Find synonym:
Mary has a strong desire to make independent decisions.

 

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 following questions:
A fold culture is small, isolated, cohesive, conservative, nearly self-sufficient group that is homogeneous in custom and race, with a strong family or clan structure and highly developed rituals. Order is maintained through sanctions based in the religion or family, and interpersonal relationships are strong. Tradition is paramount, and change comes infrequently and slowly. There is relatively little division of labor into specialized duties. Rather, each person is expected to perform a great variety of tasks, though duties may differ between the sexes. Most goods are handmade, and a subsistence economy prevails. Individualism is weakly developed in folk cultures, as are social classes. Unaltered folk cultures no longer exist in industrialized countries such as the United States and Canada. Perhaps the nearest modern equivalent in Anglo-America is the Amish, a German American farming sect that largely renounces the products and labor saving devices of the industrial age. In Amish areas, horse-drawn buggies till serve as a local transportation device, and the faithful are not permitted to own automobiles. The Amish's central religious concept of Demut, “humility”, clearly reflects the weakness of individualism and social class so typical of folk cultures, and there is a corresponding strength of Amish group identity. Rarely do the Amish marry outside their sect. The religion, a variety of the Mennonite faith, provides the principal mechanism for maintaining order.
By contrast, a popular culture is a large heterogeneous group, often highly individualistic and constantly changing. Relationships tend to be impersonal, and a pronounced division of labor exists, leading to the establishment of many specialized professions. Secular institutions, of control such as the police and army take the place of religion and family in maintaining order, and a money-based economy prevails. Because of these contrasts, “popular” may be viewed as clearly different from “folk”. The popular is replacing the folk in industrialized countries and in many developing nations, Folk- made objects give way to their popular equivalent, usually because the popular item is more quickly or cheaply produced, is easier or time saving to use, or lends more prestige to the owner.

What does the passage mainly discuss?

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All the different plants and animals in a natural community are in a state of balance. This balance is achieved by the plants and animals interacting (1) _______ each other and with their non-living surroundings. An example of a natural community is a woodland, and a woodland is usually dominated by a particular species of plant, such as the oak tree in an oak wood. The oak tree in this example is therefore called the dominant species but there are also many other types of plants, from brambles, bushes, and small trees to mosses, lichens and algae (2) __________ on tree trunks and rocks. The plants of a community are the producers: they use carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen to build up their tissues using energy in the form of sunlight. The plant tissues form food for the plant-eating animals (herbivores) (3) _______ are in turn eaten by flesh-eating animals (carnivores). Thus, plants produce the basic food supply for all the animals of a community. The animals themselves are the consumers, and are either herbivores or carnivores. Examples of herbivores in a woodland community are rabbits, deer, mice and snails, and insects such as aphids and caterpillars. The herbivores are sometimes eaten by the carnivores. Woodland carnivores are of all sizes, from insects such as beetles and lacewings to animals such as owls, shrews and foxes. Some carnivores feed on herbivores, some feed on the smaller carnivores, (4) _______ some feed on both: a tawny owl will eat beetles and shrews as well as voles and mice. These food relationships between the different members of the community are known as food chains or food (5) ______. All food chains start with plants. The links of the chain are formed by the herbivores that eat the plants and the carnivores that feed on the herbivores. There are more organisms at the base of the food chain than at the top; for example, there are many more green plants than carnivores in a community

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Naval architects never claim that a ship is unsinkable, but the sinking of the passenger-and-car ferry Estonia in the Baltic surely (1) ____ have never happened. It was well designed and carefully maintained. It carried the proper number of lifeboats. It had been (2) ____ inspected the day of its fatal voyage. Yet hours later, the Estonia rolled over and sank in a cold, stormy night. It went down so quickly that most of those on board, caught in their dark, flooding cabins, had no chance to save themselves: Of those who (3) ____ scramble overboard, only 139 survived. The rest died of hypothermia before the rescuers could pluck them from the cold sea. The final death (4) ____ amounted to 912 souls. However, there were an unpleasant number of questions about why the Estonia sank and why so many (5) ____ were men in the prime of life, while most of the dead were women, children and the elderly.

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 following questions:
In 1972. a century after the first national park in the United States was established at Yellowstone, legislation was passed to create the National Marine Sanctuaries Program. The intent of this legislation was to provide protection to selected coastal habitats similar to that existing for land areas designated as national parks. The designation of an areas a marine sanctuary indicates that it is a protected area, just as a national park is. People are permitted to visit and observe there, but living organisms and their environments may not be harmed or removed.
The National Marine Sanctuaries Program is administered by the National Oceanic and  Atmospheric Administration, a branch of the United States Department of Commerce. Initially, 70 sites were proposed as candidates for sanctuary status. Two and a half decades later, only fifteen sanctuaries had been designated, with half of these established after 1978. They range in size from the very small (less than 1 square kilometer) Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary in American Samoa to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in California, extending over 15,744 square kilometers.
The National Marine Sanctuaries Program is a crucial part of new management practices in which whole communities of species, and not just individual species, are offered some degree of protection from habitat degradation and overexploitation. Only in this way can a reasonable degree of marine species diversity be maintained in a setting that also maintains the natural interrelationships that exist among these species.
Several other types of marine protected areas exist in the United States and other countries. The National Estuarine Research Reserve System managed by the United States government, includes 23 designated and protected estuaries. Outside the United States, marine protected-area programs exist as marine parks, reserves and preserves.
Over 100 designated areas exist around the periphery of the Caribbean Sea. Others range from the well-known Australian Great Barrer Reef Marine Park to lesser-known parks in countries such as Thailand and Indonesia, where tourism is placing growing pressures on fragile coral reef systems. As state, national, and international agencies come to recognize the importance of conserving marine biodiversity, marine projected areas whether as sanctuaries,parks, or estuarine reserves, will play an increasingly important role in preserving that diversity.

The passage mentions which of the following as a threat to marine areas outside the United States?

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Automated manufacture arose out of the intimate relationship of such economic forces and technical innovations as the division of labor, power transfer and the mechanization of the factory, and the development of transfer machines and feedback systems as explained below. The division of labor (that is, the reduction of a manufacturing or service process into its smallest independent steps) developed in the latter half of the 18th century and was first discussed by the Scottish economist Adam Smith in his book An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). In manufacturing, the division of labor results in increased production and a reduction in the level of skills required of workers. Mechanization was the next step necessary in the development of automation. The simplification of work made possible by the division of labor also made it possible to design and build machines that duplicated the motions of the worker. As the technology of power transfer evolved, these specialized machines were motorized and their production efficiency was improved. The development of power technology also gave rise to the factory system of production, because all workers and machines had to be located near the power source. The transfer machine is a device used to move a workpiece from one specialized machine tool to another, in such a manner as to properly position the workpiece for the next machining operation. Industrial robots, originally designed only to perform simple tasks in environments dangerous to human workers, are now extremely dexterous and are being used to transfer, handle, and index (that is, to position) both light and heavy workpieces, thus performing all the functions of a transfer machine. In actual practice, a number of separate machines are integrated into what may be thought of as one large machine. In the 1920s the auto industry combined these concepts into an integrated system of production. The goal of this assembly-line system was to make automobiles available to people who previously could not afford them. This method of production was adopted by most automobile manufacturers and rapidly became known as Detroit automation. Despite more recent advances, it is this system of production that most people think of as automation.
3. It can be understood that the key factor of mechanization 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 26 to 30.
In the year 1900, the world was in the midst of a machine revolution. (26) _____ electrical power became more ubiquitous, tasks once done by hand were now completed quickly and efficiently by machine. Sewing machines replaced needle and thread. Tractors replaced hoes. Typewriters replaced pens. Automobiles replaced horse-drawn carriages.
A hundred years later, in the year 2000, machines were again pushing the boundaries of (27) _____ was possible. Humans could now work in space, thanks to the International Space Station. We were finding out the composition of life thanks to the DNA sequencer. Computers and the world wide web changed the way we learn, read, communicate, or start political revolutions.
So what will be the game-changing machines in the year 2100? How will they (28) _____ our lives better, cleaner, safer, more efficient, and (29) _____ exciting?
We asked over three dozen experts, scientists, engineers, futurists, and organizations in five different disciplines, including climate change, military, infrastructure, transportation, and space exploration, about how the machines of 2100 will change humanity. The (30) _____ we got back were thought-provoking, hopeful and, at times, apocalyptic.

Question 29: ......................

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This plan can't be carried out because of the widespread public _________.

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:
Most people think that lions only come from Africa. This is understandable because in fact most lions do come from there but this has not always been the case. If we went back ten thousand years, we would find that there were lions roaming vast sections of the globe. However now, unfortunately only a very small section of the lion's former habitat remains.
Asiatic lions are sub-species of African lions. It is almost a hundred thousand years since the Asiatic lions split off and developed as a sub-species. At one time the Asiatic lion was living as far west as Greece and they were found from there, but in a band that spreads east through various countries of the Middle East, all the way to India. In museums now, you can see Greek coins that

have clear images of the Asiatic lion on them. Most of them are dated at around 500 B.C. However, Europe saw its last Asiatic lions roaming free two thousand years ago. Over the next nineteen hundred years the numbers of Asiatic lions in the other areas declined steadily, but it was only in the nineteenth century that they disappeared from everywhere but in India.
The Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in India was established especially to protect the Asiatic lion. There are now around three hundred Asiatic lions in India and almost all of them are in this sanctuary. However, despite living in a sanctuary, which makes them safe from hunters, they still face a number of problems that threaten their survival. One of these is the ever-present danger of disease. This is what killed more than a third of Africa’s Serengeti lions in 1994, and people are fearful that something similar could happen in the Gir Sanctuary and kill off many of the Asiatic lions there.
India's lions are particular vulnerable because they have a limited gene pool. The reason for this is interesting is because all of them are descended from a few dozen lions that were saved by a prince who took a particular interest in them. He was very healthy, and he managed to protect them; otherwise they would probably have died out completely.
When you see the Asiatic lion in India, what you sense is enormous vitality. They are very impressive animals and you would never guess that they have this vulnerability when you look at them.

The passage was written to .

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Although television was first regarded by many as “radio with pictures,” public reaction to the arrival of TV was strikingly different from that afforded the advent of radio. Radio in its early days was perceived as a technological wonder rather than a medium of cultural significance. The public quickly adjusted to radio broadcasting and either enjoyed its many programs or turned them off. Television, however, prompted a tendency to criticize and evaluate rather than a simple on-off response. One aspect of early television that can never be recaptured is the combined sense of astonishment and glamour that greeted the medium during its infancy. At the midpoint of the 20th century, the public was properly agog about being able to see and hear actual events that were happening across town or hundreds of miles away. Relatively few people had sets in their homes, but popular fascination with TV was so pronounced that crowds would gather on the sidewalks in front of stores that displayed a working television set or two. The same thing happened in the typical tavern, where a set behind the bar virtually guaranteed a full house. Sports events that might attract a crowd of 30,000 or 40,000 suddenly, with the addition of TV cameras, had audiences numbering in the millions. By the end of television’s first decade, it was widely believed to have greater influence on American culture than parents, schools, churches, and government-institutions that had been until then the dominant influences on popular conduct. All were superseded by this one cultural juggernaut. The 1950s was a time of remarkable achievement in television, but this was not the case for the entire medium. American viewers old enough to remember TV in the ’50s may fondly recall the shows of Sid Caesar, Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, and Lucille Ball, but such high-quality programs were the exception; most of television during its formative years could be aptly described, as it was by one Broadway playwright, as “amateurs playing at home movies.” The underlying problem was not a shortage of talented writers, producers, and performers; there were plenty, but they were already busily involved on the Broadway stage and in vaudeville, radio, and motion pictures. Consequently, television drew chiefly on a talent pool of individuals who had not achieved success in the more popular media and on the young and inexperienced who were years from reaching their potential. Nevertheless, the new medium ultimately proved so fascinating a technical novelty that in the early stages of its development the quality of its content seemed almost not to matter. Fortunately, the dearth of talent was short-lived. Although it would take at least another decade before areas such as news and sports coverage approached their potential, more than enough excellence in the categories of comedy and drama emerged in the 1950s to deserve the attention of discriminating viewers. They are the most fondly remembered of the Golden Age genres for both emotional and intellectual reasons. Live TV drama was, in essence, the legitimate theatre’s contribution to the new medium; such shows were regarded as “prestige” events and were afforded respect accordingly. The comedies of the era are remembered for the same reason that comedy itself endures: human suffering and the everelusive pursuit of happiness render laughter a necessary palliative, and people therefore have a particular fondness for those who amuse them  
2. The phrase “agog about” in paragraph 2 can be best replaced by _____

Rewrite the sentence:
Mai: “Why don't we ask Mr Brown for help?”

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The cities in the United States have been the most visible sponsors and beneficiaries  of projects that place art in public places. They have shown exceptional imagination in applying the diverse forms of contemporary art to a wide variety of purposes. The activities observed in a number of “pioneer” cities sponsoring art in public places - a broadening exploration of public sites, an increasing awareness among both sponsors and the public of the varieties of contemporary artistic practice, and a growing public enthusiasm - are increasingly characteristic of cities across the country. With many cities now undergoing renewed development, opportunities are continuously emerging for the inclusion or art in new or renewed public environments, including buildings, plazas, parks, and transportation facilities. The result of these activities is a group of artworks that reflect the diversity of contemporary art and the varying character and goals of the sponsoring communities.  In sculpture, the projects range from a cartoonlike Mermaid in Miami Beach by Roy Lichtenstein to a small forest planted in New York City by Alan Sonfist. The use of murals followed quickly upon the use of sculpture and has brought to public sites the work of artists as different as the realist Thomas Hart Benton and the Pop artist Robert Rauschenberg. The specialized requirements of particular urban situations have further expanded the use of art in public places: in Memphis, sculptor Richard Hunt has created a monument to Martin Luther King, Jr., who was slain there; in New York, Dan Flavin and Bill Brand have contributed neon and animation works to the enhancement of mass transit facilities. And in numerous cities, art is being raised as a symbol of the commitment to revitalize urban areas.  By continuing to sponsor projects involving a growing body of art in public places, cities will certainly enlarge the situations in which the public encounters and grows familiar with the various forms of contemporary art. Indeed, cities are providing artists with an opportunity to communicate with a new and broader audience. Artists are recognizing the distinction between public and private spaces, and taking that into account when executing their public commissions. They are working in new, often more durable media, and on an unaccustomed scale.
3. All of the following are mentioned in paragraph 1 as results of the trend toward installing contemporary art in public places in the United States EXCEPT ____

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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.”  
3. According to paragraph 2, what is the conclusion drawn from the statistics provided?

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Where humans have planted crops for food, unless they are organic, poisonous chemicals have been sprayed on them; insecticides are used to kill insect pests and herbicides are used to kill weeds. Fungicides fight off fungal diseases. Artificial fertilizers are added to the soil to increase the yield of the crops. If these chemicals are used in excess, some of them dissolve in rainwater and drain into rivers, streams and ponds, polluting the water and killing the wildlife. The “weeds” competing with the farmers’ crops include wild flowers and many of these have become endangered through the use of herbicides. Insects rely on plants for food and breeding sites so the number of these are affected by a reduction in the number of plants. Many birds depend on insects for food so the numbers of birds may be affected by the use of both insecticides and herbicides. One of the reasons why the Barn Owl is endangered is due to a shortage of insects and it may also be poisoned by eating insects affected by chemical sprays. The case of DDT and other chemicals known as organo-chlorines is well known. These were first used extensively in the 1950s, sprayed onto crops to kill insect pests. Unfortunately, after a few years, it was noticed that birds of prey were rapidly declining in numbers and thousands of seed-eating birds were dying. By the 1960s, the once common sparrow hawk was a rare bird in Britain. The sparrow hawk’s prey was the seed-eating birds which were carrying the poisonous insecticides in their bodies. Consequently, many sparrow hawks and other birds of prey were being indirectly poisoned by the chemical sprays. The organo-chlorines also caused many birds to lay thin shelled eggs, which cracked easily. Research showed that the chemicals were entering the food chains and being stored in the fat of the animals’ bodies. For example, a thrush may eat snails which have eaten a sprayed cabbage plant. The thrush may not have eaten enough poison to be actually killed but a sparrowhawk eating several thrushes accumulates so much of the poison that it is killed. The chemicals become more concentrated as they travel up the food chain. Even most humans still have small amounts of organo-chlorines in their fatty tissues although these chemicals had been withdrawn from use by 1976. They are still used, however, in some Third World countries. By the 1980s, the sparrowhawk population had recovered dramatically and it is once again a common bird. This example shows just how dangerous the use of chemicals in the environment can be. As mentioned earlier, some plants are endangered through collectors such as the Venus fly-trap and some tropical orchids, but most threatened plants have become so through the destruction of their habitat. Once very common plants have almost disappeared because of the way humans have changed the land. For example, the Egyptian Papyrus, a type of reed, had been used for thousands of years for all sorts of things such as paper, medicine, boats, baskets, food etc. Then, when changes in the irrigation methods on the river Nile were introduced, this valuable plant almost completely disappeared. It was thought to be extinct until 1968 when a few plants were found in an undisturbed waterway. Orchids have been also collected from rainforests to become household favourites, causing many species to become endangered.  
3. What will happen to the insect-eating birds if the weeds are in danger?

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Cuc Phuong National Park is _________160 km South West of Ha Noi.

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_____ the cold weather, we kept the fire burning all day.

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Most researchers agree that artificial intelligence (AI) peaked around 1985. A public (1)  _______ science-fiction movies and excited by the growing power of computers had high expectations. For years, Al researchers had implied that a breakthrough was just (2) ____ the corner. Marvin Minsky said in 1967 that within a generation the problem of creating AI would be (3) ____ solved. Prototypes of medical-diagnosis programs and speech recognition software appeared to be making progress. It proved to be a false dawn. Thinking computers and household robots failed to (4) ______, and a backlash ensued. "There was undue optimism in the early 1980s’, says David Leaky, a researcher at Indiana University. “Then when people realised these were hard problems, there was retrenchment’. By the late 1980s, the term AI was being avoided by many researchers, who opted instead (5) ____ themselves with specific subdisciplines such as neural networks, agent technology, case-based reasoning

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English teenagers are to receive compulsory cooking lessons in schools. The idea is to encourage healthy eating to fight the country’s increasing obesity rate. It’s feared that basic cooking and food preparation skills are being lost as parents turn to pre-prepared convenience foods. Cooking was once regarded as an important part of education in England – even if it was mainly aimed at girls. In recent decades cooking has progressively become a minor activity in schools. In many cases the schools themselves have given up cooking meals in kitchens in the schools. But the rising level of obesity has led to a rethink about the food that children are given and the skills they should be taught. “What I want is to teach young people how to do basic, simple recipes like a tomato sauce, a bolognaise, a simple curry, a stir-fry – which they can use now at home and then in their later life”, said Ed Balls, the minister responsible for schools. The new lessons are due to start in September, but some school without kitchens will be given longer to adapt. There is also likely to be a shortage of teachers with the right skills, since the trend has been to teach food technology rather than practical cooking. Also the compulsory lessons for hands on cooking will only be one hour a week for one term. But the well-known cookery writer, Pru Leith, believes it will be worth it. “If we’d done this thirty years ago we might not have the crisis we have got now about obesity and lack of knowledge about food and so on. Every child should know how to cook, not just so that they’ll be healthy, but because it’s a life skill which a real pleasure”. The renewed interest in cooking is primarily a response to the level obesity in Britain which is among the highest in Europe, and according to government figures half of all Britons will be obese in 25 years if current trends are not stopped  
1. The passage mainly talks about ________________

Find mistake:
They said that you not to have to come with them if you didn’t want to.

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Desertification is creating additional challenges to the survival of endangered animal species in India, according to a senior wildlife official who attended the 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in New Delhi. A few days earlier, at COP14 in New Delhi, Dr Chandra had said that the statistics on species extinction have been derived from a database of more than 5.6 million specimens, which have lived across India and the neighbouring countries since before independence. The deteriorating pattern in the species’ distribution in geo-special platforms over the past 100 years clearly highlights the concerning impact of deforestation and desertification. Land degradation threatens species like the Great Indian Bustard, which is classified as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The Weather Channel India got in touch with Dr Chandra, who said that less than 150 Great Indian Bustards are alive today. “Desertification and land degradation are among the 20-30 risk factors to the survival of Great Indian Bustards,” Dr Chandra told Weather.com. In simple terms, desertification is a process wherein fertile land becomes unusable, typically as a result of a long drought, deforestation, salinisation, intensive agricultural practices, and the excessive usage of insecticides, pesticides and chemicals. Desertification leads to hazardous effects on not just animals, but also on the food chain and the overall biodiversity—right from microscopic organisms to human beings. Deforestation has affected over 30% of the land in India due to over-cultivation, soil erosion and depletion of wetlands. Along with India, the planet as a whole currently stares at the fast-growing threat of land degradation  
1. The passage mainly discuss_______

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The town of Chichen-Itza was established during the Classic period close to two natural cavities (cenotes or chenes), which gave the town its name “At the edge of the well of the Itzaes”. The cenotes facilitated tapping the underground waters of the area. The dates for this settlement vary according to subsequent local accounts: one manuscript gives 415-35 A.D., while others mention 455 A.D. The town that grew up around the sector known as Chichen Viejo already boasted important monuments of great interest: the Nunnery, the Church, Akab Dzib, Chichan Chob, the Temple of the Panels and the Temple of the Deer. They were constructed between the 6th and the 10th centuries in the characteristic Maya style then popular both in the northern and southern areas of the Puuc hills. The second settlement of Chichen-Itza, and the most important for historians, corresponded to the migration of Toltec warriors from the Mexican plateau towards the south during the 10th century. According to the most common version, the King of Tula, Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, or Kukulkan as the Maya translated the name, reportedly took the city between 967 A.D. and 987 A.D. Following the conquest of Yucatán a new style blending the Maya and Toltec traditions developed, symbolizing the phenomenon of acculturation. Chichen-Itza is a clear illustration of this fusion. Specific examples are, in the group of buildings to the south, the Caracol, a circular stellar observatory whose spiral staircase accounts for its name, and, to the north, El Castillo. Surrounding El Castillo are terraces where the major monumental complexes were built: on the north-west are the Great Ball Court, Tzompantli or the Skull Wall, the temple known as the Jaguar Temple, and the House of Eagles; on the north-east are the Temple of the Warriors, the Group of the Thousand Columns, the Market and the Great Ball Court; on the south-west is the Tomb of the High Priest. After the 13th century no major monuments seem to have been constructed at Chichen-Itza and the city rapidly declined after around 1440 A.D. From its abandonment during the 15th century, Chichen-Itza underwent a process of gradual deterioration until the first excavations at the site began more than a century ago. Nevertheless, the excellent materials and building techniques used by the Maya in the construction of the buildings secured that the architectonic, sculptural and pictorial essence of Chichen-Itza would be conserved through the centuries  
2. According to paragraph 1, what is NOT mentioned about the city Chichen Itza?