Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
There are a number of initiatives, some already introduced and some in the pipeline,  that are specifically designed to ensure that the economic value of nature is recognised. One example is reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, under  which forest owners are paid not to cut down trees. A number of governments across the world have committed hundreds of millions of dollars to these projects. Another is habitat banking, the market for which currently stands at around $3bn in the US, where companies that degrade natural areas are forced to restore nature elsewhere. Trade in forest conservation obligations in Brazil and ground-water salinity credits in Australia have also proved successful. Alongside these schemes and those like them, there are various compensation arrangements that make those causing environmental damage pay for it, just like carbon credits that currently exist. Exemptions from these various taxes, charges and fees, as well as subsidies, are also used to encourage environmentally responsible behaviour.  There is also growing pressure for companies to begin incorporating the costs of the damage that they do to the Earth’s natural resources into their profit and loss accounts. Only by incorporating these costs into their accounts, many argue, will companies be forced to reduce their impact on the natural world. "Directors’ bonuses don’t have to be included in company accounts from a pure profit and loss point of view, but they are. Environmental externalities should be the same," says Pavan Sukhdev, a career banker and team leader of the United Nations’ The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study.  “This is not a straightforward process and needs standard methodologies accepted by everyone, but it could be achieved within 10 years.” The next step would be to incorporate environmental assets into national accounts. 
5. According to paragraph 3, why do companies have to include green fee in their financial records?

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A good memory is often seen as something that comes naturally, and a bad memory as something that cannot be changed, but actually (1)______ is a lot that you can do to improve your memory. We all remember the things we are interested in and forget the ones that bore us. This no doubt explains the reason (2)______ schoolboys remember football results effortlessly but struggle with dates from their history lessons! Take an active interest in what you want to remember, and focus on it (3)______. One way to ‘make’ yourself more interested is to ask questions — the more the better! Physical exercise is also important for your memory, because it increases your heart
(4)______ and sends more oxygen to your brain, and that makes your memory work better. Exercise also reduces stress, which is very bad for the memory. The old saying that “eating fish makes you brainy” may be true after all. Scientists have discovered that the fats (5)______ in fish like tuna, sardines and salmon — as well as in olive oil — help to improve the memory. Vitamin-rich fruits such as oranges, strawberries and red grapes are all good brain food‘, too.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D)
Since 2015, the annual Women in the Workplace benchmarking report has covered over 600 of the largest U.S. companies employing more than 20 million people, and has individually surveyed more than a quarter-million employees. That research base shows us how better sponsorship and improved training to counter unconscious bias can speed our progress to gender equality. And it reveals the changes that have—and haven’t—happened over the past few years. There are some bright spots. In 2019, nearly 90% of respondent companies say that gender equality is a top priority. Almost half report having at least three women on their leadership team And greater openness to flexible working is allowing many more women— and men—to work remotely. But some areas are proving stubbornly difficult to improve. Most strikingly, it’s much harder for women than men to achieve their first promotion. Indeed, for every 100 men who step up from an entry level position to a management role, only 78 women—and just 52 black women—will receive the same promotion. Over five years, that gap adds up to a difference of one million promoted women, with lasting repercussions further along the talent funnel: only 1 in 5 C-suite members are women, and only 1 in 25 are women of color. Moving up the ladder, the 21% figure for women in the C-suite is also less encouraging than it seems. Women are much more likely to have a staff role—chief human resources officer, general counsel, or CFO—while men take more of the line roles, running the largest business units with their own P&L lines. It’s rare for any leader in a staff role to be promoted to CEO.  
5. The word “line” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ______

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Andrew Jackson Beard lived an extraordinary life for a black American inventor. Unlike the vast majority of inventors who never profit from their patents, he profited from his inventions. Andrew Beard was born a slave on a plantation in Woodland, Alabama, in 1849, shortly before slavery ended. He received emancipation at age 15 and he married at age 16. Andrew Beard was a farmer, carpenter, blacksmith, a railroad worker, a businessman and finally an inventor. He grew apples as a farmer near Birmingham, Alabama for five years before he built and operated a flour mill in Hardwicks, Alabama. His work in agriculture led to tinkering with improvement for plows. In 1881, he patented his first invention, an improvement to the double plow, and sold the patent rights for $4,000 in 1884. His design allowed for the distance between the plow plates to be adjusted. That amount of money would be the equivalent of almost $100,000 today. In 1887, Andrew Beard patented a second plow and sold it for $5,200. This patent was for a design that allowed the pitch of the blades of plows or cultivators to be adjusted. The amount he received would be the equivalent of about $130,000 today. In 1897, Andrew Beard patented an improvement to railroad car couplers. His improvement came to be called the Jenny Coupler. It was one of many that aimed to improve the knuckle coupler patented by Eli Janney in 1873 (patent US138405). The knuckle coupler did the dangerous job of hooking railroad cars together, which formerly was done by manually placing a pin in a link between the two cars. Beard, himself had lost a leg in a car coupling accident. As an ex-railroad worker, Andrew Beard had the right idea that probably saved countless lives and limbs. Beard received three patents for automatic car couplers. These are US594059 granted November 23, 1897, US624901 granted May 16, 1899, and US807430 granted on May 16, 1904. While there were thousands of patents filed at the time for car couplers, Andrew Beard received $50,000 for the patent rights to his Jenny coupler. This would be just shy of 1.5 million dollars today. Congress enacted the Federal Safety Appliance Act at that time to enforce using automatic couplers. Andrew Jackson Beard was inducted into the National
Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006 in recognition of his revolutionary Jenny coupler
3. According to paragraph 2, what is NOT correct about period of plow inventions of Beard?

Find mistake:
With clear evidence, his company couldn't deny having dump a large quantity of toxins into the sea.

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.

   Family life in the United States is changing. Thirty or forty years ago, the wife was called a "housewife". She cleaned, cooked, and cared for the children. The husband earned the money for the family. He was usually out working all day. He came home tired in the evening, so he did not do much housework. And he did not see the children very much, except on weekends.

   These days, however, more and more women work outside the home. They cannot stay with the children all day. They, too, come home tired in the evening. They do not want to spend the evening cooking dinner and cleaning up. They do not have time to clean the house and do the laundry. So who is going to do the housework now? Who is going to take care of the children?

   Many families solve the problem of housework by sharing it. In these families, the husband and wife agree to do different jobs around the house, or they take turns doing each job. For example, the husband always cooks dinner and the wife always does the laundry. Or the wife cooks dinner on some nights and the husband cooks dinner on other nights.

   Then there is a question of the children. In the past, many families got help with child care from grandparents. Now families usually do not live near their relatives. The grandparents often are too far away to help in a regular way. More often, parents have to pay for child care help. The help may be a babysister or a day-care center. The problem with this kind of help is the high cost. It is possible only for couples with jobs that pay well.

   Parents may get another kind of help from the companies they work for. Many companies now let people with children work part-time. That way, parents can spend more time with their children. Some husbands may even stop working for a while to stay with the children. For these men there is a new word: They are called "househusband". In the United States more ans more men are becoming househusband every year.

   These changes in the home mean changes in the family. Fathers can learn to understand their children better, and the children can get to know their fathers better. Husbands and wives may also find changes in their marriage. They, too, may have a better understanding of each other.

Nowadays there are ____________.

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After World War II drew to a close in the mid-20th century, a new conflict began.  Known as the Cold War, this battle pitted the world’s two great powers–the democratic, capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union–against each other. By the mid1950s, the U.S.-Soviet Cold War had worked its way into the fabric of everyday life in both countries, fueled by the arms race and the growing threat of nuclear weapons, wide-ranging espionage and counter-espionage between the two countries, war in Korea and a clash of words and ideas carried out in the media. These tensions would continue throughout the space race, exacerbated by such events as the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 and the outbreak of war in Southeast Asia. Space exploration served as another dramatic arena for Cold War competition. On October 4, 1957, a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile launched Sputnik (Russian for “traveler”), the world’s first artificial satellite and the first man-made object to be placed into the Earth’s orbit. Sputnik’s launch came as a surprise, and not a pleasant one, to most Americans. In the United States, space was seen as the next frontier, a logical extension of the grand American tradition of exploration, and it was crucial not to lose too much ground to the Soviets. In addition, this demonstration of the overwhelming power of the R-7 missile– seemingly capable of delivering a nuclear warhead into U.S. air space–made gathering intelligence about Soviet military activities particularly urgent.  Beginning in the late 1950s, space would become another platform for the competition, as each side sought to prove the superiority of its technology, its military firepower and–by extension–its political-economic system.
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

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The Broadway hit “Hamilton” earned $1.9 million in ticket sales per week, according to The New York Times. “Hamilton” was awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and it won 11 Tony awards out of 16 nominations, according to broadway.com. Lin-Manuel Miranda, 37, who created the show and starred as Alexander Hamilton, grew up in New York, immersed in music and performance art, although his family could rarely afford Broadway show tickets, according to published biographies. He watched “Les Miserables” at age 7, and fell in love with the art form. He starred in “Pirates of Penzance” during high school, and took a liking to hip-hop and R&B. Miranda went to Wesleyan University, where he studied theater, appeared on stage and drafted his own work. He was cast as the lead in the 2007 off-Broadway musical “In the Heights,” which eventually went to Broadway in 2008. That show earned four Tony Awards and was nominated for the drama category of the Pulitzer Prize, according to published reports. Miranda was encouraged to be a lawyer at a young age, but he always shined when performing, according to playbill.com. As a young adult, he came to a dilemma that would change his life. He was substitute teaching at Hunter College High School, his alma mater, and was offered a position as a part-time English teacher there. He was torn between taking the safe job or pursuing writing. Miranda turned to his father and asked, “What should I do? Should I keep teaching or should I just kind of sub and do gigs to pay the rent and really throw myself into writing full time?” His father answered his question in a letter: “I really want you to keep the job - that’s the smart “parent thing” to do - but when I was 17, I was a manager at Sears in Puerto Rico, and I basically threw it all away to go to New York (and) I didn’t speak a lot of English. It made no sense, but it was what I needed to do. It makes no sense to leave your job to be a writer, but I have to tell you to do it. You have to pursue that if you want." Miranda declined the part-time teaching job, threw himself into writing and “Hamilton!” was born.  
3. The word “starred” in paragraph 2 can be replaced by _______

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

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The costs and benefits of global warming will vary greatly from area to area. For (1)_________ climate change, the balance can be difficult to assess. But the larger the change in climate, (2)__________ more negative the consequences will become. Global warming will probably make life harder, not easier, for most people This is mainly because we have already built enormous infrastructure based on the climate we now have. People in some temperate zones may (3)______ from milder winters, more abundant rainfall, and expanding crop production zones. But people in other areas will suffer from increased heat waves, coastal erosion, rising sea level more erratic rainfall, and droughts. The crops, natural vegetation, and (4) ________ and wild animals (including seafood) that sustain people in a given area may be unable to adapt to local or regional changes in climate. The ranges of diseases and insect pests that are limited by temperature may expand, if other environmental conditions are also favorable. In its summary report on the impacts of climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated, “(5)________ as a whole, the range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time.”

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Sociologists have been carrying out research into the social pressures of being a teenager. Many adolescents are unhappy at school because they find it difficult to (1) ______ friends. This stress can bring on illness or result in poor grades. They may also worry about their appearance and often feel (2) ______ enormous pressure to dress, talk and behave the same as (3) ______. This phenomenon is called peer pressure, and it is very common in today’s society. Advertising contributes a lot to the social pressures teenagers feel. Advertisers know how important it is to feel that you belong to a group when you are in your teens, so they try to persuade teenagers that certain products will make them (4) ______ with their classmates. Sadly, many teenagers act irresponsibly and even do dangerous things just to make others accept them. Peer pressure is often the reason for teenage smoking, drug (5) ______ or dangerous driving. Teenagers need to learn to say no to social pressure and to find friends who they can talk things over with when they have a problem

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Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in the small Tuscan town of Vinci,  near Florence. Leonardo was the son of a wealthy Florentine public official and a peasant woman. In the mid- 1460s, the family settled in Florence, where Leonardo was given the best education that Florence could offer. He rapidly advanced socially and intellectually. He was handsome, persuasive in conversation and a fine musician and improviser. About in 1466, he apprenticed as a studio boy to Andrea Del Verrocchio. In Verrocchio’s workshop, Leonardo was introduced to many activities, from the painting of altarpieces and panel pictures to the creation of large sculptural projects. In 1472, he was entered in the painter’s guild of Florence, and in 1476, he was still mentioned as Verrocchio’s assistant. In Verrocchio’s Baptism of Christ, the kneeling angel at the left of the painting is by Leonardo.  In 1478, Leonardo became an independent master. His first commission, to paint an altarpiece for the chapel of the Palazzo Vecchino, the Florentine town hall, was never executed. His first large painting, The Adoration of the Magi, left unfinished, was ordered in 1481 for the Monastery of San Donato a Scopeto, Florence. Other works ascribed to his youth are the so-called Benois Madonna, the portrait Ginerva de’ Benci, and the unfinished Saint Jerome.  In 1482, Leonardo’s career moved into high gear when he entered the service of the duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, having written the duke an astonishing letter in which he stated that he could build portable bridges; that he knew the techniques of constructing bombardments and of making cannons; that he could build ships as well as armored vehicles, catapults, and other war machines; and that he could execute sculpture in marble, bronze, and clay. He served as a principal engineer in the duke’s numerous military enterprises and was so active also as an architect. In addition, he assisted the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli in the celebrated work Divina Proportione.  Evidence indicates that Leonardo had apprentices and pupils in Milan, for whom he probably wrote the various texts later compiled as Treatise on Painting. The most important of his own paintings during the early Milan period was The Virgin of the Rocks, two versions of which exist; he worked on the compositions for a long time, as was his custom, seemingly unwilling to finish what he had begun.  From 1495 to 1496, Leonardo labored on his masterpiece, The Last Super, a mural in the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria Delle Grazie, Milan. Unfortunately, his experimental use of oil on dry plaster was technically unsound, and by 1500 its deterioration had begun. Since 1726 attempts have been made, unsuccessfully, to restore it; a concerted restoration and conservation program, making use of the latest technology, was begun in 1977 and is reversing some of the damage. Although much of the original surface is gone, the majesty of the composition and the penetrating characterization of the figures give a fleeting vision of its vanished splendor.  During his long stay in Milan, Leonardo also produced other paintings and drawings, most of which have been lost theater designs, architectural drawings, and models for the dome of Milan Cathedral. His largest commission was for a colossal bronze monument to Francesco Sforza, father of Ludovico, in the courtyard of Castello Sforzesco. In December 1499, however, the Sforza family was driven from Milan by French forces; Leonardo left the statue unfinished and he returned to Florence in 1500.
3. The word “catapults” in paragraph 3 is probably __________

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Egypt’s 100 millionth citizen was born last week, undoubtedly a happy occasion for one family, but a moment filled with foreboding for a country struggling to contain a population explosion. In the past year the government has scrambled to stem the birth rate with a new program called “Two is Enough.” It is establishing family planning clinics throughout the country, where Egyptians can purchase heavily subsidized contraceptives. But many doctors and activists fear that this is too little, and comes too late to reverse the uptick in population growth. Doctors complain that the new “Two is Enough” program lacks in a clear strategy to bring down birthrates. The financial resources deployed thus far have been a fraction of previous efforts; some family-planning clinics have reportedly run out of contraceptives. While clinics funded by the campaign to provide some reproductive health education, sexual education remains taboo in Egyptian schools. There is also a lack of adequate services for the poor and pensioners. Many Egyptians opt to have more children in the hope they will look after them as they age, a phenomenon common in countries with high levels of poverty and inadequate safety nets. While over 30 million Egyptians live in poverty, only 9.4 million receive means-tested cash transfers from the government’s welfare programs. Economic reforms undertaken as part of a recently completed International Monetary Fund program have cut subsidies in a number of areas, contributing a spike in inflation that at one point exceeded 30%. For newborns like the 100-millionth Egyptian, the outlook is grim. A burgeoning population exacerbates many problems. Despite Egypt’s limited supply - it depends almost exclusively on the Nile - there has been a systemic failure to adequately address water waste. From wasteful megaprojects draining the Nile to literally dumping waste in the river, Egyptian officials have consistently failed to prudently protect what is perhaps the country’s most vital natural resource. In 2018, Egypt temporarily reduced the farming of rice, a water intensive crop - only to expand cultivation the following year. The New Administrative Capital that Sisi has set out to erect is projected to need 650,000 cubic meters of water per day when finished. Failure to quickly and dramatically improve water management practices in Egypt could be disastrous, and the risk is the greater for the country’s rapid population growth  
7. The following statements are true, EXCEPT ________

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The elusive “generation gap” is construed as being widest when one of the two  generations is the adolescent. While the gap exists in almost all facets of social and personal domains, never is it more evident than in the field of technology, where one of the generations is a digital native and the other, an immigrant or even an alien, depending upon the stage of the continuum of adulthood. The use of gadgets itself is markedly influenced by age, as shown in Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project that studied how different generations use technology.  Although cell phones are now the predominant form of interpersonal communication, the way they are used significantly varies between generations. Youngsters use their phones for a variety of activities such as taking photos, texting, going online, instant messaging, emailing, playing games, listening to music, and even recording and watching videos while adults progressively according to their age progression, restrict the use of these devices to fewer and fewer activities. Interestingly, Pew Research found that the one cell phone activity that transcends age is taking photos, with adults just as likely to click photos on the cell phone cameras as the young. However, the type of photos taken differs, with adolescents clicking more selfies that adults.  The Internet seems to be a good leveler of digital use, at least within the US. While fewer than 60% of senior citizens (ages >65) are conversant with and use the Internet in 2014, the percentages are comparable for all other age groups; 92% for teens, 97% for young adults (18-29 years), 94% for the mid-lifers (30-49%) and 88% for older adults (50-64%). How the internet is used also varies among age groups. While teenagers and young adults under age 30 use the Internet to find information, socialize, play, shop and perhaps conduct business, older users visit government websites or seek financial information online. However, this gap is narrowing, according to Pew Research, and activities such as emails and search engines being increasingly used by all age groups that are online.  Social media is another area where there is an age difference. While the percentage of adults who use social media (72%) is not that different from the youngsters in it (81%), there is a difference in the type of social media applications that is favored. Youngsters (teens and young adults) seem more prevalent in social media applications such as Facebook and Twitter while adults dominate tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest. Adults are largely passive or semi-active users of social media as seen in that adults typically add contacts only on request while adolescents actively seek new friendships. Adolescents use the social media platform as a conversation space and an outlet for self-expression, aimed largely at building new relationships while adults use social media to maintaining existing relationships. Adults have fewer contacts with a third of the adults in social media admitting to having family as their main contact group. Contrast this with the fact that only 10 and 15 percent of adolescents reported to have family in their social media contact list.
6. The word “prevalent” in paragraph 4 could best be replaced by _________

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

 Plants and animals require water that are moderately pure, and they cannot survive if  water is loaded with toxic chemicals

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A question I was asked about the readiness for independence (or lack thereof) during the last stage of adolescence (ages 18 - 23) was this: “How can parents teach independence?” From what I’ve seen, there are at least four components to this training: responsibility, accountability, work, and self-help. And this instruction can start as soon as (1) ____ begins, (usually between ages 9 and 13) if not before. Young people who learn independence can often say: “I (2) ____ my freedom by acting responsibly (I did what was right even when it was hard to do),” “I was held (3) ____ for my bad choices and paid for my mistakes (I faced my consequences),” “I worked to get a lot of what I wanted (it wasn’t all handed to me),” “I developed the resourcefulness to help myself (4) ____ with difficulty (I met my problems head on).” Young people who seem to get stuck in their dependent ways often have parents who, with the most loving motivation, undermine the growth of independence. They give freedom without demanding evidence of responsibility. “If you really want to do it, that’s enough for us to say okay.” They rescue from or ignore bad choices without (5) ____ on accountability. “You didn’t know any better so we’ll overlook what you did.” They provide whatever is wanted without having the child work for any of it. “We’ll just get it for you.” They weaken with so much help when difficulties arise that the capacity for self-help is disabled. “We’ll fix what you did and take care of it.

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Set aside time each day Most of us can find 15 minutes or half an hour each day for some specific regular activity. It may be a free period or a regular wait, stay in the queue for a bus or meal - even while eating breakfast. One famous surgeon always made it a rule to spend at least 15 minutes on general reading before he went to sleep each night. Whether he went to bed at 10:00 p.m or 2:30 a.m. made no difference. Even if you cannot keep to this kind of discipline, it is a good idea to make sure you always have a general interest book in your pocket. Don’t forget it should be a book which entertains you and the English must not be too difficult for you. Checking your progress through pacing Nearly all speed reading courses have a "pacing element - some timing device which lets the student know how many words a minute he is reading. You can do this simply by looking at your watch every 5 or 10 minutes and noting down the page number you have reached. How do you know when 5 minutes have passed on your watch if you are busy reading the book? Well, this is difficult at first. A friend can help by timing you over a set period. Pace yourself every three or four days, always with the same kind of easy, general interest book. You should soon notice your habitual w. p. m rate creeping up. Check comprehension Obviously there is little point in increasing your w. p. m rate if you do not understand what you are reading. When you are consciously trying to increase your reading speed, stop after every chapter (if you are reading a novel) or every section or group of ten or twelve pages (if it is a textbook) and ask yourself a few questions about what you have been reading. If you find you have lost the thread of the story, or you cannot remember clearly the details of what was said, re-read the section or chapter. “Lightening speed” exercise Take 4 or 5 pages in the general interest book you happen to be reading at the time. Read them as fast as you possibly can. Do not bother about whether you understand or not. Now go back and read them at what you feel to be your normal w. p. m rate, the rate at which you can comfortably understand. After a “lightening speed” read through (probably around 6 w. p. m) you will usually find that your normal speed has increased -  perhaps by as much as 50 -100 w. p. m.
8. The purpose of pausing for thought every so often is to ____

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Amy Johnson was born in 1903 and grew up in Hull, England. The pioneering British aviator is one of the inspiring female figurehead of the 20th century. After university, Amy got a badly-paid (1)_____managed to save enough money to take flying lessons. She went on to qualify as a pilot, (2)___ receiving her license in 1929. In 1930, (3)_______only flown for seventy-five hours, she persuaded a rich businessperson to give her money to buy a plane, and set off alone for Darwin, Australia, in the hope of breaking the record for flying solo from England to Australia in fourteen days. Amy was the first woman to make this flight, (4) _______ took her nineteen days. She failed to breathe record, but was welcomed home as a hero. Over the next ten years, Amy made many record-breaking flights. During these years, she was admired for her skill and courage, and she is still fondly remembered as Britain’s first “Queen of the Air”. She is also remembered in many ways, one of which is the British Women Pilot’s Association award - a scholarship to help outstanding women pilots (5)______their careers

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The majority of Americans can live comfortable lives on the salaries they earn, without the support of a universal public-welfare system. These so-called middle-class Americans generally own their own homes and cars, spend some time each year on vacation, and can pay – at least in part - for a college education for their children. Most Americans set (1) _______ money in savings accounts to help pay major expenses; many invest in the stock market in hopes of earning a healthy return on their investments.  Most buy insurance, especially life and medical insurance, frequently with contributions (2) _____ the companies for which they work. Many companies also have retirement plans which they and their employees put aside money for their retirement pensions. When added to Social Security payments, pensions (3) _______ many tired Americans to live comfortably. On the other hand, for older Americans who require longterm care outside of a hospital, a nursing home can be very expensive. In 1993, a family of four with a yearly income of $14,763 or less was considered poor by American standards; 15.1 percent of American families fell into this category. In addition to the benefits discussed above, many families below the (4) ________line receive welfare payments, sums of money provided by the government each month to those whose income is too low to obtain such necessities as food, clothing and shelter. The most common form of welfare payment has been through a program called Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC). Originally (5) _______to help children whose fathers had died, AFDC evolved into the main source of regular income for millions of poor American families

 Choose the best answer:
You can learn a lot __________ the local area by talking to local people.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
From their inception, most rural neighborhoods in colonial North America included at least one carpenter, joiner, sawyer, and cooper in woodworking; a weaver and a tailor for clothing production; a tanner, currier, and cordwainer (shoemaker) for fabricating leather objects; and a blacksmith for metalwork. Where stone was the local building material, a mason was sure to appear on the list of people who paid taxes. With only an apprentice as an assistant, the rural artisan provided the neighborhood with common goods from furniture to shoes to farm equipment in exchange for cash or for “goods in kind” from the customer’s field, pasture, or dairy. Sometimes artisans transformed material provided by the customer wove cloth of yam spun at the farm from the wool of the family sheep; made chairs or tables from wood cut in the customer’s own woodlot; produced shoes or leather breeches from cow, deer, or sheepskin tanned on the farm.  Like their farming neighbors, rural artisans were part of an economy seen, by one historian, as “an orchestra conducted by nature.” Some tasks could not be done in the winter, others had to be put off during harvest time, and still others waited on raw materials that were only produced seasonally. As the days grew shorter, shop hours kept pace, since few artisans could afford enough artificial light to continue work when the sun went down.  To the best of their ability, colonial artisans tried to keep their shops as efficient as possible and to regularize their schedules and methods of production for the best return on their investment in time, tools, and materials. While it is pleasant to imagine a woodworker, for example, carefully matching lumber, joining a chest together without resort to nails or glue, and applying all thought and energy to carving beautiful designs on the finished piece, the time required was not justified unless the customer was willing to pay extra for the quality - and few in rural areas were. Artisans, therefore, often found it necessary to employ as many shortcuts and economics as possible while still producing satisfactory products.
8. It can be inferred that the artisans referred to in the passage usually produced products that were ____