I would like to extend my gratitude to all the staff for their ______ support, without which our company couldn't have overcome the crisis.
(151)__________

Choose the best answer:
Australia/ the/ has/ to/ visitors/ Viet Nam/ smallest/ in/ of/ number/ 2002.

Rewrite sentences without changing the meaning
I close friend gave me a wonderful present on my birthday.

Choose the best answer:
The novel is based on his ________ in the war.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Until recently, most American entrepreneurs were men. Discrimination against women in business, the demands of caring for families, and lack of business training had kept the number of women entrepreneurs small. Now, however, businesses owned by women account for more than $40 billion in annual revenues, and this figure is likely to continue rising throughout the 1990s. As Carolyn Doppelt Gray, an official of the Small Business Administration, has noted, "The 1970s was the decade of women entering management, and the 1980s turned out to be the decade of the woman entrepreneur". What are some of the factors behind this trend? For one thing, as more women earn advanced degrees in business and enter the corporate world, they are finding obstacles. Women are still excluded from most executive suites. Charlotte Taylor, a management consultant, has noted, "In the 1970s, women believed if they got an MBA and worked hard they could become chairman of the board. Now they've found out that isn't going to happen, so they go out on their own." In the past, most women entrepreneurs worked in "women's" fields: cosmetics and clothing, for example. But this is changing. Consider ASK Computer Systems, a $22-million- a-year computer software business. It was founded in 1973 by Sandra Kurtzig, who was then a housewife with degrees in math and engineering. When Kurtzig founded the business, her first product was software that let weekly newspapers keep tabs on their newspaper carriers and her office was a bedroom at home, with a shoebox under the bed to hold the company's cash. After she succeeded with the newspaper software system, she hired several bright computer-science graduates to develop additional programs. When these were marketed and sold, ASK began to grow. It now has 200 employees, and Sandra Kurtzig owns $66.9 million of stock. Of course, many women who start their own business fail, just as men often do. They still face hurdles in the business world, especially problems in raising money, the banking and finance world is still dominated by men, and old attitudes die hard. Most businesses owned by women are still quite small. But the situation is challenge, there are likely to be many more Sandra Kurtzigs in the years ahead.
1. What is the main idea of this passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Mickey Mouse was not Walt Disney’s first successful cartoon creation, but he is certainly his famous one. It was on a cross-country train trip from New York to California in 1927 that Disney first drew the mouse with the big ears. Supposedly, he took his inspiration from the tame field mice that used to scamper into his old studio in Kansas City. No one is quite sure why he dressed the mouse in the now- familiar shorts with two buttons and gave him the yellow shoes. But we do know that Disney had intended to call him Mortimer until his wife Lillian intervened and christened him Mickey Mouse. Capitalizing on the interest in Charles Lindsborg, Disney planned Mickey’s debut in the short cartoon Plane Crazy, with Minnie as a co-star. In the third short cartoon, Steamboat Willie, Mickey was whistling and singing through the miracle of the modern soundtrack. By the 1930s Mickey’s image had circled the globe. He was a superstar at the height of his career. Although he has received a few minor changes throughout his lifetime, most notably the addition of white gloves and the alterations to achieve the rounder forms of a more childish body, he has remained true to his nature since those first cartoons. Mickey is appealing because he is nice. He may get into trouble, but he takes it on the chin with a grin. He is both good-natured and resourceful. Perhaps that was Disney’s own image of himself. Why else would he have insisted on doing Mickey’s voice in all the cartoons for twenty years? When interviewed, he would say: “There is a lot of the mouse in me.” And that mouse has remained one of the most pervasive images in American popular culture.
1. The word "those" in the third paragraph refers to: 

Choose the best answer:
I feel so _______ because there's nothing I can do to make the youngster better.

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Traveling in the Future
These days, if you want to travel from New York to Beijing, the flight takes about 16 hours. You also have to wait at the airport, and sometimes you have to transfer onto a different airplane. If you add all of that extra time, the trip takes at least 20 hours. But in the future, the trip from New York to Beijing might only take two hours. Right now, a private company is developing something called ET3. ET3 stands for “evacuated tube transport technology”. Here is how it works. A tube goes all the way from New York to Beijing. The tube is only a few meters wide. Capsules move through the tube. Six people can sit in one capsule. The capsules use electricity instead of gasoline. For international travel, the capsules can travel at about 6,500 kilometers per hour. That is much faster than airplane – most modern airplanes usually only fly at about 800 kilometers per hour. So how is this possible? How can these capsules travel so fast? The answer is that there is no air inside the tube. When airplanes fly, they have to move through the air. The air slows the airplanes down. Because there is no air in the ET3 tubes, the capsules are able to move at a very high speed. Besides, the capsules are quite light. They only weigh 183 kilograms. There are other advantages to ET3. Because it uses electricity, it is quite clean. In addition, it is much quieter than airplanes and cars. Finally, ET3 tubes and capsules don’t require very much building material. Of course, ET3 doesn’t exist yet. The technology is still being developed. Developers still have to solve a lot of problems. The biggest problem is that right now, ET3 would be far too expensive. In order to make ET3 cheaper, we will need much better technology. It is exciting to think of how ET3 will change travel in the future. Maybe someday, you will be able to have lunch in New York and dinner in Beijing.
1. Which of the following is NOT true about travelling at present?

Choose the best answer:
‘Each of you may have one piece of candy,’ Mrs. Jones said to the children.

Choose the best answer:
The cartoon has ____________ characters.

Rewrite sentences without changing the meaning
It is possible that she will come to our party tonight.

Some places you might want to see in Britain are Scotland Yard, Madame Tussaud’s, (1) _______ the British Museum. You can find out about London’s famous criminals in the Black Museum at Scotland Yard, the home of London’s Metropolitan Police. At Madame Tussaud’s, you’ll see eerily (2) _______, life-size wax figures of pop idols and historic figures. A great thing to see at the British Museum is the collection of mummies, tomb (3) _______, and gold jewelry from ancient Egypt. The museum’s Egyptian collection is (4) _______ of the largest in the world. For a good (5) _______ of London, take a ride in the London Eye. This enormous wheel takes you 443 feet (5 meters) above the London skyline. Unlike a traditional Ferris wheel, the London Eye carries its passengers in enclosed compartments.

(47)_________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
It's only 36 centimeters tall, but to fans throughout the world, it represents the highest achievement in football. Every four years, teams from all over the globe compete to take home the FIFA World Cup Trophy, yet nobody ever does. Do you know why? Nobody ever takes it home because the 18-carat gold trophy is kept under lock and key by FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association). The champions of each World Cup tournament receive only a replica. This is to protect the valuable prize from thieves, who have stolen the World Cup trophy twice in its 75-year history. The little trophy has certainly had a troubled existence. The original trophy was made by a French sculptor, Abel LaFleur, and was called the "Jules Rimet Cup," in honor of the founder of the World Cup tournament. Sometime during the first three World Cup events (1930, '34 and '38), the name changed to simply the "World Cup." Then during World War II, not much was seen or heard of the trophy. It was being kept hidden in a shoe box under the bed of Dr. Ottorino Barassi, the Italian vice-president of FIFA, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Nazi army. Although the trophy made it safely through the war, it didn't fare so well during the turbulent 1960s. In 1966, the Cup was stolen during a public showing of the trophy prior to the World Cup tournament in England. Luckily, it was found a short time later none the worse for wear in a trash container, by a little dog named Pickles. Four years later, Brazil earned permanent possession of the original trophy by winning its third World Cup title. Unfortunately, the trophy was stolen a second time, in 1983, and was never recovered. The Brazilian Football Association had to have a duplicate trophy made. After the first trophy became the possession of Brazil's football association, a new World Cup Trophy for FIFA was designed by an Italian artist, Silvio Gazazniga, in 1974. This trophy cannot be won outright, but remains in the possession of FIFA, and rest assured they are keeping a close eye on it. Today, World Cup winners are awarded a replica of the trophy that is gold-plated, rather than solid gold like the real one. Gazazniga's World Cup trophy weighs almost five kilograms. Its base contains two layers of a semi-precious stone called malachite, and has room for 17 small plaques bearing the names of the winning teams -enough space to honor all the World Cup champions up to the year 2038. After that, a new trophy will have to be made.
4. Which is true about Gazazniga's World Cup trophy?

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word or phrase that is OPPOSITE meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions.
There are one or two similarities between my country and the UK, but on the whole they are so disparate that it is difficult to find any common ground

Next week new payment processing terminals will be installed at each sales register in Macaw stores located in St.Thomas. Payment   System 4.0 ---139--- in our stores in Puerto Rico for several months. So far, no issues with the system have been reported by ---140--- customers or managers there. ---141---. It is faster and handles more transaction types than the current payment system. It also eliminates the need for ---142--- verification of transactions under $25.00.

139...................

Choose the best answer:
Ms. Black and Ms. White are talking about Mr. Brown’s upcoming retirement.

Ms. Black: “Mr. Brown is going to retire next month.”

Ms. White: “ _______________”.

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Frozen Fitness
A man stands over a bathtub that is filled with ice. Although it is the middle of winter, he slowly slides into the tub and submerges his body underneath the water. Within seconds, he begins to shiver, but after a few minutes he is able to settle down. Despite the temperature, he will remain in the tub for the next 30 minutes. He is taking advantage of cold thermogenesis, a growing trend that could improve people’s health. Thermogenesis is an internal process that mammals undergo to generate heat when they are subjected to cold temperatures. In modern society, humans rarely requires this ability because we have heated homes and offices during the winter season. Recent studies, however, indicate that by doing so we could be missing out on some wonderful health benefits. Being subjected to cold temperatures regularly has been shown to boost men’s testosterone levels. It also boosts metabolism, which allows people to burn fat more efficiently. Some people have reported that cold thermogenesis also provides a mental lift once you have overcome the initial shock of the cold water. The positive effects of thermogenesis were known before, but it only started to become popular after the 2008 Olympics. One man who helped spark this craze was Ray Cronise, a NASA scientist and entrepreneur. He was reading an article that reported Michael Phelps ate 12,000 calories per day while training. The calories were so high that led him to believe that something else besides exercise was helping Phelps to stay thin and muscular: the icy water in the swimming pool. So he conducted his own experiment by drinking several glasses of ice water and exposing himself to cold water. After six weeks of this regiment, he had lost 30 pounds. There are several routines that a person can adopt if they are interested in starting their own thermogenesis routine. One method is ice baths. This method may be a bit too drastic for average people though. Instead, people may want to begin by dunking their face in cold water for a few seconds, and then gradually increase the time. Next, they can progress to cold showers and baths before moving on ice baths. An even more convenient way is to place an ice packet on the back of your neck for 15 to 20 minutes every evening. Although these methods may be extreme, many are willing to give them a go to improve their health
7.  What does the author advise most people to do when starting thermogenesis?

Choose the best answer:
In team sports, the two teams ______ against each other in order to get the better score.

Choose the best answer:
We can communicate with friends by ______of e-mail

Choose the best answer:
If you ask __________ people, they will tell you the way to Gobi Highlands

The design is not impressive. The big column makes the living room ugly.
(142)_____