Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
For many years, scientists have speculated that the cataclysmic impact of an asteroid with the earth was responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs approximately 65 million years ago. Previous discoveries and results have hinted that an asteroid two kilometers in diameter struck the Yucatan peninsula in Eastern Mexico. This impact, stronger than one thousand nuclear explosions, is speculated to have cast a cloud of dust and debris into the atmosphere, covering the entire surface of the earth and blocking out the sun and consequently lowering the surface temperature of the earth. With such a radical change in the earth's environment, scientists believe that over 99% of all animal and plant species were eradicated. Only after millions of years did plants and animals even begin to recover and develop into forms that were better adapted to survive changes in their environment. But, the reign of the dinosaurs had ended and the age of mammals had begun. The crucial link that has held this theory together has been the element iridium. Iridium is not commonly found on either the surface of the earth or inside the crust. It is more commonly found in asteroids or meteorites throughout the solar system. Scientists have hypothesized that after the asteroid impacted the Earth, an even layer of iridium sediment settled over the globe and eventually became part of its surface. The theory, of course, has depended on the discovery of such an existing layer of iridium. Unfortunately, scientists have never been able to offer absolute proof that this asteroid impact ever occurred. Recently, however, a discovery may go a long way toward validating these scientists 'theories. In 1996, a team of marine biologists excavated samples of rock from the Atlantic Ocean just off the cost of Bermuda. Found thousands of meters below the sea, these samples contain iridium similar to those found in the Yucatan peninsula thousands of kilometers away. At first, scientists were skeptical whether the samples were from the same time period. But since carbon dating placed them to 65 million years ago, their doubts were quickly alleviated. Since then many of the other theories for the demise of the dinosaur have been finally laid to rest.
5. What can be inferred from the passage about asteroid impact mentioned in passage 2?

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.
7. The word “they” in paragraph 5 refers to _____

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:
Accustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927 as “silent”, the film has never been, in the full sense of the word, silent. From the very beginning, music was regarded as an indispensable accompaniment; when the Lumiere films were shown at the first public film exhibition in the United States in February 1896, they were accompanied by piano improvisations on popular tunes. At first, the music played bore no special relationship to the films; an accompaniment of any kind was sufficient. Within a very short time, however, the incongruity of playing lively music to a solemn film became apparent, and film pianists began to take some care in matching their pieces to the mood of the film.
As movie theaters grew in number and importance, a violinist, and perhaps a cellist, would be added to the pianist in certain cases, and in the larger movie theaters small orchestras were formed. For a number of years the selection of music for each film program rested entirely in the hands of the conductor or leader of the orchestra, and very often the principal qualification for holding such a position was not skill or taste so much as the ownership of a large personal library of musical pieces. Since the conductor seldom saw the films until the night before the y were to be shown (if, indeed, the conductor was lucky enough to see them then), the musical arrangement was normally improvised in the greatest hurry.
To help meet this difficulty, film distributing companies started the practice of publishing suggestions for musical accompaniments. In 1909, for example, the Edison Company began issuing with their films such indications of mood as “pleasant’, “sad”, “lively”. The suggestions became more explicit, and so emerged the musical cue sheet containing indications of mood, the titles of suitable pieces of music, and precise directions to show where one piece led into the next.

Certain films had music especially composed for them. The most famous of these early special scores was that composed and arranged for D. w. Griffith’s film Birth of a Nation, which was released in 1915.

The word “composed” is closest in meaning to     .

Choose the best answer:
This season's _______ include five new plays and several concerts of Chinese and Indian music.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
If parents bring up a child with the sole aim of turning the child into a genius, they will cause a disaster. According to several leading educational psychologists, this is one of the biggest mistakes which ambitious parents make. Generally, the child will be only too aware of what his parents expect, and will fail. Unrealistic parental expectations can cause great damage to children.
However, if parents are not too unrealistic about what they expect their children to do, but are ambitious in a sensible way, the child may succeed in doing very well — especially if the parents are very supportive of their child. Michael Collins is very lucky. He is crazy about music, and his parents help him a lot by taking him to concerts and arranging private piano and violin lessons for him. They even drive him 50 kilometers twice a week for violin lessons. Michael's mother knows very little about music, but his father plays the trumpet in a large orchestra. However, he never makes Michael enter music competitions if he is unwilling.
Winston Smith, Michael's friend, however, is not so lucky. Both his parents are successful musicians, and they set too high a standard for Winston. They want their son to be as successful as they are and so they enter him for every piano competition held. They are very unhappy when he does not win. Winston is always afraid that he will disappoint his parents and now he always seems quiet and unhappy.

The word "They" in the passage refers to     .

Of the six outer planets, Mars, commonly called the red planet, is the closest to Earth. Mars, 4,200 miles in diameter and 55 percent of the size of Earth, is 34,600,000 miles from Earth, and 141,000,000 miles from the Sun. It takes this planet, along with its two moons, Phobos and Deimos, 1.88 years to circle the Sun, compared to 365 days for the Earth.

For many years, Mars had been thought of as the planet with the man-made canals, supposedly discovered by an Italian astronomer, Schiaparelli, in 1877. With the United States spacecraft Viking I's landing on Mars in 1976, the man-made canal theory was proven to be only a myth.

Viking I, after landing on the soil of Mars, performed many scientific experiments and took numerous pictures. The pictures showed that the red color of the planet is due to the reddish, rocky Martian soil. No biological life was found, though it had been speculated by many scientists. The Viking also monitored many weather changes including violent dust storms. Some water vapor, polar ice, and permafrost (frost below the surface) were found, indicating that at one time there were significant quantities of water on this distant planet. Evidence collected by the spacecraft shows some present volcanic action, though the volcanoes are believed to be dormant, if not extinct.

The Viking I exploration accomplished all of the following EXCEPT___________ ______ .

Find synonym:
In order to stay healthy, make sure you have a balanced intake of vitamins and minerals.

Choose the best answer:
The street is full of traffic from morning___________ night.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Going to a restaurant shouldn’t be your excuse to eat unhealthy foods. Follow these tips and not only will you enjoy your meal more, you’ll feel satisfied and happy when you’re done. First, ask for it your way. Dining out is no time to be a meek consumer, notes Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D., executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and coauthor of the book Restaurant Confidential. “You need to be an assertive consumer by asking for changes on the menu,” he says. For instance, if an item is fried, ask for it grilled. If it comes with French fries, ask for a side of veggies instead. Ask for a smaller portion of the meat and a larger portion of the salad; for salad instead of coleslaw; baked potato instead of fried. “Just assume you can have the food prepared the way you want it,” says Dr. Jacobson. “Very often, the restaurant will cooperate.” Second, order A Salad before ordering anything else on the menu. Scientists at Pennsylvania State University found that volunteers who ate a big veggie salad before the main course ate fewer calories overall than those who didn’t have a first-course salad, notes Novick. However, remember: Salads Shouldn’t Be Fatty. This is a vegetable course-keep it tasty but healthy. That means avoiding anything in a creamy sauce (coleslaw, pasta salads, and potato salads), and skipping the bacon bits and fried noodles. Instead, load up on the raw vegetables, treat yourself to a few well-drained marinated vegetables (artichoke hearts, red peppers, or mushrooms), and for a change, add in some fruit or nuts. Indeed, fruits such as mango, kiwi, cantaloupe, and pear are often the secret ingredient in four-star salads.  
4. It can be inferred from the passage that foods in restaurants are often __________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Aside from the ability to delay normal cognitive decline as we age, there are significant social benefits to lifelong learning. Habitual learners are more likely to put themselves (1) ____ new and challenging social situations throughout life. Learning is by definition a social activity; (2) ____, we often develop connections with other people who have knowledge we would like to learn, or who are equally interested in learning about a new topic. Viewing socialization through the educational lens (3) ____ corresponding results: we are more likely to participate in social engagements as older adults when we are lifetime learners, probably due to the (4) ____ self-esteem that comes with the achievement of a task. Science has shown that aging adults (5) ____ have strong social connections live longer, and lifetime learning is an ideal way to build those support networks

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
Sunlight is solar energy. Sunlight is needed for growing plants that you eat to get energy. Sunlight is also used to make clean electricity. Burning fossil fuels to make electricity pollutes our atmosphere and rivers. Fossil fuels are expensive and limited sources of energy. Nuclear fission is used to create enormous amount of heat and electricity. However, nuclear fission forms dangerous radioactive waste.
Sunlight offers many ways to get energy. A window can allow warm sunlight into your room. Solar water-heating systems can use sunlight to warm the water for your home, swimming pool

and school. Sunlight also warms the Earth and causes wind. Electricity can be made by wind generators.
Photovoltaic, or PV system use a type of material that converts sunlight into electricity. PV systems can power your air conditioner or a satellite like the International Space Station. PV systems are also used to run a calculator, recharge cell phone, or even power lightweight cars.
Sunlight is also changed into electricity by concentrating solar power or CSP systems. CSP systems have mirrors that focus the sunlight. The concentrated sunlight turns water into steam which turns a turbine that is connected to an electric generator. A CSP system usually uses sunlight to make steam. CSP power plants can store large amount of heat. The stored heat is used to make electricity at night. During cloud days, many CSP plants can also burn natural gas to provide the heat that is used to turn water into steam.
Sunlight provides the energy needed to grow plants and make large amount of environmentally friendly heat and electricity. Solar energy can provide power today and for a long time in the future.

In the third paragraph, the word “convert” is closest in meaning to      

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
In the USA, the UK and many other countries, a lot of babies were born in the “baby boom” of the late 1940s and 1950s; after that the birth-rate fell. Baby boomers have now retired, or are approaching retirement, and this is causing headaches for many organizations: there are not enough people to succeed their top managers when they retire.
Does your organization have key staff who can’t easily be replaced? A CEO or financial director, perhaps, or a technical expert with knowledge that nobody else in the organization has. If your answer is “yes”, what will happen when they retire, or leave for another company? Will you wait until the last moment before looking for someone to replace them? Or is your organization thinking about likely future changes now, as it should be, and making plans, so that there is likely to be someone ready to replace the person leaving? If the answer is that you are planning ahead, your organization is carrying out succession planning.
Succession planning means looking inside the organization for “high-fliers” - current staff members with the potential to fill key positions - and planning the training, responsibilities and promotion they need, to make them ready when a senior vacancy occurs - which may not be for several years. The company benefits by being able to make an internal promotion when a key person leaves, and in the meantime it benefits by developing the skills of its high-fliers and encouraging them to stay. And the high-fliers benefit, because they achieve their full potential, a career is planned for them within the organization, and they can look forward to a senior post in time.
The training program planned for the high-fliers will help them to develop the leadership skills they need for more senior roles, skills such as planning long-term strategies. A career path is also planned, so that each high-flier moves into a number of different positions over a few years, to gain the experience and know ledge they need.
Sometimes a staff member is chosen as a potential successor to a particular senior manager, but a better method is for organizations to select a number of high-fliers, and prepare them for a range of senior roles. An organization can’t be certain when a particular senior manager will leave. Having a group of people being prepared fee top positions makes it easier to replace someone who leaves unexpectedly, and also means that there are other people available if a high-flier leaves the company.

Which of the following can best replace the word “senior” the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The blazes, which have been burning across Australia for months, have razed homes  and wiped out entire towns. Across Australia, nearly 18 million acres of land have been burned – much of it bushland, forests and national parks, home to the country’s beloved and unique wildlife. Nearly half a billion animals have been impacted by the fires in NSW alone, with millions potentially dead, according to ecologists at the University of Sydney. That figure includes birds, reptiles, and mammals, except bats. It also excludes insects and frogs. The total number of animals affected nationwide could be as high as a billion, according to Christopher Dickman, the University of Sydney ecologist who led the report.  "The scale of these fires is unprecedented," said Dieter Hochuli, an environmental sciences professor at the University of Sydney. “There are substantial concerns about the capacity of these (ecosystems) to rebound from the fires.”  Some animals, like koalas and kangaroos for instance, are primarily killed by being incinerated in flames or choking on smoke. Nearly a third of all koalas in NSW have died and about a third of their habitat has been destroyed. Photos from the ground show koalas with singed fur, raw patches of burnt flesh, and blistered paws. Even if they are rescued and treated, sometimes their injuries are simply too extensive to survive. Wombats have also been hit hard – they don’t cope well with heat or stress, and panic at the smell of smoke. The small, stubby-legged marsupials can’t run very fast or far, and are largely at the mercy of the flames. Smaller mammals and reptiles can escape the blazes by burrowing underground or hiding in rocks – but afterward, there is no food or shelter left, only certain predators that are drawn to fire because they know it brings easy prey. Koalas and kangaroos are spread out across the country, so they’re not in danger of going extinct due to the blazes. But other animals that live in niche environments and have smaller populations may have been wiped out entirely; these include the eastern bristlebird, the mountain pygmy possum and the corroboree frog.  These animals’ recovery depends not only on their population size, but also on the condition of their habitat. For instance, plants grow slower in high-altitude alpine regions, meaning it could be a very long time before species are able to return.
3. The word “It” in paragraph 1 refers to _____

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Most people have heard about how PTSD can unravel a person. Fewer have heard about posttraumatic growth, the process that lifted Curry out of his despair and into his new role as a leader in the veteran community. The term - defined as “positive change that occurs as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life crises” - was coined in the mid-1990s by Richard Tedeschi, PhD, and Lawrence Calhoun, PhD, after studying how people develop wisdom. They identified five specific ways people can grow after a crisis. First, their relationships strengthen. One woman diagnosed with breast cancer, for example, said she realized her relationships “are the most important things you have.” Bereaved parents told Tedeschi and Calhoun that losing a child had made them more compassionate. Second, they discover new paths and purposes in life. Sometimes these are related to a particular survivor mission. One interviewee became an oncology nurse after losing her child to cancer. Other times, the crisis becomes the catalyst for a more general reconsideration of priorities, as Christine discovered when she started attending The Dinner Party in the aftermath of her mother’s death. Third, the trauma allows them to find their inner strength. The common thread among those Tedeschi and Calhoun studied is a “vulnerable yet stronger” narrative. This paradoxical outlook defined the attitude of a rape survivor who admitted the world seemed more dangerous after the assault, but that, at the same time, she felt more resilient as a result of the inner strength she’d built. Fourth, their spiritual life deepens. That could mean they renew their faith in God, or it could mean they grapple with existential questions more broadly, coming to know certain deep truths about the world or themselves, as one interviewee did after his spinal-cord surgery. Finally, they feel a renewed appreciation for life. Rather than taking for granted a stranger’s kindness or the vivid colors of autumn leaves, they savor the small moments of beauty that light up each day. The difference between those who are able to grow from adversity and those who are stymied lies in what Tedeschi and Calhoun call “deliberate rumination” or introspection. The participants they studied spent a lot of time trying to make sense of their painful experiences, reflecting on how the events changed them. Doing so helped them make the life changes associated with posttraumatic growth.  
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
As a result of the recent oil crisis, 9.9 million of California’s 15 million motorists were subjected to an odd – even plan of gas rationing. The governor signed a bill forcing motorists with license plates ending in odd numbers to buy gas only on odd – numbered days, and those ending in even numbers on even – numbered days. Those whose plates were all letters or specially printed had to follow the odd – numbered plan.
Exceptions were made only for emergencies and out – of – state – drivers. Those who could not get gas were forced to walk, bike, or skate to work.
This plan was expected to eliminate the long lines at many service stations. Those who tried to purchase more than twenty gallons of gas or tried to fill a more than half filled tank would be fined and possibly imprisoned.

The gas rationing plan was not binding on     

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 from 36 to 42.

It is estimated that by 2050 more than two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities, up from about 54 percent today. While the many benefits of organized and efficient cities are well understood, we need to recognize that this rapid, often unplanned urbanization brings risks of profound social instability, risks to critical infrastructure, potential water crises and the potential for devastating spread of disease. These risks can only be further exacerbated as this unprecedented transition from rural to urban areas continues.
 How effectively these risks can be addressed will increasingly be determined by how well cities are governed. The increased concentration of people, physical assets, infrastructure and economic activities mean that the risks materializing at the city level will have far greater potential to disrupt society than ever before.
 Urbanization is by no means bad by itself. It brings important benefits for economic, cultural and societal development. Well managed cities are both efficient and effective, enabling economies of scale and network effects while reducing the impact on the climate of transportation. As such, an urban model can make economic activity more environmentally-friendly. Further, the proximity and diversity of people can spark innovation and create employment as exchanging ideas breeds new ideas.
 But these utopian concepts are threatened by some of the factors driving rapid urbanization. For example, one of the main factors is rural-urban migration, driven by the prospect of greater employment opportunities and the hope of a better life in cities. But rapidly increasing population density can create severe problems, especially if planning efforts are not sufficient to cope with the influx of new inhabitants. The result may, in extreme cases, be widespread poverty. Estimates suggest that 40% of the world's urban expansion is taking place in slums, exacerbating socio-economic disparities and creating unsanitary conditions that facilitate the spread of disease.
 The Global Risks 2015 Report looks at four areas that face particularly daunting challenges in the face of rapid and unplanned urbanization: infrastructure, health, climate change, and social instability. In each of these areas we find new risks that can best be managed or, in some cases, transferred through the mechanism of insurance.

The word “spark” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ___________. 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Language preservation is the effort to prevent languages from becoming unknown. A language is at (1)______ of being lost when it no longer is taught to younger generations, while fluent speakers of the language (usually the elderly) die. Language is an important part of any society, because it enables people to communicate and express themselves. When a language dies (2)_______, future generations lose a vital part of the culture that is necessary to completely understand it. This makes language a vulnerable aspect of cultural heritage, and it becomes especially important to (3) __________ it. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), from facts published in their “Atlas of Languages in Danger of Disappearing,” there are an estimated 6,000 languages spoken worldwide today, and half of the world’s population speaks the eight most common. More than 3,000 languages are reportedly spoken by fewer than 10,000 people each. Ethnologue, a reference work published by SIL International, has cataloged the world’s known (4)_______ languages, and it estimates that 417 languages are on the verge of extinction. There are different factors that can (5)________ a language in danger of becoming extinct. One is when a language is no longer being taught to the children of the community, or at least to a large number of the children. In these cases, the remaining fluent speakers of the language are generally the older members of the community, and when they pass away, the language dies out with them

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Many AI researchers roll their eyes when seeing this headline: “Stephen Hawking warns that rise of robots may be disastrous for mankind.” And as many have lost count of how many similar articles they’ve seen. Typically, these articles suggest we should worry about robots rising up and killing us because they’ve become conscious and/or evil. On a lighter note, such articles are actually rather impressive, because they succinctly summarize the scenario that AI researchers don’t worry about. That scenario combines as many as three separate misconceptions: concern about consciousness, evil, and robots. If you drive down the road, you have a subjective experience of colors, sounds, etc. But does a self-driving car have a subjective experience? Does it feel like anything at all to be a self-driving car? Although this mystery of consciousness is interesting in its own right, it’s irrelevant to AI risk. If you get struck by a driverless car, it makes no difference to you whether it subjectively feels conscious. In the same way, what will affect us humans is what superintelligent AI does, not how it subjectively feels. The fear of machines turning evil is another red herring. The real worry isn’t malevolence, but competence. A superintelligent AI is by definition very good at attaining its goals, whatever they may be, so we need to ensure that its goals are aligned with ours. Humans don’t generally hate ants, but we’re more intelligent than they are – so if we want to build a hydroelectric dam and there’s an anthill there, too bad for the ants. The beneficial-AI movement wants to avoid placing humanity in the position of those ants In fact, the main concern of the beneficial-AI movement isn’t with robots but with intelligence itself: specifically, intelligence whose goals are misaligned with ours. To cause us trouble, such misaligned superhuman intelligence needs no robotic body, merely an internet connection – this may enable outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand. Even if building robots were physically impossible, a super-intelligent and superwealthy AI could easily pay or manipulate many humans to unwittingly do its bidding. The robot misconception is related to the myth that machines can’t control humans. Intelligence enables control: humans control tigers not because we are stronger, but because we are smarter.  
5. The word “it” in paragraph 2 refers to _____

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Before the mid-nineteenth century, people in the United States ate most foods only in season. Drying, smoking, and salting could preserve meat for a short time, but the availability of fresh meat, like that of fresh milk, was very limited; there was no way to prevent spoilage. But in 1810 a French inventor named Nicolas Appert developed the cooking-and-sealing process of canning. And in the 1850’s an American named Gail Borden developed a means of condensing and preserving milk. Canned goods and condensed milk became more common during the 1860’s, but supplies remained low because cans had to be made by hand. By 1880, however, inventors had fashioned stamping and soldering machines that mass- produced cans from tinplate. Suddenly all kinds of food could be preserved and bought at all times of the year. Other trends and inventions had also helped make it possible for Americans to vary their daily diets. Growing urban populations created demand that encouraged fruit and vegetable farmers to raise more produce. Railroad refrigerator cars enabled growers and meat packers to ship perishables great distances and to preserve them for longer periods. Thus, by the 1890’s, northern city dwellers could enjoy southern and western strawberries, grapes, and tomatoes, previously available for a month at most, for up to six months of the year. In addition, increased use of iceboxes enabled families to store perishables. An easy means of producing ice commercially had been invented in the 1870’s, and by 1900 the nation had more than two thousand commercial ice plants, most of which made home deliveries. The icebox became a fixture in most homes and remained so until the mechanized refrigerator replaced it in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Almost everyone now had a more diversified diet. Some people continued to eat mainly foods that were heavy in starches or carbohydrates, and not everyone could afford meat. Nevertheless, many families could take advantage of previously unavailable fruits, vegetables, and dairy products to achieve more varied fare.
5. It can be inferred that railroad refrigerator cars came into use: 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
If you were going to choose a job that involves travel, what would be your first choice? There are many jobs available today that give people opportunities to travel. Although may traveling careers sound fantastic, they also have disadvantages. Being an au pair is an excellent way to not only go to different countries, but to live in different places around the world and really get a feel for the culture. Au pairs lives with the families they are placed with and take of children. Many parents include au pairs in family events and vacations, so they experience many aspects of the new culture while on the job. However, many of the activities are centered around the children, so they may not get to experience many things that interest adults. For people who want a bit more freedom working abroad, being an English teacher maybe a good choice. There are English teaching jobs in almost countries in the world. People teaching English in other countries often have a chance to travel on the weekends around the country. One drawback is that many teachers often wind up hanging out with other English teachers, and they don’t have time to learn the country’s language. The nickname “roadie” implies that this job involves life on the road. Roadies are people who work and travel with bands and provide technical support. Roadies can be lighting and stage crew who set up the stage and break it down before and after events. They can also be technicians helping band members with their instruments. International tours take a band’s crew to cities around the world, often requiring air travel. However, the crew doesn’t get much time off, so they may travel to several countries without seeing much besides concert venues and hotels. Similarly, flight attendants often travel to cities around the world, but they don’t see much besides the inside of airplanes and hotels. However, when they do have time off, they can often fly at no cost, and family member can sometimes fly free as well. Its is widely thought that a flight attendant job is glamorous, but flight attendants must deal with travel hassles, as well as security issues. All jobs gave advantages and disadvantages whether or not you travel for work, so if you have the travel bug, keep these jobs in mind for the future.
1. Which of the following is a disadvantage of the job as an au pair?
 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
In 1988, a year before the Soviet Union collapsed, the 13th National Congress of the  Communist Party of Vietnam adopted a resolution to have “more friends and fewer enemies”. So it was not surprising when Vietnam expressed interest in joining ASEAN as early as 1992, or when it did in fact join in July 1995.   Vietnam’s membership of the grouping integrated its security with the whole of Southeast Asia and created a favourable environment for economic development. This, in turn, raised Vietnam’s global image, leading to increased cooperation with multiple players in the region and greater bargaining clout with super powers like the United States and China. As an ASEAN member, Vietnam has worked hard to secure peace and reconciliation among Southeast Asian nations, which were once deeply divided by war. Vietnam was the first Indochinese country to join ASEAN, and its move helped end confrontation between the Indochinese bloc and ASEAN. Vietnam has also helped ASEAN partner with non-regional players.  Vietnam also led efforts within ASEAN to ensure regional security. Soon after becoming a member, Vietnam signed the Treaty on the Southeast Asian Nuclear-WeaponFree Zone and was one of the founding members of the ASEAN Regional Forum. But the most proactive steps by Hanoi towards regional stability have revolved around disputes in the South China Sea. A direct claimant in the dispute, Vietnam, along with the Philippines, has made constant efforts to put the South China Sea on ASEAN’s agenda, ensuring conflict is dealt with in a constructive way. Vietnam has shown constant support for the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, ASEAN’s Six-Point Principles on the East Sea, and the soon-to-be-concluded Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea. Vietnam calls for the settlement of disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international law and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — including through regulations on respecting exclusive economic zones and the continental shelf of coastal countries. Vietnam has remained committed to ASEAN since it joined in 1995 and Vietnam is beginning to integrate further with the global community, and  cooperation with ASEAN will always be an important pillar in its foreign policy. But Vietnam’s interest in ASEAN is not
limited to security issues. Its leadership also drives efforts toward an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). 
4. The word “clout” in paragraph is closest in meaning to _______