Choose the best answer:
You depend on all the people closely around to give you the warm feeling of belongingness that you must have to feel secure. But, in fact, the members of all the groups to which you belong also depend on you to give that feeling to them. A person who shows that he wants everything for himself is bound to be a lonely wolf.  The need for companionship is closely related to the need for a sense of belongingness. How sad and lonely your life would be if you had no one to share your feelings and experiences. You may take it for granted that there always will be people around to talk to and to do things with you and for you. The important point, however, is that keeping emotionally healthy does not depend so much upon having people around you as upon your ability to establish relationships that are satisfying both to you and to them.  Suppose you are in a crowd watching a football game. You don't know them. When the game is over, you will all go your separate ways. But just for a while you had a feeling of companionship, of sharing the feelings of others who were cheering for the team you wanted to win.  An experience of this kind gives the clue to what companionship really is. It depends upon emotional ties of sympathy, understanding, trust, and affection. Companions become friends when these ties are formed.  When you are thrown in a new circle of acquaintances, you may not know with whom you will make friends, but you can be sure that you will be able to establish friendships if you show that you really like people. 

1. What does paragraph 2 primarily discuss?

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Approximately 350 million people speak English as their first ___(1)___ . About the same number use it __(2)___ a second language. It is the language ___(3)___ aviation, international sport and world trade. 75% of the world's mail is in English, 60% of the world's radio stations broadcast in English, and more than half of the world's newspapers are ___(4)___ in English. It is an official language in 44 countries. In ___(5)___ others, it is the language of business, commerce and technology. There are many varieties of English, but Scottish, Australian, Indian and Jamaican speakers of English, in spite of the differences in pronunciation, structure and vocabulary, would recognize that they are all speaking the same basic language

Choose the best answer:
If cartoons are anything to go by, then the attitude of the British towards the family, and of British men towards the (31) ________ sex, has not changed much recently, despite attempts to shame people into admitting their prejudices. The mother-in-law, frequently of horrific (32)______ and usually either about to visit, or being somehow driven from the house is still a favorite butt of this kind of humor. Marriage itself has been reduced to the skinny male, dominated by a massive female who habitually lies in wait with the rolling pin behind the door for the return of her drunken spouse. Children are rarely shown other than as screaming infants, or else as ill-favoured urchins who (33) _____ all their time being objectionable or asking for money. The old are simply (34) _____ as comic characters. The problem is, how do such cartoons relate to the way people truly see each other? Does a joke always contain some grain of truth, however much we may dislike to admit it? In other words, is life really a series of mother- in-law jokes? Or do jokes have a life of their own, with a (35) _______ of stereotypes we can recognize, like the Englishman with his umbrella and bowler hat, or the Frenchman with his striped jumper and beret?

Choose the best answer:
Universities love overseas students – they are clever and hardworking, they bring different cultures to seminars and student life and they pay their way. In Britain, universities are getting ready to enroll more overseas students. The British Council has published a report predicting that overseas student numbers could soar to more than 800,000 by 2018. In 2010, figures put the total at over 400,000 international students out of two and a half million students in UK higher education and it is clear that this influx is having an enormous impact on universities and colleges. These students bring welcome fees, of course, but they are also likely to be very intelligent students who inject new cultural influences and bring changes to the old university systems. Their demand for vocational subjects such as business, biotechnology and information technology, rather than traditional academic subjects, is affecting what is taught as well. The impressive expansion of foreign students has already had a significant impact on higher education. Overseas student numbers, including European Union students, have risen from 270,000 in 2002 to 400,000 in 2010. During this time the number from China jumped more than tenfold, and numbers from India have been going up. In contrast, the number of students from other countries has fallen, reflecting their governments’ efforts to educate more of their young people at home, as well as competition from Australia and the USA. But as the Asian tiger economies expand their own universities, the good news for places like the London School of Economics is that there are more and more graduates looking to improve their qualifications or to pursue research in their subjects.
1.  What is the passage mainly about?

Choose the best answer:
Waves don’t always (31) _________ the beaches with enough height or force to allow a sport such as surfing. The surfers in the 1960s looked for something that would allow them to have the thrill of riding waves without having to actually go in the water on days when it looked more like a (32) _________ rather than a series of hills reaching the shore. The simple solution was to put wheels on a board, and before long, a new style of surfing was born, but it was done on land. Looking back, it is easy to see how skateboarding could become more popular than even surfing. To surf you need coastline and waves, but to skateboard, all you need is a paved surface. As its popularity grew, skateboarding took (33) _________ new forms, and adventurous skateboarders tried new stunts. Skateboard parks started popping up throughout several countries, and there was plenty of innovation in skateboards. Early skateboards had metal wheels, usually (34) _________ from roller skates. Clay wheels replaced these, followed by the special urethane wheels that are used today. The innovations with wheels made the sport safer in many ways, but they also (35) _________ the stunts to become more and more extreme

Choose the best answer:
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

Choose the best answer:
According to some sources, the first online dating service appeared in the mid-nineties. Different from international matching services that were already up and running, these sites were created to help the average busy person find someone to date and, perhaps eventually, someone to many. For this week’s column, I asked a few people what they thought of online dating. Many who have tried online dating it’s the greatest invention since sliced bread. Although he was hesitant to try it at first, Mitchell Waverton, a 25-year-old who’s looking for love, gives online dating thumbs-up. Waverton explains, “I don’t have a lot of time to meet women. Some of my friends told me I should try online dating. I wasn't sure about it because it just seems weird- meeting someone online. But then I tried it, and it was a lot of fun”. However, not everyone has the same opinion. Peter Wong explains, “A few of my friends tried to get me join an online dating site. I only agree to do it to prove to them that it wasn’t going to work for me”. After I went on five miserable dates, my friends were finally convinced that online dating wasn't for me.” I do believe that online daters are sometimes successful in their search of love, but I think success stories are the exception rather than the rule. Although online dating seems like it’s here to stay, I’ve heard enough horror stories to keep me away from it
4. The word “that” in paragraph 1 refers to ________.

Choose the best answer:
I went to Australia on a student program last year and I like to (26)_______ you about it. I was very (27)_______when I knew I was going to Australia because I had never been there before. I didn’t think about the problems of speaking English (28)_______I met my host family. At first I couldn’t communicate with them because my English was so bad. All the five years I had been learning English wasn’t much used at all (29)_______we didn’t have real practice at school. Even though my grammar was good, my pronunciation wasn’t. My problem is (30)_______ ‘l’ and ‘r’. For example, Australian people often asked “What do you eat in Vietnam?” I wanted to tell them that we eat rice, but they didn’t understand when I said “We eat lice”…

Nam is living in Hanoi city with her family. She is in grade 6. In summer, she doesn’t go to school. Because the weather is very hot, she often goes swimming with some of her friends. She sometimes goes to the park to fly the kite or goes fishing. She also goes on vacation with her family. Her favorite place is Ha Long. Nam likes summer very much.

Who does she go on vacation with?

Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer.

Mr Green: Hey, Tom. How's your first week at the new school?

Tom: Well, it's great. But I was a bit nervous at first.

Mr Green: Why were you nervous?

Tom: The teachers are all new to me, most of my classmates are new too.

Mr Green: Are they friendly to you?

Tom: Ah, yeah. They are all nice to me.

Mr Green: What subjects did you have today?

Tom: Well, we had maths, geography and computer studies, my favourite subject.

Mr Green: Oh, good. So everything is going well at school?

Tom: Right. I had a good first day. And ... Dad, can I join the judo club at school? I like to do judo. 

Mr Green: Yeah, OK, if you like. But don't forget to do your homework.

Tom: I won't. Thanks, Dad.

How is the first day at his new school?

Choose the best answer:
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

Choose the best answer:
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

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

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Tattooing is an old art. In ancient Greece, people who had tattoos were (1) ______ as members of the upper classes. It was not (2) ______ the late 18th century,  when Captain Cook saw South Sea Islanders decorating their bodies with tattoos,  that attitude began to change. Sailors came back from these islands with pictures  of Christ on the backs and from then on, tattooing (3) ______ in popularity. A  survey by the French army in 1881 showed that (4) ______ the 378 men  questioned there were 1333 designs. 
Nowadays, not everybody finds tattoos acceptable. Some people think that getting  one is silly because tattoos are more or less permanent. There is also some (5) ______ about catching a blood disease from unsterilized needles

Choose the best answer:
Universities love overseas students – they are clever and hardworking, they bring different cultures to seminars and student life and they pay their way. In Britain, universities are getting ready to enroll more overseas students. The British Council has published a report predicting that overseas student numbers could soar to more than 800,000 by 2018. In 2010, figures put the total at over 400,000 international students out of two and a half million students in UK higher education and it is clear that this influx is having an enormous impact on universities and colleges. These students bring welcome fees, of course, but they are also likely to be very intelligent students who inject new cultural influences and bring changes to the old university systems. Their demand for vocational subjects such as business, biotechnology and information technology, rather than traditional academic subjects, is affecting what is taught as well. The impressive expansion of foreign students has already had a significant impact on higher education. Overseas student numbers, including European Union students, have risen from 270,000 in 2002 to 400,000 in 2010. During this time the number from China jumped more than tenfold, and numbers from India have been going up. In contrast, the number of students from other countries has fallen, reflecting their governments’ efforts to educate more of their young people at home, as well as competition from Australia and the USA. But as the Asian tiger economies expand their own universities, the good news for places like the London School of Economics is that there are more and more graduates looking to improve their qualifications or to pursue research in their subjects.
4. The word “their” in paragraph 3 refers to _______

Choose the best answer:
A stinky gym bug in your kitchen? Who will be more upset by the smell - the men or the women in your family? (1) _______ scientists suggest that women not only smell, but feel, taste, and hear more accurately than men. Take colors, for example. One study suggests that men are not as good as women at distinguishing between (2) _______ of color, although they focus well on rapidly changing images. As for touch, small fingers have a finer sense of touch, whether male or female. Hearing is possibly one of the most debated areas, when talking about the senses. Evidence shows that boys hear as well as girls at birth, but with age, a man’s hearing may soon deteriorate. (3) _______, environmental factors could play a role in this. Women may also be better at identifying different flavors (4) _______ need both taste and smell to experience, as studies have shown that they have more taste buds on their tongue. Going back to the smelly gym bag - yes, it’s likely that Mom will be the most (5) _______ out by it. But is that because women’s brains have more ‘smell cells’ or because you were too lazy to move it?

Choose the best answer:
Biologists sometimes define longevity as the average life span expected under ideal conditions. It's hard to say what's ideal. Plenty of medical research is ongoing (1) ____ the "right" amount and type of exercise to get the best diet to eat to maximize longevity, and (2) ____ certain pharmaceuticals or supplements can help improve your longevity.  Lifespans have increased pretty dramatically over the last century or so, in large part due to (3) ____ in medicine that have nearly eliminated certain deadly infectious diseases.  The average baby born in 1900 lived about a half-century. Nowadays, the life expectancy of people in the United States is nearly 79 years on (4) ____ -81 years for women and 76 years for men, and in some countries, life expectancy is even longer.  It's very (5) ____ that humanity's true longevity might be much higher. Humans might live longer if they can create the ideal conditions of a healthy diet and exercise.

Choose the best answer:
Solar energy is a long lasting source of energy, and it can (26)________almost anywhere. To generate solar energy, we only need solar cells and (27)________! Solar cells can easily be installed on house (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:
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. 
3. The attitude of the author towards home-schooling can be best described as _______

Choose the best answer:
Library is a collection of books and other informational materials made available to people for reading, study, or reference. The word library comes (1)_________ liber, the Latin word for ― book‖ . (2) _____ , library collections have almost always contained a variety of materials. Contemporary libraries maintain collections that include not only printed materials such as manuscripts, books , newspapers, and magazines, (3)_______ audio-visual and online databases. In addition (4) _____ maintaining collections within library buildings, modern libraries often feature telecommunications links that provide users with access to information at remote sites. The central mission of a library (5) _______ to collect , organize, preserve, and provide access to knowledge and information. In fulfilling this mission, libraries preserve a valuable record of culture that can be passed down to (6)_______ generations. Libraries are an essential link in this communication between the past , present, and future. Whether the cultural record is contained in books or in electronic formats, libraries ensure (7) ____ the record is preserved and made available for later use. People use library resources to gain information about personal (8)__ or to obtain recreational materials such as films and novels. Students use libraries to supplement and enhance their classroom experiences, to learn (9)_____ in locating sources of information, and to develop good reading and study habits. Public officials use libraries to research legislation and public policy issues. One of the most valued of all cultural institutions, the library (10) ___ information and services that are essential to learning and progress. From ― Library ( institution)‖ by Richard S.Halsey et al

Choose the best answer:
You depend on all the people closely around to give you the warm feeling of belongingness that you must have to feel secure. But, in fact, the members of all the groups to which you belong also depend on you to give that feeling to them. A person who shows that he wants everything for himself is bound to be a lonely wolf.  The need for companionship is closely related to the need for a sense of belongingness. How sad and lonely your life would be if you had no one to share your feelings and experiences. You may take it for granted that there always will be people around to talk to and to do things with you and for you. The important point, however, is that keeping emotionally healthy does not depend so much upon having people around you as upon your ability to establish relationships that are satisfying both to you and to them.  Suppose you are in a crowd watching a football game. You don't know them. When the game is over, you will all go your separate ways. But just for a while you had a feeling of companionship, of sharing the feelings of others who were cheering for the team you wanted to win.  An experience of this kind gives the clue to what companionship really is. It depends upon emotional ties of sympathy, understanding, trust, and affection. Companions become friends when these ties are formed.  When you are thrown in a new circle of acquaintances, you may not know with whom you will make friends, but you can be sure that you will be able to establish friendships if you show that you really like people.
5. You will find it hard to make friends with people ____