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Urban development is having a direct impact on the weather in (1) ______ cities worldwide. It has been noticed that the difference in temperature is usually greater at night and the phenomenon occurs in both winter and summer. Experts agree that this is due to urban development, when open green spaces are replaced with asphalt roads and tall brick or concrete buildings. These materials retain heat generated by the Sun and release it through the night. In Atlanta, in the US, this has even led to thunderstorms (22) ______ occur in the morning rather than, as is more common, in the afternoon. Large cities around the world are adopting strategies to combat this issue, (3) ______ it is not uncommon to find plants growing on top of roofs or down the walls of large buildings. In Singapore, the government has (4) ______ to transform it into a "city within a garden" and, in 2006, they held an international competition calling for entries to develop a master plan to help bring this about. One outcome was the creation of 18 "Supertrees" – metal constructions resembling very tall trees. Each one is a vertical freestanding garden and is (5) ______ to exotic plants and ferns. They also contain solar panels used to light the trees at night and also containers to collect rainwater, making them truly self-sufficient

Rewrite the sentence:
He likes to listen to pop music than to watch TV after school.

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Stage and film acting both involve performances in front of an audience. There are fundamental differences between the two. When you act for the stage, you are performing in front of a live audience. That means that your voice and your body movements must be clear even to those seated at the back row. Film acting, on the other hand, requires no voice projection. This is because you are performing in front of the camera. Although a film actor still needs to put the right expression to pull off a role realistically, overdoing movement or being overly expressive actually works against him in film acting because this can be construed as overacting. Controlled and small gestures are the requirements when acting for film. Another difference between stage acting and film acting is the material that is used. Theater involves doing well-known plays time and time again. As such, directors, producers and even avid theater-goers know the plays by heart. Some would even know every line and have developed expectations on how it should be delivered. When a line is not correctly said or the action delivered is not what is expected, an actor can be criticized severely. This is not an issue with film acting because the script is freshly-written. There are basically no expectations on how a role is supposed to be played. Putting the character to life becomes your responsibility and casting directors often choose talents based on their ability to give an authentic and believable performance. The fact that stage acting is done in real time also differentiates it from film acting. The scenes are done in sequence, often building up to a climax. This means that stage actors can’t afford to make mistakes. They have to memorize their lines well or risk forgetting in the middle of the performance. Stage actors must also exhibit quick thinking in case something unexpected happens on stage. Film acting is not done in front of a live audience. Although actors are encouraged to perform the scene perfectly on the first take because of budgetary considerations, a scene can always be redone in case the director is not satisfied with it. When an actor forgets his lines, there is always a script that can be referred back to without causing any damage to the outcome of the movie.
2. The word “construed” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to _______

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“Evidence has piled up to show that our relationships, including friendships, affect  our health at a much deeper level, tweaking not just our psychology and motivation but the function and structure of our organs and cells,” writes science journalist Lydia Denworth in the book “Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power of Life’s Fundamental Bond” (W.W. Norton), out now. The average American claims to have about four close friends, and the great majority of us have between two and six. Only 5 percent of those studied had more than eight, while 5 percent had no close friends.  Still, 20 percent of us call ourselves lonely — and the health implications are overwhelming. We’ve known about the fallout of loneliness since a 1988 Science paper concluded that being lonely “constitute[s] a major risk factor for health” equivalent to obesity, smoking and lack of physical exercise. According to Denworth’s research, lack of social contact in the elderly costs Medicare $6.7 billion a year. There are purely positive relationships, which make up about half of our social networks, and then purely negative ones, which are rare. And then there are the uncomfortably ambivalent ones that land in-between — aka “frenemies.” These ambivalent bonds make up about half of our social networks, but the research on them is pretty stark: “Ambivalent relationships are bad for us,” writes Denworth. These relationships are reportedly causing levels of inflammation, aging, blood pressure and even greater artery calcification. This is true for even not so intimate relationships, such as colleagues and neighbors, too. Sadly, about 50 percent of married view their spouses ambivalently, according to Brigham Young University researchers. According to the book, it takes between 40 and 60 hours to create a casual friendship and over 200 hours to become a “best friend.”
1. What is main topic of the passage?

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Many people believe the glare from snow causes snow-blindness. Yet, dark glasses or not, they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes, and even snowblindness, when exposed to several hours of “snow light”. The United States Army has now determined that the glare from snow does not cause snow-blindness in troops in a snow-covered country. Rather, a man’s eyes frequently find nothing to focus on in a broad expanse of a snow-covered area. So his gaze continually shifts and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of something to look at. Finding nothing, hour after hour, the eyes never stop searching and the eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature balances this annoyance by producing more and more liquid which covers the eyeballs. The liquid covers the eyeballs in increasing quantity until vision blurs. And the result is total, even though temporary, snow-blindness. Experiments led the Army to a simple method of overcoming this problem. Scouts ahead of a main body of troops are trained to shake snow from evergreen bushes, creating a dotted line as they cross completely snow-covered landscape. Even the scouts themselves throw lightweight, dark-colored objects ahead on which they too can focus. The men following can then see something. Their gaze is arrested. Their eyes focus on a bush and having found something to see, stop searching through the snow-blanketed landscape. By focusing their attention on one object at a time, the men can cross the snow without becoming hopelessly snow-blind or lost: In this way the problem of crossing a solid white area is overcome
3. According to the passage, snow-blindness may be avoided by ____

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Being part of a community with long history rooted in agriculture, Vietnamese people  especially those from older generations hold a strong belief for superstition about luck and bad luck. Even though people have become much less superstitious as they were before, some traditions still (1) ____ on until today like people’s habit. Let’s take a closer look at some common food-related superstitions and explore the reasoning behind them.  Regarding what food to avoid before taking an important examination, homophones and the shape of your food comes into (2) ____. These features are the criteria that people use to decide which food is good and what is bad to eat before an important examination. Students are restrained from eating bananas prior to an exam for (3) ____ of failing ‘like sliding on a banana skin’  They are also advised eating squid, which when disturbed, emit a substance that is ‘as black as ink’. The phrase carries the connotation of a black (bad) mark on your test. Eating squash, pumpkin, melon and peanuts was also a (4) ____. The words for pumpkin and melon in Vietnamese mean “stuck” and the word for peanut means to be ‘lost’ or ‘digress’. Duck meat and eggs are associated with bad luck since the shape of an egg resembles the zero number. On the (5) ____, eating any type of beans is considered good before an exam since bean in Vietnamese means the same thing with to ‘pass a test

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

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Elephants need a large amount of habitat because they eat so much. Humans have become their direct competitors for living space. Human populations in Africa and Asia have quadrupled since the turn of the century, the fastest growth rate on the planet. Forest and savanna habitat has been converted to cropland, pastureland for livestock, and timber for housing and fuel. Humans do not regard elephants as good neighbors. When humans and elephants live close together, elephants raid crops, and rogue elephants rampage through villages. Local people shoot elephants because they fear them and regard them as pests. Some countries have established culling programs: park officials or hunters kill a predetermined number of elephants to keep herds manageable and minimize human-elephant conflicts. Hunting has been a major cause of the decline in elephant populations. Elephants became prized trophies for big-game hunters after Europeans arrived in Africa. More recently, and more devastatingly, hunters have slaughtered elephants for their ivory tusks. The ivory trade became a serious threat to elephants in the 1970s. A sudden oil shortage caused the world economy to collapse, and ivory became more valuable than gold. In fact, ivory has been called “white gold” because it is beautiful, easily carved, durable, and pleasing to the touch. Most of the world’s ivory is carved in Japan, Hong Kong, and other Asian countries, where skilled carvers depend on a supply of ivory for their livelihoods  Hunting elephants is no longer legal in many African countries, but poaching was widespread until very recently. For many the high price of ivory, about $100 a pound in the 1980s, was too tempting to resist. Local people often had few other ways to make a living, and subsistence farmers or herders could make more by selling the tusks of one elephant than they could make in a dozen years of farming or herding. As the price of ivory soared, poachers became more organized, using automatic weapons, motorized vehicles, and airplanes to chase and kill thousands of elephants. To governments and revolutionaries mired in civil wars and strapped for cash, poaching ivory became a way to pay for more firearms and supplies. Poaching has caused the collapse of elephants’ social structure as well as decimating their numbers. Poachers target the biggest elephants because their tusks are larger. They often kill all the adults in the group, leaving young elephants without any adults to teach them migration routes, dry-season water sources, and other learned behavior. Many of Africa’s remaining elephant groups are leaderless subadults and juveniles.
6. What does the word “durable” in the forth paragraph mostly mean?

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French is a ............... language to learn than English is.

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Knowing what to expect from your destination will make all aspects of planning an adventure trip easier, as well as helping you to get the most out of the experience. Research will help you pick the best places to go but you’ll also learn what you need to pack. What health and safety (1) __________ to take, and what cultural (and sometimes political) issues you should be aware of. Climate and seasonal pricing are important factors in your decision about when to go. (2) ______ for adventure travel, bad weather or weather you’re not prepared for can ruin the trip. While you can’t predict the (3) __________ weather in advance, you can learn about climate trends ahead of time when doing your destination research. Seasonal popularity and pricing should also be considered if you intend to keep away from peak-season crowd and prices. While some research is absolutely essential, don’t plan every moment of your trip in advance. Over-planning tends to make us less (4) __________ to take part in the spontaneous events that are part of any sort of adventure travel. It’s really important to (5)_________ a big reserve of excitement and energy ready for the unexpected adventures

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Advertising helps people recognize a particular brand, persuades them to try it, and tries to keep them loyal to it. Brand loyalty is perhaps the most important goal of consumer advertising. Whether they produce cars, canned foods or cosmetics, manufacturers want their customers to make repeated purchases. [2] The quality of the product will encourage this, of course, but so, too, will affect advertising. Advertising relies on the techniques of market research to identify potential users of a product. [3] Are they homemakers or professional people? Are they young or old? Are they city dwellers or country dwellers? Such questions have a bearing on where and when ads should be placed. By studying readership breakdowns for newspapers and magazines as well as television ratings and other statistics, an advertising agency can decide on the best way of reaching potential buyers. Detailed research and marketing expertise are essential today when advertising budgets can run into thousands of millions of dollars. [4] Advertising is a fast-paced, high-pressure industry. There is a constant need for creative ideas that will establish a personality for a product in the public’s mind. Current developments in advertising increase the need for talented workers. In the past, the majority of advertising was aimed at the traditional white family - breadwinner father, non-working mother, and two children. Research now reveals that only about 6 percent of American households fit this stereotype. Instead, society is fragmented into many groups, with working mothers, single people and older people on the rise. To be most successful, advertising must identify a particular segment and aim its message toward that group. Advertising is also making use of new technologies. Computer graphics are used to grab the attention of consumers and to help them see products in a new light. The use of computer graphics in a commercial for canned goods, for instance, gave a new image to the tin can  
1. What does the passage mainly discuss?

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:
It is said that George Washington was one of the first to realize how important tire building of canals would be to the nation’s development. In fact, before he became the President, he headed the first company in the United States to build a canal, which was to connect the Ohio and Potomac rivers. It was never completed, but it showed the nation the feasibility of canals. As the country expanded westward, settlers in western New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio needed a means to ship goods. Canals linking natural waterways seemed to supply an effective method.
In 1791, engineers commissioned by the state of New York investigated the possibility of a canal between Albany on the Hudson River and Buffalo on Lake Eric to link the Great Lakes area with the Atlantic seacoast. It would avoid the mountains that served as a barrier to canals from the Delaware and Potomac rivers.
The first attempt to dig the canal, to be called the Eric Canal, was made by private companies but only a comparatively small portion was built before the project was halted for lack of funds. The cost of the prospect was estimated $5 million, an enormous amount for those days. There was some on-again-off-again federal funding, but this time the War of 1812 put an end to construction. In 1817, DeWitt Clinton was elected Governor of New York and persuaded the state to finance and build the canal. It was completed in 1825, costing S2 million more than expected.
The canal rapidly lived up to its sponsors’ faith, quickly paying for itself through tolls. It was far more economical than any other form of transportation at the time. It permitted trade between the Great Lake region and the East coast, robbing the Mississippi River of much of its traffic. It allowed New York to supplant Boston, Philadelphia, and other eastern cities as the chief center of both domestic and foreign commerce. Cities sprang up along the canal. It also contributed in a number of ways to the Norths victory over the South in the Civil War.
An expansion of the canal was planned in 1849. Increased traffic would undoubtedly have warranted its construction had it not been for the railroads.

The word “tolls” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to which of the following?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions:
The United States Department of Education describes “giftedness” as exceptionally advanced performance or the potential for outstanding performance in intellectual, creative leadership, artistic, or specific academic fields. Children who demonstrate outstanding talents come from all social, cultural, and economic groups.
Educators believe that gifted students require special education services because their learning needs differ significantly from those of the general population. They learn more rapidly and are able to understand more abstract and complex ideas. They are also able to transform existing knowledge into new and useful forms, and to create new knowledge recognized for its originality, complexity, and elegance. Special education services and facilities for gifted children may enhance these abilities. In addition, some gifted learners may require special counseling services to address social or emotional adjustment issues that are complicated by their exceptional abilities.
Many regular elementary and secondary schools in the United States offer special programs designed specifically to meet the needs of gifted students. Some schools provide specialized education programs to gifted children exclusively. These schools offer advanced education in mathematics, science, technology, the arts, or other academic disciplines. Many schools rely on intelligence tests to identify gifted students. However, most guidelines for determining giftedness recommend the use of a combination of standardized test scores, rating systems developed by individual schools, classroom observation records, and performance assessments.
Gifted children may study a specially modified curriculum or may progress through academic subjects at an accelerated pace. Acceleration involves adapting education programs so that students may progress through particular subject material quicker than usual. These modifications may take place within the regular classroom setting or they may involve changing the child’s placement in school. Some gifted children gain early entrance to kindergarten, skip grades, enter college earlier than usual, or take specific courses with older children. Ideal programs for gifted students consider the individual needs of children and offer multiple options for services. These programs generally involve both advanced course materials and acceleration.

Which of the following can be inferred from the fourth paragraph?

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Population in the world is currently (2018) growing at a rate of around 1.09% per year (down from 1.12% in 2017 and 1.14% in 2016). The current average population increase is estimated (1)________83 million people per year Annual growth rate reached its (2)__________in the late 1960s, when it was at around 2%. The rate of increase has nearly halved since then, and will continue (3)_________in the coming years. It is estimated to reach 1% by 2023, less than 0.5% by 2052, and 0.25% in 2076 (a yearly addition of 27 million people to a population of 10.7 billion). In 2100, it should be only 0.09%, or an addition of only 10 million people to a total population of 11.2 billion. World population will therefore continue to grow in the 21st century, but at a much slower rate (4)___________to the recent past. World population has doubled (100% increase) in 40 years from 1959 (3 billion) to 1999 (6 billion). It is now estimated that it will (5)_________another nearly 40 years to increase by another 50% to become 9 billion by 2037

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks
CARE was (1)......... in 1945 to help people after World War II. It distributed over 100 million food (2)........... . Meanwhile, it was starting self-help programs. Today it has development programs in 37 countries. CARE gives equipment and (3)........people how to build water systems, roads, schools and   health centers. It also teaches people how to increase production on farms, how to reforest areas, and how to (4).......... small village industries. Doctors and nurses volunteer to go to villages. They provide health  care for the people. They also teach people how to improve their health. They train people to provide (5).................medical care. CARE also provides food for about 30 million people every year. Most of them are children. It gives special help where there is a flood, an earthquake, a drought or a war.

(5)...............................

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:
There has been much debate over the past few decades concerning fears that automation will lead to robots replacing human workers on a massive scale.
The increasing use of robotics, computers and artificial intelligence is a reality, but its full implications are far from cut and dried. Some forecasts present the future in a utopian way, claiming that robots will take over the tedious heavy work thus freeing up human time and potential, allowing for more creativity and innovation. At the other end of spectrum are those who foresee an employment apocalypse, predicting that almost fifty percent of all American jobs could vanish within the next few decades. Former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates states that in 20 years robots could be in place in a number of job categories, particularly those at lower end of the scale in terms of skills.
The bottom line is that while the future is always uncertain, robots are a fixture of our society, which is not going to disappear. As with the Industrial Revolution, where machines were utilized in many tasks in place of manual laborers and social upheaval followed, the Digital Revolution is likely to place robots in various jobs. In spite of that, many of today’s jobs were not in existence before the Industrial Revolution, such as those of programmers, engineers and data scientists. This leads other experts to criticize this alarmist approach of robot scare-mongering, which is invariably compared to the 19th-century “Luddites”. This group was textile workers who feared being displaced by machines and resorted to violence, burning down factories and destroying industrial equipment – their rejection of inevitable progress has come to symbolize mindless ignorance.
Needless to say, exactly what new kinds of jobs might exist in the future is difficult to envision at present. Therefore, the crux of the issue is not whether jobs will be lost, but whether the creation of new vacancies will outpace the ever-increasing number of losses and what skills will be required in the future.
It is clearly not all doom and gloom, as demand for employees with skills in data analysis, coding, computer science, artificial intelligence and human-machine interface is rising and will continue to do so. Furthermore, the demand for skills in jobs where humans surpass computers, such as those involving  care, creativity and innovative craftmanship, are likely to increase considerably. Ultimately, the key lies in the adaptation of the workforces, through appropriate education and training, to keep pace with our world’s technological progress.

What can be inferred from the comments made by Bill Gates?

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The print media includes newspapers, magazines, brochures, newsletters, books and even leaflets and pamphlets. Visual media like photography can also be mentioned under this sub-head, since photography is an important mass media, which communicates via visual representations. Although it is said that the electronic or new media have replaced the print media, there exists a majority of audiences who prefer the print media for various communication purposes. Public speaking and event organizing can also be considered as a form of mass media. For many people, it is impossible to imagine a life without their television sets, be it the daily news dose or even the soap operas. This mass media includes television and radio. This category also included electronic media like movies, CDs and DVDs as well as the new hottest electronic gadgets.  With the advent of new technologies like Internet, we are now enjoying the benefits of high technology mass media, which is not only faster than the old-school mass media, but also has a widespread range. Mobile phones, computers and Internet are often referred to as the new-age media. Internet has opened up several new opportunities for mass communication which include email, websites, blogging, Internet television and many other mass media which are booming today. Mass media was developed as a means of social responsibility at the beginning. However, in the course of time, they have attained the status of an industry. Besides the social and industrial nature of mass media, the following common points may also be mentioned. Specifically, it is highly impersonal, because the masses are not identifiable based on perfectly defined audio, visual or written messages. In addition, it is never likely to reach 100 percent of the target nor to have more than 10 percent effectiveness in most of the cases. Contents are generally based on the broad social issues and aspiration of the target audience which may be designed to achieve some specific goals; and all in all, modern mass media draw heavily on technology  
3. Which of the following is mentioned as a favourite TV programme?

Rewrite the sentence:
Henry tasted the pleasures of modern city life. Then he found life in his village hard and unattractive.

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Diseases are a natural part of life on earth. If there were no diseases, the population would grow too quickly, and there would not be enough food or other resources, so in a way, diseases are natural ways of keeping the Earth in balance. But sometimes they spread very quickly and kill large numbers of people. For example, in 1918, an outbreak of the flu across the world, killing over 25 million people only in six months. Such terrible outbreaks of a diseases are called pandemics. Pandemics happen when a disease changes in a way that our bodies are not prepared to fiht. In 1918, a new type of fl virus appeared. Our bodies had no way to fiht this new flu virus, and so it spread very quickly and killed large numbers of people. While there have been many different pandemic diseases throughout history, all of them have a new thing in common. First, all pandemic diseases spread from one person to another very easily. Second, while they may kill many people, they generally do not kill people very quickly. A good example of this would be the Marburg virus. The Marburg virus is an extremely infectious disease. In addition, it is deadly. About 70%-80% of all people who get the Marburg virus died from the disease. However, the Marburg virus has not become a pandemics because most people die within three days of getting the disease. This means that the virus does not have enough time to spread a large number of people. The flu virus of 1918, on the other hand, generally took about a week to ten days to kill its victims, so it had more time to spread. While we may never be able to completely stop pandemics, we can make them less common. Doctors carefully monitor new disease that they fear could become pandemics. For example, in 2002, and 2003, doctors carefully watched SARS. Their health warming may have prevented SARS from becoming a pandemic.
1. This passage is mainly about.....

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Excuse me, what is the ________ fee to enter the Independence Palace?

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Kissing under sprigs of mistletoe is a well-known holiday tradition, but this little plant’s history as a symbolic herb dates back thousands of years. Many ancient cultures prized mistletoe for its healing properties. The plant’s romantic overtones most likely started with the Celtic Druids of the 1st century A.D. Because mistletoe could blossom even during the frozen winter, the Druids came to view it as a sacred symbol of vivacity, and they administered it to humans and animals alike in the hope of restoring fertility. Another famous chapter in mistletoe folklore comes from Norse mythology. As the story goes, when the god Odin’s son Baldur was prophesied to die, his mother Frigg, the goddess of love, went to all the animals and plants of the natural world to secure an oath that they would not harm him. But Frigg neglected to consult with the unassuming mistletoe, so the scheming god Loki made an arrow from the plant and saw that it was used to kill the otherwise invincible Baldur. According to one sunnier version of the myth, the gods were able to resurrect Baldur from the dead. Delighted, Frigg then declared mistletoe a symbol of love and vowed to plant a kiss on all those who passed beneath it. Mistletoe’s associations with fertility and vitality continued through the Middle Ages, and by the 18th century it had become widely incorporated into Christmas celebrations. Just how it made the jump from sacred herb to holiday decoration remains up for debate, but the kissing tradition appears to have first caught on among servants in England before spreading to the middle classes. As part of the early custom, men were allowed to steal a kiss from any woman caught standing under the mistletoe, and refusing was viewed as bad luck.  
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?