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Nuts could be the key to keeping slim, according to new research. Scientists from Harvard University and Harvard Medical School say that replacing and unhealthy snack with half a daily _____ (1) of nuts could slow weight gain in people as they get older. Walnuts ____________ (2) particular appeared to offer good results and were linked to a 15% lower risk of obesity. Researchers conducted a long-term study which followed 51,529 male health professionals aged 40 to 5, 121,700 nurses aged 35 to 55 and 16,686 nurses aged 24 to 44. Participants had their weight ____________ (3) every four years and were asked how often they had eaten nuts. They also had to report their exercise every two years. The findings, ___________________ (4) in the online journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health, showed that increasing nut consumption was associated with less risk of putting on two or more kilos over a four-year period. However, the researchers say the study is ________ (5) and therefore cannot establish a definite cause

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Rome is the capital of Italy. This sprawling modern city has many ancient monuments. Rome’s history goes back more than 2,500 years. Because of its age, Rome is often called the Eternal City. Rome’s many art treasures and historic buildings make the city an important center of European culture. In ancient times, Rome was the center of a mighty Roman empire. The empire lasted nearly 500 years, into the ad 400s. Roman armies conquered the lands that are now Italy, Greece, Great Britain, France, and Egypt. The Romans built many roads from Rome to distant parts of their empire. This network of roads led to a saying that “All roads lead to Rome.” The Roman Empire’s influence is still present. The Romans spread their language, Latin, throughout Europe. Latin is the basis for Italian, French, Spanish, and other European languages. The ancient Romans were great builders. Several of their buildings still stand today. They are among Rome’s famous landmarks.The Pantheon is a temple dedicated to the many Roman gods of mythology. The Roman Colosseum is a four-story amphitheater. An amphitheater is like a football stadium. The Colosseum is where Roman citizens once watched gladiators fight to the death. The Roman Forum was the political center of ancient Rome. The senate building and law courts were there, along with shops and religious buildings. Many artists painted in Rome. The most famous of them is Michelangelo. He lived 500 years ago. Thousands of people visit Rome each year to see his art. Visitors to the Vatican stare in wonder at the beautiful murals that Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The murals show scenes from the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis. Vatican City is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. The pope lives at the Vatican. He is the head of the Catholic Church. There are more than a billion Catholics worldwide, making Roman Catholicism the largest Christian religion. Vatican City is an independent country within Rome. It is the smallest country in the world.
4. The author mentions the Pantheon, the Roman Colosseum, and the Roman Forum as ______

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You seem more ____ now.

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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. 
1. The passage mainly discuss ________

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That’s my friend, ................ comes from Japan.

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:
Tourism and Heritage Protection Travelling is a great thing to do. It helps us learn about different people and different places. Some people travel because they want to see nature. Others travel because they want to make friends and try great food. Of course, a lot of tourists are interested in traditional culture.
Tourism can be very good for traditional cultures. This is because when people travel to another country, they often want to learn more about that country’s traditions, such as music, food, and history. Therefore, the local people in that country will keep their traditional culture alive. They will wear traditional clothing, and sell traditional food. They will also have shows for tourists. These shows can be dances, concerts, plays, or something else.
Tourism also helps people respect each other. If you understand another culture well, you will probably respect that culture much more. You will probably want to protect that culture as well. However, tourism is not always good for traditional culture. Many people say that tourism creates “fake traditional culture”. This means that the local people wear traditional costumes, and do traditional dances only for tourists, but that is not their real lifestyle. Their real lifestyles are similar to the tourists’ lifestyle. They are just pretending because they want to make money.

Why do local people want tourism?

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:
Pollution is a threat to many species on Earth, but sometimes it can cause species to thrive. Such is the case with Pfiesteria piscicida. A one-celled creature called a dinoflagellate, Pfiesteria inhabits warm coastal areas and river mouths, especially along the eastern United States. Although scientists have found evidence of Pfiesteria in 3,000-year-old sea floor sediments and dinoflagellates are thought to be one of the oldest life forms on earth, few people took notice of Pfiesteria.
Lately, however, blooms – or huge, dense populations – of Pfiesteria are appearing in coastal waters, and in such large concentrations the dinoflagellates become ruthless killers. The blooms emit powerful toxins that weaken and entrap fish that swim into the area. The toxins eventually cause the fish to develop large bleeding sores through which the tiny creatures attack, feasting on blood and flesh. Often the damage is astounding. During a 1991 fish kill, which was blamed on Pfiesteria on North Carolina’s Neuse River, nearly one billion fish died and bulldozers had to be brought in to clear the remains from the river. Of course, such events can have a devastating effect on commercially important fish, but that is just one way that Pfiesteria causes problems. The toxins it emits affect human skin in much the same way as they affect fish skin. Additionally, fisherman and others who have spent time near Pfiesteria blooms report that the toxins seem to get into the air, where once inhaled they affect the nervous system, causing severe headaches, blurred vision, nausea, breathing difficulty, short-term memory loss and even cognitive impairment.
For a while, it seemed that deadly Pfiesteria blooms were a threat only to North Carolina waters, but the problem seems to be spreading. More and more, conditions along the east coast seem to be favorable for Pfiesteria. Researchers suspect that pollutants such as animal waste from livestock operations, fertilizers washed from farmlands and waste water from mining operations have probably all combined to promote the growth of Pfiesteria in coastal waters.

What is the main function of the toxins emitted by the dinoflagellates?

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.

According to the passage, succession planning is the planning of     .

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The ability to be independent is something that not everyone possesses. (1)_______, you need to be independent in order to survive in the world. Learning to support yourself is (2) ________ for any success you ever hope to achieve. At the end of the day, you only have yourself to fall back on, so it is exceedingly important to be able to handle things on your own. It is all about being secure with who you are and what you believe in. It is extremely empowering knowing that you are (3)________control of your own life and your own choices. It is much more beneficial to listen to the voice inside yourself rather than the berating (4) ________of others. We rely on others far more than it is necessary. People put their happiness in the hands of a significant other, thinking this will bring them fulfillment. This is a fatal error too many people make these days. Do you always want to feel dependent on someone else? Of course not. Not only are you limiting yourself, you are more than likely becoming a burden to this person. We need to learn how to make decisions on our own. I understand asking your friends their opinion on a fashion decision, but do we really need to consult others on every minimal decision we have to make? Think of things (5)________ are in your best interest and choose that option

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.

(Source: © 2015 National Geographic Learning, www.ngllife.com/wild-weather)

The word —that 11 in the third paragraph 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 following questions:
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.

Which of the following is a disadvantage of the job as an au pair? 

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The government provided an _______ £25 million to expand the service.

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Mr O’Connor, a volunteer firefighter with the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS), has used all seven weeks of his holiday leave, plus his three weeks of allotted sick leave, to fight fires across the state. Mr O’Connor is among the more than 72,000 members of the RFS, a volunteer force that is the largest firefighting service in the world. These volunteer services have been at the front line of the battle against ferocious bush fires across Australia that have already destroyed more than 10.7 million hectares, an area larger than South Korea. The RFS, which began 120 years ago, not only attends to bush fires and home and building fires but also assists in storms, search and rescue operations and car accidents. In 2018, it attended 26,903 incidents, including 10,036 bush fires and 1,283 building fires. Mr Mick Holton, president of the NSW Volunteer Fire Fighters Association, an organisation which represents volunteers, said people step up for various reasons, including altruism, social factors, a sense of adventure, or a desire to protect their own farms or houses. “People are happy to be part of a group that benefits the community. That is a large part of it for most volunteers. People have a sense that they want to help,” he told The Straits Times. But Australia’s bush fires are becoming more severe and more frequent. This year, many, like Mr O’Connor, have made large sacrifices to protect people and homes. Controversially, Prime Minister Scott Morrison agreed in late December to compensate some of the firefighters after coming under heavy pressure to provide them with support. The compensation scheme allows volunteers who are self-employed or work for small businesses to claim A$300 (S$277) per day if they have served more than 10 days this fire season. The maximum payment is A$6,000. But the move had been opposed by some senior firefighters, including the RFS Commissioner, Mr Shane Fitzsimmons, who has said that “For goodness sake, let’s not take away from the extraordinary spirit that is volunteerism.” But Mr Morrison insisted that: “While I know RFS volunteers don’t seek payment for their service, I don’t want to see volunteers or their families unable to pay bills or struggle financially as a result of the selfless contribution they are making.
4. According to paragraph 2, what is mentioned about Australia’s volunteering services?

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The White House, the official home of the United State President, was not built in time for George Washington to live in it. It was begun in 1792 and was ready for its inhabitants, President and Mrs. John Adams, who moved in on November 1, 1800. When the Adams moved in, the White House was not yet complete, and the Adams suffered many inconveniences; for example, the main staircase was incomplete, which hindered movement from floor to floor, and the future laundry yard was merely a pool of mud, so wet laundry was hung in the unfinished East Room to dry. Thomas Jefferson, the third president, improved the comfort of the White House in many respects and added new architectural features such as the terraces on the east and west ends. When the British forces burned the White House on August 24, 1818, President Madison was forced to leave. All the remained after the fire was the exterior walls, the interior was completely destroyed. It was not until December of 1817 that the following president, James Monroe was able to move into a rebuilt residence. Since then, the White House has continued to be modified but has been continuously occupied by each succeeding US president.
4. It can be inferred from the passage that John Adams was .

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Do you ever wish you were more optimistic, someone who always expected to be successful? Having someone around (25) ____ always fears the worst isn’t really a lot of fun - we all know someone who sees a single cloud on a sunny day and says, “It looks like rain”. But if you catch yourself thinking such things, it’s important to do something about it. You can change your view of life, according to psychologists. It only takes a little (26) ____, and you’ll find life more rewarding as a result. Optimism, they say, is partly about self-respect and confidence but it’s also a more (27) ____ way of looking at life and all it has to result offer. Optimists are more likely to start new projects and generally more prepared to take risks. Upbringing is obviously very important (28) ____ forming your attitude to the world. Some people are brought up to depend too much on others and grow up forever blaming other people when anything goes wrong. Most optimists, on the other hand, have been brought up not to regard failure as the end of the world - they just (29) ____ with their lives

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New data from Akamai, an internet delivery and cloud services company, has exposed that the video game industry remains a growing threat vector for security breaches. Hackers have targeted 12 billion credential stuffing attacks against game websites within a 17-month period The rise and success of credential stuffing attacks is a result of people continuing to reuse the same passwords across multiple accounts. Google identified that 59% of online users reuse passwords. When a data breach happens, user credentials are exposed and can subsequently be found on the internet and the dark web. Cybercriminals use a bot with a list of exposed credentials against a website to gain access to an account on that site. The reason that gaming is subject to so many breaches is twofold; No. 1, most video game companies use low-friction authentication measures because increasing friction drives customer attrition and results in a loss of revenue. The second issue is that from a consumer perspective, gaming is seen as having a low financial risk and, as a result, gamers tend to use less secure passwords. Adding to these challenges is the fact that game developers are pressured to deliver more products at a faster pace, meaning there are more bugs and security issues for cybercriminals to exploit. This has created a perfect storm in the video game industry upon which hackers are all too eager to capitalize.   A significant number of gamers are young — elementary, middle, and high schoolaged — who are less security-conscious and more trusting of people they meet online. To them, privacy is a learned behavior leaving them open to exploitation. They may need to be taught best practices to safeguard their accounts and understand the risks of using weak passwords linked to the games they play. Providing a seamless online experience is paramount in the digital age and, as a result, many organizations balk at implementing robust security procedures for fear of alienating customers. The challenge for the video game industry is to find a balance between increased security without frustrating its players. One notable exception is Microsoft, which has deployed vigorous security measures with Xbox in line with the rest of its business. Without a fundamental change in approach from both gamers and the industry overall, the escalation of this problem shows no signs of slowing down.  
3. According to paragraph 2, what is the probable use the hackers have for the acquired accounts?

Choose the best answer:
Reducing the size of classes may improve _______ standards.

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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.
2. The fact that number of predators has much to do with that of other animals ____

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Birds are even more disrupted by their noisy neighbours than had been thought  previously, researchers have found. And human activities could be preventing birds from reproducing and even developing normal social behaviour and keeping the peace.  A study by Queen’s University Belfast found that when European robins were subjected to human produced noises their behaviour changed. Background noise appeared to mask the communication of crucial information between birds. While aggressive communication is common and birds respond to it, interference through noise can lead to the birds mistaking the signals.  Birds can end up in situations all too familiar to humans. “The birds receive incomplete information on their opponent’s intent and do not appropriately adjust their response,” explained Arnott. “Where song is disguised by background noise, in some cases the male ends up fighting more vigorously than he should, but at other times gives in too easily.”Arnott said the purpose of birdsong was twofold – to attract mates and defend territory. Birds already face an array of human-made dangers, from pesticides and intensive farming to shooting and poisoning. But noise had often been overlooked, the paper in Biology Letters found. A spokesperson for the RSPB said: “Everyone is becoming increasingly concerned that nature is in crisis in the UK, with one in 10 of our wildlife species at threat of extinction. Many of our birds’ populations are already facing a serious crisis as a result of habitat loss, climate change and other human activities. This report is a good reminder that the way we live and our lifestyle has an impact on our natural world, and that we need to protect our natural world if we want to let nature sing.”  For birds, the extra burden of noise pollution adds to extraordinary decline in species, including among once common birds, in recent decades due to such activities as agricultural practice and pesticide use. In the experiment the team used playbacks of robin song to stimulate responses from birds who were territory holders. Simple or complex songs were used in either the presence or absence of noise. The researchers found that song complexity  was used as a signal of aggressive intent; birds demonstrated higher aggressive intent towards complex rather than simple song. This process was disrupted by the presence of added noise.
7. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?

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

Exceeding speed limits and fail to wear safety bells are two common causes of automobile death

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:
The weather is a national obsession in Britain, perhaps because it is so changeable. It's the national talking point, and most people watch at least one daily weather forecast. Most of the viewers imagine that the presenter does little more than arrive at the studio a few minutes before the broadcast, read the weather, and then go home.
In fact, this image is far from the truth. The two-minute bulletin which we all rely on when we need to know tomorrow's weather is the result of a hard day's work by the presenter, who is actually a highly-qualified meteorologist.
Every morning, after a weather forecaster arrives at the TV studios, his/her first task of the day is to collect the latest data from the National Meteorological Office. The information is very detailed and includes predictions, satellite and radar pictures, as well as more technical data. After gathering all the relevant material from this office, the forecaster has to translate the scientific terminology and maps into images and words which viewers can easily understand. The final broadcast is then carefully planned. The presenter decides what to say and in what order to say it. Next a “story board” is drawn up which lays out the script word for word.
The time allocated for each broadcast can also alter. This is because the weather report is screened after the news, which can vary in length. The weather forecaster doesn't always know how much time is available, which means that he/she has to be thoroughly prepared so that the material can be adapted to the time available.
What makes weather forecasting more complicated is that it has to be a live broadcast and cannot be pre-recorded. Live shows are very nerve-racking for the presenter because almost anything can go wrong. Perhaps the most worrying aspect for every weather forecaster is getting the following day's predictions wrong. Unfortunately for them, this is not an unusual occurrence; the weather is not always possible to predict accurately.
These days, a weather forecaster's job is even more complicated because they are relied upon to predict other environmental conditions. For example, in the summer the weather forecast has to include the pollen count for hay fever sufferers. Some also include reports on ultraviolet radiation intensity to help people avoid sunburn. The job of a weather forecaster is certainly far more sophisticated than just pointing at a map and describing weather conditions. It's a job for professionals who can cope with stressful and challenging conditions.

Creating a weather report is complex because .