Choose the item among A, B, C or D that best answers the question about the passage:

"The United Nations (UN), international organization of countries created to promote world peace and cooperation. The UN was founded after World War II ended in 1945. Its mission is to maintain world peace, develop good relations between countries, promote cooperation in solving the world’s problems, and encourage respect for human rights.
 The UN is an organization of countries that agree to cooperate with one another. It brings together countries that are rich and poor, large and small, and have different social and political Systems. Member nations pledge to settle their disputes peacefully, to refrain from using force or the threat of force against other countries, and to refuse help to any country that opposes UN actions.
 UN membership is open to any country willing to further the UN mission and abide by its rules. Each country, no matter how large or small, has an equal voice and vote. Each country is also expected to pay dues to support the UN. As of 2004 the UN had 191 members, including nearly every country in the world.
 The UN’s influence in world affairs has fluctuated over the years, but the organization gained new prominence beginning in the 1990s. It was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. Still, the UN faces constant challenges. It must continually secure the cooperation of its member nations because the organization has little independent power or authority. But getting that support is noi always easy. Many nations are reluctant to defer their own authority and follow the dictates of the UN."

5. The word “pledge” would probably be best replaced by  …..

Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each blank.

Under the global "health for all" strategy, WHO (the World Health Organization) and its members have placed special emphasis (26) ________ the developing countries. Nevertheless, the benefits of WHO's international health work are benefited by all countries, including the most developed ones. For example, all nations have benefited from their contributions to the WHO programs that led to the global (27) ________ of smallpox and to better and cheaper ways of controlling tuberculosis. (28) ________ is a key word in WHO's programs. The organization believes that immunization, (29) ________ prevents the six major diseases of childhood -diphtheria, measles, poliomyelitis, tetanus, tuberculosis, and whooping cough, should be (30) ________ to all children who need it. WHO is leading a worldwide campaign to provide effective immunization for all children in (31) ________ with UNICEF. Provision of safe drinking water for all is one of the objectives of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1980 and (32) ________ by WHO. WHO is also active in international efforts to combat the diarrheal diseases, killers of infants and young children. The widespread introduction of oral rehydration salts, together with improved drinking water supply and sanitation will greatly reduce childhood mortality from diarrhea.

WHO's program for primary health (33) ________ comprises eight essential elements: education concerning prevalent health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them; promotion of food supply and proper nutrition; maintenance of (34) ________ adequate supply of safe water and basic sanitation; provision of maternal and child health care, including family planning; immunization against the major (35) ________ diseases; prevention and control of locally endemic diseases; appropriate treatment of common diseases and injuries; and provision of essential drugs. These eight elements were defined in the Declaration of Alma-Ata, which emerged from the International Conference, on Primary Health Care in 1978.

(27) ________

Choose the answer  A, B, C or D that best fits the blank space in the following passage:

"The Security Council is the most powerful (1)…..  in the UN. It is responsible for maintaining international peace, and for (2)…. Peace when conflicts arise. Its decisions are binding on all UN members and have the force of international law. The Security Council has the (3)…  to define what is a threat to security, to determine how the UN should respond, and to enforce its decisions by ordering UN members to take certain (4)….. . For example, the Council may impose economic sanctions, such as halting trade with a country it considers an aggressor.
 The Security Council has 15 members, 5 of which hold permanent seats. The General Assembly elects the other 10 members for (5)….. two-year terms. The 5 permanent members - the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia (formerly the Soviet Union), and China - have the most power. These nations were the winning (6)…. at the end of World War II, and they still represent the bulk of the world's military might.
 Decisions of the Council require nine votes. But any one of the permanent members can veto an important decision. This authority is known (7) …. the veto right of the great powers. As a result, the Council is effective only when its permanent members can reach a consensus. Beginning in the 1990s, increased cooperation between the United States and Russia (8) …..the council to become more effective.
 In recent years, there has been growing (9)….. over which countries should have permanent seats on the Council. Some nations believe that other countries besides the original five should be included. For example, Japan and Germany are powerful countries that pay large membership dues and make substantial contributions to the UN, (10)…. they do not have permanent seats. There is no easy solution to this problem."

5. The General Assembly elects the other 10 members for (5)….. two-year terms. 

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
AN UNWELCOME GUEST
Of the one in seven people in the UK who claim to have seen a ghost, the majority are women. This may be because women have far more association with the spirit world. Women trust their emotions and are generally better able than men to cope with the unexpected.
Housewife Fiona Blair describes herself as very practical and down-to-earth, and never believed in the idea that a house could be haunted. That all changed when she and her family moved into a manor house in the Midlands. Although the surveyor reckoned that the house required a lot of attention and was somewhat damp, they thought it was stunning. They could just afford it and it would be a good investment, so they took the plunge and decided to buy it.
Nonetheless, right from the start, Fiona had a strange sense that they were not alone in the house. One of her teenage daughters had left a towel over the back of a chair in the kitchen. Fiona was in the garden, and when she returned to the house, the towel was over the kitchen table like a tablecloth. On other occasions the family would find that objects such as glasses and vases had been turned upside-down.
This was only the start of the peculiar happenings. A particularly strange incident happened on Fiona's birthday. Fiona's husband, Mark, came home from work and went into the living room. He immediately came rushing out to ask who had bought her the beautiful flowers - but nobody had given Fiona flowers and her daughters had not put the flowers there. It remained a mystery how they had miraculously appeared.
Fiona was curious and decided to find out about the history of the house. What she discovered was rather alarming. Apparently a young girl, servant to a previous generation of owners, had been found dead in peculiar circumstances in the attic. Fiona and her family inevitably began to feel claustrophobic and trapped in the house, and eventually decided that they would have to move.
Unfortunately, things were not as simple as that. Each time they attempted to show the house to potential buyers, Fiona would of course ensure beforehand that everything was neat and tidy in order to make a good impression. But by the time anyone arrived, the entire house would be in a complete mess, and visitors complained of an unpleasant atmosphere. Eventually, after many months, an American couple viewed the house, and decided it had a certain attraction. For some reason, the ghost did not play its usual tricks, and Fiona was able to sell what had been her dream home.
Now living in a spacious modern apartment in London, Fiona wants to forget it all and move on with her life. 'At one point I thought I might be going out of my mind, it was all so frightening. We can almost laugh about it all now, but I hope we never experience anything like that again.

The word 'stunning' in the passage could be best replaced by which of the following?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

The past fifty years or so have seen the gradual disappearance of animals from this earth, fishes from the sea, trees and plants from the land.
Many factors result in this unpleasant phenomenon. Among them, hunting is the main factor that endangers wildlife. Some people kill wildlife for sport. They take pleasure in collecting heads and hides. Yet others specialize in commercial hunting like killing whales.

Apart from this, the rapidly growing human population threatens wildlife on land, too. Towns expand and roads have to be built, so forests are burnt and trees are chopped down. It seems that man needs every inch of land within his reach, so he moves on to the natural habitat of wildlife. Tigers, lions and leopards slowly die off without the food and shelter that the forests provide.

In addition, rapid urbanization means industrial expansion. Very often, poisonous chemicals, industrial wastes and oil are dumped into the rivers and seas. Fish and birds are threatened.

Many depend greatly on animals for survival. He needs their flesh, hides and furs. Thus, man cannot do without wildlife; or he himself would become extinct. The public should be made aware that it would be better to shoot the animals with a camera than with a gun. In this way, they can preserve and help wildlife to continue living rather than to move all signs of it.
 
Man must learn to farm the sea as he does the land. He should regulate the amount of frequency of his catch. He should allow fish to breed and multiply before netting them. A man also needs to build forest reserves, and to pass a law prohibiting the killing of animals, especially those that already rare. To retain the present animal kingdom, the least that man can do is to clean the seas and rivers to prevent pollution. The cycle of nature is such that it forms a vicious circle. The insecticides and pesticides that we spray on crops can kill the birds and animals that feed on them. When a man eats these poisoned animals, he himself can die. We must therefore test the chemicals to be used before they are sprayed or it might mean the death of man!

The phrase “commercial hunting” in paragraph 2 refers to the kind of hunting for_________.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

   Smallpox was the first widespread disease to be eliminated by human intervention. Known as a highly contagious viral disease, it broke out in Europe, causing the deaths of millions of people until the vaccination was invented by Edward Jenner around 1800. In many nations, it was a terror, a fatal disease until very recently. Its victims suffer high fever, vomiting and painful, itchy, pustules that left scars. In villages and cities all over the world, people were worried about suffering smallpox.In May, 1966, the World Health Organization (WHO), an agency of the United Nations was authorized to initiate a global campaign to eradicate smallpox. The goal was to eliminate the disease in one decade. At the time, the disease posed a serious threat to people in more than thirty nations. Because similar projects for malaria and yellow fever had failed, few believed that smallpox could actually be eradicated but eleven years after the initial organization of the campaign, no cases were reported in the field.The strategy was not only to provide mass vaccinations but also to isolate patients with active smallpox in order to contain the spread of the disease and to break the chain of human transmission. Rewards for reporting smallpox assisted in motivating the public to aid health workers. One by one, each small-pox victim was sought out, removed from contact with others and treated. At the same time, the entire village where the victim had lived was vaccinated.By April of 1978 WHO officials announced that they had isolated the last known case of the disease but health workers continued to search for new cases for additional years to be completely sure. In May, 1980, a formal statement was made to the global community. Today smallpox is no longer a threat to humanity. Routine vaccinations have been stopped worldwide.

Which one of the statements doesn’t refer to smallpox?

Choose the best answers the question.
UNICEF is the driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realized. We have the global authority to influence decision-makers, and the variety of partners at grassroots level to turn the most innovative ideas into reality. That makes us unique among world organizations, and unique among those working with the young. 
We believe that nurturing and caring for children are the cornerstones of human progress. UNICEF was created with this purpose in mind – to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. We believe that we can, together, advance the cause of humanity. 
We advocate for measures to give children the best start in life, because proper care at the youngest age forms the strongest foundation for a person’s future.
We promote girls’ education – ensuring that they complete primary education as a minimum – because it benefits all children, both girls and boys. Girls who are educated grow up to become better thinkers, better citizens, and better parents to their own children.
We act so that all children are immunized against common childhood diseases, and are well nourished, because it is wrong for a child to suffer or die from a preventable illness.
We work to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people because it is right to keep them from harm and enable them to protect others. We help children and families affected by HIV/AIDS to live their lives with dignity.
We involve everyone in creating protective environments for children. We are present to relieve suffering during emergencies, and wherever children are threatened, because no child should be exposed to violence, abuse or exploitation.
UNICEF upholds the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We work to assure equality for those who are discriminated against, girls and women in particular. We work for the Millennium Development Goals and for the progress promised in the United Nations CharterWe strive for peace and security. We work to hold everyone accountable to the promises made for children.
We are part of the Global Movement for Children – a broad coalition dedicated to improving the life of every child. Through this movement, and events such as the United Nations Special Session on Children, we encourage young people to speak out and participate in the decisions that affect their lives. 
We work in 190 countries through country programmes and National Committees. We are UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

What does UNICEF stand for?

1.Not so long ago almost any student who successfully completed a university degree or diploma course could find a good career quite easily. Companies toured the academic institutions, competing with each other to recruit graduates. However, those days are gone, even in Hong Kong, and nowadays graduates often face strong competition in the search for jobs.
    2.Most careers organizations highlight three stages for graduates to follow in the process of securing a suitable career: recognizing abilities, matching these to available vacancies and presenting them well to prospective employers.
    3.Job seekers have to make a careful assessment of their own abilities. One area of assessment should be of their academic qualifications, which would include special skills within their subject area. Graduates should also consider their own personal values and attitudes, or the relative importance to themselves of such matters as money, security, leadership and caring for others. An honest assessment of personal interests and abilities such as creative or scientific skills, or skills acquired from work experience, should also be given careful thought.
    4.The second stage is to study the opportunities available for employment and to think about how the general employment situation is likely to develop in the future. To do this, graduates can study job vacancies and information in newspapers or they can visit a careers office, write to possible employers for information or contact friends or relatives who may already be involved in a particular profession. After studying all the various options, they should be in a position to make informed comparisons between various careers.
    5.Good personal presentation is essential in the search for a good career. Job application forms and letters should, of course, be filled in carefully and correctly, without grammar or spelling errors. Where additional information is asked for, job seekers should describe their abilities and work experience in more depth, with examples if possible. They should try to balance their own abilities with the employer's needs, explain why they are interested in a career with the particular company and try to show that they already know something about the company and its activities.
    6.When graduates are asked to attend for interview, they should prepare properly by finding out all they can about the prospective employer. Dressing suitably and arriving for the interview on time are also obviously important. Interviewees should try to give positive and helpful answers and should not be afraid to ask questions about anything they are unsure about. This is much better than pretending to understand a question and giving an unsuitable answer.
    7.There will always be good career opportunities for people with ability, skills and determination; the secret to securing a good job is to be one of them

According to paragraph 4, graduates should ________________.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

   Smallpox was the first widespread disease to be eliminated by human intervention. Known as a highly contagious viral disease, it broke out in Europe, causing the deaths of millions of people until the vaccination was invented by Edward Jenner around 1800. In many nations, it was a terror, a fatal disease until very recently. Its victims suffer high fever, vomiting and painful, itchy, pustules that left scars. In villages and cities all over the world, people were worried about suffering smallpox.In May, 1966, the World Health Organization (WHO), an agency of the United Nations was authorized to initiate a global campaign to eradicate smallpox. The goal was to eliminate the disease in one decade. At the time, the disease posed a serious threat to people in more than thirty nations. Because similar projects for malaria and yellow fever had failed, few believed that smallpox could actually be eradicated but eleven years after the initial organization of the campaign, no cases were reported in the field.The strategy was not only to provide mass vaccinations but also to isolate patients with active smallpox in order to contain the spread of the disease and to break the chain of human transmission. Rewards for reporting smallpox assisted in motivating the public to aid health workers. One by one, each small-pox victim was sought out, removed from contact with others and treated. At the same time, the entire village where the victim had lived was vaccinated.By April of 1978 WHO officials announced that they had isolated the last known case of the disease but health workers continued to search for new cases for additional years to be completely sure. In May, 1980, a formal statement was made to the global community. Today smallpox is no longer a threat to humanity. Routine vaccinations have been stopped worldwide.

Which of the following is the best title for the passage

Choose the answer  A, B, C or D that best fits the blank space in the following passage:

"The Security Council is the most powerful (1)…..  in the UN. It is responsible for maintaining international peace, and for (2)…. Peace when conflicts arise. Its decisions are binding on all UN members and have the force of international law. The Security Council has the (3)…  to define what is a threat to security, to determine how the UN should respond, and to enforce its decisions by ordering UN members to take certain (4)….. . For example, the Council may impose economic sanctions, such as halting trade with a country it considers an aggressor.
 The Security Council has 15 members, 5 of which hold permanent seats. The General Assembly elects the other 10 members for (5)….. two-year terms. The 5 permanent members - the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia (formerly the Soviet Union), and China - have the most power. These nations were the winning (6)…. at the end of World War II, and they still represent the bulk of the world's military might.
 Decisions of the Council require nine votes. But any one of the permanent members can veto an important decision. This authority is known (7) …. the veto right of the great powers. As a result, the Council is effective only when its permanent members can reach a consensus. Beginning in the 1990s, increased cooperation between the United States and Russia (8) …..the council to become more effective.
 In recent years, there has been growing (9)….. over which countries should have permanent seats on the Council. Some nations believe that other countries besides the original five should be included. For example, Japan and Germany are powerful countries that pay large membership dues and make substantial contributions to the UN, (10)…. they do not have permanent seats. There is no easy solution to this problem."

9.  In recent years, there has been growing (9)….. over which countries should have permanent seats on the Council.

Read the following passage and Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions: 
The Winterthur Museum is a collection and a house. There are many museums devoted to the decorative arts and many house museums, but rarely in the United States is a great collection displayed in a great country house. Passing through successive generations of a single family, Winterthur has been a private estate for more than a century. Even after the extensive renovations made to it between 1929 and 1931, the house remained a family residence. This fact is of importance to the atmosphere and effect of the museum. The impression of a lived-in house is apparent to the visitor: the rooms look as if they were vacated only a short while ago whether by the original owners of the furniture or the most recent residents of the house can be a matter of personal interpretation. Winterthur remains, then, a house in which a collection of furniture and architectural elements has been assembled. Like an English country house, it is an organic structure; the house, as well as the collection and manner of displaying it to the visitor, has changed over the years. The changes have coincided with developing concepts of the American arts, increased knowledge on the part of collectors and students, and a progression toward the achievement of a historical effect in period-room displays. The rooms at Winterthur have followed this current, yet still retained the character of a private house.
The concept of a period room as a display technique has developed gradually over the years in an effort to present works of art in a context that would show them to greater effect and would give them more meaning for the viewer. Comparable to the habitat group in a natural history museum, the period room represents the decorative arts in a lively and interesting manner and provides an opportunity to assemble objects related by style, date, or place of manufacture.

What happened at Winterthur between 1929 and 1931?

Read the passage below and choose one correct answer for each question.

Orbis is an organisation which helps blind people everywhere. It has built an eye hospital inside an aeroplane and flown it all over the world with an international medical team. Samantha Graham, a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl from England, went with the plane to Mongolia. Samantha tells the story of Eukhtuul, a young Mongolian girl. 'Last year, when Eukhtuul was walking home from school, she was attacked by boys with sticks and her eyes were badly damaged.  Dr Duffey, an Orbis doctor, said that without an operation she would never see again. I thought about all the everyday things I do that she couldn't, things like reading schoolbooks, watching television, seeing friends, and I realised how lucky I am.' 'The Orbis team agreed to operate on Eukhtuul and I was allowed to watch, together with some Mongolian medical students. I prayed the operation would be successful. The next day I waited nervously with Eukhtuul while Dr Duffey removed her bandages. "In six months your sight ·will be back to normal, he said.  Eukhtuul smiled, her mother cried, and I had to wipe away some tears, too!" "Now Eukhtuul wants to study hard to become a doctor. Her whole future has changed; thanks to a simple operation. We should all think more about how much our sight means to us."

What is the writer's main purpose in writing this text?

If you are invited to someone’s house in America for dinner, you should bring a gift, such as a bunch of flowers or a box of chocolates. If you give your host a wrapped gift, he/she may open it in front of you. Opening a gift in front of the gift-giver in considered polite. It shows that the host is excited about receiving the gift and wants to show his/her appreciation to you immediately. Even if the host doesn’t like it, he/she will tell “a white lie” and say how much they like the gift to prevent the guest from feeling bad.
If your host asks you to arrive at the particular time, you should not arrive exactly on time or earlier than expected time, because this is considered to be inconvenient and therefore rude, as the host may not be ready.

Opening a gift in front of the gift-giver is considered __________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each blank.

Under the global "health for all" strategy, WHO (the World Health Organization) and its members have placed special emphasis (26) ________ the developing countries. Nevertheless, the benefits of WHO's international health work are benefited by all countries, including the most developed ones. For example, all nations have benefited from their contributions to the WHO programs that led to the global (27) ________ of smallpox and to better and cheaper ways of controlling tuberculosis. (28) ________ is a key word in WHO's programs. The organization believes that immunization, (29) ________ prevents the six major diseases of childhood -diphtheria, measles, poliomyelitis, tetanus, tuberculosis, and whooping cough, should be (30) ________ to all children who need it. WHO is leading a worldwide campaign to provide effective immunization for all children in (31) ________ with UNICEF. Provision of safe drinking water for all is one of the objectives of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1980 and (32) ________ by WHO. WHO is also active in international efforts to combat the diarrheal diseases, killers of infants and young children. The widespread introduction of oral rehydration salts, together with improved drinking water supply and sanitation will greatly reduce childhood mortality from diarrhea.

WHO's program for primary health (33) ________ comprises eight essential elements: education concerning prevalent health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them; promotion of food supply and proper nutrition; maintenance of (34) ________ adequate supply of safe water and basic sanitation; provision of maternal and child health care, including family planning; immunization against the major (35) ________ diseases; prevention and control of locally endemic diseases; appropriate treatment of common diseases and injuries; and provision of essential drugs. These eight elements were defined in the Declaration of Alma-Ata, which emerged from the International Conference, on Primary Health Care in 1978.

(28) ________

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
AN UNWELCOME GUEST
Of the one in seven people in the UK who claim to have seen a ghost, the majority are women. This may be because women have far more association with the spirit world. Women trust their emotions and are generally better able than men to cope with the unexpected.
Housewife Fiona Blair describes herself as very practical and down-to-earth, and never believed in the idea that a house could be haunted. That all changed when she and her family moved into a manor house in the Midlands. Although the surveyor reckoned that the house required a lot of attention and was somewhat damp, they thought it was stunning. They could just afford it and it would be a good investment, so they took the plunge and decided to buy it.
Nonetheless, right from the start, Fiona had a strange sense that they were not alone in the house. One of her teenage daughters had left a towel over the back of a chair in the kitchen. Fiona was in the garden, and when she returned to the house, the towel was over the kitchen table like a tablecloth. On other occasions the family would find that objects such as glasses and vases had been turned upside-down.
This was only the start of the peculiar happenings. A particularly strange incident happened on Fiona's birthday. Fiona's husband, Mark, came home from work and went into the living room. He immediately came rushing out to ask who had bought her the beautiful flowers - but nobody had given Fiona flowers and her daughters had not put the flowers there. It remained a mystery how they had miraculously appeared.
Fiona was curious and decided to find out about the history of the house. What she discovered was rather alarming. Apparently a young girl, servant to a previous generation of owners, had been found dead in peculiar circumstances in the attic. Fiona and her family inevitably began to feel claustrophobic and trapped in the house, and eventually decided that they would have to move.
Unfortunately, things were not as simple as that. Each time they attempted to show the house to potential buyers, Fiona would of course ensure beforehand that everything was neat and tidy in order to make a good impression. But by the time anyone arrived, the entire house would be in a complete mess, and visitors complained of an unpleasant atmosphere. Eventually, after many months, an American couple viewed the house, and decided it had a certain attraction. For some reason, the ghost did not play its usual tricks, and Fiona was able to sell what had been her dream home.
Now living in a spacious modern apartment in London, Fiona wants to forget it all and move on with her life. 'At one point I thought I might be going out of my mind, it was all so frightening. We can almost laugh about it all now, but I hope we never experience anything like that again.

What did the ghost do when they decided to sell the house?

Read the following passage and Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
The brain of the average human weighs approximately 1.4 kilograms and consists of three main parts: the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the brain stem. The cerebrum is by far the largest of the three parts, taking up 85% of the brain by weight. The outside layer of the cerebrum, the cerebral cortex, is a grooved and bumpy surface covering the nerve cells beneath. The various sections of the cerebrum are the sensory cortex, which is responsible for receiving and decoding sensory messages from throughout the body: the motor cortex, which sends action instructions to the skeletal muscles: and the association cortex, which receives, monitor and processes information. It is in the association cortex that the processes that allow humans to think take place. The cerebellum, located below the cerebrum in the back part of the skull, the section of the brain that controls balance and posture. The brain stem connects the cerebrum and the spinal cord. It control various body processes such as breathing and heartbeat.

Which of the following is true about the cerebellum?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

   Although speech is the most advanced form of communication, there are many ways of communicating without using speech. Signals, signs, symbols, and gestures may be found in every known culture. The basic function of signal is to impinge upon the environment in such a way that it attracts attention, as, for example, the dots and dashes of a telegraph circuit. Coded to refer to speech, the potential for communication is very great. Less adaptable to the codification of words, signs also contain meaning in and of themselves. A stop sign or a barber pole conveys meaning quickly and conveniently.

   Symbols are more difficult to describe than either signals or signs because of their intricate relationship with the receiver’s cultural perceptions. In some cultures, applauding in a theater provides performers with an auditory symbol of approval. Gestures such as waving and handshaking also communicate certain cultural messages.

   Although signals, signs, symbols, and gestures are very useful, they do have a major disadvantage in communication. They usually do not allow ideas to be shared without the sender being directly adjacent to the receiver. Without an exchange of ideas, interaction comes to a halt. As a result, means of communication intended to be used for long distances and extended periods must be based upon speech. To radio, television, and the telephone, one must add fax, paging systems, electronic mail, and the Internet, and no one doubts but that there are more means of communication on the horizon.

Applauding was cited as an example of ____________

Read the following passage and Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions: 
The Winterthur Museum is a collection and a house. There are many museums devoted to the decorative arts and many house museums, but rarely in the United States is a great collection displayed in a great country house. Passing through successive generations of a single family, Winterthur has been a private estate for more than a century. Even after the extensive renovations made to it between 1929 and 1931, the house remained a family residence. This fact is of importance to the atmosphere and effect of the museum. The impression of a lived-in house is apparent to the visitor: the rooms look as if they were vacated only a short while ago whether by the original owners of the furniture or the most recent residents of the house can be a matter of personal interpretation. Winterthur remains, then, a house in which a collection of furniture and architectural elements has been assembled. Like an English country house, it is an organic structure; the house, as well as the collection and manner of displaying it to the visitor, has changed over the years. The changes have coincided with developing concepts of the American arts, increased knowledge on the part of collectors and students, and a progression toward the achievement of a historical effect in period-room displays. The rooms at Winterthur have followed this current, yet still retained the character of a private house.
The concept of a period room as a display technique has developed gradually over the years in an effort to present works of art in a context that would show them to greater effect and would give them more meaning for the viewer. Comparable to the habitat group in a natural history museum, the period room represents the decorative arts in a lively and interesting manner and provides an opportunity to assemble objects related by style, date, or place of manufacture.

The phrase "devoted to" in line 1 is closest in meaning to..................

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 31 to 35.
Beatrix Potter was a story writer whose books about animals have been translated into many languages and read by both children and adults. (31)_________being an author, she was also regarded as a very successful farmer. Born in London in 1866, Beatrix was (32)_________for at home by various servants. Every year she (33)_________the days to her annual holiday in the countryside. She would take to her London home small animals which she (34)_________and drew. As she grew up, she entertained other children with drawings and stories about these animals. In 1901, she printed a book at her own (35)_________called 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit'. So many copies were sold that she bought a farm, where over the next eight years she wrote many other stories. They all sold very well and readers liked their detailed color drawings.
(32).......................

Traditionally, Americans and Asians have very(20) _____ideas about love and marriage. Americans believe in ‘romantic’ marriage – a boy and a girl are(21) ____ to each other, fall in love, and decide to marry each other. Asians, on the other hand, believe in contractual marriage – the parents of the bride and the groom decide on the marriage; and love – if it ever develops – is supposed to follow(22) _____, not precede it.
To show the differences, a (23)______was conducted among American, Chinese and Indian students to determine their attitudes (24)_____ love and marriage.
(23)...........................

There is a strange paradox to the success of the Asian education model. On the one hand, class sizes are huge by Western standards with between 30 and 40 students per class, in countries like Japan and Korea. On the other hand, school children in developed Asian economies rank among the highest in the world for academic achievement in the areas of science and mathematics, especially on standardised tests. Meanwhile, British secondary school students fail to shine in conditions most educational researchers would say are far more likely to help them succeed.
Classroom management seems to be easier in places like Korea, and perhaps lessons are more effective as a direct consequence. After all, we are only too aware of the decline in discipline standards in our own school: belligerent and disrespectful students appear to be the norm these days. Teachers in Britain seem powerless to control what happens anymore. Surely this situation cannot create a very effective learning environment, so perhaps the number of students is far less relevant than is the manner in which they conduct themselves.
But there are other factors to consider, too. There is the home environment. The traditional family unit still remains relatively intact in Korea. Few children come from broken homes, so there is a sense of security, safety and trust both at home and at school. In Britain meanwhile, one in every two marriages fails and divorce rates are sky high. Perhaps children struggle to cope with unstable family conditions and their only way to express their frustration is by misbehaving at school.
But while the Japanese, Korean and Asian models generally do seem to produce excellent results, the statistics don’t tell the whole truth. You see, behind those great maths and science scores, there is a quite remarkable work ethic. Asian students tend to put their education before literally everything else. They do very few extracurricular activities and devote far more time to their studies than their British peers.
There has been a lot of attention and praise given to these Asian models and their “impressive” statistics of late. And without question, some of this praise is justified, but it seems to be a case of two extremes in operation here. At one end, there is the discipline and unbelievably hard work ethic of the Asian students – success in education before all else. At the other end, British students at times appear careless and extremely undisciplined by comparison, but at least they Do have the free time to enjoy their youth and explore their interests. Is either system better outright? Or is it perhaps about time we stopped comparing and started trying to combine the best bits of both, so that we can finally offer our students a balanced, worthwhile education

What can be implied from the writer’s opinion of the two educational systems discussed?