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

It is often said that books are always good friends … (1)… reading is an active mental process. … (2)… TV, books make you use your brain. By reading, you think more and become smarter. Reading improves concentration and focus. Reading books takes brain power. It requires you to focus … (3)… what you are reading for long periods. Unlike magazines, Internet posts or e-Mails that might contain small …(4)… of information. Books tell the whole story". Since you must concentrate in order to read, you will get better at concentration. Many studies show if you do not use your memory; you lose it. Reading helps you …(5)… your memory muscles. Reading requires remembering details, facts and figures and in literature, plot lines, themes and characters.

(3)............................

Read the following pasage and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each space from 1 to 5.
With job vacancies available all year round offering high salaries, Vietnam has been ranked the second best place in the world to teach English by TEFL Exchange, a community for teachers of English           (1)_________ a foreign language.
The site (2)_________ that a foreign English teacher can earn between $1,200-2,200 a month in Vietnam, where the average annual income in 2016 was just $2,200. They can (3)_________ a job any time of year and the best places to do so are the country’s three largest cities: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.
Candidates only need to hold a bachelor’s (4)_________ and a TEFL  (Teaching  English as a Foreign Language) certificate.
English is an obligatory subject from sixth grade across Vietnam, but in large cities, many primary schools demand high (5)_________ . Foreign language centers have been thriving here, with students as young as three years old.
(3)...................

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.

Machines already perform a lot of tasks that were usually done by humans, such as building cars, doing complex calculations, and even marking exam papers. But now it seems that ever more intelligent machines are straying into areas where we never envisaged they would go. We have always taken pride in having a unique kind of intelligence that machines could never match, one which allows us to think of new ideas and produce creative and artistic works. But it seems that even here, computers are lining up to compete with us.

Machines can easily be trained to do the physical work of producing art. About ten years ago, a painting robot known as e-David was created at a university in Germany. And recently in New York, the painting ‘Portrait of Edmond de Belamy' has been auctioned for nearly half a million dollars. What made it a bit unusual was that the idea, and the image itself, was produced entirely by a computer. A group of young French artists gave instructions to the computer, aiming simply to show that computers can be creative.

Some artists are now working with computers to produce a new kind of art. Computer-generated works of art are certainly interesting, and make us think about the limits of what machines can and cannot do. But not everyone would accept that they qualify as art. Some enthusiasts would argue they do, and the collectors willing to pay high prices for these works would suggest there is definitely a market for computer art. Others, however, would disagree.

Many 'real' artists would claim that art is an expression of human intelligence and human emotions. More importantly, it is about a desire to communicate with other people. These things, they argue, are part of being human and can never be produced by a machine.

(Adapted from Formula-Exam Trainer)

According to paragraph 2, the painting Portrait of Edmond de Belamy ______.

Course numbers are an indication of which courses are to various categories of students at the University. Undergraduate courses with the numbers 100 or 200 are generally introductory courses appropriate for freshmen or sophomores, whereas courses with the numbers 300 or 400 often have prerequisites and are often to juniors and seniors only. Courses with the numbers 800 or above are open only to graduate students. Certain graduate courses, generally those devoted to introductory material, are numbered 400 for undergraduate students who qualify to take them and 600 for graduate students. Courses designed for students seeking a professional degree carry a 500 number for undergraduate students and a 700 number for graduate students. Courses numbered 99 or below are special interest courses that do not carry academic credit. If students elect to take a special interest course, it will not count toward the number of hours needed to complete graduation requirements.
Full - time undergraduate student is expected to take courses that total twelve to eighteen credit hours. A full-time graduate student is expected to take courses that total ten to sixteen credit hours. Student holding assistantships are expected to enroll for proportionately fewer hours. A part - time graduate may register for minimum of three credit hours. An overload, that is, more than the maximum number of hours, may be taken with the approval of an academic advisor. To register for an overload, students must submit the appropriate approval form when registering. Overloads above 24 hours will not be approved under any circumstances.

The word "categories" in paragraph 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 answer to each of the questions.

   The countryside of Britain is well known for its beauty and many contrasts: its bare mountains and moorland, its lakes, rivers and woods, and its long, often wild coastline. Many of the most beautiful areas are national parks and are protected from development. When British people think of the countryside they think of farmland, as well as open spaces. They imagine cows or sheep in green fields enclosed by hedges or stone walls, and fields of wheat and barley. Most farmland is privately owned but is crossed by a network of public footpaths.

   Many people associate the countryside with peace and relaxation. They spend their free time walking or cycling there, or go to the country for a picnic or a pub lunch. In summer people go to fruit farms and pick strawberries and other fruit. Only a few people who live in the country work on farms. Many commute to work in towns. Many others dream of living in the country, where they believe they would have a better and healthier lifestyle.

   The countryside faces many threats. Some are associated with modern farming practices, and the use of chemicals harmful to plants and wildlife. Land is also needed for new houses. The green belt, an area of land around many cities, is under increasing pressure. Plans to build new roads are strongly opposed by organizations trying to protect the countryside. Protesters set up camps to prevent, or at least delay, the building work.

   America has many areas of wild and beautiful scenery, and there are many areas, especially in the West in states like Montana and Wyoming, where few people live. In the New England states, such as Vermont and New Hampshire, it is common to see small farms surrounded by hills and green areas. In Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and other Midwestern states, fields of corn or wheat reach to the horizon and there are many miles between towns.

   Only about 20% of Americans live outside cities and towns. Life may be difficult for people who live in the country. Services like hospitals and schools may be further away and going shopping can mean driving long distances. Some people even have to drive from their homes to the main road where their mail is left in a box. In spite of the disadvantages, many people who live in the country say that they like the safe, clean, attractive environment. But their children often move to a town or city as soon as they can.

   As in Britain, Americans like to go out to the country at weekends. Some people go on camping or fishing trips, others go hiking in national parks.

What does the word “they” in paragraph 2 refer to?

Read the passage carefully, then choose the correct answer. 
A higher reading rate, with no loss of comprehension, will help you in other subjects as well as in English, and, the general principles apply to any language. Naturally, you will not read every book at the same speed. You would expect to read a newspaper, for example, much. more rapidly than physics or economics textbook — but you tan raise your average reading speed over the whole range of materials you wish to cover so that the percentage gained will be the same whatever kind of reading you are concerned with. 
The reading passages which follow are all of an average level of difficulty for your stage of instruction. They are all about five hundred words long. They are about topics of general interest which do not require a great deal of specialized knowledge. Thus they fall between the kind of reading you might find in your textbooks and the much less demanding kind you will find in a newspaper or light novel. If you read this kind of English, with understanding at four hundred words per minute, you might skim through a newspaper at perhaps 650 - 700 words per minute while with a difficult textbook you might drop to two hundred or two hundred and fifty. Perhaps you would like to know what reading speeds is common among native English-speaking university students and how those speeds can be improved. Tests in Minnesota, USA, for example, have shown that students without special training can read English of average difficulty, for example, Tolstoy's War and Peace in translation, at speed of between 240 and 250 words per minute with about seventy percent comprehension. Students in Minnesota claim that after twelve-half-hour lessons, once a week, the reading speed can be increased, with no loss of comprehension, to around five hundred words per minute.

______ book Jubilee, which was based on the life of their great-grand-mother, Margaret Walker was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Course numbers are an indication of which courses are to various categories of students at the University. Undergraduate courses with the numbers 100 or 200 are generally introductory courses appropriate for freshmen or sophomores, whereas courses with the numbers 300 or 400 often have prerequisites and are often to juniors and seniors only. Courses with the numbers 800 or above are open only to graduate students. ​Certain graduate courses, generally those devoted to introductory material, are numbered 400 for undergraduate students who qualify to take them and 600 for graduate students. Courses designed for students seeking a professional degree carry a 500 number for undergraduate students and a 700 number for graduate students. Courses numbered 99 or below are special interest courses that do not carry academic credit. If students elect to take a special interest course, it will not count toward the number of hours needed to complete graduation requirements.
Full - time undergraduate student is expected to take courses that total twelve to eighteen credit hours. A full-time graduate student is expected to take courses that total ten to sixteen credit hours. Student holding assistantships are expected to enroll for proportionately fewer hours. A part - time graduate may register for minimum of three credit hours. An overload, that is, more than the maximum number of hours, may be taken with the approval of an academic advisor. To register for an overload, students must submit the appropriate approval form when registering. Overloads above 24 hours will not be approved under any circumstances.

Which classification of students would be eligible to enroll in Mechanical Engineering 850?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.

A scientist said robots will be more intelligent than humans by 2029. The scientist's name is Ray Kurzweil. He works for Google as Director of Engineering. He is one of the world's (1)______ experts on artificial intelligence (A.I.). Mr Kurzweil believes computers will be able to learn from experiences, just like humans. He also thinks they will be able to tell jokes and stories, and even flirt. Kurzweil's 2029 prediction is (2)______ sooner than many people thought. The scientist said that in 1999, many A.I. experts said it would be hundreds of years before a computer was more intelligent than a human. He said that it would not be long before computer intelligence is one billion times more powerful than the human brain.

Mr Kurzweil joked that many years ago, people thought he was a little crazy (3)______ predicting computers would be as intelligent as humans. His thinking has (4)______ the same but everyone else has changed the way they think. He said: "My views are not radical any more. I've actually stayed consistent. It's the (5)______ of the world that's changing its view." He highlighted examples of high-tech things we use, see or read about every day. These things make us believe that computers have intelligence. He said people think differently now: "Because the public has seen things like Siri [the iPhone's voice-recognition technology] where you talk to a computer; they've seen the Google self-driving cars."

(4) ______

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. 
      Sixty percent of working Americans today say they’ve left a job, or considered leaving a job, because they didn’t like their direct supervisor, according to a survey from human resource consulting firm Randstad US. Though leaving a job may seem like the best solution for retiring a bad boss, that doesn’t mean that it’s always the best plan for your career. In fact, if you’re in a situation where you love your job and the opportunities it presents, then leaving your role because of a difficult boss may not be the best idea. Pollak and Monster.com career expert Vicki Salemi broke down three ways you can deal with a bad boss without quitting a job you love. 
      Pollak says that in many cases, a difficult relationship with your boss is often due to differing personalities and habits. One way to mend this relationship, she says, is to closely study your boss’s behavior so that you can meet their expectations. “Become the world’s leading expert on your boss or your manager,” says Pollak, who is also the author of the book “The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workforce.” “How does this person like to communicate? If she hates long emails, stop sending long emails. If she doesn’t like it when you drop by her office but reacts better when you schedule an appointment, then learn to always schedule appointments instead of dropping in. If she is not a morning person, don’t ask for things in the morning. If this person is really detail-oriented, then triple check your documents before handing them in.” Salemi agrees. She says that if you have a boss who’s critical or a micromanager, often the best way to deal with them is to be proactive in meeting their needs. “It’s kind of like you’re managing them without making it seem like you’re managing them,” she says.
      When dealing with a difficult boss, Pollak says one of the best ways to figure out how to successfully work under their leadership is to talk to other people who you know have been in a similar situation. “Other people can be a resource, whether it’s a mentor, someone at a different company, a coach or people who have worked for this person in the past,” she says. “Treat it as a positive and say, ‘I really want to be successful working with X. What recommendations do you have?’” However, she emphasizes, you should never talk about the situation in a negative way, or say you don’t like working for your boss. Instead, discuss about the situation in a way that shows your willingness to adapt to make the relationship work.
      If talking to other colleagues isn’t helpful, then Pollak says one of your last options should be to talk directly to your boss. Consider your approach carefully. Instead of saying, “We’re not getting along. What should we do?”, say something to the effect of, “I’d really like to make sure that I’m serving your needs. I’d like to make sure that I’m communicating in a way that’s effective for you and I want to make sure that I’m being as productive as possible. Is there anything I can do differently?” This way, she says, you’re approaching the situation by asking how you can help, instead of emphasizing a problem.

What is the first advice mentioned in the passage?

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.

   Marianne Moore (1887-1972) once said that her writing could be called poetry only because there was no other name for it. Indeed her poems appear to be extremely compressed essays that happen to be printed in jagged lines on the page. Her subjects were varied: animals, laborers, artists, and the craft of poetry. From her general reading came quotations that she found striking or insightful. She included these in her poems, scrupulously enclosed in quotation marks, and sometimes identified in footnotes. Of this practice, she wrote, "Why many quotation marks?" I am asked ... When a thing has been so well that it could not be said better, why paraphrase it? Hence, my writing is, if not a cabinet of fossils, a kind of collection of flies in amber." Close observation and concentration on detail and the methods of her poetry.

   Marianne Moore grew up in Kirkwood, Missouri, near St. Lois. After graduation from Bryn Mawr College in 1909, she taught commercial subjects at the Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Later she became a librarian in New York City. During the 1920’s she was editor of

   The Dial, an important literary magazine of the period. She lived quietly all her life, mostly in Brooklyn, New York. She spent a lot of time at the Bronx Zoo, fascinated by animals. Her admiration of the Brooklyn Dodgers-before the team moved to Los Angeles-was widely known.

   Her first book of poems was published in London in 1921 by a group of friends associated with the Imagist movement. From that time on her poetry has been read with interest by succeeding generations of poets and readers. In 1952 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her Collected Poems. She wrote that she did not write poetry for money or fame. To earn a living is needful, but it can be done in routine ways. One writes because one has a burning desire to objectify what it is indispensable to one's happiness to express.

What is the passage mainly about?

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.

All living things require energy to do the work necessary for survival and reproduction. But what is energy? Energy is simply the ability to do work, (1) ......... work is done when a force moves an object. Let's consider your own needs for a moment. You need energy to turn on and turn off your computer. You need energy to (2).......... of bed in the morning. And, yes, you need energy to reproduce. So where does energy come from and how do we use it? On Earth, energy ultimately comes from the sun. Plants use the sun's energy to make sugar. Organisms, in turn, use sugar as a (3) ........... of energy to do work.

Plants use energy from sunlight to make sugar and oxygen from carbon dioxide and water. The process by which carbon dioxide and water are (4) .......... to sugar and oxygen using sunlight is referred to as photosynthesis. This is an endergonic reaction, meaning energy is required by the reaction. Specifically, energy is required to put the carbon dioxide and the water molecules together to form sugar. Sun (5).........the energy needed to drive photosynthesis, and some of the energy used to make the sugar is stored in the sugar molecule.

(study.com/energy-and-life-the–transformation-of-energy-in-living)

(3) __________

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each the numbered blanks. 
At present, single-parent families ought to be of great focus, be recognized and supported as they are a growing family form and should not be an afterthought in family, economic and labor market policies. Single parent families should be (25) _______ considered and addressed in all family policy discussions and decisions. (26)________, home-care cash allowances, which are paid to a parent who abstains from employment to take care for her child at home, can have significant consequences encouraging lower levels of female employment among single-parent families, (27)________ in turn results in higher childhood poverty. In this regard, work-life balance policies and workplace practices also need to (28)________ a single-parent perspective, for example, the impact of non-standard work hours when childcare is not available.
The provision of educational and skill-building opportunities and affordable quality day care become even more urgent in families with single parents. Such families should have a higher priority and subsidized access to childcare facilities. Governmental agencies should be established (29)________ child support payment from non-resident parents in case of conflicts, disagreements or delayed payments, e.g., after a divorce or separation.

(27)________ in turn results in higher childhood poverty

Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer.

Reading, as you know, is a continuous and never ending process. If you do very little reading, or if you read only material that offers no challenge to your comprehension, your reading will be of very little use. Once we reach a certain age, or once our formal schooling is completed, many of us become so restricted in our choice of reading that we rarely read any new type of reading experience. We tend to read only books in our professional or business field, or only inspirational books, or only our favorite newspapers every morning, or only one magazine for which we have developed a preference. And the trouble starts here. You should neither read only for entertainment nor only for information, but you should also read for intellectual growth, for mental stimulation, for enriching your background of knowledge, for wisdom, and for broader outlook and mature understanding. What kind of books should you read to continue your intellectual growth, to gain a background for opinion and for judgment? The answer issimple one: Read books in fields you have little or no acquaintance with, books that will open for you new horizons of learning, books that will help you explore new areas of knowledge and experience, books that will make the world and people more understandable to you. Sadly, more and more people today are giving up the printed word in favor of being entertained and informed by watching TV, a popular entertainment, device present at almost homes. More and more children are being subjected to TV programming, perhaps as a babysitter. More than two hours of TV time per day are now a part of children development, generating physiological and mental problems that are of growing concern among experts.

What kind of books is recommended?

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.

GLOBAL WARMING

Few people now question the reality of global warming and its effects on the world's climate. Many scientists (1) _____________the blame for recent natural disasters on the increase in the world's temperatures and are convinced that, more than ever before, the Earth is at risk from the forces of the wind, rain and sun. According to them, global warming is making extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and droughts, even more (2) _____________and causing sea levels all around the world to rise.

     Environmental groups are putting pressure on governments to take action to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide which is given (3) _____________by factories and power plants, thus attacking the problem at its source. They are in favor of more money being spent on research into solar, wind and wave energy devices, (4) _____________ could then replace existing power station.

Some scientists, (5) _____________, believe that even if we stopped releasing carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere tomorrow, we would have to wait several hundred years to notice the results. Global warming, it seems, is to stay.

(3) _________

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 1 to 5.
BOOKS
Nearly all the discoveries that have been made through the ages can (1)________ in books. The invention of the book is one of humankind’s (2)________ achievements,  the importance of which can not be evaluated. Books are very useful, providing us with both entertainment and information. The production of books began in Ancient Egypt, though not in the form that is accessible to us today. The books read by Romans, (3)________ , have some similarities to the ones we read now. Until the middle of the 15th century, in Europe, all books were written by hand. They (4)________ often beautifully illustrated and always rare and expensive. With printing came the possibility of cheap, large publication and distribution of book making (5) ________ more widespread and reliable.
(3)..........................

Read the text and choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) to each of the questions. 
Poles Apart
Many are surprised to learn that Antarctica is nearly twice the size of the United States. The name Antarctica was coined to mean "opposite to the Arctic." It is just that in many ways. Antarctica is a high, ice-covered landmass. In the Arctic the landmasses are grouped around the ice-covered Arctic Ocean.
Largely because of this difference, the climate of the two areas is very different. Antarctica is the coldest area in the world. On the average it is about 30 degrees colder than the Arctic. At the South Pole, nearly 10.000 feet high, monthly mean temperatures run well below zero. Only in coastal regions do temperatures sometimes rise about freezing in the summer (December to March). In contrast, near the North Pole monthly mean temperatures often rise above freezing. 
At both poles, daily temperatures may drop far below the monthly mean. At the American South Pole Station, winter temperatures sometimes fall below -100 degrees Fahrenheit. Elsewhere, on higher parts of the south polar plateau, even lower temperatures are recorded.
A temperature of -127 degrees Fahrenheit was measured in August 1960. It is the world's record low temperature.
Partly because of this climatic difference, the land animals and plants of the two regions are very different. On the continent of Antarctica, there are very few plants. In the Arctic there are many plants. In some of the few ice-free areas of Antarctica, mosses, lichens, and algae are found. Penguins populate Antarctic coastlines but do not exist in the Arctic. The land animals of the Arctic are foxes, bears, reindeer, and lemmings. These animals are unknown in the Antarctic. Old rock layers show that this "oppositeness" between north and south extends far back into the early chapters of earth history.
Ice is the great feature of Antarctica. More than 4.5 million square miles of ice sheet cover the area. Great rivers of ice, called glaciers, push down the mountains. Antarctica is the storehouse of about 85 percent of the total world supply of ice. 
The icecap is very thick, averaging nearly 8,000 feet. At one spot, scientists have found the distance from the surface to the rock underneath the ice to be more than 13,000 feet.
If this great volume of ice were to melt, the volume of the world oceans would increase, and sea level would rise. Extreme atmospheric changes would have to take place for this to happen.

Compared to the United States, Antarctica is _________.

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.
On April 3, 1972, a man came out of the Hilton hotel in Manhattan and started walking down the street. He stopped, (31) his hand with a strange object in it, put it to his ear and started to talk into it. This was the beginning of mobile phone (32) , more than 30 years ago. That man was Motorola's project manager, Martin Cooper, who was (33) his 34th birthday that day. The strange object was the first mobile phone, which was nicknamed “the shoe” because of its  unusual (34)  .Mr. Cooper had gone to New York to introduce the new phone. The first call he made was to his rival, Joe Engel at AT&T's research centre. Engel was responsible for the development of the radiophones for cars. "I called him and said that I was talking on a real mobile phone (35)         I was holding in my hand," said Cooper. "I don't remember what he said in reply, but I'm sure he wasn't happy." The quality of the call was very good, because although New York had only one base station at that time, it was being used by only one user - Martin Cooper.
(33).....................

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 1 to 5.
Hospitality
Hospitality - looking after visitors - is universal but in different cultures hostsare (1)       to receive guests in different ways.
In much of the ancient world it was the custom to provide passing travellers with food and water. Today some old customs have (2)      . In a traditional Japanese household, if a guest admires a particular object in the house, the host will want to give it to the guest straight away. And in parts of Russia guests are greeted with bread and salt on a special cloth.The guest is (3)        to kiss them and hand them back to the host. Sometimes the guest breaks off a small piece of bread, dips it in the salt and eats it.
In some countries, when foreign guests arrive from abroad, they may feel they have been given a particularly (4)        meal. But this is probably because the host politely offers more and more food and drink and the guest is too embarrassed to (5)      anything down.
(3)....................

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 1 to 5.
Hospitality
Hospitality - looking after visitors - is universal but in different cultures hostsare (1)       to receive guests in different ways.
In much of the ancient world it was the custom to provide passing travellers with food and water. Today some old customs have (2)      . In a traditional Japanese household, if a guest admires a particular object in the house, the host will want to give it to the guest straight away. And in parts of Russia guests are greeted with bread and salt on a special cloth.The guest is (3)        to kiss them and hand them back to the host. Sometimes the guest breaks off a small piece of bread, dips it in the salt and eats it.
In some countries, when foreign guests arrive from abroad, they may feel they have been given a particularly (4)        meal. But this is probably because the host politely offers more and more food and drink and the guest is too embarrassed to (5)      anything down.
(1)....................

Read the following the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrasethat best fits each of the numbered blanks from 31 to 35.
From the next year, every student in their final rear at our school will study for a compulsory Diploma of Practical Achievement. This will be in addition to the normal examinations. Up to now, the course has been optional, but from now on every student must (31)        it.
The aim is to (32)   students with "life skills", which the Diploma divides into eight categories. These cover a range of things relevant to life beyond school, from sending an e-mail to giving presentation  to  an  audience.  Under  the  heading     "survival",  (33)      ,  students   can learn  car mainternance, first aid and cooking. We have discovered that many students cannot do simple things such as mend a puncture or boil an egg. At the other extreme, the Diploma includes such things as how to design a webpage and how to cope if someone has a heart attack. It has been called a " Diploma in Common Sense".
On the course, students will not be taught in the traditional (34)  
  , but rather will be guided and encouraged to do things for themselves. This is above all a practical "hand-on" course. To a greater or lesser extent, good schools have always tried to (35)        these skills. Unfortunately, students have not always shown much interest because such skills are not directly related to passing exams for higher education. We hope this will change now that we have a proper course that will lead to a recognised diploma.
(32)..................

Read the following passage and choose the correct answer to each of the questions.

The word "robot" first appeared in a 1921 stage play by Czech writer Karel Capek. In the play, a man makes a machine that can think, which he calls a robot and which ends up killing its owner. In the 1940s, the American science fiction writer, Isaac Asimov, wrote a series of stories about robots and invented the term 'robotics', the science of robots. Meanwhile, in the real world, the first robots were developed by an engineer, Joseph F. Engelberger, and an inventor, George C. Devol. Together they started Unimation, a manufacturing company that produced the first real robot in 1961, called the Unimate. Robots of this type were installed at a General Motors automobile plant and proved to be a success. They worked reliably and saved money for General Motors, so other companies were soon acquiring robots as well.

These industrial robots were nothing like the terrifying creatures that can often be seen in science fiction films. In fact, these robots looked and behaved nothing like humans. They were simply pieces of computer-controlled machines, with metal "arms" or "hands". Since they were made of metal, they could perform certain jobs that were difficult or dangerous for humans, particularly jobs that involve high heat. And since robots were tireless and never got hungry, sleepy, or distracted, they were useful for tasks that would be tiring or boring for humans. Industrial robots have been improved over the years, and today they are used in many factories around the world. Though the use of robots has meant the loss of some jobs, at the same time other jobs have been created in the design, development, and production of the robots.

Outside of industry, robots have also been developed and put into use by governments and scientists in situations where humans might be in danger. For example, they can be sent in to investigate an unexploded bomb or an accident at a nuclear power plant. Researchers also use robots to collect samples of hot rocks or gases in active volcanoes. In space exploration, robots have performed many key tasks where humans could not be present, such as on the surface of Mars. In 2004, two robotic Rovers, small six-wheeled computerized cars, were sent to Mars.

Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a characteristic of robots?