Choose the word (A, B, C, or D) that best fits each of the blank spaces.

Life after high school doesn't end. In fact, life begins once there are no more lockers, gym class, or teachers nagging you about homework.

In terms of choosing the (1) ____ career, it is important to consider a career assessment test in which you answer a series of questions designed to (2) ____ your strengths and weaknesses. While career tests should not be your main source of decision making, you can use them as a tool to help you decide what career might match your (3) ____.

Think about your interests and hobbies. If you enjoy science, you may want to apply to college and pursue a career in engineering or marine (4) ____.Write a list of possible careers that match your interests and your capabilities. If you find you are happiest when you work with others, jot down that you are a team player. In that case, you may want to consider jobs that involve people interaction instead of careers like computer programming or writing, which require more alone time. Speak to an adult you trust about your ideas and be willing to receive (5) ____.

 

Narrow your options and look for a career with growth (6) ____. While it is important to pick a career that will stimulate your mind, it is also important to be practical about the market. If you decide that you want to go to college, you will need to pick a career that enables you to make a living (7) ____ you graduate.

Jump into the first step of realizing your career dreams. If you have decided that you would like to pursue a career that requires higher education, do your (8) ____ on applying to the college or programme, including qualifications, application deadlines, tuition fees and length of study. If you have decided on a career that does not require higher education, start looking for ways to enter the field and (9) ____ experience. Speak to someone who already has your dream job. This person can provide a better picture of the pros and cons of the (10) ____

(10) ____

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

The Middle East and North Africa are one of the driest regions on earth. Nearly two-thirds of the region is desert. The Sahara Desert of northern Africa is the largest desert in the world. Desert air (26) ____ little moisture, so few clouds form over the land. Without clouds to block the sun, temperatures may reach as (27) ____ as 125°F during the day. At night, without the clouds to contain the heat, the temperature can fall to as low as 125°F. Extreme temperatures (28) ____ with little rainfall make desert life difficult for people, plants, and animals. (29) ____, some life forms have adapted to even the most severe desert (30) ____, Camels are able to survive long periods without food or water. Many desert plants have long, shallow (31) ____ systems. This allows the plants to reach out to collect water over great distances. Other desert plants have taproots. Taproots grow very deep (32) ____ they can tap sources of underground water. Plant life in the desert is usually spread out over great distances. This is (33) ____ deserts are often described as barren, or lifeless. When many people think of a desert they often think of endless miles of hot sand, but a desert does not have to be hot or sandy. Most of the land of the Middle East and North Africa is hot, dry desert land, (34) ____ some deserts look very different. Most of Antarctica is a desert but there is no sand on the continent and the climate of Antarctica is (35) ____ coldest on earth.

(29) ____

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. 
Long gone but not forgotten are those carefree student days of shared showers, derelict rental properties and parties where the booze always ran out before midnight. Being a student was quite a privilege in the good old days when local authorities and the government footed the bill and there was almost certainly a job at the end of it.
In the early 1960s, only 4% of school leavers went to university, rising to around 14% by the end of the 1970s. Nowadays, more than 40% of young people start undergraduate degrees – but it comes at a cost. Today’s students leave with debts of £40,000 and upwards to pay back over their working lives.
So how has the student experience changed over the years? Parents looking back on their university lives are amazed at the luxuries their sons and daughters enjoy, such as en suite bathrooms, flatscreen TVs and leather sofas. Student accommodation has improved but rents have soared and take up a bigger whack of the living cost loans, leaving today’s undergraduates little better off than their parents.
They still party and have a good time, but students are working harder and more consistently, their parents believe. Partly, it is the move away from “big bang” finals to continuous assessment, they say, but also the pressure to get that all-important 2:1 or above degree classification. One-third of students were awarded firsts or 2:1s in 1970. Last year it was over two-thirds: 70%.
Today’s students are more career-orientated and under pressure to take on extracurricular activities, more responsibilities and work experience to compete in the graduate jobs market. Meeting people, making friends for life and discovering new interests: these are the things that have not changed for students who are following the same route to independence as their parents.

What does the word “they” in paragraph 4 refer to?

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

"Desert is the term applied to regions of the earth that are characterized by less than 254 mm (10. inches) of annual rainfall, an evaporation rate that exceeds precipitation, and, in most cases, a high average temperature. Because of a lack of moisture in the soil and low humidity in the atmosphere, most of the sunlight penetrates to the ground. Daytime temperatures can reach 55° c (131° F) in the shade. At night the desert floor radiates heat back to the atmosphere, and the temperature can drop to near freezing. Deserts are caused by a combination of climate patterns and geological features.
 Because so little water moves through the desert soil to carry nutrients away, desert soils are naturally fertile. Crops are grown on desert lands with water provided by irrigation from rivers or wells. Such transformations of deserts are not without problems. Evaporation of the irrigation water results in the accumulation of salt on the surface soil, eventually rendering it useless for further crop production. By tapping reservoirs of fossil water deep beneath the desert, humans are, in effect, mining water. Once this water is gone, it is irreplaceable. Burning and overgrazing of semiarid lands on the periphery of deserts can irreversibly damage the plants that concentrate moisture and hold the soil together, thus enabling deserts to encroach on arable land. This encroachment, a serious world problem, is called desertification. A 1984 report of a desertification study made for the United Nations stated that 35 percent of the earth’s land surface was at least threatened by such processes."

3. Parmers have difficulty in growing crops on desert lands because

Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase.

Desert biomes are the (1) _____ of all the biomes. In fact, the most important characteristic of a desert is that it receives very little (2) _____. Most deserts receive less than 300 mm a year compared (3) _______ rainforests, which receive over 2,000 mm. That means that the desert only gets 10 percent of the rain that a rainforest gets! The temperature in the desert can (4) _____ drastically from day to night because the air is (5) _____ dry that heat escapes rapidly at night. The daytime temperature averages 38°C (6) _____ in some deserts it can get down to -4°C at night. The temperature also varies greatly depending on the (7) _____ of the desert. Since desert conditions are so severe, the plants that live there need to have (8) _____ to compensate for the lack of water. Some plants, such as cacti, (9) _____ water in their stems and use it very slowly, while others like bushes conserve water by growing few leaves or by having large root systems to gather water or few leaves. Some desert plant species have a short life cycle of a few weeks that (10) _____ only during periods of rain.

(3) _____

Read the following passage and choose the correct answer in each sentence.
You are cordially invited to Speaking Poetry, a recital with three of the literary world’s most — 143 — poets. Adalberto Marte, Marceline Fontes, and Lawrence Faucher will be reading their recently published works.
Our past — 144 — have mainly featured works adhering to a more traditional style. However, we are pleased that the diversity of the genre will be able to shine through this time. Our invited writers discard regular forms and rhyming patterns characteristic of conventional poetry. — 145 —.
Focusing on such topics as our rapidly changing society and the impact of technology, — 146 — poems are sure to resonate with audience members.

146..............

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

What do you do well? What do you enjoy doing? Your answers to these two questions will help you identify your (1) _____. An employer will consider you seriously for a spot when you can show them that you know who you are, what you can offer and which you have studied. Sometimes it is difficult to know what your weaknesses are. Clearly not everyone is equally good (2)_____ everything. You may need to improve yourself and so (3) _____ courses in that field could turn a weakness into strength. You will need to (4) _____ some time on your self-assessment. Your honesty and the desire for self-improvement will lead to (5) _____ in getting the right job. Explore the following seven areas to start to get to know yourself: your aptitude, your skills, your personality, the level of responsibility you feel comfortable with, your interests and your needs.

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

Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase.

Desert biomes are the (1) _____ of all the biomes. In fact, the most important characteristic of a desert is that it receives very little (2) _____. Most deserts receive less than 300 mm a year compared (3) _______ rainforests, which receive over 2,000 mm. That means that the desert only gets 10 percent of the rain that a rainforest gets! The temperature in the desert can (4) _____ drastically from day to night because the air is (5) _____ dry that heat escapes rapidly at night. The daytime temperature averages 38°C (6) _____ in some deserts it can get down to -4°C at night. The temperature also varies greatly depending on the (7) _____ of the desert. Since desert conditions are so severe, the plants that live there need to have (8) _____ to compensate for the lack of water. Some plants, such as cacti, (9) _____ water in their stems and use it very slowly, while others like bushes conserve water by growing few leaves or by having large root systems to gather water or few leaves. Some desert plant species have a short life cycle of a few weeks that (10) _____ only during periods of rain.

(7) _____

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

"The Southwestern States of the United States suffered one of the worst droughts in their history from 1931 to 1938. The drought (1)…. the entire country. Few food crops could be grown. Food became (2)…., and prices went up (3)….  the nation. Hundreds of families in the Dust Bowl region had to be moved to farms in other areas with the help of the federal government. In 1944, drought brought great damage to (4)…. all Latin America. The drought moved to Australia and then to Europe, (5)…. it continued throughout the summer of 1945. From 1950 to 1954 in the United States, the Southwest suffered a (6)….. drought Hundreds of cattle ranches had to ship their cattle to other regions because (7)… lands had no grass. The federal government again (8)….. an emergency drought-relief program. Ít offered farmers (9)…. credit and seed grains (10)… low prices."

2. Food became (2)…., 

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. 

It is not easy to choose a career today. Hundreds of students are leaving schools and universities every year  to  seek  employment  in  the  various  professions,  though  employment  opportunities  are  not  increasing proportionately. As a result, there is a lot of unemployment.   

 The inability of the various professions to absorb all those seeking employment makes the choice of a career more difficult. Before one leaves school or university, one has many plans, confident that choosing a career will not be difficult. But when, the time comes to choose a career, one finds that there are others with better qualifications waiting to enter the same profession.  Disillusioned, one then looks for  any  kind of employment.  In this way,  many  who  wanted  to  become  police  inspectors or field  assistants  in  the  rubber estates in this country,  become  teachers  instead,  and many who  wanted  to  become  teachers,  have  become shop assistants. The lack of institutions where people could acquire the skills necessary for a particular career makes the choice of a career even more difficult. For example, if one desires to become a journalist, one has to receive some training and instruction in a school of journalism. But if there is no such school, one is compelled to think of some other career.

_______ makes the choice of a career even more difficult.

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

Although I left university with a good degree, I suddenly found that it was actually quite hard to find a job. After being unemployed for a few months, I realized I had to take the first thing that came along or I'd be in serious financial difficulties. And so, for six very long months, I became a market research telephone interviewer.

I knew it wasn't the best company in the world when they told me that I'd have to undergo three days of training before starting work, and that I wouldn't get paid for any of it. Still, I knew that the hourly rate when I actually did start full time would be a lot better than unemployment benefit, and I could work up to twelve hours a day, seven days a week if I wanted. So, I thought of the money I'd earn and put up with three days of unpaid training. Whatever those three days taught me - and I can't really remember anything about them today - I wasn't prepared for the way I would be treated by the supervisors.

It was worse than being at school. There were about twenty interviewers like myself, each sitting in a small, dark booth with an ancient computer and a dirty telephone. The booths were around the walls of the fifth floor of a concrete office block, and the supervisors sat in the middle of the room, listening in to all of our telephone interviews. We weren't allowed to talk to each other, and if we took more than about two seconds from ending one phone call and starting another, they would shout at us to hurry up and get on with our jobs. We even had to ask for permission to go to the toilet. I was amazed how slowly the day went. Our first break of the day came at eleven o'clock, two hours after we started. I'll always remember that feeling of despair when I would look at my watch thinking, 'It's must be nearly time for the break', only to find that it was quarter to ten and that there was another hour and a quarter to go. My next thought was always, 'I can't believe I'm going to be here until nine o'clock tonight.'

The most frightening aspect of the job was that I was actually quite good at it. 'Oh, no!' I thought.

‘Maybe I'm destined to be a market researcher for the rest of my life.' My boss certainly seemed to think so. One day - during a break, of course - she ordered me into her office. 'Simon,' she said, 'I'm promoting you. From tomorrow, you're off telecoms and onto credit card complaints. I'm sure you can handle it. There's no extra pay, but it is a very responsible position.'

Three weeks later, I quit. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

What was unusual about Simon's promotion?

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 are many theories of aging, but virtually all fall into the category of hypotheses with a minimum of supporting evidence. One viewpoint is that aging occurs as the body's organ systems become less efficient. Thus failures in the immune system, hormonal system, and nervous system could all produce characteristics that we associate with aging. Following a different vein, many current researchers are looking for evidence at the cellular and sub cellular level. It has been shown that cells such as human fibroblasts (generalized tissue cells) grown in culture divide only a limited number of times and then die. Only cancer cells seem immortal in this respect. Fibroblast cells from an embryo divide more times than those taken from an adult. Thus some researchers believe that aging occurs at the cellular level and is part of the cell's genetic makeup. Any event that disturbs the cell's genetic machinery such as mutation, damaging chemicals in the cell's environment, or loss of genetic material, could cause cells to lose their ability to divide and thus bring on aging. Other theories of aging look at different processes. 
Chronological aging refers to the passage of time since birth and is usually measured in years. While chronological age can be useful in estimating the average status of a large group of people, it is a poor indicator of an individual person's status because there is a tremendous amount of variation from one individual to the next in regard to the rate at which biological age changes occur. For example, on the average, aging results in people losing much of their ability to perform strenuous activities, yet some elderly individuals are excellent marathon runners.
Another type of aging is cosmetic aging, which consists of changes in outward appearance with advancing age. This includes changes in the body and changes in other aspects of a person's appearance, such as the style of hair and clothing, the type of eyeglasses, and the use of a hearing aid. Like chronological aging, it is frequently used to estimate the degree to which other types of aging have occurred. However, it is an inaccurate indicator for either purpose because of variation among individuals and because a person's appearance is affected by many factors that are not part of aging, including illness, poor nutrition, and exposure to sunlight.

It can be inferred from the passage that fibroblast cells_________,

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 21 to 25: 
Polar bears are in danger of dying out. Unlike some other endangered animals, it's not hunters that are the problem, it's climate change. Since 1979, the ice cap at the Arctic Circle where the polar bears has reduced in size (21) about 30 percent. The temperature in the Arctic has slowly been rising and this is (22) the sea ice to melt, endangering the polar bears' home. The polar bears' main sources of food are the different types of seals found in the Arctic. They catch them by waiting next to the air holes seals have made in the ice. (23) the bears are very strong swimmers, they could never catch seals in water. This means that the bears really do rely on the ice to hunt.
Polar bears also need sea ice to travel. They can cover a huge territory and often swim from one part of the ice to another. They have been (24) to swim up to 100 km, but when there is less ice, they may have to swim further and this can (25) fatal to the bears. A number of bears have drown in the last few years and scientists believe that it is because they were not able to reach more ice before they became too tired and couldn't swim any further.
(24)....................

Read the following passage and choose the correct answer in each sentence.
On Monday, Lirong Wen will join the sales office as a management assistant. She will be a member of the customer service team — 135 — on the second floor. Also, on September 12, we will welcome Theo Sullivan back to the company. After taking two years off to complete a graduate degree, Theo will join the frozen foods departments — 136 — a senior production manager. He will — 137 — the team that processes the work order.
We are happy to welcome these two new members of our team. —138 —.

138............

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. 

It is not easy to choose a career today. Hundreds of students are leaving schools and universities every year  to  seek  employment  in  the  various  professions,  though  employment  opportunities  are  not  increasing proportionately. As a result, there is a lot of unemployment.   

 The inability of the various professions to absorb all those seeking employment makes the choice of a career more difficult. Before one leaves school or university, one has many plans, confident that choosing a career will not be difficult. But when, the time comes to choose a career, one finds that there are others with better qualifications waiting to enter the same profession.  Disillusioned, one then looks for  any  kind of employment.  In this way,  many  who  wanted  to  become  police  inspectors or field  assistants  in  the  rubber estates in this country,  become  teachers  instead,  and many who  wanted  to  become  teachers,  have  become shop assistants. The lack of institutions where people could acquire the skills necessary for a particular career makes the choice of a career even more difficult. For example, if one desires to become a journalist, one has to receive some training and instruction in a school of journalism. But if there is no such school, one is compelled to think of some other career.

One must find that ________.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
    In the Native American Navajo nation which sprawls across four states in the American south-west, the native language is dying. Most of its speakers are middle-age or elderly. Although many students take classes in Navajo, the schools are run in English. Street sign, supermarket goods and even their own newspaper are all in English. Not surprisingly, linguists doubt that any native speakers of Navajo will remain in a hundred years' time.
    Navajo is far from alone. Half the world's 6,800 languages are likely to vanish within two generations - that's one language lost every ten days. Never before has the planet's linguistic diversity shrunk at such a pace. Isolation breeds linguistic diversity as a result, the world is peppered with languages spoken by only a few people. Only 250 languages have more than a million speakers, and at least 3,000 have fewer than 2,500. It is not necessarily these small languages that are about to disappear. Navajo is considered endangered despite having 150,000 speakers. What makes a language endangered is not that the number of speakers, but how old they are. If it is spoken by children it is relatively safe. The critically endangered languages are those that are only spoken by the elderly, according to Michael Krauss, director of the Alaska Native Language Center, in Fairbanks.
    Why do people reject the language of their parent? It begins with a crisis of confidence, when a small community finds itself alongside a larger, wealthier society, says Nicholas Ostler of Britain's Foundation for Endangered Languages, in Bath. “People lose faith in their culture” he says. "When the next generation reaches their teens, they might not want to be induced into the old tradition.” The change is not always voluntary. Quite often, governments try to kill off a minority language by banning its use in public or discouraging its use in school, all to promote national unity. The former US policy of running Indian reservation in English, for example, effectively put languages such as Navajo on the danger list. But Salikoko Mufwene, who chairs the Linguistics Department at the University of Chicago, argues that the deadliest weapon is not government policy but economic globalisation. "Native Americans have not lost pride in their language, but they have had to adapt to socio-economic pressures" he says. “They cannot refuse to speak English if most commercial activity is in English."
    However, a growing interest in cultural identity may prevent the direct predictions from coming true. ‘The key to fostering diversity is for people to learn their ancestral tongue, as well as the dominant language' says Doug Whalen, founder and president of the Endangered Language Fund in New Haven, Connecticut. “Most of these will live without a large degree of bilingualism” he says.

It is stated in the passage that the number of endangered languages is ____.

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to answer these following questions

Most of us are interested in one kind of sport or another, even if we don't go in for it actively. Lots of people take up a particular sport at an early age, for example tennis, skiing, or ice-skating. If they get up to a suitably high standard, they may go in for local competitions or even championships. But special training is hard work and most young people don't keep it up. Many of them opt out when they come up against tough competition.

To become a professional in any sport, you have to go through with a strict training schedule. And it's not easy! It means doing without some of life's little pleasures, too. For example, to build up your physical strength you may have to stick to a special diet and give up some of your favorite foods. Smoking and alcohol are out, and to keep fit you have to work out regularly every day.

Sometimes it all pays off, but the road to success is long and there are no guarantees. No wonder that countless young talents decide to settle for a regular job instead, and, as far as professional sport is concerned, for looking on as spectators.

According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

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

"The Southwestern States of the United States suffered one of the worst droughts in their history from 1931 to 1938. The drought (1)…. the entire country. Few food crops could be grown. Food became (2)…., and prices went up (3)….  the nation. Hundreds of families in the Dust Bowl region had to be moved to farms in other areas with the help of the federal government. In 1944, drought brought great damage to (4)…. all Latin America. The drought moved to Australia and then to Europe, (5)…. it continued throughout the summer of 1945. From 1950 to 1954 in the United States, the Southwest suffered a (6)….. drought Hundreds of cattle ranches had to ship their cattle to other regions because (7)… lands had no grass. The federal government again (8)….. an emergency drought-relief program. Ít offered farmers (9)…. credit and seed grains (10)… low prices."

7. because (7)… lands had no grass.

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

The Middle East and North Africa are one of the driest regions on earth. Nearly two-thirds of the region is desert. The Sahara Desert of northern Africa is the largest desert in the world. Desert air (26) ____ little moisture, so few clouds form over the land. Without clouds to block the sun, temperatures may reach as (27) ____ as 125°F during the day. At night, without the clouds to contain the heat, the temperature can fall to as low as 125°F. Extreme temperatures (28) ____ with little rainfall make desert life difficult for people, plants, and animals. (29) ____, some life forms have adapted to even the most severe desert (30) ____, Camels are able to survive long periods without food or water. Many desert plants have long, shallow (31) ____ systems. This allows the plants to reach out to collect water over great distances. Other desert plants have taproots. Taproots grow very deep (32) ____ they can tap sources of underground water. Plant life in the desert is usually spread out over great distances. This is (33) ____ deserts are often described as barren, or lifeless. When many people think of a desert they often think of endless miles of hot sand, but a desert does not have to be hot or sandy. Most of the land of the Middle East and North Africa is hot, dry desert land, (34) ____ some deserts look very different. Most of Antarctica is a desert but there is no sand on the continent and the climate of Antarctica is (35) ____ coldest on earth.

(26) ____

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.
Psychologists have long known that having a set of cherished companions is crucial to mental well-being. A recent study by Australian investigators concluded that our friends even help to (1)_______ our lives. The study concentrated (2)_______ the social environment, general health, and lifestyle of  1,477 persons older than 70 years. The participants were asked how much contact they had with friends, children, relatives and acquaintances. Researchers were surprised to learn that friendships increased life (3)_______ to a far greater extent than frequent contact with children and other relatives. This benefit held true even after these friends had moved away to another city and was independent of factors such as socioeconomic status, health, and way of life. According to scientists, the ability to have relationships with people to _______(4) one is important has a positive effect on physical and mental health. Stress and  tendency towards depression are reduced, and behaviours that are damaging to health, such as smoking and drinking, occur less frequently. (5)_______, our support networks, in times of calamity in particular, can raise  our moods and feelings of self-worth and offer helpful strategies for dealing with difficult personal challenges. (Source: Academic Vocabulary in Use by Michael McCarthy and Felicity O’Dell)
(1)......................

Read the following passage and choose the correct answer in each sentence.
The British public is excited about the opening of Aarhus Clothing's first UK-based store. The Danish company has gained a reputation for achieving consistently high rates of customer — 139 —. It quickly became a well-known brand in its home country. — 140 —.
Aarhus Clothing launched its first German store two years ago, after which the company quickly moved into Belgium and the Netherlands. With the inauguration of a flagship store on London’s Oxford Street next month, the company hopes to stand out in the — 141 — UK market.
Designer Mads Jensen told reporters, “Our products have been sought after in Europe for many years now because they are simple and — 142 —. As they are basic and long-lasting, we expect them to be just as popular in the UK.”

141....................