Choose the letter A, B, C or D to answer these following questions:
Alligators have always been the most dangerous predators of the Florida Everglades, but their long-held position is now being challenged by a growing population of Burmese pythons.
The Burmese python, a giant snake measuring up to 20 feet long and weighing up to 200 pounds, is very popular among exotic pet owners. However, as the dead snakes grow, they become more difficult to cage and handle. To avoid dealing with the snakes, the owners irresponsibly release them into the wild. Since the Everglades is quietly similar to the python's native environment of Southeast Asia, they survive and prosper without difficulty.
The issue with the Burmese pythons is their choice of meals. They eat alligators and endangered birds, which creates strain on an already fragile ecosystem. Recently a 13-foot long Burmese python was found with a 5-foot alligator bursting from its stomach. The python died tried to eat the alligator but a larger one would have easily won the struggle. With over 30,000 Burmese pythons now living over the Everglades, a solution to stop this invasive species is necessary. If the pythons are left unchecked, there is a strong possibility they will wipe out a variety of species needed for the functioning of the Everglades ecosystem.

How many Burmese pythons are there in the Everglades?

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

   Since China adopted its open-door (1) _____ approximately twenty-five years ago, Chinese higher education has begun once again to draw closer to the (2) _____ Western world. China's (3) _____ to send scholars and students to the United States at the end of the 1970s, after thirty years of hostility between the two countries, marked a dramatic turning (4) _____ in the nation's educational history. Today, about 50,000 Chinese students, are studying in the United States, accounting (5)_____ 10 percent of the total international students in the country.

(5).................

The Sun today is a yellow dwarf star. It is fueled by thermonuclear reactions near its center that convert hydrogen to helium. The Sun has existed in its present state for about four billion six hundred million years and is thousands of times larger than the Earth.
By studying other stars, astronomers can predict what the rest of the Sun's life will be like.
About five billion years from now, the core of the Sun will shrink and become hotter. The surface temperature will fall. The higher temperature of the center will increase the rate of thermonuclear reactions. The outer regions of the Sun will expand approximately 35 million miles, about the distance to Mercury, which is the closest planet to the Sun. The Sun will then be a red giant star. Temperatures on the Earth will become too high for life to exist.
Once the Sun has used up its thermonuclear energy as a red giant, it will begin to shrink. After it shrinks to the size of the Earth, it will become a white dwarf star. The Sun may throw off huge amounts of gases in violent eruptions called nova explosions as it changes from a red giant to a white dwarf.
After billions of years as a white dwarf, the Sun will have used up all its fuel and will have lost its heat. Such a star is called a black dwarf. After the Sun has become a black dwarf, the Earth will be dark and cold. If any atmosphere remains there, it will have frozen over the Earth’s surface.

This passage is intended to ..................

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. 
     How might volunteering contribute to lower blood pressure? Performing volunteer work could increase physical activity among people who aren’t otherwise very active, says lead study author Rodlescia Sneed, a doctoral candidate in social and health psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. It may also reduce stress. “Many people find volunteer work to be helpful with respect to stress reduction, and we know that stress is very strongly linked to health outcomes,” she says.
     As with any activity thought to improve health, researchers are trying to identify the specific characteristics of volunteering that provide the greatest benefit. For example, how much time would you need to put into volunteer work to lower your blood pressure or live longer? In the Carnegie Mellon study, 200 hours of volunteering per year correlated to lower blood pressure. Other studies have found a health benefit from as little as 100 hours of volunteering a year. Which types of volunteer activities improve health the most? No one really knows. Sneed speculates that mentally stimulating activities, like tutoring or reading, might be helpful for maintaining memory and thinking skills, while “activities that promote physical activity would be helpful with respect to cardiovascular health, but no studies have really explored this.”
     One key for deriving health benefits from volunteering is to do it for the right reasons. A 2012 study in the journal Health Psychology found that participants who volunteered with some regularity lived longer, but only if their intentions were truly altruistic. In other words, they had to be volunteering to help others—not to make themselves feel better.
      The Greek philosopher Aristotle once surmised that the essence of life is “To serve others and do good.” If recent research is any indication, serving others might also be the essence of good health.

According to paragraph 2, what information about volunteer has NOT been supported by researches?.

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

An endangered species is an animal or plant that's considered at …..(1)… of extinction. A species can be listed as endangered at the state, federal, and international level. On the federal level, the endangered species list is managed …..(2)…. the Endangered Species Act.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was ….. (3)…. by Congress in 1973. Under the ESA, the federal government has the responsibility to protect endangered species (species that are likely to become extinct throughout all or a large portion of their range), threatened species (species that are likely to become endangered in the near future), and critical habitat (areas vital to the survival of endangered or threatened species).

The Endangered Species Act has lists of protected plant and animal species….(4)….. nationally and worldwide. When a species is given ESA protection, it is said to be a "listed" species. Many additional species are evaluated for possible protection under the ESA, and they …..(5)…called “candidate” species.

(1) ..............

Chọn từ thích hợp điền vào chỗ trống:

THE THREAT TO THE ENVIRONMENT

Nowadays people are more aware that wildlife all over the world is in danger. Many (1)________of animals are threatened, and could easily become (2)______ if we do not make an effort to protect them. There are many (3)_______ for this. In some cases, animals are hunted for their fur or for othervaluable parts of their bodies. Some birds, such as parrots, are caught (4)________and sold as pets. For many animals and birds, the problem is that their habitat - the (5)________where they live - is disappearing. More (6)________is used for farms, for houses or industry, and there are fewer open (7)________than there once were. Farmers use powerful chemicals to help them grow better (8)________, but these chemicals pollute the environment and (9)________wildlife. The most successful animals on earth - human beings - will soon be the only Ones left, unless we can (10)________this problem.

(9)________

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
The poaching crisis wiping out Africa's elephants is costing the continent's economies millions in lost tourism revenue, according to a new study. Researchers looked at visitor and elephant data across 25 countries, and modeled financial losses from fewer visitors in protected areas due to the illegal wildlife trade, which has caused elephant numbers to plummet by more than 100,000 in the last decade. (A)
The study team combined visitor numbers across 164 protected areas in 25 countries in forest and savannah elephants, and elephant population data from 2009 to 2013, to reach a “per elephant" value in terms of tourism income.
They concluded that Africa was most likely losing $26m in tourism revenue a year. (B) Around $9m of that is lost from tourists' direct spending, such as staying at hotels and buying crafts, with the rest through indirect value in the economy such as farmers and other suppliers supporting the tourist industry. 
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, found that in most cases the revenue losses were higher than paying for stronger anti-poaching measures to keep elephant populations stable. (C) Dr. Robin Naidoo, the paper's lead author and , senior conservation wildlife scientist at WWF and his team found. In the case of central Africa's forest elephants, which are harder for tourists to see and therefore attract fewer visitors, the costs of protecting them exceed the benefits from tourism. Demand from south-east Asia has seen the price of ivory triple since 2009 and it is estimated that one elephant is killed every 15 minutes. (D) Corruption, a lack of resources, and, most importantly, increasingly sophisticated poachers have hamstrung African countries' efforts to stem the trade.
Naidoo said that the research was not suggesting economic issues should be the only consideration when protecting elephants, but framing the poaching crisis as a financial one could motivate African governments and communities.
“It gives an additional reason for some groups of people, who may not necessarily be motivated by intrinsic reasons for conversation, to engage with biodiversity conservation. It makes it clear to them that it's not just in the best interests of the world to conserve this stuff, but tangible reasons for a whole different group," he said.

Which of the positions marked in the passage does the phrase "but the financial argument did not stack up in all areas,” best fit?

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.
Engineers have dreaming of an underwater link between Britain and France (35)_____1802. Finally in 1994 the Channel Tunnel ( nicknamed "The Chunnel" by the English) was (36)______ opened.
This fifteen billion dollar project took seven years to (37)_____. It is about 50 km long and built 45metres under the seabed .The trains which go through the Chunnel can travel at up 300 km/h due to the (38)_______electrical system.
The journey from London to Paris via the Chunnel takes just three hours. It is also (39)______ for drivers since they can load their cars onto the trains. They don't need to book in (40)______ , as trains (41)_______every few minutes. However, while on the train, there isn't much to do and many (42)_________ the Chunnel for this (43)________ the ferries , there is no duty-free shopping , no videogame parlou or refreshment stand (44)________can you look outside and enjoy the view . As a result, many would find the Chunnel unappealing and would take the ferry instead.
(40).......................................... 

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

"Yong Liang, two years old, is the first giant panda raised from birth in the zoo. Last month zoo keepers found the panda was suffering from serious anemia, calling for urgent blood transfusion.
 The best way, according to the zoo’s experts, to save Yong Liang from anemia would have been to transfuse blood from another panda. But it was the breeding season for giant pandas, making such a transfusion very difficult.
 But the experts found that there exists a close consanguinity, relationship by birth in the same family, between giant pandas and black bears, so they decided to try to take blood from black bears in the zoo and transfuse it to Yong Liang.
 With the help of hospitals and the Beijing Blood Donor Station, they made an experiment which proved that the red blood cells in the blood of black bears can be used.
 On the afternoon of February 15th, the first red blood cell transfusion was given to the giant panda, from 600 ml of black bear blood. Immediately the young panda started to recover."

3. The word “transfusion” would probably mean …….

Choose the best answer to complete the passage.

Most people (1) ____ learning with formal education at school, college, university etc. We are all told, from an early age, that we should get a good education'. Generally speaking, it is true that a formal education and the resulting qualifications are important. Education may (2) ____ our potential to find better, more satisfying jobs, earn more and perhaps, become more successful in our chosen career.

However, 'schooling' is only one type of learning. There are many other opportunities to further your (3) ____ and develop the skills you need throughout life. Knowledge can be acquired and skill sets developed anywhere - learning is unavoidable and happens all the (4) ____. However, lifelong learning is about creating and maintaining a positive attitude to learning both for personal and professional development.

Lifelong learners are self-motivated to learn and develop because they want to. (5) ____ learning can enhance our understanding of the world around us, provide us with more and better opportunities and improve our quality of life. People learn for personal development and for professional (6) ____. There are many reasons why people learn for personal development. You may want to increase your knowledge or (7) ____ around a particular hobby or pastime that you enjoy. Perhaps you want to develop some entirely new skill that will in some way enhance your life – take a pottery (8) ____ car mechanic course for example. Perhaps you want to research a medical condition or your ancestry.

If you do find yourself unemployed, then use the time wisely. Learning something new can pay off with new opportunities which might not otherwise have (9) ____. While you are employed, take advantage of training, coaching or mentoring opportunities and work on your continuous professional development as you will likely (10) ____ better at what you do and more indispensable to your current or future employer.

(10) ____

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 reason women appear to be at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than men might be due to a number of genetic, anatomical and even social influences, researchers have suggested.
      Recent figures show about 65% of those with living with dementia in the UK are women, with a similar statistic seen in the US for Alzheimer’s disease, while dementia is the leading cause of death for women in England. Alzheimer’s disease is only one of the types of dementia, but the most common form. While one explanation is that dementia risk increases with age, and women have longer life expectancies than men, new research suggests there might be more to the matter, including that protein tangles found within neurons and linked to Alzheimer’s disease might spread differently in women’s brains than men’s.
      The study, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Los Angeles by researchers from Vanderbilt University and which has not yet been peer-reviewed, used scans from a method called positron emission tomography. That allowed them to look at the way clumps of a protein called tau were spread in the brains of 123 men and 178 women without cognitive problems, as well as 101 men and 60 women with mild cognitive problems – although not yet diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Cognitively normal older people often have small amounts of tau in certain areas of their brain.
      From the data the team could build maps showing which areas of the brain show similar signals relating to tau in the scans, suggesting they are somehow connected. “Based on that we kind of try to reconstruct the pattern of spread,” Dr Sepideh Shokouhi, who is presenting the research, told the Guardian. “It is kind of like reconstructing a crime scene.” The team says the results suggest these maps look different in women and men, suggesting tau might be able to spread more rapidly across the female brain.
     Other research presented at the conference – and also not yet peer reviewed – added weight to the idea that there might be differences between men and women that affect dementia risk. Research by scientists at the University of Miami has revealed a handful of genes and genetic variants appear to be linked to Alzheimer’s disease in just one biological sex or the other. While the actual importance of these factors has yet to be unpicked, and the study only looked at white participants, the team says it underscores that there could be a genetic reason for differences in the risk of dementia in men and women, and the way it develops.

The word “revealed” in the last paragraph could be best replaced by __________.

Reading to oneself is a modern activity which was almost unknown to the scholars of the classical and medieval worlds, while during the fifteenth century the term "reading" undoubtedly meant reading aloud. Only during thenineleenthcenturydid silent reading become commonplace.
One should be wary, however, of assuming that silent reading came about simply because reading aloud was a distraction to others. Examinations of factors related to the historical development of silent reading have revealed that it became the usual mode  of reading for most adults mainly because the tasks themselves changed in character.
The last century saw a steady gradual increase in literacy and thus in the number of readers. As the number of readers increased, the number of potential listeners declined and thus there was some reduction in the need to read aloud. As reading for the benefit of listeners grew less common, so came the flourishing of reading as a private activity in such public places as libraries, railway carriages and offices, where reading aloud would cause distraction to other readers.
Towards the end of the century, there was still considerable argument over whether books should be used for information or treated respectfully and over whether the reading of  materials such as newspapers was in some way mentally weakening. Indeed, this argument remains with us still in education. However, whatever its virtues, the old shared literacy  culture had gone and was replaced by the printed mass media on the one hand and by books and periodicals for a specialised readership on the other.
By the end of the twentieth century, students were being recommended to adopt attitudes to books and to use reading skills which were inappropriate, if not impossible, for the oral reader. The social, cultural and technological changes in the century had greatly altered what the term "reading" implied.

The development of silent reading during the last century indicated..........................

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

Successful students often do the following while studying. First, they have an overview before reading. Next, they look for important information and pay greater attention to it (which often needs jumping forward or backward to process information). They also relate important points to one another. Also, they activate and use their prior knowledge. When they realize that their understanding is not good, they do not wait to change strategies. Last, they can monitor understanding and take action to correct or "fix up" mistakes in comprehension.

Conversely students with low academic achievement often demonstrate ineffective study skills. They tend to assume a passive role in learning and rely on others (eg, teachers, parents) to monitor their studying, for example, low achieving students often do not monitor their understanding of content they may not be aware of the purpose of studying, and they show little evidence of looking back, or employing "fix-up strategies to fix understanding problems.

Students who struggle with learning new information seem to be unaware that they must extent effort beyond simply reading the content to understand and remember it. Children with learning disabilities do not plan and judge the quality of their studying. Their studying may be disorganized. Students with learning problems face challenges with personal organization as well. They often have difficulty keeping track of materials and assignments, following directions, and completing work on time. Unlike good studiers who employ a variety of study skills in a flexible yet purposeful manner, low-achieving students use a restricted range of study skills. They cannot explain why good study strategies are important for learning, and they tend to use the same, often ineffective study approach for all learning tasks, ignoring task content, structure or difficulty.

According to the passage, what can be learnt about passive students?

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

   Since China adopted its open-door (1) _____ approximately twenty-five years ago, Chinese higher education has begun once again to draw closer to the (2) _____ Western world. China's (3) _____ to send scholars and students to the United States at the end of the 1970s, after thirty years of hostility between the two countries, marked a dramatic turning (4) _____ in the nation's educational history. Today, about 50,000 Chinese students, are studying in the United States, accounting (5)_____ 10 percent of the total international students in the country.

(4).................

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

"Yong Liang, two years old, is the first giant panda raised from birth in the zoo. Last month zoo keepers found the panda was suffering from serious anemia, calling for urgent blood transfusion.
 The best way, according to the zoo’s experts, to save Yong Liang from anemia would have been to transfuse blood from another panda. But it was the breeding season for giant pandas, making such a transfusion very difficult.
 But the experts found that there exists a close consanguinity, relationship by birth in the same family, between giant pandas and black bears, so they decided to try to take blood from black bears in the zoo and transfuse it to Yong Liang.
 With the help of hospitals and the Beijing Blood Donor Station, they made an experiment which proved that the red blood cells in the blood of black bears can be used.
 On the afternoon of February 15th, the first red blood cell transfusion was given to the giant panda, from 600 ml of black bear blood. Immediately the young panda started to recover."

4.  Anemia is a disease caused by the shortage of ……..

Very few people in the modern world obtain their food supply by hunting and gathering in the natural environment surrounding their homes. This method of harvesting from nature’s provision is the oldest known subsistence strategy and has been practised for at least the last two million years. It was, indeed, the only way to obtain food until rudimentary farming and the domestication of wild animals were introduced about 10,000 years ago.
Because hunter-gatherers have fared poorly in comparison with their agricultural cousins, their numbers have dwindled, and they have been forced to live in marginal environments, such as deserts and arctic wastelands. In higher latitudes, the shorter growing seasons have restricted the availability of plant life. Such conditions have caused a greater dependence on hunting, and on fishing along the coasts and waterways. The abundance of vegetation in the lower latitudes of the tropics, on the other hand, has provided a greater opportunity for gathering a variety of plants. In short, the environmental differences have restricted the diet and have limited possibilities for the development of subsistence societies.
Contemporary hunter-gatherers may help us understand our prehistoric ancestors. We know from the observation of modern hunter-gatherers in both Africa and Alaska that a society based on hunting and gathering must be very mobile. While the entire community camps in a central location, a smaller party harvests the food within a reasonable distancefrom the camp. When the food in the area has become exhausted, the community moves on to exploit another site. We also notice seasonal migration patterns evolving for most hunter-gatherers, along with a strict division of labor between the sexes. These patterns of behavior may be similar to those practised by mankind during the Paleolithic Period.

In the lower latitudes of the tropics, hunter-gatherers ...............

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. 
        I was an MBA student in the USA and I lived in the university’s coed dormitory. In my culture, usually, if a woman talks to a man, it is a sign of romantic interest. (23)_______, in the first few days of school, I found it strange that so many women were talking to me and I was under the impression that some women on my dormitory floor were interested in me. To (24) _____ their politeness, I would buy them flowers or offer small gifts, as is done in my country. However, I was quite surprised to see that these same women now seemed (25) _______ around me. One was even quite offended and told me to leave her alone. Eventually I talked to the residence adviser on my floor to see what I was doing wrong, and he explained to me the way men and women usually interact in the USA. I was quite relieved to hear that (26) _____ was wrong with me, but rather with the way I was interpreting my conversations with women. Even though I did not find the love of my life while I was in the USA, I still made many good female friends afterwards (27) _______I still maintain contact.

To (24) _____ their politeness, I would buy them flowers or offer small gifts, as is done in my country.

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: 
There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away. The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall. When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.
The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said no – it was covered with green buds and full of promise. The third son disagreed, he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen. The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfilment.
The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but one season in the tree’s life. He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are – and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life – can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up. If you give up when it’s winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfilment of your fall.
Don’t judge a life by one difficult season. Don’t let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.Which best serves as the title for the passage?

Read the following passage and choose among A, B, C or D the correct answer to each of the questions.

In my experience, freshmen today are different from those I knew when I started as a counselor and professor 25 years ago. College has always been demanding both academically and socially. But students now are less mature and often not ready for the responsibility of being in college.

It is really too easy to point the finger at parents who protect their children from life's obstacle. Parents, who handle every difficulty and every other responsibility for their children writing admission essays to picking college courses, certainly may contribute to their children's lack of coping strategies. But we can look even more broadly to the social trends of today.

How many people do you know who are on medication to prevent anxiety or depression? The number of students who arrive at college already medicated for unwanted emotions has increased dramatically in the past 10 years. We, as a society, don't want to "feel" anything unpleasant and we certainly don't want our children to "suffer".

The resulting problem is that by not experiencing negative emotions, one does not learn the necessary skills to tolerate and negotiate adversity. As a psychologist, I am well aware of the fact that some individuals suffer from depression and anxiety and can benefit from treatment, but I question the growing number of medicated adolescents today.

Our world is more stressful in general because of the current economic and political realities, but I don't believe that the college experience itself is more intense today than that of the past 10 years. What I do think is that many students are often not prepared to be young "adults" with all the responsibilities of life.

What does this mean for college faculty and staff? We are required to assist in the basic parenting of these students - the student who complains that the professor didn't remind her of the due date for an assignment that was clearly listed on the syllabus and the student who cheats on an assignment in spite of careful instructions about plagiarism.

As college professors, we have to explain what it means to be an independent college student before we can even begin to teach. As parents and teachers we should expect young people to meet challenges. To encourage them in this direction, we have to step back and let them fail and pick themselves up and move forward. This approach needs to begin at an early age so that college can actually be a passage to independent adulthood.

The phrase "on medication" in paragraph 3 is similar in meaning to ____.

The Sun today is a yellow dwarf star. It is fueled by thermonuclear reactions near its center that convert hydrogen to helium. The Sun has existed in its present state for about four billion six hundred million years and is thousands of times larger than the Earth.
By studying other stars, astronomers can predict what the rest of the Sun's life will be like.
About five billion years from now, the core of the Sun will shrink and become hotter. The surface temperature will fall. The higher temperature of the center will increase the rate of thermonuclear reactions. The outer regions of the Sun will expand approximately 35 million miles, about the distance to Mercury, which is the closest planet to the Sun. The Sun will then be a red giant star. Temperatures on the Earth will become too high for life to exist.
Once the Sun has used up its thermonuclear energy as a red giant, it will begin to shrink. After it shrinks to the size of the Earth, it will become a white dwarf star. The Sun may throw off huge amounts of gases in violent eruptions called nova explosions as it changes from a red giant to a white dwarf.
After billions of years as a white dwarf, the Sun will have used up all its fuel and will have lost its heat. Such a star is called a black dwarf. After the Sun has become a black dwarf, the Earth will be dark and cold. If any atmosphere remains there, it will have frozen over the Earth’s surface.

The passage has probably been taken from ..................

Read the passage below and decide whether the statements are TRUE or FALSE?

   According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities, more than 30 of the highest-ranked 45 institutions are in the United States, as measured by awards and research output. Public universities, private universities, liberal arts colleges, and community colleges all have a significant role in higher education in the United States. An even stronger pattern is shown by the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities with 103 US universities in the World's Top 200 universities.

   The 2006 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau found that 19.5 percent of the population had attended college but had no degree, 7.4 percent held an associate's degree, 17.1 percent held a bachelor's degree, and 9.9 percent held a graduate or professional degree.

   Educational attainment in the United States is similar to that of other developed countries. Colleges and universities in the U.S. vary in terms of goals: some may emphasize a vocational, business, engineering, or technical curriculum while others may emphasize a liberal arts curriculum. Many combine some or all of the above. Students can apply to some colleges using the Common Application. There is no limit to the number of colleges or universities to which a student may apply, though an application must be submitted for each.'

20 percent of the population had attended college but had no degree