Read the following passage and mark the letter A,B,C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from. 
Nowadays, teenagers have (18)______ more money and expensive possessions than their parents ever did. Articles like radios and bicycles, which cost a fortune (19) _____ decades ago, are now mass-produced and cheap. And items that nobody even dreamed of possessing twenty years ago, such as mobile phones and computers, are now in common places. Teenagers are definitely better off financially. However life is not easy for them. There is much more to worry about than there was in the past. Jobs are not as secure (20)_____ they used to be and teenagers can no (21) _____ be confident that the world will always be peaceful and free of pollution. 
Teenagers drive their parents crazy (22)_____ many ways. Some of them spray their hair with amazing color, while others wear clothes that shock their parents. They all want (23)_____ own stereos, mobile phones and televisions. But these young people are not really behaving differently from how their parents behaved when they were young. Many today’s parents and grandparents will laugh when they (24)_____ crazy fashions they wore. Those adults, (25) _____ are parents now fought with their own parents about clothes and lifestyle. In fact, teenagers have fought with their parents (26)_____ time began and no doubt they will always.
(26).....................................

 

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 Asian Games owes its origins to small Asian multi-sport competitions. The Far Eastern Championship Games were created to show unity and cooperation among three nations: Japan, the Philippines and China. The first games were held in Manila, the Philippines in 1931. Other Asian nations participated after it was organized. After World War II, a number of Asian countries became independent. Many of the new independent Asian countries wanted to use a new type of competition where Asian dominance should not be shown by violence and should be strengthened by mutual understanding. In August 1948, during the 14th Olympic Game in London, India representative Guru Dutt Sondhi proposed to sports leaders of the Asian teams the idea of having discussions about holding the Asian Games. They agreed to form the Asian Athletic Federation. A preparatory was set up to draft the charter for the Asian amateur athletic federation. In February 1949, the Asian athletic federation was formed and used the name Asian Games Federation. It was formed and used the name Asian Games Federation. It was decided to hold the first Asian Games in 1951 in New Delhi the capital of India. They added that the Asian Games would be regularly held once every four years.

The 14th Olympic Games took place ____.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Continents and ocean basins represent the largest identifiable bodies on Earth. On the solid portion of the planet, the second most prominent features are flat plains, elevated plateaus, and large mountain ranges. In geography, the term "continent" refers to the surface of continuous landmasses that together comprise about 29.2% of the planet's surface. On the other hand, another definition is prevalent in the general use of the term that deals with extensive mainlands, such as Europe or Asia,that actually represent one very large landmass. Although all continents are bounded by the water bodies or high mountain ranges, isolated mainlands, such as Greenland and India-Pakistan areas are called subcontinents. In some circles, the distinction between continents and large islands lies almost exclusively in the size of a particular landmass. The analysis of compression and tension in the earth's crust has determined that continental structures are composed of layers that underlie continental shelves. A great deal of disagreement among geologists surrounds the issue of exactly how many layers underlie each landmass because of their distincive mineral and chemical composition. It's also quite possible that the ocean floor rests on top of unknown continents that have not yet been explored. The continental crust is believed to have been forrmed by means of a chemical reaction when lighter materials separated from heavier ones,thus settling at various levels within the crust. Assisted by the measurements of the specifics within crust formations by means of monitoring earthquakes, geologists can speculate that a chemical split occured to form the atmosphere, sea water and the crust before it solidified many centuries ago. Although each continent has its special features, all consist of various combinations of components that include shields,moutain belts, intracratonic basins, margins, volcanic plateaus, and blockvaulted belts. The basic differences among continents lie in the proportion and the composition of these features relative to the continent size. Climatic zones have a crucial effect on the weathering and formation of the surface features, soil erosion, soil deposition, land formation, vegetation, and human activities. Moutian belts are elongated narrow zones that have a characteristic folded sedimentary organization of layers. They are typically produced during substabtial crustal movements, which generate faulting and moutain building. When continental margins collide, the rise of a marginal edge leads to the formation of large moutain ranges, as explained by the plate tectonic theory. This process also accounts for the occurrence of mountain belts in ocean basins and produces evidence for the ongoing continental plate
evolution.
5. The word "specifics" is closest in meaning to: 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Simply being bilingual doesn’t qualify someone to interpret. Interpreting is not only a mechanical process of converting one sentence in language A into the same sentence in language B. Rather, its a complex art in which thoughts and idioms that have no obvious counterparts from tongue to tongue - or words that have several meanings must be quickly transformed in such a way that the message is clearly and accurately expressed to the listener. At one international conference, an American speaker said, “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear”, which meant nothing to the Spanish audience. The interpretation was, “A monkey in a silk dress is still a monkey” - an idiom the Spanish understood and that expressed the same idea. There are 2 kinds of interpreters, simultaneous and consecutive. The former, sitting in a separated booth, usually at a large multilingual conference, speaks to listeners wearing headphones, interpreting what a foreign language speaker says - actually a sentence behind. Consecutive interpreters are the ones most international negotiations use. They are employed for smaller meetings without sound booths and headphones. Consecutive interpretation also requires two-person teams. A foreign speaker says his piece while the interpreter, using a special shorthand, takes notes and during a pause, tells the client what was said. 
5. The word “converting” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to: 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
When Malaysia takes the ASEAN chair next year, it will face a huge challenge. Too few of us know enough about this grouping we call the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. We do not know what it means to be a part of ASEAN and why it is important to us. At the same time, pressure is mounting to reinvent ASEAN to make it more people-centric and less government-centric. The Heat speaks to Global Movement of Moderates CEO Saifuddin Abdullah on why ASEAN should mean more to us than just acronyms. ASEAN people do not feel like they are a part of the community of Southeast Asian nations. This statement, backed up by survey findings, is pretty bizarre, and extremely hurtful too, considering that ASEAN is 47 years old today. “Interview 10 persons on the Street and you would perhaps get only one of them who knows about ASEAN,” says Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah. This CEO of Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) is not running down ASEAN; he’s confronting the truth as it impacts the project he has been entrusted with. Here’s more, in 2012, the ASEAN Secretariat conducted a survey that showed only 34% of Malaysians had heard of the ASEAN community. This compares with 96% of Laotians. Malaysia chairs ASEAN next year, and GMM is a member of the national steering committee organizing the ASEAN People’s Forum (APF), a platform designed to bridge the gap between governments and civil society. Never heard of it? You’re forgiven. The APF actually started off life in the 1990s, except it was called the ASEAN People’s Assembly (APA). It was held back to back with the ASEAN Summit, which is held twice a year. The APA is the forum where 10 leaders of government engage with 10 leaders of civil society in a half-hour meeting. “It was going well until one year when the chairman decided not to hold the APA, so it was discontinued until 2005 when Malaysia took the chairmanship of ASEAN again and founded the ASEAN People’s Forum (APF),” Saifuddin explains. In a perfect world, forums such as the APF or its predecessor APA would have worked perfectly to bridge the gap between government and civil society. However, as Saifuddin points out, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) often do not see eye to eye with their governments. For instance this year, Myanmar is chair of ASEAN and in the APF, three member nations – including Malaysia – decided not to recognize the CSO leaders chosen as representatives so the APF did not take place. “This is where the GMM wants to play a role in ensuring that this situation does not arise again,” Saituddin says.
8. Which of the following would serve as the best title for the passage?

Read the passage and choose one correct answer for each question.

     PARENTS’ DREAMS

     Parents often have dreams for their children’s future. They hope their children will have a better life than they had. They dream that their children will do things that they couldn’t do.

Parents who come to the U.S from foreign countries hope their children will have better education here. They think their children will have more career choices and more successful lives. They make many sacrifices so that their children will have more opportunities. They think their children will remain close to them because of this. Some children understand and appreciate these sacrifices and remain close to their parents. However, other children feel ashamed that their parents are so different from other Americans.

Parents often dream of ___

As computer use becomes more common, the need for security is more important than ever. One of the greatest security threats in the online world is computer hacking.
Computer hacking is the unauthorized access to a computer or network of computers. Hackers are people who illegally enter systems. They may alter or delete information, steal private information, or spread viruses that can damage or destroy files. But how exactly can a hacker get into a system to do these things? 
Most hackers use information called protocols that are built into computer software. These protocols allow computer to interact with one another. Protocols are sort of like computer police officers. When a computer connects to another system, the protocols check to see if the access is valid. The protocols can also determine how much information can be shared between the two systems. Hackers can manipulate the protocols to get unlimited access to a computer system. 
In fact, just the act of entering a computer network is considered hacking. This is commonly called passive hacking. Passive hackers get a rush from just being able to access a challenging system like a bank of military network. Another kind of hacker tries to do damage to a system. After hacking into systems, these hacker release viruses or alter, delete, or take information. Known as active hackers, they are, by far, the more dangerous of the two. 
The easiest way to protect a system is with a good password. Long and unusual passwords are harder for hackers to guess. For even greater security, some online services use “password-plus” systems. In this case, users first put in a password and then put in a second code that changes after the user accesses the site. Users either have special cards or devices that show them the new code to use the next time. Even if a hacker steals the password, they won’t have the code. Or if the hacker somehow gets the code, they still don’t know the password.

The word “they” in the fourth paragraph refers to _________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
If any of the inmates at Yancheng prison are considering an escape attempt, they’d better do it soon. The Chinese prison is currently wrapping up months of construction on a new “smart” surveillance system designed to monitor prisoners at every moment, including while they are in their cells. According an official, this will make prison breaks virtually impossible — but it might also wreak havoc on prisoners’ psyches. According to the South China Morning Post, the facility is almost finished installing a network of cameras and sensors capable of constantly tracking inmates. These cameras and sensors will feed into an AI system that uses facial identification and movement analysis technologies to monitor each individual inmate at the Chinese prison, producing a daily report about each one and flagging any unusual behavior. “For instance,” project representative Meng Qingbiao told SCMP, “if an inmate has been spotted pacing up and down in a room for some time, the machine may regard the phenomenon as suspicious and suggest close-up checks with a human guard.” This isn’t the first example we’ve seen of prison officials attempting to make facilities “smart”. In February, Hong Kong’s Correctional Services Department announced the implementation of several technologies designed to help prisoners stay safe during their imprisonment. However, Zhang Xuemin, a physiology professor at Beijing Normal University, told SCMP the new system will “definitely affect” the prisoners’ mental state. And while he didn’t elaborate on what that effect might be, past research has shown that constant surveillance can increase a person’s stress and anxiety levels, while decreasing their trust in others — meaning the trade off for an escape-proof “smart” prison might be the mental health of its inmates.
3. The word “regard” in paragraph 1 can be best replaced by ...........

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
You can usually tell when your friends are happy or angry by the looks on their faces or by their actions. This is useful because reading their emotional expressions helps you to know how to respond to them. Emotions have evolved to help us respond to important situations and to convey our intentions to others. But does raising the eyebrows and rounding the mouth say the same thing in Minneapolis as it does in Madagascar ? Much research on emotional expressions has centered on such questions. According to Paul Ekman, the leading researcher in this area, people speak and understand substantially the same “facial language”. Studies by Ekman’s group have demonstrated that humans share a set of universal emotional expressions that testify to the common biological heritage of the human species. Smiles, for example, signal happiness and frowns indicate sadness on the faces of people in such far-flung places as Argentina, Japan, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Sumatra, the United States, Vietnam, the jungles of New Guinea, and the Eskimo villages north of Artic Circle. Ekman and his colleagues claim that people everywhere can recognize at least seven basic emotions: sadness, fear, anger, disgust, contempt, happiness, and surprise. There are, however, huge differences across cultures in both the context and intensity of emotional displays – the so-called display responses – expecially negative ones – while many American children are encouraged to express their feelings more openly. Regardless of culture, however, emotions usually show themselves, to some degree, in people’s behavior. From their first days in life, babies produce facial expressions that communicate their feelings. The ability to read facial expressions develops early, too. Very young children pay close attention to facial expressions, and by age five, they nearly equal adults in their skill at reading emotions on people’s faces. This evidence all points to a biological underpinning for our abilities to express and interpret a basic set of human emotions. Moreover, as Chales Dawin pointed out over a century ago, some emotional expressions seem to appear across species boundaries. Cross-cultural psychologists tell us that certain emotional responses carry different meanings in diferrent cultures. For example, what emotion do you suppose might be conveyed while sticking out your tounge ? For American, this might indicate disgust, while in China it can signify surprise. Likewise, a grin on an American face may indicate joy, while on a Japanese face it may just as easily mean embarrassment. Clearly, culture influences emotional expressions.
6: The biggest difference lies in .

Read the text and answer thư questions.

Friendship is a big statement. Lots of people are lovers but are not friends. Lots of people are relatives and are not friends. Lots of people who work together are not friends. You can appreciate or admire someone, but that does not mean that you make him or her a friend.

When I had my near-death illness last year and the following long recuperation, I had a lot of time to think about what makes someone a friend. If they are scared of you when you need help, sorry, that is not friendship. If their attitude is “for better or worse,” if they stick to you through troubles and difficulties, it is the time when you can tell it is true friendship. I do have some friends, but not as many as I thought. And there was a time, in the late 80s when my friend, Ken, really needed me but I did not come through for him. I remember hanging out in my happy suburban house in Menlo Park, and not coming to help him through the loss of his wife. Luckily, I got to apologize for that but Ken said he did not mind.

I do not have a tidy answer about Ken and me and friendship. Sometimes we were friends, and other times, clearly, not. But I guess there is something remarkable in two people overcoming the barriers to friendship to find some real communication at some point.

What happened to the writer last year?

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.

   Today, roller skating is easy and fun. But a long time ago, it wasn't easy at all. Before 1750, the idea of skating didn’t exist. That changed because of a man named Joseph Merlin. Merlin’s work was making musical instruments. In his spare time he liked to play the violin. Joseph Merlin was a man of ideas and dreams. People called him a dreamer.

   One day Merlin received an invitation to attend a fancy dress ball. He was very pleased and a little excited. As the day of the party came near, Merlin began to think how to make a grand entrance at the party. He had an idea. He thought he would get a lot of attention if he could skate into the room. Merlin tried different ways to make himself roll. Finally, he decided to put two wheels under each shoe. These were the first roller skates. Merlin was very proud of his invention as he dreamed of arriving at the party on wheels while playing the violin.

   On the night of the party Merlin rolled into the room playing his violin. Everyone was astonished to see him. There was just one problem. Merlin had no way to stop his roller skates. He rolled on and on. Suddenly, he ran into a huge mirror that was hanging on the wall. Down fell the mirror, breaking to pieces. Nobody forgot Merlin’s grand entrance for a long time!

Merlin put wheels under his shoes in order to __________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The word "laser" was coined as an acronym for Light Amplifiation by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Ordinary light, from the Sun or a light bulb, is emitted spontaneously, when atoms or molecules get rid of excess energy by themselves, without any outside intervention. Stimulated emission is different because it occurs when an atom or molecule holding onto excess energy has been stimulated to emit it as light. Albert Einstein was the first to suggest the existence of stimulated emission in a paper published in 1917. However, for many years physicists thought that atoms and molecules always were much more likely to emit light spontaneously and that stimulated emission thus always would be much weaker. It was not until after the Second World War that physicists began trying to make stimulated emission dominate. They sought ways by which, one atom or molecule could stimulate many others to emit light, amplifying it to much higher powers. The first to succeed was Charles H. Townes, then at Colombia University in New York. Instead of working with light, however, he worked with microwaves, which have a much longer wavelength, and built a device he called a "maser", for Microwave Amplifiation by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Although he thought of the key idea in 1951, the first maser was not completed until a couple of years later. Before long, many other physicists were building masers and trying to discover how to produce stimulated emission even shorter wavelength. The key concepts emerged about 1957. Townes and Arthur Schawlow, then at Bell Telephone Laboratories, wrote it long paper outlining the conditions needed to amplify stimulated emission of visible light waves. At about the same time, similar ideas crystallized in the mind of Gordon Gould, then a 37-year-old graduate student at Columbia, who wrote them down in a series of notebooks. Townes and Schawlow published their ideas in a scientific journal, Physical Review Letters, but Gould filed a patent application. Three decades later, people still argue about who deserves the credit for the concept of the laser.
5: Why has Towne's early work with stimulated emission done with microwaves?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Butterflies are among the most extensively studied insects, an estimated 90 percent of the world's species have their scientific names. As a consequence, they are, perhaps, the best group of insects for examining patterns of terrestrial biotic diversity and distribution. Butterflies also have a favorable image with the general public. Hence, they are an excellent group for communicating information on science and conservation issues such as diversity. Perhaps the aspect of butterflies diversity that has received the most attention over the past century is the striking difference in species richness between tropical and temperate regions. For example, in 1875 one biologist pointed out the diversity of butterflies in the Amazon when he mentioned that about 700 species were found within an hour's walk, whereas the total number found on the British islands did not exceed 66, and the whole of Europe supported only 321. This early comparison of tropical and temperate butterflies' richness has been well confirmed. A general theory of diversity would have to predict not only this difference between temperate and tropical zones, but also patterns within each region, and how these patterns vary among different animal and plant groups. However, for butterflies, variation of species richness within temperate or tropical regions, rather than between them, is poorly understood. Indeed, comparisons of numbers of species among the Amazon basin, tropical Asia, and Africa are still mostly "personal communication" citations, even for vertebrates. In other words, unlike comparison between temperate and tropical areas, these patterns are still in the documentation phase. In documenting geographical variation in butterflies' diversity, some arbitrary, practical decisions are made. Diversity, number of species, and species richness are used synonymously; little is known about the evenness of butterfìy distribution. The New World butterflies make up the preponderance of examples because they are the most familiar species. It is hoped that by focusing on them, the errors generated by imperfect and incomplete taxonomy will be minimized
4. The word "striking" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to: 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Butterflies are among the most extensively studied insects, an estimated 90 percent of the world's species have their scientific names. As a consequence, they are, perhaps, the best group of insects for examining patterns of terrestrial biotic diversity and distribution. Butterflies also have a favorable image with the general public. Hence, they are an excellent group for communicating information on science and conservation issues such as diversity. Perhaps the aspect of butterflies diversity that has received the most attention over the past century is the striking difference in species richness between tropical and temperate regions. For example, in 1875 one biologist pointed out the diversity of butterflies in the Amazon when he mentioned that about 700 species were found within an hour's walk, whereas the total number found on the British islands did not exceed 66, and the whole of Europe supported only 321. This early comparison of tropical and temperate butterflies' richness has been well confirmed. A general theory of diversity would have to predict not only this difference between temperate and tropical zones, but also patterns within each region, and how these patterns vary among different animal and plant groups. However, for butterflies, variation of species richness within temperate or tropical regions, rather than between them, is poorly understood. Indeed, comparisons of numbers of species among the Amazon basin, tropical Asia, and Africa are still mostly "personal communication" citations, even for vertebrates. In other words, unlike comparison between temperate and tropical areas, these patterns are still in the documentation phase. In documenting geographical variation in butterflies' diversity, some arbitrary, practical decisions are made. Diversity, number of species, and species richness are used synonymously; little is known about the evenness of butterfìy distribution. The New World butterflies make up the preponderance of examples because they are the most familiar species. It is hoped that by focusing on them, the errors generated by imperfect and incomplete taxonomy will be minimized
1. Which aspect of butterflies does the passage mainly discuss?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Perhaps the most striking quality of satiric literature is its freshness and its originality of perspective. Satire itself, however, rarely offers original ideas. Instead, it presents the familiar in a new form. Satirists do not offer the world new philosophies. What they do is look at familiar conditions from a perspective that makes these conditions seem foolish, harmful, or affected. Satire jars us out of complacence into a pleasantly shocked realization that many of the values we unquestioningly accept are false. Don Quixote makes chivalry seem absurd; Brave New World ridicules the pretensions of science; A Modest Proposal dramatizes starvation by advocating cannibalism. None of these ideas is original. Chivalry was suspect before Cervantes, humanists objected to the claims of pure science before Aldous Huxley, and people were aware of famine before Swift. It was not the originality of the idea that made these satires popular. It was the manner of expression, the satiric method, that made them interesting and entertaining. Satires are read because they are aesthetically satisfying works of art, not because they are morally wholesome or ethically instructive. They are stimulating and refreshing because with commonsense briskness they brush away illusions and secondhand opinions. With spontaneous irreverence, satire rearranges perspectives, scrambles familiar objects into incongruous juxtaposition, and speaks in a personal idiom instead of abstract platitude. Satire exists because there is need for it. It has lived because readers appreciate a refreshing stimulus, an irreverent reminder that they live in a world of platitudinous thinking, cheap moralizing, and foolish philosophy. Satire serves to prod people into an awareness of truth, though rarely to any action on behalf of truth. Satire tends to remind people that much of what they see, hear, and read in popular media is sanctimonious, sentimental, and only partially true. Life resembles in only a slight degree the popular image of it.
1. What does the passage mainly discuss?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 24 to 28:

In Southeast Asia, many forests have been cut down to produce timber and to clear land for farms and industries. The destruction of forests has reduced the living space of wildlife. Much of Asia’s wildlife is also threatened by over-hunting. Many people kill animals for food or hunt them to sell to zoos, medical researchers, and pet traders. Because of habitat destruction and over-hunting, many large Asian animals, including elephants, rhinoceroses, and tigers, have become endangered.

In China, people have cut down most of the forests for wood, which has caused serious soil erosion. The soil is deposited in rivers and streams, which lowers the quality of the water. The Huang He, or Yellow River, is so named because the light-colored soil gives the water a yellowish color. The soil has also raised the river-bed. As a result, the Huang He often floods, causing great property damage and loss of life along its banks.

Rhinoceroses and elephants are mentioned as an example of _____.

Read the text again. Decide whether the following statements are true (T), false (F), or not given (NG).

Changing lifestyles for better health

As a way of living, lifestyle is everyday behaviours, activities, and diet. It involves your work, leisure activities, food and drink consumption, and interaction with people. That is why it is important to have a healthy lifestyle. Although it is often difficult to change your habits, reorganising your daily activities to achieve a healthy lifestyle is not impossible. Here are some steps you need to take to have a better life and health.

Become more active

Scientists have proved that regular exercise can help to reduce cholesterol and the risk of heart disease. Remember that you do not need to do too much exercise - just a 30-minute walk a day will bring health benefits. But it is important that you do it regularly and safely. Simple things like walking or cycling to school, using the stairs instead of the lift, doing the housework and gardening can all contribute to good health.

Moreover, hobbies such as dancing, reading, listening to music, playing chess, and solving crossword or sudoku puzzles are also good ways to keep your body and mind engaged, and increase life expectancy. No matter where you are - at home, at work, or at play - always look for opportunities to be more active and energetic.

Eat healthily

‘Eat to live, not live to eat’ is the advice to follow.The food and drink we consume can dramatically affect our health. Bad nutrition based on fast food, and meals high in fat and sugar can lead to obesity, diabetes, some types of cancer and other chronic diseases. Planning and following a healthy and balanced diet is not difficult at all. Eat the right amount of calories to balance the energy you get from food and the energy you use. Make sure you have a wide range of foods to receive all the nutrients you need. Remember to eat less saturated fat, sugar and salt, and more fish, fruit, and vegetables.

Stay positive and be happy

Once you have started to be more active and eat more healthily, you can notice that you also feel happier. There is no doubt that daily worrying and stress can damage your heart and brain. When you are under a lot of stress, you may get angry easily. Anger and hostility have negative effects on the cardiovascular system. Recent research has confirmed that angry, hostile people live a shorter life. Try to control your anger, always look at the positive side of every situation and be optimistic. If necessary, practise sor-e meditation and yoga to help you to relieve your stress and anger, and enjoy life more.

Question 29. Stress and anger can affect people's life expectancy negatively.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Duncan Phyfe made some of the most beautiful furniture found in America. His family name was originally Fife, and he was born in Scotland in 1768. In 1784, the Fife family immigrated to Albany, New York where Duncan’s father opened a cabinetmaking shop. Duncan followed his father’s footsteps and was apprenticed to a cabinetmaker. After completing his training, Duncan moved to New York City. Duncan Fife was first mentioned in the 1792 NYC Directory as a furniture “joiner” in business at 2 Broad Street. Two years later, he moved, expanded his business, and changed his name to Phyfe. He was a quiet-living, God-fearing young man who felt his new name would probably appeal to potential customers who were definitely anti-British in this post-Revolutionary War period. Duncan Phyfe’s name distinguished him from his contemporaries. Although the new spelling helped him better compete with French emigrant craftsmen, his new name had more to do with hanging it on a sign over his door stoop. The artisans and merchants who came to America discovered a unique kind of freedom. They were no longer restricted by class and guild traditions of Europe. For the first time in history, a man learned that by working hard, he could build his business based on his own name and reputation and quality of work. Phyfe’s workshop apparently took off immediately. At the peak of his success, Phyfe employed 100 craftsmen. Some economic historians point to Phyfe as having employed division of labor and an assembly line. What his workshop produced shows Phyfe’s absolute dedication to quality in workmanship. Each piece of furniture was made of the best available materials. He was reported to have paid $1,000 for a single Santo Domingo mahogany log. Phyfe did not create new designs. Rather, he borrowed from a broad range of the period’s classical styles, Empire, Sheraton, Regency, and French Classical among them. Nevertheless, Phyfe’s high quality craftsmanship established him as America’s patriotic interpreter of European design in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Although the number of pieces produced by Duncan Phyfe’s workshop is enormous, comparatively few marked or labeled pieces have been found extant. In antiques shops and auctions, collectors have paid $11,000 for a card table, $24,200 for a tea table, and $93,500 for a sewing table.
5. In his business, Duncan Phyfe used all of the following EXCEPT: 

By the mid-nineteenth century, the term "icebox" had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1860-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor of the modern refrigerator, had been invented.
 Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The common-sense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the nice balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.
 But as early as 1803, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.

According to the passage, which of the following was an obstacle to the development of the icebox?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Duncan Phyfe made some of the most beautiful furniture found in America. His family name was originally Fife, and he was born in Scotland in 1768. In 1784, the Fife family immigrated to Albany, New York where Duncan’s father opened a cabinetmaking shop. Duncan followed his father’s footsteps and was apprenticed to a cabinetmaker. After completing his training, Duncan moved to New York City. Duncan Fife was first mentioned in the 1792 NYC Directory as a furniture “joiner” in business at 2 Broad Street. Two years later, he moved, expanded his business, and changed his name to Phyfe. He was a quiet-living, God-fearing young man who felt his new name would probably appeal to potential customers who were definitely anti-British in this post-Revolutionary War period. Duncan Phyfe’s name distinguished him from his contemporaries. Although the new spelling helped him better compete with French emigrant craftsmen, his new name had more to do with hanging it on a sign over his door stoop. The artisans and merchants who came to America discovered a unique kind of freedom. They were no longer restricted by class and guild traditions of Europe. For the first time in history, a man learned that by working hard, he could build his business based on his own name and reputation and quality of work. Phyfe’s workshop apparently took off immediately. At the peak of his success, Phyfe employed 100 craftsmen. Some economic historians point to Phyfe as having employed division of labor and an assembly line. What his workshop produced shows Phyfe’s absolute dedication to quality in workmanship. Each piece of furniture was made of the best available materials. He was reported to have paid $1,000 for a single Santo Domingo mahogany log. Phyfe did not create new designs. Rather, he borrowed from a broad range of the period’s classical styles, Empire, Sheraton, Regency, and French Classical among them. Nevertheless, Phyfe’s high quality craftsmanship established him as America’s patriotic interpreter of European design in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Although the number of pieces produced by Duncan Phyfe’s workshop is enormous, comparatively few marked or labeled pieces have been found extant. In antiques shops and auctions, collectors have paid $11,000 for a card table, $24,200 for a tea table, and $93,500 for a sewing table.
1. What is the main idea of the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the correct answer to each of the questions.

Welcome to Get Involved! our weekly programme about inspirational young people. Today, I’ll tell you the amazing story of an outstanding young person with a disability. Nguyen Anh was born with “glass-born disease”, a genetic disorder causing fragile bones, and had fractured bones over 30 times. She is unable to run around like her friends, and has to use a wheelchair. Despite her disability, she always has a smile on her face. She believes that she is luckier than other people with disabilities because she has many supportive friends and teachers.

Nguyen Anh has been interested in singing since an early age. Eager to join Charitable campaigns, she has been using her talent to perform at Voice of Viet Nam since she was eight. She has taken part in broadcasting radio messages to rural villagers. She has been honoured by UNICEF as an outstanding child with disabilities. Now, as a Friend of UNICEF Viet Nam, she continues to inspire others, and use her talent and determination to help children with disabilities.

She became a success when she auditioned for the television show VietNam’s Got Talent. She immediately received national and international recognition.

Her smile and kind voice will definitely continue to encourage people with disabilities to fulfill their potential. Her inspiring words are what we would like you to think about. "You can do a lot of things if people believe in you and actually treat you equally.”  

The word “determination” is opposite to ____