Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the answer to each of the question. 
A report from the United Nations given at the conference unveils how worrying the pollution caused by plastic utensils, especially plastic bags, is becoming. In a single minute, the world consumes one million plastic bottles; in a year, the world consumes five billion single-use plastic bags, according to Vietnamplus. The scary fact is that such plastic bottles and bags are not properly treated, as each year, the world discharges 300 million tons of plastic waste, accounting for some 10% of all solid waste, putting the environment and human health under tenterhooks, according to the news site.
The conference also drew attention to another fact: “For a plastic bag that can be used for five minutes, it takes five seconds to produce, one second to discard, but 500 to 1,000 years to become totally decomposed,” says Vietnamplus.
In another message given by the UN General Secretary and delivered at the conference, it is reported that since more than eight million tons of plastic bags end up in the oceans each year, “microplastics in the seas now outnumber stars in our galaxy.” “If present trends continue, by 2050 our oceans will have more plastic than fish,” Dan Tri reports, quoting Caitlin Wiesen, country director of the UN Development Programme in Vietnam.
These above-mentioned fearful facts, however, are not merely global issues, but domestic problems as well, according to local media. Many local news outlets, when relating data from the conference, point out that white pollution – a term used to indicate the overwhelming discharge of plastic bags into the environment – is even getting worse in Vietnam than elsewhere.

The word “tenterhooks” in the first paragraph mostly means _______________.

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.
(1).............................

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:
WWF, in full World Wide Fund for Nature, international organization committed to conservation of the environment. In North America, it is called the World Wildlife Fund.
In 1960, a group of British naturalists - most notably biologist Sir Julian Huxley, artist and conservationist Peter Scott, and ornithologists Guy Montfort and Max Nicholson - led an effort to establish an organization that protected endangered species and their habitats. The following year the World Wildlife Fund was founded; the international name was subsequently changed to World Wide Fund for Nature in 1989, although in the United States and Canada it retained the founding name. The organization's distinctive panda logo was created by Scott. In the face of growing environmental threats over the ensuing years, the WWF's activities expanded in scope. Today its mission statement is threefold: to conserve the world's biological diversity, to ensure that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and to promote the reduction of pollution and of wasteful consumption.  The  organization has long included both conservationists and businesspeople with the intention of combining solid scientific data with well-managed action. It also seeks cooperation between nongovernmental organizations, local governments, and local populations. The WWF works closely with the World Conservation Union and has formed partnerships with the United Nations, the World Bank, and the European Union.
The WWF provides money for conservation initiatives around the world. These  include  programs focused on individual species, forests, and freshwater and marine issues as well as climate change and responsible international trade. The group has also been involved in  efforts  to provide a safe and sustainable habitat for the world's peoples, both urban and rural, including clean water, clean air, healthful food, and rewarding recreation areas. Among the WWF's notable achievements is its use of debt-for-nature swaps, in which an organization buys some of a country's foreign debt at  a discount, converts the money to local currency, and then uses it to finance conservation efforts. The WWF's first successful debt-for-nature swap took place in 1987 in Ecuador.
At the beginning of the 21st century, the WWF was active in more than 100 countries and had more than five million supporters. The organization's international headquarters are in Gland, Switz., and it has more than 90 offices around the world.

The phrase "focused on" in paragraph 2 could best be replaced by    _.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the answer to each of the question. 
Though gambling is typically associated with casino games, strategic sports betting is rapidly gaining in popularity – and that's a whole other ball game, Prof. Dannon explains. "Sports gamblers seem to believe themselves the cleverest of all gamblers. They think that with experience and knowledge – such as player's statistics, manager's habits, weather conditions, and stadium capacity – they can predict the outcome of a game better than the average person."
But in a study published in the journal Psychopathology, Prof. Dannon and Dr. Ronen Huberfeld of the Beer Yaakov Mental Health Center determined that neither betting experience nor knowledge of the arcane details of the game is connected to successful betting outcomes. Indeed, he says, the two most successful gamblers in their study had no prior experience in gambling or knowledge of the sport in question. This should inform how psychologists approach sports gamblers, who need to be treated using different methods than their casino-addicted counterparts. For their study, the researchers focused on the field of soccer betting, one of the most popular and growing forms of sports gambling. They recruited three groups of participants, including 53 professional sports gamblers, 34 soccer fans who were knowledgeable about the sport but had never gambled, and finally, 78 non-gamblers with no prior knowledge of soccer at all. All participants were asked to place bets on the final scores of the 16 second-round matches of the Champion's League, organized by the Union of European Football Associations. This model mimics how gamblers actually put their money on the games, where they need to bet on exact scores to win.
Although those who had prior knowledge of soccer were expected to have a higher success rate, the researchers discovered that, in fact, their success rate was no better than those of the other two groups. Interestingly, the two participants with the most successful record, correctly betting on seven out of the 16 games each, hailed from the group with no prior understanding of the sport.
This doesn't indicate that there is an advantage to inexperience, says Prof. Dannon – many others in the third group were unable to predict any of the results correctly. But the outcome exposes the myth of knowledge as a powerful betting advantage. The sense of control that encourages sports gamblers in their betting is just an illusion.

. The word “hailed” in paragraph 4 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 numbered blanks.
The latest addiction to trap thousands of people is Internet, which has been (1).... for broken relationships, job losses, financial ruin and even one suicide. Psychologists now recognize Internet Addiction Syndrome (IAS) as a new illness that could (2)..... serious problems and ruin many lives. Special help groups have been set up to offer sufferers help and support.
IAS is similar to (3)........ problems like gambling, smoking and drinking: addicts have dreams about Internet; they need to use it first thing in the morning; they lie to their partners about how much time they spend online; they wish they could cut down, but are unable to do so. A recent study found that many users spend up to 40 hours a week on the Internet; although they felt guilty, they became depressed if they were (4).... to stop using it.
Almost anyone can be at risk. Some of the addicts are teenagers who are already hooked on Computer games  and who (5)......... it  very  difficult to  resist  the  games  on  the  Internet. Surprisingly, however, psychologists say that most victims are middle-aged housewives who have never used a computer before.
(1)......................... 

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.
What is a gifted child? There are different ways to define this term. It may refer to special talents in the arts  or to  a  high  level  of academic  abilities. A child  may  be gifted in one (81) area, such as music, or have talents in many areas. According to the U.S. National Association for Gifted Children, a gifted child shows an "exceptional level of performance” in one or more areas. In general usage, giftedness includes high levels of cognitive ability, motivation, inquisitiveness, creativity, and leadership. Gifted children (82) approximately 3 to 5 percent of the school-aged population. Although giftedness cannot be assessed by an intelligence test alone, these tests are often used to indicate giftedness. (83) giftedness begins at an IQ of 115, or about one in six children. Highly gifted children have IQs over 145, or about one in a thousand children. Profoundly gifted children have IQs over 180, or about one in a million children. Because very few education programs include any courses on teaching the gifted, teachers are often not able to recognize the profoundly gifted. Teachers are more likely to recognize moderately gifted children because they are ahead of the other children but not so far ahead as to be unrecognizable. For instance, children who can read older children's books in first and second grade are often transferred into gifted classes, but children (84) are reading adult books are told to stop reading them. Those profoundly gifted students who are not recognized often turn into discipline problems when they are not offered (85) ways to focus their extraordinary creativity.
(81)........................

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the answer to each of the question. 
Covering more than 70 percent of our planet, oceans are among the earth’s most valuable natural resources. They govern the weather, clean the air, help feed the world, and provide a living for millions. They also are home to most of the life on earth, from microscopic algae to the blue whale, the largest animal on the planet. Yet we’re bombarding them with pollution. By their very nature—with all streams flowing to rivers, all rivers leading to the sea—the oceans are the end point for so much of the pollution we produce on land, however far from the coasts we may be. And from dangerous carbon emissions to choking plastic to leaking oil to constant noise, the types of ocean pollution humans generate are vast. As a result, collectively, our impact on the seas is degrading their health at an alarming rate. Here are some ocean pollution facts that everyone on our blue planet ought to know.
When we burn fossil fuels, we don’t pollute just the air but the oceans, too. Indeed, today’s seas absorb as much as a quarter of all man-made carbon emissions, which changes the pH of surface waters and leads to acidification. This problem is rapidly worsening—oceans are now acidifying faster than they have in some 300 million years. It’s estimated that by the end of this century, if we keep pace with our current emissions practices, the surface waters of the ocean could be nearly 150 percent more acidic than they are now.
The majority of the garbage that enters the ocean each year is plastic—and here to stay. That’s because unlike other trash, the single-use grocery bags, water bottles, drinking straws, and yogurt containers, among eight million metric tons of the plastic items we toss (instead of recycle), won’t biodegrade. Instead, they can persist in the environment for a millennium, polluting our beaches, entangling marine life, and getting ingested by fish and seabirds.
Where does all this debris originate? While some is dumped directly into the seas, an estimated 80 percent of marine litter makes its way there gradually from land-based sources―including those far inland―via storm drains, sewers, and other routes. Oil from boats, airplanes, cars, trucks, and even lawn mowers is also swimming in ocean waters. Chemical discharges from factories, raw sewage overflow from water treatment systems, and storm water and agricultural runoff add other forms of marine-poisoning pollutants to the toxic brew.
The ocean is far from a “silent world.” Sound waves travel farther and faster in the sea’s dark depths than they do in the air, and many marine mammals like whales and dolphins, in addition to fish and other sea creatures, rely on communication by sound to find food, mate, and navigate. But an increasing barrage of human-generated ocean noise pollution is altering the underwater acoustic landscape, harming—and even killing—marine species worldwide.

It can be inferred from the passage that __________.

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

"There's quite a bit of evidence that technology, when used in the right way, ________ (1) students learn. One study, for example, showed that a medical school class with iPads scored 23% ________ (2) on exams than classes without this device.

Technology, such as tablets, isn't only useful for ________ (3) knowledge; it helps with communication as well. Teachers and administrators use such devices to send materials and information ________ (4) students and parents. Students ________ (5) in homework and term papers online and can access educational applications and programs to further assist with learning."

2. One study, for example, showed that a medical school class with iPads scored 23% ________ (2) on exams than classes without this device.

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:
No sooner had the first intrepid male aviators safely returned to Earth than it seemed that women, too, had been smitten by an urge to fly. From mere spectators, they became willing passengers and finally pilots in their own right, plotting their skills and daring line against the hazards of the air and the skepticism of their male counterparts. In doing so they enlarged the traditional bounds of a women's world, won for their sex a new sense of competence and achievement, and contributed handsomely to the progress of aviation.
But recognition of their abilities did not come easily. "Men do not believe us capable." The famed aviator Amelia Earhart once remarked to a friend. "Because we are women, seldom are we trusted to do an efficient job." Indeed old attitudes died hard: when Charles Lindbergh visited the Soviet Union in 1938 with his wife, Anne–herself a pilot and gifted proponent of aviation – he was astonished to discover both men and women flying in the Soviet Air Force.
Such conventional wisdom made it difficult for women to raise money for the up – to – date equipment they needed to compete on an equal basis with men. Yet they did compete, and often they triumphed finally despite the odds.
Ruth Law, whose 590 – mile flight from Chicago to Hornell, New York, set a new nonstop distance record in 1916, exemplified the resourcefulness and grit demanded of any woman who wanted to fly. And when she addressed the Aero Club of America after completing her historic journey, her plainspoken wordstestified to a universal human motivation that was unaffected by gender: "My flight was done with no expectation of reward," she declared, "just purely for the love of accomplishment."

According to the passage, who said that flying was done with no expectation of reward?

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:
Most people start smoking when they are in their teens and are addicted by the time they reach adulthood. Some have tried to quit but have returned to cigarettes because smoking is such a strong addiction. It is a habit that is very difficult to break. There are many different reasons why people smoke.
Three of the main reasons that young people smoke are to look mature, to be like their friends, and to experiment. Since teens see older people all around them smoking, especially their parents and relatives, they smoke to act older. If their friends or peers smoke, they may feel pressured into doing the same to be accepted. The last reason is the excitement of experimenting with something that is forbidden. In Massachusetts it is against the law for anyone under 18 years old to smoke. Usually parents do not allow their under age teens to smoke. Therefore, smoking becomes very attractive. It is exciting to get cigarettes and sneak away to smoke without being caught.
Adults smoke for other reasons. They may have a lot of stress and pressures because of economic and personal problems. They may be unemployed or working but not making enough money to take care of themselves and their families. They may be homeless, or they may be dealing with alcohol or cocaine/heroin addictions. Some may be in bad marriages or relationships in which there is physical and/or verbal abuse. All these people may smoke to feel relaxed or to give them energy while going through a hard time.
Whether young or old, some people smoke to control their weight. Smokers, on the average, weigh seven pounds less than non-smokers. Smoking reduces a person's appetite. It lessens his/her sense of taste and smell. This could be why ex-smokers gain weight after quitting cigarettes. Food tastes and smells so much better.
Finally, there are people who say they love to smoke. Smoking gives them pleasure. It just makes them feel good.

 The word “peers” in paragraph 2 means    .

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.

What does the word "it" in the last paragraph refer to?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks. 
      Tattooing has been around for thousands of years. The act of making a permanent design or mark on the body was originally thought to (1) ______________ magical protection against disease and misfortune. Later, it was used to show a person's social status. The Romans, for example, used to tattoo slaves and criminals.
       With the arrival of Christianity in Europe, tattooing was forbidden. It virtually died out for hundreds of years, until European explorers came into (2) ________ with American Indians and Polynesians in the 17th and 18th centuries. Sailors would return from long voyage, decorated with large and elaborate designs. Many of these sailors later joined circuses, and earned a living by showing their tattoos to the public. 
       Nowadays, tattooing is neither as unusual, nor as popular as it once was. Tattoo parlors do exist, but most people are unwilling to go (3) ____________ the rather painful procedure. On the other hand, temporary tattoos are becoming increasingly common. The design, (4)_______lasts for three to six weeks, is painted painlessly onto the skin.
       Other people still prefer the (5) _________, permanent techniques, of course. The world record for the most-tattooed person is held by Tom Leppard from Scotland. His leopard-skin design covers 99.2% of his body surface! 

(1).....................

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.

Why does the author mention Mickey Mouse in paragraph 2?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word for each of the blanks.
In an experiment in Canada, ten-year-old children were put in classes of four sizes: 16, 23, 30 and 37 children in (1)...... class. Their teachers said that the smaller classes would result in more individual attention and better marks. However, when the children were (2)....... , those in the smaller classes didn’t get higher marks than the others, except in mathematics. Moreover, children in the larger classes said they liked school (3)........   as much. Perhaps the most surprising result   was the difference between what teachers expected and the actual results obtained. More than 90% of the teachers expected the smaller classes to (4)......... well. After teaching these smaller classes, over 80% of the teachers thought the pupils had done better. However, according to the researchers, nothing of the (5)........ happened. Class size seemed to make a difference only to the teachers’ own attitudes - and not to the results they obtained.

(1)..............................

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:
Until recently, hunting for treasure from shipwrecks was mostly fantasy; with recent technological advances, however, the search for sunken treasure has become more popular as a legitimate endeavor. This has caused a debate between those wanting to salvage the wrecks and those wanting to preserve them.
Treasure hunters are spurred on by the thought of finding caches of gold coins or other valuable objects on a sunken ship. One team of salvagers, for instance, searched the wreck of the RMS Republic, which sank outside the Boston harbor in 1900. The search party, using side-scan sonar, a device that projects sound waves across the ocean bottom and produces a profile of the sea floor, located the wreck in just two and a half days. Before the use of this new technology, such searches could take months or years. The team of divers searched the wreck for two months, finding silver tea services, crystal dinnerware, and thousands of bottles of wine, but they did not find the five and a half tons of American Gold Eagle coins they were searching for.
Preservationists focus on the historic value of a ship. They say that even if a shipwreck's treasure does not have a high monetary value, it can be an invaluable source of historic artifacts that are preserved in nearly mint condition. But once a salvage team has scoured a site, much of the archaeological value is lost. Maritime archaeologists who are preservationists worry that the success of salvagers will attract more treasure-hunting expeditions and thus threaten remaining undiscovered wrecks. Preservationists are lobbying their state lawmakers to legally restrict underwater searches and unregulated salvages. To counter their efforts, treasure hunters argue that without the lure of gold and million-dollar treasures, the wrecks and their historical artifacts would never be recovered at all.a

The second and third paragraphs are an example of     .

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:
Advertising helps people recognize a particular brand, persuades them tro try it, and tries to keep them loyal to it. Brand loyalty is perhaps the most important goal of consumer advertising. Whether they produce cars, canned foods or cosmetics, manufacturers want their customers to make repeated purchases. The quality of the product will encourage this, of course, but so, too, will affect advertising.
Advertising relies on the techniques of market research to identify potential users of a product. Are they homemakers or professional people? Are they young or old? Are they city dwellers or country dwellers? Such questions have a bearing on where and when ads should be played. By studying readership breakdowns for newspapers and magazines as well as television ratings and other statistics, an advertising agency can decide on the best way of reaching potential buyers. Detailed research and marketing expertise are essential today when advertising budgets can run into thousands of millions of dollars.
Advertising is a fast-paced, high-pressure industry. There is a constant need for creative ideas that will establish a personality for a product in the public’s mind. Current developments in advertising increase the need for talented workers.
In the past, the majority of advertising was aimed at the traditional white family – breadwinner father, non- working mother, and two children. Research now reveals that only about 6 percent of American households fit this stereotype. Instead, society is fragmented into many groups, with working mothers, single people and older people on the rise. To be most successful, advertising must identify a particular segment and aim its message toward that group.
Advertising is also making use of new technologies. Computer graphics are used to grab the attention of consumers and to help them see products in a new light. The use of computer graphics in a commercial for canned goods, for instance, gave a new image to the tin can.

Where in the passage does the author give an example of a new development in advertising?

The culture of Vietnam is one of the oldest in Southeast Asia, with the ancient Bronze age Đông Sơn culture being widely considered one of its most important progenitors. In spite of geographically Southeast Asian, Vietnamese culture was heavily influenced by Chinese culture in terms of politics, government, social and moral ethics, and art due to 1000 years of Chinese rule. Thus, Vietnam is considered to be part of the East Asian cultural sphere together with China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Following independence from China in the 10th century, Vietnam began a southward expansion that saw the annexation of territories formerly belonging to the Champa Civilization (now Central Vietnam) and parts of the Khmer Empire (now Southern Vietnam). Gradually, there are minor regional variances in Vietnam's culture due to exposure to these different groups.

During the French colonial period, Vietnamese culture absorbed various influences from the Europeans, including the spread of Catholicism and the adoption of the Latin alphabet. Prior to this, Vietnamese had used both Chinese characters and a script called Chữ Nôm which was based on Chinese but included newly invented characters to represent native Vietnamese words.

In the socialist era, the cultural life of Vietnam has been deeply influenced by government-controlled media and the cultural influences of socialist programs. For many decades, foreign cultural influences from the Western World were shunned, and emphasis was placed on sharing the culture of communist nations such as those in the Soviet Union, Cuba, China, and others.

Some elements generally considered to be characteristic of Vietnamese culture include ancestor veneration, respect for community and family values, handicrafts and manual labour, and devotion to study. Important symbols present in Vietnamese culture include dragons, turtles, lotuses, and bamboo.

What is the synonym of “absord” in the paragraph 3?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the answer to each of the question. 
Australia has a well-organized and well-structured education system. The education starts at the age of five or six, but it may differ by a narrow margin between states. It starts with the preschool education which is not compulsory and can be offered within a school or separately. The primary and secondary school encompasses the compulsory education for Australians. There are a large number of primary and high school across the country with most of them being public schools. It is estimated that public schools amount to 60% of scholars as opposed to 40% in private settings. All these education providers must be licensed by the government and must fulfill certain requirements including infrastructure and teaching. Universities, on the other hand, are mainly public institutions.
The Australian education system has established a standard curriculum so all scholars will be given the same quality of education. Despite there may be some states at which this curriculum is modified a bit, but the change is not that significant. The actual curriculum set out in Australia education system is based on important abilities one must have in his life: Literacy, Numeracy, Information and communication technology, Critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability, ethical understanding, intercultural understanding.
Vocational and Technical schools prepare students that want to skip the university and want to move directly to the job market. Actually, here it stands the difference between universities and colleges: the Vocational and Technical Schools are more oriented in teaching practical skills while university courses are mainly theory-based to lead students to different academic careers. There are hundreds of other schools out there that provide technical and further education (TAFE) and vocational education and training (VET). These schools offer short courses, certificates I through IV, diplomas, and advanced diplomas. They focus on training their students in a particular vocation or just to help their students get out into the workplace. These schools offer a wide variety of courses and qualifications attained by these courses can lead to different career pathways to follow afterward.
Australian higher education modernity and reputation relies on a huge number of educational providers including universities and different training organizations. Currently, there are 43 universities across the country. The vast majority of universities are public except two private universities. The world-class teaching offered is surely undisputed. Seven Australian universities are traditionally found at the top 100 best universities in the world which is a sufficient indicator to highlight their quality.
Besides universities, more than 5,000 training organizations are registered and accredited. Actual figures show that the number of enrolled students is around 3.8 million with international students sharing more than half a million. There are also 3 self-accrediting higher education institutions. Furthermore, dozens of smaller schools do not grant any degrees or have an accreditation – these are private schools that focus on theology, business, information technology, natural therapies, hospitality, health, law, and accounting.

What can be inferred from 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:
Rachel Carson was bom in 1907 in Springsdale, Pennsylvania. She studied biology in college and zoology at Johns Hopkins University, where she received her master’s degree in 1933. In 1936, she was hired by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, where she worked most of her life.
Carson’s first book, Under the Sea Wind, was published in 1941. It received excellent reviews, but sales were poor until it was reissued in 1952. In that year, she published The Sea Around Us, which provided a fascinating look beneath the ocean’s surface, emphasizing human history as well as geology and marine biology. Her imagery and language had a poetic quality. Carson consulted no less than 1, 000 printed sources. She had voluminous correspondence and frequent discussions with experts in the field. However, she always realized the limitations of her non-technical readers.
In 1962, Carson published Silence Spring, a book that sparked considerable controversy. It proved how much harm was done by the uncontrolled, reckless use of insecticides. She detailed how they poison the food supply of animals, kill birds, and contaminate human food. At that time, spokesmen for the chemical industry mounted personal attacks against Carson and issued propaganda to indicate that her findings were flawed. However, her work was vindicated by a 1963 report of the President’s Science Advisory Committee.

The word “reckless” 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:
Until recently, hunting for treasure from shipwrecks was mostly fantasy; with recent technological advances, however, the search for sunken treasure has become more popular as a legitimate endeavor. This has caused a debate between those wanting to salvage the wrecks and those wanting to preserve them.
Treasure hunters are spurred on by the thought of finding caches of gold coins or other valuable objects on a sunken ship. One team of salvagers, for instance, searched the wreck of the RMS Republic, which sank outside the Boston harbor in 1900. The search party, using side-scan sonar, a device that projects sound waves across the ocean bottom and produces a profile of the sea floor, located the wreck in just two and a half days. Before the use of this new technology, such searches could take months or years. The team of divers searched the wreck for two months, finding silver tea services, crystal dinnerware, and thousands of bottles of wine, but they did not find the five and a half tons of American Gold Eagle coins they were searching for.
Preservationists focus on the historic value of a ship. They say that even if a shipwreck's treasure does not have a high monetary value, it can be an invaluable source of historic artifacts that are preserved in nearly mint condition. But once a salvage team has scoured a site, much of the archaeological value is lost. Maritime archaeologists who are preservationists worry that the success of salvagers will attract more treasure-hunting expeditions and thus threaten remaining undiscovered wrecks. Preservationists are lobbying their state lawmakers to legally restrict underwater searches and unregulated salvages. To counter their efforts, treasure hunters argue that without the lure of gold and million-dollar treasures, the wrecks and their historical artifacts would never be recovered at all.a

From the passage, you can infer that a preservationist would be most likely to     .