Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 81 to 92.
Together with the festive atmosphere Tet brings to Vietnam every year, the event is also the best time of the year for Vietnamese people to spend time on their (81) life and pay respect to religious institutions. Visiting pagodas on the first days of the year has long been a (82) tradition.
It has been a long-lasted custom of the people in this country each time a New Year arrival to visit pagoda. In Vietnam, the custom is described as "Lễ Chùa" - (83) "lễ" means not only visiting but also showing respects in all sincerity to Buddha and Gods of the pagodas or temples. No matter how busy the Vietnamese are during the hilarious atmosphere of Tet, everyone attempts (84) an incense to wish for best wishes for the New Year like healthiness, happiness and wealth. (85) praying at pagodas and temples is among the best ways to go out and enjoy the spring. Mixing ones' soul with the spiritual spaces, breathing in the aroma of burning incense and flowers and enjoying relaxing glimpse in the garden of the pagodas help demolish all the stresses and worries of the previous year.
(81)....................

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.
Is there life on Mars? Many people have (1) ______ about this question. Some writers    of science-fiction think of people from Mars as little green creatures. Others imagine 'Martians' as monsters with many eyes.
In studying this planet, astronomers have found that life may be possible on Mars. The first (2) _____ of this is that Mars has seasons, just like Earth. In other words, Earth's seasons, such as spring or summer, occur on Mars too. Because these seasons exist, it may be possible for (3) ____and other higher life forms to be found on Mars.
Astronomers also think that perhaps a small (4) ______ of  water vapor could be  found  on Mars. In 1887, an Italian astronomer, Giovanni Schiaparelli, discovered markings on Mars' surface. These markings looked like canals. This finding led astronomers to believe that since water exists on Mars, life forms could exist as well.
 However, there are others who feel that life on Mars is not possible. This is because there is little or no trace of oxygen on the planet. In 1965, the Mariner IV capsule managed to take photographs of the planet. It discovered that the only forms of  life found are vegetation like fungi and mosses. (5) ______ people remain fascinated by the idea that there could one day be life on Mars.

(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 tropical cyclone is a violent low pressure storm that usually occurs over warm oceans of over 80°F or 27°C. It winds counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as it is described for the term, cyclone itself. This powerful storm is fueled by the heat energy that is released when water vapor condenses at high altitudes, the heat ultimately derived from the Sun.
The center of a tropical cyclone, called the eye, is relatively calm and warm. This eye, which is roughly 20 to 30 miles wide, is clear, mainly because of subsiding air within it. The ring of clouds around the eye is the eyewall, where clouds reach highest and precipitation is heaviest. The strong wind, gusting up to 360 kilometers per hour, occurs when a tropical cyclone’s eyewall passes over land.
There are various names for a tropical cyclone depending on its location and strength. In Asia, a tropical cyclone is named according to its strength. The strongest is a typhoon; its winds move at more than 117 kilometers per hour. In India, it is called a cyclone. Over the North Atlantic and in the South Pacific, they call it a hurricane.
On average, there are about 100 tropical cyclones worldwide each year. A tropical cyclone peaks in late summer when the difference between temperature in the air and sea surface is the greatest. However, it has its own seasonal patterns. May is the least active month, while September is the most active.
The destruction associated with a tropical cyclone results not only from the force of the wind, but also from the storm surge and the waves it generates. It is born and sustained over large bodies of warm water, and loses its strength over inland regions that are comparatively safe from receiving strong winds. Although the tract of a tropical cyclone is very erratic, the Weather Service can still issue timely warnings to the public if a tropical cyclone is approaching densely populated areas. If people ever experience a cyclone, they would know how strong it could be.

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:
The blue whale is the largest animal ever known to  have existed. During the 20th century,  the species was almost exterminated due to commercial whaling. The species has slowly recovered following the global whaling ban but it remains endangered and faces a  number of  serious threats including ship strikes and the impact of climate change.
Blue whales are simply enormous with most ranging in length from 24-30 m. The largest  ever recorded was a gargantuan 33.5 m long. Females are up to 10 m longer than males. And they can weigh up to 200 tonnes. Just to put that in perspective: an adult male African elephant weighs 6 tonnes. The blue whale's heart is the size of a small car and its beat can be detected two miles away. But that's nothing compared to their calls. Blue whales are the loudest animals on earth and their calls are louder than a jet engine: reaching 188 decibels, while a jet's engine hit 'just' 140 decibels. Apart from their gigantic size, blue whales can be identified by their relatively small dorsal fin, a fairly rounded rostrum (anterior part of the skull), and approximately 90 ventral  grooves, which reach the navel. They also have row of 300-400 baleen plates on each side of the mouth, which are black in color and range in length from 50 cm in front to 100 cm in back.
Blue whales mostly travel alone or in groups of 2-3. Larger groups of up to 60 whales have been reported and are probably associated with feeding grounds. However, the blue whale has the most powerful voice in the animal kingdom and its low-frequency sounds can travel in deep water over hundreds, or even thousands, of miles. Under these circumstances, animals which may appear to us to be traveling alone may actually be in constant contact with one another.
At birth, a blue whale calf is the largest baby on earth: approximately 8m long and weighing about 4 tonnes. They grow at a rate of 90 kg per day and wean after 7-8 months, once they have reached about 15 m in length, and are able to follow the normal migration pattern alone. They reach sexual maturity at 5-10 years. This growth rate is astonishing and is probably the fastest in the animal kingdom.  From  conception to weaning, it represents a several billion-fold increase in tissue in just over a year and a half. Like other baleen whales, the blue whale has no teeth so it is hard to tell its age but scientists believe they live until at least 50.
Like other large whales, blue whales are threatened by chemical and sound pollution, habitat loss, overfishing of krill, ship strikes and becoming entangled in fishing gear. Climate change could also have a major impact on its food supply, since global warming and associated ocean acidification may impact krill populations. In addition, frontal zones - critical whale habitats - are projected to move further south due to climate change. Frontal zones are boundaries between different water masses, where water can rise from the depths, bringing with it large amounts of nutrients that stimulate the growth of phytoplankton and support substantial populations of prey species for whales. Blue whales would have to migrate further (perhaps 200-500 km more) to reach and feed at these food-rich areas where they build up reserves to sustain themselves for the rest of the year. These longer migration paths could increase the energy costs  of migration and reduce the duration of the main feeding season. As frontal zones move southward, they also move closer together, reducing the overall area of foraging habitat available.

Which of the following is NOT correct about the blue whale's physical description?

Attention Students
This Saturday, October 20, is the registration deadline for the winter terns.
Complete your registration form in the Administrative Office on the second floor between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Payment must be made at the time of registration, so bring your credit card, a money order, or cash with you. Personal cheques will not be accepted. No late exceptions. Classes begin Monday, October 22.

What will probably happen if a student is not able to pay by October 20?

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. 
Acupuncture is a Chinese method of treating illnesses by inserting needles into certain points of the body. The idea is that this restores the natural balance of energy, (23) ________ is disturbed when a person is ill. The origins of this therapy have been traced back over five thousand years, but it only began to be accepted in the West in the 1970s. 
In 1971, James Reston, a well-known journalist from the New York Times, was visiting China when he developed appendicitis. He was operated (24) _____________ in a hospital in Peking, where the doctors used acupuncture to relieve his pain. Reston was surprised at how (25) _____________ it was, and wrote about it in an article for the newspaper. 
Soon afterwards, Chairman Mao Tse-tung invited a group of distinguished Western doctors over to China to witness for themselves that (26) ________ worked. They were accompanied by television crews, and soon viewers in the West were watching operations being carried out on patients with acupuncture needles sticking out of them. The patients felt no pain. 
The Western experts were a little embarrassed at what they saw, because they had (27) _____________ ridiculed the idea that patients could be treated with needles. But now they were forced to admit that it actually worked, and acupuncture became a popular form of therapy. 

(24).......................

Cable television was born in 1928. Sadly, we are all witnessing its death. Not so long ago, a TV guide could be found on every living room coffee table to help consumers plan their evening TV show lineup. Today, Generation Z consumes video content in a completely different way. These young viewers have placed a premium on flexibility. Rigid time frames outlining ad-laden TV shows are wholly unappealing to such an audience. 
From the type of content they watch and the format they watch it in to the device they watch it on, Gen Z is asking for content to be catered to them. The successful streaming platforms will be the ones that listen. The migration from traditional media to on-demand streaming has forced media outlets to become more agile than ever.
While cable TV is holding on for dear life to its remaining subscribers, successful platforms have provided what their customers want — content on the go. Gone are the days where family members rush home to secure a spot on the couch just in time to tune into their favorite programs. Instead, Gen Z has ignited the movement of content providers toward specialized content streaming. Specifically, platforms have carved out success by placing more tailored content onto apps and services that are geared toward the younger viewers and accessible by phone or tablet. Studies have revealed that a Gen Z audience consumes the majority of its content on three platforms: YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. 
Gen Z consumes three hours of entertainment and video content on their phones, nearly doubling the number of hours spent watching cable TV. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that producers are opting to create streamable, accessible, mobile content over traditional platforms.

The word “opting” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ______.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
How is the news different from entertainment? Most people would answer that news is real but entertainment is fiction. However, if we think more carefully about the news, it becomes clear that the news is not always real. The news does not show us all the events of the day, but stories  from a small number of chosen events. The creation of news stories is subject to specific constraints, much like the creation of works of fiction. There are many constraints, but three of the most important ones are: commercialism, story formulas, and sources.
Newspapers, radio, and TV stations are businesses, all of which are rivals for audiences and advertising revenue. The amount of time that the average TV station spends on news broadcasts has grown steadily over the last fifty years - largely because news is relatively cheap to produce, yet sells plenty of advertising. Some news broadcasts are themselves becoming advertisements. For example, during one week in 1996 when the American CBS network was airing a movie about the sinking of the Titanic, CBS news ran nine stories about that event (which had happened 84 years before). The ABC network is owned by Disney Studios, and frequently runs news stories about Mickey Mouse. Furthermore, the profit motive drives news organizations to pay more attention to stories likely to generate a large audience, and to shy away from stories that may be important but dull. This pressure to be entertaining has produced shorter, simpler stories: more focus on celebrities than people of substance, more focus on gossip than on news, and more focus on dramatic events than on nuanced issues.
As busy people under relentless pressure to produce, journalists cannot spend days agonizing over the best way to present stories. Instead, they depend upon certain story formulas, which they can reuse again and again. One example is known as the inverted pyramid. In this formula, the journalist puts the most important information at the beginning of the story, than adds the next most important, and so on. The inverted pyramid originates from the age of the telegraph, the idea being that if the line went dead halfway through the story, the journalist would know that the most crucial information had at least been relayed. Modern journalists still value the formula for a similar reason. Their editors will cut stories if they are too long. Another formula involves reducing a complicated story into a simple conflict. The best example is "horse race" election coverage. Thorough explication of the issues and the candidates' views is forbiddingly complex. Journalists therefore concentrate more on who is winning in the opinion polls, and whether the underdog can catch up in the numbers than on politicians' campaign goals.
Sources are another constraint on what journalists cover and how they cover it. The dominant sources for news are public information officers in businesses and government offices. The majority of such officers try to establish themselves as experts who are qualified to feed information to journalists. How do journalists know who is an expert? In general, they don't. They use sources not on the basis of actual expertise, but on the appearance of expertise and the willingness to share it. All the major news organizations use some of the same sources (many of them anonymous), so the same types of stories always receive attention. Over time, the journalists may even become close friends with their sources, and they stop searching for alternative points of view. The result tends to be narrow, homogenized coverage of the same kind.

The word relayed in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to    _.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numberPri blanks.
I was raised on a farm in a remote village in the 1950s. The winter months were endless and everything was covered in snow. I was always (1).... for the warmer weather to come. When spring arrived, everything came alive - flowers would bloom and the animals would come out of hibernation. I would follow the bear tracks and search for them. Once, however, I (2).........     an angry mother bear who saw me as a threat. (3)......... the sight of the bear, I did what my father had told me. I stood still until she stopped growling and walked away. The trick was effective, but looking back now, I realized that the situation was far more serious than I thought at the time. By the age of twelve, I had lots of camping experience, as I used to go camping with my dog on my school holidays. We would spend days (4)......the forest, catching fish for dinner, look at the frogs and the (5)........ of birds and the insects hopping up and down on the surface of the water. Of course, this was possible only during the warm months. When the autumn came, everything went quiet, which was quite usual in those parts. It wasn't long before the animals disappeared, the birds flew south and the snow took over. The place became desert once again.

(4).....................

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:
Social parasitism involves one species relying on another to raise its young. Among vertebrates, the best known social parasites are such birds as cuckoos and cowbirds; the female lays egg in a nest belonging to another species and leaves it for the host to rear
The dulotic species of ants, however, are the supreme social parasites. Consider, for example, the unusual behavior of ants belonging to the genus Polyergus. All species of this ant have lost the ability to care for themselves. The workers do not forage for food, feed their brood or queen, or even clean their own nest. To compensate for these deficits, Polyergus has become specialized at obtaining workers from the related genus Formica to do these chores
In a raid, several thousand Polyergus workers will travel up to 500 feet in search of a Formica nest, penetrate it, drive off the queen and her workers, capture the pupal brood, and transport it back to their nest. The captured brood is then reared by the resident Formica workers until the developing pupae emerge to add to the Formica population, which maintains the mixed- species nest. The Formica workers forage for food and give it to colony members of both species. They also remove wastes and excavate new chambers as the population increases
The true extent of the Polyergus and dependence on the Formica becomes apparent when the worker population grows too large for existing nest. Formica scouts locate a new nesting site, return to the mixed-species colony, and recruit additional Formica nest mates. During a period that may last seven days, the Formica workers carry to the new nest all the Polyergus eggs, larvae, and pupae, every Polyergus adult, and even the Polyergus queen
Of the approximately 8000 species of ants in the world, all 5 species of Polyergus and some 200 species in other genera have evolved some degree of parasitic relationship with other ants

The word “raise” is closest in meaning to      

Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer.

“Where is the university?” is a question many visitors to Cambridge ask, but no one can give them a clear answer, for there is no wall to be found around the university. The university is the city. You can find the classroom buildings, libraries, museums and offices of the university all over the city. And most of its members are the students and teachers or professors of the thirty-one colleges. Cambridge is already a developing town long before the first students and teachers arrived 800 years ago. It grew up by the river Granta, as the Cam was once called. A bridge was built over the river as early as 875.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, more and more land was used for college buildings. The town grew faster in the nineteenth century after the opening of the railway in 1845. Cambridge became a city in 1951 and now it has the population of over 100000. Many young students want to study at Cambridge. Thousands of people from all over the world come to visit the university town. It has become a famous place all around the world.

From what we read we know that now Cambridge is _______.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
  GETTING TO THE ROOT OF BONSAI CRIME
Bonsai trees have always been a source of great fascination to people. They are perfect miniatures, grown in pots small enough to sit on a windowsill. You have to keep reminding yourself that these frees are actually real and identical to their larger cousins in all (1)..... except their size. Rather like other small and perfectly-formed artifacts, bonsai trees command quite a high price in the marketplace and so it doesn't come as a great surprise to find that they also (2)........ the attention of thieves. It seems that quite a flourishing business has evolved,  in which they are stolen from the homes of growers and collectors, then repotted and trimmed by unscrupulous dealers, to  be  sold on, at good prices, to (3)..... buyers.
One of Britain's top collectors of bonsai trees, Paul Widdington, believes that he has found a solution, however. After losing his life's work, valued at £250,000, when burglars broke into his home one night, Paul decided to (4)....... the possibilities of electronically tagging the trees he bought as a replacement. This involves injecting a microchip the size of a grain of rice into the trunk of each tree. Each chip is a laser-etched with information which is stored in a central register held by the police. Paul is quite aware that this kind of data-tagging doesn't (5)......... thieves from stealing the trees in the first place, although it may increase the chances of getting them back. So he's also installing a security alarm system complete with infra-red detectors, in his home.
(1)..........................

The relationship between students and teachers is (1)_________formal in the USA than in many other countries, especially at the college level. American college students do not stand up when their teacher enters the room. Students are generally encouraged to ask questions in class, to stop in the professor's of lice for extra help, and to phone if they are absent and need a(n) (2)_________. Most teachers allow students to enter class late or leave early, if necessary. Despite the lack of formality, students are still expected to be polite to their teacher and fellow classmates. When students want to ask questions, they usually (3)__________a hand and wait to be called on. When the teacher or a student is speaking to the class, it is rude to begin whispering (4)_________another classmate. When a test is being given, talking to' a classmate is not only rude but also risky. Most American teachers consider that students who are talking to each other (5) _________a test are cheating.
(4).............................

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:
At 7 pm on a dark, cold November evening, thousands of people are making their way across a vast car park. They're not here to see a film, or the ballet, or even the circus. They are all here for what is, bizarrely, a global phenomenon: they are here to see Holiday on Ice. Given that most people don’t seem to be acquainted with anyone who's ever been, the show's statistics are extraordinary: nearly 300 million people have seen Holiday on Ice since it began in 1943; it is the most popular live entertainment in the world.
But what does the production involve? And why are so many people prepared to spend their lives travelling round Europe in caravans in order to appear in it? It can't be glamorous, and it's undoubtedly hard work. The backstage atmosphere is an odd mix of gym class and workplace. A curtained-off section at the back of the arena is laughably referred to as the girls' dressing room, but is more accurately described as a corridor, with beige, cracked walls and cheap temporary tables set up along the length of it. Each girl has a small area littered with pots of orange make-up, tubes of mascara and long false eyelashes.
As a place to work, it must rank pretty low down the scale: the area round the ice-rink is grey and mucky with rows of dirty blue and brown plastic seating and red carpet tiles. It's an unimpressive picture, but the show itself is an unquestionably vast, polished global enterprise: the lights come from a firm in Texas, the people who make the audio system are in California, but Montreal supplies the smoke effects; former British Olympic skater Robin Cousins is now creative director for the company and conducts a vast master class to make sure they're ready for the show's next performance.
The next day, as the music blares out from the sound system, the case start to go through their routines under Cousins' direction. Cousins says, 'The aim is to make sure they're all still getting to exactly the right place on the ice at the right time - largely because the banks of lights in the ceiling are set to those places, and if the skaters are all half a metre out they'll be illuminating empty ice. Our challenge, ' he continues, 'is to produce something they can sell in a number of countries at the same time. My theory is that you take those things that people want to see and you give it to them, but not in the way they expect to see it. You try to twist it. And you have to find music that is challenging to the skaters, because they have to do it every night.'
It may be a job which he took to pay the rent, but you can’t doubt his enthusiasm. 'They only place you'll see certain skating moves is an ice show,' he says, 'because you're not allowed to do them in competition. It's not in the rules. So the ice show word has things to offer which the competitive world just doesn't. Cousins knows what he's talking about because he skated for the show himself when he stopped competing - he was financially unable to retire. He learnt the hard way that you can't put on an Olympic performance every night. I'd be thinking, these people have paid their money, now do your stuff, and I suddenly thought, "I really can't cope. I'm not enjoying it".' The solution, he realized, was to give 75 per cent every night, rather than striving for the sort of twice-a-year excellence which won him medals.
To be honest, for those of us whose only experience of ice-skating is watching top-class Olympic skaters, some of the movements can look a bit amateurish, but then, who are we to judge? Equally, it's impossible not to be swept up in the whole thing; well, you'd have to try pretty hard not to enjoy it.

Cousins believes that he can meet the challenge of producing shows for different audiences

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 Atmosphere of Venus
Venus, also called the Morning Star and Evening Star, is the second-closest planet to the sun and the brightest object in the night sky. The planet orbits the sun every two hundred and twenty four Earth-days and is sometimes referred to as Earth’s sister planet because the two share both a similar size and bulk. What is not similar, however, is Venus’s atmosphere in comparison to Earth’s atmosphere.
The atmosphere on Venus is much heavier and has a higher density than that of Earth. Venus’s atmosphere also expands significantly higher than Earth’s atmosphere although a thick cloud cover makes the surface of Venus nearly impossible to see unless observed through radar mapping.
While the pressure and temperature of Venus’s upper atmosphere are comparable to those of Earth, the heat and pressure of the lower atmosphere are not unlike a furnace. Venus’s atmosphere is very thick due to a composition consisting mainly of carbon dioxide, and a small amount of nitrogen. If man could survive the extreme heat of Venus’s surface (400 degrees Celsius), then he would have to contend with a surface pressure that is more than 90 times that of Earth. Venus’s extremely high temperature is thanks to the greenhouse effect caused by such a large amount of carbon dioxide. The greenhouse effect is a process by which the sun’s infrared radiation is more readily absorbed by the atmosphere. Just like in a real greenhouse used to grow plants years round, the proliferation of carbon dioxide traps radiation and warms Venus’s atmosphere. Due to this phenomenon, Venus boasts a higher atmospheric temperature than Mercury, even though Venus is twice the distance from the sun.
However, scientists postulate that Venus’s atmosphere was not always so hot. Studies show that large bodies of water were once on Venus’s surface but that eventually evaporation of all the water caused the runaway greenhouse effect which regulates the planet today.Thus Venus has become a critical study for today’s scientists, as human being are only beginning to struggle with the early stages of the greenhouse effect. Our problems do not stem from evaporated water supplies but from a propagation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases due to industrial and automobile emissions.
Another interesting characteristic to note regarding Venus’s atmosphere is that its daytime temperatures and nighttime temperatures are not that far removed from each other. This is due to the thermal inertia, the ability of a substance to store heat despite changing temperatures and the transfer of heat by Venus’s strong winds. Although winds on the surface of Venus move slowly in comparison with Earth’s winds, Venus’s air is so dense that a slow-moving there can move large obstructions and even skip stones along the planet’s surface.
In 1966, humankind made its first attempt at sending a recording instrument into Venus’s atmosphere. The Venera 3 probe did collide with Venus surface; however, the abrupt impact caused its communication system to fail, and it was unable to send and feedback. In 1967, Venera 4 successfully enter Venus’s atmosphere and was able to take many readings, one of which recorded that Venus’s atmosphere was between ninety and ninety-five percent carbon dioxide. Subsequent Venera probes were sent into Venus’s atmosphere, but most of them succumbed to the crushing air pressure.

Which of the following best expresses the essential information in the bold sentence in paragraph 3? Incorrect answer choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

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 Internet is very much like television, in which it takes time away from other pursuits, provides entertainment and information, but in no way can compare with the warm, personal experience of reading a good book. This is not the only reason why the Internet will never replace books, for books provide the in-depth knowledge of a subject that sitting in front of a computer monitor cannot provide. We can download text from an Internet source, but the aesthetic quality of sheets of downloaded text leave much to be desired. A well-designed book enhances the reading experience.
The book is still the most compact and inexpensive means of conveying a dense amount of knowledge in a convenient package. The easy portability of the book is what makes it the most user-friendly format for knowledge ever invented. The idea that one can carry in one's pocket a play by Shakespeare, a novel by Charles Dickens or Tom Clancy, Plato's Dialogues, or the Bible in a small paperback edition is mind-boggling. We take such uncommon convenience for granted, not realizing that the book itself has undergone quite an evolution since the production of the Gutenberg Bible in 1455 and Shakespeare's First Folio in 1623, just three years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth to colonize the New World.
Not only has the art and craft of printing and book manufacturing been greatly improved over the centuries, but the great variety of subject matter now available in books is astounding, to say the least. In fact, the Internet requires the constant input of authors and their books to provide it with the information that makes it a useful tool for exploration and learning.
Another important reason why the Internet will never replace books is because those who wish to become writers want to see their works permanently published as books - something you can hold, see, feel, skim through, and read at one's leisure without the need for an electric current apart from a lamp. The writer may use a word processor instead of a typewriter or a pen and pad, but the finished product must eventually end up as a book if it is to have value to the reading public. The writer may use the Internet in the course of researching a subject just as he may use a library for that purpose, but the end product will still be a book.

The word “aesthete” is closest in meaning to ______

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
If you could travel back in time five centuries, you'd encounter a thriving Aztec empire in Central Mexico, a freshly painted "Mona Lisa" in Renaissance Europe and cooler temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere. This was a world in the midst of the Little Ice Age (A.D. 1300 to   1850) and a period of vast European exploration now known as  the Age of  Discovery. But what if  we could look 500 years into the future and glimpse the Earth of the 26th century? Would the  world seem as different to us as the 21st century would have seemed to residents of the 16th century? For starters, what will the weather be like?
Depending on whom you ask, the 26th century will either be a little chilly or infernally hot.
Some solar output models suggest that by the 2500s, Earth's climate will have cooled back down to near Little Ice Age  conditions. Other studies predict that ongoing climate change and fossil fuel use will render much of the planet too hot for human life by 2300.
Some experts date the beginning of human climate change back to the Industrial Revolution  in the 1800s, others to slash-and-burn agricultural practices in prehistoric times. Either way, tool- wielding humans alter their environment -- and our 26th century tools might be quite impressive indeed.
Theoretical physicist and futurist Michio Kaku predicts that in a mere 100 years, humanity will make the leap from a type zero civilization to a type I civilization on the Kardashev Scale. In  other words, we'll become a species that can harness the entire sum of a planet's energy. Wielding such power, 26th-century humans will be masters of clean energy technologies such as fusion and solar power. Furthermore, they'll be able to manipulate planetary energy in order to control global climate. Physicist Freeman Dyson, on the other hand, estimates the leap to a type I civilization would occur within roughly 200 years.
Technology has improved exponentially since the 1500s, and this pace will likely continue in   the centuries to come. Physicist Stephen Hawking proposes that by the  year 2600, this growth  would see 10 new theoretical physics papers published every 10  seconds. If  Moore's Law holds  true and both computer speed and complexity double every 18 months, then some of  these  studies may be the work of highly intelligent machines.
What other technologies will shape the world of the 26th century? Futurist and author Adrian Berry believes the average human life span will reach 140 years and that the digital  storage of human personalities will enable a kind of computerized immortality. Humans will farm the oceans, travel in starships and reside in both lunar and Martian colonies while robots explore the outer cosmos.

According to the passage, what do experts predict about the weather in the future?

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:
At 7 pm on a dark, cold November evening, thousands of people are making their way across a vast car park. They're not here to see a film, or the ballet, or even the circus. They are all here for what is, bizarrely, a global phenomenon: they are here to see Holiday on Ice. Given that most people don’t seem to be acquainted with anyone who's ever been, the show's statistics are extraordinary: nearly 300 million people have seen Holiday on Ice since it began in 1943; it is the most popular live entertainment in the world.
But what does the production involve? And why are so many people prepared to spend their lives travelling round Europe in caravans in order to appear in it? It can't be glamorous, and it's undoubtedly hard work. The backstage atmosphere is an odd mix of gym class and workplace. A curtained-off section at the back of the arena is laughably referred to as the girls' dressing room, but is more accurately described as a corridor, with beige, cracked walls and cheap temporary tables set up along the length of it. Each girl has a small area littered with pots of orange make-up, tubes of mascara and long false eyelashes.
As a place to work, it must rank pretty low down the scale: the area round the ice-rink is grey and mucky with rows of dirty blue and brown plastic seating and red carpet tiles. It's an unimpressive picture, but the show itself is an unquestionably vast, polished global enterprise: the lights come from a firm in Texas, the people who make the audio system are in California, but Montreal supplies the smoke effects; former British Olympic skater Robin Cousins is now creative director for the company and conducts a vast master class to make sure they're ready for the show's next performance.
The next day, as the music blares out from the sound system, the case start to go through their routines under Cousins' direction. Cousins says, 'The aim is to make sure they're all still getting to exactly the right place on the ice at the right time - largely because the banks of lights in the ceiling are set to those places, and if the skaters are all half a metre out they'll be illuminating empty ice. Our challenge, ' he continues, 'is to produce something they can sell in a number of countries at the same time. My theory is that you take those things that people want to see and you give it to them, but not in the way they expect to see it. You try to twist it. And you have to find music that is challenging to the skaters, because they have to do it every night.'
It may be a job which he took to pay the rent, but you can’t doubt his enthusiasm. 'They only place you'll see certain skating moves is an ice show,' he says, 'because you're not allowed to do them in competition. It's not in the rules. So the ice show word has things to offer which the competitive world just doesn't. Cousins knows what he's talking about because he skated for the show himself when he stopped competing - he was financially unable to retire. He learnt the hard way that you can't put on an Olympic performance every night. I'd be thinking, these people have paid their money, now do your stuff, and I suddenly thought, "I really can't cope. I'm not enjoying it".' The solution, he realized, was to give 75 per cent every night, rather than striving for the sort of twice-a-year excellence which won him medals.
To be honest, for those of us whose only experience of ice-skating is watching top-class Olympic skaters, some of the movements can look a bit amateurish, but then, who are we to judge? Equally, it's impossible not to be swept up in the whole thing; well, you'd have to try pretty hard not to enjoy it.

The word them in paragraph 5 refers to

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
The Internet is very much like television, in which it takes time away from other pursuits, provides entertainment and information, but in no way can compare with the warm, personal experience of reading a good book. This is not the only reason why the Internet will never replace books, for books provide the in-depth knowledge of a subject that sitting in front of a computer monitor cannot provide. We can download text from an Internet source, but the aesthetic quality of sheets of downloaded text leave much to be desired. A well-designed book enhances the reading experience.
The book is still the most compact and inexpensive means of conveying a dense amount of knowledge in a convenient package. The easy portability of the book is what makes it the most user-friendly format for knowledge ever invented. The idea that one can carry in one's pocket a play by Shakespeare, a novel by Charles Dickens or Tom Clancy, Plato's Dialogues, or the Bible in a small paperback edition is mind-boggling. We take such uncommon convenience for granted, not realizing that the book itself has undergone quite an evolution since the production of the Gutenberg Bible in 1455 and Shakespeare's First Folio in 1623, just three years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth to colonize the New World.
Not only has the art and craft of printing and book manufacturing been greatly improved over the centuries, but the great variety of subject matter now available in books is astounding, to say the least. In fact, the Internet requires the constant input of authors and their books to provide it with the information that makes it a useful tool for exploration and learning.
Another important reason why the Internet will never replace books is because those who wish to become writers want to see their works permanently published as books - something you can hold, see, feel, skim through, and read at one's leisure without the need for an electric current apart from a lamp. The writer may use a word processor instead of a typewriter or a pen and pad, but the finished product must eventually end up as a book if it is to have value to the reading public. The writer may use the Internet in the course of researching a subject just as he may use a library for that purpose, but the end product will still be a book.

The word "astounding" in paragraph 3 could be best replaced by    _.

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:
Scientists do not yet thoroughly understand just how the body of an individual becomes sensitive to  a substance that is harmless or even wholesome for the average person. Milk, wheat, and egg, for example, rank among the most healthful and widely used foods. Yet these foods can cause persons sensitive to them to suffer greatly. At first, the body of the individual is not harmed by coming into
contact with the substance. After a varying interval of time, usually longer than a few weeks, the body becomes sensitive to it, and an allergy has begun to develop. Sometimes it's hard to figure out if you have a food allergy, since it can show up so many different ways.
Your symptoms could be caused by many other problems. You may have rashes, hives, joint pains mimicking arthritis, headaches, irritability, or depression. The most common food allergies are to milk, eggs, seafood, wheat, nuts, seeds, chocolate, oranges, and tomatoes. Many of these allergies will not develop if these foods are not fed to an infant until her or his intestines mature at around seven months. Breast milk also tends to be protective. Migraines can be set off by foods containing tyramine, phenathylamine, monosodium glutamate, or sodium nitrate. Common foods which contain these are chocolate, aged cheeses, sour cream, red wine, pickled herring, chicken livers, avocados, ripe bananas, cured meats, many Oriental and prepared foods (read the labels!).
Some people have been successful in treating their migraines with supplements of B-vitamins, particularly B6 and niacin. Children who are hyperactive may benefit from eliminating food additives, especially colorings, and foods high in salicylates from their diets. A few of these are almonds, green peppers, peaches, tea, grapes. This is the diet made popular by Benjamin Feingold, who has written the book “Why your Child is Hyperactive”. Other researchers have had mixed results.

According to the passage, the difficulty in diagnosing allergies to foods is due to .