In the mid - nineteenth century, the United States had tremendous natural resources that could be exploited in order to develop heavy industry. Most of the raw materials that are valuable in the manufacture of machinery, transportation facilities, and consumer goods lay ready to be worked into wealth. Iron, coal, and oil - the basic ingredients of industrial growth - were plentiful and needed only the application of technical expertise, organizational skill, and labor.

One crucial development in this movement toward industrialization was the growth of the railroads. The railway network expanded rapidly until the railroad map of the United States looked like a spider's web, with the steel filaments connecting all important sources of raw materials, their places of manufacture, and their centers of distribution. The railroads contributed to the industrial growth not only by connecting these major centers, but also by themselves consuming enormous amounts of fuel, iron, and coal.

Many factors influenced emerging modes of production. For example, machine tools, the tools used to make goods, were steadily improved in the latter part of the nineteenth century - always with an eye to speedier production and lower unit costs. The products of the factories were rapidly absorbed by the growing cities that sheltered the workers and the distributors. The increased urban population was nourished by the increased farm production that, in turn, was made more productive by the use of the new farm machinery. American agricultural production kept up with the urban demand and still had surpluses for sale to the industrial centers of Europe.

The labor that ran the factories and built the railways was recruited in part from American farm areas where people were being displaced by farm machinery, in part from Asia, and in part from Europe. Europe now began to send tides of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe - most of whom were originally poor farmers but who settled in American industrial cities. The money to finance this tremendous expansion of the American economy still came from European financiers for the most part, but the American were approaching the day when their expansion could be financed in their own " money market".

Which of the following in NOT true of United States farmers in the nineteenth century?

Each sentence has a mistake. Find it bychosing A B C or D

When oil or coal is burnt, a great number of smoke that contains some kinds of acid is produced

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The majority of Americans can live comfortable lives on the salaries they earn, without the support of a universal public-welfare system. These so-called middle-class Americans generally own their own homes and cars, spend some time each year on vacation, and can pay – at least in part - for a college education for their children. Most Americans set (1) _______ money in savings accounts to help pay major expenses; many invest in the stock market in hopes of earning a healthy return on their investments.  Most buy insurance, especially life and medical insurance, frequently with contributions (2) _____ the companies for which they work. Many companies also have retirement plans which they and their employees put aside money for their retirement pensions. When added to Social Security payments, pensions (3) _______ many tired Americans to live comfortably. On the other hand, for older Americans who require longterm care outside of a hospital, a nursing home can be very expensive. In 1993, a family of four with a yearly income of $14,763 or less was considered poor by American standards; 15.1 percent of American families fell into this category. In addition to the benefits discussed above, many families below the (4) ________line receive welfare payments, sums of money provided by the government each month to those whose income is too low to obtain such necessities as food, clothing and shelter. The most common form of welfare payment has been through a program called Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC). Originally (5) _______to help children whose fathers had died, AFDC evolved into the main source of regular income for millions of poor American families

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
If you want to spend your time effectively, you can try the following tips. First, make a to-do list every day. Put the most important tasks at the top, even if  they’re things you’re dreading, and tackle them first. Include things you want to do on your list too, so you have items you’re looking forward to. Try motivating yourself with a reward if you get to everything on your list.  Once you know what you need to do, keep your work with you. That way, if you find yourself with extra time – while in the train or bus or waiting for an appointment – you can get something done.  Additionally, don’t be afraid to say no. It’s OK to say no if your friend asks you to go to a movie one night but you have a test the next morning. Instead, find a time that works for both of you and go to see the movie then.  Managing your time also includes finding you productive time. Are you a morning person or a night person? You’ll be more efficient of you work when you’re at your best.  Last but not least, create a dedicated study time. Set up a time devoted only to studying or homework. Shut off you phone and respond to calls or texts when your work is finished. Don’t check email or surf the web (except when you need to for the work you’re doing) during this time either. 
3. According to the passage, dating with friends also means ___________________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The climate crisis is poised to deliver a severe blow to America’s most threatened animals, with a new study finding that almost every species considered endangered is vulnerable in some way to global heating. Of the 459 animal species listed as endangered by the US government, researchers found that all but one, or 99.8%, have characteristics that will make it difficult for them to adapt to rising temperatures. The California condor, once close to being completely wiped out, faces increased risk of contamination in hotter conditions. Key deer, found only in the Florida Keys, face losing habitat to the rising seas. Whole classes of animals including amphibians, mollusks and arthropods are sensitive to the greatest number of climate-related threats, such as changes in water quality, shifting seasons and harmful invasive species that move in as temperatures climb. Mammals, such as the north Atlantic right whale and Florida panther, also face increased hardships, albeit on fewer fronts than amphibians, mollusks and arthropods.  Despite the overwhelming peril faced by America’s endangered species due to the climate crisis, the report, published in Nature Climate Change, found a patchy response from the US government. Federal agencies consider just 64% of endangered species to be threatened by the climate crisis, while just 18% of listed species have protection plans in place. Astrid Caldas, a study co-author and a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists said: “While agencies have increasingly listed climate change as a growing threat to species whose survival is already precarious, many have not translated this concern into tangible actions, meaning a significant protection gap still exists.” Nearly half of Australian species are threatened by the climate crisis, researchers have found. A spokesman for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the endangered species list, said that while a species may be sensitive to changes in the climate, this sensitivity may not be so severe as to warrant being put on the list. “Our process for determining this looks at five factors: threats to a species’ habitat, overutilization, disease or predation, existing regulatory mechanisms, and other factors that may affect its continued existence,” he said. “Through this scientifically rigorous process we examine and account for the effects of climate change.  
7. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Would you believe that your diet can make a big difference in keeping a youthful appearance? It seems strange to think that the food we take in could result in fewer wrinkles. Wouldn’t it be better to put things on our skin rather than in our mouths? Well, according to one scientific theory, our bodies start aging because of oxidation. This is caused by certain oxygen-containing molecules in our cells, called free radicals. Free radicals have the capability to attach to and damage parts of our cells, including our DNA. Our bodies have the ability to repair this damage. However, as we get older, these repair mechanisms start to break down, resulting in signs of aging, such as wrinkles. Free radicals are actually produced by our bodies, but their numbers can also increase because of the food we eat. Besides avoiding foods that could potentially produce more free radicals, eating foods that contain certain vitamins and micro-nutrients can also keep us looking young. These vitamins help produce molecules called antioxidants, which actually help reduce the production of free radicals. Even better, foods containing antioxidants are not rare. Common antioxidants, like vitamins A and E, can be found in many dark-colored vegetables. For example, carrots, seaweed, spinach, and broccoli are all excellent sources of these helpful vitamins. Also, you can eat orange-colored fruits like apricots and peaches. Vitamins A and E are particularly good for helping your skin remain young-looking. These nutrients strengthen your skin and make it soft. However, if you really want to stock up quickly on nutrients that benefit your skin, you should eat cow’s liver. One small piece of cooked cow’s liver contains twice as much vitamin A as half a cup of cooked carrots.  More recently, green tea has also been tentatively added to the list of youthpromoting substances. Research on green tea’s effects on our bodies is still in the early stages. Scientists certainly believe that it is good for us, but they are cautious about predicting its ability to keep us looking youthful. However, recent experiments seem to show that green tea’s antioxidant properties can repair cell damage already sustained as well as prevent damage in the future. In fact, green tea works even better if you apply it directly to your skin as an ingredient in facial cream. “You are what you eat.” The more we find out about how our bodies work, the more this old proverb seems to be true. Think about that the next time you sit down at the table.  
1. Which of the following could best reflect the author’s main purpose in the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The Moon is the Earth’s only natural satellite and was formed 4.6 billion years ago  around some 30–50 million years after the formation of the solar system. Science has told us so (1) ____ about the Moon that it is fairly easy to imagine what it would be like to go there. It is certainly not a friendly place. As there is no air or water, there can be no (2) ____ of any kind. There is no variety of scenery (3) ____ . For mile after mile there are only flat plains of dust with mountains around them. Above, the Sun and stars shine in a black sky. If you step out of the mountain shadows, it will (4) ____ moving from severe cold into great heat. This extreme (5) ____ continually breaks rocks away from the surface of the mountains. The Moon is also a very silent world, for sound waves can only travel through air. But beyond the broken horizon, you see a friendly sight, our earth is shining more brightly than the stars. From this distance, it looks like an immense ball, colored blue and green and brown.  

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Most households in the UK will have a broadband connection and a lot of those  houses will also have experienced connection or speed issues. But what if there was a way to connect to the internet and benefit from a direct connection with much faster speeds? Enter Li-Fi.  Li-Fi stands for Light Fidelity and is a Visible Light Communications (VLC) system which runs wireless communications that travel at very high speeds. With Li-Fi, your light blub is essentially your router. It uses common household LED light bulbs to enable data transfer, boasting speeds of up to 224 gigabits per second.  Li-Fi and Wi-Fi are quite similar as both transmit data electromagnetically. However, Wi-Fi uses radio waves, while Li-Fi runs on visible light waves. This means that it accommodates a photo-detector to receive light signals and a signal processing element to convert the data into “streamable” content. For example, data is fed into an LED light bulb, it then sends data at rapid speeds to the photo-detector. The tiny changes in the rapid dimming of LED bulbs is then converted by the “receiver” into electrical signal. The signal is then converted back into a binary data stream that we would recognise as web, video and audio applications that run on internet-enabled devices.  While some may think that Li-Fi with its 224 gigabits per second leaves Wi-Fi in the dust, Li-Fi’s exclusive use of visible light could halt a mass uptake. Li-Fi signals cannot pass through walls, so in order to enjoy full connectivity, capable LED bulbs will need to be placed throughout the home. Not to mention, Li-Fi requires the light bulb is on at all times to provide connectivity, meaning that the lights will need to be on during the day. Additionally, where there is a lack of light bulbs, there is a lack of Li-Fi internet so Li-Fi does take a hit when it comes to public Wi-Fi networks.  However, using Li-Fi instead of Wi-Fi, you’ll negate lots of security problems associated with shared and often overloaded broadband networks. It will also be advantageous in areas where radio frequency waves do not reach. Due to its impressive speeds, Li-Fi could make a huge impact on the internet of things too, with data transferred at much higher levels with even more devices able to connect to one another. 
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Learning shouldn’t end when you reach a certain point in your career; it should be something you continuously pursue across your lifetime. As you mature, your areas of interest may change. Perhaps your personal and career goals may morph into something altogether different than what you originally intended. In some cases, life happens and you might find it necessary to take a break from your career or your education. But for people with a strong desire for lifelong learning, this pause is only temporary. Even though you may have begun an educational program and needed to take a pause later, it’s never too late to go back and finish what you started. People in modern age have more options to gain the knowledge they want and need. From a higher education standpoint, universities and colleges are working hard to transform themselves in different ways. For example, there has been a transition from traditional Ph.D.-style doctorates to applied doctorates like the Doctorate in Strategic Intelligence or Doctorate in Global Security. These academic programs have their students work to address real-world problems of practice. In this manner, they take the education they receive in their classes and work to apply it within the fields in which they are currently employed or hope to work in. In addition, some universities now offer dual degree programs, such as the dual master’s degree in emergency and disaster management and homeland security. Some institutions are also starting to provide accelerated degrees to allow their students to rapidly advance from a B.A. to an M.A., saving those students time and money on their educational pursuits. However, lifelong learning doesn’t just encompass full degree programs. With employers focusing on skillset development, there is an increasing desire for short program offerings as well. “Short programming” includes sets of courses that lead to a specific credential or badge. For instance, ASIS International offers a series of certifications, related to security and global studies, which can be used to add value to your professional portfolio. Another relevant certification is the Certified Threat Manager (CTM) certification offered by the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals. Short programming involves learning tracks, competency-based micro-credentials or stackable credentials. In some cases, certificates are perceived to be more valuable as they signal that their owner has current knowledge of a particular area; however, this perception differs from field to field
8. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Hidden beneath the waves of the Tyrrhenian Sea near southwestern Italy lies a newfound volcanic mosaic dotted with geothermal chimneys and flat-topped seamounts. This complex is new to both science and the planet, geologically speaking; it’s only about 780,000 years old. Scientists aren’t particularly surprised to find volcanism in the region, which is home to active volcanoes like Mount Vesuvius and Mount Etna. But the new complex is unusual because it was created by a rare kind of fault, said study leader Fabrizio Pepe. The western Mediterranean is seismically restless because of the collision of three tectonic plates: the African, the Eurasian and the Anatolian. Making matters more complex is a small chunk of crust called the Adriatic-Ionian microplate, which broke off of the African Plate more than 65 million years ago and is now being pushed under the larger Eurasian Plate in a process called subduction. Previously, scientists discovered a series of undersea volcanic arcs created by this tectonic unrest, starting near the Sardinian coast, with increasingly younger arcs southward and eastward. These arcs were like an arrow pointing ever farther eastward, prompting Pepe and his colleagues to search for an even younger arc about 9 miles off the coast of Calabria. There, based on seafloor mapping, seismic data and magnetic anomalies, the researchers found a 772-square-mile region of lava flows, volcanic mountains and hydrothermal chimneys; vents in the seafloor allow hot minerals to spew out and form chimney-like structures. They dubbed the new area the Diamante‐Enotrio‐Ovidio Volcanic‐Intrusive Complex, after three flat-topped seamounts that dominate the seafloor. Those fractures are what allowed magma to rise to the surface at the Diamonte-EnotrioOvidio complex, creating an undersea landscape of lava flows and mountainous volcanoes. These volcanic seamounts are now plateaus because they protruded from the ocean when the sea level was lower, and they eroded into their present, flat-topped shape, Pepe said. The volcanic complex is inactive, but there are small intrusions of lava in some parts of the seafloor there. However, the area could become active in the future, Pepe said, and active volcanism is ongoing on the eastern side of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The researchers are working to build a volcanic risk map of the complex to better understand if it could endanger human life or property. They are also investigating the possibility of tapping the complex to produce geothermal energy.  
7. The word “tapping” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to _______

 Choose the best answer:
There are about 3,000 plants __________ values as medicines against cancer, AIDS, heart disease and many other sicknesses.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Perfectly smart adults feel intimidated by numbers and aren’t ashamed to say, “I hate math.” The new book “Math Art” could help change that by making the dreaded topic relevant and accessible to naturalists, artsy types, the philosophically inclined, and committed calculators alike. It illuminates an old lesson your math teachers probably tried to convey when you were a kid: Math dominates our lives even while we try with all our might to ignore it. In Math Art, released in April, science writer Ornes examines creative works inspired by math. It’s an aesthetically pleasing book with a delightfully tactile cover and satisfyingly thick and glossy pages that make it as fun to flip through as a fashion magazine. Chapters are dedicated to different concepts like pi, the golden ratio, equations in nature, and hyperbolic geometry. All of which may sound scary to the uninitiated but gain appeal when illustrated through sculpture, crochet, and painting. As Ornes explains in the introduction, math art isn’t new. Since ancient times, humans have visualized math in creative works. He argues that what is new is the mutual recognition that mathematicians and artists now show each other, increasingly gathering together at events dedicated to the intersection of aesthetics and numbers. “This is art by way of math and math by way of art, beauty at the crossroads,” Ornes writes.  His exploration begins with pi, the irrational mathematical constant 3.14159, plus some, ad infinitum. Pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, represents mystery itself. Because the sequence never repeats, pi hints at the vastness of the universe. “It speaks to a world without bounds, since its digits go on forever,” Ornes explains. Pi is used for calculations in math and physics, and employed by math artist John Sims to make music, videos, drawings, paintings, quilts, clothing, and stories. Sims created and taught a math curriculum for students at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, and has spent much of his career at the intersection of math and creativity. In Ornes’ book, he explains how he’s also used this fascination to connect with other people he might not otherwise meet, such as the Amish quilters who joined him to make pi quilts with each colored panel representing a number in the mathematical sequence.  
8. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

Each sentence has a mistake. Findit by chosing A B C or D

Technicians are examining the missile to determined why it didn’t fire

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Parents usually decide on given names for their children before they are born. In some  families the oldest boy is given the same name as his father. In the US the word junior or senior, or a number, is added after the name and surname to make (1) ____ clear which persons is being referred to. For example, the son of William Jones Sr (Senior) (2) ____ be called William Jones Jr (Junior), and his son would be called William Jones III (“William Jones the third”).  Many popular names come from the Bible, e.g. Jacob, Joshua, Matthew, Mary, Rebecca and Sarah, (3) ____ this does not imply that the people who choose them are (4) ____. Other people give their children the name of somebody they admire, such as a famous sports personality, or a film or pop star. In Britain, the name William and Harry became common again after the sons of Prince Charles were given these names. In the US Chelsea was not a common name for a girl (5) _____President Bill Clinton’s daughter Chelsea came to public attention

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
You’ll be able to purchase high-quality emotions online. Emotion-sharing experiences  are the latest fad in 2045. Imagine your friend at Glastonbury can post a photo on Instagram and with it comes bundled a faint twinkling of what she was feeling right there in that moment, so you too can share emotionally in her social experience.  Recently, techniques for direct brain stimulation, like opt genetics, have made it possible to not only read but also write information into single neurons. At the moment data transfer rates are still very slow, the best we can do is a few bits per second, but this could well increase to kilobits or maybe reach broadband speeds by 2045. This means the range of human perception could expand beyond its current design limitations. One could foresee a new and extraordinary world where there is a virtual marketplace for trading high quality emotions – where artists looking for a particularly high strength brew of melancholy, or actors needing to channel regret or compassion for their next play, could purchase emotions online.  Our cities will be made from living, dynamic materials that respond to the environment. In 30 years, tall buildings made of glass and twisted steel will be seen as relics from a bygone era, in the same way we think now of 1970s concrete tower blocks: ugly, outdated and unfit for contemporary purpose. The urban environment of 2045 blends architecture with living materials that are mouldable, adaptable, responsive and disposable.  Entirely new synthetic life forms, or biological machines, made of engineered living cells from bacteria, fungi and algae will grow and evolve with the changing needs of a building’s inhabitants. They breathe in pollutants, clean wastewater, and use sunlight to make useful chemicals, energy, heat and vibrant vertical gardens. We will start to see a convergence between biology and technology, to the point where there is no longer a perceptible difference between the two. Today, synthetic biology labs are looking at the full diversity of what nature has to offer and using this to mix, match and edit genomes to design synthetic life forms. Right now, this field is just getting started and the science of synthetic biology is going to be tougher than most will admit.  We will use invisibility cloaks to “disappear” ugly objects. Invisibility has forever been a tantalizing prospect. The key to cloaking lies in the way the electromagnetic spectrum  (including visible light) interacts with objects. The human eye picks up electromagnetic radiation that falls and scatters from objects and we perceive this as light. In recent decades, scientists figured out using mathematics that it might just be possible to imagine a new class of artificial materials made of intricate tiny features with light bending properties. They named them metamaterials.  Using nanotechnology engineering, scientists have since shown cloaking actually works – in principle at least, for a narrow range of colours and only from certain viewing angles. The future applications of cloaking are highly uncertain and will likely be determined by the fads and social contagion of the time. They may be used in everything from novelty gimmicks to making unsightly construction sites and power stations seemingly ‘disappear’.   
5. The word “perceptible” in the third paragraph is closest in meaning to ______

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Don’t look now, but artificial intelligence is watching you. Artificial intelligence has tremendous power to enhance spying, and both authoritarian governments and democracies are adopting the technology as a tool of political and social control. Data collected from apps and websites already help optimize ads and social feeds. The same data can also reveal someone’s personal life and political leanings to the authorities. The trend is advancing thanks to smartphones, smart cameras, and more advanced AI. An algorithm developed at Stanford in 2017 claimed to tell from a photograph whether a person is gay. Accurate or not, such a tool creates a new opportunity for persecution. “Take this type of technology, feed it to a citywide CCTV surveillance system, and go to a place like Saudi Arabia where being gay is considered a crime,” says Lisa Talia Moretti, a digital sociologist. “Suddenly you’re pulling people off the street and arresting them because you’re gay, because the computer said so.”  No country has embraced facial recognition and AI surveillance as keenly as China. The AI industry there has flourished thanks to fierce competition and unrivaled access to personal data, and the rise of AI is enabling tighter government control of information, speech, and freedoms. In some Chinese cities, facial recognition is used to catch criminals in surveillance footage, and to publicly shame those who commit minor offenses. Most troubling, AI is being used in Xinjiang, a province in Western China, to persecute Muslims. Even if China’s AI capabilities are exaggerated, the AI boom there is having a chilling effect on personal freedom, says Ian Bremmer, an expert on global political risk and founder of the Eurasia Group. “You just need a government that is starting to get that capacity and make it known, and have a few people that are sort of strung up as examples, and suddenly everyone is scared,” he says. This might feel like a distant reality, but similar tools are being developed and used in the West. Just ask Glenn Rodriguez, who faced judgment from an algorithm when seeking parole from prison in the US. Despite 10 years of good behavior, Rodriguez saw how an algorithm called COMPAS, designed to predict inmates’ likelihood of reoffending, would be biased against him. And even though the parole board went against the computer program’s  
7. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Carols were first sung in Europe thousands of years ago, but these were not Christmas Carols. They were pagan songs, sung at the Winter Solstice celebrations as people danced round stone circles. Carols used to be written and sung during all four seasons, but only the tradition of singing them at Christmas has really survived. Early Christians took over the pagan solstice celebrations for Christmas and gave people Christian songs to sing instead of pagan ones. However, not many people liked them as they were all written and sung in Latin, a language that the normal people couldn’t understand. This was changed by St. Francis of Assisi when, in 1223, he started his Nativity Plays in Italy. The people in the plays sang songs or ‘canticles’ that told the story during the plays. Sometimes, the choruses of these new carols were in Latin; but normally they were all in a language that the people watching the play could understand and join in! The new carols spread to France, Spain, Germany and other European countries. The earliest carol, like this, was written in 1410. Sadly only a very small fragment of it still exists. Most Carols from this time and the Elizabethan period are untrue stories, very loosely based on the Christmas story, about the holy family and were seen as entertaining rather than religious songs. They were usually sung in homes rather than in churches! Traveling singers or Minstrels started singing these carols and the words were changed for the local people wherever they were traveling. Before carol singing in public became popular, there were sometimes official carol singers called ‘Waits’. These were bands of people led by important local leaders who had the only power in the towns and villages to take money from the public. Also, at this time, many orchestras and choirs were being set up in the cities of England and people wanted Christmas songs to sing, so carols once again became popular. New carols services were created and became popular, as did the custom of singing carols in the streets. Both of these customs are still popular today! One of the most popular types of Carols services are Carols by Candlelight services. At this service, the church is only lit by candlelight and it feels very Christmassy! Carols by Candlelight services are held in
countries all over the world.
2. The word “them” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _______

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Rains that are almost biblical, heat waves that don’t end - there’s been a change in the weather lately. What’s going on? Extreme weather is an unusual weather event such as rainfall, a drought or a heat wave in the wrong place or at the wrong time. In theory, they are very rare. But these days, our TV screens are constantly showing such extreme weather events. Take just three news stories from 2010: 28 centimetres of rain fell on Rio de Janeiro in 24 hours, Nashville, USA, had 33 centimetres of rain in two days and there was record rainfall in Pakistan. The effects of this kind of rainfall are dramatic and lethal. In Rio de Janeiro, landslides followed, burying hundreds of people. In Pakistan, the floods affected 20 million people. Meanwhile, other parts of the world suffer devastating droughts. Australia, Russia and East Africa have been hit in the last ten years. And then there are unexpected heat waves, such as in 2003 in Europe. That summer, 35,000 deaths were said to be heat-related. Peter Miller, a National Geographic columnist, says what is happening to our weather is probably a mixture of numerous factors. On the one hand, the most important influences on weather events are natural cycles in the climate. Two of the most famous weather cycles, EI Nino and La Nina, originate in the Pacific Ocean. The heat from the warm ocean rises high into the atmosphere and affects weather all around the world. On the other hand, the temperature of the Earth’s oceans is slowly but steadily going up. And this is a result of human activity. We are producing greenhouse gases that trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. This heat warms up the atmosphere, land and oceans. Warmer oceans produce more water vapour - think of heating a pan of water in your kitchen. Turn up the heat, it produces steam more quickly. Satellite data tells us that the water vapour in the atmosphere has gone up by four percent in 25 years. This warm, wet air turns into the rain, storms, hurricanes and typhoons that we are increasingly experiencing. Climate scientist, Michael Oppenheimer, says that we need to face the reality of climate change. And we also need to act now to save lives and money in the future
1. The article says extreme weather is ________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
In 2018 the Tchaikovsky Competition celebrated its 60th anniversary. While many things have changed in the country, in the world and in the people, the art of music has been showing its amazing vital power helping the performing art go through difficult times and contributing to its amazing ability to revive. It appears that the history of the Tchaikovsky Competition can be divided into three periods which in the terms of a well-known critic can be defined as the rise, the soaring and the descent. The rise refers to the first three Competitions (1958, 1962 and 1966) when the structure of the Competition was formed (the First Competition comprised two categories, the Second – three and the Third – four categories). The competition jury was a pool of renowned cultural figures. Under the special focus were the amazingly talented competitors and they exceeded all expectations. The winner of the piano contest of the I Competition became Van Cliburn, a US piano player who just after finishing his first program items became the object of admiration and a legend that was passed down in Russia and America for generations. His impressive performance was something that couldn’t be judged only from the professional point of view; our listener’s perception was almost irrational. Also, for long we remembered by names the other piano players taking part in the I Competition. Truly, Toyoaki Matsuura and Daniel  Pollack were brilliant virtuosos, if not genius. Besides, both Daniel Pollack and Van Cliburn studied under Rosina Levina, a famous Russian educator, i.e. they were kindred spirits for Russians. What was happening gave an impression of something truly exceptional and unmatched, and this was proved to be true during the many years of the Tchaikovsky Competition in the future. The II Competition was also truly amazing. In the piano category won Vladimir Ashkenazi, the Soviet virtuoso piano player, and an eccentric Englishman John Ogdon. In the violin contest the winner was Leningrad native Boris Gutnikov who had won all the competitions in which he had participated. At the III Competition there was a sensation: a Leningrad native 16-year-old Grigory Sokolov while not being considered by the critics as the most likely winner won the first prize in the piano contest; his charmingly fresh musicality and magical pianism turned the jury’s opinion in his favor despite the dissatisfaction of the Moscow audience over the jury’s choice.  
5. According to paragraph 3, which statement is NOT correct about the people’s relationship?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Human’s avarice for ivory has resulted in thousands of unfathomable elephant atrocities and senseless suffering that has pushed the species to the brink of extinction. In 2015, the U.S. and China announced they will work together to enact a near complete ban on the import and export of ivory. As an industry that has largely been driven by China and, if substantiated, these claims could be a ray of light for one of the most endangered animals in the kingdom. However, as the famous saying goes, “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” With the worldwide attention on elephant ivory, hippo teeth, which can grow up to three-feet-long, have become the next target. Since the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species officially imposed a ban on ivory trading in 1990, about 30,000 pounds per year of hippo teeth have been exported from Africa. On a recent trip to Kenya, I had the unfortunate displeasure of meeting these facts face-to-face. On the banks of the Mara River, the infamous transient point of the great wildebeest migration, I met a Conservancy Ranger, a local Kenyan, named Ivan. He led me along a narrow path above the riverbed to view pods of hippos. They clumped together in the river, every few minutes lifting their heads above the waterline to welcome my arrival. Despite their label as one of the most dangerous animals in Africa, they were playful to watch. Their tiny ears and eyes would appear from the murky river and then, with a splash, they would disappear. The river is everything to the hippo, Ivan explained, it is their lifeline. The only real time they leave the river is during their nightly ritual of traveling to nearby plains to consume grasses. Contrary to their aggressiveness, they are vegetarians. As we neared the end of our trek, we reached the Mara Bridge, spanning the divide between Kenya and Tanzania. An undeniable stench filled the air. Our gaze fell to the water beneath the structure, and as if to mark the metaphorical significance of the passage, lay a poached hippo. It had been killed the previous night, probably as it grazed unsuspectingly under the cover of darkness. They had found spear punctures in its body, and its teeth were missing. It had somehow, in unthinkable pain, made its way back to the river, its home, to die.
6. The word “aggressiveness” in the third paragraph be best replaced by ______.