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In the exploration of the linguistic life cycle, it is apparent that it is much more difficult to learn a second language in adulthood than a first language in childhood. Most adults never completely master foreign language, especially in phonology - hence the ubiquitous foreign accent. Their development often "fossilizes" into permanent error patterns that no teaching or correction can do. Of course, there are great individual differences, which depend on effort, attitudes, amount of exposure, quality of teaching and plain talent, but there seems to be a cap for the best adults in the best circumstances.
Many explanations have been advanced for children's superiority: they exploit Motherless (the simplified, repetitive conversation between parents and children), make errors oneself- consciously, are more motivated to communicate, like to conform, are not set in their ways, and have no first language to interfere. But some of these accounts are unlikely, based on what is known about how language acquisition works. Recent evidence is calling these social and motivation explanations into doubt. Holding every other factor constant, a key factor stands out: sheer age.
Systematic evidence comes from the psychologist Elisa Newport and her colleagues. They tested Korean and Chinese-born students at the University of Illinois who had spent at least ten years in the United States. The immigrants were given a list of 276 simple English sentences, half of them containing some grammatical errors. The immigrants who came to the United States between the ages of 3 and 7 performed identically to American bom students. Those who arrived between the ages of 8 and 15 did worse the later they arrived, and those who arrived between 17 and 39 did the worst of all, and showed huge variability unrelated to their age of arrival.

The passage is mainly about...................

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Martin Luther King, Jr., is well known for his work in civil rights and for his many famous speeches, among them is his moving “I Have A Dream” speech. But fewer people know much about King’s childhood. M.L., as he was called, was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, at the home of his maternal grandfather. M.L.’s grandfather, the Reverend A.D. Williams, purchased their home on Auburn Avenue in 1909, twenty years before M.L. was born. The Reverend Williams, an eloquent speaker, played an important role in the community since so many people’s lives centered around the church. He allowed his church and his home to be used as a meeting place for a number of organizations dedicated to the education and social advancement of blacks.
M.L. grew up in this atmosphere, with his home being used as a community gathering place, and was no doubt influenced by it.

M.L.’s childhood was not especially eventful. His father was a minister and his mother was a musician. He was the second of three children, and he attended all-black schools in a black neighborhood. The neighborhood was not poor, however. Auburn Avenue was the main artery through a prosperous neighborhood that had come to symbolize achievement for Atlanta’s black people. It was an area of banks, insurance companies, builders, jewelers, tailors, doctors, lawyers, and other black-owner, black- operated businesses, and services. Even in the face of Atlanta’s segregation, the district thrived. Dr. King never forgot the community spirit he had known as a child, nor did he forget the racial prejudice that was a seemingly insurmountable barrier that kept black Atlanta from mingling with whites.

According to the author, King was influenced by

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It is often the case with folktales that they develop from actual happenings but in their development lose much of their factual base; the story of Pocahontas quite possibly fits into this category of folktale. This princess of the Powhatan tribe was firmly established in the lore of early America and has been made even more famous by the Disney film based on the folktale that arose from her life. She was a real-life person, but the actual story of her life most probably different considerably from the folktale and the movie based on the folktale. Powhatan, the chief of a confederacy of tribes in Virginia, had several daughters, none of whom was actually named Pocahontas. The nickname means “playful one,” and several of Powhatan’s daughters were called Pocahontas. The daughter of Powhatan who became the subject of the folktale was named Matoaka. What has been verified about Matoaka, or Pocahontas as she has come to be known, is that she did marry an Englishman and that she did spend time in England before she died there at a young age. In the spring of 1613, a young Pocahontas was captured by the English and taken into Jamestown. There she was treated with courtesy as the daughter of chief Powhatan. While Pocahontas was at Jamestown, English gentlemen John Rolfe fell in love with her and asked her to marry. Both the governor of the Jamestown colony and Pocahontas’s father Powhatan approved the marriage as a means of securing peace between Powhatan’s tribe and the English at Jamestown. In 1616, Pocahontas accompanied her new husband to England, where she was royally received. Shortly before her planned return to Virginia in 1617, she contracted an illness and died rather suddenly.
A major part of the folktale of Pocahontas that is unverified concerns her love for English Captain John Smith is the period of time before her capture by the British and her rescue of him from almost certain death. Captain John Smith was indeed at the colony of Jamestown and was acquainted with Powhatan and his daughters, he even described meeting them in 1612 journal. However, the story of his rescue by the young maiden did not appear in his writing until 1624, well after Pocahontas had aroused widespread interest in England by her marriage to an English gentlemen and her visit to England. It is the discrepancy in dates that has caused some historians to doubt the veracity of the tale. However, other historians do argue quite persuasively that this incident did truly take place.aa

When did John Smith most likely meet Pocahontas?

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The problem of cardiac arrest has become a major problem these days. A lot of patients have acute pain after suffering from a stroke. There are plenty of medicines, surgical methods developed in the field of medicine to treat such cardiac problems. These solutions are time consuming and costly. In the process of rehabilitation, the medicines also have a lot of side effects on the human body and take time to give relief. Therefore, a lot of people go for alternative therapies that help in rehabilitation of patients who suffer from cardiac stroke. The alternative therapies help in relieving pain, stress and make the body healthy and fit through exercise, yoga as well as meditation.
Those who have the cardiac complaint have to take a good care of their diet.
Also, they must look after their regular exercise in order to stay fit and make sure that they do not take undue stress. These are some of the precautions that you need to take while you are in the process of rehabilitation. The cardiac rehabilitation can be carried out at the rehabilitation centers as well as at the residence of the patients. Once the patient learns all the exercise and techniques of meditation and understands what diet he or she should include in their meals as the instructions of the doctor’s and dieticians, then it is possible to accomplish the rehabilitation process at home with little guidance and monitoring. But the best results are seen at the center, where the program is given to a group of patients together.
The alternative therapies used for cardiac rehabilitation are stress management, physical exercises and diet. Stress management is very much essential in the rehabilitation process because it has a lot of effects on the patient’s body. A lot of relaxation techniques are taught to the patients that helps them in stress management, among them meditation is one of the main focuses.
The various rehabilitation programs also give you information on how to have a stress free lifestyle. The patients are supported and encouraged to discuss their problems with the counselor or fellow patients. This helps them to vent their feelings and feel comforted. Breathing exercises are also of great help for the patients who are undergoing cardiac rehabilitation.
In addition to stress management, physical exercises are also given a lot of importance in the rehabilitation program. The patients are asked to perform various forms of physical exercise which are suitable to them depending on their age and the severity of their problems. These activities include activities like walking, jogging, cycling, and some other sports like badminton, tennis etc., to maintain their health and keep their muscles, bones, and body tissues in a good state. Cardio exercise in a gymnasium is also encouraged. This helps in strengthening the muscles and managing weight.
The diet of these patients also needs to be looked upon very carefully. Such people should stay away from alcohol and tobacco consumption in order to improve their health. Make sure that their meals include plenty of organic foodstuffs as well as fruits and juices. Do not include junk and oily foodstuffs in your diet because they are very difficult to digest. The intake of calories should also be done at required level. It is a significant fact that the patients have to understand and work accordingly.

According to the passage, what do people with cardiac arrest need to do to have a stress-free life?

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In young language learners, there is a critical period of time beyond which it becomes increasingly difficult to acquire a language. Children generally attain proficiency in their first language by the age of five and continue in a state of relative linguistic plasticity until puberty. [A] Neurolinguistic research has singled out the lateralization of the brain as the reason for this dramatic change from fluidity to rigidity in language function. Lateralization is the process by which the brain hemispheres become dominant for different tasks. The right hemisphere of the brain controls emotions and social functions, whereas the left hemisphere regulates the control of analytical functions, intelligence, and logic. [B] For the majority of adults, language functions are dominant on the left side of the brain. [C] Numerous studies have demonstrated that it is nearly impossible to attain a nativelike accent in a second language, though some adults have overcome the odds, after lateralization is complete. [D]
Cognitive development also affects language acquisition, but in this case adult learners may have some advantages over child learners. Small children tend to have a very concrete, here- and-now view of the world around them, but at puberty, about the time that lateralization is complete, people become capable of abstract thinking, which is particularly useful for language. Generally speaking, adults can profit from grammatical explanations, whereas children cannot. This is evidenced by the fact that children are rather unreceptive to correction of grammatical features and instead tend to focus on the meaning of  an utterance rather than its form. However, language learning theory suggests that for both adults and children, optimal language acquisition occurs in a meaning centered context. Though children have the edge over adult language learners with respect to attaining a nativelike pronunciation, adults clearly have an intellectual advantage which greatly facilitates language learning.

According to the passage, which of the following is NOT controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain?

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When another old cave is discovered in the south of France, it is not unusual news. Rather, it is an ordinary event. Such discoveries are so frequent these days that hardly anybody pays heed to them. However, when the Lascaux cave complex was discovered in 1940, the world was amazed. Painted directly on its walls were hundreds of scenes showing how people lived thousands of years ago. The scenes show people hunting animals, such as bison or wild cats. Other images depict birds and, most noticeably, horses, which appear in more than 300 wall images, by far outnumbering all other animals.
Early artists drawing these animals accomplished a monumental and difficult task. They did not limit themselves to the easily accessible walls but carried their painting materials to spaces that required climbing steep walls or crawling into narrow passages in the Lascaux complex.
Unfortunately, the paintings have been exposed to the destructive action of water and temperature changes, which easily wear the images away. Because the Lascaux caves have many entrances, air movement has also damaged the images inside.
Although they are not out in the open air, where natural light would have destroyed them long ago, many of the images have been deteriorated and are barely recognizable. To prevent further damage, the site was closed to tourists in 1963, 23 years after it was discovered.

Why was painting inside the Lascaux cave complex a difficult task?

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    The increase in urbanization causes different problems. Air and water pollution are amongst the major issue we have to tackle.
    In the first place, cars, factories and burning waste emit dangerous gases that change the air quality in our cities and pose threats to our health. Dangerous gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides cause respiratory diseases, for instant, bronchitis and asthma. Those are also proved to have long-term effects on the environment.
    Furthermore, with the increased population, it becomes difficult to manage the waste generated in cities. Most of the waste is discharged or dumped into rivers or onto streets. The waste pollutes water and makes it unfit for human consumption. Subsequently, it becomes more and more difficult for city dwellers to get clean water. Some cities in Africa are unable to provide adequate water supply because most of the water is lost in pipe leakages. In fact, most city dwellers in developing countries are forced to boil their water or to buy bottled water, which is very expensive. 
    There are several actions that could be taken to eradicate the problems described above. Firstly, a simple solution would be joining community efforts to address problems affecting your city. Ask your parents, friends and relatives to join in as well. These efforts might include clean-up campaigns, recycling projects and a signature campaign to ask the government to do something about the situation. A second measure would be encouraging your teacher to talk about these problems and to discuss how young people can help to solve them. Finally, writing to local organizations working on these issues for ideas on how you can contribute to solve them.

The word those in paragraph 2 refers to ____.

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.

The possessive “their” refers to  ..............

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It is often the case with folktales that they develop from actual happenings but in their development lose much of their factual base; the story of Pocahontas quite possibly fits into this category of folktale. This princess of the Powhatan tribe was firmly established in the lore of early America and has been made even more famous by the Disney film based on the folktale that arose from her life. She was a real-life person, but the actual story of her life most probably different considerably from the folktale and the movie based on the folktale. Powhatan, the chief of a confederacy of tribes in Virginia, had several daughters, none of whom was actually named Pocahontas. The nickname means “playful one,” and several of Powhatan’s daughters were called Pocahontas. The daughter of Powhatan who became the subject of the folktale was named Matoaka. What has been verified about Matoaka, or Pocahontas as she has come to be known, is that she did marry an Englishman and that she did spend time in England before she died there at a young age. In the spring of 1613, a young Pocahontas was captured by the English and taken into Jamestown. There she was treated with courtesy as the daughter of chief Powhatan. While Pocahontas was at Jamestown, English gentlemen John Rolfe fell in love with her and asked her to marry. Both the governor of the Jamestown colony and Pocahontas’s father Powhatan approved the marriage as a means of securing peace between Powhatan’s tribe and the English at Jamestown. In 1616, Pocahontas accompanied her new husband to England, where she was royally received. Shortly before her planned return to Virginia in 1617, she contracted an illness and died rather suddenly.
A major part of the folktale of Pocahontas that is unverified concerns her love for English Captain John Smith is the period of time before her capture by the British and her rescue of him from almost certain death. Captain John Smith was indeed at the colony of Jamestown and was acquainted with Powhatan and his daughters, he even described meeting them in 1612 journal. However, the story of his rescue by the young maiden did not appear in his writing until 1624, well after Pocahontas had aroused widespread interest in England by her marriage to an English gentlemen and her visit to England. It is the discrepancy in dates that has caused some historians to doubt the veracity of the tale. However, other historians do argue quite persuasively that this incident did truly take place.

The main idea of the passage is that     .

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
In the exploration of the linguistic life cycle, it is apparent that it is much more difficult to learn a second language in adulthood than a first language in childhood. Most adults never completely master foreign language, especially in phonology - hence the ubiquitous foreign accent. Their development often "fossilizes" into permanent error patterns that no teaching or correction can do. Of course, there are great individual differences, which depend on effort, attitudes, amount of exposure, quality of teaching and plain talent, but there seems to be a cap for the best adults in the best circumstances.
Many explanations have been advanced for children's superiority: they exploit Motherless (the simplified, repetitive conversation between parents and children), make errors oneself- consciously, are more motivated to communicate, like to conform, are not set in their ways, and have no first language to interfere. But some of these accounts are unlikely, based on what is known about how language acquisition works. Recent evidence is calling these social and motivation explanations into doubt. Holding every other factor constant, a key factor stands out: sheer age.
Systematic evidence comes from the psychologist Elisa Newport and her colleagues. They tested Korean and Chinese-born students at the University of Illinois who had spent at least ten years in the United States. The immigrants were given a list of 276 simple English sentences, half of them containing some grammatical errors. The immigrants who came to the United States between the ages of 3 and 7 performed identically to American bom students. Those who arrived between the ages of 8 and 15 did worse the later they arrived, and those who arrived between 17 and 39 did the worst of all, and showed huge variability unrelated to their age of arrival.

According to the second paragraph, children learn languages better than adults because of the following reasons EXCEPT.................

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Most volcanoes are found along an imaginary belt, called the Ring of Fire, that encircles the Pacific Ocean. However, volcanic activity takes place in many far-flung regions of the world such as Hawaii, Iceland, Europe, and even the floor of the earth’s oceans. The leading theory as to why volcanic activity, as well as earthquakes, takes place when and where it does is called the theory of “plate tectonics”. The theory holds that the outer shell of the earth is divided into many different rigid sections of rock, called plates. These plates are not static, they are in continuous motion over a layer of partly melted rock. While their movement may appear insignificant, at only several inches per year, it is not. Indeed, the collisions between plates caused by this almost imperceptible movement can have catastrophic consequences. Volcanic activity and earthquakes are concentrated near the boundaries of these giant, moving plates.
The majority of volcanoes are formed at te point where two plates collide. One of the plates is forced underneath the other. As the plate sinks, the earth’s heat and the friction of the movement cause a portion of the sinking plate to melt. This melted portion of plate is called magma, and when it reaches the earth’s surface it becomes a volcano. Volcanoes can also be created when two plates begin to diverge. Then, magma from below the earth’s crust moves up to fill the void between the two plates. Large quantities of lava spill out from the void. Volcanoes of this type usually are found not on land, but on the ocean floor. In extreme instances this can lead to the formation of gigantic, sunken mountain ranges like Mid-Atlantic Ridge that spans nearly the entire length of the Atlantic Ocean. The theory of plate tectonics also explains why some volcanic activity takes place so far from any known plate boundaries. Basically, these volcanoes are the result of huge column of magma, or plumes, that rise up and break through the surface of the earth.

It can be inferred from the passage that the theory of plate tectonics is     .

Read the following passage and choose among A, B, C or D the correct answer to each of the questions.

There has been much debate over the past few decades concerning fears that nation will

lead to robots replacing human workers on a massive scale.

The increasing use of robotics, computers and artificial intelligence is a reality, but its full

implications are far from cut and dried. Some forecasts present the future in a utopian way,

claiming that robots will take over the tedious heavy work thus freeing up human time and

potential, allowing for more creativity and innovation,  the other end of spectrum are those who

foresee an employment apocalypse, predicting that almost fifty percent of all American jobs

could vanish within the next few decades. Former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates states that in 20

years robots could be in place in a number of job categories, particularly those at lower end of

the scale in terms of skills. The bottom line is that while the future is always uncertain, robots are a fixture of our society, which is not going to disappear. As with the Industrial Revolution, where machines were utilized in many tasks in place of manual laborers and social upheaval followed, the Digital Revolution is likely to place robots in various jobs. In spite of that, many of today's jobs were not in existence before the Industrial Revolution, such as those of programmers, engineers and data scientists. This leads other experts to criticize this alarmist approach of robot scare-mongering, which is invariably compared to the 19th -century "Luddites". This group was textile workers who feared being displaced by machines and resorted to violence, burning down factories and destroying industrial equipment - their rejection of inevitable progress has come to symbolize mindless ignorance.

Needless to say, exactly what new kinds of jobs might exist in the future is difficult to envision at present. Therefore, the crux of the issue is not whether jobs will be lost, but whether the creation of new vacancies will outpace the ever-increasing number of losses and what skills will be required in the future.

It is clearly not all doom and gloom, as demand for employees with skills in data analysis, coding, computer science, artificial intelligence and human-machine interface is rising and will continue to do so. Furthermore, the demand for skills in Jobs where humans surpass computers, such as those involving care, creativity and innovative craftmanship, are likely to increase considerably. Ultimately, the key lies in the adaptation of the workforces, through appropriate education and training, to keep pace with our world's technological progress.

What is the modern-day view of the Luddites?

Millions of people are using cellphones today. In many places, it is actually considered unusual not to use one. In many countries, cellphones are very popular with young people. They find that the phones are more than a means of communication - having a mobile phone shows that they are cool and connected.
The explosion in mobile phone use around the world has made some health professionals worried. Some doctors are concerned that in the future many people may suffer health problems from the use of mobile phones. In England, there has been a serious debate about this issue. Mobile phone companies are worried about the negative publicity of such ideas. They say that there is no proof that mobile phones are bad for your health.
On the other hand, medical studies have shown changes in the brain cells of some people who use mobile phones. Signs of change in the tissues of the brain and head can be detected with modern scanning equipment. In one case, a traveling salesman had to retire at young age because of serious memory loss. He couldn't remember even simple tasks. He would often forget the name of his own son. This man used to talk on his mobile phone for about six hours a day, every day of his working week, for a couple of years. His family doctor blamed his mobile phone use, but his employer's doctor didn't agree.
What is it that makes mobile phones potentially harmful? The answer is radiation. High-tech machines can detect very small amounts of radiation from mobile phones. Mobile phone companies agree that there is some radiation, but they say the amount is too small to worry about.
As the discussion about their safety continues, it appears that it's best to use mobile phones less often. Use your regular phone if you want to talk for a long time. Use your mobile phone only when you really need it. Mobile phones can be very useful and convenient, especially in emergencies. In the future, mobile phones may have a warning label that says they are bad for your health. So for now, it's wise not to use your mobile phone too often.

Doctors have tentatively concluded that cellphones may  ...........

Of all the aspirations which make up the American Dream, perhaps the most prominent is to own one’s own home. Americans are very proud of their homes and spend a great deal of time maintaining their houses and keeping the property in good condition. A man's home is often called his castle, and the hours spent keeping his fortress safe and secure become one of his greatest pleasures.
If a home is in an especially fashionable neighborhood, the owners may consult an interior decorator to give the home a certain coordinated appearance. If there is a large back yard, great care may be spent in having it properly landscaped with exotic trees, shrubs and plants.
It is almost a certainty that you should be the first visitor to an American home, you will be taken on a grand tour of the premises. The owner will take great pride in showing to you the place he calls home. Every closet, every cabinet and closed door will be opened so that you can actually see the extent and value of his home. You will even be taken into the father's den and the mother's sewing room. These are special rooms for the respective man and woman of the house to insure their privacy. They may be off-limits to the rest of the family but, for the visitor they are open to scrutiny and inspection.
It is, of course, considered polite on the tour to comment favorably on each room picking out its most salient, important feature, such as the special view from the window, the vaulted ceiling in the foyer or the exotic choice of wallpaper in the bathroom.
The finished basement is a special cause for pride for the family with its exercise room, video games, carpenter shop and launderette. In most homes it is here that the family entertains itself in the evening while the rest of the house becomes more of a showcase. On your tour you may be reminded of the hours the owners had spent "fixing up the house" so it would be "nice for the kids to bring over their friends". You may even sense a feeling of competition in knowing that they have not only "kept up with the Joneses" but also have far surpassed them.
The tour will terminate after an hour or so somewhere on the back lawn next to the two-car air- conditioned garage where you may be treated to a snack and light refreshment.
Showing off one's home is more than an exercise in vanity. It is a tribute to one's accomplishment. It is a way of saying that a man has been a good provider for his family and that he has realized one of his dreams.

What is considered polite behavior if you are taken on a grand tour of someone's home?

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What makes it rain? Rain falls from clouds for the same reason anything falls to Earth. The Earth’s gravity pulls it. But every cloud is made of water droplets or ice crystals. Why doesn’t rain or snow fall constantly from all clouds? The droplets or ice crystals in clouds are exceedingly small. The effect of gravity on them is minute. Air currents move and lift droplets so that the net downward displacement is zero, even though the droplets are in constant motion.
Droplets and ice crystals behave somewhat like dust in the air made visible in a shaft of sunlight. To the casual observer, dust seems to act in a totally random fashion moving about chaotically without fixed direction. But in fact dust particles are much larger than water droplets and they finally fall. The cloud droplet of average size is only 1/2500 inch in diameter. It is so small that it would take sixteen hours to fall half a mile in perfectly still air, and it does not fall out of moving air at all. Only when the droplet grows to a diameter of 1/125 inch or larger can it fall from the cloud. The average raindrop contains a million times as much water as a tiny cloud droplet. The growth of a cloud droplet to a size large enough to fall out is the cause of rain and other forms of precipitation. This important growth process is called “coalescence”.

Why don’t all ice crystals in clouds immediately fall to the Earth?

Interest is the sum charged for borrowing money for a fixed period of time. Principal is the term used for the money that is borrowed, and the rate of interest is the percent per year of the principal charged for its use. Most of the profits for a bank are derived from the interest that they charge for the use of their own or their depositor’s money.
All problems in interest may be solved by using one general equation that may be stated as follows:
Interest = Principal X Rate X Time
Any one of the four quantities – that is, interest, principal, rate, or time – may be found when the other three are known. The time is expressed in years. The rate is expressed as a decimal fraction. Thus, 6 percent interest means six cents charged for the use of $1 of principal borrowed for one year. Although the time may be less than, equal to, or greater than one year, most applications for loans are for periods of less than one year. For purpose of computing interest for short periods, the commercial year or 360 days is commonly used, but when large sums of money are involved, exact interest is computed on the basis of 365 days.

A commercial year is used to compute ..............

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In this modern world where closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras are everywhere and smartphones in every pocket, the routine filming of everyday life is becoming pervasive. A number of countries are rolling out body cams for police officers; other public-facing agencies such as schools, councils and hospitals are also experimenting with cameras for their employees. Private citizens are getting in on the act too: cyclists increasingly wear headcams as a deterrent to aggressive drivers. As camera technology gets smaller and cheaper, it isn't hard to envisage a future where we're all filming everything all the time, in every direction.
Would that be a good thing? There are some obvious potential upsides. If people know they are on camera, especially when at work or using public services, they are surely less likely to misbehave. The available evidence suggests that it discourages behaviours such as vandalism. Another upside is that it would be harder to get away with crimes or to evade blame for accidents.
But a world on camera could have subtle negative effects. The deluge of data we pour into the hands of Google, Facebook and others has already proved a mixed blessing. Those companies would no doubt be willing to upload and curate our body-cam data for free, but at what cost to privacy and freedom of choice?
Body-cam data could also create a legal minefield. Disputes over the veracity and interpretation of police footage have already surfaced. Eventually, events not caught on camera could be treated as if they didn't happen. Alternatively, footage could be faked or doctored to dodge blame or incriminate others.
Of course, there's always the argument that if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear. But most people have done something embarrassing, or even illegal, that they regret and would prefer they hadn't been caught on film. People already censor their social media feeds – or avoid doing anything incriminating in public – for fear of damaging their reputation. Would ubiquitous body cams have a further chilling effect on our freedom?
The always-on-camera world could even threaten some of the attributes that make us human. We are natural gossips and backbiters, and while those might not be desirable behaviours, they oil the wheels of our social interactions. Once people assume they are being filmed, they are likely to clam up.
The argument in relation to body-cam ownership is a bit like that for guns: once you go past a critical threshold, almost everyone will feel they need one as an insurance policy. We are nowhere near that point yet – but we should think hard about whether we really want to say "lights, body cam, action." 

As mentioned in paragraph 2, misbehaviour can be discouraged if potential offenders

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.
In the past, the process of choosing a career was a much simpler matter than it is today. Aboy often followed in his father’s footsteps. His sister learned the household skills that (1)..... her to become a wife and mother. Nowadays young people grow up in a much freer society (2)........they enjoy almost unlimited career opportunities. In recent years, there (3)..... an enormous increase in the kinds of vocations from which it is possible to choose. In addition, many of the barriers to career opportunity that existed only a few decades ago, such as (4).......... based on sex or religion or ethnic origins, are (5)............... disappearing.
(2)..................

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.
            Finding Beauty in the City
Cities are known to have lives of their own, and photographers are able to (1).............. some of it. Whether taking shots of people walking on a crowded street or time-lapse shots of cars driving at night, the (2).......photos can be breathtaking. Because many of the shots taken are of man-made objects like architecture, many emotions that come into (3)........ wouldn’t be found in nature photography. Photos can show the wonder of a child staring at a fountain as water shoots upward in the sunlight. They can also show the sadder side, such as a camp of homeless people living in terrible poverty. (4)............ of what they show, there is always beauty to be found, even if it is beauty in something that is showing an ugly truth. Depending on the time of the day, photos taken in an urban environment can change drastically. To see the (5)............ of a building as its shadow is cast on the lawn of a park is always amazing to see.
(4).........................

The Native American peoples of the north Pacific Coast created a highly complex maritime culture as they invented modes of production unique to their special environment. In addition to their sophisticated technical culture, they also attained one of the most complex social organizations of any nonagricultural people in the world.
In a division of labor similar to that of the hunting peoples in the interior and among foraging peoples throughout the world, the men did most of the fishing, and the women processed the catch. Women also specialized in the gathering of the abundant shellfish that lived closer to shore. They collected oysters, crabs, sea urchins, mussels, abalone, and clams, which they could gather while remaining close to their children. The maritime life harvested by the women not only provided food, but also supplied more of the raw materials for making tools than did fish gathered by the men. Of particular importance for the native tool than did the fish gathered by the men. Of particular made from the larger mussel shells, and a variety of cutting edges that could be made from other marine shells.
The women used their tools to process all of the fish and marine mammals brought in by the men. They cleaned the fish, and dried vast quantities of them for the winter. They sun-dried fish when practical, but in the rainy climate of the coastal area they also used smokehouses to preserve tons of fish and other seafood annually. Each product had its own peculiar characteristics that demanded a particular way of cutting or drying the meat, and each task required its own cutting blades and other utensils.
After drying the fish, the women pounded some of them into fish meal, which was an easily transported food used in soups, stews, or other dishes to provide protein and thickening in the absence of fresh fish or while on long trips. The women also made a cheese-like substance from a mixture of fish and roe by aging it in storehouses or by burying it in wooden boxes or pits lined with rocks and tree leaves.

It can be inferred from paragraph 1 that the social organization of many agricultural peoples is  .........