Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The penny press, which emerged in the United Sates during the 1830’s, was 1 a powerful agent of mass communication. These newspapers were little dailies, generally four pages in length, written for the mass taste. They differed from the 3 staid, formal presentation of the conservative press, with its emphasis on political and literary topics. The new papers were brief and cheap, emphasizing sensational reports of police courts and juicy scandals as well as human interest 5 stories. Twentieth – century journalism was already foreshadowed in the penny press of the 1830’s. 7 The New York Sun, founded in 1833, was the first successful penny paper, and it was followed two years later by the New York Herald, published by James 9 Gordon Bennett. Not long after, Horace Greeley issued the New York Tribune, which was destined to become the most influential paper in America. Greeley 11 gave space to the issues that deeply touched the American people before the Civil War – abolitionism, temperance, free homesteads, Utopian cooperative settlements, and the problems of labor. The weekly edition of the Tribune, with 13 100,000 subscribers, had a remarkable influence in rural areas, especially in Western communities. 15 Americans were reputed to be the most avid readers of periodicals in the world. An English observer enviously calculated that, in 1829, the number of 17 newspapers circulated in Great Britain was enough to reach only one out of every thirty – six inhabitants weekly; Pennsylvania in that same year had a 19 newspaper circulation which reaches one out of every four inhabitants weekly. Statistics seemed to justify the common belief that Americans were devoted to periodicals. Newspapers in the United States increased from 1,200 in 1833 to 21 3000 by the early 1860’s, on the eve of the Civil War. This far exceeded the number and circulation of newspapers in England and France.
5. Who was Horace Greeley?

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In the Us, the first stage of compulsory education_______as elementary education.

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Yuri Gagarin became the first person to eat and drink in …………

WWF is _____ leading privately supported international conservation organization in the world, and has sponsored more than 2,000 projects in 116 countries.

(361)_______

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Raising a Child Athlete
In many countries, children with sporting potential are identified early and encouraged to achieve athletic greatness by training for hours every day. While some people see this as a great opportunity for kids to be healthy, others argue that too much focus on training can hurt young people. How parents should raise child athletes has become a big topic of their debate. People who are against such serious commitment to sport say that there are many negatives to training so intensively. Here are some of their arguments: The long hours spent training can distant the child from his or her family. thletes who spend too much time training miss out on education. The child may not be prepared for other real world activities, such as going to college and having a non-athletic job. Pressure from parents and coaches to win can be psychologically damaging for the child. Parents may also become too pushy and end up caring more about athletic achievements than the child. Dr. Christine Carr, a psychologist, suggests that parents take some important steps to make sure that their kids are getting the most out of sports. Carr says that the focus should be on the child’s happiness and about learning life lessons. Self-discipline, determination, and learning to deal with failure are some of the important life skills and lessons kids can learn from sports. Other experts point to the importance of letting children make their own decisions. Top athletes Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps have said that they appreciated their parents letting them decide how much or how little they wanted to train. In fact, according to Phelps’ mother, he had trouble focusing in the classroom until he found a sport that he was passionate about. By allowing Michael to focus on his sport, his mother also saw him improve as a student. Another thing that many parents and doctors agree on is the importance of developing a close relationship with the family. Dr. Carr suggests eating dinner together and says it is a simple way to remind children that family is important, and that support can always be found at home. Woods and Phelps both had supportive families and made it public, with parents attending their many competitions. Raising an athlete is not easy. By balancing life and training, parents can set their children up for success and help them become winners in sports and in life.
8. Who would find this passage the most useful?

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
The story of gold is an adventure involving kings, queens, pirates, explores, conquerors, and the native peoples they conquered. Throughout history, gold had (1)_____a magic spell over those it touch. Gold is beautiful and rare; a soft shiny metal that can be moulded into many(2)_____.It has been used for money, jewellery, and to decorate special buildings such as palaces and places of worship. (3)_____the precious metal was discovered, prospectors rushed to mine it, starting new cities and countries as they went. Gold and the people who love it have helped shape the world we live in today. Gold is one of many elements, or substances that cannot be changed by normal chemical (4)_____, that are found in the Earth’s crust. Gold has a warm, sunny colour and (5)_____it does not react (6)_____air, water, and most chemicals, its shine never fades. In its natural (7) _____, gold is soft and easily shaped. When heated to 1,062 Celsius it melts and can be poured(8)_____ moulds to form coins, gold bars, and other objects. Stories have been told, movies (9)_____and legends born about the (10)_____of the world’s great gold deposits. It is a saga of dreams, greed, ambition and exploration

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Saving the Rainforests
One of the hottest topics related to the environment is rainforests. Despite always being mentioned in the news, many people don’t know very much about these areas or understand why they are so important. The name “rainforest” actually does a pretty good job of describing what they are – tall forests that receive high amounts of precipitation. In a year, rainforests get between 250 to 450 centimetres of precipitation. There are two types of rainforests: tropical rainforests and temperate rainforests. Tropical rainforests are more plentiful and are located in warmer climates, while temperate rainforests are found in places where the weather is a bit milder. In terms of location, rainforests can be found on every continent with the exception of Antarctica. Although they only cover 6 percent of the Earth, over 50 percent of the Earth’s animal and plant species can be found there. Many biologists estimate that there are possibly millions of additional species present there that have yet to be discovered and classified. Over the years, rainforests have gained the nickname “the world’s pharmacy” because more than 25 percent of natural medicines were found there. Many herbs that are used to make medicines can only be found in rainforests. Rainforests are also home to several tribes that have lived off the land for thousands of years. During this time, they have survived by hunting animals and gathering fruits and vegetables. They also possess tremendous knowledge when it comes to crafting and applying medicines made from herbs and plants. Over time, their unique way of life has declined as they have come in contact with modern civilization. Despite their numerous benefits, rainforests have been disappearing at a rapid speed. As the Earth’s population continues to expand, developers have been cutting down their trees to create new lands for farming or urban projects. This could have unfortunate long-term effects on our planet. If deforestation continues at this rate, it is possible that a quarter of all species on the Earth may become extinct in the next 50 years. As it stands, plenty of damage has already occurred. West Africa has had 90 percent of its rainforests destroyed, while the island nation of Madagascar has eliminated 66 percent of its original rainforests as well. As a result, many charities have sprung up with the goal of purchasing and protecting the remaining rainforests. With their help, hopefully we can stop the destruction of one of the planet’s most vital assets.
5. What can be said about rainforests in West Africa and Madagascar?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
During the nineteenth century, women in the United States organized and participated in a large number of reform movements, including movements to reorganize the prison system, improve education, ban the sale of alcohol, and, most importantly, free the slaves. Some women saw similarities in the social status of women and slaves. Women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucy Stone were feminists and abolitionists who supported the rights of both women and blacks. A number of male abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Philips, also supported the rights of women to speak and participate equally with men in antislavery activities. Probably more than any other movement, abolitionism offered women a previously denied entry into politics. They became involved primarily in 20 order to better their living conditions and the conditions of others. When the Civil War ended in 1865, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution adopted in 1868 and 25 1870 granted citizenship and suffrage to blacks but not to women. Discouraged but resolved, feminists influenced more and more women to demand the right to vote. In 1869, the Wyoming Territory had yielded 30to demands by feminists, but eastern states resisted more stubbornly than before. A women's suffrage bill had been presented to every Congress since 1878 but it continually failed to pass until 1920, 35 when the Nineteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote.
1. With what topic is the passage primarily concerned?

Choose the best answer:
planets/ in/ are/ galaxy/ There/ many/ the.

Choose the best answer:

a/ can/ in/ What/ be/ desert/ found?

Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase.

The Early Life of Bill Gates

While Bill Gates had to work (1)………..to become what he is today, his story isn’t exactly a rags-to-riches one as he was born into a fairly wealthy family. His father was a successful attorney while his mother was a school teacher who went onto a member of the Board of Directors of the First Interstate Bank. Gates was a bright student and (2) ……….well academically, especially in mathematics. And, this was exemplified by the 800 points that young Bill Gates scored in the mathematics part of an intelligence test.

Bill Gates developed a (3) ………..for computers and programming as early as 13. At the same age, Gates enrolled in the Lakeside School, a private preparatory school. While Gates was still at the school, the school administration decided to buy a computer from the General Electric Company. (4) ………his flare in programming, the school administration excused Gates from classes to allow him to (5) ………….his interest. On the GEC machine, Bill Gates built his first ever computer program.

At the school, Gates met Paul Allen and they worked (6)………..to find bugs in a system belonging to Computer Center Corporation. In exchange for computer time and royalties, Gates and Allen along with two other students wrote a payroll program for Information Sciences. This led to Gates’ school becoming fully aware (7)………..his talent and they had him build a program (8)………..scheduled students in classes.

Gates and Allen continue to build software and at just the age of 15, Bill Gates sold a software to optimize traffic for $$ 20,000. A few years later, he developed another software and earned $$ 30,000 from (9)...... And, this was the start of Bill Gates’ journey to a billion-dollar (10)…………..

(9)……….

 Choose the word or phrase among A, B, C or D that best fits the blank space in the following passage:

"Men are lazy in the home, according to an official survey (1)……… today. They have about six hours a week more free time than wives, but play very little(2)…… in cooking, cleaning, washing, and ironing, according to the Social Trends Survey by the Central (3)…… Office.
 Nearly three quarters of married women (4)…… to do all or most of the housework, and among married men the proportion who admitted that their wives did all or most of the housework was only slightly lower.
 The survey (5)…… that washing and ironing was the least popular task among men, with only one percent (6)…… this duty, compared with 89 percent of women, and 10 percent sharing equally.
 Only 5 percent of men (7)….. the evening meal, 3 percent carry out household cleaning duties, 5 percent household shopping, and 17 percent wash the evening dishes. But when household gadgets break down, (8)……  are carried out by 82 percent of husbands.
 The survey says that, despite our economic problems, the majority of Britons are substantially better (9)….. than a decade ago. We’re healthier, too - eating healthier foods and smoking less.
 The (10)…..  Briton, not surprisingly, is more widely travelled than a decade ago. More people are going abroad for holidays, with Spain the favorite destination."

8. But when household gadgets break down, (8)……  are carried out by 82 percent of husbands.

Choose the best answer:
Another man-made satellite has _______ up into space.

 Read the following passage and choose the correct answer to each of the questions.

"Who talks more - men or women? Most people believe that women talk more. However, linguist Deborah Tannen, who has the studied the communication style of men and women, says that this is a stereotype. According to Tannen, women are more verbal - talk more - in private situations, where they use conversation as the “glue’ to hold relationships together. But, she says, men talk more in public situations, where they use conversation to exchange information and gain status. Tannen points out that we can see these difference even in children. Little girls often play with one ‘best friend’ and their play includes a lot of conversation. Little boys often play games in groups, their play usually involves more doing than talking. In school, girls are often better at verbal skills, while boys are often better at mathematics. A recent study at Emory University helps to shed light on the roots of this difference. Researchers studied conversation between children aged 3-6 and their parents. They found evidence that parents talk very differently to their sons than they do to their daughters. The startling conclusion was that parents use more language with their girls. Specifically, when parents talk with their daughters, they use more descriptive language and more details. There is also far more talk about emotions, especially with daughters than with sons."

6: Which of the following statement is TRUE about the passage?

Rewrite the sentence
The last time I saw him was five years ago.

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Background, in relation to computers, on the screen, the color on which characters are displayed. (1) _______, a white background may be used for black characters. In a windowing environment in which more than one program or document can be available to the user, open but currently inactive (2) _______ are said to be in the background. In the context of operating systems and program execution, background refers to a process, or task, assigned a lower priority in the microprocessor's share of time to tasks other than the task running in the (3) _______. A background process thus often performs (4)_____________ work, such as printing or checking for arriving messages on an electronic mail network, invisibly unless the user requests an update or brings the task to the foreground. (5) _______, only multitasking operating systems are able to support background processing.

Read an article about Elizabeth Taylor and choose the best answer.

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born on February 27, 1932, in London, England. One of film's most celebrated stars, Elizabeth Taylor has fashioned a career that's covered more than six decades, accepting roles that have not only showcased her beauty, but her ability to take on emotionally charged characters.

Taylor's American parents, both art dealers, were residing in London when she was born. Soon after the outbreak of World War II, the Taylors returned to the United States and settled into their new life in Los Angeles.

Performance was in Taylor's blood. Her mother had worked as an actress until she married. At the age of 3, the young Taylor started dancing, and eventually gave a recital for Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Not long after relocating to California a family friend suggested the Taylors' daughter take a screen test.

She soon signed a contract with Universal Studios, and made her screen debut at the age of 10 in There's One Born Every Minute (1942). She followed that up with a bigger role in Lassie Come Home (1943) and later The White Cliffs of Dover (1944).

Her breakout role, however, came in 1944 with National Velvet, in a role Elizabeth Taylor spent four months working to get. The film subsequently turned out to be a huge hit that pulled in more than $4 million and made the 12-year-old actress a huge star.

The word ‘that’ in the passage refers to __________.

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Journalists: Protection of Sources
Being a reporter for a major news publication can be a difficult job. The best journalists often work long hours and have to do a bit of dirty work to uncover scandals that others want to remain secret. In many cases, it is a bit of information provided by an undisclosed source that finally helps to break the story. But do reporters have a legal right to keep their sources a secret? The protection of sources is the idea that journalists have the right to keep their sources of their news stories a secret. Those who support this idea insist that if reported are forced to reveal their sources, it will be much harder for them to do their job. It certainly seems logical that fewer people would come forward with sensitive information if they know that eventually their identity will be revealed to the public. Furthermore, in cases where the source’s information uncovers a ring of corruption or somehow damages the reputation of a rich and powerful person or company, releasing the source’s identity could put their life in danger. For the most part, reporters are rarely required by law to reveal undisclosed sources if it is a minor case of little importance. Yet in some instances, when vital or leaked information is involved, a journalist may be asked to testify in court and reveal how they got their information. In the US, such a situation arose after a mass shooting in Colorado in 2012. One journalist, with information provided by an anonymous source, wrote an article claiming that the suspected killer had sent a diary detailing plans to kill people to his psychiatrist a few days before the murder occurred. The suspect’s lawyer then demanded the reporter should reveal her source because they felt it damaged their defense case. In the end, the judge declined to force the reporter to testify. So are there any cases when reporters should reveal their sources? Many would argue that when the issue is a matter of national security, journalists should be willing to reveal their sources if it can help to save lives. For instance, let’s say a reporter receives a tip from an anonymous source about a terrorist attack. In this scenario, saving innocent lives should be more important than protecting one’s source. In the end, it seems that forcing reporters to reveal their sources should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
2. According to the passage, in most cases _________

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Inside a 4D Film
A lot of people think that 3D films are pretty cool. When you watch a 3D film, it sometimes feels like you can reach out and touch the things that you see. In the future, however, 3D might be replaced by something even more advanced: 4D. What you see in a 4D film is the same as what you see in a 3D film. The screen is the same, and the glasses are the same. 4D films are different because they don’t use 3D technology. People in the audience also feel physical things during the films. Let’s look at a few examples. Let’s say that you are watching a film about earthquakes. If you are watching a 4D film, maybe your seat will suddenly start to shake. It will feel like you are in the middle of an earthquake, but you are not. The 4D effects make your seat shake. Or perhaps during the film, one of the characters gives flowers to another character. The people in the cinema might suddenly smell flowers. The point of 4D films is to make people feel like they are in the film. When we watch films these days, we only use two senses: our sense of sight and our sense of hearing. If we use our other senses, the film might feel more real to us. 4D films already exist. The film Avatar was released everywhere in 3D, but in Korea and Hong Kong, it was also released in 4D. People who watched Avatar in 4D feel wind and rain. They also smelled smoke from the weapons in the film, and sometimes their seats moved. Will 4D replace 3D films? It is possible, but we can’t be sure yet. One problem with 4D films is that it is very expensive to show them in theaters. Before a theater shows a 4D film, it has to buy a lot of special equipment. However, 4 films are catching on. Other films shown in 4D include Shrek 4-D, and Iron Man 3.
4. The word “_they_” in paragraph 2 refers to _________.

Choose the best answer:
I enjoy _________ to classical music in my free time.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions :
If you are like most students, you probably started this new academic year with a resolution to study harder. Now, science can you help you keep your resolution. Recent discoveries in brain research (1) _______ to better ways to learn. How does the brain (2) _______ new information? Think of the last time someone told you their phone number. Could you remember that number five minutes later? Probably not! That’s because it was in your short-term memory. Our memory actually has three components. Sensory memory takes (3) _______  information from our five senses and is stored for just a few seconds while our brain processes it. Short-term memory works like a “holding area” for new information – that’s where you keep the phone number while you dial it. but if you can put the phone number into long-term memory, you’ll remember that same phone number next week. This part of your memory (4) _______ everything from irregular verbs to the names of all your cousins. When you study, you transfer new information into long-term memory. Every time we learn something new, the structure of the brain actually changes as we build new connections to information that we (5) _______ know. When there are more connections to the new information, it’s easier to find it again