Many of the most damaging and life-threaling types of weather-torrential rains, severe thunderstorms, and tornadoes-begin quickly, strike suddenly, and dissipate rapidly, devastating small regions while leaving neighboring areas untouched. One such event, a tornado, struck the northeastern section of Edmonton, Alberta, in July 1987. Total damages from the tornado exceeded $250 million, the highest ever for any Canadian storm. Conventional computer models of the atmosphere have limited value in predicting short-live local storms like the Edmonton tornado, because the available weather data are generally not detailed enough to allow computers to discern the subtle atmospheric changes that precede these storms. In most nations, for example, weather balloon observations are taken just once every twelve hours at locations typically separated by hundreds of miles. With such limited data, conventional forecasting models do a much better job predicting general weather conditions over large regions than they do forecasting specific local events.

Until recently, the observation-intensive approach needed for accurate, very short range forecasts, or “Nowcasts”, was not feasible. The cost of equipping and operating many thousands of conventional weather stations was prohibitively high, and the difficulties involved in rapidly collecting and processing the raw weather data from such a network were insurmountable. Fortunately, scientific and technological advances have overcome most of these problems. Radar systems, automated weather instruments, and satellites are all capable of making detailed, nearly continuous observation over large regions at a relatively low cost. Communications satellites can transmit data around the world cheaply and instantaneously, and modern computers can quickly compile and analyzing this large volume of weather information. Meteorologists and computer scientists now work together to design computer programs and video equipment capable of transforming raw weather data into words, symbols, and vivid graphic displays that forecasters can interpret easily and quickly. As meteorologists have begun using these new technologies in weather forecasting offices, Nowcasting is becoming a reality.

What does the passage mainly discuss?

     

Read the following passage and mark A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each  of the blanks.

Modern industry pollutes, and it also seem to cause significant changes to the climate. What is needed is an industry that (41)_________ the benefits without the costs. And the glimmerings of such an industry can now be (42)_________ .
That industry is based on biotechnology. At the moment, biotech‟s main uses are in medicine and agriculture.  However,  its  biggest  long  term impact maybe industrial.  Biotechnology will  (43)_________ demand for oil by taking the cheapest raw materials imaginable, carbon dioxide and water, and using them to make fuel and plastics.
Plastics and fuels made in this way would have several advantages. They can be called “renewable”, (44)_________ nothing is depleted to make them. They would be part of the natural carbon cycle, borrowing    that element from the atmosphere for a few months, and returning it when they were burned or (45)_________ . That means they could not possibly contribute to global warming. They would also be environmentally friendly in other ways.
All in all, the future could be green in ways that traditional environmentalists had not expected.
(41)........................

Read the text below and decide which answer (A,B,C, or D) best fits each space.
Tattooing is an old art. In ancient Greece, people who had tattoos were regarded  asmembers of the (16)____classes. On the other hand, tattooing was  (17)_____in Europe by the early Christians, who thought that it was a sinful  thing to(18) .It was not until the late 18th century, when Captain Cook  saw South Sea Islander decorating their bodies with tattoos that attitudes began  to change. Sailors came back from these islands with pictures of Christ on their  backs and from then on, tattooing (19)_____in popularity. A survey by the  French army in 1881 (20)_____that among the 387 men (21)_______ there were  1,333 designs. Nowadays, not everybody finds tattoos acceptable. Some people  thing that getting one is silly because tattoos are more or less permanent. There  is also some (22)_____about (23)_____ a blood disease from unsterilized needles. Even for those who do want a tattoo, the (24)_____of getting one is not  painless, but the final result, in their eyes, is (25)______the pain. 

25......................

In “Cerealizing America”, Scott Bruce and Bill Crawford remark that the cereal  industry uses 816 million pounds of sugar per year. Americans buy 2.7 billion  packages of breakfast cereal each year. If (1) _______ end to end, the empty  cereal boxes from one year's consumption would (2) _______ to the moon and back. One point three (1.3) million advertisements for cereal are broadcast on  American television every year at a(n) (3) _______ of $762 million for airtime.  Only automobile manufacturers spend more money on television advertising  than the makers of breakfast cereal. (4) _______ of the boxed cereals found in  supermarkets contain large amounts of sugar and some contain more than 50%  sugar. Cereal manufacturers are very clever in their marketing, making many  cereals appear much healthier than they really are by “fortifying” them with vitamins and minerals. Oh, (5) ______ – you now have vitamin-fortified sugar! Before you eat any cereal, read the ingredient list and see how (6) _______  sugar appears on the ingredient list. Then check the “Nutrition facts” panel. 
There are actually only a small handful of national commercially-branded cereals  that are made (7) _______ whole grains and are sugar-free. If you shop at a health  food store instead of your local supermarket, you (8) _______ to find a healthy,  whole grain, sugar-free (or very low sugar) cereal. But (9) _______! Some of the  health food store boxed cereals are sweetened with fruit juice or fructose.  Although this may be an improvement (10) _______ refined white sugar, this can  really skyrocket the calories. 

2....................

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 31 to 35.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the world was becoming more aware of the destructive effects of industry (31)________ the environment and people were starting to think seriously about ways of protecting the environment. One man who was particularly affected by this subject was Gerard Morgan-Grenville. As Morgan-Grenville travelled round earning his living as a gardener, he noticed signs of the damage that was being done to the countryside around him. It wasn't long before Morgan-Grenville decided that he had to do something about this situation. He felt that if people could be shown a better way of living then maybe they would be interested enough to try to protect their (32)________ environment.
Mr. Morgan-Grenville decided to set up a   project (33)________ would prove what was happening  to our surroundings and what could be done about it. So, in 1975, Morgan-Grenville created the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in a village in Wales.
The main aim of CAT is to search for an ecologically better way of living by using technology which (34)________ no harm to the environment. One of the most important things CAT did initially was to explore  and demonstrate a wide range of techniques and to point out which ones had the least destructive results on the world around us. (35)________ , CAT provides information and advice to people all over Britain and all over the world. If more and more individuals are informed about how much damage our modern lifestyle is causing to the planet, maybe more of them would be prepared to look for practical solutions to environmental problems.
(35).....................

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

It is often said that books are always good friends … (1)… reading is an active mental process. … (2)… TV, books make you use your brain. By reading, you think more and become smarter. Reading improves concentration and focus. Reading books takes brain power. It requires you to focus … (3)… what you are reading for long periods. Unlike magazines, Internet posts or e-Mails that might contain small …(4)… of information. Books tell the whole story". Since you must concentrate in order to read, you will get better at concentration. Many studies show if you do not use your memory; you lose it. Reading helps you …(5)… your memory muscles. Reading requires remembering details, facts and figures and in literature, plot lines, themes and characters.

(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.

   Telecommuting is a form of computer communication between employees’ homes and offices. For employees whose jobs involve sitting at a terminal or word processor entering data or typing reports, the location of the computer is of no consequence. If the machine can communicate over telephone lines, when the work is completed, employees can dial the office computer and transmit the material to their employers. A recent survey in USA Today estimates that there are approximately 8,7 million telecommuters. But although the numbers are rising annually, the trend does not appear to be as significant as predicted when Business Week published “The Portable

   Executive” as its cover story a few years ago. Why hasn’t telecommuting become more popular ?

   Clearly, change simply takes time. But in addition, there has been active resistance on the part of many managers. These executives claim that supervising the telecommuters in a large work force scattered across the country would be too difficult, or, at least, systems for managing them are not yet developed, thereby complicating the manager’s responsibilities.

   It is also true that employees who are given the option of telecommuting are reluctant to accept the opportunity. Most people feel that they need regular interaction with a group, and many are concerned that they will not have the same consideration for advancement if they are not more visible in the office setting. Some people feel that even when a space in their homes is set aside as a work area, they never really get away from the office.

When Business Week published “ The Portable Executive “, it implied that___________.

Course numbers are an indication of which courses are to various categories of students at the University. Undergraduate courses with the numbers 100 or 200 are generally introductory courses appropriate for freshmen or sophomores, whereas courses with the numbers 300 or 400 often have prerequisites and are often to juniors and seniors only. Courses with the numbers 800 or above are open only to graduate students. ​Certain graduate courses, generally those devoted to introductory material, are numbered 400 for undergraduate students who qualify to take them and 600 for graduate students. Courses designed for students seeking a professional degree carry a 500 number for undergraduate students and a 700 number for graduate students. Courses numbered 99 or below are special interest courses that do not carry academic credit. If students elect to take a special interest course, it will not count toward the number of hours needed to complete graduation requirements.
Full - time undergraduate student is expected to take courses that total twelve to eighteen credit hours. A full-time graduate student is expected to take courses that total ten to sixteen credit hours. Student holding assistantships are expected to enroll for proportionately fewer hours. A part - time graduate may register for minimum of three credit hours. An overload, that is, more than the maximum number of hours, may be taken with the approval of an academic advisor. To register for an overload, students must submit the appropriate approval form when registering. Overloads above 24 hours will not be approved under any circumstances.

Which classification of students would be eligible to enroll in Mechanical Engineering 850?

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 1 to 5.
BOOKS
Nearly all the discoveries that have been made through the ages can (1)________ in books. The invention of the book is one of humankind’s (2)________ achievements,  the importance of which can not be evaluated. Books are very useful, providing us with both entertainment and information. The production of books began in Ancient Egypt, though not in the form that is accessible to us today. The books read by Romans, (3)________ , have some similarities to the ones we read now. Until the middle of the 15th century, in Europe, all books were written by hand. They (4)________ often beautifully illustrated and always rare and expensive. With printing came the possibility of cheap, large publication and distribution of book making (5) ________ more widespread and reliable.
(4)..........................

Read the following passage and mark A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the blanks from 6 to 10.
Some years ago, my daughter was studying English at a university on the south coast. One evening, she phoned to (6)_________ me that what she really wanted to do was a travel round the world, (7)_________ she was looking into the possibility of working in another country. She had seen several advertisements in the paper for student teachers of English abroad, and she was interested in one in Italy, (8)_________ she was desperate to visit.
She decided that this would be a good way to achieve her ambition, so she was writing to apply for the job. The reply (9)_________ a long time to arrive, but eventually she received a letter asking if she would go for an interview in London the following week. She was so excited that she immediately got in touch with the school owner and agree to attend the interview . She was determined that nothing would prevent her (10)_________ doing what she had set out to do.
(10)...................

There are books with fairy tails in many countries. Often the same stories are known and repeated in many languages. Some of the things that happens in these stories are remarkable, although not as remarkable as things that are truly happening in medicine and science today.
Most fairy tails begin with “Once upon a time” and end with “They lived happily ever after”, so we will begin in the same way.
Once upon a time there was a girl calls Cinderella who did all the work in the kitchen while her lazy sister did nothing.
One night, her sister went to a ball at the palace. Cinderella was left home, very sad. After a time her fairy godmother appeared and told Cinderella that she could go to the ball- but to return home by midnight.
So she went to the ball in a beautiful dress in a wonderful coach. She danced with the prince but at midnight she ran back home, leaving one of her shoes on the floor. The prince wanted to see her again and went to every house in the capital until he found that the shoe was the right size for Cinderella. She and the price were married and lived happily ever after.

Books with fairy are found in ________________.

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.

   Marianne Moore (1887-1972) once said that her writing could be called poetry only because there was no other name for it. Indeed her poems appear to be extremely compressed essays that happen to be printed in jagged lines on the page. Her subjects were varied: animals, laborers, artists, and the craft of poetry. From her general reading came quotations that she found striking or insightful. She included these in her poems, scrupulously enclosed in quotation marks, and sometimes identified in footnotes. Of this practice, she wrote, "Why many quotation marks?" I am asked ... When a thing has been so well that it could not be said better, why paraphrase it? Hence, my writing is, if not a cabinet of fossils, a kind of collection of flies in amber." Close observation and concentration on detail and the methods of her poetry.

   Marianne Moore grew up in Kirkwood, Missouri, near St. Lois. After graduation from Bryn Mawr College in 1909, she taught commercial subjects at the Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Later she became a librarian in New York City. During the 1920’s she was editor of

   The Dial, an important literary magazine of the period. She lived quietly all her life, mostly in Brooklyn, New York. She spent a lot of time at the Bronx Zoo, fascinated by animals. Her admiration of the Brooklyn Dodgers-before the team moved to Los Angeles-was widely known.

   Her first book of poems was published in London in 1921 by a group of friends associated with the Imagist movement. From that time on her poetry has been read with interest by succeeding generations of poets and readers. In 1952 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her Collected Poems. She wrote that she did not write poetry for money or fame. To earn a living is needful, but it can be done in routine ways. One writes because one has a burning desire to objectify what it is indispensable to one's happiness to express.

Where did Moore spend most of her adult life?

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.

   The countryside of Britain is well known for its beauty and many contrasts: its bare mountains and moorland, its lakes, rivers and woods, and its long, often wild coastline. Many of the most beautiful areas are national parks and are protected from development. When British people think of the countryside they think of farmland, as well as open spaces. They imagine cows or sheep in green fields enclosed by hedges or stone walls, and fields of wheat and barley. Most farmland is privately owned but is crossed by a network of public footpaths.

   Many people associate the countryside with peace and relaxation. They spend their free time walking or cycling there, or go to the country for a picnic or a pub lunch. In summer people go to fruit farms and pick strawberries and other fruit. Only a few people who live in the country work on farms. Many commute to work in towns. Many others dream of living in the country, where they believe they would have a better and healthier lifestyle.

   The countryside faces many threats. Some are associated with modern farming practices, and the use of chemicals harmful to plants and wildlife. Land is also needed for new houses. The green belt, an area of land around many cities, is under increasing pressure. Plans to build new roads are strongly opposed by organizations trying to protect the countryside. Protesters set up camps to prevent, or at least delay, the building work.

   America has many areas of wild and beautiful scenery, and there are many areas, especially in the West in states like Montana and Wyoming, where few people live. In the New England states, such as Vermont and New Hampshire, it is common to see small farms surrounded by hills and green areas. In Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and other Midwestern states, fields of corn or wheat reach to the horizon and there are many miles between towns.

   Only about 20% of Americans live outside cities and towns. Life may be difficult for people who live in the country. Services like hospitals and schools may be further away and going shopping can mean driving long distances. Some people even have to drive from their homes to the main road where their mail is left in a box. In spite of the disadvantages, many people who live in the country say that they like the safe, clean, attractive environment. But their children often move to a town or city as soon as they can.

   As in Britain, Americans like to go out to the country at weekends. Some people go on camping or fishing trips, others go hiking in national parks.

According to the passage, all of the following are true EXCEPT ______

Read the following passage and mark A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the blanks from 46 to 50.
University researchers have taken samples from a preserved dodo specimen in an (46)         to uncover the extinct bird‟s family tree. They worked with the British Natural History Museum to collect and study genetic material from large number of specimens: a preserved dodo, the extinct solitaire bird, and 35 kind of living pigeons and doves. Their analysis (47)           the doo and the solitaire to be close relatives with the Nicobar pigeon, their nearest living relative. The dodo lived on Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. It was a flightless bird, bigger than a turkey. By 1681, all dodos had been (48)      by hungry sailors. The    solitaire, which looked a bit like a dodo, had gone the same way by 1800. By extracting short pieces of the dodo‟s DNA and (49)        these with the DNA of living birds, the scientists were able to deduce when the dodo evolved away from its relatives into a separate entity. The scientists can now (50)       assume that the dodo developed its distinctive appearance and features as a result of its geographical isolation. They are now convinced that it separated from the solitaire about 25 million years ago, long before Mauritius became an island.
(49).................

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 following questions.

Let children learn to judge their own work. A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time. If corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the language he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people's. In the same way, children learn all the other things they learn to do without being taught - to talk, run, climb, whistle, ride a bicycle - compare their own performances with those of more skilled people, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his mistakes for himself, let alone correct them. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake unless it was pointed out to him, or correct it unless he was made to. Soon he becomes dependent on the teacher. Let him do it himself. Let him work out, with the help of other children if he wants it, what this word says, what the answer is to that problem, whether this is a good way of saying or doing this or not.

If it is a matter of right answers, as it may be in mathematics or science, give him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers waste time on such routine work? Our job should be to help the child when he tells us that he can't find the way to get the right answer. Let's end all this nonsense of grades, exams, and marks. Let us throw them all out, and let the children learn what all educated persons must someday learn, how to measure their own understanding, how to know what they know or do not know.

Let them get on with this job in the way that seems most sensible to them, with our help as school teachers if they ask for it. The idea that there is a body of knowledge to be learnt at school and used for the rest of one's life is nonsense in a world as complicated and rapidly changing as ours. Anxious parents and teachers say, “But suppose they fail to learn something essential, something they will need to get on in the world?" Don't worry! If it is essential, they will go out into the world and learn it.

The passage suggests that learning to speak and learning to ride a bicycle are ______.

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

It is often said that books are always good friends … (1)… reading is an active mental process. … (2)… TV, books make you use your brain. By reading, you think more and become smarter. Reading improves concentration and focus. Reading books takes brain power. It requires you to focus … (3)… what you are reading for long periods. Unlike magazines, Internet posts or e-Mails that might contain small …(4)… of information. Books tell the whole story". Since you must concentrate in order to read, you will get better at concentration. Many studies show if you do not use your memory; you lose it. Reading helps you …(5)… your memory muscles. Reading requires remembering details, facts and figures and in literature, plot lines, themes and characters.

(1)............................

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 1 to 5.
Hospitality
Hospitality - looking after visitors - is universal but in different cultures hostsare (1)       to receive guests in different ways.
In much of the ancient world it was the custom to provide passing travellers with food and water. Today some old customs have (2)      . In a traditional Japanese household, if a guest admires a particular object in the house, the host will want to give it to the guest straight away. And in parts of Russia guests are greeted with bread and salt on a special cloth.The guest is (3)        to kiss them and hand them back to the host. Sometimes the guest breaks off a small piece of bread, dips it in the salt and eats it.
In some countries, when foreign guests arrive from abroad, they may feel they have been given a particularly (4)        meal. But this is probably because the host politely offers more and more food and drink and the guest is too embarrassed to (5)      anything down.
(1)....................

Read the passage below and decide whether the statements are TRUE or FALSE?

When a child learns to read and write, he must access the schema developed in his brain. As he reads, the child creates pictures in his mind and uses imagination and points of reference to put the story together. Television images do not go through a complex symbolic transformation. The mind does not have to decode and manipulate during the television experience. Watching television and playing video games do not develop a child's skills in word recognition, decoding, vocabulary, spelling or high-level thinking. The connection between television's effects on children's reading abilities and the decline in their writing skills is clear: there is no question in the minds of educators that a student who cannot read with the true comprehension will never learn to write well. Writing, after all, is book talk, and you only learn book talk by reading. It has been shown that reading stimulates brain activity. While reading, we imagine settings, characters and we become part of the world of the story. Conversely, it has been shown that watching television prevents brain activity. Children who watch too much television are less socially developed and have problems maintaining concentration. Reading, instead of watching television, enriches our lives, develops the imagination, and intellect, and is less brain deadening. Reading is good for us, it makes one a better person.

Watching too much TV can be separated from the society and cause obstacles in maintaining concentration.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.

A scientist said robots will be more intelligent than humans by 2029. The scientist's name is Ray Kurzweil. He works for Google as Director of Engineering. He is one of the world's (1)______ experts on artificial intelligence (A.I.). Mr Kurzweil believes computers will be able to learn from experiences, just like humans. He also thinks they will be able to tell jokes and stories, and even flirt. Kurzweil's 2029 prediction is (2)______ sooner than many people thought. The scientist said that in 1999, many A.I. experts said it would be hundreds of years before a computer was more intelligent than a human. He said that it would not be long before computer intelligence is one billion times more powerful than the human brain.

Mr Kurzweil joked that many years ago, people thought he was a little crazy (3)______ predicting computers would be as intelligent as humans. His thinking has (4)______ the same but everyone else has changed the way they think. He said: "My views are not radical any more. I've actually stayed consistent. It's the (5)______ of the world that's changing its view." He highlighted examples of high-tech things we use, see or read about every day. These things make us believe that computers have intelligence. He said people think differently now: "Because the public has seen things like Siri [the iPhone's voice-recognition technology] where you talk to a computer; they've seen the Google self-driving cars."

(2) ______

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.
The position of sport in today‟s society has changed out of all regconition. People no longer seem to think of sport as “just a game” – to be watched or played for the (21)_________ of enjoyment. Instead, it has become big business worldwide. It has become accepted practice for loading companies to provide sponsorship. TV companies pay large sums of money to screen important matches or competitions. The result has been huge financial rewards for athletes, some of (22)_________ are now very wealthy, particularly top footballers, golfers and tennis players. (23)_________ , it is not unusual for some athletes to receive large fees on top of their salary, for advertising products or making personal appearances.
A trend towards shorter working hours means that people generally tend to have more free time, both to watch and to take part in sporting activity; sport has become a significant part of the recreation industry that we now rely (24)_________ to fill our leisure hours. Professional sport is a vital part of that industry, providing pleasure for millions of (25)_________ people all over the world.
(21).................

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 1 to 5.
Hospitality
Hospitality - looking after visitors - is universal but in different cultures hostsare (1)       to receive guests in different ways.
In much of the ancient world it was the custom to provide passing travellers with food and water. Today some old customs have (2)      . In a traditional Japanese household, if a guest admires a particular object in the house, the host will want to give it to the guest straight away. And in parts of Russia guests are greeted with bread and salt on a special cloth.The guest is (3)        to kiss them and hand them back to the host. Sometimes the guest breaks off a small piece of bread, dips it in the salt and eats it.
In some countries, when foreign guests arrive from abroad, they may feel they have been given a particularly (4)        meal. But this is probably because the host politely offers more and more food and drink and the guest is too embarrassed to (5)      anything down.
4()....................