Free _____ area is a designated group of countries that have agreed to eliminate tariffs, quotas, and preferences on most goods among them.

(503)______

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
You should come visit the Jungle Cafe, Macau's newest spot for family (1)-------. You (2)------- a true jungle adventure, the cafe is designed to look and sound as if you are inside a tropical rainforest: vines hang from the ceilings, monkeys screech, and gorgeous tropical fish swim in huge aquariums placed on almost every wall surface. Children will love the "jungle thunderstorms" that take place periodically   The overhead "sky" darkens, thunder roars, and lightning flashes across the ceiling, just like a genuine thunderstorm, And, (3)------ the realistic special effects, no one gets wet!

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
For many American university students, the weeklong spring break holiday means an endless party on a sunny beach in Florida or Mexico. In Panama City Beach, Florida, a city with a permanent population of around 36,000, more than half a million university students arrive during the month of March to play and party, making it the number one spring break destination in the United States. A weeklong drinking binge is not for anyone, however, and a growing number of American university students have found a way to make spring break matter. For them, joining or leading a group of volunteers to travel locally or internationally and work to show problems such as poverty, homelessness, or environmental damage makes spring break a unique learning experience that university students can feel good about. Students who participate in alternative spring break projects find them very rewarding. While most university students have to get their degrees before they can start helping people, student volunteers are able to help people now. On the other hand, the accommodations are far from glamorous. Students often sleep on the floor of a school or spend the week camping in tents. But students only pay around $250 for meals and transportation, which is much less than some of their peers spend to travel to more traditional spring break hotspots. Alternative spring break trips appear to be growing in popularity at universities across the United States. Students cite a number of reason for participating. Some appreciate the opportunity to socialize and meet new friends. Others want to exercise their beliefs about people’s obligation to serve humanity and make the world a better place. Whatever their reason, these students have discovered something that gives them rich rewards along with a break from school work.
8. Which of the following is mentioned as a reason for participating in alternative spring break trips?

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
To: Staff, Research and Development Dept. From: Jasmine Sparks, Manager
Date: October 20
Re: David Yang’s farewell party
I’m sure everyone in the department knows that David Yang will be leaving the company to work for Meyers and Goldman by now. A farewell party (1)------- for David from 5:30 to 8:30 P.M. on Friday, October 31, in the main conference room. I would like to ask each of you to contribute a small sum of money for a present that the department will purchase for David in appreciation for the excellent work he has done (2)------- the years. I have asked my secretary, Claudette, to receive your donations, so please drop by her desk before the end of next week. It is my hope that you will be able to join the entire department in honoring David’s ten years with the company. Please get in touch with Claudette by 5 P.M. on Monday, October 27 to let us know (3)------- you will be attending the commemoration

 Choose the best answer:
I'd really like to do accounting. If only I ______ so poor at maths.

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.
                                MENTORING
Many adults in America and increasing numbers elsewhere take part in mentoring schemes. A mentor is an adult who provides support and friendship to a young person. There are numerous different (1).........   of mentoring: passing on skills, sharing experiences, offering guidance. Sometimes the most    helpful thing to do is just listen. Mentoring is open to anybody - no particular (2)................... experience is  required, just a desire to make a difference to the life of a young person who needs help. This may seem a difficult thing at first, but many people find they have a real talent for it.
The support of a mentor can play an important part in a child's development and can often make up(3)............a lack of guidance in a young person's life. It can also improve young people's attitudes towards society and build up their confidence in dealing with life's challenges. For the mentor, it can be incredibly rewarding to know that they have had a significant influence on a child and helped to give the best possible (4)..........in life. Indeed, it is not only adults who are capable of taking on this role. There is now an increasing (5)..........for teenagers to mentor young children, for example by helping them with reading or other school work.

(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:
One of the major problems in the art world is how to distinguish and promote an artist. In effect, a market must be created for an artist to be successful. The practice of signing and numbering individual prints was introduced by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, the nineteenth- century artist best known for the painting of his mother, called “Arrangement in Grey and Black”, but known to most of us as “Whistler’s Mother”. Whistler’s brother-in-law, Sir Francis Seymour Haden, a less well-known artist, had speculated that collectors might find prints more attractive if they knew that there were only a limited number of copies produced. By signing the work in pencil, an artist could guarantee and personalize each print.
As soon as Whistler and Haden began the practice of signing and numbering their prints, their work began to increase in value. When other artists noticed that the signed prints commanded higher prices, they began copying the procedure.
Although most prints are signed on the right-hand side in the margin below the image, the placement of the signature is a matter of personal choice. Indeed, prints have been signed within image, in any of the margins, or even on the reverse side of the’print. Wherever the artist elects to sign it, a signed print is still valued above an unsigned one, even in the same edition.

Which of the following would be a better title for the passage?

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:
The cause of tooth decay is acid, which is produced by bacteria in the mouth. The acid removes minerals from tooth enamel, allowing tooth decay to begin; the saliva in your mouth encourages remineralization and neutralizes the acid. The rate at which bacteria in the mouth produce acid depends on the amount of plaque on the teeth, the composition of the microbial flora, and whether the bacteria of the plaque have been "primed" by frequent exposure to sugar. To keep your teeth healthy, a regular dental hygiene program should be followed.
Removing plaque with a toothbrush and dental floss temporarily reduces the numbers of bacteria in the mouth and thus reduces tooth decay. It also makes the surfaces of the teeth more accessible, enabling saliva to neutralize acid and remineralize lesions. If fluoride is present in drinking water when teeth are forming, some fluoride is incorporated into the enamel of the teeth, making them more resistant to attack by acid. Fluoride toothpaste seems to act in another way, by promoting the remineralization of early carious lesions.
In addition to a regular dental hygiene program, a good way to keep your teeth healthy is to reduce your intake of sweet food. The least cavity-causing way to eat sweets is to have them with meals and not between. The number of times you eat sweets rather than the total amount determines how much harmful acid the bacteria in your saliva produce. But the amount of sweets influences the quality of your saliva. Avoid, if you can, sticky sweets that stay in your mouth a long time. Also try to brush and floss your teeth after eating sugary foods. Even rinsing your mouth with water is effective. Whenever possible, eat foods with fiber, such as raw carrot sticks, apples, celery sticks, etc., that scrape off plaque, acting as a toothbrush. Cavities can be greatly reduced if these rules are followed when eating sweets.

We can infer from the passage that one benefit of fluoride to healthy teet

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Incredible Shrinking Microchips
There is a popular old saying that “bigger is better”. Although this may be true in some regards, the exact opposite often applies in technology. As electronic components get smaller, it allows companies to manufacture tinier devices with more features. Thus began the never-ending quest to create the smallest microchips on the planet. Yet as these vital electronic components get smaller, they are also getting stronger and clever inventors are finding new ways in which to use them to do incredible things. Currently, the biggest limitation microchip producers face when trying to reduce chips’ size is the copper wires that provide electrical current throughout the chip. Although they can be made smaller, this can cause a whole host of problems such as melting and overheating. Thanks to the work of a few scientists from the UK though, this problem may soon be a thing of the past. Their solution is getting rid of the copper wiring altogether and using carbon nanotubes instead. Not only would this allow for smaller sizes but it would also increase the power that microchips can generate. In the end, this would translate into smaller and more powerful devices much to the delight of consumers all over the world. Corporate powerhouse Intel® has announced plans to create a line of tiny, low power chips that can be used in bracelets, smart watches, and other tiny devices. The chips will be called Intel® Quark, and they are being designed primarily to fit in biomedical devices. A key selling point to biomedical technology is that the devices have to be nonintrusive because people don’t want to carry around heavy equipment to monitor their health. If they can do this, Intel® will likely find several tablet and smartphone manufacturers who are willing to corporate Quark microchips into their devices. In a somewhat unusual project, researchers are working on a special microchip that will serve as miniature human organs in experiments. These “organ” chips could be used to test different medicines and study diseases. If realized, the technology could put an end to the use of lab mice and other animals for testing. Everyone from the largest pharmaceutical companies to the US military has shown interest in the project. Currently, the research team in charge of the project believes that within five years the organ chips will be used in practical research. It goes to show that thinking small often produces the biggest results.
3. What might nanotubes do?

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
It’s in Your Genes
Every human being has about 25,000 genes. Your genes are part of your DNA. They give your body instructions on how to develop. For example, if your genes tell your body to build long, thin fingers, then you will have long, thin fingers. Your genes come from your parents, and they decide everything about you. They decide your hair colour, your eye colour, your height, and so on. Genes are still a bit of a mystery to scientists, but they are learning new things about them all the time. One issue that people often debate is this: Do our genes influence our personalities? These days, most people agree that the answer to this question is yes. Recent studies have shown that genes especially influence our self-control and our sense of purpose. Your sense of purpose is your desire to have goals in your life. If a person really wants to accomplish something and do well in life, he or she has a sense of purpose. A person who does not care about goals has no sense of purpose. Although scientists agree that our genes influence our personalities, there is another question. How much do they influence us? Can we control ourselves, or do our genes control us? People everywhere are still debating this issue. So far, we don’t really have an answer. Genes also affect your health. If a gene has a problem, it is called a mutated gene. Some mutated genes can cause diseases. That is why if a person has a certain health problem, his or her child is more likely to have that same problem. The child also has the mutated gene. As scientists and doctors learn more about genes, they are also developing a new kind of medicine: gene therapy. Therapy is help for a mental or a physical problem. Gene therapy means fixing or replacing mutated genes. Scientists are still experimenting on gene therapy. It is possible that in the future, gene therapy will help doctors prevent and cure diseases that are caused by mutated genes.
3. The word “them” in paragraph 2 refers to __________

Read a text about some young people who write for a TV show and decide if the following statements are True, False or Not Given.

Teen writers on TV hit Catch

Dan Finelli is a normal teenager from North London; he goes to school, enjoys hanging out with his mates and only occasionally misses his classes. But Dan also happens to be a writer for the popular teen drama, Catch. The second series starts this week and the one-hour episode that Dan wrote, his very first for the show, will be on screen later in the year. This will make him one of the youngest writers of a peak-time drama ever.

'What's great about Catch is that the characters are exactly like the people around you,' says Dan, who also plays the part of Computer Chris in the show. 'When I'm at school and one of my friend says something funny, I write it down in my notebook and use it later in the script. I never tell them I'm doing it. I just want it to sound as real as possible,' Dan adds.

Catch is about the lives of a group of 16-18-year-olds in a sixth-form college. The school doesn't really exist, but the whole show does feel very true to life. There's an episode every week and each one concentrates on an individual member of the group and tells his or her story.

The idea for the programme came from an unusual source, a father-and-son pair of writers, Ken Thomas and his son, Callum. They took their idea to a TV company and were very surprised when the company said they were keen to make it. Now, Ken and Callum are central members of the writing team but in order to build that team, Ken had to go to theatre companies and writing groups all over London to find both writers and teens to advise on the stories.

Catch is about a group of teenagers at a real college.

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
The Most Convenient Way to Shop
Do you do a lot of online shopping? For millions of people, it is a wonderful way to purchase the things they want without having to leave their homes. Online shopping is not very old. The first online shopping company was created in 1991. However, the idea of shopping from home has existed for a very long time. Many years ago, people shopped with mail-order catalogues. A catalogue is a very thin magazine that is full of advertisements, and then they mailed their order back to the company. A few weeks later, their product arrived. Because people ordered their products through the mail, they were called “mail-order” catalogues. After that, shopping television shows became popular. These TV shows introduced products to people watching at home. People who wanted to buy something called the company and placed the order. This is called home shopping. Now we have online shopping. Online shoppers go online and look at web sites. When they find something they want, they place an order with the web site. They usually pay with a credit card or with virtual currency. Online shopping is changing shopping. Millions of people buy things online every day. The biggest effect of online shopping is on stores. As more people buy things online, more stores are shutting down. After all, why should you go to a store if you can buy things from home? The main advantage of online shopping is convenience. You can buy almost anything from anywhere in the world, and a week later the product will be in your house. Also, other customers write reviews of products. You can read these reviews and decide whether or not you want to buy the product. The big disadvantages are the loss of jobs from store closing, and the fact that you can’t examine an item closely before you buy it. After online shopping, what do you think will come next?
5. The phrase “_shutting down_” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to _________.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to each of the following questions:
There was no alternative for them but to look for a new flat

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
You should come visit the Jungle Cafe, Macau's newest spot for family (1)-------. You (2)------- a true jungle adventure, the cafe is designed to look and sound as if you are inside a tropical rainforest: vines hang from the ceilings, monkeys screech, and gorgeous tropical fish swim in huge aquariums placed on almost every wall surface. Children will love the "jungle thunderstorms" that take place periodically .The overhead "sky" darkens, thunder roars, and lightning flashes across the ceiling, just like a genuine thunderstorm, And, (3)------ the realistic special effects, no one gets wet!

Choose the best answer:
You must explain your problems …………....

The ______ wanted to reduce the breadth of the games, with many events currently having small fields and weak competition.

(437)______

PGD Bank strives ---131--- the highest levels of client security and service. This applies not only to online- and telephone-based services but also to our brick-and-mortar locations. Our three branch offices have proudly been a part of the community ---132--- a combined total of 40 years.
To assist you even better in the future, our Smithville branch will be temporarily closed for renovations from July 8-22. ---133---. In the meantime, our other two regional branches in Pine Grove and Bradford will maintain normal business ---134---.

131...................

Choose the best answer:
She's studying modern Japanese language and _______.

Choose the best answer:
The food is ……………

Though called by sweet-sounding names like Firinga or Katrina, tropical cyclones are huge rotating storms 200 to 2,000 kilometers wide with winds that blow at speeds of more than 100 kilometers per hour (kph). Weather professionals know them as tropical cyclones, but they are called hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea, typhoons in the Pacific Ocean, and cyclones in the Indian Ocean. They occur in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Large ones have destroyed cities and killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Tropical cyclones begin over water that is warmer than 27 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit) slightly north or south of the earth’s equator. Warm, humid air full of water vapor moves upward. The earth's rotation causes the growing storm to start to rotate around its center (called the eye). At the certain height, the water vapor condenses, changing to liquid and releasing heat. The heat draws more air and water vapor upward, creating a cycle as air and water vapor rise and liquid water falls. If the cycle speeds up until winds reach 118 kilometers per hour, the storm qualifies as a tropical cyclone.

Most deaths in tropical cyclones are caused by storm surge. This is a rise in sea level, sometimes seven meters or more, caused by the storm pushing against the ocean's surface. Storm surge was to blame for the flooding of New Orleans in 2005. The storm surge of Cyclone Nargis in 2008 in Myanmar pushed seawater nearly four meters deep some 40 kilometers inland, resulting in many deaths.

 According to the passage, a storm surge is________.

Choose the best answer:
"______," the secretary proposed.