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The tradition of gift giving is a worldwide practice that is said to have been around  since the beginning of human beings. Over time, different cultures have developed their own gift giving customs and traditions.  In France, the gift of wine for the hostess of a dinner party is not an appropriate gift as the hostess would prefer to choose the vintage for the night. In Sweden, a bottle of wine or flowers are an appropriate gift for the hostess. In Viet Nam, a gift of whisky is appropriate for the host, and some fruit or small gifts for the hostess, children or elders of the home. Besides, gifts should never be wrapped in black paper because this color is unlucky and associated with funerals in this country. Gifts that symbolize cutting such as scissors, knives and other sharp objects should be avoided because they mean the cutting of the relationship. Also, in some countries you should not open the gift in front of the giver and in others it would be an insult if you did not open the gift.  Beyond the gift itself, give careful consideration to the manner in which it is presented. Different cultures have different customs regarding how a gift should be offered - using only your right hand or using both hands, for example. Others have strong traditions related to the appropriate way to accept a gift. In Singapore, for instance, it is the standard to graciously refuse a gift several times before finally accepting it. The recipient would never unwrap a gift in front of the giver for fear of appearing greedy.  Understanding these traditions and customs, as well as taking time to choose an appropriate gift, will help you to avoid any awkwardness or embarrassment as you seek to build a better cross-cultural relationship.  
4. The word “it" in paragraph 3 refer to ____

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Rome is the capital of Italy. This sprawling modern city has many ancient monuments. Rome’s history goes (1) __________ 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 (2)_________ 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. (3) ___________ 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 (4)_________ 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 (5)_________ 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

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A special education teacher is someone who works with children and youths who have a variety of disabilities. Special education teachers are patient, understanding educators dedicated to giving each individual student the tools and guidance needed to help them maximize success. As schools become more inclusive, special education teachers and general education teachers increasingly work together in general education classrooms. Special education teachers help general educators adapt curriculum materials and teaching techniques to meet the needs of students with disabilities. They coordinate the work of teachers, teacher assistants, and related personnel, such as therapists and social workers, to meet the individualized needs of the student within inclusive special education programs. Special education teachers work in a variety of settings. Some have their own classrooms and teach only special education students; others work as special education resource teachers and offer individualized help to students in general education classrooms; still others teach together with general education teachers in classes including both general and special education students. Some teachers work with special education students for several hours a day in a resource room, separate from their general education classroom. Considerably fewer special education teachers work in residential facilities or tutor students in homebound or hospital environments. The work also can be emotionally demanding and physically draining. Many special education teachers are under considerable stress due to heavy workloads and administrative tasks. They must produce a substantial amount of paperwork documenting each student’s progress and work under the threat of litigation against the school or district by parents if correct procedures are not followed or if the parents feel that their child is not receiving an adequate education. Recently passed legislation, however, is intended to reduce the burden of paperwork and the threat of litigation.  
3. According to paragraph 2, what is NOT the work of a special educator?

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During the past half-century, our species has embarked on a remarkable social  experiment. For the first time in human history, great numbers of people – at all ages, in all places, of every political persuasion – have begun settling down as singletons. Until the second half of the last century, most of us married young and parted only at death. If death came early, we remarried quickly; if late, we moved in with family, or they with us. Now we marry later. We divorce, and stay single for years or decades.  The rise of living alone has produced significant social benefits, too. Young and middle-aged solos have helped to revitalise cities, because they are more likely to spend money, socialise and participate in public life. Contemporary solo dwellers in the US are primarily women: about 18 million, compared with 14 million men. The majority, more than 16 million, are middle-aged adults between the ages of 35 and 64. The elderly account for about 11 million of the total. Young adults between 18 and 34 number increased more than 5 million, compared with 500,000 in 1950, making them the fastest-growing segment of the solo-dwelling population.  Despite fears that living alone may be environmentally unsustainable, solos tend to live in apartments rather than in big houses, and in relatively green cities rather than in cardependent suburbs. There’s good reason to believe that people who live alone in cities consume less energy than if they coupled up and decamped to pursue a single-family home.
5.  The word “decamped” in paragraph 3 means _______________

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There are many types of family systems around the world. In North America and  northern Europe, the nuclear family (with two generations - a father, a mother and one or more children) is often seen as the most typical. In contrast, in most other parts of the world, extended families, which include other family members such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, are seen as the norm.  The common view is that the nuclear family has become the norm in many Western societies as a result of industrialization and urbanization. This trend began in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when people were forced to move to cities to find work in the factories that sprang up during the Industrial Revolution. In the twentieth century, greater industrialization resulted in even more people leaving their large extended families. Urbanization also meant that people lived in much smaller houses, which were not big enough for an extended family.  The trend towards nuclear families meant that many of the duties and responsibilities of a family, such as providing food and shelter, cleaning the home, preparing the food, caring for children and their education, and caring for the sick and elderly are no longer shared among the members of the extended family. The parents (or parent) now have to do this, with some help from the state. However, this is the price that people pay for the higher standard of living that may come from living in a city.  We may think we know what we mean by a ‘nuclear’ family and an extended family, but reality is more complicated than most people believe. Most nuclear families are part of extended families: children have grandparents and, in many cases, aunts, uncles and cousins as well. Part of what makes them ‘nuclear’ is that they live in their own separate household, but it is not the whole story. In Greece or Italy, for example, a nuclear family may live in its own flat, but the extended family may live in the same apartment block or in the same street and family members see each other and even eat together every day. There is at least one more factor to consider. Family members may be separated from each other by geographical distance, but they may have close emotional ties. Even in North America and northern Europe, grandparents usually have close bonds with their grandchildren, and families often travel long distances so that they can see each other. Grandparents often help their adult children, for example, by cooking and looking after their children in emergencies. In the same way, when their parents become too old to live on their own, adult children may take them into their own homes. As a result, they turn their nuclear family into an extended family.  The structure of families changes over time. The effects of urbanization and industrialization are enormous, but they are not the only reasons for the changes. People marry, have children, become widowed, divorce and die. Children grow up and adults grow old. Nuclear families become extended families and extended families become nuclear families. Family ties stay strong or become weak. One thing is certain: in a changing world, the family will continue to change, but ultimately, it is likely to continue to be the basic unit of society

4. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true about nuclear families?

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

The Mayan Indians lived in Mexico for thousand of years before the Spanish arrived in the 1500s
 

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It was at this time, 1876–1877, that a new invention called the telephone emerged. It is not easy to determine who the inventor was. Both Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray submitted independent patent applications concerning telephones to the patent office in Washington on February 14, 1876. Bell, in Boston at the time, was represented by his lawyers and had no idea that the application had been submitted. Gray’s application arrived at the patent office a few hours before Bell’s, but Bell’s lawyers insisted on paying the application fee immediately; as a result, the heavily burdened office registered Bell’s application first. Bell’s patent was approved and officially registered on March 7, and three days later the famous call is said to have been made when Bell’s summons to his assistant confirmed that the invention worked. Alexander Graham Bell, one year younger than Lars Magnus Ericsson, had been born in Edinburgh. Bell’s interest in telephony came through his mother, who was deaf, and his father, Alexander Melville Bell, who was a teacher of elocution, famous for the phonetic transcription system he had developed to help the deaf learn to speak. The Bell family migrated to Canada in 1870; two years later Alexander Melville Bell was offered a teaching post at a school for the deaf in Boston in the United States, but he successfully recommended his son for the post instead. Father and son were at this time working together to try to discover whether sound could be made visible for the deaf with the help of telegraphy.  But many others had already been pursuing the idea of telephony for years. A resolution of the US House of Representatives in June 2002 claimed that Bell had nefariously acquired and exploited an apparatus, the “teletrophono”, invented by Antonio Meucci long before Bell and Gray. One damaging piece of evidence for Bell was that Meucci’s material had disappeared without trace from the very laboratory at which Bell was carrying out his experiments. In the 1880s, proceedings initiated by the American government charged Bell with “fraudulent and dishonest conduct” and claimed that his patent should be revoked. These proceeding were discontinued after Meucci’s death in 1889 and the expiry of Bell’s patent in 1893. A later investigation, published by A. Edward Evenson in 2000, claims that Bell’s attorneys acquired technical details from Gray’s attorneys that are said to have been added to Bell’s patent after it had been submitted. The whole saga has elements reminiscent of a thriller. One salient fact was that Bell saw no need to take out patents for the telephone in the Nordic countries. This meant that anyone anywhere there was free to manufacture and sell telephones. Bell presented the telephone before a large audience for the first time at the World Exhibition in Philadelphia in June 1876. In the audience was the physicist William Thomson, who in August that year presented Bell’s telephone to the British Association in Glasgow. In Sweden, on September 30 that year, Dagens Nyheter became the first newspaper to refer to “the speaking telegraph”, an apparatus that “plainly and clearly conveyed the words uttered at one end of the telegraph line to the other”. The first version of Bell’s telephone, as it was described in the patent application, was not suitable for practical purposes. Only after “a relatively thorough reconstruction”, to quote Hemming Johansson, could a telephone be designed for large-scale production. The Bell Telephone Company began operating on July 11, 1877. In the same month, the first useable Bell telephone arrived in Europe to be presented in Plymouth to the British Association by the chief engineer of the General Post Office, William H. Preece, in the presence of Bell himself  
6. Which of the following is NOT true according to paragraph 5?

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Improving girls’ educational levels has been demonstrated to have clear impacts on the health and economic future of young women, which in turn improves the prospects of their entire community. The infant mortality rate of babies whose mothers have received primary education is half that of children whose mothers are illiterate. In the poorest countries of the world, 50% of girls do not attend secondary school. Yet, research shows that every extra year of school for girls increases their lifetime income by 15%. Improving female education, and thus the earning potential of women, improves the standard of living for their own children, as women invest more of their income in their families than men do. Yet, many barriers to education for girls remain. In some African countries, such as Burkina Faso, girls are unlikely to attend school for such basic reasons as a lack of private latrine facilities for girls. Higher attendance rates of high schools and university education among women, particularly in developing countries, have helped them make inroads to professional careers with better-paying salaries and wages. Education increases a woman’s (and her partner and the family’s) level of health and health awareness. Furthering women’s levels of education and advanced training also tends to lead to later ages of initiation of sexual activity and first intercourse, later age at first marriage, and later age at first childbirth, as well as an increased likelihood to remain single, have no children, or have no formal marriage and alternatively, have increasing levels of long-term partnerships. It can lead to higher rates of barrier and chemical contraceptive use (and a lower level of sexually transmitted infections among women and their partners and children), and can increase the level of resources available to women who divorce or are in a situation of domestic violence. It has been shown, in addition, to increase women’s communication with their partners and their employers, and to improve rates of civic participation such as voting or the holding of office.
5. The phrase “make inroads into” in the passage can be best replaced with: 

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:
Thanks to electricity, candles are no longer a necessity in our lives, but they are still a pleasure. The warm flame of candlelight can quickly alter the mood and atmosphere of a room, often creating a  peaceful scene that electric light just cannot match.
Candles are an important part of many cultural and religious festival and have been burnt in various forms for centuries. The ancient Romans and Egyptians made candles from a type of fiber coated with wax. However, up until the nineteenth century, most candles were made from a substance called tallow, obtained from beef fat. Tallow candles were very smoky and, understandably, had an unpleasant odor.
In the 19th century, candle makers learned to separate stearin, the solid form fat used as a type of glue, from tallow and used it to harden other fats. Candles that contained stearin would burn longer than previous ones and had a better smell. Stearin is still one of the main components of modern candle- making, and the techniques used to create candles today are much the same as they have been for many years. These days, the increase range of wax dyes, perfumes and other additives that are now available make candle making a very exciting and rewarding hobby.
Sales of candles have increased greatly over the last few years, showing that they have become part of our lives again, not through necessity, but because of the magical atmosphere they create. In our increasingly stressful lives, the calming quality of candlelight has a relaxing effect that many enjoy.
For those would like to learn to make candles, finding and buying candle-making kits is easy. Candle- making is definitely enhanced by the exciting possibilities of experimentation with various materials. Be brave and try out different effects – some of the most wonderful creations can happen by accident. With a bit of practice, you will be amazed at the very professional finish that can be achieved.
Despite their delicate beauty, candles can, of course, be highly dangerous. One should never leave lit candles unattended, even for a few moments. Always make sure candles are securely placed within candleholders.
Teach your children to respect a burning candle, and of course keep burning candles away from flammable materials. Keep your home safe by remembering that a candle is magical, but fire can be very destructive. Be careful, and enjoy the beauty of your candles!

What does the passage warn readers not to do?

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Superstitions used to be popular and beliefs in astrology, feng shui (geomancy), and  spirits were widespread in Viet Nam. Following are some typical examples. Geomancers were consulted to make sure shops were properly situated. Fireworks displays were held to ward off evil spirits and haunted souls. Shopkeepers considered their first customer on auspicious days to be good luck, and they put heavy pressure on these customers to buy something. During a year of the dragon, which is considered an auspicious time to have a baby, the birth rate jumped 8 percent in the first half of the year.  Despite official disapproval of such superstitious practices, some Vietnamese, regardless of their religion, level of education, or ideology, might have been influenced at one time or another by such practices as astrology, geomancy and sorcery. Diviners and other specialists in the occult remain popular demand because they are believed to be able to diagnose supernatural causes of illness, establish lucky dates for personal undertakings, or predict the future. Moreover, many seem to believe that individual destiny was guided by astrological phenomena. By consulting one’s horoscope, one could make the most of auspicious tines and avoid disaster. It is not unusual, for example, for a couple to consult an astrologer before marrying. He would determine if the betrothed were suitable matched and even fix the date of the ceremony
4. What is true about superstitions in Vietnam?

BODY LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
The body language people use often communicates more about their feelings than the words they are saying. We use body movements, hand gestures, facial expressions, and changes in our voice to communicate with each other. Although some body language is universal, many gestures are culturally specific and may mean different things in different countries. 
If you want to give someone the nod in Bulgaria, you have to nod your head to say no and shake it to say yes – the exact opposite of what we do! In Belgium, pointing with your index finger or snapping your fingers at someone is very rude. 
In France, you shouldn't rest your feet on tables or chairs. Speaking to someone with your hands in your pockets will only make matters worse. In the Middle East, you should never show the soles of your feet or shoes to others as it will be seen as a grave insult. When eating, only use your right hand because they use their left hands when going to the bathroom. 
In Bangladesh, the 'thumbs-up' is a rude sign. In Myanmar, people greet each other by clapping, and in India, whistling in public is considered rude.
In Japan, you should not blow your nose in public, but you can burp at the end of a meal to show that you have enjoyed it. The 'OK' sign (thumb and index finger forming a circle) means 'everything is good' in the West, but in China it means nothing or zero. In Japan, it means money, and in the Middle East, it is a rude gesture.

Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

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English teenagers are to receive compulsory cooking lessons in schools. The idea is to encourage healthy eating to fight the country’s increasing obesity rate. It’s feared that basic cooking and food preparation skills are being lost as parents turn to pre-prepared convenience foods. Cooking was once regarded as an important part of education in England – even if it was mainly aimed at girls. In recent decades cooking has progressively become a minor activity in schools. In many cases the schools themselves have given up cooking meals in kitchens in the schools. But the rising level of obesity has led to a rethink about the food that children are given and the skills they should be taught. “What I want is to teach young people how to do basic, simple recipes like a tomato sauce, a bolognaise, a simple curry, a stir-fry – which they can use now at home and then in their later life”, said Ed Balls, the minister responsible for schools. The new lessons are due to start in September, but some school without kitchens will be given longer to adapt. There is also likely to be a shortage of teachers with the right skills, since the trend has been to teach food technology rather than practical cooking. Also the compulsory lessons for hands on cooking will only be one hour a week for one term. But the well-known cookery writer, Pru Leith, believes it will be worth it. “If we’d done this thirty years ago we might not have the crisis we have got now about obesity and lack of knowledge about food and so on. Every child should know how to cook, not just so that they’ll be healthy, but because it’s a life skill which a real pleasure”. The renewed interest in cooking is primarily a response to the level obesity in Britain which is among the highest in Europe, and according to government figures half of all Britons will be obese in 25 years if current trends are not stopped  
1. The passage mainly talks about ________________

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The biggest difference between an eco-lodge and a green hotel is the setting in which you’ll find them. Eco lodges tend to be more remote, located in relatively pristine natural environments such as beaches, jungles and mountains. Green hotels, on the other hand, are more often associated with cities and towns. Eco lodges and green hotels both emphasize elements such as environmental responsibility and minimizing negative impact. The best ones offer renewable energy sources, recycling services, eco-friendly toiletries, energy efficient lighting, locally sourced food, organic linens and towels, non-toxic cleaning supplies, non-disposable dishes, water conservation methods and various other sustainability-focused initiatives. But eco lodges tend to be more dependent on the natural environment than green hotels. They are also generally more active in nature and wildlife conservation, more focused on educating visitors about the flora and fauna of local ecosystems, and more deeply connected with the area’s indigenous culture (whose influence is often incorporated into the lodge’s decor and restaurant menu). The best eco lodges also work to ensure positive relationships with the local people. They train and employ them at fair wages, take part in community development initiatives, offer activities that help visitors conserve and appreciate local customs, and contribute to the local economy. In this way, they reinforce the notion of ecotourism as a more sustainable long-term business model than altering or destroying habitats for quick financial gains  
4. According to the passage, all of the following are true about eco lodges EXCEPT that ____

Choose the best answer:
I ______ a teddy bear, but I don't have one now.

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OPEC was established at a conference held in Baghdad Sept. 10–14, 1960, and was  formally constituted in January 1961 by five countries: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Venezuela. Members admitted afterward include Qatar (1961), Indonesia and Libya (1962), Abū Ẓabī (1967), Algeria (1969), Nigeria (1971), Ecuador (1973), and Angola (2007). The United Arab Emirates assumed Abū Ẓabī’s membership in the 1970s. Gabon, which had joined in 1975, withdrew in January 1995, but it had relatively insignificant oil reserves. Ecuador suspended its membership from OPEC from December 1992 until October 2007, while Indonesia suspended its membership beginning in January 2009.  OPEC’s headquarters, first located in Geneva, was moved to Vienna in 1965. OPEC members coordinate policies on oil prices, production, and related matters at semiannual and special meetings of the OPEC Conference. The Board of Governors, which is responsible for managing the organization, convening the Conference, and drawing up the annual budget, contains representatives appointed by each member country; its chair is elected to a one-year term by the Conference. OPEC also possesses a Secretariat, headed by a secretary – general appointed by the Conference for a three-year term; the Secretariat includes research and energy-studies divisions.  OPEC members collectively own about two-thirds of the world’s proven petroleum reserves and account for two-fifths of world oil production. Members differ in a variety of ways, including the size of oil reserves, geography, religion, and economic and political interests. Four members – Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – have very large per capita oil reserves; they also are relatively strong financially and thus have considerable flexibility in adjusting their production. Saudi Arabia, which has the largest reserves and a relatively small (but fast-growing) population, has traditionally played a dominant role in determining overall production and prices Because OPEC has been beset by numerous conflicts throughout its history, some experts have concluded that it is not a cartel – or at least not an effective one – and that it has little, if any, influence over the amount of oil produced or its price. Other experts believe that OPEC is an effective cartel, though it has not been equally effective at all times. The debate largely centers on semantics and the definition of what constitutes a cartel. Those who argue that OPEC is not a cartel emphasize the sovereignty of each member country, the inherent problems of coordinating price and production policies, and the tendency of countries to renege on prior agreements at ministerial meetings. Those who claim that OPEC is a cartel argue that production costs in the Persian Gulf are generally less than 10 percent of the price charged and that prices would decline toward those costs in the absence of coordination by OPEC.  The influence of individual OPEC members on the organization and on the oil market usually depends on their levels of reserves and production. Saudi Arabia, which controls about one-third of OPEC’s total oil reserves, plays a leading role in the organization. Other important members are Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, whose combined reserves are significantly greater than those of Saudi Arabia. Kuwait, which has a very small population, has shown a willingness to cut production relative to the size of its reserves, whereas Iran and Iraq, both with large and growing populations, have generally produced at high levels relative to reserves. Revolutions and wars have impaired the ability of some OPEC members to maintain high levels of production. 
2. According to paragraph 1, what are founding members of OPEC?

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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.
1. What is the main topic of the passage?

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

Children raised in foster homes requirement special attention to overcome the feelings of abandonment and isolation

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Today, population growth largely means urban population growth. UN projections  show the world’s rural population has already stopped growing, but the world can expect to add close to 1.5 billion urbanites in the next 15 years, and 3 billion by 2050. How the world meets the challenge of sustainable development will be intimately tied to this process.  For many people, cities represent a world of new opportunities, including jobs. There is a powerful link between urbanization and economic growth. Around the world, towns and cities are responsible for over 80 per cent of gross national product. While urban poverty is growing around the world, this is largely because many people – including the poor – are moving to urban areas.  The opportunities there extend beyond just jobs. Cities also offer greater opportunities for social mobilization and women’s empowerment. Many young people, especially young women, regard the move to cities as an opportunity to escape traditional patriarchy and experience new freedoms. Urban areas also offer greater access to education and health services, including sexual and reproductive health care, further promoting women’s empowerment and the realization of their reproductive rights. This contributes to significantly reduced fertility in urban areas, changing the trajectory of overall population growth.  The urbanization process – which is particularly pronounced in Africa and Asia, where much of the world’s population growth is taking place – is also an enormous opportunity for sustainability, if the right policies are put in place. Urban living has the potential to use resources more efficiently, to create more sustainable land use and to protect the biodiversity of natural ecosystems. Still, the face of inequality is increasingly an urban one. Too many urban residents grapple with extreme poverty, exclusion, vulnerability and marginalization. Urban land is expanding much faster than urban population, a phenomenon known as urban sprawl. It is driven in part by increasing urban land consumption by the wealthy and the increasing separation of rich and poor communities within cities. Sprawl undermines the efficiencies of urban living, and it marginalizes poor people in remote or peripheral parts of cities, often in dense informal settlements or slums.  This phenomenon can eliminate the very opportunities people seek when they move to cities. Many people in slums lack ready access to health facilities. Others rely on private, unregulated providers for health services that are free in rural areas. In some urban slums, poor women have fertility rates closer to those of rural women. The urban poor also face risky and unhealthy living conditions, such heavy pollution or high vulnerability to disasters.  The total estimated number of slum dwellers is rising – from over 650 million in 1990 to about 863 million in 2012. Almost 62 per cent of the urban population in sub-Saharan Africa lived slums in 2010, the highest proportion of any region. But slum growth is not the same as urbanization. Most evidence suggests that global urbanization is an inevitable trend, while slum growth results from the decisions to limit poor people’s access to cities, through limited service provision to informal settlements or by forced evictions and resettlement of the urban poor to peripheral or under-serviced areas. 
8. What is the main idea of the last paragraph?

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As communities across the U.S. replace forests and woodlands with housing developments and other new construction, researchers are noting an increase in Lyme disease. To help prevent the spread of Lyme disease, Dr. Ivan Castro-Arellano, a disease ecologist and wildlife researcher at Texas State University, is exploring how urbanization and its effects on mammals impact the spread of pathogens.  Lyme disease, which spreads from animals to humans, is one of the fastest growing zoonotic diseases in the United States. Counties considered high-risk for Lyme disease grew 300% between 1993 and 2012. Caught quickly, Lyme disease is easily treated with antibiotics, but if it goes untreated it can lead to chronic issues such as Lyme arthritis, facial palsy and impaired memory. Many such zoonotic diseases have been increasing globally, researchers say, partially because of the displacement of animals. While medium- and large-sized mammals are displaced or eradicated by the removal of forested areas, whitefooted mice and deer thrive in small patches of green space. Mice and deer are contributing to favorable conditions for an increase in the ticks that spread the pathogens causing Lyme disease. Although East Texas has a similar pattern of woodland space compared to new construction as the northeast United States, Texas contract the disease at lower rates. This fact piqued the interest of Castro-Arellano. In addition to studying the area where the disease is prevalent, he decided to study where the disease is not prevalent to find keys to prevention. Castro-Arellano is part of a team of biologists, veterinarians and biomedical researchers that have been collecting samples and trying to understand what makes East Texas different. He believes that the climate, or certain species of East Texas mammals who kill ticks, could be contributing to the reduced tick population in East Texas.
4. The word “palsy” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ______

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
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  
7. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Can a performance go viral? Ben Platt’s should. As the title character in Dear Evan Hansen, the new musical from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, he offers acting so precise yet so painfully lucid that it should overwhelm the operating systems by which most contemporary musicals operate. Platt’s gestures, his expressions, his phrasing, even his vocal range – which is impressive but tends to thin out toward the top notes – all combine to communicate the fretfulness, uncertainty and timorous goodness that define his character. He plays Evan, a friendless high school senior terrified of life, the universe, everything. His harried single mother, Heidi, (Rachel Bay Jones) tells him, “You can’t succeed if you never try.” Evan nods, but you can that he believes more strongly in the corollary: “If you don’t try, you can’t fail.” A therapist has instructed him to write pep-talk letters to himself. On the first day of school, one of them falls into the hands of Connor Murphy (Mike Faist), another outcast with drug problems and a look a peer describes as “school shooter chic”. When Connor kills himself, his parents find the letter and mistakenly believe that Evan was a friend to their son. At first this attention panics Evan, but he soon accepts the role and even briefly becomes an internet sensation. Often he is tempted to tell Connor’s family the truth, but he fears disappointing them and sacrificing his newfound confidence Watching Dear Evan Hansen, one often thinks of Next to Normal, another Second Stage show about a mentally distressed protagonist. But with its tuneful pop score and teenage protagonist, Dear Evan Hansen is a gentler affair, even as it takes occasional pains not to oversentimentalize the material. When Evan presents a surprisingly rosy picture of her brother, his sister Zoe (Laura Dreyfuss) sings, “Don’t say it wasn’t true/ That you were not the monster/ That I knew.” Near the play’s end, Platt positively glistens with sweat and spit and tears. Yet one never has the sense of an actor deliberately winding himself up to deliver a visceral performance. There’s obvious care taken in the way he offers Evan’s cringing smile, his swallowed laugh, his habit of pulling at his clothes as though searching for someone to hold onto. But all of these details feel lived, organic, unrehearsed. And Platt’s ability to convey emotion through song is simply superb and often deeply heartrending.  
3. According to paragraph 2, what is the purpose of Evan penning letters addressed to himself?