Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Chichen-Itza is protected by the 1972 Federal Law on Monuments and Archaeological, Artistic and Historic Zones and was declared an archaeological monument by a presidential decree in 1986. The site remains open to the public 365 days of the year, and received a minimum of 3.500 tourists per day, a number which can reach 8.000 daily visitors in the high season. This means that the site needs constant maintenance and attention in order to avoid deterioration of its pre-hispanic fabric. Yucatan is the only state in Mexico where two institutions are involved in the management of archaeological sites: the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), which is in charge of the care and conservation of the archaeological site, and the other is Board of Units of Cultural and Tourism Services of the State of Yucatan. Medium and long-term activities at Chichen-Itza, including investigation, conservation, thematic interpretation, administration and operation of the site, are addressed in the “Management Plan of the Pre-hispanic City of Chichen-Itza”. The purpose of the Plan is to articulate and coordinate the activities at the site, especially those geared towards the mise en valeur of the property and the generation of participation of the different sectors involved in the management, including the general public. No emergency plan exists for the site and there is no long term monitoring of the state of conservation, due to lack of personnel. This puts the site at risk from natural and anthropogenic disasters, as well as from longer term degradation. Threats like fire and lime stone erosion have been highlighted. Sustainable implementation of the defined planning tools and the allocation of resources to conservation and management are necessary means to ensure the conservation of the Outstanding Universal Value of the property in the long term.
2. According to paragraph 1, why does the world renowned relics require continual preservation?

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If you go back far enough, everything lived in the sea. At various points in evolutionary history, enterprising individuals within many different animal groups moved out onto the land, sometimes even to the most parched deserts, taking their own private seawater with them in blood and cellular fluids. In addition to the reptiles, birds, mammals and insects which we see all around us, other groups that have succeeded out of water include scorpions, snails, crustaceans such as woodlice and land crabs, millipedes and centipedes, spiders and various worms. And we mustn’t forget the plants, without whose prior invasion of the land, none of the other migrations could have happened. Moving from water to land involved a major redesign of every aspect of life, including breathing and reproduction. Nevertheless, a good number of thoroughgoing land animals later turned around, abandoned their hard-earned terrestrial re-tooling, and returned to the water again. Seals have only gone part way back. They show us what the intermediates might have been like, on the way to extreme cases such as whales and dugongs. Whales (including the small whales we call dolphins) and dugongs, with their close cousins, the manatees, ceased to be land creatures altogether and reverted to the full marine habits of their remote ancestors. They don’t even come ashore to breed. They do, however, still breathe air, having never developed anything equivalent to the gills of their earlier marine incarnation. Turtles went back to the sea a very long time ago and, like all vertebrate returnees to the water, they breathe air. However, they are, in one respect, less fully given back to the water than whales or dugongs, for turtles still lay their eggs on beaches. There is evidence that all modern turtles are descended from a terrestrial ancestor which lived before most of the dinosaurs. There are two key fossils called Proganochelys quenstedti and Palaeochersis talampayensis dating from early dinosaur times, which appear to be close to the ancestry of all modern turtles and tortoise. You might wonder how we can tell whether fossil animals lived in land or in water, especially if only fragments are found. Sometimes it’s obvious. Ichthyosaurs were reptilian contemporaries of he dinosaurs, with
fins and streamlined bodies. The fossils look like dolphins and they surely lived like dolphins, in the water. With turtles it is a little less obvious. One way to tell is by measuring the bones of their forelimbs.
1. Which of the following best serves as the main idea for the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
One thing adults, and especially parents, don’t always understand is that friendships  are a key part of teenagers’ lives. As young people grow up and become more independent, the more (1) ____ to spend time out with friends. One typical problem is when parents decide to move to a new area because of work. This can be a very upsetting (2) ____ for teenagers. They are bound to feel lonely and this is likely to make them miserable, too. It may take some time for them to develop new relationships, so parents should be patient. They should also try to be (3) ____ about how much time teenagers spend with their friends. It is natural for teenagers to want to be out when they can. If they hear only criticism of their behaviour, it is likely to lead to a lot of (4) ____. Encourage teenagers to develop friendships with people they have something in common with. And remember that (5) ____ is the best policy when it comes to talking to teens on any subjects at all, including their friendships.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D)
Marianne Moore (1887-1972) once said that her writing could be called poetry only because there was no other name for it. (1)_______________ her poems appear to be extremely compressed essays that happen to be printed in jagged lines on the page. Her subject were (2)_____________: animals, laborers, artists, and the craft of 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, (3)____________ 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 (4)____________ 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 (5)_________ desire to objectify what it is indispensable to one’s happiness to express

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The “balance of nature” is not an empty phrase. Nature provides a population to  occupy a suitable environment and cuts down surplus on population to fit the available food supply. One means of reducing surplus population is predators; others are parasites and diseases. Also, population density produces nervous disorders and even drivers animals to mass migrations, like the lemmings of Norway who plunge into the sea.  That predator populations increase to control other animals has long been known. Many years ago, the Hudsons Bay Company records revealed that the fox population went up and down about a year after the rabbit population had gone up and down.  Sometimes a situation occurs in which the predator population is reduced to a level below that which nature can readily replace. On Valcour Island in Lake Champlain (New York), a costly campaign resulted in the elimination of predatory animals only to have birds and small animals (including grouse and hares, popular game) increase for four years afterward. Then, lacking predator control, nature resorted to disease to cut down on these populations.  Jamaica had an example of natures persistence in providing animals for existing habits. Sugar planters, about 75 years ago, imported mongooses to control rats. The mongooses killed off the rats and, with plentiful food, multiplied. Rats became scarce and the mongooses ate lambs, puppies, and wildlife. Eventually, food became scarce and the mongooses’ population declined.
4. When the mongooses in Jamaica killed off the rats, they ____

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
October brings attention to breast cancer, by raising awareness of treatment, research  and prevention. One local company is going a step above the rest, by offering a free home cleaning to a patient undergoing treatment. Cleaning for a Reason is an international organization that provides home cleanings for family members battling cancer.  “I am a breast cancer survivor myself, I was diagnosed in 2011. And so when I found out about this in 2014, after going through my experience of being extremely tired and just no energy at all to perform day to day tasks, that I realized this would be something that would greatly benefit the women in our community,” said Marlo Kanipe, owner of Deserved Comfort House Cleaning. The company partners with Cleaning for a Reason to provide the service locally.  Columbia native Lenora Floyd was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018, and learned about Cleaning for a Reason from a flyer. “I was sitting at the table and I thought ‘that’s really something that would be such a huge help!’ Because I do most of the cleaning around the house, and I didn’t really know what to expect,” said Floyd. Floyd said having a clean home lifted a burden while she was going through a tough time. “It was just really nice to have that service, and one less thing not to have to worry about. Be able to rest instead of thinking ‘oh, I really need to vacuum up,’” said Floyd. “The chemotherapy and radiation really just takes a toll on your body. When someone is going through those times, the last thing you want to do is to have to do physical work. And house cleaning, of course, is physical work,” said Kanipe. “It’s nice to be able to take one small thing off of their plate. That they don’t have to worry about cleaning or keeping their house clean,” said Nicka Evans, a certified cleaning technician with Deserved Comfort. “This is what I do for work, it doesn’t seem like it’s a big deal. But to be able to come into someone’s house and see that it is a big deal and it’s important to them, it really means a lot to me.”  Since partnering with Cleaning for a Reason in 2014, Deserved Comfort has donated about $15,000 worth of cleanings. They will continue to help and be there for people as they battle cancer.
8. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions:
It’s often said that we team things at the wrong time. University students frequently do the minimum of work because they’re crazy about a good social life instead. Children often scream before their piano practice 5 because it’s so boring. They have to be given gold stars and medals to be persuaded to swim, or have to be bribed to take exams. But the story is different when you’re older.
Over the years, I’ve done my share of adult learning. At 30, I went to a college and did courses in History and English. It was an amazing experience. For starters, I was paying, so there was no reason to be late - I was the one frowning and drumming my fingers if the tutor was late, not the other way round. Indeed, if I could persuade him to linger for an extra five minutes, it was a bonus, not a nuisance. I wasn’t frightened to ask questions, and homework was a pleasure not a pain. When I passed an exam, I had a big meal, not for my parents or my teachers. The satisfaction I got was entirely personal.
Some people fear going back to school because they worry that their brains have got rusty. But the joy is that, although some parts have rusted up, your brain has learnt all kinds of other things since you were young. It has learnt to think independently and flexibly and is much better at relating one thing to another. What you lose in the rust department, you gain in the maturity department.
In some ways, age is a positive plus. For instance, when you’re older, you get less frustrated. Experience has told you that, if you’re calm and simply do something carefully again and again, eventually you’ll get the hang of it. The confidence you have in other areas - from being able to drive a car, perhaps - means that if you can’t, say, build a chair instantly, you don’t, like a child, want to destroy your first pathetic attempts. Maturity tells you that you will, with application, eventually get there.
I hated piano lessons at school, but I was good at music. And coming back to it, with a teacher who could explain why certain exercises were useful and with musical concepts that, at the age of ten. I could never grasp, was magical. Initially, I did feel a bit strange, thumping out a piece that I’d played for my school exams, with just as little comprehension of what the composer intended as I’d had all those years before. But soon, complex emotions that I never knew poured out from my fingers, and suddenly I could understand why practice makes perfect.

The word “they” in paragraph 1 refers to     .

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
October brings attention to breast cancer, by raising awareness of treatment, research  and prevention. One local company is going a step above the rest, by offering a free home cleaning to a patient undergoing treatment. Cleaning for a Reason is an international organization that provides home cleanings for family members battling cancer.  “I am a breast cancer survivor myself, I was diagnosed in 2011. And so when I found out about this in 2014, after going through my experience of being extremely tired and just no energy at all to perform day to day tasks, that I realized this would be something that would greatly benefit the women in our community,” said Marlo Kanipe, owner of Deserved Comfort House Cleaning. The company partners with Cleaning for a Reason to provide the service locally.  Columbia native Lenora Floyd was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018, and learned about Cleaning for a Reason from a flyer. “I was sitting at the table and I thought ‘that’s really something that would be such a huge help!’ Because I do most of the cleaning around the house, and I didn’t really know what to expect,” said Floyd. Floyd said having a clean home lifted a burden while she was going through a tough time. “It was just really nice to have that service, and one less thing not to have to worry about. Be able to rest instead of thinking ‘oh, I really need to vacuum up,’” said Floyd. “The chemotherapy and radiation really just takes a toll on your body. When someone is going through those times, the last thing you want to do is to have to do physical work. And house cleaning, of course, is physical work,” said Kanipe. “It’s nice to be able to take one small thing off of their plate. That they don’t have to worry about cleaning or keeping their house clean,” said Nicka Evans, a certified cleaning technician with Deserved Comfort. “This is what I do for work, it doesn’t seem like it’s a big deal. But to be able to come into someone’s house and see that it is a big deal and it’s important to them, it really means a lot to me.”  Since partnering with Cleaning for a Reason in 2014, Deserved Comfort has donated about $15,000 worth of cleanings. They will continue to help and be there for people as they battle cancer.
3. According to paragraph 3, what was Lenora Floyd’s feeling toward the cleaning service?

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.
3. What does the word “substantiated” in the first paragraph mostly mean?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Taking piano lessons and solving math puzzles on a computer significantly improve specific math skills of elementary schoolchildren, according to a new study. The results, (1)______ were published in the journal Neurological Research, are the latest in a series that links musical training to the development of higher brain functions. Researchers worked with 135 second-grade students at a school in Los Angeles after (2)______ a pilot study with 102 students. Children that were given four months of piano training as well as time playing (3)______ newly designed computer software scored 27 percent higher on math and fraction tests than other children. Piano instruction is thought to enhance the brain's "hard wiring" for spatial-temporal reasoning, or the ability to visualise and transform objects in space and time, says Professor Gordon Shaw, who led the study. At the same time, the computer game allows children to solve geometric and math puzzles that boost their ability to (4)______ shapes in their mind. The findings are significant (5)______ a grasp of proportional math and fractions is a prerequisite to math at higher levels, and children who do not master these areas of math cannot understand more advanced math that is critical to high-tech fields.

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Every summer, when the results of university entrance exam come out, many newspaper stories are published about students who are top-scorers across the country. Most portray students as hard-working, studious, smart and, generally, from low-income families. They are often considered heroes or heroines by their families, communes, villages and communities. And they symbolise the efforts made to lift them, and their relatives, out of poverty. The students are often too poor to attend any extra-classes, which make their achievements more illustrious and more newsworthy. While everyone should applaud the students for their admirable efforts, putting too much emphasis on success generates some difficult questions. If other students look up to them as models, of course it’s great. However, in a way, it contributes to society’s attitude that getting into university is the only way to succeed. For those who fail, their lives are over. It should be noted that about 1.3 million high school students take part in the annual university entrance exams and only about 300,000 of them pass. What’s about the hundreds of thousands who fail? Should we demand more stories about those who fail the exam but succeed in life or about those who quit university education at some level and do something else unconventional? “I personally think that it’s not about you scoring top in an entrance exam or get even into Harvard. It’s about what you do for the rest of your life,” said Tran Nguyen Le Van, 29. He is the founder of a website, vexere.com, that passengers can use to book bus tickets online and receive tickets via SMS. His business also arranges online tickets via mobile phones and email. Van dropped out of his MBA at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona in the United States. His story has caught the attention of many newspapers and he believes more coverage should be given to the youngsters who can be role-models in the start-up community. Getting into university, even with honours, is just the beginning. "We applaud them and their efforts and obviously that can give them motivation to do better in life. However, success requires more than just scores," Van said. Van once told a newspaper that his inspiration also came from among the world’s most famous drop-outs, such as Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook or Bill Gates who also dropped out of Harvard University. Alarming statistics about unemployment continues to plague us. As many as 162,000 people with some kind of degree cannot find work, according to Labour Ministry’s statistics this month. An emphasis on getting into university does not inspire students who want to try alternative options. At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Training is still pondering on how to reform our exam system, which emphasises theories, but offers little to develop critical thinking or practice. Vu Thi Phuong Anh, former head of the Centre for Education Testing and Quality Assessment at Viet Nam National University in HCM City said the media should also monitor student successes after graduation. She agreed there were many success stories about young people, but added that it was imbalanced if students taking unconventional paths were not also encouraged. Viet Nam is, more than ever, in desperate need of those who think outside the box. Time for us to recognise talent, no matter where it comes from or how.
7. According to the fourth paragraph, what is TRUE about the modern exam system?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Insects’ lives are very short and they have many enemies but they must survive long enough to breed and perpetuate their kind. The less insect-like they look, the better their chance of survival. To look “inedible” by imitating plants is a way frequently used by insects to survive. Mammals rarely imitate plants, but many fish and invertebrates do. The stick caterpillar is well named. It is hardly distinguishable from a brown or green twig. This caterpillar is quite common and can be found almost anywhere in North America. It is also called “measuring worm” or “inchworm”. It walks by arching its body, then stretching out and grasping the branch with its front feet then looping its body again to bring the hind fed forward. When danger threatens, the stick caterpillar stretches its body away from the branch at an angle and remains rigid and still, like a twig, until the danger has passed. Walking sticks, or stick insects, do not have to assume a rigid, twig-like pose to find protection: they look like inedible twigs in any position. There are many kinds of walking sticks, ranging in size from the few inches of the North American variety to some tropical species that may be over a foot long. When at rest their front legs are stretched out, heightening their camouflage. Some of the tropical species are adorned with spines or ridges, imitating the thorny bushes or trees in which they live. Leaves also seem to be a favorite object for insects to imitate. Many butterflies can suddenly disappear from view by folding their wings and sitting quietly among the plants that they resemble 
4. Which of the following is true of stick insects?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
We live in a world of tired, sleep deprived people. In his book Counting Sheep, Paul Martin - a behavioral biologist - describes a society which is just too busy to sleep and which does not give sleeping the importance it deserves. Modern society has invented reasons not to sleep. We are now a 24/7 society where shops and services must be available all hours. We spend longer hours at work than we used to, and more time getting to work. Mobile phones and email allow us to stay in touch round the clock and late-night TV and the Internet tempt us away from our beds. When we need more time for work or pleasure, the easy solution is to sleep less. The average adult sleeps only 6.2 hours a night during the week, whereas research shows that most people need eight or even eight and a half hours’ sleep to feel at their best. Nowadays, many people have got used to sleeping less than they need and they live in an almost permanent state of “sleep debt”.  Until the invention of the electric light in 1879 our daily cycle of sleep used to depend on the hours of daylight. People would get up with the sun and go to bed at nightfall. But nowadays our hours of sleep are mainly determined by our working hours (or our social life) and most people are woken up artificially by an alarm clock. During the day caffeine, the world’s most popular drug, helps to keep us awake. 75% of the world’s population habitually consume caffeine, which up to a point masks the symptoms of sleep deprivation. What does a chronic lack of sleep do to us? As well as making us irritable and unhappy as humans, it also reduces our motivation and ability to work. This has serious implications for society in general. Doctors, for example, are often chronically sleep deprived, especially when they are on “night call”, and may get less than three hours’ sleep. Lack of sleep can seriously impair their mood, judgment, and ability to take decisions. Tired engineers, in the early hours of the morning, made a series of mistakes with catastrophic results. On our roads and motorways lack of sleep kills thousands of people every year. Tests show that a tired driver can be just as dangerous as a drunken driver. However, driving when drunk is against the law but driving when exhausted isn’t. As Paul Martin says, it is very ironic that we admire people who function on very little sleep instead of criticizing them for being irresponsible. Our world would be a much safer, happier place if everyone, whatever their job, slept eight hours a night  
2. The writer mentions the Internet in the passage as ______.

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Geothermal energy is the heat from the Earth. It’s clean and sustainable. Resources of geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles beneath the Earth’s surface, and down even deeper to the extremely high temperatures of molten rock called mác-ma. Almost everywhere, the shallow ground or upper 10 feet of the Earth’s surface maintains a nearly constant temperature between 50° and 60°F (10° and 16°C). Geothermal heat pumps can tap into this resource to heat and cool buildings. A geothermal heat pump system consists of a heat pump, an air delivery system (ductwork), and a heat exchanger-a system of pipes buried in the shallow ground near the building. In the winter, the heat pump removes heat from the heat exchanger and pumps it into the indoor air delivery system. In the summer, the process is reversed, and the heat pump moves heat from the indoor air into the heat exchanger. The heat removed from the indoor air during the summer can also be used to provide a free source of hot water. In the United States, most geothermal reservoirs of hot water are located in the western states, Alaska, and Hawaii. Wells can be drilled into underground reservoirs for the generation of electricity. Some geothermal power plants use the steam from a reservoir to power a turbine/generator, while others use the hot water to boil a working fluid that vaporizes and then turns a turbine. Hot water near the surface of Earth can be used directly for heat. Direct-use applications include heating buildings, growing plants in greenhouses, drying crops, heating water at fish farms, and several industrial processes such as pasteurizing milk. Hot dry rock resources occur at depths of 3 to 5 miles everywhere beneath the Earth’s surface and at lesser depths in certain areas. Access to these resources involves injecting cold water down one well, circulating it through hot fractured rock, and drawing off the heated water from another well. Currently, there are no commercial applications of this technology. Existing technology also does not yet allow recovery of heat directly from mác-ma, the very deep and most powerful resource of geothermal energy 
8. What is the best title for the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Individual differences in temperament or behavioral styles are important in family life  in several ways because they affect the nature of the interactions among family members. Some children adapt quickly and easily to family daily routines and get along well with their siblings. Others, especially highly active, intense and “prickly” children have a more difficult time adjusting to everyday demands, and their interactions with parents and siblings may lead to friction and stress. Consider how an active, impulsive child can bother an older sibling who is trying to complete a school project, or how a distractible child who is low in persistence can frustrate parents’ efforts to get him to complete his homework or to finish a household chore.  It is important to note that parents, like children, also differ in temperament. Some are quick reacting and intense, while others are quiet and slow to respond; some are flexible and adaptable, and others are not. The “mix” between parents’ and children’s temperaments has a strong effect on family life, sometimes leading to positive interactions, sometimes to frustrations, and sometimes even to conflicts. It is interesting to note that parents also differ in the expectations they have about their children’s behavior, and how they view and tolerate differences in temperaments. For example, certain constellations of temperament such as high activity, intensity, and persistence may be tolerated and valued in boys, but not in girls. Conversely, shyness and sensitivity may be viewed as acceptable in girls, but not in boys.  This leads to the notion of “goodness of fit”, which can be a useful framework for helping parents figure out how temperament affects relationships in the family. “Goodness of fit” refers to the match or mismatch between a child and other family members. For example, a high-activity, intense child may upset and irritate a quiet, slow-paced, reflective parent. An active, quick-responding parent may be impatient with a slow-to-warm-up child, whom the parent may see as lazy or indifferent. Sparks may fly when both parent and child are intense and quick responding.  Life in a family is not the same for all children, and temperament is one of the ingredients in the “fit” between child and family. Don’t assume family friction is a result of your child having LD or ADHD. It could be because of your child’s temperament — and yours! 
7. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage? 

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 26 to 30.
In the year 1900, the world was in the midst of a machine revolution. (26) _____ electrical power became more ubiquitous, tasks once done by hand were now completed quickly and efficiently by machine. Sewing machines replaced needle and thread. Tractors replaced hoes. Typewriters replaced pens. Automobiles replaced horse-drawn carriages.
A hundred years later, in the year 2000, machines were again pushing the boundaries of (27) _____ was possible. Humans could now work in space, thanks to the International Space Station. We were finding out the composition of life thanks to the DNA sequencer. Computers and the world wide web changed the way we learn, read, communicate, or start political revolutions.
So what will be the game-changing machines in the year 2100? How will they (28) _____ our lives better, cleaner, safer, more efficient, and (29) _____ exciting?
We asked over three dozen experts, scientists, engineers, futurists, and organizations in five different disciplines, including climate change, military, infrastructure, transportation, and space exploration, about how the machines of 2100 will change humanity. The (30) _____ we got back were thought-provoking, hopeful and, at times, apocalyptic.

Question 30: .....................

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Like high schools, American colleges are sometimes criticized for discarding requires courses and offering too many electives. In the mid-1980s, the Association of American Colleges issued a report that (1) ____________ teaching a body of common knowledge to all college students. A similar report, “Involvement in Learning,” issued by the National Institute of Education, concluded that the college curriculum had become “excessively work-related”. The report also (2) __________ that college education may no longer be developing in students “the shared values and knowledge” that traditionally bind Americans together. These reports coincided (3) ____________ a trend away from the liberal arts. Instead, students were choosing major fields designed to prepare them for specific jobs. In 1992, 51 percent of the bachelor’s degrees were conferred in the fields of business and management, communications, computer and sciences, education, engineering, and health sciences. This trend raises questions that apply to the educational philosophy of all industrialized countries. In an age of technological breakthroughs and highly (4) _______________ disciplines, is there still a need for the generalist with a broad background and well-developed abilities to reason and communicate? And if the answer to that question is yes, should society take steps to encourage its colleges and universities to produce more such generalists? Like their (5) ____________ in other countries, American educators continue to debate these questions

A considerable body of research has demonstrated a correlation between birth order and aspects such as temperament and behavior, and some psychologists believe that birth order significantly affects the development of personality. Psychologist Alfred Adler was a Pioneer in the study of the relationship between birth order and personality. A key point in his research and in the hypothesis that he developed based on it was that it was not the actual numerical birth position that affected personality; instead; it was the similar responses in large numbers of families to children in specific birth order positions that had an effect. For example, first-borns, who have their parents to themselves initially and do not have to deal with siblings in the first part of their lives, tend to have their first socialization experiences with adults and therefore tend to find the process of peer socialization more difficult. In contrast, later-born children have to deal with siblings from the first moment of their lives and therefore tend to have stronger socialization skills.

Numerous studies since Adler's have been conducted on the effect of birth order and personality. These studies have tended to classify birth order types into four different categories: first-born, second-born and/or middle, last, and only child.

Studies have consistently shown that first-born children tend to exhibit similar, positive and negative personality traits. First-borns have consistently been linked with academic achievement in various studies; in one study, the number of National Merit scholarship winners who are first-borns was found to be equal to the number of second-and third-borns combined. First-borns have been found to be more responsible and assertive than those born in other birth-order positions and tend to rise to positions of leadership more often than others; more first-borns have served in the U.S. Congress and as U.S. presidents than have those born in other birth-order positions. However, studies have shown that first-borns tend to be more subject to stress and were considered problem children more often than later-borns.

Second-born and/or middle children demonstrate markedly different tendencies from first- borns. They tend to feel inferior to the older child or children because it is difficult for them to comprehend that their lower level of achievement is a function of age rather than ability, and they often try to succeed in areas other than those in which their older sibling or siblings excel. They tend to be more trusting, accepting, and focused on others than the more self-centered first-borns, and they tend to have a comparatively higher level of success in team sports than do first-borns or only children, who more often excel in individual sports.

The last-born child is the one who tends to be the eternal baby of the family and thus often exhibits a strong sense of security. Last-borns collectively achieve the highest degree of social success and demonstrate the highest levels of self-esteem of all the birth-order positions. They often exhibit less competitiveness than older brothers and sisters and are more likely to take part in less competitive group games or in social organizations such as sororities and fraternities.

Only children tend to exhibit some of the main characteristics of first-borns and some of the characteristics of last-borns. Only children tend to exhibit the strong sense of security and self-esteem exhibited by last-borns while, like first-borns, they are more achievement oriented and more likely than middle-or last-borns to achieve academic success. However, only children tend to have the most problems establishing close relationships and exhibit a lower need for affiliation than other children.

The phrase more achievement oriented in the paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to___________________.

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There’s a direct link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction.  Employees are the driving factor behind customer satisfaction. Employee interactions set the tone for a positive or negative customer experience. When employees aren’t happy at work, their interactions with customers can, and almost always will, suffer. Over the course of time, this can have serious repercussions for a business. The place where this becomes the most critical is any business where employees are directly interacting with customers, such as retail or food service. Historically underpaid and overworked, employees in these jobs are tasked with spending their entire shifts serving customers.  This is where employee experience comes in. If even a fraction of a customer experience budget was spent on employee experience, there would be a huge return on investment. One of the easiest ways to enhance employee experience is to ask for and welcome employees’ feedback. They have great insight into customer needs. After all, they’re the ones who are directly interacting with customers and hearing their criticisms and compliments firsthand. Employees can be your biggest asset when it comes to customer satisfaction.  A large part of employee experience revolves around understanding what employees need and want and gaining insight into their work preferences. Another critical piece of the employee experience is training and development. Employees should be equipped with the skills they need to excel at their jobs and have opportunities to continue to learn and develop. They should be able to check in and touch base with their managers to keep track of their progress and discuss any questions or concerns as they arise. Showing employees that you value the work they’re doing is one of the easiest ways to boost their motivation. It can be as simple as saying thank you, to publicly acknowledging and celebrating their contributions. It’s not just the younger generations who crave recognition - no one likes to feel like the work they’re doing is going unnoticed.  It’s time to shift the mindset from employees working just to work, to acknowledging that they’re valuable contributors to a company’s success. Employees need to understand how important their role is and how their work fits into the bigger picture. They need to feel like their voices are being heard and they have respect from their managers. Most importantly, they need to be able to come to work and know that the next eight hours won’t be pure torture. 
7. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?

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Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace do not help you make more  genuine close friends, according to a survey by researchers who studied how the websites are changing the nature of friendship networks. Although social networking on the internet helps people to collect hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances, the researchers believe that face to face contact is nearly always necessary to form truly close friendships.  “Although the numbers of friends people have on these sites can be massive, the actual number of close friends is approximately the same in the face to face real world,” said psychologist Will Reader, from Sheffield Hallam University. Social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace have taken off rapidly in recent years. Facebook was launched initially in 2004 for Harvard University members but has since expanded to more than 34 million users worldwide. MySpace, which was set up in 2003, has more than 200 million users and was bought by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in 2005 for $580m (£285m). Previous research has suggested that a person’s conventional friendship group consists of around 150 people, with five very close friends but larger numbers of people whom we keep in touch with less regularly. This figure is so consistent that scientists have suggested it is determined by the cognitive constraints of keeping up with large numbers of people. But Dr. Reader and his team have found that social networking sites do allow people to stretch this figure. The team asked more than 200 people to fill in questionnaires about their online networking, asking for example how many online friends they had, how many of these were close friends and how many they had met face to face. The team found that although the sites allowed contact with hundreds of acquaintances, as with conventional friendship networks, people tend to have around five close friends. Ninety per cent of contacts whom the subjects regarded as close friends were people they had met face to face. “People see face to face contact as being absolutely imperative in forming close friendships,” added Dr. Reader. He told the British Association Festival of Science in York that social networking sites allow people to broaden their list of nodding acquaintances because staying in touch online is easy. “What social network sites can do is decrease the cost of maintaining and forming these social networks because we can post information to multiple people,” he said.  But to develop a real friendship we need to see that the other person is trustworthy, said Dr. Reader. "What we need is to be absolutely sure that a person is really going to invest in us, is really going to be there for us when we need them … It’s very easy to be deceptive on the internet."
8. Which of the following most accurately reflects the author’s opinion of making a close online friend?

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Globally we use more energy than ever before, and the demand is rapidly growing. Economic expansion of emerging market economies, population growth and our increasing use of energy-consuming devices are among the most important contributing factors. About one-third of the radiation hitting Earth’s atmosphere is reflected back out into space by clouds, ice, snow, sand and other reflective surfaces. The other two-thirds is absorbed by the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. As the land, oceans and atmosphere heat up, they re-emit energy as infrared thermal radiation, which passes through the atmosphere. Heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) absorb this infrared radiation and prevent it from dissipating into space, giving rise to what we know as the greenhouse effect. The accumulation of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is the dominating driver of recent climate change. CO2 is estimated to be responsible for 64 % of man-made global warming. Other greenhouse gases are released in much smaller amounts but still contribute significantly to the overall warming effect, as they are much more potent heat-trapping gases than CO2. The EU is taking action on many levels. One example is on fluorinated gases that are contributing less than CO2 but still a particular point of concern in addressing climate change. They are used in several types of products, such as in refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat pump equipment. While fluorinated gases are released into the atmosphere in smaller quantities than other greenhouse gases, they are extremely potent – they produce a warming effect 23 000 times greater than CO2. For this reason the EU has decided to control their use. The EU’s regulation on fluorinated greenhouse gases aims at cutting the Union’s emissions by two-thirds compared to 2014 levels. Chemicals are not only part of the problem – they are also part of the solution. Sustainable energy sources like solar power rely on chemical innovation using, for example, nanomaterials. One of the main challenges with renewable energy is how to increase its viability with the help of energy storage solutions. For example, solar panels have the best conditions in the desert, but that is not where most people live. Windmills also produce power during the night, which is when our energy consumption is at its lowest. In other words, technologies to improve energy storage and transportation is one of the important areas of research where innovation is needed  
7. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?