Find synonym:
I am now reconciled with two of my estranged siblings - not just my older brother, but my sister, whom I hadn't spoken to for 17 years.

 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The year was 1810, the place was southern Germany, Bavaria, and life was hard. It was the month of October and all of the countryside had been working day and night to finish their fall harvest and prepare for the onset of winter. While the plow horses were working and the farmers’ days were filled from sun up to sun down, there were some other preparations being made as well. Prince Ludwig I and his entire court were preparing for his upcoming marriage to Princess Therese of Sachsen-Hildurghausen. The grand wedding was to take place on the 12th, right in the middle of the harvest. As you know any wedding can be difficult to plan, but when you’re a prince it can be even more stressful. The invitations had gone out, the garments had been made and the location had been selected. The big event was to be held in a magnificent “Weise” (meadow) just outside the gates of Munich. As the big day approached, the countryside and town, in fact all of Bavaria was a buzz with talk of the big day. Everyone was planning on attending as they were all exhausted from the harvest and it was really the last chance before the long, cold days of winter to get out and blow off some steam. On the 12th, the ceremony went off without a hitch. The weather was perfect, the bride looked beautiful and about 40,000 guests were in attendance. The reception, as you can imagine, was one of the biggest parties history had ever seen with copious amounts of beer and massive quantities of food being devoured. It was a reception fit for a prince. And this prince was absolutely ecstatic. Ludwig I was so taken with all of his guests that he planned a special treat for them. The prince knew that all of his subjects were huge fans of horseracing so he planned to conclude the event with a somewhat impromptu horse race across the great meadow. When the townspeople heard of this they erupted in a jubilant cry Zicke Zacka, Zicke Zacka, Hoy, Hoy, Hoy. This is still chanted in the beer tents of today’s Oktoberfest celebrations. It was then and there that they decided unanimously to rename the wiese Theresiewiese (Therese Meadow) in honor of the Prince’s new bride. This was their humble way of welcoming her to town. To this day that very meadow still bears her name. After a spectacular day and night — and probably more than a couple of hangovers — the great event came to an end. It was the following fall as the townspeople began to reminisce about the great time they had had the previous year (as do many of our Oktoberfest guests tend to do around the fall) that they decided to honor their prince and celebrate his wedding anniversary in much the same way. King Maximillian agreed, but this party was to be even bigger, better and longer than the first. The event became an annual celebration. And that my friends is how the Oktoberfest tradition began and continues today. As a side note, the beer that was poured all those years ago and that has been continually served at every Oktoberfest in Munich since will now be served at the Big Bear Lake Oktoberfest. The very same beer flowing from the taps in Munich, Germany will be the beer flowing from our taps in humble Big Bear Lake. And like the beer, our Burgermeister just happens to be a true German original as well. 
8. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

Each sentence has a mistake. Find it by chosing A B C or D
The trouble in communication between nations are not distance, different habits and customs, or national interests, but it is the trouble of language
 

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Belgium is a very old country, with a fascinating mixture of old customs and modern  laws. Belgium weddings may be performed as a civil ceremony or as a religious ceremony. Traditionally, when a couple in Belgium wishes to announce their marriage, the  wedding invitations are printed on two sheets of paper, one from the bride’s family and one sheet from the groom’s family. These wedding invitations symbolize the union of the two families and the partnership of the new union.  An ancient Belgium custom that is designed to unite the two families calls for the bride to stop as she walks up the aisle and to hand her mother a single flower. The two then embrace. Then, during the recessional, the bride and groom walk to the groom’s mother and the new bride hands her new mother-in-law a single flower and the two of them embrace, symbolizing the bride’s acceptance of her new mother.  One of the most important and enduring traditions of the Belgium wedding is for the bride to carry a specially embroidered handkerchief that has her name embroidered on it. After the wedding this handkerchief is framed and hung on the wall in a place of honor.  When the next female member of the bride’s family is to be wed, the handkerchief is removed from its frame, the new bride’s name is embroidered onto it, and it is passed down. The wedding handkerchief is passed from generation to generation, and is considered an important family heirloom. During the wedding mass, the bride and the groom are enthroned in two large chairs placed near the altar, symbolizing that on this day and in this place they are the king and the queen. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the groom slips the wedding ring onto the third finger of his bride’s left hand. The ring, being an endless circle, symbolizes never-ending love, and the third finger of the left hand is believed to hold the vein that travels to the heart, symbolizing love. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the bride and groom share their first kiss as husband and wife. The kiss is considered a symbolic act of sharing each other’s spirit as the couple each breathes in a portion of their new mate’s soul.  The bridesmaids traditionally take up a collection of coins and as the bride and groom exit the church, the bridesmaids toss the coins to the poor outside the church. Giving gifts of money to the poor helps to insure prosperity for the new bride and groom.  Following the wedding the bride and groom are off on their honeymoon. In ancient times the honeymoon, which was celebrated by the drinking of mead, or honey wine, would last 28 days, one complete cycle of the moon. This was to make sure that the bride’s family did not try to steal their daughter back from her new husband. 
2. What does the word “them” in the third paragraph refer to?

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Some experts fear that many people are becoming overweight. Adults are encouraged to exercise for a minimum of thirty minutes, five times a week, and the average person is (1) ____ to take 10,000 steps per day to maintain basic fitness, but it is a fact that few office workers manage to take more than 5,000.  Now architects have designed ‘fit’ office buildings which encourage employees to become healthier because they have to walk while they are at work. In these buildings, meeting rooms and car parks are placed a long way from office desks so that workers have to walk to (2) ____ them. In one building the cafe is located in the furthest section so that some workers have to walk as (3) ____ as half a kilometer to and from lunch. There is special emphasis on (4) ____ people to use stairs instead of lifts, and long staircases are broken into flights of no more than nine stairs, so that they don’t look so difficult to climb. There are also large windows which provide attractive views over the city. (9) ____, the lifts are not easy to get access to, and in some buildings, they only stop at one floor in three.  It’s a design policy for a fitter environment which encourages people to walk without making it appear to be hard work - but will it be successful? Only time will tell

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.

   Family life in the United States is changing. Thirty or forty years ago, the wife was called a "housewife". She cleaned, cooked, and cared for the children. The husband earned the money for the family. He was usually out working all day. He came home tired in the evening, so he did not do much housework. And he did not see the children very much, except on weekends.

   These days, however, more and more women work outside the home. They cannot stay with the children all day. They, too, come home tired in the evening. They do not want to spend the evening cooking dinner and cleaning up. They do not have time to clean the house and do the laundry. So who is going to do the housework now? Who is going to take care of the children?

   Many families solve the problem of housework by sharing it. In these families, the husband and wife agree to do different jobs around the house, or they take turns doing each job. For example, the husband always cooks dinner and the wife always does the laundry. Or the wife cooks dinner on some nights and the husband cooks dinner on other nights.

   Then there is a question of the children. In the past, many families got help with child care from grandparents. Now families usually do not live near their relatives. The grandparents often are too far away to help in a regular way. More often, parents have to pay for child care help. The help may be a babysister or a day-care center. The problem with this kind of help is the high cost. It is possible only for couples with jobs that pay well.

   Parents may get another kind of help from the companies they work for. Many companies now let people with children work part-time. That way, parents can spend more time with their children. Some husbands may even stop working for a while to stay with the children. For these men there is a new word: They are called "househusband". In the United States more ans more men are becoming househusband every year.

   These changes in the home mean changes in the family. Fathers can learn to understand their children better, and the children can get to know their fathers better. Husbands and wives may also find changes in their marriage. They, too, may have a better understanding of each other.

The word “they” in paragraph 5 refers to _______________.

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Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace do not help you make more  genuine close friends, according to a survey by researchers who studied how the websites are changing the nature of friendship networks. Although social networking on the internet helps people to collect hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances, the researchers believe that face to face contact is nearly always necessary to form truly close friendships.  “Although the numbers of friends people have on these sites can be massive, the actual number of close friends is approximately the same in the face to face real world,” said psychologist Will Reader, from Sheffield Hallam University. Social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace have taken off rapidly in recent years. Facebook was launched initially in 2004 for Harvard University members but has since expanded to more than 34 million users worldwide. MySpace, which was set up in 2003, has more than 200 million users and was bought by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in 2005 for $580m (£285m). Previous research has suggested that a person’s conventional friendship group consists of around 150 people, with five very close friends but larger numbers of people whom we keep in touch with less regularly. This figure is so consistent that scientists have suggested it is determined by the cognitive constraints of keeping up with large numbers of people. But Dr. Reader and his team have found that social networking sites do allow people to stretch this figure. The team asked more than 200 people to fill in questionnaires about their online networking, asking for example how many online friends they had, how many of these were close friends and how many they had met face to face. The team found that although the sites allowed contact with hundreds of acquaintances, as with conventional friendship networks, people tend to have around five close friends. Ninety per cent of contacts whom the subjects regarded as close friends were people they had met face to face. “People see face to face contact as being absolutely imperative in forming close friendships,” added Dr. Reader. He told the British Association Festival of Science in York that social networking sites allow people to broaden their list of nodding acquaintances because staying in touch online is easy. “What social network sites can do is decrease the cost of maintaining and forming these social networks because we can post information to multiple people,” he said.  But to develop a real friendship we need to see that the other person is trustworthy, said Dr. Reader. "What we need is to be absolutely sure that a person is really going to invest in us, is really going to be there for us when we need them … It’s very easy to be deceptive on the internet."
2. The following are true about online friendship, EXCEPT ________

Choose the best answer:
They ______ go on holiday when they lived in the countryside.

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From their inception, most rural neighborhoods in colonial North America included at least one carpenter, joiner, sawyer, and cooper in woodworking; a weaver and a tailor for clothing production; a tanner, currier, and cordwainer (shoemaker) for fabricating leather objects; and a blacksmith for metalwork. Where stone was the local building material, a mason was sure to appear on the list of people who paid taxes. With only an apprentice as an assistant, the rural artisan provided the neighborhood with common goods from furniture to shoes to farm equipment in exchange for cash or for “goods in kind” from the customer’s field, pasture, or dairy. Sometimes artisans transformed material provided by the customer wove cloth of yam spun at the farm from the wool of the family sheep; made chairs or tables from wood cut in the customer’s own woodlot; produced shoes or leather breeches from cow, deer, or sheepskin tanned on the farm.  Like their farming neighbors, rural artisans were part of an economy seen, by one historian, as “an orchestra conducted by nature.” Some tasks could not be done in the winter, others had to be put off during harvest time, and still others waited on raw materials that were only produced seasonally. As the days grew shorter, shop hours kept pace, since few artisans could afford enough artificial light to continue work when the sun went down.  To the best of their ability, colonial artisans tried to keep their shops as efficient as possible and to regularize their schedules and methods of production for the best return on their investment in time, tools, and materials. While it is pleasant to imagine a woodworker, for example, carefully matching lumber, joining a chest together without resort to nails or glue, and applying all thought and energy to carving beautiful designs on the finished piece, the time required was not justified unless the customer was willing to pay extra for the quality - and few in rural areas were. Artisans, therefore, often found it necessary to employ as many shortcuts and economics as possible while still producing satisfactory products.
7. The word "few" in the passage refers to ____

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Books have been around for thousands of years. When ancient civilizations first started developing writing systems, they would write on just about anything, from stone to tree bark. Ancient Egyptians were the first to use paper-like materials, called “papyrus”, which they made by pounding flat the woven stems of the papyrus plant. It was not long before the ancient Egyptians began gluing together papyrus sheets to form scrolls, which were the first steps toward books as you know. The birthplace of bookbinding is considered to be India in the 2nd century B.C., where Hindi scribes would bind palm leaves that were etched with religious texts between two wooden boards using twine. The technique became popular in the Middle East and Eastern Asia, and spread to the Romans by the 2nd century A.D. In the mid-15th century, German Johannes Gutenberg invented the first mechanical printing press. His invention was revolutionary because it enabled mass production of booksfor the first time. Before the printing press, a few pages per day could be produced by handcopying. Afterward, printing presses could produce as many as 3,600 pages per day. Today, modern publishers take advantage of incredible advances in technology to produce books in many sizes and shapes very quickly. Although there are many types of processes and machines available, most processes involve similar steps. Printers print the text of a book on large sheets of paper, sometimes as large as a newspaper page. Working with large volumes of paper allows printers to lower costs and produce books more efficiently.The large sheets are then cut into smaller pages that are still about twice the size of a finished book. The smaller pages are then divided into small groups, folded in half, and sewn together. Lastly, the folded and sewn pages are cut down to their finished size and glued to the spine of the final book’s cover. Depending on the quality of the book, additional finishing touches may be added, such as blank pages at the front and back of the book or special tape around the edges of the cover to increase durability. Although printed books may never go away completely, today’s readers will most certainly soon become more familiar with e-books. “E-book” refers to an electronic book, which is simply the text of a book displayed electronically, either via the Internet, a CD-ROM, a tablet, an e-book reader, or even a mobile phone. As electronic devices, such as tablets and mobile phones, become more commonplace, e-books are expected to become more and more popular. One of the benefits of e-books is that they save paper, which helps the environment by reducing the demand for trees  
5. According to paragraph 4, how to produce books more cheaply and efficiently?

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Pick any day in the Piazza del Duomo in the Italian city of Pisa, and you will  undoubtedly spot a bunch of tourists posing for the same photo: hands outstretched towards the cathedral’s conspicuously tilting bell tower, as if they are supporting it with their sheer strength. The so-called Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of the most famous buildings in the world, although maybe not for the reasons its original architects would have wanted.  In 1173, construction began on a white marble bell tower for the cathedral complex in Pisa, located between the Arno and Serchio rivers in Tuscany, central Italy. By the time builders had finished the third of eight planned stories about five years later, the tower’s foundation had begun to settle unevenly on the ground beneath it, a dense mixture of clay, sand and shells. As a result, the structure had begun to tilt visibly toward the south. Shortly after that, war broke out between Pisa and Genoa, another Italian city-state, halting construction for nearly a century. This delay allowed the foundation to settle further, likely prevented the bell tower’s premature collapse.  When construction resumed, chief engineer Giovanni di Simone tried to compensate for the lean by adding extra masonry to the short side, but the additional weight caused the structure to tilt even further. The tower was officially completed around 1370, but its lean only increased over the next six centuries, becoming an integral part of the monument’s quirky appeal. Despite various attempts to reinforce it, Pisa’s tower continued to subside at a rate of some 0.05 inches per year, placing it in increasing danger of collapse. By 1990, it was leaning 5.5 degrees (or some 15 feet) from the perpendicular–the most extreme angle yet. That year, the monument was closed to visitors and the bells removed as engineers started extensive reparations to stabilize it. By siphoning earth from beneath and adding counterweights to the tower’s north end, they were able to reduce the lean to 13.5 feet, or 4.0 degrees from perpendicular. The straightening continued after the tower reopened in 2001, and in 2008 sensors showed the subsiding motion had stopped, after a total improvement of some 19 inches. Engineers now believe the Leaning Tower of Pisa will remain stable for some 200 years, barring an earthquake or other unpredictable disaster. 
8. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Few political and social issues generate as much passion and controversy as immigration. One of the most prominent concerns among anti-immigration campaigners is the idea that immigration breaks down the host society’s cultural traditions and harms its cultural identity. Central to these debates is what academics call “acculturation”. This term refers to behavioural or psychological changes in immigrants or their descendants that follow migration. They are typically changes that make behaviour or ways of thinking more similar to members of the adopted society. Recent studies typically measure behavioural or psychological traits in first generation migrants, second generation migrants, and non-migrants who have been living in the host area for several generations. The evidence suggests that acculturation is common, but generational. While first generation migrants typically retain the values of their society of origin, later generations shift about 50% of the way from their parents’ values towards nonmigrant values. This even occurs in communities that form large, cohesive minorities. Migration with no acculturation breaks down distinct host cultures. This is the scenario envisioned by anti-immigration campaigners. Even a little migration, without acculturation, soon creates a homogeneous worldwide blend of the cultural traits that were originally unique to different societies. But adding just a small amount of acculturation to the simulations could preserve cultural differences. For example, even for relatively high migration rates where ten per cent of the society migrates in each time period, just a 20% probability of acculturation is needed to maintain distinct cultural variation between societies. This suggests that the 50% acculturation level observed in the real-world is strong enough to preserve distinct cultures.  These results held for both “neutral” traits such as dress or dance, and for costly cooperative traits, such as building bridges or paying taxes, where individuals pay initial costs to benefit the entire society. Much concern over immigration centres on the latter – that immigrants take benefits without paying costs. There were, however, levels of migration at which no level of acculturation could preserve cultural traditions. When 50% or more of the societies migrate, then distinct traditions cannot be maintained. While this exceeds modern levels of migration, we might think of historical cases of colonisationas examples where high levels of migration broke down traditions. Whatever future research finds, it would surely be better if immigration policy and media coverage of immigration, were better informed by the available evidence concerning migrant acculturation  
3. The word “cohesive” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to _______

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Modern society has given significant attention to the promises of the digital economy over the past decade. But it has given little attention to its negative environmental footprint. Our smartphones rely on rare earth metals, and cloud computing, data centers, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies consume large amounts of electricity, often sourced from coal-fired power plants. These are crucial blind spots we must address if we hope to capture the full potential of the digital economy. Without urgent system-wide actions, the digital economy and green economy will be incompatible with each other and could lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, accelerate climate change and pose great threats to humanity. The world’s data centers-the storehouses for enormous quantities of information - consume about three percent of the global electricity supply (more than the entire United Kingdom), and produce two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions-roughly the same as global air travel. A report by Greenpeace East Asia and the North China Electric Power University found that China’s data centers produced 99 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2018, the equivalent of about 21 million cars driven for one year. Greenhouse gases aren’t the only type of pollution to be concerned about.Electronic waste (e-waste), which is a byproduct of data center activities, accounts for two percent of solid waste and 70 percent of toxic waste in the United States. Globally, the world produces as much as 50 million tonnes of electronic e-waste a year, worth over US$62.5 billion and more than the GDP of most countries. Only 20 percent of this e-waste is recycled. The world and its intractable challenges are not linear-everything connects to everything else. We must raise awareness about these major blind spots, embrace systems leadership (leading across boundaries), boost circular economy ideas (decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources), leverage an eco-economics approach (an environmentally sustainable economy) and encourage policy-makers to explore the interrelationships between government-wide, system-wide and societal results. We must also consider collective problem-solving by bringing together diverse perspectives from both the Global North and the Global South. We should take an inventory of the global and local damages caused by electronic devices, platforms and data systems, and frame issues about the digital economy and its environmental impact in broad societal terms.
2. The word “it” in paragraph 1 refers to ____

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Elephants need a large amount of habitat because they eat so much. Humans have become their direct competitors for living space. Human populations in Africa and Asia have quadrupled since the turn of the century, the fastest growth rate on the planet. Forest and savanna habitat has been converted to cropland, pastureland for livestock, and timber for housing and fuel. Humans do not regard elephants as good neighbors. When humans and elephants live close together, elephants raid crops, and rogue elephants rampage through villages. Local people shoot elephants because they fear them and regard them as pests. Some countries have established culling programs: park officials or hunters kill a predetermined number of elephants to keep herds manageable and minimize human-elephant conflicts. Hunting has been a major cause of the decline in elephant populations. Elephants became prized trophies for big-game hunters after Europeans arrived in Africa. More recently, and more devastatingly, hunters have slaughtered elephants for their ivory tusks. The ivory trade became a serious threat to elephants in the 1970s. A sudden oil shortage caused the world economy to collapse, and ivory became more valuable than gold. In fact, ivory has been called “white gold” because it is beautiful, easily carved, durable, and pleasing to the touch. Most of the world’s ivory is carved in Japan, Hong Kong, and other Asian countries, where skilled carvers depend on a supply of ivory for their livelihoods  Hunting elephants is no longer legal in many African countries, but poaching was widespread until very recently. For many the high price of ivory, about $100 a pound in the 1980s, was too tempting to resist. Local people often had few other ways to make a living, and subsistence farmers or herders could make more by selling the tusks of one elephant than they could make in a dozen years of farming or herding. As the price of ivory soared, poachers became more organized, using automatic weapons, motorized vehicles, and airplanes to chase and kill thousands of elephants. To governments and revolutionaries mired in civil wars and strapped for cash, poaching ivory became a way to pay for more firearms and supplies. Poaching has caused the collapse of elephants’ social structure as well as decimating their numbers. Poachers target the biggest elephants because their tusks are larger. They often kill all the adults in the group, leaving young elephants without any adults to teach them migration routes, dry-season water sources, and other learned behavior. Many of Africa’s remaining elephant groups are leaderless subadults and juveniles.
4. The word “trophies” in the third paragraph can be best replaced by ____

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
Pollution emitted in industrial areas represents a threat to human health and the surrounding natural resources. We have a tendency to believe that the production processes are the only source of environmental damage, and often forget about the possible long-term effects of harmful production practices. We may think that the closure of these huge industrial areas would improve the quality of the environment. Unfortunately, this ignores the threat of the remaining waste, which is abandoned and poorly stored. It represents an even bigger danger because it stands neglected as it degrades and leaks into the earth without any control at all.
Changes in the water chemistry due to surface water contamination can affect all levels of an ecosystem. It can affect the health of lower food chain organisms and, consequently, the availability of food up through the food chain. It can damage the health of wetlands and damage their ability to support healthy ecosystems, control flooding, and filter pollutants from storm water runoff. The health of animals and humans are affected when they drink or bathe in contaminated water. In addition water-based organisms, like fish and shellfish, can pile up and concentrate contaminants in their bodies. When other animals or humans eat these organisms, they receive a much higher dose of contaminant than they would have if they had been directly exposed to the original contamination.
Contaminated groundwater can badly affect animals, plants and humans if it is removed from the ground by manmade or natural processes. Depending on the study of rocks of the area, groundwater may rise to the surface through springs or seeps, flow sideways into nearby rivers, streams, or ponds, or sink deeper into the earth. In many parts of fhe world, groundwater is pumped out of the ground to be used for drinking, bathing, other household uses, agriculture, and industry.
Contaminants in the soil can harm plants when they take up the contamination through their roots. Eating, breathing in, or touching contaminated soil, as well as eating plants or animals that have piled up soil contaminants can badly affect the health of humans and animals.
Air pollution can cause breathing-related  problems  and  other  bad  health  effects  as  contaminants  are absorbed from the lungs into other parts of the body. Certain air contaminants can also harm animals and humans when they contact the skin. Plants rely on breathing for their growth and can also be affected by exposure to contaminants moved in the air.

Which of the followings has the closest meaning to the word “absorbed” in the last paragraph?

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Scott Newman wouldn’t be without his pocket-size TV, which he mainly watches in bed. “I only watch programmes which last about half an hour, as any longer (1)_______ my eyes. I use the set for general entertainment though it is also really good for (2)_______ up with current affairs. The main problem with the set is that it’s not loud enough even when you use headphones. The (3)_______ is all right as long as nothing moves in front of the aerial.” Scott admits to being a gadget man, but doesn’t regret buying the set since he uses it nearly every day. Retired engineer Paul Hardcastle, has owned a pocket TV for a number of years. “I use it mostly in the bathroom. I wanted to use it outdoors, but the trouble is that in bright light you can’t see the picture. I use rechargeable batteries as (4)_______ ones would cost too much. Paul believes that this sort of TV could be improved if the screen was slightly bigger and it didn’t (5)_______ up batteries so quickly: he can only get half an hour’s viewing before the batteries go flat

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The Colosseum was constructed over a short decade, between 70-80 AD, by up to  100,000 slaves. Its building was overseen by different emperors who ruled under the Imperial Flavian dynasty, lending the structure its original name. Emperor Vespasian began the construction of the Flavian Amphitheater and his son Titus oversaw the construction of an additional tier after his death in 79 AD. His youngest son Domitian constructed the underground tunnels and added an extra level to increase its seating capacity. The amphitheater takes its more commonly attributed name from the Colossus of Nero, an enormous bronze statue of the Emperor which was located beside the structure.  The Colosseum was a recreational and gathering space that was used for gladiatorial contests, public spectacles, historical re-enactments, mythological theatrical performances and of course, executions. It could hold between 50,000 to 80,000 spectators and the seating arrangements reflect the stratification of Roman society: senators were seated closest to the stage while the poorest Roman citizens (and women) stood at the highest level. Its skilled architects developed an ingenious design which included 80 entrances and exits with a numbering system to allow access in and out of the structure. Unlike most ancient amphitheaters which were built into hillsides for support, the Colosseum is so impressive because it is a freestanding structure: it is made of travertine stone that was sourced from the nearby Tivoli area and held together with iron clamps.  The Colosseum is most closely associated with its gladiatorial shows, although often the combatants were not skilled professionals but rather unlucky slaves and criminals pitted against each other for the enjoyment of the public. In fact the venatio, or animal hunt, was one of the most popular shows for its novelty and shock appeal. Always in pursuit of ostentatious displays of wealth and power, the Romans procured exotic animals such as elephants, giraffes, lions, bears and crocodiles from the far reaches of the empire and sent them out into the pit, often along with unfortunate souls who would be torn to pieces. During the inaugural games of the Colosseum, most likely held in 80 AD, over 9,000 animals are believed to have been killed. The Romans also constructed elaborate stage sets on the arena floor, simulating forests and other natural environments, as backdrops to the events taking place. 
5. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?

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While trust in media as a whole may be at an all-time low, a new study by the EBU has shown the public’s trust in traditional media (broadcast and the written press) is actually on the rise. However, people’s trust in new media continues to fall: 61% of European countries distrust the internet while 97% have no faith in social networks. The EBU’s new report – Trust in Media 2018 – shows the figures illustrating the differences between people’s trust in traditional and new media. Broadcast media remain the most trusted forms of media with 59% of people tending to trust radio (equivalent to 2017) and 51% trusting TV in the EU (an increase of 1 percentage point on 2017). Trust in the written press has also slowly improved over the last 5 years and it is now trusted by 47% of EU citizens. At the same time, people’s trust in the internet and social media has been eroded by fake news, misinformation and disinformation. Only 34% of EU citizens trust the internet and a mere 20% now trust social networks (down from 36% and 21% respectively in 2017). Trust in Media 2018 is based on data published in the 88th Eurobarometer survey and gives an idea of European citizens’ perception of the trustworthiness of different types of media. The survey consists of approximately 1000 face-to-face interviews in the 33 countries covered by the study. The report shows how European citizens’ trust in broadcast media is closely connected with a free and independent press. The higher the level of trust in a country’s radio and TV, the higher press freedom in that country tends to be. There are also strong regional differences with the Nordics and Albania tending to trust traditional media the most while Eastern Europeans tend to trust social networks and the internet more. The EBU’s Head of Strategy and the Media Intelligence Service Roberto Suárez Candel said: “The results of our research show that good quality, impartial media is highly valued by the public. “Public service media play an important role in that and, together, our Members make an invaluable contribution to society. The role of our public service Members in upholding democratic values and supporting media freedom is clearly demonstrated by the results of our research.”  
8. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Cyberbullying is the use of technology to harass, threaten, embarrass, or target another person. Online threats and mean, aggressive, or rude texts, tweets, posts or messages all count. So (1) _______ posting personal information, pictures or videos designed to hurt or embarrass someone else. Cyberbullying also includes photos, messages or pages that don’t get taken (2) ______, even after the person has been asked to do so. In (3) _______ words, it’s anything that gets posted online and is meant to hurt, harass or upset someone else. Intimidation or mean comments that focus on things like a person’s gender, religion, sexual orientation, race or physical differences count as discrimination, which is against the law in many states. That means the police could get involved, and bullies may face serious penalties. Online bullying can be particularly damaging and upsetting because it’s usually anonymous or hard to trace. It’s also hard to control, and the person being victimized has no idea how many people (or hundreds of people) have seen the messages or posts. People can be tormented nonstop (4) _________ they check their device or computer. Online bullying and harassment can be easier to commit than other acts of bullying because the bully doesn’t have to confront his or her target in (5) _______

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D)
Women’s representation in government is stalled, and in some cases moving backward. Does that make a difference to the work of governing? Yes, according to decades of data from around the world. Women govern differently than men do in some important ways. They tend to be more collaborative and bipartisan. They push for far more policies meant to support women, children, social welfare and — when they’re in executive positions — national security. But these bills are also more likely to die, largely because of gender bias, research shows. Women in Congress sponsor and co-sponsor more bills than men do, and bring 9 percent more federal money to their districts, according to a study in the American Journal of Political Science. Those bills are more likely to benefit women and children or address issues like education, health and poverty. In Congress, for instance, women fought for women’s health coverage in the Affordable Care Act, sexual harassment rules in the military, the inclusion of women in medical trials, and child care vouchers in welfare overhaul. “All members of Congress have to follow their constituency, but because of their personal experiences either as women in the work force or as mothers, they might be inclined to legislate on some of these issues,” said Michele L. Swers, a professor of government at Georgetown University who studies gender and policy making.  In a new analysis of the 151,824 public bills introduced in the House between 1973 and 2014, to be published in print in Political Science Research and Methods, researchers found that women were significantly more likely than men to sponsor bills in areas like civil rights, health and education. Men were more likely to sponsor bills in agriculture, energy and macroeconomics. An analysis of floor speeches during the 106th Congress, by political scientists at the University of Iowa and Oklahoma State University, found that women spent more time talking about policy concerns like women’s health and family issues. Another study, of State of the State speechesfrom 2006 to 2008 published in State and Local Government Review, found that female governors devoted much more attention to social welfare issues than male governors did, even after controlling for political and situational factors. Women are less likely to vote for war or the death penalty. Women’s representation in legislatures is significantly correlated with the abolition of capital punishment, according to a study of 125 countries published in July by researchers at Sul Ross State University in Texas. A higher share of female legislators correlates with less military spending and less use of force in foreign policy, even after controlling for other explanations like partisanship, according to an analysis by researchers from Texas A&M University of data from 22 established democracies from 1970 to 2000. Yet when women are in executive positions, the opposite is true: They are more hawkish than men. The researchers said that could be in part because of a need to overcome stereotypes of women as weak. Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi, all of whom governed in conflicts, were described as governing like men.  
4. According to the passage, as a worker and a mother, women tried to address many issues, EXCEPT ____________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
There is a scam aimed at a child’s desire to be a published writer - usually as a poet, in a book of poems. How does the scam work? Keen teachers are unwittingly caught up in the promotion but are completely unaware of the dodgy side of the scheme. There are plenty of honest opportunities for children’s writing that don’t cost their parents a small fortune and provide a poor-quality product. Most books in scams are badly set out. They tend to be huge volumes, squashing in as many writers’ efforts as possible to make as much money as possible. They’re an embarrassment for the young poets. These competitions to discover hidden talent sound great in the glossy flyers. Schools too are offered a prize if a winner is from their school. Schools become unpaid ‘agents’ in promotion of the competitions. Parents are happy to pay a small entry fee. Each child hopes to get an ‘honourable mention’ with the possibility of being selected to be included in a book. The price of the book is not given. Naturally, if a child’s work were published, parents would want a copy of the book. In one such scheme the pre-order price was $67 with an extra $26 if the child’s photo was included. That’s nearly $100! Strangely, awards are given to those who pre-order a book! The books are not attractive. A copy at a market sold for $2. There were three to five kids’ poems squashed on a page, with over 3000 poems jammed into that one book. Clip Art was used to illustrate the poor publication. Look at the maths. 3000 kids multiplied by $100 equals $300 000. Now add the entry fees of, say, $2 - add another $6000! Enough to cover publicity! One place winner’ was upset when the parents realised this was a con to buy a book, but not buying the book made the parents feel guilty. Genuine competitions that publish books give a free copy to any ‘winner’ 
5. The writer of the article finds the scheme ____