Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Once restricted to space stations and satellites, photovoltaics are now gaining popularity and becoming an increasingly viable option. Every day, the sun releases an enormous amount of energy, far more than the entire population consumes. Being that the sun is a sustainable, renewable, and inexhaustible source for generating electricity, not using it seems almost counter-intuitive, especially considering the social and environmental impacts of other forms of energy generation. But the technology to create electricity from the sun is by no means simple and still has some limitations, the most significant being price. The process of turning the sun’s rays into electrical energy all starts in the so-called photovoltaic cell. These cells are produced with two chemically altered silicon layers of which one is missing elections and the other is electron-overloaded. When the photons from the sunlight reach the surface, these electrons gain the ability to move, generating a flow that creates an electric current. Each cell generates a small amount of energy and a panel is usually made of between 36 and 72 photovoltaic cells. By connecting several panels together, a photovoltaic system is created. Eight to ten panels is enough to power a small house. Evidently, however, this statistic is influenced by some factors, such as the efficiency of the panels, the amount of sunshine in the region, and the energy demand of the residence itself.  Importantly, photovoltaic solar panels produce electricity in the form of direct current, meaning the electricity must pass through an inverter to transform it into alternating current - which is what is normally used in buildings, appliances, sockets, and light bulbs. Photovoltaic systems can facilitate energy generation in remote locations where infrastructural networks do not reach. In these cases, the system uses batteries to store electricity when less energy is used than is consumed, such as at night or on very cloudy days. However, it is also possible to use photovoltaics in systems connected to the power grid. In these cases, the excess energy goes to the electricity grid, creating energy “credits” for the building in question. In some countries, it is even possible to sell surplus energy, making the building a power plant for neighbors and method of paying off the investment more quickly.  
3. According to paragraph 1, why is overlooking solar energy considered such a mistake?

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Isolated from the mainland, the Con Dao islands are one of Vietnam’s star (1) ______. Long preserve of political prisoners and undesirables, they now turn heads thanks to their striking natural beauty. Con Son, the (2) ______ of this chain of 15 islands and islets, is ringed with lovely beaches, coral reefs and scenic bays, and remains partially covered (3) ______ tropical forests. In addition to hiking, diving and exploring deserted coastal roads, there are excellent wildlife–watching opportunities, such as the black giant squirrel and endemic bow–fingered gecko. (4) ______ it seems an island paradise, Con Son was once hell on earth for the thousands of prisoners who languished in a dozen jails during French rule and the American– backed regime. Many Vietnamese visitors are former soldiers (5) ______ were imprisoned on the island. Until recently, few foreigners visited Con Dao, but with the commencement of low–cost boat connections this looks sure to change

Read and complete the sentence. "American folk music originated with ________ people at a time when the rural population was isolated and music was not yet spread by radio, records, or music video."

Find synonym:
Many city dwellers, especially those in developing countries, still live in poverty.

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Spend just a minute watching the world population counter tick up on Worldometers and you’ll see just how quickly we’re swelling in numbers. The current figure stands at around 7.7 billion, and this is projected to become 9.8 billion by 2050, according to the UN. More people means more carbon footprints - more cars, waste and emissions, more houses and infrastructure to be constructed using the world’s limited resources, more mouths to be fed using more water and energy in food production. Governments recognise the severity of the situation and have mostly come together over global policies like the UN’s Paris Agreement, to limit carbon emissions and their impact on climate change. In addition, new technologies are being developed to make our use of resources more efficient. As for controlling population growth, the education of women is one key factor. Research shows the higher level to which a woman is educated, the fewer children she is likely to have. In Ghana, for example, women who have been to high school, have a fertility rate of between two and three children, compared with six for those who have no education. This could be for several reasons including learning about desired family size and understanding child health better. This means that the mother is more confident her children will survive. She is also likely to hold more sway within the family, arguing for fewer children if that is what she wants.  There is also plenty that individuals can do to reduce their personal footprint. Earth Overshoot Day is defined as the day when humanity has used up nature’s resource budget for the year. The Global Footprint Network calculates that moving Earth Overshoot day back by five days every year would mean that, by 2050, we’d be using the resources of less than one planet. Just eating 50% less meat and replacing it with vegetarian alternatives could save the planet five days. As David Attenborough says, if we want to save Earth, we can no longer afford to keep eating meat: “We are omnivores, so biologically, if you could have a biological morality, you can say, yes we evolved to eat pretty well everything. But now we’ve got to a stage in our own social evolution in which that is no longer practical.” Sir David says he himself now eats less meat and is bolstered by the knowledge that it’s helping the planet.  
6. The word “it” in paragraph 5 refers to _____

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
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.
2. The word “reproducing” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _______

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Children’s behaviour has worsened over the past five years, according to a survey of  teachers which found that a fifth thought girls were more likely to cause trouble than boys. The survey, published after teachers at a Lancashire school went on strike over discipline, found low-level disruption, including chatting and “horsing around”, was the biggest problem. Boys were more likely to be physically aggressive while girls tended to ostracise other pupils. The behaviour of boys was more of a challenge than that of girls but the actions of each sex had deteriorated, according to 56.5% of staff surveyed by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).  Among male pupils the most challenging behaviour for teachers was physical aggression, such as pushing, spitting, kicking and hitting. A secondary teacher quoted in the survey said boys were usually aggressive with other pupils, while girls tended to call one another names. Teachers criticised a lack of role models in the home. A primary teacher said: “The boys are far more willing to be aggressive to adults, verbally and even physically. There don’t seem to be any parental boundaries set of what is an appropriate way to speak and deal with another adult.” Teachers at Darwen Vale high school, Lancashire, walked out over unruly pupil behaviour this month. They said children challenged them to fights and threatened to film lessons and post them online. The survey of more than 850 teachers, heads and other school staff found that more than 21% thought girls’ behaviour was more challenging than boys, compared with 68% who said male pupils caused more trouble. In schools that have excluded pupils, 57% said more boys and 5% said more girls had been excluded. A department head in a primary school told the survey, carried out in March, that “classes with a majority of boys tend to be louder, less co-operative and harder to teach”. Nearly half of the staff surveyed said boys’ bravado was behind their disruption. For girls, the most likely trigger was a break-up between friends. A primary school teacher from Bedfordshire said: "Boys are generally more physical and their behaviour is more noticeable. Girls often say nasty things, which end up disrupting the lesson just as much as the boys, as other children get upset and can’t focus on their work. They are usually the ones who refuse to comply with instructions." Some staff had noticed girls’ behaviour worsening.” A teaching assistant from Weston-super-Mare said: “Girls are definitely getting more violent, with gangs of girls in school who are getting worse than the gangs of boys.” The ATL annual conference in Liverpool on Monday is due to debate a motion expressing concern at increasing numbers of girls being excluded from secondary school.  Government figures for 2008-9 showed that boys represented 78% of the total number of permanent exclusions from schools in England. This proportion was unchanged from the year before. The ATL general secretary, Mary Bousted, said: "Staff get ground down daily by the chatting and messing around, which disrupts lessons for other pupils and takes the pleasure out of teaching. Even more worrying is the physical aggression, most often among boys but also among some girls, which puts other pupils and staff at risk. Schools need to have firm and consistent discipline policies and work with parents to keep schools and colleges safe places for pupils and staff alike." The education bill, now going through the Commons, will give teachers the right to search pupils for banned items and will remove the requirement to give parents a day’s notice of detention. The education secretary, Michael Gove, said the measures in the bill would “restore discipline” in the classroom.
4. According to paragraph 3, female pupils are described that _____________

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Bacteria are the smallest known living things with a cellular structure. These colorless, one-celled micro-organisms exist (1) ______ organic matter is found: in soil, in water and in the air. Since most of them have no chlorophyll, they cannot use light energy to synthesize their food, (2) ________ green plants do. They must get their food in other ways. In this, bacteria resemble animals. However, since/as they are enclosed in a cell wall, they can only (3) _______ dissolved food like plants do. Although most bacteria do not contain chlorophyll, some of them can make their own organic food from simple inorganic (4)________. They do not, however, use light energy for this purpose. Others get ready-made food from dead plants and animals. Still others are parasites. Parasites are (5)______ to enter other living organisms and take food from them. In doing so, they often cause diseases or the death of their hosts

Choose the best answer:
I don’t like apples …………………

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Pick any day in the Piazza del Duomo in the Italian city of Pisa, and you will  undoubtedly spot a bunch of tourists posing for the same photo: hands outstretched towards the cathedral’s conspicuously tilting bell tower, as if they are supporting it with their sheer strength. The so-called Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of the most famous buildings in the world, although maybe not for the reasons its original architects would have wanted.  In 1173, construction began on a white marble bell tower for the cathedral complex in Pisa, located between the Arno and Serchio rivers in Tuscany, central Italy. By the time builders had finished the third of eight planned stories about five years later, the tower’s foundation had begun to settle unevenly on the ground beneath it, a dense mixture of clay, sand and shells. As a result, the structure had begun to tilt visibly toward the south. Shortly after that, war broke out between Pisa and Genoa, another Italian city-state, halting construction for nearly a century. This delay allowed the foundation to settle further, likely prevented the bell tower’s premature collapse.  When construction resumed, chief engineer Giovanni di Simone tried to compensate for the lean by adding extra masonry to the short side, but the additional weight caused the structure to tilt even further. The tower was officially completed around 1370, but its lean only increased over the next six centuries, becoming an integral part of the monument’s quirky appeal. Despite various attempts to reinforce it, Pisa’s tower continued to subside at a rate of some 0.05 inches per year, placing it in increasing danger of collapse. By 1990, it was leaning 5.5 degrees (or some 15 feet) from the perpendicular–the most extreme angle yet. That year, the monument was closed to visitors and the bells removed as engineers started extensive reparations to stabilize it. By siphoning earth from beneath and adding counterweights to the tower’s north end, they were able to reduce the lean to 13.5 feet, or 4.0 degrees from perpendicular. The straightening continued after the tower reopened in 2001, and in 2008 sensors showed the subsiding motion had stopped, after a total improvement of some 19 inches. Engineers now believe the Leaning Tower of Pisa will remain stable for some 200 years, barring an earthquake or other unpredictable disaster. 
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

Read and complete the sentence.  " In the nineteenth century, composer Steven Foster wrote some of the most enduringly popular of all American songs, _________ soon became part of the folk tradition."

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
In 2018 the Tchaikovsky Competition celebrated its 60th anniversary. While many things have changed in the country, in the world and in the people, the art of music has been showing its amazing vital power helping the performing art go through difficult times and contributing to its amazing ability to revive. It appears that the history of the Tchaikovsky Competition can be divided into three periods which in the terms of a well-known critic can be defined as the rise, the soaring and the descent. The rise refers to the first three Competitions (1958, 1962 and 1966) when the structure of the Competition was formed (the First Competition comprised two categories, the Second – three and the Third – four categories). The competition jury was a pool of renowned cultural figures. Under the special focus were the amazingly talented competitors and they exceeded all expectations. The winner of the piano contest of the I Competition became Van Cliburn, a US piano player who just after finishing his first program items became the object of admiration and a legend that was passed down in Russia and America for generations. His impressive performance was something that couldn’t be judged only from the professional point of view; our listener’s perception was almost irrational. Also, for long we remembered by names the other piano players taking part in the I Competition. Truly, Toyoaki Matsuura and Daniel  Pollack were brilliant virtuosos, if not genius. Besides, both Daniel Pollack and Van Cliburn studied under Rosina Levina, a famous Russian educator, i.e. they were kindred spirits for Russians. What was happening gave an impression of something truly exceptional and unmatched, and this was proved to be true during the many years of the Tchaikovsky Competition in the future. The II Competition was also truly amazing. In the piano category won Vladimir Ashkenazi, the Soviet virtuoso piano player, and an eccentric Englishman John Ogdon. In the violin contest the winner was Leningrad native Boris Gutnikov who had won all the competitions in which he had participated. At the III Competition there was a sensation: a Leningrad native 16-year-old Grigory Sokolov while not being considered by the critics as the most likely winner won the first prize in the piano contest; his charmingly fresh musicality and magical pianism turned the jury’s opinion in his favor despite the dissatisfaction of the Moscow audience over the jury’s choice.  
8. What will the next paragraph possibly discuss?

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The ____________ will announce tomorrow’s weather on TV at 7:30 tonight.

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Even though it’s sometimes hard for parents to think about letting go of their child, the best relationships are the ones that teens come back to, as adults, recognizing how their parents have helped them into adulthood by not clinging or pushing them away too soon. We recommend that parents look for opportunities to teach independence, starting in childhood. Encourage your teen to be responsible for his or her own time. “How much time do you need for homework?” “How long to do you need to unwind after school?” If the answers to these questions are “None” and “Until midnight”, then your teen needs some help making a schedule. Many teens can come up with a reasonable time for getting things done, with some practice and initial limits from you. You may want to let her try out her schedule through, say, one grading period. If grades go down, the schedule needs work and maybe more supervision from you. Not knowing basic financial skills can be one the first things to trip up a newly independent young adult. Look for chances to teach basic money skills. Some parents give their teen a set amount of money and let her plan the weekly grocery shopping or family vacation. Have her help you pay utility bills and budget for expenses. Explain carefully about credit cards and limit access to credit. Teens are impulsive, and easily get stuck in the trap of  charging more than they can pay off. An after-school job is a great opportunity for your teen to start practicing. More than anything else, teens learn from making mistakes. As a parent, your job is to try to make sure that the mistakes your teen makes aren’t life-threatening, like getting into the car with a drunk driver. Most mistakes, though, will not fall into that category. No one is perfect, especially parents. It’s important that teen see that you do not expect perfection from him or from yourself, and that you can admit your mistakes when you make them. Letting your teen make mistakes, and letting him suffer the consequences of a mistake, can be hard to do. But when you give your teen permission to make mistakes, and let him know you love him anyway, you tell him that you believe in his ability to take a fall, get up and learn from it  
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
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.  
5. The word “temporary” in paragraph 2 means_______________

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If you see someone who’s looking blue, just reach out and offer a kind word, a smile, a hug. Sometimes people just feel (1) ____ they need someone to care. Maybe they’re confused and not sure what’s going on just in the moment, or in a bigger picture such as where their lives are (2) ____. The purpose of our lives is to love, laugh, be happy and to grow together, sharing with one another. If we are all too busy (3) ____ someone who is in emotional need, it can leave the person wondering what’s the real point of everything. By reaching out and smiling, showing compassion, listening, offering a (4) ____ of gentle advice, you remind both yourself and the (5) ____ what the bigger picture is, and bring a little burst of more light and happiness into the world. Enough of those bursts and lights contribute to the tipping point towards a more compassionate and joyful world

Find synonym:
The major shortcoming of ASEAN as an organisation is the inability to go through many declarations, agreements, and instruments that they have proliferated over the years.

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Green-space facilities are contributing to an important extent to the quality of the urban environment. Fortunately it is no longer necessary that every lecture or every book about this subject has to start with the proof of this idea. At present, it is generally accepted, although more as a self-evident statement than on the base of a closely-reasoned scientific proof. The recognition of the importance of green-spaces in the urban environment is a first step on the right way; this does not mean, however, that sufficient details are known about the functions of green-space in towns and about the way in which the inhabitants are using these spaces. As to this rather complex subject I shall, within the scope of this lecture, enter into one aspect only, namely the recreative function of green-space facilities. The theoretical separation of living, working, traffic and recreation which for many years has been used in town-and-country planning, has in my opinion resulted in disproportionate attention for forms of recreation far from home, whereas there was relatively little attention for improvement of recreative possibilities in the direct neighbourhood of the home. We have come to the conclusion that this is not right, because an important part of the time which we do not pass in sleeping or working, is used for activities as possible, and the design of these has to be such that more obligatory activities can also have a recreative aspect. The very best standard of living is nothing if it is not possible to take a pleasant walk in the district, if the children cannot be allowed to play in the streets, because the risks of traffic are too great, if during shopping you can nowhere find a spot for enjoying for a moment the nice weather, in short, if you only feel yourself at home after the street-door of you house is closed after you.  
4. The underlined word “disproportionate“ in the passage probably means __________

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

The writer’s main point in paragraph 2 is to show that as people grow up      

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Until the twentieth century cigarettes were not an important threat to public health. Men used tobacco mainly in the form of cigars. They chewed tobacco, piped tobacco, and snuffed. Most women did not use tobacco at all. The cigarette industry began in 1870s with the development of the cigarette manufacturing machine. This made it possible to produce great numbers of cigarettes very quickly, and it reduced the price. Today cigarette smoking is a widespread habit. About forty-three percent of the adult men and thirty-one percent of the adult women in the United States smoke cigarettes regularly. It is encouraging to note, however, that millions of people have quits smoking. Seventy-five percent of the male population and forty-six percent of the female population have smoked cigarettes for some time during their lives, but twenty-six percent of these men and eleven percent of women have stopped smoking. The number of persons who have given up smoking is increasing. Men as a group smoke more than women. Among both men and women the age group with the highest proportion of smokers is the age group 24-44. Income, education, and occupation all play a part in determining a person’s smoking habit. City people smoke more than people living on farms. Well-educated men with high incomes are less likely to smoke cigarettes than men with fewer years of schooling and lower incomes. On the other hand, if a well-educated man with a higher income smokes, he’s likely to smoke more packs of cigarettes per day. The situation is somewhat different for women. There are slightly more smokers among women with higher family incomes and higher education than among the lower income and lower educational groups. These more highly educated women tend to smoke more heavily. Among teenagers the picture is similar. There are fewer teenager smokers from upper-income, well-educated families, and also fewer from families living in farm areas. High school students who are preparing for college are less likely to smoke than those who don’t plan to continue their education after high school. Children are most likely to start smoking if one or both of their parents smoke  
2. Which group of people smoked more according to the passage?

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

Many national parks and animal reserves charge admission prices to help paying the cost of maintaining and they also depend on world organizatios for suppor