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:
One of the most important battles of the American Civil War occurred around the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, from July 1 to July 3, 1863. What began as a search for shoes by the Confederate Army quickly escalated into a major battle. As the Confederate soldiers sought new shoes, they unexpectedly encountered Union cavalry stationed west of the town at Willoughby Run, and the battle began. After much fighting and heavy casualties on both sides, the Confederates pushed the Union forces back through the town of Gettysburg, where they regrouped south of the town along the high ground near a cemetery.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee ordered General R.S. Ewell to seize the high ground from the battle - weary Union soldiers "if practical." Ewell hesitated in the attack, giving the Union troops a chance to establish a stronghold along Cemetery Ridge and then bring in reinforcements with artillery. By the time Lee realized Ewell had not attacked, the opportunity had vanished. Other failures by the Confederates included the generals' opposition to the attack plans and a lack of information about Union defense. This combination of errors allowed the Union forces to win a critical victory in the Civil War. By the end, a total of 160,000 men were involved in this fierce and bloody battle.

What is the main idea of 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:
It can be shown in facts and figures that cycling is the cheapest, most convenient, and most environmentally desirable term of transport in towns, but such cold calculations do not mean much on a frosty winter morning. The real appeal of cycling is that it is so enjoyable. It has none of the difficulties and tensions of other ways of traveling so you are more cheerful after a ride, even though the rush hour.
The first thing a non-cyclist says to you is: "But isn't it terribly dangerous?" It would be foolish to deny the danger of sharing the road with motor vehicles and it must be admitted that there are an alarming number of accidents involving cyclists. However, although police records indicate that the car driver is often to blame, the answer lies with the cyclist. It is possible to ride in such a way as to reduce risks to a minimum.
If you decide to join the thousands in Britain who are now returning to cycling as a cheap, satisfying form of transport your first problem will be trying to decide what bike to buy. Here are three simple rules for buying a bike:
Always buy the best you can afford. Of course there has to be a meeting point between what you would really like and economic reality, but aim as high as you can and you will get the benefit not only when you ride but also if you want to sell. Well-made bikes keep the value very well. And don't forget to include in your calculations the fact that you'll begin saving money on fares and petrol the minute you leave the shop.
Get the best frame, the main structure of the bicycle, for your money as you can. Cheap brakes, wheels or gears can easily be replaced by more expensive ones, but the frame sets the    upper limit on any transformation. You should allow for the possibility our cycling ambitions will grow with practice. When you begin, the four miles to work may the most you ever dream of, but after a few months a Sunday ride into the country begins to look more and more desirable. The best thing is to buy a bike just a little bit better than you think you'll need, and then grow into it. Otherwise, try to get a model that can be improved.
The fit is vital. Handlebars and seat height can be adjusted but you must get the right sized frame. On the whole it is best to get the largest size you can manage. Frame sizes are measured in inches and the usual adult range is from 21 inches to 25 inches, though extreme sizes outside those measurements can be found. Some people say if you take four inches off from your inside leg measurement you will end up with the right size of bike. The basic principle though is that you should be able to stand with legs either side of the crossbar (the bar that goes from the handlebars to the seat) with both feet comfortably flat on the ground.

After you have been cycling for a few months the author suggests that you will

Choose the best answer:
If people travel to work by bus, there ______ fewer exhaust fumes.

Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase.

Children in (1) _____ Netherlands must be at least four years old to (2) _____ primary education. Almost all 4-year-olds (99. 3%) in the country indeed attend primary school, (3) _____ this is not compulsory until children reach the age (4) _____5 . Primary school is free of charge. In most schools, children are grouped by (5) _____ in mixed ability classes, with one teacher for all subjects. Primary school (6) _____ of 8 groups, thus schooling (7) _____ for 8 years. During the first two years, which (8) _____ kindergarten, children receive an average of 22 hours of (9) _____, during the last 6 years children receive an average of 25 hours per week. Schools are open 5 days a week, but children are free on Wednesday afternoon. At the end of primary school, or in group 8, schools advice on secondary school choice. Most schools use a national test to support this advice, for instance the 'Citotoets', a test (10) ____ by the Central Institute for Test development.

(6) _____

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:
By adopting a few simple techniques, parents who read to their children can considerably increase their children’s language development. It is surprising, but true. How parents talk to their children makes a big difference in the children’s language development. If a parent encourages the child to actively respond to what the parent is reading, the child’s language skills increase.
A study was done with two or three-year-old children and their parents. Half of the thirty children participants were in the experimental study; the other half acted as the control group. In the experimental group, the parents were given a two-hour training session in which they were taught to ask open-ended questions rather than yes-no questions. For example, the parent should ask, “What is the doggy doing?” rather than, “Is the doggy running away?” Experimental parents were also instructed how to expand on their children’s answer, how to suggest alternative possibilities, and how to praise correct answers.
At the beginning of the study, the children did not differ on levels of language development, but at the end of one month, the children in the experimental group were 5.5 months ahead of the control group on a test of verbal expression and vocabulary. Nine months later, the children in the experimental group still showed an advance of 6 months over the children in the control group.

What conclusion can be drawn from this passage?

A spokesperson for Brenda Amon ---139--- that the pianist made a sizeable donation toward the expansion of the Grenel City Conservatory of Music. "Without her generous  support,"  said  Marc Diaz, director of facility planning, "we would have  been  limited  in  our  renovation  plans  going forward."---140---. Now, a new wing will be constructed on the south end of the ---141--- conservatory. Once completed, the building will boast a 700-seat auditorium, state-of-the-art recording studios, and new faculty and administrative offices. Additionally, private practice rooms will be located---142--- the current student lounge.

141................

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Generally, in order to be preserved in the fossil record, organisms must possess hard body parts such as shells or bones. Soft, fleshy structures are quickly destroyed by predators or decayed by bacteria. Even hard parts left on the surface for any length of time will be destroyed, therefore, organisms must be buried rapidly to escape destruction by the elements and to be protected against agents of weathering and erosion. Marine organisms thus are better candidates for fossilization than those living on the land because the ocean is typical the site of sedimentation, whereas the land is largely the site of erosion. The beds of ancient lakes were also excellent sites for rapid burial of skeletal remains of freshwater organisms and skeletons of other animals, including those of early humans, Ancient swaps were  particularly plentiful with prolific growths of vegetation, which fossilized in abundance. Many animals became trapped in bogs overgrown by vegetation. The environment of the swaps kept bacterial decay to a minimum, which greatly aided in the preservation of plants and animals. The rapidly accumulating sediments in flood plains, deltas, and stream channels buried freshwater organisms, along with other plants and animals that happened to fall into the water.
Only a small traction of all the organisms that have ever lived are preserved as fossils. Normally, the remains of a plant or animal are completely destroyed through predation and decay. Although it seems that fossilization is common for some organisms, for others it is almost impossible. For the most part of, the remains of organisms are recycled in the earth, which is fortunate because otherwise soil and water would soon became depleted of essential nutrients. Also, most of the fossils exposed on Earth’s surface are destroyed by weathering processes. This make for an incomplete fossil record with poor or no representation of certain species. The best fossils are those composed of that form the vast majority of unaltered fossils. Calcite and aragonite also contributed to a substantial number of fossils of certain organisms.

It can be inferred that flood plains, deltas, and stream channels are similar in which of the following ways?

 Choose the option  A, B, C or D that best fits the blank space in the following passage:

"At last it is here: tomorrow is the exam day. There is no more homework to do, you have done lots of (1)…..  and you have had plenty of useful practice with past papers. You have finished the (2)…. . So what should you do now? Probably the least advisable course of (3)…. would be to carry on studying late into the night, trying (4)….. to learn things you should have learned long ago and (5)…. in the morning with an awful headache.
 A far better idea is to practise, (6)….. a singer or a musician does, what you already knew. In order not to feel (7)…. the next day, go to bed early and get up at your usual (8)….. . You may be a little bit (8)….. but that is probably just a (10)…… of your determination to do will in the exam."

7. In order not to feel (7)…. the next day, 

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:
Diversity is a hallmark of life, an intrinsic feature of living systems in the natural world. The demonstration and celebration of this diversity is an endless rite. Look at the popularity of museums, zoos, aquariums and botanic gardens. The odder the exhibit, the more different it is from the most common and familiar life forms around us, the more successful it is likely to be. Nature does not tire of providing oddities for people who look for them. Biologists have already formally classified 1.7 million species. As many as 30 to 40 million more may remain to be classified. (1)
Most people seem to take diversity for granted. If they think about it at all they assume it exists in endless supply. Nevertheless, diversity is endangered as never before in its history. Advocates of perpetual economic growth treat living species as expendable. As a result an extinction crisis of unprecedented magnitude is under way. Worse yet, when diversity needs help most, it is neglected and misunderstood by much of the scientific community that once championed it. (2)
Of the two great challenges to the legitimacy of this diversity, the familiar one comes primarily from economists. Their argument, associated with such names as Julian Simon, Malcolm McPherson and the late Herman Kahn, can be paraphrased: "First, if endangered species have a value as resources - which has been greatly exaggerated - then we should be able to quantify that value so that we can make unbiased, objective decisions about which species, if any, we should bother to save, and how much the effort is worth. Secondly, the global threat to the diversity of species, particularly in the tropics, has been overestimated. Thirdly, we have good substitutes for the species and ecosystems that are being lost, and these substitutes will nullify the damage caused by the extinctions". (3)
The structure of the argument seems to me to be identical in form to that of an old joke from the American vaudeville circuit. One elderly lady complained to another about her recent vacation at a resort in the Catskill Mountains in New York State. "The food was terrible", she moaned. "Pure poison, I couldn't eat a bite. And the portions were so tiny!" (4)
Species may be valuable, but not especially so, and the threat to them has been exaggerated. But this does not matter anyway, say the economists, because we can replace any species that vanishes.(5) 
It is not clear how much of an impact this argument has on the informed public, but it has certainly provoked an outcry among scientific conservationists. It has set the terms for, and dominated, most of the pro-diversity literature of the past few years, making it a literature of response, thus limiting its scope and creative force.

What point is the writer trying to make about the economists' arguments by including the joke in paragraph 4?

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
Water is necessary for life. People can live only a few days (44)........  it. Yet nearly 25 million   people die each year because of it. Both industrial nations and less-developed countries are worried about the (45).................... and quantity of water in the world.
Even though people, animals, agriculture, and industry use a lot of water, there is more than enough on the Earth. Water covers about three-fourths of the Earth's surface. However, 97.4 percent of it is salt water. Three-fourths of the Earth's fresh water is frozen in glaciers and in the great polar ice caps. Most of the water we use (46)................     from rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere. Less than one percent of the Earth's water is usable, and we use it over and over again.
One of the (47)......... about water is distribution. Water is not always distributed where the large (48)..........centers are. Some regions get enough rain, but it is all in one or two short rainy seasons.
(48)................................

Thank you for your purchase on September 27. Your package has shipped and is due to arrive on October 1. ---131---. Simply visit www.sprtech.com/shipping/status, enter your order number, and press “Search”.
When you receive your package, we ---132--- you to take a short survey at www.sprtech.com/survey. It is through customer feedback that we are---133---  to monitor our level of service.  Upon ---134--- of the survey, you will receive a 10% discount toward your next order.

133...................

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
                  ENGLISH SPEELING
Why does English spelling have a reputation for being difficult? English was first written down when Christian monks came to England in  Anglo-Saxon (1)........... . They used the 23 letters of Latin to write down the sounds of Anglo-Saxon speech as they heard it. However, English has a (2)...............   range   of basic sounds (over 40) than Latin. The alphabet was too small, and so combinations of letters were needed to express the different sounds. Inevitably, there were inconsistencies in the way that letters were combined.
With the Norman invasion of England, the English language was put at risk. English survived, but the spelling of many English words changed to follow French (3)...... , and many French words were introduced into the language. The result was more irregularity.
When the printing press was invented in the fifteenth century, many early printers of English texts spoke other first languages. They made little effort to respect English spelling. Although one of the shortterm (4)................ of printing was to produce a number of variant spellings, in the long term it created    fixed spellings. People became used to seeing words spelt in the same way. Rules were drawn up, and dictionaries were put together which printers and writers could refer to. However, spoken English was not fixed and continued to change slowly - just as it still does now. Letters that were sounded in the Anglo- Saxon period, like the 'k' in 'knife', now became (5)............. Also, the pronunciation of vowels then had  little in common with how they sound now, but the way they are spelt hasn't changed. No wonder, then, that it is often difficult to see the link between sound and spelling.

(2)..............................

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:
A number of factors related to the voice reveal the personality of the speaker. The first is the broad area of communication, which includes imparting information by use of language, communicating with a group or an individual and specialized communication through performance. Aperson conveys thoughts and ideas through choice of words, by a tone of voice that is pleasant or unpleasant, gentle or harsh, by the rhythm that is inherent within the language itself, and by speech rhythms that are flowing and regular or uneven and hesitant, and finally, by the pitch and melody of the utterance. When speaking before a group, a person’s tone may indicate uncertainty or fright, confidence or calm. At interpersonal levels, the tone may reflect ideas and feelings over and above the words chosen, or may believe them.Here the participant’s tone can consciously or unconsciously reflect intuitive sympathy or antipathy, lack of concern or interest, fatigue, anxiety, enthusiasm or excitement, all of which are usually discernible by the acute listener. Public performance is a manner of communication that is highly specialized with its own techniques for obtaining effects by voice and /or gesture. The motivation derived from the text, and in the case of singing, the music, in combination with the performer’s skills, personality, and ability to create empathy will determine the success of artistic, political, or pedagogic communication. Second, the voice gives psychological clues to a person’s self-image, perception of others, and emotional health. Self- image can be indicated by a tone of voice that is confident, pretentious, shy, aggressive, outgoing, or exuberant, to name only a few personality traits. Also the sound may give a clue to the facade or mask of that person, for example, a shy person hiding behind an overconfident front. How a speaker perceives the listener’s receptiveness, interest, or sympathy in any given conversation can drastically alter the tone of presentation, by encouraging or discouraging the speaker. Emotional health is evidenced in the voice by free and melodic sounds of the happy, by constricted and harsh sound of the angry, and by dull and lethargic qualities of the depressed.

According to the passage, an overconfident front may hide    .

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:
Did you ever watch a video on the Internet? Maybe you used YouTube. YouTube is a Website where people can share their video. Today, YouTube is an important part of the Internet. However, that wasn’t always true.
YouTube started with a young man named Jawed Karim and two friends. One day, Karim was on the Internet. He wanted information about the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia. He found news stories about it, but he couldn't find any videos. This gave Karin an idea. He wanted to help people put video on the Internet. Karim told his friends about this idea. Together, they created a company - YouTube.
YouTube become a global success. Millions of people around the world Visited the Website. It was clear to Google, another Internet company, that YouTube had a lot of value. Google made a deal. It bought YouTube for $1.65 billion. As a result, YouTube investors and its employees made a lot of money. The three friends who started YouTube were very big investors. Therefore, they made an enormous amount of money.
Karim became very rich, and he continued to work toward his PhD. There was something else he wanted to do. He wanted to help young people go into business. He used money and experience to start a new company called Youniversity Ventures. This company helps young people who have good business ideas. It gives them advice and money to start Internet businesses. Milo is one business that students started with the help of Youniversity Ventures.
Milo is a shopping Website. It helps people find products in stores near their homes. Another example is AirBoB. This Web site helps people find for video conferences. People in different places can use this site to have business meetings.
Karim has some advice for students who want to start business. First, find a successful company. Do a lot of research about the company and the top people in the company. There, copy the way they do things. For students who wants to start Interner business, Karim is probably a very good example to copy. 

What do people use YouTube for?

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In the early 1800s, to reach the jump-off point for the West, a family from the East of the United States could either buy a steamboat passage to Missouri for themselves, their wagons and their livestock or, as happened more often, simply pile everything into a wagon, hitch up a team, and begin their overland trek right in their front yard.
Along the macadamized roads and turnpikes east of the Missouri River, travel was comparatively fast, camping easy, and supplies plentiful. Then, in one river town or another, the neophyte emigrants would pause to lay in provisions. For outfitting purposes, the town of Independence had been preeminent ever since 1827, but the rising momentum of pioneer emigration had produced some rival jump-off points. Westport and Fort Leavenworth flourished a few miles upriver. St. Joseph had sprung up 55 miles to the northwest; in fact, emigrants who went to Missouri by riverboat could save four days on the trail by staying on the paddle wheelers to St. Joe before striking overland.
At whatever jump-off point they chose, the emigrants studied guide books and directions, asked questions of others as green as themselves, and made their final decision about outfitting. They had various, sometimes conflicting, options. For example, either pack animals or two -wheel carts or wagons could be used for the overland crossing. A family man usually chose the wagon. It was the costliest and slowest of the three, but it provided space and shelter for children and for a wife who likely as not was pregnant. Everybody knew that a top-heavy covered wagon might blow over in a prairie wind or be overturned by mountain rocks, that it might mire in river mud or sink to its hubs in desert sand, but maybe if those things happened on this trip, they would happen to someone else. Anyway, most pioneers, with their farm background, were used to wagons.

In paragraph 3, the phrase “those things” refers to...

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After twenty years of growing student enrollments and economic prosperity, business schools in the United States have started to face harder times. Only Harvard’s MBA School has shown a substantial increase in enrollment in recent years. Both Princeton and Stanford have seen decreases in their enrollments. Since 1990, the number of people receiving Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degrees, has dropped about 3 percent to 75,000, and the trend of lower enrollment rates is expected to continue.
There are two factors causing this decrease in students seeking an MBA degree. The first one is that many graduates of four-year colleges are finding that an MBA degree does not guarantee a plush job on Wall Street, or in other financial districts of major American cities. Many of the entry- level management jobs are going to students graduating with Master of Arts degrees in English and the humanities as well as those holding MBA degrees. Students have asked the question, “Is an MBA degree really what I need to be best prepared for getting a good job?” The second major factor has been the cutting of American payrolls and the lower number of entry-level jobs being offered. Business needs are changing, and MBA schools are struggling to meet the new demands.

Which of the following might be the topic of the next paragraph?

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:
By adopting a few simple techniques, parents who read to their children can considerably increase their children’s language development. It is surprising, but true. How parents talk to their children makes a big difference in the children’s language development. If a parent encourages the child to actively respond to what the parent is reading, the child’s language skills increase.
A study was done with two or three-year-old children and their parents. Half of the thirty children participants were in the experimental study; the other half acted as the control group. In the experimental group, the parents were given a two-hour training session in which they were taught to ask open-ended questions rather than yes-no questions. For example, the parent should ask, “What is the doggy doing?” rather than, “Is the doggy running away?” Experimental parents were also instructed how to expand on their children’s answer, how to suggest alternative possibilities, and how to praise correct answers.
At the beginning of the study, the children did not differ on levels of language development, but at the end of one month, the children in the experimental group were 5.5 months ahead of the control group on a test of verbal expression and vocabulary. Nine months later, the children in the experimental group still showed an advance of 6 months over the children in the control group.

Parents can give great help to their children’s language development by     them.

Choose the best answer:
What is the ____________ invention of the past hundred years?

The Irwin Neighbourhood Association is proud to ---143--- a summer event called Park Fest, to be held at Fern Park on 10 January, from 1 P.M. to 8 P.M. Park Fest will feature numerous family-friendly activities and a delicious picnic dinner to be served at 6 P.M. A per person fee of ten dollars will be collected.  The proceeds will---144--- go towards a park enhancement project. The plan is to hire a contractor to landscape the park grounds, while a smaller portion will be spent on an advertising campaign. This event---145--- to be great fun.---146---.

144...................

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The main difference between urban growth in Europe and in the American colonies was the slow evolution of cities in the former and their rapid growth in the latter. In Europe they grew over a period of centuries from town economies to their present urban structure. In North America, they started as wilderness communities and developed to mature urbanism’s in little more than a century.
In the early colonial day in North America, small cities sprang up along the Atlantic Coastline, mostly in what are now New America, small cities sprang up along the Atlantic United States and in the lower Saint Lawrence valley in Canada. This was natural because these areas were nearest England and France, particularly England, from which most capital goods (assets such as equipment) and many consumer goods were imported Merchandising establishments were, accordingly, advantageously located in port cities from which goods could be readily distributed to interior settlements. Here, too, were the favored locations for processing raw materials prior to export. Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Montreal, and other cities flourished, and, as the colonies grew, these cities increased in importance.
This was less true in the colonial South, where life centered around large farms, known as plantations, rather than around towns, as was the case in the areas further north along the Atlantic coastline. The local isolation and the economic self-sufficiency of the plantations were antagonistic to the development of the towns. The plantations maintained their independence because they were located on navigable streams and each had a wharf accessible to the small shipping of that day. In fact, one of the strongest factors in the selection of plantation land was the desire to have it front on a water highway.
When the United States became an independent nation in 1776, it did not have a single city as large as 50,000 inhabitants, but by 1820 it had a city of more than 10,000 people, and by 1880 it had recorded a city of over one million. It was not until after 1823, after the mechanization of the spinning and weaving industries, that cities started drawing young people away from farms. Such migration was particularly rapid following the Civil War (1861-1865).

What does the passage mainly discuss?

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.
For hundreds of years, giving flowers have been a social means of communication. In the United States, flowers are often given during rites of passage, for commemorating special occasions or as a heartfelt gift between loved ones and friends. Flower gifting also occurs in most countries around the world. However, the meanings and traditions often vary.
While students traditionally gave their favorite teacher an apple in past years, in China, teachers are given flowers. Peonies are by far the  flower most often  given  in  China. They are also quite popularly used for weddings. Strangely, potted plants are not considered a pleasant gift among Asian cultures. The people believe that like a plant confined by a pot, the gift  symbolizes a binding or restriction.
In Russia, in lieu of giving birthday presents, the guest of honor receives a single flower or an unwrapped bouquet. Floral arrangements or baskets are not given. Russians celebrate a holiday known as Woman's Day. Traditional gifts include red roses, hyacinths or tulips. When   there is a funeral or other occasion where someone wishes to express sympathy, carnations, lilies or roses are given in circular configurations, which signify the transition of birth, life and death to   rebirth. In this instance, the color of choice is commonly yellow. For joyous occasions, arrangements and bouquets generally contain an odd number of flowers.
In the times of ancient Rome, brides carried flowers to scare away evil spirits and encourage fertility. The Dutch believed that flowers were food for the soul. When invited to someone's home in Great Britain, it is tradition to bring a gift of flowers. All types are acceptable except white lilies, which are usually seen at funerals. Unlike the United States, red roses are a symbol of love.
Flowers are generally gifted in odd numbered increments regardless of the occasion. However, the Brits also have superstitions regarding the number 13, so the number is avoided.
In the southern region of the continent, flowers are traditionally given during Christmas. Egyptians are much more conservative and restrict flower gifting to funerals and weddings. While certain flowers may have significant meanings for some, flowers in Las Vegas and across the United States flowers are an accepted gift for any reason desired.

The word "superstitions" in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to_____