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 from 31 to 35.
If you are (31) _________in having a trip of a life time, but also doing something useful at the same time, then why not try joining a Greenforce expedition as a volunteer. Greenforce, which was set up in 1997, is an international research agency that gathers information about the wildlife and natural habitats in various parts of the world. There is a qualified biologists in (32) _________of each team of volunteers and these carry surveys all year (33) _________in some of the world's remotest and most beautiful places.
Volunteers come from all walks of life. The minimum age is 18 years old, but there is no upper age (34) _________. No previous experience is necessary as Greenforce provides full training in animal identification and survey methods. You will need to be somebody who enjoys the outdoors life, however, as working in remote locations can be challenging. You will also need to be (35) _________on wildlife ands prepared to learn á lot about the place which you visit.
(31)................

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 from 31 to 35.
If you are (31) _________in having a trip of a life time, but also doing something useful at the same time, then why not try joining a Greenforce expedition as a volunteer. Greenforce, which was set up in 1997, is an international research agency that gathers information about the wildlife and natural habitats in various parts of the world. There is a qualified biologists in (32) _________of each team of volunteers and these carry surveys all year (33) _________in some of the world's remotest and most beautiful places.
Volunteers come from all walks of life. The minimum age is 18 years old, but there is no upper age (34) _________. No previous experience is necessary as Greenforce provides full training in animal identification and survey methods. You will need to be somebody who enjoys the outdoors life, however, as working in remote locations can be challenging. You will also need to be (35) _________on wildlife ands prepared to learn á lot about the place which you visit.
(33)................

Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase. In  the  1960s  the  women's  liberation  movement  (1)  _____  suddenly  into  the  public  consciousness  and  quickly  grew  into  (2)  _____ largest  social movement  in the history  of  the  United  States.  Women's  liberation movement  was  a  continuation  of  the  19-century  women's rights movement. The movement's major (3) _____ has included not only legal, economic, and political gains (4) _____ also has changed the  ways  in  which  people  live,  dress,  dream  of  their  future,  and  (5)  ___  a  living.  About  health,  for  example,  many  male  physicians and hospital  have  made  major  improvements  in  the  (6)  _____  of  women;  more  and  more  women  have  become  doctors  and  succeeded  (7) _____  their  medical  research;  and  diseases  such  as  breast  cancer,  which  affects  many  women,  now  receive  better funding  and  treatment, thanks to women's (8) ___. Feminists have insisted that violence against women become a political issue. The women's liberation movement has also made changes in education: curricula and (9) _____ have been written to promote equal opportunity for girls and women; more and more female students are admitted to universities and professional schools.The  women's  liberation  movement  brought  about  a  radical  change  in  society  (10)  _____  it  took  a  decade  for  the  movement  to  reach women's awareness.

(8)  _____

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.

   My family consists of four people. There's my father whose name is Jan, my mother whose name is Marie, my brother, Peter and of course, me. I have quite a large extended family as well but, only the four of us live together in our apartment in a block of flats. My father is fifty-two years old. He works as an accountant in an insurance company. He is tall and slim, has got short brown and gray hair and blue eyes. My father likes gardening very much as well as listening to music and reading books about political science. His special hobbies are bird watching and travelling.

   Now I’ll describe my mother and my brother. My mother is forty-seven and she works as a nurse in a hospital. She is small, and slim, has short brown hair and green eyes. She likes bird watching and travelling too, so whenever my parents are able to they go someplace interesting for nature watching. Since we have a cottage with a garden they both spend a lot of time there. My brother is sixteen. He is slim and has short brown hair and blue eyes. He also attends high school. He is interested in computers and sports like football and hockey. He also spends a lot of time with his friends.

   I have only one grandmother left still living. She is in pretty good health even at the age of seventyeight so she still lives in her own flat. I enjoy spending time with her when I can. Both my grandfathers died from cancer because they were smokers, which was really a great tragedy because I didn't get chance to know them. My other grandmother died just a few years ago. I also have a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins. The cousin I’m closest to is my uncle’s daughter Pauline. We have a lot in common because we are both eighteen and so we are good friends.

   My parents have assigned me certain duties around the house. I don't mind helping out because everyone in a family should contribute in some way. I help with the washing up, the vacuuming and the shopping. Of course I also have to help keep my room tidy as well. My brother is responsible for the dusting and mopping. He also has to clean his own room. Even though my brother and I sometimes fight about who has to do what job, we are still very close. I am also very close to my parents and I can rely on them to help me. My parents work together to keep our home well maintained and it seem they always have a project or another that they are working on. They respect each other's opinions and even if they disagree they can always come to a compromise. I hope in the future that 1 have a family like ours.

What does the writer’s brother do?

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.

Bees, classified into over 10,000 species, are insects found in almost every part of the world except the northernmost and southernmost regions. One commonly known species is the honeybee, the only bee that produces honey and wax. Humans use wax in making candles, lipsticks, and other products, and they use honey as food. While gathering the nectar and pollen with which they make honey, bees are simultaneously helping to fertilize the flowers on which they land. Many fruits and vegetables would not survive if bees did not carry the pollen from blossom to blossom.

Bees live in a structured environment and social structure within a hive, which is a nest with storage space for the honey. The different types of bees each perform a unique function. The worker bee carries nectar to the hive in a special stomach called a honey stomach. Other workers make beeswax and shape it into a honeycomb, which is a waterproof mass of six-sided compartments, or cells. The queen lays eggs in completed cells. As the workers build more cells, the queen lays more eggs.

All workers, like the queen, are female, but the workers are smaller than the queen. The male honeybees are called drones; they do no work and cannot sting. They are developed from unfertilized eggs, and their only job is to impregnate a queen. The queen must be fertilized in order to lay worker eggs. During the season when less honey is available and the drones are of no further use, the workers block the drones from eating the honey so that they will starve to death.

It is stated in paragraph 2 that a hive is ________.

Choose the option among  A, B, C or D that best answers the question about the passage:

"Since the 1940s, most international women’s rights efforts have been organized by the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), an office established in 1947 by the United Nations (UN). The Commission is the only existing intergovernmental body that issues reports on and recommendations for the promotion of women’s political, social, economic, and cultural rights. The CSW also acts as an advocate for women’s rights and can urge immediate international action in cases of severe violations of women’s rights.
 The UN encouraged equality in the workplace for men and women when it sponsored the Convention Concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value in 1953 and the Convention Concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation in 1960. Over 100 countries ratified these measures. In 1975 the UN launched the Decade for Women, a ten-year effort to focus on women’s issues. From 1975 to 1985 international groups formed a series of conferences organized around the themes of equality, development, and peace. The conferences took place throughout the world and drew leaders and delegates from developing and industrialized nations alike. The Decade for Women culminated in the 1985 UN Nairobi Conference, held in Nairobi, Kenya, which was attended by 375 delegations of women from nations around the world.
 The United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, China, in 1995. Over 17,000 people registered for the event, including delegates from nearly 200 countries. The Platform for Action that emerged from the conference focused on the removal of obstacles to women’s equal participation in society. The most controversial sections of the platform concerned reproductive rights, particularly the right to have an abortion. The final document declared that “the ability of women to control their own fertility forms, an important basis for the enjoyment of other rights,” and asserted the right of women and men to have access to all legal methods of fertility regulation."

5. What was the conclusion of the Platform for Action on women’s reproductive rights?

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.

   Many people believe that watching television has resulted in lower reading standards in schools. However, the link between television and printed books is not as simple as that. In many cases, television actually encourages people to read; for example, when a book is turned into a TV series, its sales often go up. One study of this link examined six-year-old children who were viewing a special series of 15-minute programs at school. The series was designed to encourage love of books, as well as to develop the basic mechanical skills of reading. Each program is an animated film of a children's book. The story is read aloud and certain key phrases from the book appear on the screen, beneath the picture. Whenever a word is read, it is also highlighted on the TV screen.

   One finding was that watching these programs was very important to the children. If anything prevented them from seeing a program, they were very disappointed. What's more, they wanted to read the books which the different parts of the series were based on.

   The programs also gave the children more confidence when looking at these books. As a result of their familiarity with the stories, they would sit in pairs and read the stories aloud to each other. On each occasion, the children showed great sympathy when discussing a character in a book because they themselves had been moved when watching the character on television.

What advantage did children have from this program?

Read the passage below and choose one correct answer for each question.

It has been thought that women are the second class in citizen, and men are the first. There is not a real equality of opportunity for men and women. Years ago, people were living in a man-dominated society. Women had to obey their husbands and fathers absolutely. Women's place was in the kitchen and women's work was housework. In many places, women were not even allowed to go to school. Women had no rights, even the right to choose husband for themselves. Men usually occupied high positions in society so they thought they were more intelligent than women. Men often considered women as their property. Sometimes, they were mistreated by their husbands and suffered the problem as a fate. Many parents did not even want to daughters.

Despite the progress, there remain outdated beliefs about women's roles, traditionally passed down from generation to generation. Men are commonly seen as the strong bodies, bread-winners in the family and key leaders in society, while women are restricted to being housewives and child bearing and care, and housework such as washing and cooking.

According to social surveys, many women in the 21st century still have to work over 12 hours a day including working in offices and doing countless household chores without any help from their husbands. In some regions, the labor of women is not recognized despite the hardships they endure to support the whole family. Moreover, women are the direct victims of family violence, especially in rural areas.

Thanks to the women's liberation movement, nowadays women have proved that they are equal to men in every aspect. An average woman has weaker muscles than an average man but she may be as intelligent as he is. Women can do everything that men can, and women can do one thing that no man can: they produce children.

Which is not women's role in the former days?

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: 
Until recently, most American entrepreneurs were men. Discrimination against women in business, the demands of caring for families, and lack of business training had kept the number of women entrepreneurs small. Now, however, businesses owned by women account for more than $40 billion in annual revenues, and this figure is likely to continue rising throughout the 1990s. As Carolyn Doppelt Gray, an official of the Small Business Administration, has noted, “The 1970s was the decade of women entering management, and the 1980s turned out to be the decade of the woman entrepreneur". What are some of the factors behind this trend? For one thing, as more women earn advanced degrees in business and enter the corporateworld, they are finding obstacles. Women are still excluded from most executive suites. Charlotte Taylor, a management consultant, had noted, "In the 1970s women believed if they got an MBA and worked hard they could become chairman of the board. Now they've found out that isn't going to happen, so they go out on their own".
In the past, most women entrepreneurs worked in "women's" fields: cosmetics and clothing, for example. But this is changing. Consider ASK Computer Systems, a $22-million-a-year computer software business, it was founded in 1973 by Sandra Kurtzig, who was then a housewife with degrees in math and engineering. When Kurtzig founded the business, her first product was software that let weekly newspapers keep tabs on their newspaper carriers-and her office was a bedroom at home, with a shoebox under the bed to hold the company's cash, After she succeeded with the newspaper software system, she hired several bright computer-science graduates to develop additional programs. When these were marketed and sold, ASK began to grow. It now has 200 employees, and Sandra Kurtzig owns $66.9 million of stock.
Of course, many women who start their own businesses fail, just as men often do. They still face hurdles in the business world, especially problems in raising money; the banking and finance world is still dominated by men, and old attitudes die hard. Most businesses owned by women are still quite small But the situation is changing; there are likely to be many more Sandra Kurtzigs in the years ahead.

What is the main idea of this passage?

In the last third of the nineteenth century a new housing form was quietly being developed.   In 1869 the Stuyvesant, considered New York's first apartment house was built on East Eighteenth Street. The building was financed by the developer Rutherfurd Stuyvesant and designed by Richard Morris Hunt, the first American architect to graduate from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Each man had lived in Paris, and each understood the economics and social potential of this Parisian housing form. But the Stuyvesant was at best a limited success.  In spite of  Hunt's  inviting façade, the living space was awkwardly arranged. Those who could afford them  were  quite  content  to remain in the more sumptuous, single-family homes, leaving the Stuyvesant to newly  married  couples and bachelors.
The fundamental problem with the Stuyvesant and the other early apartment buildings that quickly followed, in the 1870's and early 1880's was that they were confined to the typical New   York building lot. That lot was a rectangular area 25 feet wide by 100 feet deep-a shape perfectly suited for a row house The lot could also accommodate a rectangular tenement, though it could not yield the square, well-lighted, and logically arranged rooms that great apartment buildings require. Put even with the awkward interior configurations of the early apartment buildings, the idea caught on. It met the needs of a large and growing population that wanted something better than tenements but could not afford or did not want row  houses.
So while the city's newly emerging social leadership  commissioned  their  mansions, apartment houses and hotels began to sprout in multiple lots, thus breaking the initial space  constraints. In the closing decades of the nineteenth century,  large apartment houses  began dotting  the developed portions of New York City, and by the opening decades of the twentieth century, spacious buildings, such as the Dakota and the Ansoniafinally transcended the tight confinement of row house building lots. From there it was only a small step to building luxury apartment houses on  the newly created Park Avenue, right next to the fashionable Fifth Avenue   shopping area.

It can be inferred that the majority of people who lived in New York's first apartments were.......................

In addition to their military role, the forts of the nineteenth century provided numerous other benefits for the American West. The establishment of these posts opened new roads and provided for the protection of daring adventurers and expeditions as well as established settlers. Forts also served as bases where enterprising entrepreneurs could bring commerce to the West, providing supplies and refreshments to soldiers as well as to pioneers. Posts like Fort Laramie provided supplies for wagon trains traveling the natural highways toward new frontiers. Some posts became stations for the pony express; still others, such as Fort Davis, were stagecoach stops for weary travelers. All of these functions, of course, suggest that the contributions of the forts to the civilization and development of the West extended beyond patrol duty.
 Through the establishment of military posts, yet other contributions were made to the development of western culture. Many posts maintained libraries or reading rooms, and some – for example, Fort Davis – had schools. Post chapels provided a setting for religious services and weddings. Throughout the wilderness, post bands provided entertainment and boosted morale. During the last part of the nineteenth century, to reduce expenses, gardening was encouraged at the forts, thus making experimental agriculture another activity of the military. The military stationed at the various forts also played a role in civilian life by assisting in maintaining order, and civilian officials often called on the army for protection.
 Certainly, among other significant contributions the army made to the improvement of the conditions of life was the investigation of the relationships among health, climate, and architecture. From the earliest colonial times throughout the nineteenth century, disease ranked as the foremost problem in defense. It slowed construction of forts and inhibited their military functions. Official documents from many regions contained innumerable reports of sickness that virtually incapacitated entire garrisons. In response to the problems, detailed observations of architecture and climate and their relationships to the frequency of the occurrence of various diseases were recorded at various posts across the nation by military surgeons.

The word “inhibited” in line 9 is closest in meaning to _______.

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 from 31 to 35.
In recent years there have (31)_________many articles on air polution in newspapers and magazines. Scientists all over the world have warned that our atmosphere is becoming more and more contaminated, and that Man, through his carelessness, may run (32)_________of pure air to breathe.
Automobiles and industries mainly account (33)_________air pollution in most cities. They pour into the air such gases as carbon monoxide, sulphur and nitrogen oxides, which are very harmful (34)_________humans. Worrse still, these gases, a series of chemical changes, turn into toxic acids. They fall down in "acid rains", raising the acidity in the air, soil and water to dangerous levels and affecting not only tress but also fish and other wildlife. Many industrial countries in Europe and North America have suffered bad effects (35) ________  those "rains”.
(35).................

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: 
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15,1452, in the small Tuscan town ofVinci, near Florence. He 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' Bend, 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.

The word “apprenticed" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to    ....................

Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer.

Today more and more women are actively participating in social activities both in urban and rural areas. Specifically, they have shined brightly  in  even  many  fields  commonly  regarded  as  the  man's  areas  such as  business,  scientific  research  and  social  management.  In  some areas,  women  even  show  more  overwhelming  power  than  men.  The  image  of  contemporary  Vietnamese  women  with  creativeness, dynamism, success has become popular in Vietnam's society. The fact reveals that the gender gap has been remarkably narrowed and women enjoy  many  more  opportunities  to  pursue  their  social  careers  and  obtain  success,  contributing  to  national  socio-economic  development.

According  to  Ms Le  Thi  Quy,  Director  of  the  Gender/and  Development  Research  Centre  under  the  University  of  Social  Sciences  and Humanities,  Hanoi National  University,  gender  equity  in  Vietnam  has  reached  a  high  level  over  the  past  decade.  The  rate  of  Vietnamese women  becoming  National  Assembly  members from the  9th  term  to  the  11th  term  increased  8.7%,  bringing  the  proportion  of  Vietnamese women in authority to 27.3%, the highest rate in Southeast Asia. There is no big gap in the level of literacy and schooling between men and women.  Women account for about  37%  of  university  and  college  graduates,  19.9%  of  doctoral  degree  holders  and 6.7%  of  professors  and associate professors.

The legitimate rights  of  women  and  children  are  ensured  more  than  ever  before  with more  complete  legal  documents  including laws, conventions and national action plans, among which the laws on "gender equity" mark a turning-point in the empowerment of women. Mass media also highlights the continued success of women in every field and honors their great importance in modern society, helping to do away  with outdated perceptions about traditional women's duties. Many projects on reproductive health care, children protection, and family  income  improvement  jointly  conducted  by  various  mass  organizations,  state  agencies  and  non-governmental  organizations  have created favorable conditions for women to become involved.

Vietnamese women _______.

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.

   Over the past 600 years, English has grown from a language of few speakers to become the dominant language of international communication. English as we know it today emerged around 1350, after having incorporated many elements of French that were introduced following the Norman invasion of 1066. Until the 1600s, English was, for the most part, spoken only in England and had not extended even as far as two centuries, English began to spread around the globe as a result of exploration, trade (including slave trade), colonization, and missionary work. Thus, small enclaves of English speakers became established and grew in various parts of the world. As these communities proliferated, English gradually became the primary language of international business, banking and diplomacy.

   Currently, about 80 percent of the information stored on computer systems worldwide is English. Two thirds of the world’s science writing is in English, and English is the main language of technology, advertising, media, international airports, and air traffic controllers. Today there are more than 700 million English users in the world, and over half of these are nonnative speakers, constituting the largest number of non-native users than any other language in the world..

In the second paragraph, the word “stored” is closest in meaning to _________.

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.

SCIENCE FLYING IN THE FACE OF GRAVITY

It looked just like another aircraft from the outside. The pilot told his young passengers that it was built in 1964, a Boeing KC-135 refueling tanker, based on the 707. But appearances were deceptive, and the 13 students from Europe and the USA who boarded the aircraft were in for the flight of their lives.

Inside, the area that normally had seats had become a long white tunnel. Heavily padded from floor to ceiling; it looked a bit like a lunatic asylum. There were almost no windows, but lights along the padded walls eerily illuminated it. Most of the seats had been taken out apart from a few at the back, where the young scientists quickly took their places with a look of apprehension.

From 12 months, science students from across the continents had competed to win a place on the flight at the invitation of the European Space Agency. The challenge had been to suggest imaginative experiments to be conducted in weightless conditions. For the next two hours the Boeing's flight resembled that of an enormous bird which had lost its reason, shooting upwards towards the heavens before hurting towards Earth. The intention was to achieve weightlessness for a few seconds.

The aircraft took off smoothly enough, but any feelings that I and the young scientists had that we were on anything like a scheduled passenger service were quickly dismissed when the pilot put the plane into a 45-degree climb which lasted around 20 seconds. Then the engine cut out and we became weightless. Everything became confused, and left or right, up or down no longer had any meaning. After 10 seconds of free-fall descent, the pilot pulled the aircraft out of its nosedive. The return of gravity was less immediate than its loss, but was still sudden enough to ensure that some students came down with a bump. After two hours of going up and down in the plane doing experiments, the predominant feeling was one of exhilaration rather than nausea. Most of the students thought it was an unforgettable experience and one they would be keen to repeat.

What does the word it in the last paragraph refer to?

Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer:
Today, more and more women are actively participating in social activities both in urban and rural areas. Specifically, they have shined brightly in even many fields commonly regarded as the man's areas such as business, scientific research and social management. In some areas, women even show more overwhelming power than men. The image of contemporary Vietnamese women with creativeness, dynamism, success has become popular in Vietnam's society. The fact reveals that the gender gap has been remarkably narrowed and women enjoy many more opportunities to pursue their social careers and obtain success, contributing to national socio-economic development. 
According to Ms, Le Thi Quy, Director of the Gender/and Development Research Centre under the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi National University, gender equity in Vietnam has reached a high level over the past decade. The rate of Vietnamese women becoming National Assembly members from the 9th term to the 11th term increased 8.7%, bringing the proportion of Vietnamese women in authority to 27.3%, the highest rate in Southeast Asia. There is no big gap in the level of literacy and schooling between men and women. Women account for about 37% of university and college graduates, 19.9% of doctoral degree holders and 6.7% of professors and associate professors. 
The legitimate rights of women and children are ensured more than ever before with more complete legal documents including laws, conventions and national action plans, among which the laws on "gender equity" mark a turning-point in the empowerment of women. 
Mass media also highlights the continued success of women in every field and honors their great importance in modern society, helping to do away with outdated perceptions about traditional women's duties. Many projects on reproductive health care, children protection, and family income improvement jointly conducted by various mass organizations, state agencies and non-governmental organizations have created favorable conditions for women to become involved.

Which is not mentioned in the text as a project to create condition for Vietnamese women?

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: 
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15,1452, in the small Tuscan town ofVinci, near Florence. He 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' Bend, 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.

What can be inferred about Andrea Del Verrocchio?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each blank.

(1) _____ history, women have always aimed for a recognized place in (2) _____. Guided by their own (3) _____ of knowledge and expertise,  women  like  Marie  Curie  in  science,  Mary  Wollstonecraft  in  literary  writing,  Simone  de  Beauvois  in  philosophical  existentialist debate, and Marie Stopes, in medicine, to name a few, have brought about (4) _____ awareness of the role of  women in any walks of life. These  women  have  helped  redefine  and  (5)  _____  the  nature  of  women's  place  in  society.  Today  the  (6)  _____  of  global  women's organizations and the impact of  women's contributions (7) _____ society  show that progress has been made and the progress in furthering the role of  women in society has been some benefit to the (8) _____ woman. It is true to say that not all women have the same need. The need of the woman who stays at home and (9) _____ children will differ  widely  from the woman who works outside. Nonetheless, in the extensive field of equal opportunities, it would be good to know that access is given to both with equal measure according to the true value of respective abilities. It also would be good to know that the woman at home is recognized as a valued (10) _____ of society just as much as the one who deals on business outside the home.

(9) _____

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 from 21 to 25.

 
Every four years people all over the world watch the Olympic Games. It is a time for all kinds of people to unite in peace. Some of them join together to compete for gold medals. Millions of other people watch them on television.

Why do we have the Olympic? How did they begin?

The first Olympic Games were in Greece in 776 B.C. There was only one event. People ran a nice the length of the stadium. The Games lasted one day.

Slowly people added more events. The Games were only for men, and women could not even watch them. Only Greeks competed. They came from all parts of the Greek world. The time of the Games way; a time of peace, and government let everyone travel safely. The winners became national heroes.

The first modem Games were in 1896 in Athens. The Greeks built a new stadium for the competition. Athletes from several countries competed. Then there were Olympics every four years in different cities in Europe and the United States until 1952. After that they were in Melbourne, Tokyo, Mexico City, and Montreal besides in European cities. Each year there were athletes from more nations. The first Winter Olympics were in 1924. The athletes compete in skiing and other winter sports.

Where were the cities where the Olympics were held between 1896 and 1952?

In the last third of the nineteenth century a new housing form was quietly being developed.   In 1869 the Stuyvesant, considered New York's first apartment house was built on East Eighteenth Street. The building was financed by the developer Rutherfurd Stuyvesant and designed by Richard Morris Hunt, the first American architect to graduate from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Each man had lived in Paris, and each understood the economics and social potential of this Parisian housing form. But the Stuyvesant was at best a limited success.  In spite of  Hunt's  inviting façade, the living space was awkwardly arranged. Those who could afford them  were  quite  content  to remain in the more sumptuous, single-family homes, leaving the Stuyvesant to newly  married  couples and bachelors.

The fundamental problem with the Stuyvesant and the other early apartment buildings that quickly followed, in the 1870's and early 1880's was that they were confined to the typical New   York building lot. That lot was a rectangular area 25 feet wide by 100 feet deep-a shape perfectly suited for a row house The lot could also accommodate a rectangular tenement, though it could not yield the square, well-lighted, and logically arranged rooms that great apartment buildings require. Put even with the awkward interior configurations of the early apartment buildings, the idea caught on. It met the needs of a large and growing population that wanted something better than tenements but could not afford or did not want row  houses.

So while the city's newly emerging social leadership  commissioned  their  mansions, apartment houses and hotels began to sprout in multiple lots, thus breaking the initial space  constraints. In the closing decades of the nineteenth century,  large apartment houses  began dotting  the developed portions of New York City, and by the opening decades of the twentieth century, spacious buildings, such as the Dakota and the Ansoniafinally transcended the tight confinement of row house building lots. From there it was only a small step to building luxury apartment houses on  the newly created Park Avenue, right next to the fashionable Fifth Avenue   shopping area.

The new housing form discussed in the passage refers to..................