guide for every 20 tourists. These days, rarely a week passes without a negative headline in the newspapers. The suffering polar bear has become a symbol of a warming world, its plight a warning that the clock is ticking. It would seem that this ticking clock is a small but growing factor for some tourists. ‘There’s an element of “do it now”,’ acknowledges Prisca Campbell, Marketing director of Quark Expeditions, which takes 7,000 people to the poles annually. Leaving the trip until later, it seems, may mean leaving it too late
4. According to the passage, what does Prisca Campbell say about the trend of Arctic tourism?

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Bonsai trees have always been a source of great fascination to people. They are perfect miniatures, grown in pots small enough to sit on a windowsill. You have to keep reminding yourself that these frees are actually real and identical to their larger cousins in all (31) _____except their size. Rather like other small and perfectly-formed artifacts, bonsai trees command quite a high price in the marketplace and so it doesn't come as a great surprise to find that they also (32) _____the attention of thieves. It seems that quite a flourishing business has evolved, in which they are stolen from the homes of growers and collectors, then repotted and trimmed by unscrupulous dealers, to be sold on, at good prices, to (33) _____buyers. One of Britain's top collectors of bonsai trees, Paul Widdington, believes that he has found a solution, however. After losing his life's work, valued at £250,000, when burglars broke into his home one night, Paul decided to (34) _____the possibilities of electronically tagging the trees he bought as a replacement. This involves injecting a microchip the size of a grain of rice into the trunk of each tree. Each chip is a laser-etched with information which is stored in a central register held by the police. Paul is quite aware that this kind of data-tagging doesn't (35) _____thieves from stealing the trees in the first place, although it may increase the chances of getting them back. So he's also installing a security alarm system complete with infra-red detectors, in his home

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Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is located in the middle of the Annamite Mountain Range in Quang Binh province, Vietnam, and shares its boundary (23) ____ the Hin Namno Nature Reserve in the Lao PDR to the west. The property (24) ____ an area of 123,326 ha and contains terrestrial and aquatic habitats, primary and secondary forest, sites of natural regeneration, tropical dense forests and savanna and is rich in large, often spectacular and scientifically significant caves.  The property contains and protects over 104 km of caves and underground rivers making (25) ____ one of the most outstanding limestone karst ecosystems in the world. (26) ____ karst formation has evolved since the Palaeozoic period (some 400 million years ago) and as such is the oldest major karst area in Asia. (27) ____ to massive tectonic changes, the karst landscape is extremely complex, comprising a series of rock types that are interbedded in complex ways and with many geomorphic features. The karst landscape is not only complex but also ancient with high geodiversity and geomorphic features of considerable significance.

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
When you are in Hong Kong, you can go about taxi, by tram, by bus or (1)______underground. I mysetf prefer the underground (2)___ it is fast easy and cheap. There are(3)_______ tram and bus in Hong Kong, and one cannot drive along the road (4)_________ and without many stops. The underground is therefore usually quicker (5)___ taxis or buses. If you do not know Hong Kong very well, it is very difficult (6)_____________the bus you want. You can take a taxi, but it is (7)_______expensive than the underground or a bus. On the underground you find good maps that tell you the names of the stations and show you (8)____________to get to them, so that it is easy to find your way

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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

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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 brought about 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

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
The heart has long been considered to be (1) _______ feelings of love dwell. In love songs throughout the ages, love almost always goes together (2) _______  the heart. The heart has continuously been viewed (3) _______ the place where love begins and develops. Even the Bible gives (4) _______ to love and the heart. The role of the heart in love must come from what happens to it when a person feels strongly (5) _______ to someone. The strong feelings (6) _______ the other person, especially in the early stages of a relationship, have the results that the heart starts beating faster and breathing starts speeding (7) _______.According to psychologists, a love relationship is a situation that (8) _______ a lot of stress and the body reacts to this by getting ready to face the unknown. This has been called the "fight or flight" (9) _______, meeting danger by fighting it or running away. So with love, the heart accelerates and (10) _______ becomes quick

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The philosopher Aristotle said, “In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. They keep the young out of mischief; they comfort and aid the old in their weakness, and they incite those in the prime of life to noble deeds. “Growing up”, my mother always used to tell me “your friends are a reflection of you”. I did not quite understand this (20) _____ I started meeting individuals who kept, not so healthy friends in their lives and suddenly, as a young teenager, I learned to understand that the friends I keep in my life (21) _____ who I am and desire to be as a person and therefore I have learned to choose my friends wisely over the years. I do not care about the superficial (22) _____ such as looks, money, success or status but rather I emulate those (23) _____ bring laughter, joy, honesty and who can be there for me and also give me a firm kick in the butt when I need it. I always find it intriguing to meet friends of people I know because I can really get a sense of that person by the company they choose to (24) _____ in their life

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
The heart has long been considered to be (1) _______ feelings of love dwell. In love songs throughout the ages, love almost always goes together (2) _______  the heart. The heart has continuously been viewed (3) _______ the place where love begins and develops. Even the Bible gives (4) _______ to love and the heart. The role of the heart in love must come from what happens to it when a person feels strongly (5) _______ to someone. The strong feelings (6) _______ the other person, especially in the early stages of a relationship, have the results that the heart starts beating faster and breathing starts speeding (7) _______.According to psychologists, a love relationship is a situation that (8) _______ a lot of stress and the body reacts to this by getting ready to face the unknown. This has been called the "fight or flight" (9) _______, meeting danger by fighting it or running away. So with love, the heart accelerates and (10) _______ becomes quick

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A healthy diet is essential for maintaining a healthy body and a healthy lifestyle. Though some doctors and health experts disagree on some components of a healthy diet, other parts are almost universally recognized. For example, all agree that a healthy diet includes necessary nutrients - ingredients that help keep bodies strong and healthy. Human bodies need more than 50 different kinds of nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, water, and fiber.  Vitamins are natural substances found in plants and animals. A body cannot make its own vitamins, so it must get them from food. Vitamins do not supply energy. However, they are useful substances that the body needs. Vitamin A, for example, helps eyes see better. Vitamin B develops protein needed in muscle growth. Vitamin C helps support the healing process for certain illnesses. Finally, Vitamin D helps strengthen teeth and bones  Minerals help balance bodily fluids, such as blood and water. They are also an important part of the iron in blood. There are seven major minerals that bodies need in large amounts, and ten minor, or trace, minerals, which bodies need in smaller amounts. Scientists are still studying many minerals, such as nickel and cobalt, to try to understand exactly how they affect the human body.  Some people do not include water as a nutrient, but it is vital for a healthy body to function properly. Humans can live for several days without food, but only for two or three days without water. People who play sports or exercise a lot often fail to drink enough water. This can cause their muscles to become overly tired. If not enough water is taken in during very strenuous exercise, death may in fact result. Scientists have learned much about the importance of fiber in recent years. They now say that many people do not get enough fiber in their diets. The average many people should eat between 30 and 40 grams of fiber each day, twice as much as the average person currently gets. Though fiber is not digested or absorbed, it helps rid the body of waste products. Fiber helps control weight and maintain normal levels of important substances such as cholesterol and blood sugar. Fiber is found in whole-grain breads and cereals, as well as nuts, beans, fruits, and vegetables. There are several different kinds of fiber, and they each help in different ways. Two kinds of fiber, called pectins and gums, are needed to help control body fats, cholesterol, and carbohydrates (a type of nutrient that produces energy). Apples, cranberries, and cherries are good sources of pectin. Oatmeal and legumes are good s general, fresh fruits and raw vegetables provide more fiber than peeled fruits and cooked vegetables. According to dieticians, two servings of vegetables and two servings of whole grains (like whole wheat bread) each day will provide enough fiber for most adults.  In summary, recommendations for a healthy diet include drinking lots of liquids while eating fiber from a wide variety of foods. This way, the body will not be getting too much of one kind of fiber and too little of another kind. If a person is not eating enough fiber now, it is best to change one's diet gradually. Above all, experts warn, do not depend on getting fiber from pills or tablets. A whole bottle would need to be consumed to see any benefit. 
2. According to the passage, which of the following is true of vitamins?

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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.
2. According to the passage, who was Frank Merriwell?

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
George Orwell did not expect to be a successful writer. In fact, he spent much of his life anticipating failure. In an essay about his schooldays, he wrote that until he was about thirty he always planned his life with the (1)____that any major undertaking was bound to fail. He wanted success and worked hard to (2) ____it but he was never quite able to give up the notion that his efforts would always come up short. At the age of 46, (3)____before he died, he confided in his private notebook that a deep sense of inadequacy had haunted him throughout his career. He stated that there had been literally not one day in which he did not feel that he was being lazy, that he was behind with his current job and that his rate of work was miserably small. Even in the first months after the tremendous success of “Animal Farm”, he was quick discount his achievement, declaring that his next book was bound to be a failure. Of course, no conscientious author is ever completely (4)____with their work, but Orwell’s doubts were so (5)____that he often appeared more comfortable (6)____defeat than acknowledging success. In 1940, after the publication of his eighth book, he (7)____to an admiring letter from another writer by (8)____ out of his way to show the man why he was not (9)____of his praise. “It makes me laugh,” he wrote, “to see you referring to me as “famous” and “successful”. I wonder if you (10)____ how little my books sell!”

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Sociologists have been carrying out research into the social pressures of being a teenager. Many adolescents are unhappy at school because they find it difficult to (17) _____ friends. This stress can bring on illness or result in poor grades. They may also worry about their appearance and often feel (18) _____ enormous pressure to dress, talk and behave the same as (19) _____. This phenomenon is called peer pressure, and it is very common in today’s society. Advertising contributes a lot to the social pressures teenagers feel. Advertisers know how important it is to feel that you belong to a group when you are in your teens, so they try to persuade teenagers that certain products will make them (20) _____ with their classmates. Sadly, many teenagers act irresponsibly and even do dangerous things just to make others accept them. Peer pressure is often the reason for teenage smoking, drug (21) _____ or dangerous driving. Teenagers need to learn to say no to social pressure and to find friends who they can talk things over with when they have a problem

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Two decades of progress in the reduction of extreme poverty, the elimination of (26) _______ is one of the sustainable development goals, have been pushed into a sharp (27) ______ by a combination of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the growing climate emergency and increasing debt. With the World Bank warning of a “truly unprecedented increase” in levels of poverty this year, and renewing calls for debt forgiveness, experts are warning of a growing crisis in multiple areas from education to employment, likely to be felt for years to come. While the World Bank was already pessimistic, in January it updated its forecast for the expected number of newly (28) _______ people this year from between 88 and 115 million to the new range of between 119 and 124 million. Global poverty has seen a spectacular decline since the 1960s – when about 80% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. Today that number has been reduced to nearer 10%, with hundreds of millions of people removed from the extremes of hardship. (29) _______ the numbers are forecast to rise in the coming year. Experts have noted a worrying rise in (30) _______ of people living on less than $3.20 between June last year and January 2021

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Earthquakes are one of the scariest natural phenomena because they are so unpredictable. Scientists have tried to come up with a method to predict them but they have always failed. Unlike other destructive phenomena such as hurricanes or even solar storms, earthquakes come without any (31) _________ whatever. Some people believe that animals are able to (32) _________ when earthquakes are coming. There are many anecdotes about dogs barking before an earthquake happens. In some cases, strange phenomena have been observed in creatures like toads, where a few days before a major earthquake hit, they left their breeding ground. The toads did not reappear (33) _________ the quake had happened. Another strange creature that some believe may hold the key (34) _________ quakes is the oarfish. These strange fish normally live in very deep water. (35) _________ of these fish are very rare, but in 2013, oarfish were found to beach themselves in San Francisco, and this caused some to believe that a major earthquake was coming. What was the reason for this?

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Most children love (1) ______ activities. They play football, go skateboarding or go (2) _________. In countries with snow like (3) _________, children go to the mountains with their parents to go skiing. They can make a (4) ______  in the playground in front of their house. When the weather is bad, they can stay at home and watch interesting (5) ______ on TV

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Stella McCartney was born in 1972, the daughter of pop star Sir Paul McCartney. She is the youngest of three sisters. One sister is a potter and the other sister does the same job as their mother used to do - she works as a photographer. Stella's brother, James, is a musician. Stella first hit the newspaper headlines in 1995 when she graduated in fashion design from art college. At her final show, her clothes were modeled by her friends, Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, both well-known models. Unsurprisingly, the student show became front-page news around the world. Stella hadn't been in the news before as a fashion designer but she had spent time working in the fashion world since she was fifteen. In March 1997, Stella went to work for the fashion house Chloe. People said the famous fashion house had given her the job because of her surname and her famous parents but Stella soon showed how good she was. She designs clothes which she would like to wear herself, although she's not a model, and many famous models and actors choose to wear them. In 2001 Stella started her own fashion house and has since opened stores around the world and won many prizes. A lifelong vegetarian, McCartney does not use any leather or fur in her design. Instead, she uses silk, wool and other animal-derived fabrics.
4. Stella thinks about the kinds of clothes that ____.