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.
A healthy way to know a city Maybe you are staying in a city, and there is no park nearby where you can take your morning job. One of the more recent trend is to go on a running tour, but you are not leading the way. Rather, a running enthusiast (1).......   knows the best (2)..... in the city acts as your guide. You are going out for a run, but you are also being shown highlights of the city while you are doing it.
Guided running tours are a trend that seems to be catching (3)...... in quite a few of the bigger cities in the United States. New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco are just three of the major cities that  have  running  tours in (4)........... They offer these tours to individuals, groups, and even for corporate events. If you are going into a city with colleagues to attend a business meeting or a convention, what better way is there to see the city and network with others (5) .......while taking a healthy run? 
(1).......................................
 

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to answer these following questions

According to futurist Ray Kurzweil human civilisation will be unavoidably transformed in the year 2045 by an event that he call The Singularity. He suggests that exponential technological development will lead to the inevitable rise of artificial intelligence (A.I.). Such advanced technology may make humanity insignificant.

Kurzweil says that technologies are double-edged swords and envisions the possibility that an artificial intelligence might decde to put an end to humanity simply because it surpasses human intelligence. Kurzweil does have faith in mankind, however. He suggests that people are wise to accept that technological progress is unavoidable and that such acceptance will make the process of transition easier.

Kurzweil has personal reasons to hope for the coming of The Singularity, because he wants his life to be extended by it. Kurzweil envisions that future medical advances could invent tiny computerised machines, or nanobots, which operate inside the body to enhance the immune system. In addition ne believes that future technology might be able to resurrect his deceased father.

Looking at the state of current technological advances in many fields such as medicine, navigation and communication, Kurzweil's visions may not be unbelievable.The critical issue, however, is whether genuine artificial intelligence can ever be truly realised. Kurzweil suggests that critics of his theories, who believe that the human brain is too complex to duplicate, are underestimating what the exponential growth in technology can eventually accomplish.

What is The Singularity?

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Living things include both the visible world of animals, plants, and fungi as well as the invisible world of bacteria and viruses. On a basic level, we can say that life is ordered. Organisms have an enormously complex organization. We're all familiar with the intricate systems of the basic unit of life, the cell. Life can also "work." Living creatures can take in energy from the environment. This energy, in the form of food, is transformed to maintain metabolic processes and for survival. Life grows and develops. This means more than just replicating or getting larger in size. Living organisms also have the ability to rebuild and repair themselves when injured. Life can reproduce. Think about the last time you accidentally stubbed your toe. Almost instantly, you moved back in pain. Finally, life can adapt and respond to the demands placed on it by the environment. There are three basic types of adaptations that can occur in higher organisms.
Reversible changes occur as a response to changes in the environment. Let's say you live near sea level and you travel to a mountainous area. You may begin to experience difficulty breathing and an increase in heart rate as a result of the change in altitude. These symptoms go away when you go back down to sea level. Body-related changes occur as a result of prolonged changes in the environment. Using there previous example, if you were to stay in the mountainous area for a long time, you would notice that your heart rate would begin to slow down and you would begin to breath normally. These changes are also reversible. Genotypic changes (caused by genetic mutation) take place within the genetic makeup of the organism and are not reversible. An example would be the development of resistance to pesticides by insects and spiders.

In what way is life organized?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word for each of the blanks.
The traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write, or the ability to use language to read, write, listen, and speak. In modern contexts, the word refers to reading 4 and writing at a level (1)......... for communication, or at a level that lets one understand and communicate ideas in a literate society so as to take (2)....... in that society. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has drafted the following definition: “Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his, or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society.”
Many policy analysts consider literacy rates a crucial measure of a region’s human capital. This claim is made on the (3)........ that literate people can be trained less expensively than illiterate people, generally have a higher socio-economic status and enjoy better health and employment prospects. Policy makers also argue that literacy increases job opportunities and access to higher education. In Kerala, India, for example, female and child mortality rates declined (4)......... in the 1960s, when girls who were educated in the education reforms after 1948 began to raise families. Recent researchers, (5)........., argue that correlations such as, the one listed above may have more to do with the effect of schooling rather than literacy in general.
(1)..............................

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:
Living things include both the visible world of animals, plants, and fungi as well as the invisible world of bacteria and viruses. On a basic level, we can say that life is ordered. Organisms have an enormously complex organization. We're all familiar with the intricate systems of the basic unit of life, the cell. Life can also "work." Living creatures can take in energy from the environment. This energy, in the form of food, is transformed to maintain metabolic processes and for survival. Life grows and develops. This means more than just replicating or getting larger in size. Living organisms also have the ability to rebuild and repair themselves when injured. Life can reproduce. Think about the last time you accidentally stubbed your toe. Almost instantly, you moved back in pain. Finally, life can adapt and respond to the demands placed on it by the environment. There are three basic types of adaptations that can occur in higher organisms.
Reversible changes occur as a response to changes in the environment. Let's say you live near sea level and you travel to a mountainous area. You may begin to experience difficulty breathing and an increase in heart rate as a result of the change in altitude. These symptoms go away when you go back down to sea level. Body-related changes occur as a result of prolonged changes in the environment. Using there previous example, if you were to stay in the mountainous area for a long time, you would notice that your heart rate would begin to slow down and you would begin to breath normally. These changes are also reversible. Genotypic changes (caused by genetic mutation) take place within the genetic makeup of the organism and are not reversible. An example would be the development of resistance to pesticides by insects and spiders.

Which type of living creatures can adapt to the changes in the environment?

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Cyclones in India, hurricanes in the Caribbean - severe weather events make news headlines almost weekly. Yet even in Britain, which has comparatively few climate extremes, the country is still governed by weather. If it’s pouring with rain the British might stay indoors or go to the cinema; if it’s fine they’ll have a picnic.
Most people nervously study the weather forecast the evening before if they’ve got an important appointment the following day. Even if they have nothing planned, the weather often affects their mood.
For individuals, the worst that can usually happen if the weather catches them on the hop is that they get wet. For business, the effects are far more serious. Airlines and shipping companies need to avoid severe weather and storm-force conditions. Power companies need to make sure they can supply the demand for electricity in cold weather; farmers plan their harvests around the forecast and food manufacturers increase their production of salads and other summer foods when fine weather is promised.
So who or what do meteorologists - weather forecasters as they are more commonly known - rely on when it comes to producing a forecast? Ninety percent of the information comes from weather satellites, the first of which was launched into space nearly forty years ago and was a minor revolution in the science of forecasting. Up until then, forecasters had relied on human observers to provide details of developing weather systems. As a result, many parts of the world where there were few humans around, especially the oceans, were information-free weather areas. Today, however, satellites can watch weather patterns developing everywhere.
In the UK meteorologists have also relied on releasing four weather balloons a day from eight fixed sites. These balloons measure wind, temperature and humidity as they rise upwards to a height of about 26,000 metres.
Some commercial aircraft can also be fitted with a range of forecasting instruments although this  system has certain disadvantages. For example, it can provide a great deal of information about the weather on popular routes, such as London to New York, but little about the weather on more out-of-the way routes.
Instruments aboard ships can also supply basic weather information as well as important data on wave height. Generally, the range of these instruments is fairly limited but they can indicate which direction rain is coming from, how low the cloud is and give an idea of when the weather system will reach land.
One forecaster who has made a name for himself is a man called Piers Corbyn, who bases his forecasts on watching the Sun. Most forecasters will offer forecasts for only 10 days ahead, but Corbyn’s forecasts are for 11 months. Although most meteorologists believe that there is no scientific basis for his work, Corbyn’s forecasts are used by insurance companies who want to plan months in advance.

Corbyn’s forecasts using the Sun are considered     .

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Loneliness is a curious thing. Most of us can remember feeling most lonely when we were not in fact alone at all, but when we were surrounded by people. Everyone has experienced, at some time, that utter sense of isolation that comes over you when you are at a party, in a room full of happy laughing people, or in an audience at a theatre or a lecture. It suddenly seems to you as if everybody knows everybody else, everybody is sure of himself, everybody knows what is going on; everybody, that is, except you. This feeling of loneliness which can overcome you when are in a crowd is very difficult to get rid of. People living alone - divorced, widowed or single people - are advised to tackle their loneliness by joining a club or society, by going out and meeting people. Does this really help? And what do you do if you are already surrounded by people? There are no easy solutions. Your first day at work, or at a new school or university, is a typical situation in which you are likely to feel lonely. You feel lonely because you feel left out of things. You feel that everybody else is full of confidence and knows what to do, but you are adrift and helpless. The fact of the matter is that, in order to survive, we all put on a show of self-confidence to hide our uncertainties and doubts. So it is wrong to assume that you are alone. In a big city it is particularly easy to get the feeling that everybody except you is leading a full, rich, busy life. Everybody is going somewhere, and you tend to assume that they are going somewhere nice and interesting, where they can find life and fulfilment. You are also going somewhere, and there is no reason at all to believe that your destination is any less, or, for that matter, any more exciting than the next man's. The trouble is that you may not be able to hide the fact that you are lonely, and the miserable look on your face might well put people off. After all, if you are at a party you are not likely to try to strike up a conversation with a person who has a gloomy expression on his face and his lips turned down at the comers. So trying to look reasonably cheerful is a good starting point in combating loneliness, even if you are choking inside. The next thing to avoid is finding yourself in a group where in fact you are a stranger, that is, in the sort of group where all the other people already know each other. There is a natural tendency for people to stick together, to form 'cliques'. You will do yourself no good by trying to establish yourself in a group which has so far managed to do very well without you. Groups generally resent intrusion, not because they dislike you personally, but because they have already had to work quite hard to turn the group into the functioning unit. To include you means having to go over a lot of ground again, so that you can learn their language, as it was, and get involved in their conversation at their level. Of course if you can offer something the group needs, such as expert information, you can get in quickly. In fact the surest way of getting to know others is to have an interest in common with them. There is no guarantee that you will then like each other, but at least part of your life will be taken up with sharing experiences with others. It is much better than always feeling alone. If all this seems to be a rather pessimistic view of life, you have to accept the fact that we are all alone when it comes down to it. When the most loving couple in the world kiss and say goodnight, as soon as the husband falls asleep, the wife realizes that she is alone, that her partner is as far away as if he were on another planet. But it is no cause for despair: there is always tomorrow.

The reason that people who have formed a group resent intrusion is that they......................

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Twenty-five students from Walling School are currently living in France. They are there for three months as part of a living-abroad project. The 16- and 17-year-old students are living with French families and attending a French school. Most of the students have taken French language classes for 3 or 4 years and are finally getting an opportunity to use their French.
Not only are students learning a new language, but they are learning about a new culture, too. Students have been particularly surprised about the French attitude towards food. “They won’t leave anything on their plate,” says Vanessa Athol. “They aren’t wasteful at all.” Vanessa has vowed to be more careful with waste when returning to the United States.
The group’s chaperone, Mrs. Smith, has been pleased with the students’ acquisition of language. “Even the most timid are trying their best to speak. The students are learning a lot. I’m very impressed,” she said. Mrs. Smith added that she thinks living with a French family makes a difference because students are forced to speak French. “We are all very grateful to the French families who are hosting us.”
The French families are happy to have the students, as they are getting to leam about American culture. Both groups will be celebrating the exchange at a large potluck dinner at the end of the stay. There will be a slide show of memories and the students will speak about their experiences. Currently, the American students are periodically posting pictures and student essays on the Walling School website. “Living in France is an experience I’ll never forget,” writes student Tina Davis. “I know I’ll want to eat these croissants and this Camembert for the rest of my life!”

In paragraph 3, the word “acquisition” is closest in meaning to     .

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Many of the world’s cities lie under a permanent blanket of smog. People are concerned about global warming, and fuel prices just keep going up and up. It’s no surprise therefore, that in recent years, car manufacturers have been put under pressure to invent a vehicle that is both cheaper to run and better for the environment. Finally, after much trial and error, it seems as though they might be making progress, and the future of the car industry is beginning to look a little “greener”.
One of the first ideas which car manufacturers tried was to replace engines which run on fossil fuels with electric motors. Unfortunately, these vehices had several drawbacks and they didn’t sell very well. The problems were that the batteries of these electric cars ran out very quickly and took a long time to recharge. Also, the replacement energy parts were very expensive.
However, the idea of electric cars has not been scrapped altogether. Car manufacturers have improved the concept so that environmentally friendly cars can now be efficient and economical as well. This is where the hybrid car, which has both an electric motor and a traditional petrol engine, comes in. The electric motor never needs to be recharged and it is much better for the planet than a traditional car.
In a hybrid car, the engine is controlled by a computer which determines whether the car runs on petrol, electricity, or both. When the car needs maximum power, for example, if it is accelerating or climbing a steep hill, it uses all of its resources, whereas at steady speeds it runs only on petrol. When slowing down or braking, the electric motor recharges its batteries.
Hybrid cars are better for the environment because the electric motor can help out whenever it is needed and they have a much smaller engine than a traditional car. Also, hybrid cars on the market are made using materials such as aluminium and carbon fibre, which makes them extremely light. Both of these factors mean that they use far less petrol than normal cars, so they produce less pollution.
Of course, hybrid cars aren’t perfect; they still run on fossil fuel and so pollute the environment to some extent. However, they may be the first step along the road to cleaner, “greener” cars. Car manufacturers are already working on vehicles which run on hydrogen. The only emission from these cars is harmless water vapor. These are still some way in the future, though, as designers need to think of cheap and safe ways of producing, transporting and storing hydrogen, but at last, it looks like we might be heading in the right direction.

The computer in a hybrid car     .

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.

   Becoming a teacher demands not only knowledge in an academic field but also a personal commitment to lifelong learning, and enthusiasm for sharing knowledge with other people. To become one of those noble educators in the USA, one has to satisfy several basic requirements.

   First and foremost, it is a prerequisite to have bachelor's degree in education. In the event that a candidate already has a bachelor's degree in another field, a teacher preparation program is needed. But that is not all. Almost every school in the USA understands that real classroom teaching experience is a vital part of a teacher's training. Before taking over a class, a person typically needs to complete a training program, including working as a supervised student teacher.

   People who want to become university teachers need master's degrees. Getting a master's degree is a necessity, but if it is gained too early, there may be concerns that the candidate lacks the real-world experience to go with it. In fact, very few schools want to hire novices with little or no classroom experience and even if they are accepted, they are usually ill-paid. One wise solution to the issue is for future post graduates to start working as teachers before going on to gain their master's degree.

   Besides knowledge and experience, certain personal qualities are also required. A teacher should be positive, prepared, focused, and most importantly, patient. Being a teacher involves being aware of the fact that learning sometimes be hard work, even for the most motivated students. Also, teaching can at times be tiring and frustrating, so teaching candidates have to practice being patient with themselves. In short, as in other careers, teaching requires a combination of qualifications, experience, and personal qualities. Teaching candidates meeting mandatory requirements are always in demand in the USA.

According to the text, all of the following sentences are true EXCEPT _____.

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.
 The story of gold is an adventure involving kings, queens, pirates, explorers, conquerors, and the native peoples they conquered. Throughout history, gold has woven a magic spell over those it touched. Gold is beautiful and rare; a soft shiny metal that can be moulded into many (1)...... . It has been used for money, jewelry, and to decorate special buildings such as palaces and places of worship. (2)......the precious metal was discovered, prospectors rushed to mine it, starting new cities and countries as they went. Gold and the people who love it have helped shape the world we live (3).........today. Gold is one of many elements, or substances that cannot be changed by normal chemical means, that are found in the Earth's crust. Gold has a warm, sunny colour and (4)......... it does not react with air, water, and most chemicals, its shine never fades. In its natural (5)........... , gold is soft and easily shaped. When heated to 1,062 Celsius it melts and can be poured into moulds to form coins, gold bars, and other objects. Stories have been told, movies made and legends bom about the discovery of the world’s great gold deposits. It is a saga of dreams, greed, ambition and exploration.
(2)...................................

Iron production was revolutionized in the early eighteenth century when coke was first used instead of charcoal for refining iron ore. Previously the poor quality of the iron had restricted its use in architecture to items such as chains and tie bars for supporting arches, vaults, and walls. With the improvement in refining ore, it was now possible  to  make  cast-iron beams, columns, and girders. During the nineteenth century further advances were made, notably Bessemer’s process for converting iron into steel, which made the material more commercially viable.
Iron was rapidly adopted for the  construction  of  bridges,  because  its  strength was far greater  than that of stone or timber, but its use in the architecture of buildings developed more slowly. By 1800 a complete internal iron skeleton for buildings had been developed in industrial architecture replacing traditional timber beams, but it generally remained concealed. Apart from its low cost, the appeal of iron as a building material lay in its strength, its resistance to fire, and its potential to span vast areas. As a result, iron became increasingly popular as a structural material for more traditional styles of architecture during the nineteenth century, but it was invariably concealed.
Significantly, the use  of  exposed  iron  occurred  mainly  in  the  new  building types spawned by the Industrial Revolution: in factories, warehouses, commercial offices, exhibition hall, and railroad stations, where its  practical  advantages  far  outweighed  its  lack of status. Designers of the railroad stations of the new age explored the potential of iron, covering huge areas with spans that surpassed the great vaults of medieval churches and cathedrals. Paxton’s Crystal Palace, designed to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, covered an area of 1.848 feet by 408 feet in prefabricated units of glass set in iron frames. The Paris Exhibition of 1889 included both the widest span and the  greatest height achieved so far with the Halle Des Machines, spanning 362 feet, and the Eiffel Tower 1,000 feet high. However, these achievements were mocked by the artistic elite of Paris as expensive and ugly follies. Iron, despite its structural advantages, had little aesthetic status. The use of an exposed iron structure in the more traditional styles of architecture was slower to develop.

Iron replaced stone and timber in the building of bridges because iron was considered ..........

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 of the world’s cities lie under a permanent blanket of smog. People are concerned about global warming, and fuel prices just keep going up and up. It’s no surprise therefore, that in recent years, car manufacturers have been put under pressure to invent a vehicle that is both cheaper to run and better for the environment. Finally, after much trial and error, it seems as though they might be making progress, and the future of the car industry is beginning to look a little “greener”.
One of the first ideas which car manufacturers tried was to replace engines which run on fossil fuels with electric motors. Unfortunately, these vehices had several drawbacks and they didn’t sell very well. The problems were that the batteries of these electric cars ran out very quickly and took a long time to recharge. Also, the replacement energy parts were very expensive.
However, the idea of electric cars has not been scrapped altogether. Car manufacturers have improved the concept so that environmentally friendly cars can now be efficient and economical as well. This is where the hybrid car, which has both an electric motor and a traditional petrol engine, comes in. The electric motor never needs to be recharged and it is much better for the planet than a traditional car.
In a hybrid car, the engine is controlled by a computer which determines whether the car runs on petrol, electricity, or both. When the car needs maximum power, for example, if it is accelerating or climbing a steep hill, it uses all of its resources, whereas at steady speeds it runs only on petrol. When slowing down or braking, the electric motor recharges its batteries.
Hybrid cars are better for the environment because the electric motor can help out whenever it is needed and they have a much smaller engine than a traditional car. Also, hybrid cars on the market are made using materials such as aluminium and carbon fibre, which makes them extremely light. Both of these factors mean that they use far less petrol than normal cars, so they produce less pollution.
Of course, hybrid cars aren’t perfect; they still run on fossil fuel and so pollute the environment to some extent. However, they may be the first step along the road to cleaner, “greener” cars. Car manufacturers are already working on vehicles which run on hydrogen. The only emission from these cars is harmless water vapor. These are still some way in the future, though, as designers need to think of cheap and safe ways of producing, transporting and storing hydrogen, but at last, it looks like we might be heading in the right direction.

The electric motor in hybrid cars     .

Quite different from storm surges are the giant sea waves called tsunamis, which derive their name from the Japanese expression for “high water in a harbor.” These waves are also referred to by the general public as tidal waves, although they have relatively little to do with tides.
Scientists often referred to them as seismic sea waves, far more appropriate in that they do result from undersea seismic activity.
Tsunamis are caused when the sea bottom suddenly moves, during an underwater earthquake or volcano for example, and the water above the moving earth is suddenly displaced. This sudden shift of water sets off a series of waves. These waves can travel great distances at speeds close to 700 kilometers per hour. In the open ocean, tsunamis have little noticeable amplitude, often no more than one or two meters. It is when they hit the shallow waters near the coast that they increase in height, possibly up to 40 meters.
Tsunamis often occur in the Pacific because the Pacific is an area of heavy seismic activity.
Two areas of the Pacific well accustomed to the threat of tsunamis are Japan and Hawaii. Because the seismic activity that causes tsunamis in Japan often occurs on the ocean bottom quite close to the islands, the tsunamis that hit Japan often come with little warning and can, therefore, prove disastrous. Most of the tsunamis that hit the Hawaiian Islands, however, originate thousands of miles away near the coast of Alaska, so these tsunamis have a much greater distance to travel and the inhabitants of Hawaii generally have time for warning of their imminent arrival.
Tsunamis are certainly not limited to Japan and Hawaii. In 1755, Europe experienced a calamitous tsunami, when movement along the fault lines near the Azores caused a massive tsunami to sweep onto the Portuguese coast and flood the heavily populated area around Lisbon. The greatest tsunami on record occurred on the other side of the world in 1883 when the Krakatoa volcano underwent a massive explosion, sending waves more than 30 meters high onto nearby Indonesian islands; the tsunami from this volcano actually traveled around the world and was witnessed as far away as the English Channel.

According to the passage, all of the following are true about tidal waves except that .............

Read the passage and choose the best answers:

In the United States and Canada, it is very important to (1)___________ a person directly in the eyes when you are having a conversation with him or her. If you look down or to the side when the other person is talking, that person will think that you are not interested in (2)___________ he or she is saying. This, (3) __________is not polite. If you look down or to the side when you are talking, it might seem that you are not honest.

However, people who are speaking will sometimes look away for a few seconds when they are thinking or (4)______________ to find the right word. But they always turn immediately back to look the listener directly in the eyes. These social "rules" are (5)___________ for two men, two women, a man and a woman, or an adult and a child.

(1)___________

In addition to the great ridges and volcanic chains, the oceans conceal another form of undersea mountains: the strange guyot, or flat-topped seamount. No marine geologist even suspected the existence of these isolated mountains until they were discovered by geologist Harry H. Hess in 1946.
He was serving at the time as naval officer on a ship equipped with a fathometer. Hess named these truncated peaks for the nineteenth-century Swiss-born geologist Arnold Guyot, who had served on the faculty of Princeton University for thirty years. Since then, hundreds of guyots have been discovered in every ocean but the Arctic. Like offshore canyons, guyots present a challenge to oceanographic theory. They are believed to be extinct volcanoes. Their flat tops indicate that they once stood above or just below the surface, where the action of waves leveled off their peaks. Yet today, by definition, their summits are at least 600 feet below the surface, and some are as deep as 8,200 feet. Most lie between 3,200 feet and 6,500 feet. Their tops are not really flat but slope upward to a low pinnacle at the center. Dredging from the tops of guyots has recovered basalt and coral rubble, and that would be expected from the eroded tops of what were once islands. Some of this material is over 80 million years old. Geologists think the drowning of the guyots involved two processes: The great weight of the volcanic mountains depressed the sea floor beneath them, and the level of the sea rose a number of times, especially when the last Ice Age ended, some 8,000 to 11,000 years ago.

According to the passage, when did sea level significantly rise?

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Thirty years ago, Lake Ponkapog in Hartwell, New Jersey, was full of life. Many birds and animals lived beside the water, which was full of fish. Now there are few birds, animals, and fish. The lake water is polluted. It is a dirty brown colour, and it is filled with strange plants.
How did this happen? First, we must think about how water gets into Lake Ponkapog. When it rains, water comes into the lake from all around. In the past, there were woods all around Lake Ponkapog, so  the rainwater was clean.
Now there are many homes on the lake hore. People often use the chemicals in their gardens. They use other chemicals inside their houses for cleaning and killing insects. There are also many businesses. Businesses use chemicals in their machines or stores. Other chemicals fall onto the ground from cars or trucks. When it rains, the rainwater flows by these homes and businesses. It picks up all the chemicals and then pours them into the lake. They pollute the water and kill the animal life.
There is still another problem at the lake: exotic plants. These plants come from other countries. They have no natural enemies here, and they grow very quickly. In a short time, they can fill up a lake. Then there is no room for other plants. The plants that normally grow there die. These plants gave many animals and fish their foods or their homes. So now those animals and fish die, too.
People in Hartwell are worried. They love their lake and want to save it. Will it be possible? A clean lake must have clean rainwater going into it. Clean rainwater is possible only if people are more careful about chemicals at home and at work. They must also be more careful about gas and oil and other chemicals on the ground.

Exotic plants grow quickly because they     .

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The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York city. For a long time, it has been the newspaper of record in the United States and one of the world’s great newspapers. Its strength is in its editorial excellence; it has never been the largest newspaper in terms of circulation.
The Times was established in 1851 as a penny paper whose editors wanted to report the news in a
restrained and objective fashion. It enjoyed early success as its editors set a pattern for the future by appealing to a cultured, intellectual readership instead of a mass audience. However, in the late nineteenth century, it came into competition with more popular, colorful, if not lurid, newspapers in New York City. Despite price increases, the Times was losing $1,000 a week when Adolph Simon Ochs bought it in 1896. Ochs built the Times into an internationally respected daily. He hired Carr Van Anda as editor. Van  Anda placed greater stress than ever on full reporting of the news of the day, and his reporters maintained and emphasized existing good coverage of international news. The management of the paper decided to eliminate fiction from the paper, added a Sunday magazine section, and reduced the paper’s price back to a penny. In April 1912, the paper took many risks to report every aspect of the sinking of the Titanic. This greatly enhanced its prestige, and in its coverage of two world wars, the Times continued to enhance its
reputation for excellence in world news.
In 1971, the Times was given a copy of the so–called “Pentagon Papers,” a secret government study of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. When it published the report, it became involved in several awsuits. The U.S. Supreme Court found that the publication was protected by the freedom–of–thepress clause in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Later in the 1970s, the paper, under Adolph Ochs’s grandson, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, introduced sweeping changes in the organization of the newspaper and its staff and brought out a national edition transmitted by satellite to regional printing plants.

What is the main idea of the passage?

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Loneliness is a curious thing. Most of us can remember feeling most lonely when we were not in fact alone at all, but when we were surrounded by people. Everyone has experienced, at some time, that utter sense of isolation that comes over you when you are at a party, in a room full of happy laughing people, or in an audience at a theatre or a lecture. It suddenly seems to you as if everybody knows everybody else, everybody is sure of himself, everybody knows what is going on; everybody, that is, except you. This feeling of loneliness which can overcome you when are in a crowd is very difficult to get rid of. People living alone - divorced, widowed or single people - are advised to tackle their loneliness by joining a club or society, by going out and meeting people. Does this really help? And what do you do if you are already surrounded by people? There are no easy solutions. Your first day at work, or at a new school or university, is a typical situation in which you are likely to feel lonely. You feel lonely because you feel left out of things. You feel that everybody else is full of confidence and knows what to do, but you are adrift and helpless. The fact of the matter is that, in order to survive, we all put on a show of self-confidence to hide our uncertainties and doubts. So it is wrong to assume that you are alone. In a big city it is particularly easy to get the feeling that everybody except you is leading a full, rich, busy life. Everybody is going somewhere, and you tend to assume that they are going somewhere nice and interesting, where they can find life and fulfilment. You are also going somewhere, and there is no reason at all to believe that your destination is any less, or, for that matter, any more exciting than the next man's. The trouble is that you may not be able to hide the fact that you are lonely, and the miserable look on your face might well put people off. After all, if you are at a party you are not likely to try to strike up a conversation with a person who has a gloomy expression on his face and his lips turned down at the comers. So trying to look reasonably cheerful is a good starting point in combating loneliness, even if you are choking inside. The next thing to avoid is finding yourself in a group where in fact you are a stranger, that is, in the sort of group where all the other people already know each other. There is a natural tendency for people to stick together, to form 'cliques'. You will do yourself no good by trying to establish yourself in a group which has so far managed to do very well without you. Groups generally resent intrusion, not because they dislike you personally, but because they have already had to work quite hard to turn the group into the functioning unit. To include you means having to go over a lot of ground again, so that you can learn their language, as it was, and get involved in their conversation at their level. Of course if you can offer something the group needs, such as expert information, you can get in quickly. In fact the surest way of getting to know others is to have an interest in common with them. There is no guarantee that you will then like each other, but at least part of your life will be taken up with sharing experiences with others. It is much better than always feeling alone. If all this seems to be a rather pessimistic view of life, you have to accept the fact that we are all alone when it comes down to it. When the most loving couple in the world kiss and say goodnight, as soon as the husband falls asleep, the wife realizes that she is alone, that her partner is as far away as if he were on another planet. But it is no cause for despair: there is always tomorrow.

Other people are unlikely to want to talk to you if.........................

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We live in a world of tired, sleep deprived people. In his book Counting Sheep, Paul Martin - a behavioural biologist - describes a society which is just too busy to sleep and which does not givesleeping the importance it deserves.
Modern society has invented reasons not to sleep. We are now a 24/7 society where shops and services must be available all hours. We spend longer hours at work than we used to, and more time getting to work. Mobile phones and email allow us to stay in touch round the clock and late-night TV and the Internet tempt us away from our beds. When we need more time for work or pleasure, the easy solution is to sleep less. The average adult sleeps only 6.2 hours a night during the week, whereas research shows that most people need eight or even eight and a half hours' sleep to feel at their best.
Nowadays, many people have got used to sleeping less than they need and they live in an almost permanent state of 'sleep debt'.
Until the invention of the electric light in 1879 our daily cycle of sleep used to depend on the hours of daylight. People would get up with the sun and go to bed at nightfall. But nowadays our hours of sleep are mainly determined by our working hours (or our social life) and most people are woken up artificially by an alarm clock. During the day caffeine, the world's most popular drug, helps to keep us awake. 75% of the world's population habitually consume caffeine, whichup to a point masks the symptoms of sleep deprivation.
What does a chronic lack of sleep do to us? As well as making us irritable and unhappy as humans, it also reduces our motivation and ability to work. This has serious implications for society in general.
Doctors, for example, are often chronically sleep deprived, especially when they are on 'night call', and may get less than three hours' sleep. Lack of sleep can seriously impair their mood, judgment, and ability to take decisions. Tired engineers, in the early hours of the morning, made a series of mistakes with catastrophicresults. On our roads and motorways lack of sleep kills thousands of people every year. Tests show that a tired driver can be just as dangerous as a drunken driver. However, driving when drunk is against the law but driving when exhausted isn't. As Paul Martin says, it is very ironic that we admire people who function on very little sleep instead of criticizing them for being irresponsible. Our world would be a much safer, happier place if everyone, whatever their job, slept eight hours a night.

The word "which" in the third paragraph refers to     .

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Geothermal energy is natural heat from the interior of the Earth that is converted to heat buildings and generate electricity. The idea of harnessing Earth’s internal heat is not new. As early as 1904 , geothermal power was used in Italy . Today, Earth’s natural internal heat is being used to generate electricity in 21 countries , including Russia, Japan, New Zealand, Iceland, Mexico, Ethiopia, Guatemala, EI Salvador, the Philippines, and the United States .Total worldwide production is approaching 9,000 MW (equivalent to nine large modern coal-burning or nuclear power plants)-double the amount in 1980 .Some 40 million people today receive their electricity from geothermal energy at a cost competitive with that of other energy sources. In EI Salvador , geothermal energy is supplying 30% of the total electric energy used.
However, at the global level, geothermal energy supplies less than 0,15%of the total energy supply.
Geothermal energy may be considered a nonrenewable energy source when rates of extraction are greater than rates of natural replenishment. However, geothermal energy has its origin in the natural heat production within Earth , and only a small fraction of the vast total resource base is being utilized today. Although most geothermal energy production involves the tapping of high heat sources, people are also using the low-temperature geothermal energy of groundwater in some applications.

Geothermal Systems
The average heat flow from the interior of the Earth is very low, about 0,06% W/m2.This amount is trivial compared with the 177 W/m2from solar heat at the surface in the United States. However, in some areas, heat flow is sufficiently high to be useful for producing energy . For the most part, areas of high heat flow are associated with plate tectonic boundaries. Oceanic ridge systems (divergent plate boundaries) and areas where mountains are being uplifted and volcanic island arcs are forming (convergent plate boundaries) are areas where this natural heat flow is anomalously high. One such region is located in the western, United States, where recent tectonic and volcanic activity has occurred.
On the basis of geological criteria, several types of hot geothermal systems (with temperatures greater than about 800C , or 1760F)have been defined, and the resource base is larger than that of fossil fuels and nuclear energy combined. A common system for energy development is hydrothermal convection, characterized by the circulation of steam and / or hot water that transfers heat from depths to the surface.