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.

William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), who wrote under the pseudonym of O. Henry, was born in North Carolina. His only formal education was to attend his Aunt Lina’s school until the age of fifteen, where he developed his lifelong love of books. By 1881 he was a licensed pharmacist. However, within a year, on the recommendation of a medical colleague of his Father’s, Porter moved to La Salle County in Texas for two years herding sheep. During this time, Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary was his constant companion, and Porter gained a knowledge of ranch life that he later incorporated into many of his short stories. He then moved to Austin for three years, and during this time the first recorded use of his pseudonym appeared, allegedly derived from his habit of calling “Oh, Henry” to a family cat. In 1887, Porter married Athol Estes. He worked as a draftsman, then as a bank teller for the First National Bank.

In 1894 Porter founded his own humor weekly, the “Rolling Stone”, a venture that failed within a year, and later wrote a column for the Houston Daily Post. In the meantime, the First National Bank was examined, and the subsequent indictment of 1886 stated that Porter had embezzled funds. Porter then fled to New Orleans, and later to Honduras, leaving his wife and child in Austin. He returned in 1897 because of his wife’s continued ill-health, however she died six months later. Then, in 1898 Porter was found guilty and sentenced to five years imprisonment in Ohio. At the age of thirty five, he entered prison as a defeated man; he had lost his job, his home, his wife, and finally his freedom. He emerged from prison three years later, reborn as O. Henry, the pseudonym he now used to hide his true identity. He wrote at least twelve stories in jail, and after re-gaining his freedom, went to New York City, where he published more than 300 stories and gained fame as America’s favorite short Story writer. Porter married again in 1907, but after months of poor health, he died in New York City at the age of forty-eight in 1910. O. Henry’s stories have been translated all over the world.

The author implies which of the following is true?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

When Malaysia takes the ASEAN chair next year, it will face a huge challenge. Too few of us know enough about this grouping we call the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. We do not know what it means to be a part of ASEAN and why it is important to us. At the same time, pressure is mounting to reinvent ASEAN to make it more people-centric and less government-centric. The Heat speaks to Global Movement of Moderates CEO Saifuddin Abdullah on why ASEAN should mean more to us than just acronyms.

ASEAN people do not feel like they are a part of the community of Southeast Asian nations. This statement, backed up by survey findings, is pretty bizarre, and extremely hurtful too, considering that ASEAN is 47 years old today. "Interview 10 persons on the street and you would perhaps get only one of them who knows about ASEAN,” says Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah. This CEO of Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) is not running down ASEAN; he's confronting the truth as it impacts the project he has been entrusted with. Here's more, in 2012, the ASEAN Secretariat conducted a survey that showed only 34% of Malaysians had heard of the ASEAN community. This compares with 96% of Laotians. Malaysia chairs ASEAN next year, and GMM is a member of the national steering committee organising the ASEAN People's Forum (APF), a platform designed to bridge the gap between governments and civil society. Never heard of it? You're forgiven.

The APF actually started off life in the 1990s, except it was called the ASEAN People's Assembly (APA). It was held back to back with the ASEAN Summit, which is held twice a year. The APA is the forum where 10 leaders of government engage with 10 leaders of civil society in a half-hour meeting. "It was going well until one year when the chairman decided not to hold the APA, so it was discontinued until 2005 when Malaysia took the chairmanship of ASEAN again and founded the ASEAN People's Forum (APF)," Saifuddin explains. In a perfect world, forums such as the APF or its predecessor APA would have worked perfectly to bridge the gap between government and civil society.

However, as Saifuddin points out, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) often do not see eye to eye with their governments. For instance this year, Myanmar is chair of ASEAN and in the APF, three member nations - including Malaysia - decided not to recognise the CSO leaders chosen as representatives so the APF did not take place. “This is where the GMM wants to play a role in ensuring that this situation does not arise again," Saifuddin says.

Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

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

"Do you think education is better now than it was in your grandparents' time? Many older people in the UK believe the opposite. “Schools were better in our day,” they complain. “There isn't enough discipline these days. Kids don't work as hard as we did, either. The syllabus isn't as challenging, so clever students aren't being stretched enough. They need to study things in greater depth. Exams are much, much easier now as well.”

Were schools better years ago? Some British teenagers travelled back in time to a 1950s boarding school. They got a big surprise! The first shock came when the teenagers met their new teachers. Dressed in traditional black gowns, they look so frosty and uncaring! They were really authoritarian, too, so anyone caught breaking the rules - talking in classes, mucking about in the playground or playing truant – was in big trouble! Punishments included writing 'lines' or staying after class to do detention. The naughtiest kids were expelled.

Things were just as bad after class. At meal times the students had to endure a diet of plain, no-nonsense, healthy food. Homework was obligatory and it took ages! Copying essays off the Internet wasn't an option, as personal computers didn't exist in the 1950s!

At the end of 'term' everyone sat 1950s-style exams. The old exams were much longer than their twenty-first century equivalents and involved learning huge amounts of facts by heart. History papers were all dates and battles. Maths papers were trickier, too; calculators weren't around in the 1950s, so the students had to memorise multiplication tables and master long division. Our candidates found this really difficult.

The exam results surprised a lot of people. Students predicted to do well in their real-life, twenty-first century exams often got low grades in the 1950s exams. Does this prove modern exams are too easy? Do twenty-first century kids rely too much on modern technology, like calculators and computers?

The TV series of That 'll teach 'em! focused on a 1960s vocational school. UK school-kids study a range of academic subjects these days. But in the 1960s, children judged to be less ‘able' went to vocational schools. These helped them learn job skills. Boys studied subjects like metalwork, woodwork or gardening. In some classes, they even learned how to milk goats! The girls' timetables included secretarial skills. They also learned to cook, clean and sew - probably not much fun for most girls."

 4: The word "obligatory” in the third paragraph is closest in meaning to ____.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

When Malaysia takes the ASEAN chair next year, it will face a huge challenge. Too few of us know enough about this grouping we call the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. We do not know what it means to be a part of ASEAN and why it is important to us. At the same time, pressure is mounting to reinvent ASEAN to make it more people-centric and less government-centric. The Heat speaks to Global Movement of Moderates CEO Saifuddin Abdullah on why ASEAN should mean more to us than just acronyms.

ASEAN people do not feel like they are a part of the community of Southeast Asian nations. This statement, backed up by survey findings, is pretty bizarre, and extremely hurtful too, considering that ASEAN is 47 years old today. "Interview 10 persons on the street and you would perhaps get only one of them who knows about ASEAN,” says Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah. This CEO of Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) is not running down ASEAN; he's confronting the truth as it impacts the project he has been entrusted with. Here's more, in 2012, the ASEAN Secretariat conducted a survey that showed only 34% of Malaysians had heard of the ASEAN community. This compares with 96% of Laotians. Malaysia chairs ASEAN next year, and GMM is a member of the national steering committee organising the ASEAN People's Forum (APF), a platform designed to bridge the gap between governments and civil society. Never heard of it? You're forgiven.

The APF actually started off life in the 1990s, except it was called the ASEAN People's Assembly (APA). It was held back to back with the ASEAN Summit, which is held twice a year. The APA is the forum where 10 leaders of government engage with 10 leaders of civil society in a half-hour meeting. "It was going well until one year when the chairman decided not to hold the APA, so it was discontinued until 2005 when Malaysia took the chairmanship of ASEAN again and founded the ASEAN People's Forum (APF)," Saifuddin explains. In a perfect world, forums such as the APF or its predecessor APA would have worked perfectly to bridge the gap between government and civil society.

However, as Saifuddin points out, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) often do not see eye to eye with their governments. For instance this year, Myanmar is chair of ASEAN and in the APF, three member nations - including Malaysia - decided not to recognise the CSO leaders chosen as representatives so the APF did not take place. “This is where the GMM wants to play a role in ensuring that this situation does not arise again," Saifuddin says.

According to the passage, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah was CEO of ____.

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

"Do you think education is better now than it was in your grandparents' time? Many older people in the UK believe the opposite. “Schools were better in our day,” they complain. “There isn't enough discipline these days. Kids don't work as hard as we did, either. The syllabus isn't as challenging, so clever students aren't being stretched enough. They need to study things in greater depth. Exams are much, much easier now as well.”

Were schools better years ago? Some British teenagers travelled back in time to a 1950s boarding school. They got a big surprise! The first shock came when the teenagers met their new teachers. Dressed in traditional black gowns, they look so frosty and uncaring! They were really authoritarian, too, so anyone caught breaking the rules - talking in classes, mucking about in the playground or playing truant – was in big trouble! Punishments included writing 'lines' or staying after class to do detention. The naughtiest kids were expelled.

Things were just as bad after class. At meal times the students had to endure a diet of plain, no-nonsense, healthy food. Homework was obligatory and it took ages! Copying essays off the Internet wasn't an option, as personal computers didn't exist in the 1950s!

At the end of 'term' everyone sat 1950s-style exams. The old exams were much longer than their twenty-first century equivalents and involved learning huge amounts of facts by heart. History papers were all dates and battles. Maths papers were trickier, too; calculators weren't around in the 1950s, so the students had to memorise multiplication tables and master long division. Our candidates found this really difficult.

The exam results surprised a lot of people. Students predicted to do well in their real-life, twenty-first century exams often got low grades in the 1950s exams. Does this prove modern exams are too easy? Do twenty-first century kids rely too much on modern technology, like calculators and computers?

The TV series of That 'll teach 'em! focused on a 1960s vocational school. UK school-kids study a range of academic subjects these days. But in the 1960s, children judged to be less ‘able' went to vocational schools. These helped them learn job skills. Boys studied subjects like metalwork, woodwork or gardening. In some classes, they even learned how to milk goats! The girls' timetables included secretarial skills. They also learned to cook, clean and sew - probably not much fun for most girls."

5: According to the passage, how did exams in the 1950s differ from those in the twenty-first century?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

When Malaysia takes the ASEAN chair next year, it will face a huge challenge. Too few of us know enough about this grouping we call the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. We do not know what it means to be a part of ASEAN and why it is important to us. At the same time, pressure is mounting to reinvent ASEAN to make it more people-centric and less government-centric. The Heat speaks to Global Movement of Moderates CEO Saifuddin Abdullah on why ASEAN should mean more to us than just acronyms.

ASEAN people do not feel like they are a part of the community of Southeast Asian nations. This statement, backed up by survey findings, is pretty bizarre, and extremely hurtful too, considering that ASEAN is 47 years old today. "Interview 10 persons on the street and you would perhaps get only one of them who knows about ASEAN,” says Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah. This CEO of Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) is not running down ASEAN; he's confronting the truth as it impacts the project he has been entrusted with. Here's more, in 2012, the ASEAN Secretariat conducted a survey that showed only 34% of Malaysians had heard of the ASEAN community. This compares with 96% of Laotians. Malaysia chairs ASEAN next year, and GMM is a member of the national steering committee organising the ASEAN People's Forum (APF), a platform designed to bridge the gap between governments and civil society. Never heard of it? You're forgiven.

The APF actually started off life in the 1990s, except it was called the ASEAN People's Assembly (APA). It was held back to back with the ASEAN Summit, which is held twice a year. The APA is the forum where 10 leaders of government engage with 10 leaders of civil society in a half-hour meeting. "It was going well until one year when the chairman decided not to hold the APA, so it was discontinued until 2005 when Malaysia took the chairmanship of ASEAN again and founded the ASEAN People's Forum (APF)," Saifuddin explains. In a perfect world, forums such as the APF or its predecessor APA would have worked perfectly to bridge the gap between government and civil society.

However, as Saifuddin points out, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) often do not see eye to eye with their governments. For instance this year, Myanmar is chair of ASEAN and in the APF, three member nations - including Malaysia - decided not to recognise the CSO leaders chosen as representatives so the APF did not take place. “This is where the GMM wants to play a role in ensuring that this situation does not arise again," Saifuddin says.

The word “acronyms” in paragraph 1 probably means ____.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

   Most forms of property are concrete and tangible, such as houses, cars, furniture or anything else that is included in one’s possessions. Other forms of property can be intangible, and copyright deals with intangible forms of property. Copyright is a legal protection extended to authors of creative works, for example books magazine articles, maps, films, plays, television shows, software, paintings, photographs, music, choreography in dance and all other forms of intellectual or artistic property.

   Although the purpose of artistic property is usually public use and enjoyment, copyright establishes the ownership of the creator. When a person buys a copyrighted magazine, it belongs to this individual as a tangible object. However, the authors of the magazine articles own the research and the writing that went into creating the articles. The right to make and sell or give away copies of books or articles belongs to the authors, publishers, or other individuals or organizations that hold the copyright. To copy an entire book or a part of it, permission must be received from the copyright owner, who will most likely expect to be paid.

   Copyright law distinguishes between different types of intellectual property. Music may be played by anyone after it is published. However, if it is performed for profit, the performers need to pay a fee called a royalty. A similar principle applies to performances of songs and plays. On the other hand, names, ideas and book titles are excepted. Ideas do not become copyrighted property until they are published in a book a painting or a musical work. Almost all artistic work created before the 20th century is not copyrighted because it was created before the copyright law was passed.

   The two common ways of infringing upon the copyright are plagiarism and piracy. Plagiarizing the work of another person means passing it off as one’s own. The word plagiarism is derived from the Latin plaglarus, which means “abductor”. Piracy may be an act of one person, but, in many cases, it is a joint effort of several people who reproduce copyrighted material and sell it for profit without paying royalties to the creator. Technological innovations have made piracy easy and anyone can duplicate a motion picture on videotape a computer program, or a book. Video cassette recorders can be used by practically anyone to copy movies and television programs, and copying software has become almost as easy as copying a book. Large companies zealously monitor their copyrights for slogans, advertisements, and brand names, protected by a trademark

What does the passage mainly discuss?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

When Malaysia takes the ASEAN chair next year, it will face a huge challenge. Too few of us know enough about this grouping we call the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. We do not know what it means to be a part of ASEAN and why it is important to us. At the same time, pressure is mounting to reinvent ASEAN to make it more people-centric and less government-centric. The Heat speaks to Global Movement of Moderates CEO Saifuddin Abdullah on why ASEAN should mean more to us than just acronyms.

ASEAN people do not feel like they are a part of the community of Southeast Asian nations. This statement, backed up by survey findings, is pretty bizarre, and extremely hurtful too, considering that ASEAN is 47 years old today. "Interview 10 persons on the street and you would perhaps get only one of them who knows about ASEAN,” says Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah. This CEO of Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) is not running down ASEAN; he's confronting the truth as it impacts the project he has been entrusted with. Here's more, in 2012, the ASEAN Secretariat conducted a survey that showed only 34% of Malaysians had heard of the ASEAN community. This compares with 96% of Laotians. Malaysia chairs ASEAN next year, and GMM is a member of the national steering committee organising the ASEAN People's Forum (APF), a platform designed to bridge the gap between governments and civil society. Never heard of it? You're forgiven.

The APF actually started off life in the 1990s, except it was called the ASEAN People's Assembly (APA). It was held back to back with the ASEAN Summit, which is held twice a year. The APA is the forum where 10 leaders of government engage with 10 leaders of civil society in a half-hour meeting. "It was going well until one year when the chairman decided not to hold the APA, so it was discontinued until 2005 when Malaysia took the chairmanship of ASEAN again and founded the ASEAN People's Forum (APF)," Saifuddin explains. In a perfect world, forums such as the APF or its predecessor APA would have worked perfectly to bridge the gap between government and civil society.

However, as Saifuddin points out, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) often do not see eye to eye with their governments. For instance this year, Myanmar is chair of ASEAN and in the APF, three member nations - including Malaysia - decided not to recognise the CSO leaders chosen as representatives so the APF did not take place. “This is where the GMM wants to play a role in ensuring that this situation does not arise again," Saifuddin says.

The phrase "bridge the gap" in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ____.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

      ARE TRADITIONAL WAYS OF LEARNING THE BEST?

Read about some alternative schools of thought…

One school in Hampshire, UK, offers 24-hour teaching. The children can decide when or if they come to school. The school is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., for 364 days a year and provides online teaching throughout the night. The idea is that pupils don't have to come to school and they can decide when they want to study. Cheryl Heron, the head teacher, said “Some students learn better at night. Some students learn better in the morning.” Cheryl believes that if children are bored, they will not come to school. “Why must teaching only be conducted in a classroom? You can teach a child without him ever coming to school.”

Steiner schools encourage creativity and free thinking so children can study art, music and gardening as well as science and history. They don’t have to learn to read and write at an early age. At some Steiner schools the teachers can’t use textbooks. They talk to the children, who learn by listening. Every morning the children have to go to special music and movement classes called “eurhythmy”, which help them learn to concentrate. Very young children learn foreign languages through music and song. Another difference from traditional schools is that at Steiner schools you don't have to do any tests or exams.

A child learning music with the Suzuki method has to start as young as possible. Even two-year-old children can learn to play difficult pieces of classical music, often on the violin. They do this by watching and listening. They learn by copying, just like they learn their mother tongue. The child has to join in, but doesn't have to get it right. “They soon learn that they mustn't stop every time they make a mistake. They just carry on,” said one Suzuki trainer. The children have to practise for hours every day and they give performances once a week, so they learn quickly. “The parents must be involved too,” said the trainer, “or it just doesn't work.”

Which of the following is TRUE about Steiner schools?

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.

William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), who wrote under the pseudonym of O. Henry, was born in North Carolina. His only formal education was to attend his Aunt Lina’s school until the age of fifteen, where he developed his lifelong love of books. By 1881 he was a licensed pharmacist. However, within a year, on the recommendation of a medical colleague of his Father’s, Porter moved to La Salle County in Texas for two years herding sheep. During this time, Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary was his constant companion, and Porter gained a knowledge of ranch life that he later incorporated into many of his short stories. He then moved to Austin for three years, and during this time the first recorded use of his pseudonym appeared, allegedly derived from his habit of calling “Oh, Henry” to a family cat. In 1887, Porter married Athol Estes. He worked as a draftsman, then as a bank teller for the First National Bank.

In 1894 Porter founded his own humor weekly, the “Rolling Stone”, a venture that failed within a year, and later wrote a column for the Houston Daily Post. In the meantime, the First National Bank was examined, and the subsequent indictment of 1886 stated that Porter had embezzled funds. Porter then fled to New Orleans, and later to Honduras, leaving his wife and child in Austin. He returned in 1897 because of his wife’s continued ill-health, however she died six months later. Then, in 1898 Porter was found guilty and sentenced to five years imprisonment in Ohio. At the age of thirty five, he entered prison as a defeated man; he had lost his job, his home, his wife, and finally his freedom. He emerged from prison three years later, reborn as O. Henry, the pseudonym he now used to hide his true identity. He wrote at least twelve stories in jail, and after re-gaining his freedom, went to New York City, where he published more than 300 stories and gained fame as America’s favorite short Story writer. Porter married again in 1907, but after months of poor health, he died in New York City at the age of forty-eight in 1910. O. Henry’s stories have been translated all over the world.

Which of the following is true, according to the passage?

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.

In developing countries, where three fourths of the world's population live, sixty percent of the people who can’t read and write are women. Being illiterate doesn’t mean they are not intelligent. It does mean it is difficult for them to change their lives. They produce more than half of the food. In Africa eighty percent of all agricultural work is done by women. There are many programs to help poor countries develop their agriculture. However, for years, these programs provided money and training for men.

In parts of Africa, this is a typical day for a village woman. At 4:45 a.m, she gets up, washes and eats. It takes her a half hour to walk to the fields, and she works there until 3:00 p.m. She collects firewood and gets home at 4:00. She spends the next hour and a half preparing food to cook. Then she collects water for another hour. From 6:30 to 8:30 she cooks. After dinner, she spends an hour washing the dishes and her children. She goes to bed at 9:30 p.m.

International organizations and programs run by developed nations are starting to help women, as well as men, improve their agricultural production. Governments have already passed some laws affecting women because of the UN Decade for Women. The UN report will affect the changes now happening in the family and society.

Which of these statements is NOT TRUE?

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.

Cooperation is the common endeavor of two or more people to perform a task or reach a jointly cherished goal. Like competition and conflict, there are different forms of cooperation, based on group organization and attitudes.

In the first form, known as primary cooperation, group and individual fuse. The group contains nearly all of each individual’s life. The rewards of the group’s work are shared with each member. There is an interlocking identity of individual, group and task performed. Means and goals become one, for cooperation itself is valued.

While primary cooperation is most often characteristic of preliterate societies, secondary cooperation is characteristic of many modem societies. In secondary cooperation, individuals devote only part of their lives to the group. Cooperation itself is not a value. Most members of the group feel loyalty, but the welfare of the group is not the first consideration. Members perform tasks so that they can separately enjoy the fruits of their cooperation in the form of salary prestige, or power. Business offices and professional athletic teams are examples of secondary cooperation.

In the third type called tertiary cooperation or accommodation, latent conflict underlies the shared work. The attitudes of the cooperating parties are purely opportunistic: the organization is loose and fragile. Accommodation involves common means to achieve antagonistic goals: it breaks down when the common means cease to aid each party in reaching its goals. This is not, strictly speaking cooperation at all, and hence the somewhat contradictory term antagonistic cooperation is sometimes used for this relationship.

What is the author’s main purpose in the first paragraph of to passage?

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.

In developing countries, where three fourths of the world's population live, sixty percent of the people who can’t read and write are women. Being illiterate doesn’t mean they are not intelligent. It does mean it is difficult for them to change their lives. They produce more than half of the food. In Africa eighty percent of all agricultural work is done by women. There are many programs to help poor countries develop their agriculture. However, for years, these programs provided money and training for men.

In parts of Africa, this is a typical day for a village woman. At 4:45 a.m, she gets up, washes and eats. It takes her a half hour to walk to the fields, and she works there until 3:00 p.m. She collects firewood and gets home at 4:00. She spends the next hour and a half preparing food to cook. Then she collects water for another hour. From 6:30 to 8:30 she cooks. After dinner, she spends an hour washing the dishes and her children. She goes to bed at 9:30 p.m.

International organizations and programs run by developed nations are starting to help women, as well as men, improve their agricultural production. Governments have already passed some laws affecting women because of the UN Decade for Women. The UN report will affect the changes now happening in the family and society.

 A typical African woman spends _______ collecting firewood every day.

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

"Do you think education is better now than it was in your grandparents' time? Many older people in the UK believe the opposite. “Schools were better in our day,” they complain. “There isn't enough discipline these days. Kids don't work as hard as we did, either. The syllabus isn't as challenging, so clever students aren't being stretched enough. They need to study things in greater depth. Exams are much, much easier now as well.”

Were schools better years ago? Some British teenagers travelled back in time to a 1950s boarding school. They got a big surprise! The first shock came when the teenagers met their new teachers. Dressed in traditional black gowns, they look so frosty and uncaring! They were really authoritarian, too, so anyone caught breaking the rules - talking in classes, mucking about in the playground or playing truant – was in big trouble! Punishments included writing 'lines' or staying after class to do detention. The naughtiest kids were expelled.

Things were just as bad after class. At meal times the students had to endure a diet of plain, no-nonsense, healthy food. Homework was obligatory and it took ages! Copying essays off the Internet wasn't an option, as personal computers didn't exist in the 1950s!

At the end of 'term' everyone sat 1950s-style exams. The old exams were much longer than their twenty-first century equivalents and involved learning huge amounts of facts by heart. History papers were all dates and battles. Maths papers were trickier, too; calculators weren't around in the 1950s, so the students had to memorise multiplication tables and master long division. Our candidates found this really difficult.

The exam results surprised a lot of people. Students predicted to do well in their real-life, twenty-first century exams often got low grades in the 1950s exams. Does this prove modern exams are too easy? Do twenty-first century kids rely too much on modern technology, like calculators and computers?

The TV series of That 'll teach 'em! focused on a 1960s vocational school. UK school-kids study a range of academic subjects these days. But in the 1960s, children judged to be less ‘able' went to vocational schools. These helped them learn job skills. Boys studied subjects like metalwork, woodwork or gardening. In some classes, they even learned how to milk goats! The girls' timetables included secretarial skills. They also learned to cook, clean and sew - probably not much fun for most girls."

3: Which of the following statements is TRUE about the food the students ate at school?

Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer

Direct attacks on illiteracy take two main forms, adult education and the establishment of public schools with compulsory attendance for children. In many countries, there are certain programs which have been instituted to fight adult illiteracy; and universal public education has almost eliminated illiteracy among the young. Soldiers have been appointed effectively as instructors for the public. 

Throughout most of history most people have been illiterate. In former society, the ability to read and write was of value only to the clergy and aristocracy. The first known reference to “literate laymen” did not appear until the end of the 14^th century. Illiteracy was not seen as a problem until after the invention of printing in the 15^th century. The first significant decline in illiteracy came with the Reformation, when translation of the Bible into the vernacular became widespread and Protestant converts were taught to read it. Revolutionary political movements from the 18^th to the 20^th century generally included an attack on illiteracy as one of their goals, with the former Soviet Union, China, and Cuba being among the most successful in the 20^th century.

According to the passage, which did not influence the problems of illiteracy?

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.

In developing countries, where three fourths of the world's population live, sixty percent of the people who can’t read and write are women. Being illiterate doesn’t mean they are not intelligent. It does mean it is difficult for them to change their lives. They produce more than half of the food. In Africa eighty percent of all agricultural work is done by women. There are many programs to help poor countries develop their agriculture. However, for years, these programs provided money and training for men.

In parts of Africa, this is a typical day for a village woman. At 4:45 a.m, she gets up, washes and eats. It takes her a half hour to walk to the fields, and she works there until 3:00 p.m. She collects firewood and gets home at 4:00. She spends the next hour and a half preparing food to cook. Then she collects water for another hour. From 6:30 to 8:30 she cooks. After dinner, she spends an hour washing the dishes and her children. She goes to bed at 9:30 p.m.

International organizations and programs run by developed nations are starting to help women, as well as men, improve their agricultural production. Governments have already passed some laws affecting women because of the UN Decade for Women. The UN report will affect the changes now happening in the family and society.

By whom (what) was the Decade for Women organized?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

      ARE TRADITIONAL WAYS OF LEARNING THE BEST?

Read about some alternative schools of thought…

One school in Hampshire, UK, offers 24-hour teaching. The children can decide when or if they come to school. The school is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., for 364 days a year and provides online teaching throughout the night. The idea is that pupils don't have to come to school and they can decide when they want to study. Cheryl Heron, the head teacher, said “Some students learn better at night. Some students learn better in the morning.” Cheryl believes that if children are bored, they will not come to school. “Why must teaching only be conducted in a classroom? You can teach a child without him ever coming to school.”

Steiner schools encourage creativity and free thinking so children can study art, music and gardening as well as science and history. They don’t have to learn to read and write at an early age. At some Steiner schools the teachers can’t use textbooks. They talk to the children, who learn by listening. Every morning the children have to go to special music and movement classes called “eurhythmy”, which help them learn to concentrate. Very young children learn foreign languages through music and song. Another difference from traditional schools is that at Steiner schools you don't have to do any tests or exams.

A child learning music with the Suzuki method has to start as young as possible. Even two-year-old children can learn to play difficult pieces of classical music, often on the violin. They do this by watching and listening. They learn by copying, just like they learn their mother tongue. The child has to join in, but doesn't have to get it right. “They soon learn that they mustn't stop every time they make a mistake. They just carry on,” said one Suzuki trainer. The children have to practise for hours every day and they give performances once a week, so they learn quickly. “The parents must be involved too,” said the trainer, “or it just doesn't work.”

Steiner schools don't ____.

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

"Do you think education is better now than it was in your grandparents' time? Many older people in the UK believe the opposite. “Schools were better in our day,” they complain. “There isn't enough discipline these days. Kids don't work as hard as we did, either. The syllabus isn't as challenging, so clever students aren't being stretched enough. They need to study things in greater depth. Exams are much, much easier now as well.”

Were schools better years ago? Some British teenagers travelled back in time to a 1950s boarding school. They got a big surprise! The first shock came when the teenagers met their new teachers. Dressed in traditional black gowns, they look so frosty and uncaring! They were really authoritarian, too, so anyone caught breaking the rules - talking in classes, mucking about in the playground or playing truant – was in big trouble! Punishments included writing 'lines' or staying after class to do detention. The naughtiest kids were expelled.

Things were just as bad after class. At meal times the students had to endure a diet of plain, no-nonsense, healthy food. Homework was obligatory and it took ages! Copying essays off the Internet wasn't an option, as personal computers didn't exist in the 1950s!

At the end of 'term' everyone sat 1950s-style exams. The old exams were much longer than their twenty-first century equivalents and involved learning huge amounts of facts by heart. History papers were all dates and battles. Maths papers were trickier, too; calculators weren't around in the 1950s, so the students had to memorise multiplication tables and master long division. Our candidates found this really difficult.

The exam results surprised a lot of people. Students predicted to do well in their real-life, twenty-first century exams often got low grades in the 1950s exams. Does this prove modern exams are too easy? Do twenty-first century kids rely too much on modern technology, like calculators and computers?

The TV series of That 'll teach 'em! focused on a 1960s vocational school. UK school-kids study a range of academic subjects these days. But in the 1960s, children judged to be less ‘able' went to vocational schools. These helped them learn job skills. Boys studied subjects like metalwork, woodwork or gardening. In some classes, they even learned how to milk goats! The girls' timetables included secretarial skills. They also learned to cook, clean and sew - probably not much fun for most girls."

8: Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

When Malaysia takes the ASEAN chair next year, it will face a huge challenge. Too few of us know enough about this grouping we call the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. We do not know what it means to be a part of ASEAN and why it is important to us. At the same time, pressure is mounting to reinvent ASEAN to make it more people-centric and less government-centric. The Heat speaks to Global Movement of Moderates CEO Saifuddin Abdullah on why ASEAN should mean more to us than just acronyms.

ASEAN people do not feel like they are a part of the community of Southeast Asian nations. This statement, backed up by survey findings, is pretty bizarre, and extremely hurtful too, considering that ASEAN is 47 years old today. "Interview 10 persons on the street and you would perhaps get only one of them who knows about ASEAN,” says Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah. This CEO of Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) is not running down ASEAN; he's confronting the truth as it impacts the project he has been entrusted with. Here's more, in 2012, the ASEAN Secretariat conducted a survey that showed only 34% of Malaysians had heard of the ASEAN community. This compares with 96% of Laotians. Malaysia chairs ASEAN next year, and GMM is a member of the national steering committee organising the ASEAN People's Forum (APF), a platform designed to bridge the gap between governments and civil society. Never heard of it? You're forgiven.

The APF actually started off life in the 1990s, except it was called the ASEAN People's Assembly (APA). It was held back to back with the ASEAN Summit, which is held twice a year. The APA is the forum where 10 leaders of government engage with 10 leaders of civil society in a half-hour meeting. "It was going well until one year when the chairman decided not to hold the APA, so it was discontinued until 2005 when Malaysia took the chairmanship of ASEAN again and founded the ASEAN People's Forum (APF)," Saifuddin explains. In a perfect world, forums such as the APF or its predecessor APA would have worked perfectly to bridge the gap between government and civil society.

However, as Saifuddin points out, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) often do not see eye to eye with their governments. For instance this year, Myanmar is chair of ASEAN and in the APF, three member nations - including Malaysia - decided not to recognise the CSO leaders chosen as representatives so the APF did not take place. “This is where the GMM wants to play a role in ensuring that this situation does not arise again," Saifuddin says.

According to the passage, in 1990s, APF was called ____.

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.

In developing countries, where three fourths of the world's population live, sixty percent of the people who can’t read and write are women. Being illiterate doesn’t mean they are not intelligent. It does mean it is difficult for them to change their lives. They produce more than half of the food. In Africa eighty percent of all agricultural work is done by women. There are many programs to help poor countries develop their agriculture. However, for years, these programs provided money and training for men.

In parts of Africa, this is a typical day for a village woman. At 4:45 a.m, she gets up, washes and eats. It takes her a half hour to walk to the fields, and she works there until 3:00 p.m. She collects firewood and gets home at 4:00. She spends the next hour and a half preparing food to cook. Then she collects water for another hour. From 6:30 to 8:30 she cooks. After dinner, she spends an hour washing the dishes and her children. She goes to bed at 9:30 p.m.

International organizations and programs run by developed nations are starting to help women, as well as men, improve their agricultural production. Governments have already passed some laws affecting women because of the UN Decade for Women. The UN report will affect the changes now happening in the family and society.

Why do people say that African women’s lives are hard?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Let's see if you can correctly answer the following question: At what age are Latter-day Saint youth allowed to date? Of course, you probably immediately said, "16". OK, then, how about this one: At what age are you allowed to have a boyfriend or girlfriend? You may be thinking, “Um, 16. Didn't I just answer that?" Well, if that was your answer, then, even though you aced the first question, you missed the second one. Just because you can date when you turn 16 doesn't mean you should immediately start looking for a steady boyfriend or girlfriend. [….]

To begin with, there are two different types of dating: casual dating and steady (or serious) dating. The distinction between the two has to do with exclusivity. With casual dating, there is no exclusivity. The two people aren't “a couple” or “an item”, and they don't refer to each other as a “boyfriend” or “girlfriend”. They don't pair off. People who are casually dating are simply friends. This is the kind of dating the Church encourages you to do after you turn 16. You should put aside a need to find a “one and only”. If you're dating casually, you don't expect a relationship to become a romance. You have fun; you do a variety of things with a variety of people. On the other hand, steady dating means the couple is exclusive with one another. They expect each other not to date anyone else or to be emotionally or physically close with other people. Couples who date seriously consider the future, because there is a real possibility they could stay together. This is the kind of dating the Church encourages young adults (generally, people in their 20s) to progress toward, because that's the age when they should be thinking of marrying. [….]

The word “aced” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ____