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The first Industrial Revolution was about harnessing steam power so that muscle could be replaced by machines. The second was driven by electricity and a cluster of  inventions from the late 19th century onwards - including the internal combustion engine, the aeroplane and moving pictures. A third revolution began in the 1960s and was based on digital technology, personal computing and the development of the internet. Industrial Revolution 4.0 will be shaped by  a  fresh wave of innovation in areas such as driverless cars, smart robotics, materials that are lighter and tougher, and a manufacturing process built around 3D printing.
There are some myths about Industrial Revolution 4.0. The first is that it won't really have as big an impact as the previous periods of change, most especially the breakthroughs associated with the second industrial revolution. In the past, it has always taken time to feel the full effects of technological change and many of today's advances are in their infancy. It is far too early to  say  that the car or air travel will prove to be less important than the sequencing of the human genome or synthetic biology. The second myth is that the process will be trouble free  provided  everything  is  left to the market. It is a fantasy to believe that the wealth created by the fourth  Industrial  Revolution will cascade down from rich to poor, and that those displaced will just walk into another job that pays just as well.
Indeed, all the evidence so far is that the benefits of the coming change will be concentrated among a relatively small elite, thus exacerbating the current trend towards greater levels of inequality. This was a point stressed by the Swiss bank UBS in a report launched in Davos. It notes that there will be a "polarisation of the labour force as low-skill jobs continue to  be automated and this trend increasingly spreads to middle class jobs,"

The best title for this passage  could be     .

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How busy is too busy? For some it means having to miss the occasional long lunch; for others,     it means missing lunch altogether. For a few, it is not being able to take a "sickie" once a month. Then there is a group of people for whom working every evening and weekend is normal, and frantic is the tempo of their lives. For most senior executives, workloads swing between extremely busy  and frenzied. The vice-president of the management consultancy AT Kearney and its head of telecommunications for the Asia-Pacific region, Neil Plumridge, says his work weeks vary from a “manageable” 45 hours to 80 hours, but average 60 hours.
Three warning signs alert Plumridge about his workload: sleep, scheduling and family. He knows he has too much on when he gets less than six hours of sleep for three consecutive nights; when he is constantly having to reschedule appointments; "and the third one is on the family side", says Plumridge, the father of a three-year-old daughter, and expecting a second child in October. "If I happen to miss a birthday or anniversary, I know things are out of control." Being "too busy" is highly subjective. But for any individual, the perception of being too busy over a prolonged period can start showing up as stress: disturbed sleep, and declining mental and physical health. National workers' compensation figures show stress causes the most lost time of any workplace injury. Employees suffering stress are off work an average of 16.6 weeks. The effects of stress are also expensive. Comcare, the Federal Government insurer, reports that in 2003-04, claims for psychological injury accounted for 7% of claims but almost 27% of claim costs. Experts say the key to dealing with stress is not to focus on relief - a game of golf or a massage - but to reassess workloads. Neil Plumridge says he makes it a priority to work out what has to change; that might mean allocating extra resources to a job, allowing more time  or  changing expectations. The decision  may take several days. He also relies on the advice of colleagues, saying his peers coach each other with business problems. "Just a fresh pair of eyes over an issue can help," he says.
Executive stress is not confined to big organizations. Vanessa Stoykov has been running her own advertising and public relations business for seven years, specializing in work for financial and professional services firms, Evolution Media has grown so fast that it debuted on the BRW Fast 100 list of fastest-growing small enterprises last year - just after Stoykov had her first child. Stoykov thrives   on the mental stimulation of running her own business. "Like everyone, I have the occasional day when I think my head's going to blow off," she says. Because of the growth phase the business is in, Stoykov has to concentrate on short-term stress relief - weekends in the mountains, the occasional "mental health" day -rather than delegating more work, She says:  “We're hiring more people, but  you need to train them, teach them about the culture and the clients, so  it's actually more work  rather than less.”a

The word "reassess" in  the second paragraph is  closest in  meaning to    _.

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Mark Zuckerberg was born in 1984, in New York, into a prosperous, professional family. He developed an interest in computers at an early age and when he was twelve, he created a messaging program which he named "Zucknet". His dentist father used it in his surgery so that his receptionist could inform him of the arrival of a patient without yelling across the room. Together with his  friends, Mark spent much of his spare time as a boy designing and making computer games just for fun.
In 2002, Mark enrolled at Harvard University. By his second year at the institution, he had acquired a reputation on the campus as a developer of software. It was at that time he invented "Facemash" which compared pictures of female students and allowed users to vote on which one   was the most attractive. The program became very popular on campus, but was later shut down by the university authorities who deemed it 'inappropriate'.
Based on the buzz of "Facemash", three of Mark's fellow students, Divya  Narendra, and  twins, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, asked him to work with them on an idea for a social networking site called "Harvard Connection". This site was designed to use information from Harvard's student networks to create a dating site for the university's elite. Mark was initially enthusiastic about the complex project but boredom soon set in
and he backed out of it to work on his own social networking site. He created a  site that allowed  users to produce their own profiles, upload photos, and communicate with other people beyond the confines of the university. He called the site "Facebook" and he operated from one small college room until June 2004 when he finally abandoned his studies to  devote himself fully to Facebook and  moved the company to California. By the end of 2004, Facebook had one million users and Mark was climbing high.

What is the word "backed out of " in paragraph 3 closest in meaning to?

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Cooking shows on TV are usually all about exotic foods. Thanks to globalization, people everywhere are introducing their taste buds to dishes from every corner of the world. At the same time, other people are discovering that food from their area is the best kept secret. In the past few years, this movement of purchasing local produce keeps picking up steam because it offers a lot of benefits. For starters, local food is often tastier because it is fresher. Goods that are imported from abroad must be flown or shinped in from far away, so they naturally lose some of their freshness during the journey. A simple way to test this is to sample a banana from overseas versus one that was grown locally and compare the tastes. Imported goods must also be washed and packaged in plastic or other containers so they can survive the journey. These materials may cause the nutritional value of these goods to decline during the shipping process. Food safety is another reason why people are choosing local produce. Today's laws regarding foods vary from country to country. This causes confusion and makes it difficult to detect if any harmful pesticides were used. When you know the local farmer who grows your food and the fields that are used to produce it, the chances of it being contaminated are greatly reduced.
Buying local foods can also have beneficial impact on the environment. By supporting local growers, consumers can maintain green space and farmland in their communities. Buying locally also helps to build the local community. If farmers can sell directly to consumers instead of a middleman, they will earn more money for their families. Additional profits also enable farmers to better care for their soil and keep quality standards high. In the end, it is a win-win situation for both parties.
If you are interested in incorporating more local foods into your diet, you can start by attending a farmers' market in your area. This is an open market where farmers sell fruits, vegetables, and meat directly to the public. If you have any questions about the production process or quality of these goods, you can ask the farmers directly. Once you experience the freshness of local foods for yourself, it might be tough to go back to the supermarket.

The word “beneficial” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to    .

The ocean bottom - a region nearly 2.5 times greater than the total land area of Earth - is a vast frontier that even today is largely unexplored and uncharted. Until about a century ago, the deep-ocean floor was completely inaccessible, hidden beneath waters averaging over 3,600 meters deep. Totally without light and subjected to intense pressures hundreds of times greater than at the Earth’s surface, the deep-ocean bottom is a hostile environment to humans, in some ways as forbidding and remote as the void of outer space.
Although researchers have taken samples of deep-ocean rocks and sediments for over a century, the first detailed global investigation of the ocean bottom did not actually start until 1968, with the beginning of the National Science Foundation’s Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP). Using techniques first developed for the offshore oil and gas industry, the DSDP’s drill ship, the Glomar Challenger, was able to maintain a steady position on the ocean’s surface and drill in very deep waters, extracting samples of sediments and rock from the ocean floor.
The Glomar Challenger completed 96 voyages in a 15-year research program that ended in November 1983. During this time, the vessel logged 600,000 kilometers and took almost 20,000 core samples of seabed sediments and rocks at 624 drilling sites around the world.. The Glomar Challenger’s core samples have allowed geologists to reconstruct what the planet looked like hundreds of millions of years ago and to calculate what it will probably look like millions of years in the future. Today, largely on the strength of evidence gathered during the Glomar Challenger’s voyages, nearly all earth scientists agree on the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift that explain many of the geological processes that shape the Earth.
The cores of sediment drilled by the Glomar Challenger have also yielded information critical to understanding the world’s past climates. Deep-ocean sediments provide a climatic record stretching back hundreds of millions of years, because they are largely isolated from the mechanical erosion and the intense chemical and biological activity that rapidly destroy much land-based evidence of past climates. This record has already provided insights into the patterns and causes of past climatic change - information that may be used to predict future climates.

How long did the Glomar Challenger conduct its research?

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      In the early 1800s, less than 3% of the world's population lived in cities; today, more than half of the global population is urban and by 2050, the proportion will rise to three quarters. There are thousands of small and medium-sized cities along with more than 30 megacities and sprawling, networked metropolitan areas with 15 million residents or more. Yet despite these massive transformations in how people live and interact, our international affairs are still largely dictated by national states, not cities.

       Cities are beginning to flex their muscles on the international stage. They are already displacing nation states as the central nodes of the global economy, generating close to 80% of global GDP. Cities like New York and Tokyo are bigger in GDP terms than many G-20 countries. Metropolitan regions and special economic zones are linking global cities through transnational supply chains. A growing number of mega-regions, such as those linking cities in Mexico and the U.S., transcend borders. In the process, cities are collectively forging common regional plans, trading partnerships, and infrastructure corridors.

      The spectacular rise of cities did not happen by accident. Cities channel creativity, connect human capital, and when well governed, they drive growth. That many cities and their residents are rolling up their sleeves and getting things done - where nations have failed - are grounds for optimism. In the future, we hope that it is our proximate, accountable, and empowered city leaders who will define our fates.

What is the passage mainly about?

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Music influences people in different ways or the same person differently at different times.
Music may seem to influence people differently. That is because people can react differently to the
music. We are able to apply a choosing process to the music we hear. If someone hates jazz, then a
jazz piece with a positive effect will probably not make him feel good. A happy song might appear
to make an angry person angrier, yet it is not the music itself that is creating the anger; rather it is the
positive effect of the music. The angry person does not want to accept the song's happy feeling: it
points out his already existing anger, and makes that anger come to the surface. When a piece of
music is played and we are listening to it, our body, mind, and feelings are being affected. The
musicians of ancient cultures such as China, India, Turkey and Greece understood the effects of
music. In fact, Pathagoras, in ancient Greece, introduced a whole science that concerned them.
Because the musicians of these ancient cultures understood these effects, they created music that was
positive, uplifting, and beneficial. Once the effects of music are better understood, the next step is to
gain a better understanding of the music around us, and what effect it is actually having.
2. Music_____.

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We first learn about loving and caring relationships from our families. Family is  defined as   a domestic group of people with some degree of kinship - whether through blood, marriage, or adoption. Ideally, each child is nurtured, respected, and grows up to care for others and develop strong and healthy relationships. This does not mean that it is always easy to make and keep friends; it just means that we share the goal of having strong relationships.
"Family" includes your siblings and parents, as well as relatives who you may not interact with every day, such as your cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and stepparents.
These are probably the people you are closest to and with whom you spend the most time.  Having healthy relationships with your family members is both important and difficult.
Families in the 21st century come in all shapes and sizes: traditional, single parent, blended  (more than one family together in the same house], and gay and lesbian parents -just to name a few. No matter the "type" of family you have, there are going to be highs and lows - good times and bad. Many times, however, families become blocked in  their relationships by  hurt, anger, mistrust, and confusion. These are natural and normal, and few families do not have at  least  a  few experiences with them. The worst time for most families, is during a divorce. By making a few  simple changes in the way we look at the world and deal with other people, it is possible to create happier, more stable relationships. Families need to be units of mutual caring and support; they can   be sources of lifelong strength for all individuals.

Which of the following is closest in meaning to “siblings” in paragraph 2?

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   Different cultures follow their own special customs when a child's baby teeth fall out. In Korea, for example, they have the custom of throwing lost teeth up on the roof of a house. According to tradition, a magpie will come and take the tooth. Later, the magpie will return with a new tooth for the child. In other Asian countries, such as Japan and Vietnam, children follow a similar tradition of throwing their lost teeth onto the roofs of houses.

   Birds aren't the only animals thought to take lost teeth. In Mexico and Spain, tradition says a mouse takes a lost tooth and leaves some money. However, in Mongolia, dogs are responsible for taking teeth away. Dogs are highly respected in Mongolian culture and are considered guardian angels of the people. Tradition says that the new tooth will grow good and strong if the baby tooth is fed to a guardian angel. Accordingly, parents in Mongolia will put their child's lost tooth in a piece of meat and feed it to a dog.

   The idea of giving lost teeth to an angel or fairy is also a tradition in the West. Many children in Western countries count on the Tooth Fairy to leave money or presents in exchange for a tooth. The exact origins of the Tooth Fairy are a mystery, although the story probably began in England or Ireland centuries ago. According to tradition, a child puts a lost tooth under his or her pillow before going to bed. In the wee hours, while the child is sleeping, the Tooth Fairy takes the tooth and leaves something else under the pillow. In France, the Tooth Fairy leaves a small gift. In the United States, however, the Tooth Fairy usually leaves money. These days, the rate is $1 to $5 per tooth, adding up to a lot of money from the Tooth Fairy!

The word "origins" in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ______.

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Charles Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1902 but was raised on a farm in Minnesota, where his father was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1907. From then on, he spent his boyhood alternately in Washington, D.C. Detroit, and Little Falls, Minnesota. Because Lindbergh exhibited exceptional mechanical talent, in 1921 he was admitted to the University of Wisconsing to study engineering. However, the young man was seeking more challenging endeavors, and two years later he became a stunt pilot who performed feats at county fairs and public assemblies. This unusual and dangerous undertaking paid off handsomely in the sense that it allowed him to gain a diverse and well–rounded experience in aeronautics. He particularly delighted in what he called “wing–walking” and parachute jumping.
After a year of training as a military cadet, Lindbergh completed his program at the Brooks and Kelly airfields at the top of his class and earned the rank of captain.
Robertson Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri, offered him employment as a mail pilot to run the routes between St. Louis and Chicago, and Lindbergh retained his position with the company until 1927. During this period, he set out to win the Raymond B. Orteig prize of $25,000 to be awarded to the first pilot to fly nonstop from New York to Paris. This ambition would irreversibly change his life and accord him a prominent place in the history of aviation.
Embarking on the greatest adventure of his time, Lindbergh left Roosevelt Field at 7:52 A.M. on May 20, 1927, and landed at Le Bourget Field at 5:24 P.M. the next day. Fearing that he would be unknown when he arrived, Lindbergh carried letters of introduction to dignitaries in Paris, but when his plane came to a stop, he was overwhelmed by tremendous welcoming crowds. He was decorated in France, Great Britain, and Belgium, and President Coolidge sent a specially designated cruiser, the Memphis, to bring him back, His accomplishments in aeronautics brought him more medals and awards than had ever been received by any other person in private life.

The author of the passage implies that Lindbergh’s job with Robertson Aircraft Corporation.

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If you go back far enough, everything lived in the sea. At various points in evolutionary history, enterprising individuals within many different animal groups moved out onto the land, sometimes even to the most parched deserts, taking their own private seawater with them in blood and cellular fluids. In addition to the reptiles, birds, mammals and insects which we see all around us, other groups that have succeeded out of water include scorpions, snails, crustaceans such as woodlice and land crabs, millipedes and centipedes, spiders and various worms. And we mustn't forget the plants, without whose prior invasion of the land, none of the other migrations could have happened.
Moving from water to land involved a major redesign of every aspect of life, including breathing and reproduction. Nevertheless, a good number of thoroughgoing land animals later turned around, abandoned their hard-earned terrestrial re-tooling, and returned to the water again. Seals have only gone part way back. They show us what the intermediates might have been like, on the way to extreme cases such as whales and dugongs. Whales [including the small whales we call dolphins] and dugongs, with their close cousins, the manatees, ceased to be land creatures altogether and reverted to the full marine habits of their remote ancestors. They don't even come ashore to breed. They do, however, still breathe air, having never developed anything equivalent to the gills of their earlier marine incarnation. Turtles went back to the sea a very long time ago and, like all vertebrate returnees to the water, they breathe air. However, they are, in one respect, less fully given back to the water than whales or dugongs, for turtles still lay their eggs on beaches.
There is evidence that all modern turtles are descended from a terrestrial ancestor which lived before most of the dinosaurs. There are two key fossils called Proganochelys quenstedti and Palaeochersis talampayensis dating from early dinosaur times, which appear to be close to the ancestry of all modern turtles and tortoise. You might wonder how we can tell whether fossil animals lived in land or in water, especially if only fragments are found. Sometimes it's obvious. lchthyosaurs were reptilian contemporaries of the dinosaurs, with fins and streamlined bodies. The fossils look like dolphins and they surely lived like dolphins, in the water. With turtles it is a little less obvious. One way to tell is by measuring the bones of their forelimbs

Which of the following best serves as the main idea for the passage?

Read the following passage and choose A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the following blanks.
For Nigel Portman, a love of travelling began with what’s called a ‘gap year’. In common with many other British teenagers, he chose to take a year out before (1)................. to study for his degree. After doing various jobs to raise some money, he left home to gain some experience of life in different cultures, visiting America and Asia. The more adventurous the young person, the (2)................. the challenge they are   likely to set themselves for the gap year, and for some, like Nigel, it can result in a thirst for adventure. Now that his university course  has (3)................. to an end, Nigel is just about to leave on a three-year trip that will take him all around the world. What’s more, he plans to make the whole journey using only means of transport which are powered by natural energy. In other words, he’ll be (4)................. mostly on bicycles and his own legs; and when there’s an ocean to cross, he won’t be taking a short cut by climbing aboard a plane, he’ll be joining the crew of a sailing ship instead. As well as doing some mountain climbing and other outdoor pursuits along the way, Nigel hopes to (5)................. on to the people he meets the environmental message that lies behind the whole idea.

he’ll be (4)................. mostly on bicycles and his own legs

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

"What does a personal trainer do? I meet each Client to discuss what he or she is looking for. It could be anything from improving general fitness to losing, or in a few cases, (1)……  weight. I then devise a training programme for them which I think will help them to achieve their (2)….. . If they have had anything (3)… with them, say a back injury, I speak to a doctor who will (4)…. me what not to do. If someone eats and drinks too much, it’s easy to suggest they (5)…. , but if that doesn’t (6)....... , I look at their diet. I prefer to train on a one-to-one basis, though I do sometimes work with (7)…. if they are friends and want to train together. Who needs a personal trainer? I think most people do. A trainer will push you to try (8)….. . You achieve 20 percent more than you could train alone, no (9)…… how dedicated you are. I’ve got a lot of Americans on my books, and I actually prefer them. (10)….. most Britons, who still haven’t really got the idea, Americans know how to work out."

5. If someone eats and drinks too much, it’s easy to suggest they (5)…. ,

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Almost all living things ultimately get their energy from the sun. In a process called photosynthesis, plants, algae, and some other organisms capture the sun's energy and use it to make simple sugars such as glucose. Most other organisms use these organic molecules as a source of energy. Organic materials contain a tremendous amount of energy. As food, they fuel our bodies and those of most other creatures. In such forms as oil, gas, and coal, they heat our homes, run our factories and power our cars.
Photosynthesis begins when solar energy is absorbed by chemicals called photosynthetic pigments that are contained within an organism. The most common photosynthetic pigment is chlorophyll. The bright green color characteristic of plants is caused by it. Most algae have additional pigments that may mask the green chlorophyll. Because of these pigments, algae may be not only green but brown, red, blue or even black.
In a series of enzyme-controlled reactions, the solar energy captured by chlorophyll and other pigments is used to make simple sugars, with carbon dioxide and water as the raw materials. Carbon dioxide is one of very few carbon- containing molecules not considered to be organic compounds. Photosynthesis then converts carbon from an inorganic to an organic form. This is called carbon fixation. In this process, the solar energy that was absorbed by chlorophyll is stored as chemical energy in the form of simple sugars like glucose. The glucose is then used to make other organic compounds. In addition, photosynthesis produces oxygen gas. All the oxygen gas on earth, both in the atmosphere we breathe and in the ocean, was produced by photosynthetic organisms. Photosynthesis constantly replenishes the earth's oxygen supply.
Organisms that are capable of photosynthesis can obtain all the energy they need from sunlight and do not need to eat. They are called autotrophs. Plants are the most familiar autotrophs on land. In the ocean, algae and bacteria are the most important autotrophs. Many organisms cannot produce their own food and must obtain energy by eating organic matter. These are called heterotrophs.

The word “fuel” is similar in meaning to     .

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Tides are the periodic rise and fall of the Earth’s waters that are caused by the Moon’s and Sun’s forces of gravity acting on the Earth .It is important to distinguish natural tidal phenomena from huge tsunamis , with the latter being caused by earthquakes and undersea volcanic eruptions.
The Moon is a main factor controlling ordinary tides. At the location on the Earth closest to the Moon, it exerts a powerful gravitational pull on the water. The resulting rise in the water produces higher tides. The water on the side of the Earth farthest away from the Moon also gets pulled by this lunar gravity, but not as strongly. The Earth itself has its own gravitational force that is constantly pulling waters downward, which is why the oceans do not simply bulge out toward the Moon. Ordinary tides usually feature high and low waters alternating in relation to the Earth’s rotation. Most shores around the world have high waters and two low waters for each day, which last about 24 hours and 50 minutes. The difference in height between the high water and low water is called the range of tide, and it can be quite dramatic in narrower bays
.Canada’s bays of Fundy , for example , commonly experiences the world’s most extreme tidal ranges , with daily differences of the 16 meters.
Two other types of tides are influenced by the Sun, which is much farther away from the Earth and exerts less than half of the Moon’s gravitational force. When the Sun, the Moon and the Earth are directly in line, the solar and lunar gravitational forces add up to produce higher spring tides. The range of spring tides is intensified, with higher water marks and lower low water marks. However, when the Moon is in the first or third quarter, it is at a 90–degree angle with the Sun in relation to the Earth .The opposing solar and lunar forces partially cancel each other out, and the result is a lower tide. This is called a neap tide, which comes twice a month and has lower high water marks and higher low water marks. The range of neap tides is minimum.
Some tides do not occur over water at all. The solid body of the Earth has slight elasticity, so lunar and solar gravity cause it to stretch very subtly. These changes in the Earth’s shape, although imperceptible to humans, are known as Earth tides.
Another tidal phenomenon, atmospheric tides, is caused by the Sun’s heating of the Earth’s atmosphere. Like ordinary tides, they usually occur over 12–hour periods.

The word exerts in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to

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The majority of medium and large companies pay higher wage rates to men than to women, according to the latest government figures. The disparity, known as the gender pay gap, reflects the different average hourly salaries earned by men and women. The government data showed 74% of firms pay higher rates to their male staff. just 15% of businesses with more than 250 employees pay more to women. As many as 11% of firms said there is no difference between the rates paid to either gender.
Unlike pay inequality - which compares the wages of men and women doing the same job - a gender pay difference at a company is not illegal, but could possibly reflect discrimination. The average gender pay gap across all medium and large-sized firms is now 8.2%, as measured by median pay. in other words, men typically earn over 8% more per hour than women. Among those with the largest gender pay gap are airlines such as Tui and Easyjet, and banks including Virgin Money, the Clydesdale and TSB. Easyjet has said its pay gap of 45.5% is down to the fact that most of its pilots are male, while most of its more modestly paid cabin crew are female. Tui Airways - where men earn 47% more than 214women - has the same issue. Many banks also appear to have a gender bias on salaries. The Bank of England's wage rate for men is 24% higher than for its female employees.
By law, all firms with more than 250 staff must report their gender pay gap to the government by 4 April this year. So far only 1,047 firms have complied, leaving another 8,000 to go. Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the CBI, denied companies were dragging their feet in reporting the data. "I don't see a reluctance," she told the Today programme. "I think this is genuinely quite difficult data to find, it is often sitting on different systems and firms are working very hard towards that deadline.

The word “their” in paragraph 3 refers to     ?

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The first thing to do when you have a trip abroad is to check that your passport is valid. Holders of out–of–date passports are not allowed to travel overseas. Then you can prepare for your trip. If you don't know the language, you can have all kinds of problems communicating with local people. Buying a pocket dictionary can make a difference. You'll be able to order food, buy things in shops and ask for directions. It's worth getting one. Also there's nothing worse than arriving at your destination to find there are no hotels available. The obvious way to avoid this is to book in advance. This can save you money too. Another frustrating thing that can happen is to go somewhere and not know about important sightseeing places. Get a guide book before you leave and make the most of your trip. It's a must.
Then, when you are ready to pack your clothes, make sure they are the right kind. It's no good packing sweaters and coats for a hot country or T–shirts and shorts for a cold one. Check the local climate before you leave.
Also, be careful how much you pack in your bags. It's easy to take too many clothes and then not have enough space for souvenirs. But make sure you pack essentials. What about money? Well, it's a good idea to take some local currency with you but not too much. There are conveniently located cash machines (ATMs) in most big cities, and it's usually cheaper to use them than change your cash in banks. Then you'll have more money to spend. When you are at your destination, other travellers often have great information they are happy to share. Find out what they have to say. It could enhance your travelling experience.

The word "This" in paragraph 2 refers to     .

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Set in the red desert of central Australia is the mining town of Coober Pedy. At first sight, the town looks similar to many other such communities, but Coober Pedy is different. Sixty per cent of its population of 4,000 people lives underground. There are today about 800 underground houses as well as shops, hotels and even churches in the town and the surrounding hills. Once a site has been chosen, special tunneling machines are (1)............in to create passages and rooms in the sandstone. Rock pillars are left to support the roof, and doors and windows are cut into the front. Houses are of all shapes and (2)......., the largest having twenty rooms, and some even have their own swimming poll.
Living underground may sound strange but in fact it has a number of advantages. In summer, the temperature outside can reach an astonishing 47°C, and in winter the nights can be (3)...... cold.
However, inside the houses it remains a steady 25°C all year round. Many people say that living underground makes they feel very secure. There is no problem with noise from the neighbours and the houses are not affected. By the fierce dust storms that regularly sweep (4)........the area. And of course,  if  your family (5)........... or lots of friends come to stay, you can always dig another room.
(5)..........................

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:
The hard, rigid plates that form the outermost portion of the Earth are about 100 kilometers thick. These plates include both the Earth's crust and the upper mantle. The rocks of the crust are composed mostly of minerals with light elements, like aluminum and sodium, while the mantle contains some heavier elements, like iron and magnesium. Together, the crust and upper mantle that form the surface plates are called the lithosphere. This rigid layer floats on the denser material of the lower mantle the way a wooden raft floats on a pond. The plates are supported by a weak, plastic layer of the lower mantle called the asthenosphere. Also like a raft on a pond, the lithospheric plates are carried along by slow currents in this more fluid layer beneath them.
With an understanding of plate tectonics, geologists have put together a new history for the Earth's surface. About 200 million years ago, the plates at the Earth's surface formed a “supercontinent” called Pangaea. When this supercontinent started to tear apart because of plate movement, Pangaea first broke into two large continental masses with a newly formed sea that grew between the land areas as the depression filled with water. The southern one — which included the modern continents of South America, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica — is called Gondwanaland. The northern one — with North America, Europe, and Asia — is called Laurasia. North America tore away from Europe about 180 million years ago, forming the northern Atlantic Ocean. Some of the lithospheric plates carry ocean floor and others carry land masses or a combination of the two types. The movement of the lithospheric plates is responsible for earthquakes, volcanoes, and the Earth's largest mountain ranges. Current understanding of the interaction between different plates explains why these occur where they do. For example, the edge of the Pacific Ocean has been called the “Ring of Fire” because so many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes happen there. Before the 1960's, geologists could not explain why active volcanoes and strong earthquakes were concentrated in that region. The theory of plate tectonics gave them an answer.

Which of the following can be inferred about the theory of plate tectonics?

Staggering tasks confronted the people of the United States, North and South when the Civil War ended. About a million and a half soldiers from both sides had to be demobilized, readjusted to civilian life, and reabsorbed by the devastated economy.
Civil government also had to be put back on a peacetime basis and interference from the military had to be stopped. The desperate plight of the South has eclipsed the fact that reconstruction had to be undertaken also in the North, though less spectacularly. Industries had to adjust to peacetime conditions; factories had to be retooled for civilian needs.
Financial problems loomed large in both the North and the South. The national debt had shot up from a modest $65 million in 1861, the year the war started, to nearly $3 billion in 1865, the year the war ended. This was a colossal sum for those days but one that a prudent government could pay. At the same time, war taxes had to be reduced to less burdensome levels.
Physical devastation caused by invading armies, chiefly in the South and border states, had to be repaired. This Herculean task was ultimately completed, but with discouraging slowness.
Other important questions needed answering. What would be the future of the four million Black people who were freed from slavery? On what basis were the Southern states to be brought back into the Union?
What of the Southern leaders, all of whom were liable to charges of treason? One of these leaders, Jefferson Davis, president of the Southern Confederacy, was the subject of an insulting popular Northern song, “Hang Jeff Davis from a Sour Apple Tree,” and even children sang it. Davis was temporarily chained in his prison cell during the early days of his two-year imprisonment. But he and the other Southern leaders were finally released, partly because it was unlikely that a jury from Virginia, a Southern Confederate state, would convict them. All the leaders were finally pardoned by President Johnson in 1868 in an effort to help reconstruction efforts proceed with as little bitterness as possible.

The word “them” refers 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.
Good press photographer must have an ‘eye’ for news, just as journalists must have a nose for a good story. They must be able to interpret a story and decide rapidly how they can take advantage (1)......the best opportunities to take picture. The most difficult part of a press photographer’s job is that he or  she  has  to  be  able to (2)....... a complicated situation with just one photograph. They rarely have second chances and must be able to take the required shot very quickly. Indeed, speed is essential- if the photographs are not ready for the printing deadline, they are very unlikely to be of any use.
Most press photographers begin work with a local newspaper. There, the demand is mostly for material of regional interest. Photographers may be expected to photograph a lot of unexciting events but to (3).....the enthusiasm to put ‘something special’ into every picture.
There is (4)........competition  among those (5)......... want to move from local to national newspapers. Here, the work is much more centered on news. The photographer must work under greater pressure and take more responsibility. Only highly reliable, talented and resourceful photographers make this difficult move. The work is tough and can be dangerous. On an overseas assignment, photographers may have to cope with unfamiliar food and accommodation, physical and mental stress, and extreme difficulty in transporting the pictures from an isolated area to get to the newspaper on time. They also have to beat the competition from other publications.
(5)........................