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In 1860 the United States was predominantly rural. Most people were engaged in  agriculture, and about 80 percent of the population actually resided on farms or in small villages. Only 20 percent lived in towns and cities of 2,500 or more, the census definition of an urban area after 1880. New York alone in 1860 had more than 1 million people, and only 8 cities could boast about a population of more than 100,000. Thereafter the transition from a rural to a predominantly urban nation was especially remarkable because of its speed. By 1900, urbanization, with all of its benefits, problems, and prospects for a fuller life, became the mark of modern America The changing physical landscape reflected the shift to an urbanized society. Railroad terminals, factories, skyscrapers, apartment houses, streetcars, electric engines, department stores, and the increased pace of life were all signs of an emerging urban America. Indeed, the vitality, dynamic quality, variety, and restless experimentalism in society centered in the urban communities where the only constant factor was change itself.  Urbanization did not proceed uniformly throughout the nation. New England and the Middle Atlantic states contained the highest percentage of city dwellers. In the Middle West, the growth of cities such as Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and St. Louis showed the importance of urbanization in that region. The three West Coast states also experienced rapid urban growth. In the South, urbanization developed much more slowly, although by 1910 the expansion of transportation, commerce, and industry had greatly increased the population of older cities such as New Orleans and stimulated the growth of new urban centers such as Birmingham. However, the South remained predominantly rural. Only somewhat more than 20 percent of the population in that region was urban by 1910.  In some regions the urban impact had a depressing effect upon the surrounding rural communities. Much of New England in the late nineteenth century presented a discouraging picture of abandoned farms and sickly villages as people forsook the countryside and rushed to the larger towns and cities. In the Middle West, particularly Ohio and Illinois, hundreds of townships lost population in the 1880’s.
4. The word "shift" in the passage is closest in meaning to ____

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Hardcover and paperback are two types of books and bookbinding processes. A hardcover book is also called a hardback or hardbound. On the other hand, a paperback also goes by the names softback and soft cover. Paperbacks can be further classified as trade paperbacks and mass-market paperbacks. Paperback book, as its name implies, has a soft card or a thick paper cover over the pages. This type of covering is less heavy but prone to folding, bending, and wrinkles with use and over time. Hardcover books are characterized with a thick and rigid covering. This covering allows protection for the pages and makes the book durable and usable for a long time. Oftentimes, a hardcover book has a dust that protects the books from dust and other wear and tear. Some books are even made durable by using leather or calfskin as a book covering. In terms of manufacturing and purchasing books, hardcover books are more expensive due to the materials and processes. Pages of hardcover books are acid-free paper. This type of paper allows preservation of the ink and is ideal for books in use and preserving them for a long time. On the other hand, paperbacks use cheap paper, usually newsprint. The reason for this is to lower production costs and being readily made available for the masses. The paper in a hardcover book is usually stitched together before being glued, stapled, or sewn to the book’s spine. Due to the stitches, a hardcover book can have signatures, a place where the binding threads are visible. Meanwhile, a paperback book’s pages are glued together and glued again to the spine. This makes the pages loose or separated while being in use. Hardcover books are often applied to academic books, references books, commercial, and bestsellers that have enjoyed financial success. Other books in the hardcover version are books of collectible value. Publishers often release a hardcover version of the book to show investment so that they can project a high return of investment. This is a large contrast regarding paperbacks. Paperback books are done for new or succeeding editions, reprinting of books or books with little profit margin. Publishers use the paperback editions to stretch the profit for the book. The first release or first edition of a literary work is purposefully done as a hardcover book followed by paperback versions.
2. The word “classified” in paragraph 1 hold the same meaning as _______

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Facebook users spend an average of more than 15 hours a month on the social  networking site. While there are plenty who caution against such intensive use — and there are a number of studies detailing the harm Facebook could potentially cause — there also are lots of reports extolling the site’s virtues. As the social media giant prepares for its upcoming initial public offering, here are some ways Facebook just might be good for you.  Spending time on Facebook can help people relax, slow down their heart rate and decrease stress levels, according to researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Milan. In a study published earlier this year, researchers studied 30 students and found that a natural high was sparked when they were on the social media network that led to the relaxed heart rates and lower levels of stress and tension. In the study, the students were monitored in three situations: looking at panoramic landscapes, performing complicated mathematical equations and using Facebook. While the first situation was the most relaxing to students and the math problems were the most stressful, the time on Facebook uncovered high levels of attractiveness and arousal. The findings support the researchers’ hypothesis that Facebook’s success, as well as that of other social media networks, correlates to the specific positive mental and physical state users experience.  While many may argue that social media networks only distract employees, research shows the opposite may be true. Research from Keas.com found that a 10-minute Facebook break makes employees happier, healthier and more productive. The study examined workers in three groups: one that was allowed no breaks, one that was allowed to do anything but use the Internet and one that was allowed 10 minutes to use the Internet and Facebook. The Facebook group was found to be 16 percent more productive than the group that was not allowed to use the Internet and nearly 40 percent more productive than the group that was allowed no breaks. “Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf on the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher net total concentration for a day’s work, and as a result, increased productivity,” said Brent Coker of the department of management and marketing at the University of Melbourne in Australia.  Facebook is also in the business of matchmaking. Research shows that nearly 60 percent of singles will friend someone new on Facebook after meeting them in person. If they like what they see, 25 percent are likely to contact their new love interest via Facebook. Once the courting is over, nearly 40 percent of those social networking adults will update their relationship status on Facebook, with just 24 percent telling their friends first. Facebook use between couples will continue through the dating process, the research shows. Throughout the day, 79 percent of couples said they send partners Facebook messages or chat on the social network. In addition, more than 60 percent would post romantic messages on their significant other’s Facebook wall. When the relationship ends, more than half of those surveyed immediately update their status to single, which automatically sends out a notification to their friend list to start the dating cycle over again
6. The word “courting” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to __________

Choose the best answer:
I_______ in the lounge for ten minutes.

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In the 1930s, a lot of people in the USA were out of work. Among these people was a man named Alfred Butts. He always had an interest in word games and so, to fill his time, he planned a game which he called “Lexico”. However, he was not completely satisfied with the game, so he made a number of changes to it and, in time, changed its name from “Lexico” to “Alph” and then to “Criss Cross”. He wanted to make some money from his new game but he didn’t have any real commercial success. In 1939, Butts happened to meet a man called Jim Brunot who showed an interest in the new game. The two men worked together on developing the game and in 1948 it was offered for sale in the United States under its new name - “Scrabble”. At first, it didn’t sell very well. In the first year it sold just 2,250 sets and by 1951 it had only reached 8,500 sets a year. Then, in 1952 the manager of Macy’s department store in New York, Jack Strauss, happened to play “Scrabble” while he was on holiday. He thought it was a wonderful game and, when he went back to work after his holiday, he insisted that Macy’s should stock the game and make an effort to call the public’s attention to it. As a result, “Scrabble” became a big success in the United States and it soon spread to Australia and then to other English-speaking countries
4. When did Alfred Butts first put his game on the market?

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The field of 3-D printing comes with a new set of legal questions hospitals using the  technology will need to consider, said Bruce Kline, a technology licensing manager who oversees patents for new technology developed at Mayo Clinic. For starters, he said the STL file printers use are a lot like MP3 music files, in that they can be protected under copyright and require licensing to use. Copyright violations can occur if a purchased STL anatomical model file for rare disease is illegally shared with another institution that did not purchase the file from the vendor that created the file.  Under the law, if a device has a functional use it falls under patent law. If it is not functional, it falls under copyright law. Kline said most medical 3-D printing for educational models and complex anatomy evaluation currently falls under copyright. But, he said that will rapidly change in the coming years as customizable 3-D printable medical devices see wider use.  Additive manufacturing (AM) allows the creation of patient-specific devices at the point of care. Kline said an interesting fact is that these devices are FDA 510(k)-exempt if produced by a hospital instead of a medical device vendor. He said this blurs the lines between traditional vendor relationships, since the hospital can now become the manufacturer. However, if a hospital makes a device, it also becomes liable for it. He advised that it might be better for a commercial vendor to make the device for the hospital so the vendor assumes the liability of the device. Custom-made medical devices are also exempt under FDA regulations, Kline said. So, if a physician creates or modifies a device to meet the clinical needs of a specific patient’s anatomy, he said it is acceptable to use under current FDA rules. This may leave the door wide open for use of 3-D printed devices that are customized for each patient using their own 3-D imaging datasets.  It is possible printable device files may become available in the next few years to customize and print on demand. However, Kline said it will be much more difficult to enforce patents on these types of devices. He explained if someone makes one or two devices, there is no economical way for the creator of those device files to go after the user/maker of of unlicensed copies of the device to claim lost profits.
7. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?

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Jupiter is the largest and most massive planet and is fifth in order of distance from the sun. It is well placed for observation for several months in every year and on average is the brightest of the planets apart from Venus, though for relatively brief periods Mars may outshine it. Jupiter’s less than 10 hour rotation period gives it the shortest day in the solar system in so far as the principal planets are concerned. There are no true seasons on Jupiter because the axial inclination to the perpendicular of the orbital plane is only just over 3°-less than that for any other planet. The most famous mark on Jupiter is the Great Red Spot. It has shown variations in both intensity and color, and at times it has been invisible, but it always returns after a few years. At its greatest extent it may be 40,000 kilometers long and 14,000 kilometers wide, so its surface area is greater than that of Earth. Though the latitude of the Red Spot varies little, it drifts about in longitude. Over the past century the total longitudinal drift has amounted to approximately 1200°. The latitude is generally very close to – 22°. It was once thought that the Red Spot might be a solid or semisolid body floating in Jupiter’s outer gas. However, the Pioneer and Voyager results have refuted that idea and proven the Red Spot to be a phenomenon of Jovian meteorology. Its longevity may well due to its exceptional size, but there are signs that it is decreasing in size, and it may not be permanent. Several smaller red spots have been seen occasionally but have not lasted.
3. According to the passage, the Great Red Spot________

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While many behaviors and practices associated with going green are designed to save  money, there are certain ways in which green living can actually be moderately to very expensive. Much of the technology associated with green living (1) ____________ provide benefits to the environment but often at a much higher cost than their traditional counterparts. For instance, the use of solar panels can potentially save you money on your energy bills, but they can (2) ______________ thousands of dollars to install. Energy-efficient appliances are designed to use less electricity and water but they often come with a high price tag.  Going green can also potentially have a negative effect on the environment. For (3) __________, the development of alternative fuels is an innovation in the green movement in an effort to reduce reliance on (4) ___________ natural resources. While these fuels are intended to reduce the toxic emissions caused by the burning of traditional gasoline, they may have unintentionally caused the opposite effect. One of these alternative fuels, E85, actually (5) ___________ more ozone into the atmosphere than traditional fuel. While ozone is a natural part of the Earth’s upper atmosphere, if it becomes concentrated in the lower atmosphere, it can potentially increase air pollution in areas where smog is a concern, which can in turn impact the health of those living in these areas

Choose the best answer:
Formerly babies ............... of whooping cough.

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Lead researcher on the atlas, Dr Zoë Randle, said the northerly migration of species of moths and butterflies is a phenomenon observed in northern Europe in recent decades. She said moths are proof that human-made climate change is happening now. Great Britain has observed the arrival of new species too, such as the Clifden Nonpareil, Tree-lichen Beauty and Black-spotted Chestnut. The atlas records that 38 per cent of all moth species in Britain and Ireland have spread to other areas in the last 50 years, most as a result of global warming. The book lists 893 species in all and the scientists’ analysis of distribution records over the period 1970-2016 in particular showed that 31 per cent of 390 larger moth species decreased significantly in Britain. Intensive agriculture has caused the decline of many moth species through the destruction of wildlife-rich habitats and use of fertilizers and pesticides. Widespread environmental pollution such as artificial light at night and chemicals in the air and soil, are altering plant and animal communities in ways that are still not fully understood. Humanmade climate change has facilitated the spread of moths to new parts of Britain and Ireland that were formerly too cold, while at the same time posing a long-term risk to species found in cool and restricted habitats such as mountainsides. The atlas is based on more than 25 million records sourced from Butterfly Conservation’s National Moth Recording Scheme and the Moths Ireland database. These date from the 18th century through to 2016, meaning this volume contains 275 years of mothrecording effort by the public. Dr Randle said the same system of comprehensive recording is not yet available in Ireland as it is in Britain, but anecdotally she believes the same patterns are emerging in Ireland.  
2. According to paragraph 1, the following statements are true about the migration of moths, EXCEPT _______

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On April 3, 1972, a man came out of the Hilton hotel in Manhattan and started walking down the street. He stopped, (1)______ his hand with a strange object in it, put it to his ear and started to talk into it. This was the beginning of mobile phone (2)_______, more than 30 years ago. That man was Motorola’s project manager, Martin Cooper, who was (3)______ his 34th birthday that day. The strange object was the first mobile phone, which was nicknamed “the shoe” because of its unusual (4)_______. Mr. Cooper had gone to New York to introduce the new phone. The first call he made was to his rival, Joe Engel at AT&T’s research centre. Engel was responsible for the development of the radiophones for cars. “I called him and said that I was talking on a real mobile phone (5)_____ I was holding in my hand,” said Cooper. “I don’t remember what he said in reply, but I’m sure he wasn’t happy.” The quality of the call was very good, because although New York had only one base station at that time, it was being used by only one user – Martin Cooper.

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Although experts agree that traditional meetings are essential for making certain decisions and developing strategy, many employees view them as one of the most unnecessary parts of the workday. The result is not only hundreds of billions of wasted dollars, but the worsening of what psychologists call “meeting recovery syndrome”: time spent cooling off and regaining focus after a useless meeting.  It’s isn’t anything novel that workers feel fatigued after a meeting, but only in recent decades have scientists deemed the condition worthy of further investigation. Meeting recovery syndrome (MRS) is most easily understood as a slow replenishment of our limited mental resources. When an employee sits through an ineffective meeting their brain power is essentially being drained away, says Joseph A. Allen, a professor at the University of Utah. If they last too long, fail to engage employees or turn into lectures with little to no personal interactions, meetings will significantly diminish employees’ psychological stamina. Taking time to recover a must, but doing so comes at the expense of productivity.  As humans, when we transition from one task to another – such as from sitting in a meeting to doing normal work – it takes an effortful cognitive switch. We must make a big mental effort to stop the previous task and then expend significant mental energy to move on to the other. Some can bounce back from horrible meetings rather quickly, while others carry their fatigue until the end of the workday. It’s even worse when a worker has several meetings that are separated by only 30 minutes.  While no counter-MRS measures have been tested, Allen says one trick that might work is for employees to identify things or locations that quickly change their mood from negative to positive. As simple as it sounds, finding a personal happy place, going there and then coming straight back to work might be the key to reducing recovery time. Another solution is to ask ourselves if our meetings are even necessary in the first place. If all that’s on the agenda is a quickly catch-up, or some non-urgent information sharing, it may better for managers to send an e-mail to his or her subordinates instead. Most important, however, if for organizations to awaken to the concept of meetings being flexible, says Allen. We have to get rid of the acceptance of meetings as sites of pain, when they should be places of gain.” Allen says. 
2. Which of the following is NOT TRUE, according to paragraph 2?

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New data from the New York Fed highlights how the job situation for recent  graduates is worsening. While the rest of the labor market trends favorably, fresh graduates are more likely to be unemployed than the base U.S. working population. That has not happened before in the New York Fed data going back to 1990.  While the unemployment rate for all college graduates aged up to 65 is trending lower — currently near its lowest level of this current economic cycle — the market for recent college graduates is bucking the overall trend. With the backdrop of a robust U.S. labor market, this is “an important and worrisome trend to watch because it never dropped to prior cycle lows,” DataTrek’s Jessica Rabe wrote in a note. “Even though those who have graduated from college typically get hired before less educated workers.”  The rates are calculated as a 12-month moving average. Recent college graduates are defined as those between the ages of 22 and 27, with a bachelor’s degree or higher. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates has been inching upwards, from 3.8% in May to 4% in September. In contrast, the unemployment rate for overall workers was 3.6% in September.  Fresh graduates are having a hard time because of the lack of experience and relevant education, according to Brusuelas. “There’s some concern about the unemployment rate … [but] that may have more to do with the level of experience and difficulties in finding entry level work right now for the educated class.” Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi previously told Yahoo Finance that the trend also “likely reflects in part greater caution by businesses given the slowing economy and uncertainty created by the trade war.” 
1.  Which best serves as the title for the passage?

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Vietnam’s population is ageing quickly. In 2017, more than 10 per cent of the population will be 60 and older, and in 15–20 years the elderly will account for one third of the total population. This raises concerns about healthcare, welfare and pensions for the elderly at a time when Vietnam is focusing on economic integration and requires a large labor force. So far two solutions have been proposed: to loosen the two-child policy and to increase the retirement age to 58 for women and 62 for men. By ending the two-child policy the government expects to make up for the ageing population within the next 20 years. But its effect could be creating an uncontrollable boom in the Vietnamese population. When the government loosened the two-child policy in 2015 in a trial period, in the first 6 months of 2016 the third child birth rate increased remarkably by 7.5 per cent. Raising the retirement age has been proposed by the Ministry of Labor pending parliamentary evaluation in May 2017. While the policy is beneficial in utilizing the work experience of the elderly while creating savings in the pension budget, it also means fewer job prospects and promotion opportunities for younger generations. It is also not in the interest of all the elderly, especially the 70 per cent of Vietnam’s labor force working in manual labor-intensive sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and construction where working above the age of 50 can be dangerous and unproductive. Despite these drawbacks, raising the retirement age is still considered by policymakers as one of the key solutions to the ageing population problem in Vietnam. However, these are only temporary solutions.  
2. Which statement is probably TRUE according to the information in the paragraph 1?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each blank.

In the western customs (26) _____ hands is the customary form of greeting, but in China a nod of the head or (27) _____ bow is sufficient. Hugging and kissing when greeting are uncommon. Business cards are often (28) _____ and yours should be printed in your own language and in Chinese. Also, it is more respectful to present your card or a gift or any other article using (29) _____ hands. The Chinese are (30) _____ applauders. You may be greeted with group clapping, even by small children. When a person is applauded in this practice it is the custom for that person to return the applause or a "thank you." When walking in public places, direct eye (31) _____ and staring is uncommon in the larger cities, especially in those areas accustomed to foreign visitors. (32) _____, in smaller communities, visitors may be the subject of much curiosity and therefore you may notice some stares. (33) _____ speaking, the Chinese are not a touch-oriented society, especially true for visitors. So, avoid (34) _____ or any prolonged form of body contact. Public displays of affection are very rare. On the other hand, you may note people of the same sex walking hand-in-hand, which is simply a gesture of friendship. Do not worry about a bit of pushing and shoving in stores or when groups board public buses or trains. In this case, (35) _____ are neither offered or expected. The Chinese will stand much closer than Westerners.

(33) _____

What is 'extreme' weather? Why are people talking about it these days? 'Extreme' weather is an unusual weather event such as rainfall, a drought or a heat wave in the wrong place or at the wrong time. In theory, they are very rare. But these days, our TV screens are constantly showing such  extreme weather events. Take just three news stories from 2010: 28 centimetres of rain fell on Riode Janeiro in 24 hours, Nashville, USA, had 33 centimetres of rain in two days and there was record  rainfall in Pakistan.

The effects of this kind of rainfall are dramatic and lethal. In Rio de Janeiro, landslides followed,  burying hundreds of people. In Pakistan, the floods affected 20 million people. Meanwhile, other parts of the world suffer devastating droughts. Australia, Russia and East Africa have been hit in the last ten years. And then there are unexpected heat waves, such as in 2003 in Europe. That summer, 35,000 deaths were said to be heat-related.

So, what is happening to our weather? Are these extreme events part of a natural cycle? Or are they caused by human activity and its effects on the Earth's climate? Peter Miller says it's probably a mixture of both of these things. On the one hand, the most important influences on weather events are natural cycles in the climate. Two of the most famous weather cycles, El Niño and La Niña, originate in the Pacific Ocean. The heat from the warm ocean rises high into the atmosphere and affects weather all around the world. On the other hand, the temperature of the Earth's oceans is slowly but steadily going up. And this is a result of human activity. We are producing greenhouse gases that trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere. This heat warms up the atmosphere, land and oceans. Warmer oceans produce more water vapour - think of heating a pan of water in your kitchen. Turn up the heat, it produces steam more quickly. Satellite data tells US that the water vapour in the atmosphere has gone up by four percent in 25 years. This warm, wet air turns into the rain, storms, hurricanes and typhoons that we are increasingly experiencing. Climate scientist, Michael Oppenheimer, says that we need to face the reality of climate change. And we also need to act now to save lives and money in the future

Extreme weather can be caused by________.

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.

The word “succeed” in the passage is closest in meaning to     .

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
A new report by the Pew Research Center has provided more documentation on the growing popularity of audiobooks. In a survey of 1,502 American adults conducted from January 8 to February 7 this year, Pew found that 20% of adults listened to an audiobook in the 12 months prior to the period in which the survey was conducted. In 2011, only 11% of them said they listened to an audiobook. The strongest gains have come since 2016—the dawning of the digital audiobooks age. The percentage of adults listening to audiobooks rose six percentage points between 2016 and the 2019 survey, after rising only three percentage points between 2011 and 2016. According to Pew, since 2018, college students and adults with household incomes over $75,000 are the two groups who have adopted listening to audiobooks the quickest. The Pew survey also found that while listening to audiobooks has risen steadily since the 2016 survey, reading e-books had declined. Twenty-eight percent of adults reported reading an e-book in 2016—double the number who listen to audiobooks that year. By the most recent survey, ebooks had only a 5% edge over audiobook usage. Overall, the Pew survey found a gradual reduction in the percentage of Americans who are reading. In 2011, 79% of those surveyed said they had read a book in the previous 12 months, a number that fell to 72% in early 2019. Print remained by far the book format of choice, with 65% or adults surveyed reporting that had read a print book within the last year, down from 71% in 2011. The percentage of adult who read a book in any format fell from 79% in 2011 to 72% in 2019.  
4. The word “they” in paragraph 1 refers to _______

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The human desire for companionship may feel boundless, but research suggests that  our social capital is finite. Social scientists have used a number of ingenious approaches to gauge the size of people’s social networks; these have returned estimates ranging from about 250 to about 5,500 people. An undergraduate thesis from MIT focusing exclusively on Franklin D. Roosevelt, a friendly guy with an especially social job, suggested that he might have had as many as 22,500 acquaintances. Looking more specifically at friendship, a study using the exchange of Christmas cards as a proxy for closeness put the average person’s friend group at about 121 people.  However vast our networks may be, our inner circle tends to be much smaller. The average American trusts only 10 to 20 people. Moreover, that number may be shrinking: From 1985 to 2004, the average number of confidants that people reported having decreased from three to two. This is both sad and consequential, because whoever has strong social relationships tends to live longer than those who don’t. So what should you do if your social life is lacking? Just follow the research. To begin with, don’t dismiss the humble acquaintance. Even interacting with people with whom one has weak social ties has a meaningful influence on well-being. Beyond that, building deeper friendships may be largely a matter of putting in time. A recent study out of the University of Kansas found that it takes about 50 hours of socializing to go from acquaintance to casual friend, an additional 40 hours to become a “real” friend, and a total of 200 hours to become a close friend. If that sounds like too much effort, reviving dormant social ties can be especially rewarding. Reconnected friends can quickly recapture much of the trust they previously built, while offering each other a dash of novelty drawn from whatever they’ve been up to in the meantime. And if all else fails, you could start randomly confiding in people you don’t know that well in hopes of letting the tail wag the relational dog. The academic literature is clear: Longing for closeness and connection is pervasive. Which suggests that most of us are stumbling through the world pining for companionship that could be easily provided by the lonesome stumblers all around us.
3. The word “those” in paragraph 2 refers to _____

Most Americans still get married at some point in their lives, but even that group is shrinking. Among current generations of adult American - starting with those bom in 1920s - more than 90 percent have married or will marry at some point in their lives. However, based on recent patterns of marriage and mortality, demographers calculate that a growing share of the younger generations are postponing marriage for so long that an unprecedented number will never marry at all.

More Americans are living together outside of marriage. Divorced and widowed people are waiting longer to remarry. An increasing number of single women are raising children. Put these trends together with our increasing life expectancy, and the result is inevitable. Americans are spending a record low proportion of their adult lives married.

Married rates for unmarried men and women have dropped from their post-195Os high to record lows. Part of this fall is due to the change in the age at which people first marry. The median age at first marriage is the age by which half the men or women who will ever marry have done so. It fell almost continuously from the time it was first measured, in 1890, at 22.0 years for women and 26.1 for men, to a low of 20.3 for women and 22.6 for men between 1947 and 1962. Since then, it has risen at a rapid pace, to a record high for 23.8 for women and 26.2 for men in 1994.

The length of time between marriages is also increasing, and more divorced people are choosing not to remarry. In 1990, divorced men had waited an average of 3.8 years before remarrying, and divorced women had waited an average of 3.5 years, an increase of more than one year over the average interval in 1970.

Data on cohabitation and unmarried childbearing suggest that marriage is becoming less relevant to Americans. 2.8 million of the nation's households are unmarried couples, and one-third of them are caring for children, according to the Census Bureau

 The word “those" in paragraph 1 refers to ________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Although experts agree that traditional meetings are essential for making certain decisions and developing strategy, many employees view them as one of the most unnecessary parts of the workday. The result is not only hundreds of billions of wasted dollars, but the worsening of what psychologists call “meeting recovery syndrome”: time spent cooling off and regaining focus after a useless meeting.  It’s isn’t anything novel that workers feel fatigued after a meeting, but only in recent decades have scientists deemed the condition worthy of further investigation. Meeting recovery syndrome (MRS) is most easily understood as a slow replenishment of our limited mental resources. When an employee sits through an ineffective meeting their brain power is essentially being drained away, says Joseph A. Allen, a professor at the University of Utah. If they last too long, fail to engage employees or turn into lectures with little to no personal interactions, meetings will significantly diminish employees’ psychological stamina. Taking time to recover a must, but doing so comes at the expense of productivity.  As humans, when we transition from one task to another – such as from sitting in a meeting to doing normal work – it takes an effortful cognitive switch. We must make a big mental effort to stop the previous task and then expend significant mental energy to move on to the other. Some can bounce back from horrible meetings rather quickly, while others carry their fatigue until the end of the workday. It’s even worse when a worker has several meetings that are separated by only 30 minutes.  While no counter-MRS measures have been tested, Allen says one trick that might work is for employees to identify things or locations that quickly change their mood from negative to positive. As simple as it sounds, finding a personal happy place, going there and then coming straight back to work might be the key to reducing recovery time. Another solution is to ask ourselves if our meetings are even necessary in the first place. If all that’s on the agenda is a quickly catch-up, or some non-urgent information sharing, it may better for managers to send an e-mail to his or her subordinates instead. Most important, however, if for organizations to awaken to the concept of meetings being flexible, says Allen. We have to get rid of the acceptance of meetings as sites of pain, when they should be places of gain.” Allen says. 
8. Which of the following best serves as a title for the passage?